ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀɴᴅ|ᴊ.ꜰ

🀣𝟢𝟢𝟥🀣

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ
↳ʜᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘᴛ.1

   A few summers ago, maybe two or three, Conrad had found out from Jeremiah who had found out from Belly that I could sing. It was Belly and I's best-kept secret until then. Well, that and our crushes on the Fisher boys. They'd make me sign up for this weird talent show thing that takes place every summer at Cousins about a mile down the beach. I didn't win the first year, but it turned out to be way more fun than I'd initially thought it would be.
   In my second year there I earned myself a second place medal, and then a first place medal in my third year. I'd never seen people so proud of me before. Laurel and Susannah had given me their best 'I'm proud of you' smiles, the boys were being like big brothers and saying I could do better, but I knew they meant that I was great. And Belly was Belly, she was being my supportive best friend as always.
   The talent show takes place in June, that's only the first one. The second one takes place in August just a week before we all pack our things up and leave to go back to 'homes'. I was in my room practicing for the first one with a song I'd been working on for who knows how long. My fingers strummed along the guitar chords as I tried to catch my cue.

  "I still remember the third of December,
   Me in your sweater
   You said it looked better on me than it did you
   Only if you knew how much I liked you
   But I watch your eyes as she

   Walks by
   What a sight for sore eyes
   Brighter than a blue sky
   She's got you mesmerized while I die-"

   My breath hitched when a peeping Conrad tripped into the room. "Dude, you scared the hell out of me! How long have you been standing there?" I questioned. "Long enough to know you're gonna win first place this year, again, for the talent show," Con leaned against the door frame."
   I shook my head, fingers lightly strumming over the strings. He was wrong, so, so wrong. "I haven't been able to finish the song, I don't know if it's writer's block or something else but If I don't get it finished by the end of the week, I won't even have a song to attempt to win with," I said. Conrad hummed from the door, that oh-so-obvious thinking face of his showing up out of thin air. He was conjuring up an idea, one that could just as easily be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. "I think you just need to get out of your head and have fun for once. We're only a day into this summer and you haven't even done anything fun," He said.
   "I went to that bonfire," I commented. Conrad scoffed and rolled his eyes at me. "And then you left not even fifteen minutes into it. Do something that's fun to you, not to the rest of us. You've gotta stop with the whole people pleaser attitude."

   Maybe he was right. I tried to make everyone else around me happy while simultaneously forgetting about myself. I'd put everyone else first, leaving myself last. "When do you go off to training camp?" I asked. "I quit," he said. And that was the first thing to become different at Cousins. Conrad always went to football camp. Always. He never missed it, not for anything. "Why?" I questioned. "Football was never really my thing."
   "When are you leaving for your art camp?" He asked me. I shrugged. "I quit." And then that smug look I hated so much had appeared on his face. "Why?" He questioned. "Arts not my thing anymore." Con nodded in understanding, tapping his fingers on the door frame. "The song sounds good. Just... Take a break for a little, get your head cleared, and then go back to it."
   I've never in my sixteen years of living taken advice from Conrad Fisher, but I was now. When Con left, I'd put my guitar back in its case and head downstairs. Belly and Jere were playing some video game together on the couch. "You're finally out of your room," Jere said. "Where's Susannah and Laurel?" I asked. "They went shopping or something like that, they left a note for us."
   "You guys wanna go swimming?" They'd only glanced at me. "Not right now, I kind of need to beat Belly for the third time today in this game. How about later?" Later. Jere always went when I'd asked. He never said later, he never brushed me off. This was the second thing to become different. "Uh... Yeah, sure."