𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 // 𝙟𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧

[ 𝙤𝙣𝙚 ]

𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

"i'm probably smartest. out of all of us," conrad said, referring to stella and the rest of the children playing on the grass. there were the fishers: jeremiah and conrad. jeremiah was stella's age and conrad was just a year older. then there were the conklins: isabel and steven. isabel was stella and jeremiah's age too and steven was around the same age as conrad. and lastly, there were the davis's: stella and andy. andy was one year older than stella, making him the same age as conrad and steven.

stella scoffed. "no way, connie! why would you be smarter than me?"

"because i'm older than you," conrad replied to the young girl.

"so what? it's just a year."

"i'm seven, stel. and you're only six," he teased her.

stella crossed her arms stubbornly. "fine. i guess j will be my new best friend then," she said, using the nickname that she had made up for jeremiah. nobody else really used it. they usually called him "jere".

"no, you're lying," conrad giggled, pushing the little girl's shoulder.

"yeah, i'm lying," she said. they turned their heads back towards the chaos of the water fight going on in the fisher's front yard.

𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

"but what about- hey!" stella was mid-conversation with conrad when she got drenched by a water gun. she turned around and saw a wide-eyed jeremiah. he was smiling and waiting for stella to join in on the yearly water fight, but she never did. she always stayed with conrad and talked about whatever they talked about.

"ignore him. he's being annoying. he's so immature," conrad rolled his eyes.

stella nodded and turned back around, leaving jeremiah disappointed. conrad and stella always isolated themselves and everyone had gotten used to it by then.

"you're immature too," stella laughed, poking conrad in the shoulder.

"no, i'm not. i'm twelve. i'm practically a man now. you're eleven. you're immature, just like jere."

stella's face pouted. "hey! i'm in the double digits! you can't make fun of me anymore like you did when i was 9!"

"says who, stel?" conrad smirked, putting his hands up.

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

"what the fuck are you wearing?" conrad cringed, avoiding eye contact with stella.

stella looked at her outfit. "what do you mean?"

"your shirt. it just stops!" he pointed at the end of her shirt.

stella looked down at her shirt. "it's called a crop top, connie. grow up."

"don't tell me to grow up. i'm a fucking year older than you," he replied, relaxing against a tree again.

"you really just learned how to swear while i was gone and just ran with it, huh?" stella teased the older boy.

conrad rolled his eyes. "shut up."

"don't tell me to shut up-"

"stel, stop being boring with connie and play with us!" jeremiah shouted from across the lawn. he holding a water gun and shooting the other teenagers around him without looking.

"she's good! go away, jere!" conrad responded for her.

jeremiah shrugged, tearing his eyes away from the two. "boring!"

"anyways, are you ready for your first year of high school?" stella asked conrad. he was fourteen now and she was thirteen, meaning that conrad was going to be in highschool next year.

conrad shrugged. "whatever. dad wants me to keep playing football in high school. i thought that was going to stop after i graduated middle school."

𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨

"i finally got my first boyfriend!" stella announced to her best friend. conrad furrowed his eyebrows and glanced up at the girl. "but then i broke up with him because he was boring."

"you got a boyfriend?"

"well yeah. i'm fourteen, connie. i'm not a baby," stella shrugged.

"whatever."

conrad had always been protective of stella. maybe it was because he felt understood with her or maybe it was because he was a year older than her, but he always wanted her to be safe and happy. it was the best platonic friendship ever.

"STEL! come on, stel, please get in on this. you know you wanna be on team jere!" jeremiah did a funny shimmy dance, making stella laugh. steven threw a water balloon right at jeremiah's chest, which led to the two boys running off and leaving conrad and stella alone again.

"you're gonna have to tell me how to survive my freshman year since you've already gone through it," stella told conrad. he was fifteen so he was going into sophomore year.

conrad slowly lifted his head to look at stella, hiding his mischievous smile. "tip #1. don't date stupid boys. or just any boys." he didn't want her to get hurt.

"stupid boys?" she laughed at him.

his face brightened. "yeah! stupid boys like... like..." he looked around for an example. "like jere."

they both burst into a fit of laughter together.

𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐠𝐨

"and then i dated this fucking douche bag named jake, but obviously, that didn't work out. he was such an asshole! good thing you never met him. he would've been dead meat," stella laughed at her own story.

conrad laughed along, but the story just didn't sit right with him. he didn't like knowing that stella was getting hurt and he couldn't have done anything about it.

"yeah, i better not see him in person," he cracked a small smile. "i have a girlfriend right now, but things are getting kinda rocky. but i literally don't think i could function without her."

stella's smile slowly dropped. "i hope things work out, connie."

"yeah, thanks, stel," he sighed.

stella noticed a bucket of water balloons near by. it was probably supposed to be some "base" for one of the games that their siblings were playing. she smirked and looked back at conrad, who immediately knew what she was thinking.

she retrieved two water balloons from the bucket and delivered one to conrad. "come on, one throw."

conrad smiled and looked for his target. stella already knew that she was going to throw hers at jeremiah. it was the perfect prank. even though she didn't usually join in on the water fight, she still loved to have fun. that's one thing that jeremiah and stella had in common.

conrad threw his water balloon at isabel and stella threw hers at jeremiah. he whipped his head around, staring at the two other teenagers. "stel, you're gonna pay for that!" jeremiah laughed, shooting the water gun at the girl.

author's note

this was kind of just an intro to the book, so that you can kind of know their history i guess

[ unedited ]