One Interesting Summer

Chapter 2

“Tara,” A voice called, “Tara,” it repeated my name over and over again. I couldn’t respond, my dream state had taken me to Hawaii so I obviously did not want to leave. All of a sudden I was forced to sit up and my tilted back. With a start I lurched forward.

“WHAT IS WRONG!” I screamed “WHERE DID MY PAPAYA JUICE GO!” In front of me was the dusty seat that I had been looking at for the last four hours of my plane flight. I shot a glare at the flight attendant who clearly had the nerve to wake me up.

“Sorry to wake you,” She said, a huge smile was plastered on her face. “The plane landed a few minutes ago, whoever is coming to pick you up could possibly have been waiting for quite some time now,” I was just about to mock her when I realized that my Aunt Kim said she would be out at baggage  claim early.

“Thanks so much” I said quickly as I pushed her out of the way. Standing up on the seat, I reached to get my carry-on out of the top compartment. Once in hand, I struggled to get back down. All I succeeded in doing was falling backwards and hitting my head on the other chair. I said various words on my way out of the plane. I ran past customs and hurried through the security check, instantly thanking myself I wore TOMs. I was running until I saw the back of Livy’s head.  Out of breath I called out:

“I’m here,” I took in a big breath “It’s me, Tara,” Aunt Kim turned and smiled.

“Good to see you honey!” She walked over and gave me a big hug, “How was your flight?”

“Very smooth, I fell asleep on it,” I smiled back at her. Aunt Kim was my favorite aunt. She’s the kind of Aunt that always has warm cookies in the oven with cold milk ready to go.

“Oh is that why we had to wait here a little longer?” She gave me a look.

“Maybe?” I replied, at that moment, Livy turned around. She had changed a lot since I last saw her. She had gotten A LOT tanner since she had tanner since she had moved from Nesbit a while ago. Olivia now had beach blonde hair surrounding a smiley face. That smile disappeared when she saw me.

“Hi there,” She said, looking awkwardly around. Her arms crossed across her chest

“Same to you! I’m sooo excited to stay with you this summer!” I put fake smile on my face, this might as well be a happy experience. She gave a smirk and nodded, her gaze followed a tan boy down hall.

“Let’s get your bag Tara, then we’ll drive out to our house” I nodded in response to Aunt Kim. We waited until my green bag was revealed behind the curtain, then I dragged it to their car and hopped in. I turned out to be a very awkwardly silent car ride. Honestly, I couldn’t care less because I had never seen a palm tree in real life before and LA was full of them. The sunlight was wavering behind the trees and it looked like summer all the time.

“The sunsets must be amazing out here,” I said to Livy, she dodged it like always. “Livy?” I added. She gave me the automatic death glare.

“NEVER call me Livy again,” She looked back out the window. I put up my hands in surrender.

“Sheeesh, a girl can’t even ask about a sunset without being hammered at,” Within a few more (extremely) silent minutes we had reached the house. It was a larger house compared to the ones back home, but only seemed average compared to homes I had seen on the way from the airport. The shingles were a pale blue and blended nicely with the white door and accents on the porch. Small gardens fringed the house with pinks and purples. Behind the fence you could see a large pool. A couple skateboards scattered the lawn. Once Aunt Kim had open up the door out popped Cade, who had his helmet on ready to ride.

“Hey bud!” I said giving him a hug. He just waved and ran off to his friends that had just appeared in the driveway. I was then welcomed in to the biggest house I had ever seen. The ceilings were extremely high, and the great room was out of this world. Aunt Kim checked her watch.

“Hey honey , could you show Tara up to her room? I’ll get ready down here, then we can go to work” She said and Olivia then guided me up the stairs. I followed quickly until she turned into a room directly on the left.

“Voila, here you go. Bye!” She turned to leave when I grabbed her arm.

“Before you leave you answer one question,” I said. She rolled her eyes. “What ‘work’ do you need to go to?”

“None of your business,” she said and pulled her arm away. Soon enough she was gone and I was left in the guest room. There was no bathroom connected, so I guess showers were something this family fought over.  The walls were a cream color, and the duvet wasn’t much more interesting. I then proceeded to shove my suitcase under the bed and look in the mirror on the other side of the closet door. The brown hair dropped down to about my shoulder and constantly looked messy as heck. I wearing a neon pink shirt that said ‘sun kissed’. It was a lie, my fair Irish skin didn’t even get sun-blown-on. I was going to re-tie my converse when Olivia came back into the room.

“Don’t want to interrupt your time with yourself, but my mom wants me to show you around the set,” She said, she obviously had an argument with her mother about this. Olivia’s face told it all. Aunt Kim suggested it, Olivia denied, Aunt Kim yelled, Olivia yelled, Aunt Kim won.

“Sure,” I said cautiously, who knows where we were going.

“Don’t look so scared,” she said opening up the door further. She almost smiled but then it quickly faded.

“OK, Let me grab my phone, I’ll meet you out there,” I said. Once she left I put a bunch of stuff in my purse. What have you been up to Olivia? I muttered