Avril_fan
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« Reply #20 on: October 16, 2007, 02:37:34 pm » |
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UPDATED SINCE OCT 2007
Prologue
What makes someone in love?
Is it pheromones? Physical appearance?
Or is there something deep within?
What makes a couple?
Is it just a boy and a girl?
Or is it more complicated?
I don’t have the answers – Mandy
Chapter One
My name is Amanda Emma Nash and I attend Buena Veria high school. I have long dirty-blonde hair; hazel eyes and somewhat white skin. I have my grandmother Emma’s eyes and my grandfather Tom’s personality.
He was a determined type of guy and he was always honest. I wanted to be as confident as he was, but never knew how. I had spent five years of my life at my grandparent’s house; an old Gothic styled home that loomed over the country. It was a dark place on the outside, but inside of it, I felt at home. The house contented a network of mazes. Some of them seemed to go on forever, while others led nowhere. I saw the mazes as places of interest more than anything else. I was curious and wanted to know more. I made a small map of the mazes and was finished when I turned six. I never really knew my parents, because they weren’t a major part of my life. I never met my mother, she was never around when I was growing up and I always wondered why she wasn’t there.
I was delivered into the care of Mr. Arnold Nash when I was six years old. I arrived by a car driven by Mr. J. Sheppard, a lawyer of my grandparents. He was a tall man whose breath smelled of mint and alcohol. He was kind as he walked me to the door.
“Mr. Nash, you have legal custody of Amanda. We will of course check in now and again to see if she is if she is in proper care.” Sheppard explained he went for the door. He gave me a smile before he took out something from his briefcase. “This is something that must be given to her when she becomes of age. It’s a sad thing when a child loses her parents. Such a tragic event indeed, I bid you farewell and hope she is in good hands.”
“I will take good care of her. I’ve never had children, but I will try to take good care of her.”
“I’m sure you will.”
Mr. Sheppard slowly drove down the street and that was last I saw of him. My grandparents died the week before. I felt a deep sense of pain and for a moment I felt alone. It took me a while to adjust to the move.
I soon learned that Mr. Nash was an inventor of sorts. He built things as a hobby and as a career. He wasn’t as famous as other inventors were. He was my distant cousin on my grandmother’s side.
For my seventh birthday, he gave me a doll on a bike, which moved in a circle when I pulled the string. I had lost the bike when I turned eight. But I kept the3 doll to remember how happy I was at seven. I collected a lot of things as I grew up. My favorite was Pete, the bike-less doll and my true favorite object was an old photo of my grandparents, which was dated January 1942. I kept it, because it was the only thing I had of them. I kept it near my bed since I was six. Both of them looked younger than I remembered. My grandfather looked twenty-one and my grandmother was twenty. It was my favorite; because I hoped that one-day I’d find a true love like my grandfather did.
Mr. Nash lived three miles from the Pacific. He lived in a blue Victorian home. He helped me set up my room on the second floor in a turret. I felt a new sense of peace as I grew up my new home.
I first met Josie Harris, in fifth grade. She was a weird kid back than and now as well. I was parted up with her for an art protect. She was friendly, but somewhat more relaxed than I was at the time. I had never had many friends from pre-school to fourth grade. I kept to my-self, because I was shy and nervous; most teachers wanted me to be more active and to be more into group activities. I wanted to be in my own world.
“I won’t bite,” was the first words I heard from her. She smiled at me and we soon after became friends. We spent every day just talking about stuff we liked, whether it was music or boys, it didn’t matter. She was my friend and I soon trusted her as much as if we were sisters. I first met Marshall Baker at band camp. He was a cute boy that I later grew to call my friend. I remembered the first time I met him. Well, actually I didn’t see him, cause he was caring a large suitcase at the time. I went up to him from behind and asked, “Do you need help?”
He replied, “No thanks, I’m fine.”
He fell onto his suitcase. I wanted to laugh, but figured it was better not to. He told me he was worried about his piano skills during our first class together; once I had listened to him play the piano. He played a few notes, which were amazingly better, then, my performance. He was kind and very friendly to me. I was able to tell him anyway without worry or care. We dated a few years ago, but that failed in the end, although we decided to stay friends instead. I sometimes wondered if it was possible to become more than friends, than I’d realize that ship had already sailed. He was a good friend, never jealous when I decided to date other guys. I dated a young man named Ryan for three weeks. We were a happy couple before I started to ask questions of where he’s been and why. “Where have you been? Who were you with?” I asked suspicious of him as he sat next to me. He smiled and told me he was busy and that he’d promise to make it up. He was nice until I realized something was off about him. I walked into his room once and froze at the threshold. He was kissing another person. I than realized it was another guy. He was kissing another guy, which made me feel sick. I wasn’t sure what to say as I stood there.
“So it meant nothing?” I said as level as possible, but somewhat strain. He looked up at me surprised flashed in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, it’s just I love someone else.”
“So what about me? Did you ever love me or was I just the girl to show to mom? Because if that’s the cause than tell me, you don’t love me?”
“I care about you as a friend, but I can’t tell you how I felt about—“
“You felt love toward him, but not me.”
“Can we still be—?“
“Friends? I guess, but I won’t lie to your mom, because she doesn’t support your love life. You have to tell her the truth if it’s true love. Love can’t be simply lied about. That’s all I have to say.” I turned and walked away. I didn’t see him for three weeks after this incident. He became a friend to me afterwards.
I met Jessica Nelson, my close friend, two years after I met Marshall. I remembered how I met her. She was about a year older then me and I felt like she was my older sister.
“Hi, my names Jessica,” she said as she looked at me.
I wasn’t sure what to say, she was so pretty and I felt like a toad. “Hi,” I managed. I felt confused and nervous as I sat there.
“You don’t have to be so nervous,” she said with a smile. “I’m perfectly harmless.”
I smiled somewhat relived as I said, “My names Amanda.”
“Cool name, I have a book on name meanings, if you want I can let you borrow it.”
“That be great,” I said feeling relieved and more relaxed. I asked her if I could borrow the book and that I’d bring it back tomorrow. I found out that my name was a Latin word meaning ‘lovable’, which made me feel more relaxed about love although I sometimes question it. We started to hang out more as the years went.
She always looked very pretty especially when she wasn’t wearing make-up. She grew out more than I did, if you know what I meant. Let’s just say she was more curved than me. She usually wore a pair of pants and a beautiful blouse. She was kind of like a teacher, a mother and an older sister in one.
#
I looked around for a moment in my locker. I had to find my history report. Great. This was really great. I kept saying to my-self as I searched my locker for it. It was due today and I couldn’t find it. I closed my and tried to relax as I thought of a way to explain my missing report to Mr. Connie, my history teacher. I smiled at how ironic this was. I was always organized although today was an exception. I was going to be latte for yet again.
I looked up at this young girl as she stood besides me. She smiled at me and I felt relaxed as she said, “Hi, my names Mia,” in a soft and charming voice. I smiled at her as my stomach fluttered for a moment.
“Amanda, it’s nice to meet you, but I have to find my history report before I’m late for class.”
“Need some help?” She asked with a smile. I felt a smile come on as I looked at her.
“Thanks,” I said figuring that two heads were better than one. I felt something race in my chest when I felt Mia near me. It felt odd, I never felt this way about anyone before. We smiled at each other before she handed me my history report.
Here you go,” she said before she turned and walked away. I shrugged her out of my mind as I headed down the hall toward my history class. I had more important things on my mind to worry about such as my relationship to Lucas. And yet, I felt attracted to her. I laughed at the thought. It was probably just a weird reaction that’s all. I rushed into class before the bell rang. I felt relaxed as I took my seat next to Josie and Lucas.
“Hey Amanda, how was your summer?” Josie asked me as I took my seat.
“It was great, I got to visit my cousin in San Fran. So how was your summer, Lucas?”
“It was O.K., I didn’t do much,” he said with a smile to me.
I paused, looked around and asked, “Hey where’s Marshall?”
“I don’t know,” replied Josie. “I hope he’s still alive.” Lucas and I gave her a look before she replied, “I’m just joking, of course, he’s still alive.”
Lucas and I frowned at each other before the teacher called my name.
“Amanda Nash?” He said in a somewhat loud voice.
“Here,” I replied.
“Jonathon Peterson?”
“So anyway,” I said to Lucas. “So what’s the plan for Friday?”
“I’m not sure, maybe we could hang out near Joe’s Ice Cream Parlor. I heard he’s doing the Weekend Special again.” Josie frowned, as she said, “Didn’t he lose a lot of money on that deal?”
“I’m not sure.” I said as I checked my watch. I had a lot of classes this semester. I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive this. I had to get them finished before this year, so I could get fewer classes in my last year of school. I had become more disorganized as the day went. I lost my math homework and well it just went downhill from there.
“It’s not that interesting Amanda,” said Ms. Thompson as she handed me my romantic short story. “I mean it seems like you didn’t even try to put some effort in it. It’s not one of your best works.”
“Why isn’t it interesting?” I asked surprised at what she said.
“Your characters are two dimensional and there’s not a lot of emotion. It’s too simple and its honestly there’s not even a description of how they felt. It’s just too straightforward. Two people meet and fall in love without showing us how they feel about the other. We, as readers, want images as a guide to what we’re reading, not some short story of how they liked each other and that’s it. I’m sorry, but I’m sure you’ll do better next time.”
I met up with Lucas later on. He told me he was busy and that he already had plans. I felt somewhat let down until I saw Mia. I simply told him that it was O.K. and that I was going to study with a new friend of mine. He smiled at me before he kissed me and then walked away. Mia smiled at me as she said, “Hi again, so who was that? Your boyfriend?”
“Yes,” I said with a smile. “So do you have a boyfriend?”
“I’m not into that whole love thing. So how long have you been together?”
“For a while now,” I said with a smile. I felt something toward her. It was hard to say what it was. I shrugged the thought completely away as I spoke up again. “So I’ll meet you at my house for our study date.”
“Yeah sure,” she said as she smiled at me and then headed down the hall. I had to admit she was pretty somehow I felt close to her. I shrugged the thought as I chided my-self again for thinking it. I was acting stupid and not being my normal self. I headed off to my house, a navy blue Victorian house near the coast. It was about three miles from the Pacific. My father was usually working on his weird inventions to care about anything. I spent most of my time cleaning the house while he worked on his little toys.
“Hey dad,” I said as I looked up at him through a small door in the ceiling.
“Yeah, what is it Amanda?”
“Is it O.K. if I have a friend come over to study?”
“Yeah, sure why not?”
I headed up to my room. I checked my calendar for the first time in three weeks. I frowned at how disorganized I was. I decided to clean up a bit before studying. It was my way of getting ready to do something boring as usual. I was never really a disorganized person like most people I knew. I was very organized, which made me feel odd in a way. I wasn’t as messy as most would believe a teenage girl would be.
I went down the stairs to greet her. She smiled as I let her in. She held her hand on my check close to my lips. She leaned in and for a moment I wanted her to kiss me. But I pushed away, knowing this wasn’t right.
“We should probably get down to studying,” I had to move onto what was more important. I exhaled a long breath, her perfume, and a beautiful kind of scene, which made me feel really calm. I felt somehow closer too her. I pushed it away from my mind as possible. “O.K., what subject should we start on first?”
I wasn’t sure what subjects she was in and if we had the same ones. It was calm as I sat there. She made me feel safe as though nothing bad would happen when I was with her. I wanted to be with her so badly. But why did I feel that way? I closed my eyes hoping for an answer to this.
‘I love Lucas,’ said a voice in my head.
‘Does he love you?” Said another voice from inside my head. ‘I mean has he showed you any reason to see it that-‘ I ignored that thought knowing no good came out of it. We got up to my room and sat there on my bed in silence.
Mia whispered, “Do you have class with Mr. Connie?”
I nodded my head without looking at her. “Yeah, I do,” I said with a smile.
“Cool, so anyway he said that we were going to have a test on the Revolutionary War.” She looked somewhat worried about something as she looked up at me. She wore a beautiful blouse and a faded pair of jeans. She was obviously worried about the test we were going to have next Tuesday. Yeah, I always got nervous when I was worried about doing well on tests. Maybe she felt the same way as I did about tests and studying.
‘She’s probably just a shy person.’ I told my-self as she sorted through her papers. She smiled at me and I felt something about it. Something I never felt with anyone else. I shrugged the thought from my mind. It was probably nothing.
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