The Last Summer

Chapter One.... Waverly

I wriggled in my seat. Excitement coursed through my veins. "Stop moving around!" The person next to me whispered forcefully.

"Sorry." I said shyly. "I'm just nervous!"

"Whatever." She said. Oh, so Ms. Cool was to cool to be nervous. I thought. Though, I did quiet down. Some time past, and I started nervously fidgeting again. The hot afternoon sun beat down on my back.

"Waverly Benz." I leaped off my chair and rushed to the podium to accept my high school diploma.

"Thank you." My words were barely audible. The principle, Mr. Evans, smiled at me. I continued off the stage. I grinned. Finally, high school was over, and summer was about to begin. Once out of sight I sprinted to where my dad and brother waited with the car. My gown billowed behind me and my cap tried to escape my head several times.

"Congratulations sis!" My brother enveloped me in one of his warm bear hugs.

"Thanks Pax." I giggled.

"Move on over Paxton. I want to hug our little graduate." My dad picked me up and spun me around after he finished talking in a fake southern accent. "Your mother would be proud of you." He whispered to me. "You look just like her you know." He told me.

My mother died in a car accident when I was in eighth grade. I was with her. We were coming home from a school activity that I had been going to lately. On our way home an incoming drunk driver hit us. I ended up with a broken arm and a couple stitches, but my mother was much worse. Apparently, my mother suffered from epilepsy. The doctors said that the disease had been dormant for years. They said that the car crash triggered a grand mal seizure. Also, she suffered from head trauma that was the result of the accident. After many surgeries, her brain finally gave up and there was nothing we could do but let her go. I blamed myself for the accident. If I hadn't been so caught up in trying to be popular and being liked, I would have never joined that stupid club, and we would never have been on the road when it happened. If it wasn't for me, my mother might still be alive.

"Thanks dad." I replied. My mood dimmed and I crawled back into my shell where no one could hurt me.

"Who's ready to hit the road?!" My dad exclaimed, not noticing my sudden change of mood.

"Let's go!" My older brother took the front seat. I pasted a fake smile onto my face and crawled into the back seat of our grey Mazda. I decided not to let my mood be affected by my mom's death. She wouldn't like that.

My dad started the car and we were on our way to my favorite place in the world, Tybee Island, Georgia. We stayed there every summer since before I was born. It was my sanctuary, the only place I was comfortable at, but most importantly, it was where Jaycob and Kayleb would be.

When I was little, my parents decided to buy a house on the beach for us to stay at during the summer. Our next door summer neighbors were Kathleen and Kent Corelli. They had two boys, Jaycob and Kayleb. My mother and Kathleen became fast friends. Paxton became best friends with her oldest son Jaycob who I secretly had a crush on, and I hung out with his younger brother Kayleb. He became my best guy friend. We did almost everything together. The summer after sixth grade Kayleb and I decided that we wanted to hang out with Jaycob and Paxton. We wanted to go to all the parties that they went to. We wanted hang out with them and their friends. We followed them around everywhere. If they went to the board walk we did too. When they went to the arcade, we were one step behind them. By the end of the summer Kayleb had been accepted into their group. I couldn't be in the group. I was the little sister, the tag-along. After he joined, I was all alone. My only companions were Kathleen and my mom. Every day, after I finished ranting on and on about how I wanted to be popular and hang out with them, they would tell me that when I was older I would be so beautiful that her two boys would follow me around like lost puppy dogs. I took that to heart. My mom once told me nothing was impossible, and so Operation Make Myself Irresistable began.

Every summer since then I tried to get their attention. I would hang out with the girls that they thought were hot. I tried acting preppy and even Goth (that didn't last long). Everything I tried didn't work. After my mother died, I stopped trying. I built a wall around me, and no one could get in. This summer was going to be different. They were going to follow me around like lost puppy dogs. I was determined to prove my mother and Kathleen right, because this was the last summer.