a Season to Remember (Book 1)

Chapter 6

I grabbed my towel from the stack that was on the chair and started to dry myself off. Josephine and I just got done swimming.

Yesterday when I got home from helping Josephine, I decided that I wasn't going to let Aizen ruin my summer. I was going to spend this summer having the time of my life with Josephine whether Aizen was around or not.

Once I was done drying off, I started to make my way inside. I was just about to enter the house when I bumped into Zack.

"Hi," he said a little breathless.

"Hi," I don't know why I was so surprised to see him.

"I never got your name yesterday."

"Melody," I said.

"What school do you go to Melody?"

"Brooke Wood High. I'm going to be a sophomore next school year."

"Oh, cool, so we go to the same school."

"Yeah," I said. It was my turn to be breathless now. I was taken by his caramel colored eyes and I felt like I could get lost in them as his stare intensified.

"You must be Zack." I was too busy getting lost in Zack's eyes to be able to notice Aizen standing a few feet behind him.

Zack smiled at me before turning around to face Aizen. "Yeah, Aizen, right? It's nice to meet you, man."

Aizen looked from Zack to me, then back at Zack again. He didn't know what was going on, but the look on his face said he didn't approve.

"Well, it was nice seeing you again Zack." I said walking past him. I continued on my way ignoring Aizen as I made my way upstairs.

Once I was in Josephine's room, I went to the bathroom that was connected to her room and took a shower.

You never know when there'll be an emergency, so I never took long showers.

After I got out of the shower, I put on my clothes that I had packed earlier this morning. Once I made sure I looked decent, I went back downstairs.

"Oh, hi Melody." Mrs. O'Day greeted me as soon as she saw me walk in the kitchen. 

"Thank you for letting me spend the summer with you guys again." I said sitting down on one of the bar stools.

"Oh, of course honey! You're welcome to spend all the summers you want with us."

I looked outside through the glass doors to see that Josephine was no longer in the backyard. She wasn't upstairs, so where was she?

"If you're looking for the others they're all in the front yard."

I thanked her before getting up and making my way to the front the door.

When I got outside I saw Josephine sitting in a chair facing her lawn. A beach towel was wrapped around her. Aizen and Zack were in the lawn throwing a baseball back and forth with each other.

"Hey, aren't you going to change?" I walked up to where Josephine was.

"Yeah, I was waiting for you to get done taking a shower so I could take one." She said looking up at me.

"The shower is all yours," I said.

She got up from her chair and stretched a little. "Okay, I'll be right back. You can take my spot if you want to."

I waited until she left before I started to make my way to the front of the neighborhood.

I never paid much attention to the park that was at the front of Josephine's neighborhood until now. I was finding comfort going up there and just sitting on the swings as I got lost in my thoughts. The park was really big. It was part of the community center that belonged to the neighborhood. I have a community center in my neighborhood too, but it's not as nice or as big as this neighborhood's.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even know someone was behind me until they said my name.

"Damn, Melody, you walk fast."

I stopped walking and turned around to see Zack not too far behind me.

"What are you doing?" I asked surprised.

"I just wanted to see what you were up to. Where are you going?"

I decided to meet him halfway. "The community center. I thought you were helping Aizen with baseball."

"He doesn't need my help. Turns out he's a pro at baseball and plays back at home."

"Oh," I said.

"Yeah, Mrs. O'Day just wanted us to be friends so she said he needed help with baseball to get me to come meet him."

I laughed. "You have to watch out for Mrs. O'Day. She's sneaky like that."

"So do you have any fun plans for the rest of summer?"

"No, except spend it with my best friend and family."

"Really? You aren't doing anything fun? You're not going on vacations or to any parties?"

"Nope," I said.

"Well, what are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing."

"How does a party sound?"

"I don't party."

"Oh, come on. I need someone to go with me to this one. Most of my friends are out of town and I have no one."

"I don't know you." I simply stated.

"This party will be the perfect opportunity for us to get to know each other."

"I don't know."

"I'll stay by your side the whole time and you won't have to worry about anything."

"Okay," I said.

"Okay? Really? You'll go with me?"

"Yes."

I didn't know how I was going to convince my very strict and conservative parents to let me go to a party but I was going to try. It was time I got out of my comfort zone.