Surf's Up

⌠Chapter 1⌡

Picture of Avery

Chapter 1

"Ree, you sure that's not too heavy?" my dad asked me.

"Yeah," I shifted the moving box in my arms, "I'm fine."

"You sure..."

I just simply groaned and rolled my eyes. Sheesh, couldn't a girl simply help move her stuff into the new house?

I spun around and saw someone move by the window in another house. Meh, whatever. I kept walking towards the house and only tripped twice, but never fell. World record right there, someone, get me a medal! I made it to my room and started unpacking all of my stuff. I hadn't gotten very far when my mom yelled for me.

"Coming mom!" I screamed back. I got up and ran down the stairs to find a really good looking guy by the door.

He had really blond hair that looked really cool. It kinda went over his eyes. He was much taller than me, but I was awfully short. He sorta had muscles but they weren't all 'look at me, i'm ripped'. I would have expected him to have one of those cocky smirks, but he didn't. He wasn't even smiling.

I smiled at him and he pushed a plate of cookies in my arms. I looked down at them and then back up to him but he wasn't there anymore. Well that was strange...

"Who was that, mom?" I asked with a frown.

"Oh that was the Johnston family's boy. They live across the street from us!" mom answered from in  the kitchen.

"Oh. What is his name, do you know?" I asked and walked to where she was.

"I think it's Larry. Wait, no, Liam. It's Liam. Why, you have a crush on him already?" she teased.

"No," I scoffed, "never. Boys are overrated."

"Sure they are," she winked and walked away.

I just wondered how on earth she had come up with that assumption from that maybe two seconds of eye contact. I guess I will never know what goes through that motherly head of hers.

I went back to my room -with a cookie- and kept unpacking the boxes. This was going to be a long day.

•••

I had gotten a fairly good amount of stuff unpacked before I had to go and get some dinner. My dad was downstairs rebuilding our furniture and was probably just too lazy to go get food. Mom couldn't take long days anymore, she was getting too worn out.

She was diagnosed with brain cancer two months ago. It was surely a day I remember, ironically it was on Remembrance Day. She was given at most six months to live, but only four of those at home. She was down to two more months at home and didn't like to be on her feet all the time. 

My mother was a beautiful woman. She was a few inches taller than me, a good height. She was getting paler and more thin by the day -reminders that her days were limited. She had dark brown hair that hung in beautiful waves. Mine was a weird blond color that was straight all the time. I had no idea where I had gotten my blond hair from,but me and my brother both shared the color.

I walked across the street and rung the Johnston's doorbell. Thankfully a woman answered the door this time. She looked about my mother's age of 40, except very fit and muscular. She had strawberry blond hair, a color that I dreamed of having; I was just too lazy to dye mine. 

"Hello, I'm Avery, I live just across the street. We just moved in," I said. I tried to be polite, I wanted to be friends with the neighbors, not enemies.