Shoulders

Chapter One

A/N- This book is dedicated to me close friend, @messenger 237, and also to another awesome author on here, @messenger_craver. You guys are awesome!!
Amber's POV
Another day, another rejection. I rolled out of bed, smacking my alarm clock that would not stop beeping. After several attempts to stop the beeping, I did the next best thing. I switched it to the radio, on which For King and Country's Hope is What We Crave was just starting. Katelyn had introduced me to them right before their new album, Run Wild, Live Free, Love Strong, came out two years ago, right after I met her, and I had been listening to their music ever since. They are my favorite band, and, my favorite solo artist is (shocker) Moriah Peters. I had wanted to see them in concert for awhile, and when I found out they were coming here, I was determined to find a way to get there, but I didn't get permission. I had three close friends, Katelyn, Hanna, and Conor. Katelyn and Conor are siblings that are two years apart, so Conor's sixteen, a year older than me. Hanna is turning thirteen in three months, so she'll become a teenager with a family. She's being adopted in two weeks, so she is going to be with a family for her birthday. Another girl that looked up to me, Lilli, ran up to me, her raven black hair streaming out behind her. She was six, and had learned to talk here, and when she couldn't pronounce Amber, she started calling me bear.

"Guess what bear? My new mama an' daddy are takin' me an' Winnie home today, 'coz I gots 'dopted!" I scooped her up, smiling, glad she couldn't tell the smile was fake.
"That's wonderful, Lilli. Do you like them?" She grinned at me.
"Nope. I love them!" She shouted, and then she wriggled out of my arms, and ran back to her dorm. We had three girls to a dorm, but I had one by myself. Before Katelyn left, I shared with her and another girl here, Abbagael, who was just nasty to us. When Katelyn left, she got permission to move into Hanna's dorm, and Hanna wasn't allowed to move. So, I got a dorm all to myself. As Lilli ran off, I didn't realize I was crying until Conor came up and gently brushed my cheek.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, pulling me into a warm hug. I sniffled, and told him about Lilli. He nodded grimly.
"And you're afraid no one is going to ever look twice at you for an adoption, whereas, little girls get adopted all the time." I nodded, wiping my eyes with my jacket. He pulled back and held me by my shoulders.
"Amber, I don't care what other people think about you. You are worth so much. You just don't see it yet, and other people don't see it because they don't look. I'm sure, in fact, I know someone is going to come along who does finally see the beauty in you, because you are beautiful, and you are priceless." He leaned over and kissed me gently on the cheek, and I blushed beet red. I looked at him, and his cheeks were slightly flushed. He grinned at me, and I tried to keep a straight face, but I lost it, and I cracked up, along with Conor. It took about five minutes to calm down and stop laughing. We headed to the dining hall and filled our plates with bacon, cinnamon rolls, and waffles. We sat down right as Abbagael and her friend Laurel walked in and started flirting with a couple of the boys nearby. Conor swallowed, looking around nervously, so I decided to start talking.

"So, Katelyn said that she wants to take me somewhere tonight. Do you know anything about that?" He gave me a sneaky smile, and responded.
"Yes, but she pretty much threatened me with extinction of I told you what she's doing with you." He said, smiling sneakily, so I stuck my tongue out at him, and he grabbed for my bacon.
"Hey!" I protested.
"Give it back, sneak!" He waved it in front of my face, and I grabbed for it, but I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I stiffened.

"Really, hun? Bacon? You should let him keep it. You don't wanna get fat, now do you? Oh, wait, let me think. Hmm, I guess you do!" She and Laurel snickered, walking away. Conor handed the bacon back to me.
"Don't listen to them. They're just trying to make you upset. A few pieces of bacon won't make you fat. Five or six pounds a week might, though." I laughed, squirting maple syrup on his bacon, which he promptly bit into.

"Mmm! Yum! Can I have more of that, please?" I grinned, passing him the syrup, which he promptly squirted over the rest of his bacon. Wow. The things that I live with sometimes. We had both finished, so I kissed him on the cheek and headed to my room to read my new books, the Dragons in Our Midst series by Bryan Davis. I got through the first two books by lunchtime, and Katelyn was picking me up at three-thirty, so I had time to finish them. At three twenty-five, I had finished the last book, Tears of A Dragon, I was crying my eyes out.

"NOOO! They can't just give up their dragon traits!!! It's not fair!!!" I heard a knock on the door, and Katelyn was standing there with a gift bag in her hand.
"Get your For King and Country cds, and your shoes, and we'll be ready to go." She grinned at me and gestured to the car outside my dorm. I grinned back and shoved my tennis shoes on, grabbing my cds, and hopping into the passenger seat. We drove for a few minutes, and I told her what Conor had done this morning, and that I had kissed him later, as well. She chuckled, pulling into an empty parking lot.

"He's liked you a whole lot for quite a while. I'm surprised he hasn't made it known sooner. Now, this is for you." I noticed she was wearing a Respect and Honour bracelet and a Priceless necklace with the Australian penny. I opened the bag, and there was a matching bracelet and necklace, and an envelope. I opened the envelope, and read the note inside.
'This entitles one Amber Hope Thomas, on May 12, to go with me, Katelyn Grace Williams, to go to a For King and Country concert, with dinner at Zaxby's to follow.' I had to read it about six times to finally get my brain to understand what the paper said.

Katelyn's POV
I watched Amber read the note, and her mouth opened and closed about seven or eight times while she read it. She squeezed me into a hug, nearly crying as she thanked me. Conor had a little surprise party for her when she got home, and I wanted to do this for her fifteenth birthday. She deserved it so much, and she was like a little sister to me. We pulled away, listening to (and singing along with) their first album, Crave. We reached the arena where the concert was going to be. Also performing tonight were Skillet, Colton Dixon, and Moriah Peters (who we referred to as Moriah Smallbone, since Joel Smallbone is her husband.) I pulled into a spot, and we got out.