We Have To Stop Meeting Like This

Chapter 1

Allegra

Like most problems, mind started with a ship, Nantucket, and a pair of headphones.

Drop everything now

Meet me in the pouring rain

Kiss me on the sidewalk 

Take away the pain-

"Ally! Allegra! Get inside this instant!"

I turned around in time to see my ten-year-old (slightly obnoxious) younger sister, Adina Thatcher, step onto the deck of the ship. I made sure my notebook was safely hidden behind my back. The last thing I needed was for Adina's prying eyes to land on it. I slid my headphones down my neck to hear Adina's shrill words even more clearly. Adina was not fond of the thought that someone might not be paying complete attention to her.

"I need you to make Basix turn off the Ariana Grande, now!" Adina crossed her arms, which looked slightly ridiculous with the puffy sleeves of her frilly bright pink dress that she had begged to have bought for her a month or so back. Her shiny brown curls were perfectly brushed, something I lost patience for halfway through my own frizzy curls. She was wearing a pair of clean, sparkling silver flats that definitely weren't the best footwear for a ship. She continued with her rant - "He won't listen to me!"

When it came to Ariana (Ari, as he nicknamed her), my fourteen-year-old cousin was... Well, I guess you could say that he was an unstoppable force. And he couldn't be friends with anybody who was against her music. Ariana Grande was his lifeline. His eternal sunshine, he liked to call her. Making Ariana Grande puns was probably his second-favorite hobby, his very favorite being listening to Ari, of course.

"So what makes you think he'll listen to me?" I replied to Adina, whom Basix had tried to convince my parents to name Ariana. 

"Well, I - " Adina huffed in response, at loss for words. "Mom wants you in the cabin to help watch the kids," she said with a note of disdain, considering herself apart from the group. At ten, she had mastered the role of a superior-sounding sister. Dignity was her chief concern and it was often hilarious.

"Fine," I said. "You go ahead, I'll be there in a minute."

"I don't think so," Adina said. 

"Who's the older sister?" I said. "I will be there in a minute. Or two." Maybe three, I added silently. Only fair; I was six years older than her and I wasn't about to let her push me around.

Adina rolled her eyes, shaking her head at me. Kids could be so annoying sometimes. "You better!" She turned and ran back inside the cabin.

After her slim, short figure disappeared, I pulled the notebook from behind my back. I'd been working on writing a romance novel, and it was by far my biggest secret - something I hadn't told even to my older sister, Lilyana, or my best friend and cousin, Paz.