Mormon Princess

Secrets and Surprises...........Preview!

"Faith! Wake up! Waaaaaake uuuuuup!!!!!!" A little voice yelled in my face.  I know that voice anywhere. I opened my eyes just enough to see. Yep. It was my little sister. "Go away!" I say. "It's too early to be awake." " And to be in my room." I add. She doesn't budge. "Come on, Jane, you can't even leave me alone on my birthday?" Finally I sit up. "I'll get up." I say. "But you have to go out so I can change." Finally, Jane gets up and walks out. I take a deep breath and twirl in a circle. Today is going to be great. It's my 16th  birthday! Today is the day: I can drive, I can date. But, I honestly don’t know what I’m doing today. I do know of a few things we have planned. I decide to not change. I'll open my gifts first. I open my door. Mmmmmmmm. Bacon. I can smell it coming from the kitchen. Our mom always makes our favorite foods on our birthday. We usually eat it in bed, but I like the couch better. That way no one has to come into my room and I don't have to change my sheets. I plop down on the couch. "Hi honey." my mom says. "Hey mom. Good morning." "Yes, it sure is." she says. I agree. Outside the morning sun is shining through the clouds. The birds are singing. It looks beautiful. "Ya," I say. "It is." I continue looking out the window for a few minutes. Then my mom says "So...how do you feel? I mean, being 16 and all." "Amazing." I say. "It feels like the whole world is new.", which isn’t exactly true, but kind of. Just for today. I sit there enjoying the quiet. I don't get quiet very often around here. I mean, I do have 6 sibilings. That reminds me. "Hey, mom." I say. "Where's Jane? She was in my room earlier. She came in to wake me up." I pause. "Not just Jane, where is everyone else?" Mom doesn't respond for a minute, then lamely says, “It is Friday.” "Come on, Mom, don't act like this is normal. It's 8:30! They're usually up at like 6." "Ok, fine." She says. "We have a surprise for you." A surprise? For me? I mean, it is my birthday, but what in the world would it be? "Come get it the car." Mom says. I can tell she is trying not to spoil the surprise. She is smiling huge. This must be good for her to be so excited. "Um, mom? I'm still in pajamas. Don't I need to change?" "Why, yes, that might be a good idea." She says, joking. "Hurry up about it though, don't want to be late!" I run up to my room. I never get ready quickly. I grab a yellow shirt with some blue skinny jeans and a purple scarf. I put on some simple earrings and a bit of makeup. Then I grab my purse and a sweatshirt and run back downstairs. I look at the clock. Impressive. All that only took seven minutes! Mom yells from the garage. "Hurry up, Faith! We'll be late!" I run out to the car, still thinking about what in the world we would be doing. It's only 9:00 a.m.! "Mom, can I drive?" I ask, getting excited. "Sure, go ahead." She says with a huge smile. "First things first," She says. "Let's go get your license." I took my drivers test a week or so ago and passed. “Wait, doesn’t it come in the mail?” I ask as we get in the car. “Yes, it does. I got an email that it shipped about four days ago, so it should be at the mail box.” I drive down the street to the mail box. Sure enough, there it is. I put it in my wallet and get back in the car. Mom looks at me and says "I better drive this time. It's a huge surprise, and if you know where we are going it might ruin it." "Uh, Okay." I say. She gets in the driver seat and I climb into the passenger seat. "I can still see where we are going. I have eyes, you know." She reaches over and blindfolds me. "Now you can't." I can hear her smiling. I find my seatbelt and pull it across me. Mom starts the car. We drive in silence for a while. I honestly have no idea where we are going. I don't recognize these turns.  After about fifteen more minutes, we park. I still have no idea where we are. I hear mom come over and open my door. "Okay," she says "Get on out." I swing my legs over the seat out the door and carefully stand up. I'm still blindfolded, and I don't trust myself to walk, so I let my mom lead me. She holds gently to my arm and leads me up some sort of walk way. "Mom, where are we?" I ask. She replies, "That's for me to know and you to find out." I can hear her smile spreading all across her face. We walk up some steps and she knocks on the door. I hear someone inside say "Come on in!" I know that voice. It’s Angela, Emmy’s mom. I know where we are. Mom brought me the crazy long back way to Emmeline's house. Emmy and I have been best friends for as long as I can remember. I know every inch of this house. "Can I take this blindfold off now?" I ask. "I already know where we are anyway." "OK," she says "I thought you would figure it out." I take off the blindfold and hand it to her. We go out and get my stuff from the back of the car trunk. This was originally part of the plan, but I was going to Emmy's later in the afternoon. Anyway, something had obviously changed and I was glad we had put it all in here last night. I give her a hug and say goodbye as I walk back inside. "I'll see you later." She says with a smile. "Okay." I say. The plan is that I am going to sleep over at Emmy's tonight. I carry all my stuff upstairs and kick open Emmy's door. "Hey!" She says with a smile. "How's your birthday been?" I set my stuff down and sit down. "A little strange, actually." I say. "None of my family was there when I got up, and my mom won't tell me anything." I see a little smile sneak across her face. Then I have an idea. "Wha----are you part of this plan too?" I say. "As a matter of fact, I am." She says with a smirk, then adds, "And you better not ask any questions. Just enjoy yourself." "Okay, fine. What are we going to do first?" We decide to sew, so we go down to the craft room and chat while we work. At about 11:45 Angela calls us up for lunch. We eat sandwiches and pickles, one of my favorite meals.   We say prayer, then she says, "When both of you girls are done, I want you to get a sweatshirt and shoes on and get in the car." When I finish I get up and put my plate in the dishwasher, then go and do what I was asked. Emmy and I hop into the car. She obviously knows what's going on. I'm in the dark. "Oh wait! I forgot something." She says. She bolts inside, grabs something, and bolts right back out. She hops back in and blindfolds me. "Sorry," she says. "You're probably sick of these things." Truth is, I kind of am. But I'm with my best friend and I trust her, so I just go with it. The car starts and I feel someone get in. "Who's driving us?" I ask. "My mom." she replies. We don't talk for the rest of the 25 minute drive to wherever we're going. Then we park and get out. Emmy leads me inside what I think is a building. If this really is a public building, then people are probably looking at me, the 16-year-old with a blindfold on. But, you know, I don't really care. I'm having fun, and that's all that matters. We all walk over to wait for something, then walk into some sort of room. "Okay," says Emmy, "we're going up." The floor starts to move. This isn't a room! It's an elevator. We go up a few levels then get off and walk a little while to the right. They open a door and we sit down. The first thing I do is say, “Now can I please take this thing off!?” I say. I want to know where we are. “I guess,” says Emmy. “You’ll probably figure it out, but whatever.” I pull the blindfold off my face and see we are in a hotel room. That makes sense, with the elevator and everything. But why? Emmy was wrong. I don’t get it. “Surprise!” says Emmy. “We are having our sleepover at a hotel!” “Awesome!” I say. “Thanks, Emmy. You’re the best.” I glance at the clock. 1:30. We have all day to do whatever we want. I walk over and give her a big hug. "What should we do first?" I ask. “Let’s go swimming!” Angela says. So we get our suits on and head down to the pool. We walk down and lay out our towels. This hotel has the awesome pool where half is inside and half is out, so you can lay out in the sun or stay in the shade. We decide to tan first, so we go out and lay in the sun. We talk and laugh and just enjoy ourselves, because we have all day to pretty much do whatever whenever. We hang out at the pool for about an two hours, until we decide to go back up to our room. We get changed and do each other’s nails and hair for a while until we have to find our shoes so we can go down for dinner. We eat and go and sit with our feet in the pool for a little while. When we go back to our room, we decide to watch High School Musical, because it was my favorite when we were little. Honestly, we won’t really watch it at all. We’ll sit and talk and make fun of the movie. The couch isn’t big enough for both of us, so while the movie plays through previews, we put some blankets on the floor to sit on. “Faith, will you, we won’t really watch it at all. We’ll sit and talk and make fun of the movie. The couch isn’t big enough for both of us, so while the movie plays through previews, we put some blankets on the floor to sit on. “Faith, will you get one more pillow?” Emmy calls from the other room. “Ya, one minute, I’m just finishing up the popcorn.” I finish popping the popcorn, grab a pillow, and plop down next to Emmy. All of the sudden, my phone starts to ring. I jump because it caught me off guard. I answer without looking at the name, so the deep male voice surprises me. “Hey Faith, it’s Ben.” “Hey Ben.” “I know this is totally last minute, but I was wondering if you wanted to come hang out. Ethan’s going to call Emmy, and a few other people are coming too. We’re going to play some games and stuff. Sound fun?” I pause for a minute to look at Emmy and grin. “Yeah, that sounds great. I’m actually with Emmy right now, so let me talk to her and I’ll call you back.” “Okay, talk to you soon. Bye.” “Bye.” I hang up and turn to Emmy. “Who was that? Talk to me about what? What sounds great?” She asks before I can even take a breath. “It’s Ben and Ethan wondering if we want to come hang out.” I say. She stares at me, then raises her eyebrow like she doesn’t believe me. I don’t blame her. To get asked out by Ben or Ethan is a big deal. They are the boys who everyone likes. I’ve been friends with them for a while, but I didn’t expect this. “Seriously?! That would be so much fun!” Emmy squeals. “Is that a yes?” I ask sarcastically. “Um, what do you think Faith? Duh it’s a yes!!!” I roll my eyes and grab my phone. Ben picks up right away. “Hey Ben, it’s Faith again. We’d love to come. What time were you thinking?” “Uh, let’s see. Does 7:30 work?”  I glance at the clock. It’s almost 7. “Ya, that works. Your house or Ethan’s?” “Mine.” “Okay, we’ll see you in a few. Bye.” Emmy runs to ask her mom, which we probably should have done before we called Ben back, but we knew she would say yes. We get ready and Angela gives us a hotel key. “Don’t be back too late. Have fun!” She says as we leave. We pull out of the parking lot before Emmy asks, “Um, do you know where he lives?” “Not exactly. Good thing we have LDS Tools!” I say with a laugh.

 

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I hope you like it! I'm still working on the rest of the chapter, but I'm so excited about this book! xoxo themormongirl

P.S. Does anyone have tips for how long chapters should be? Does it matter? Thanks!