Eigengrau

Before the beginning

Chapter 1:

Mia thought her step-sister annoying, but now that she'd spent a four-hour car trip with Casey by her side, she discovered that the word insufferable suited her best.

Casey Duncan thought the year-and-a-half gap she had with Mia made her superior to her younger step-sister.

Mia thought that age gap only made her younger than Casey, which was as close to the truth as you got in that patched-up family.

Casey was the type of girl who got hit on wherever she went. She was gorgeous -and Mia wasn't even close to denying that-, but her attitude problems almost took her beauty away.

Mia was the type of girl who made awkward every conversation she had. She wasn't shy -she was even somewhat outgoing, even when first she had moved to the United States.

Mia's mom was a translator from Argentina -yes, Messi and yes, the Pope- who was working for an American company, and thus living there since she had divorced Mia's father.

Mia had stayed back home with her father, up until her mom decided to get married to a guy she worked with: Brett Duncan, Casey's father.

It had been a year since they'd wed, and this was Mia's first vacation with her new family.

"How much further, dad?" Casey said, whilst talking to someone on the phone.

"Half an hour, honey," his dad treated her like the princess of the universe, in the most conceited and egotistic way.

"Half a freaking hour," Casey said again to the person on the other side of the line, after pulling a face.

Meanwhile, Mia contemplated the view from her window, with music bursting in her ears and her hands drumming the beat on her own thighs. The only thoughts that occupied her mind were predictions and doubts about the summer, with hints of nervousness and excitement and -as she looked to her right, to her step-sister- dreadfulness.

Her mother, who'd been to Eastham already, said the place was amazing. The house was a small cabin that they'd named Skyline Blue, or so her mother'd read on the wooden sign on the porch. It was a two-story, wooden building, and the beach was its backyard.

If Mia was lucky enough, the place would be so beautiful that her hatred of Brett and his whining daughter would become nothing more than an ocasional bother. And, hopefully, she'd make some new friends.

The midday sun shone bright in Mia's face, heating up her body. It felt like it was going to be a really hot summer.

Mia took off her headphones, and spoke to her mom "Hey, could you turn the ac up back here, please?" her mom forced Mia to speak English, even though Spanish was her first language. Her words were smooth and fluid, her pronunciation was impeccable --you wouldn't expect any less from a translator's daughter, would you?

Her mom reached out a pale, freckled arm and did just that.

"Thanks,"

She put her headphones back on, as Coldplay played their version of Til Kingdom Come in her ears.

The air conditioner soon cooled off her body, and her pale face lost a bit of its redness.

Mia, though not as beautiful or as skinny as Casey, had her own charm.

Her reflection in the car window showed a girl with a round, pale face, with brown eyes and long lashes. Her lips were long and chubby, and she had a fair amount of freckles in the bridge of her nose and her somewhat high cheekbones. Her nose was bigger than your average nose, yet still quite straight and button-like.

Her most-praised feature was her hair. She had blond, wavy hair, and it was cut a little bit above the shoulder. The style really favored the shape of her head and it suited her better than a long haircut, she had decided a long while ago.

As time passed, so did the songs blasting in Mia's ears. The landscape out her window changed a bit, as they got closer to the ocean, and the shore appeared on the horizon, a dark blue, the thin line between the sky and the land.

Brett drove for about ten more minutes and then houses started showing up, like little dots spread across the grass, like signs that signaled they were getting closer and closer by the minute, which was something Mia had forgot in all the time she'd spent on that car. Time had seemed to stay still while the world swept by Mia's eyes, almost without her noticing.

"Casey, we're five minutes away, if you wanna call your friends," Brett said, addressing solely his daughter, and neither her mom, nor Mia.

Soon enough, a 'Welcome to Eastham' sign greeted them, as they headed straight towards an unforgettable summer.

{•}

Riley's room had always been a mess, and his dad had never cared, so why the sudden freaking out over it now?

As he threw the last dirty shirt into the already-full basket, he thought about what summer would bring him.

He'd heard from his friend, Fitz, that Casey Duncan, the hot chick who came to Eastham every summer vacation, was coming this year too. And Fitz said that Lilo'd said that Gabe'd told her that Casey'd phoned Poppy and that she'd said that she would be bringing company this time around.

Fitz was over Riley's house in that moment, sitting by the window, watching as Riley tidied his room.

"Dude, what if she's hot?" Fitz animatedly remarked, for the fiftieth time.

"Dude, what if you just let it go?" Riley answered, secretly wondering that himself. What if she was hot? She'd be living next to him, he had to do something!

But then again, what if she wasn't? Would he still go say hi, when their car parked out their cabin? Would he be a dick if she wasn't hot?

He probably wouldn't... Right?

"Hey! That's them, check it out!" Fitz shouted, as he'd been waiting for them to get there for at least a solid hour.

His curiosity got the best of him, and he dropped the broom and ran to the window.