The Sound of Him

01 | golden girls

Chapter One | The Golden Girls of Vanderbilt

My most least significant experience in my life would have to have been my fourteenth birthday party, just a few weeks before the first day of my freshman year at Vanderbilt Prep.

I remember a lot of things about July 23, but the thing that stood out to me the most were the guests. Not specifically the people that were there. It was the people that didn't bother showing up. To be even more blunt, the only person I wanted there more than anyone else in the world was Dallas Kensington.

From the way he smiled to the way he crinkled his nose when he saw something unpleasant. Whatever it is that he had been up to all summer — I had wanted him there.

He didn't show up to it.

He did, however, have his father, Walter, e-mail my mom and tell her that they had been out in Cannes, France, for the summer and that they didn't get back in time.

That was all over now, though. The days of tossing and turning in my bed late at night, wondering if Dallas would ask me to hang out were long gone. Middle school was over, and it was time for me to show him how much I had grown up during the summer break.

That was probably what started everything – the initial thought of trying to mesmerize and captivate Dallas Kensington.

That's where my story begins, in the fall of 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. Everyone in my grade shares this story also, some only have bits and pieces of it, as they were never truly involved in the action. Others have some sort of involvement in it. That part of the story is theirs and for their thoughts only.

So I'll tell you mine, my side of the story. It may be a little biased and a little rocky, but this is how I experienced everything as a teenage girl away at boarding school.

So this is my whole truth.

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My favorite day of the week has always been Thursday for some unknown reason. It has never been Friday or Saturday. Growing up, I had always loved Thursday's because it was the only day we got to go to recess. While all of the other kids played on the monkey bars, I was busy running around the track.

Quickly, I learned that I loved running – running as fast as I could without being able to stop gave me an insane amount of adrenaline. Pretty soon, it had become apparent to everyone that track was something I was made for. By middle school, my track coach, Coach Rivers, wanted me to start practicing with all of the high school kids.

At the time, my sister was a senior at Vanderbilt Prep, taking the world by storm as a lacrosse star. Her quickness and excellent footwork were something that made her stand out from all of the other girls on the soccer team at Vanderbilt. It wasn't just because of her tall figure, either.

Anyway, she wasn't too fond of her thirteen-year-old sister taking the spotlight at such a young age.

I quickly realized that running was one of the only things I was good at, except for being smart.

I never really thought I could live up to Lucy's potential until that very day when Coach Rivers pulled me aside, and he told me that he knew I could do it. At the time, I wasn't sure what he meant by "it," but I knew that he believed in me, and I loved that.