My Summer Trip...

Chapter 2

As we continue to the next chapter, will friendship develop? Read on to find out! ♥

Gretchen eventually got used to going to summer classes with her mom. She would always see her neighbor Alex with a couple of friends. I wonder if he’s in a sport? , she thought to herself. Gretchen would always sit outside the classroom and grab a chair to relax. She didn’t like being inside the classroom since she just finished school and she didn’t want to go back into a classroom filled with torture and agony.

Gretchen and her mom went home after the class was over with a sigh of relief Gretchen laughed. “I’m so glad that’s over! It’s so depressing being in a classroom…”, Gretchen said gloomily. Her mom smiled and gave a confused look. “I thought you liked school?”, she asked crossing her arms while walking. “No mom that was when I was young and how do you remember that anyway?”, Gretchen asked.

“I wasn’t divorced until you were seven, you used to love school!”, her mom said laughing. That’s right but now I’m older and I really think it’s boring, Gretchen thought. “Yeah…”, she simply put it in a way that was extremely awkward. Her mom stood silent, so did Gretchen. They were surprised to see Alex on their porch. “Alex? What brings you here?”, mom told the boy with a depressing no-sleep-at-all face. He had bags under his eyes that were deeply black. “What’s up with your face? No sleep?”, Gretchen asked even though she didn’t like the boy one bit.

“How did you know!?”, he asked enthusiastically, apparently he was really friendly. Gretchen sighed and chuckled, “Just a wild guess?” More like the bags under his eyes told it all. “Nice, and my mom asked me to tell you guys if you wanted to come over for dinner sometime?”, he asked with such a big smile his teeth almost fell off his face! How could mom say no to his pleading face?, Gretchen asked a bit annoyed. He was laughing his ass off at her yesterday and now he was being nice to her?! No way… “Sure”, that one word her mother spoke changed Gretchen’s point of view of Alex completely the next day.

Gretchen fell asleep thinking about how to greet everyone at his house since she practically didn’t know anyone living there! She was so nervous about going over for dinner because she had never even met the family and yet they were inviting them over! How inconvenient that Gretchen was not prepared for tomorrow at all.

The alarm clock set off and came out with a loud noise and Gretchen woke up pressing the snooze button a thousand times before it even stopped beeping. “I need to get a new alarm clock..”, she said to herself while grabbing something to wear. She didn’t even know what to wear! She was having so much trouble that it set her off and she started throwing her clothes out of her closet just to make a messy pile of clean clothes. “Damn it..”, Gretchen eventually found a dressy shirt to wear with some regular jeans. She had trouble finding just one dressy shirt since she barely even had some. All her clothes were either casual or just to be cool in the summer.

She looked at herself in the mirror and put her hair up into two long braids. “That should do it…I really don’t care”, she told herself. Her mom and her finally walked out the door and went next door to have dinner. “Good thing they invited is to eat, I didn’t have anything to eat!”, her mom chuckled while they were waiting outside of the Hew household. Well Alex Hew’s house to put it simply. The door opened and Miss Hew answered the door politely taking us in. “Nice place you got here Kate!”, Gretchen’s mom said complimenting them. “Thank you”, she said taking us to the table. She patted the chairs “Sit, sit..” Where were all the family members?, Gretchen asked herself. “Oh and the family will be here any minute! They’re still getting ready!”, Kate told them clasping her hands together.

Soon after that Alex and his brother along with their father came down the stairs smiling. “Nice to see you”, the dad said looking at us smiling. They all were shaking hands. As it was Alex and Gretchen’s turn to shake hands they looked at each other. Gretchen paused while Alex smiled with his eyes closed almost elated. “Aren’t you gonna shake my hand?”, he asked her laughing. “Ah yeah…but it’s just that I don’t like you…”, Gretchen said shaking his hand otherwise.

Alex’s smile broke into pieces. “Wait why not I’m really nice right?”, he asked her smiling. He looked irritated on the inside. “Um yeah but I just think..”, Gretchen paused when he interrupted her. “It’s okay I know how you feel about today your nervous right? I was actually nervous too..so I guess you can say we’re kind of the same?”, he laughed and spoke. Gretchen’s eyes turned wide with astonishment. “And that time when you had toilet paper stuck to your waist was hilarious!”, he laughed even harder this time.

Gretchen’s face turned red and she looked down at her shoes. “You still uh remember that..”, so he was always looking at her?, she asked herself with a confused wrinkled look. Alex laughed, “What’s with that face!?”, he continued, ”Your too funny you know that! Weirdo..” Gretchen was embarrassed. He was the actual weird one. “I guess”.

“Hey, Alex honey give Gretchen and her mom a tour of the house!”, Kate yelled over to Alex. He nodded. “Uh Miss Owens?”, he asked and Isa followed him along with Gretchen. He stepped over to one door. “This is my brother’s room”, he continued on to the next door, “My parent’s room”. Then they headed over to the last door and it was none other than Alex’s room. “And this is mine..”, he said smiling. Gretchen looked at the room and examined it carefully. It was actually neat and tidy unless he was hiding his dirty clothes behind his closet…

Isa’s mom headed downstairs and sat with the rest of the family to eat. Gretchen was about to follow behind when Alex grabbed her hand. He rested his hand on her shoulder and sighed. “Sorry I get a little rude sometimes…”, he said looking straight at her. Gretchen was embarrassed, he didn’t need to apologize. “It’s okay. Now get your hands off me…please?”, she asked lowering her voice at the end.

“Why?”, he asked smiling deviously. “You think I’m going to do something to you?”, he was obviously teasing her. She flushed and laughed nervously, “W-what?! You gotta be joking! Just get your hands off me!”, she yelled at him. “No..”, he was certainly a big player. It wasn’t going to work on her though, she already knew what he was planning to do…just like the rest of the other girls he dumped. “I was just kidding!”, he laughed taking his hand off her shoulder. Gretchen couldn’t help but smile, his laugh was contagious but she didn’t want to laugh since she was supposed to be mad at him well sort of…

She thought maybe staying here over the summer was going to be okay. The neighbors were okay and she had a good time that day. Although most of the time while she was at Alex’s house he was just making fun of her and laughing at her, teasing her and saying some pretty mean things but he wasn’t so bad…

The next day Gretchen woke up with a surprise. Her mom came into the room and hollered, “Hey! I signed you up for the school’s marching band! You start practice tomorrow at the school’s stadium!”, just what she needed, to go to school right after getting out of school…”Are you serious!?”