Saturday morning, I woke up early to help mom pack things in our house. She had already called my coach to tell her of the situation, then she called my school to do the same thing, last she called the movers to get all of our other non-essential belongings. Mom had decided that we should leave all our furniture and appliances with the house to make it sell faster, and so we would have fewer belongings with us when we go to Minneapolis.

After packing and cleaning the house, the realtor came over to our house to give mom the papers for the house to sign since we already had a buyer wanting the house. I was really quiet that day. None of my friends had come over to wish me well, give me presents, or tell me they'll miss me. No one did.

Early Sunday morning, we woke up to get on the road before traffic, so we could be to Minneapolis. We never stopped.

My head leaned against the passenger seat belt, listening to songs on my Walkman, and staring out the window. Every now and again, I would ask questions, but they were simple questions. My first one was how long it would take us to get to Minneapolis, Mom said it was eight hours, that was when were crossing Lake Michigan. When we were in Wisconsin, I asked who we were staying with, Mom said one of her old friends, Ms. Conway and her son, Charlie, in their apartment.

When I was listening to a song by Depeche Mode, my eyes landed on a sign that said: "Welcome to Minnesota".

"We're here! Beautiful Minnesota!" Mom smiled at the sign and elbowing me. I didn't acknowledge her, I continued to stare out at the window, listening to my songs on my mixtape. At one point, I fell asleep during the car ride, mom had to wake me up.

"Vicki, Vicki honey, wake up." She lightly shook my shoulder as my eyes fluttered open. "Come on darling."

"Mmm? We're here already?" I said in a hazy voice, then looked at my watch that read 1:23 P.M.

"Yup." She smiled and got out of the car, I did the same and rubbed my eyes while going to the back of the car to grab a box of my personal belongings.

We walked up the stairs to the apartment complex and went up the stairs to the Conway's apartment. Mom knocked on the door while I stood close behind her with the cardboard box in my hands. A curly blonde haired girl who was a little bit shorter than my mother opened the door with a sympathetic smile.

"Aww, come here." She opened her arms out to my mom, who went in for an embrace with Ms. Conway, "I'm sorry." She patted my mom's back before breaking away.

"It's alright. We'll survive."

"Well please come in!" She smiled and let us into her apartment.

When we stepped inside the small apartment, mom introduced me, "This is my daughter Victoria. Victoria, this is Ms. Conway."

I put on a happy face to make a good impression, "Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you." We shook hands with each other.

"Yes, likewise! Your mom has told me everything about you-" She smiled briefly before turning her head. "Charlie! Get out here and introduce yourself to our new guests!" She yelled into the other room.

"One second Ma!" A voice called out from another room before running into the room we were all in. The boy was my height, messy blonde hair, round face, and stunning eyes, he slowly walked over.

"Charlie, this is Ms. Reed and Victoria." Ms. Conway introduced the two of us.

"It's nice to meet you." Charlie shook hands with my mom before turning to me. "Hi." He smiled. His smile was dreamy and made my knees weak.

"Hi," I said coolly while shaking his hand with the box in my hand.

The two of us stared at each other for a while before Ms. Conway broke the silence, "Charlie," He turned his head to his mother. "How about you show Victoria around the place and we'll go get the boxes from Ms. Reed's car."

"Sounds good," He nodded his head before turning to look at me. "Here I'll show you where you'll be sleeping." Charlie walked off and took me to a room.

"This is my room," Charlie walked inside and pointed to an extra bed. "You'll be sleeping over there." Charlie's room was plastered in hockey posters and one corner of his room was his hockey gear laying on the floor with the stick leaning up against the wall.

"You like hockey, huh?" I chuckled while walking over to the extra bed and placing the box down on the bare mattress.

"Oh, yeah," He smiled before sitting down on his bed. "I love hockey. I play for District 5."

I sat down on the mattress facing Charlie, "Do you play hockey?" Charlie fixed a few strands of hair in his face.

"Um, no. My dad played hockey. I used to be the captain of my cheer team back at home for my school."

"Oh, that's cool." He nodded his head.

"Yeah, The Panthers. Great school." I rambled. The two of us sat in silence for a while. We could hear the two mothers talking and bringing in the boxes from the car.

"Hey," Charlie spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. "Do you wanna come with me to meet some of my friends?" Charlie's face lit up at the idea.

"I'd love to! I mean, I got no friends so why not!" My mood lightened up by Charlie's idea. We then both stood at the same time.

"Well you do have one friend," Charlie shrugged.

"Well, I know that!" A smile cracked on my face as I laughed. "Just let me get new clothes on. I'm not used to Minnesota weather."

"Ok, Michigan girl, hurry up." Charlie chuckled. I rushed out of the room to get some winter clothes. Then I quickly changed in Charlie's bathroom into a black long sleeve shirt, black leather jacket, black leggings, Timberlands, my black winter coat, and a white knit hat. Charlie had already gotten dressed for outside and waited for me.

"I promise you Victoria," Charlie and I ran out the apartment door and went downstairs. "You are gonna love them!"

We were just about to pass Ms. Conway and my mom when they stopped us, "Where are you two going?"

"Oh, I'm gonna introduce Victoria to some of my friends so we can all hang out."

"Ok, be back before dinner." She smiled at the two of us. Charlie started dashing off down the street.

"Thanks, Ms. Conway!" I smiled before chasing after Charlie. "Charlie! Wait up!" Charlie stopped at the end of the block to let me catch up. We then found ourselves at an ice pond in the middle of a park where three boys were waiting for us.

"Where have you been Charlie?" A shorter boy with a baseball cap thew his hands in the air.

"Busy!" He shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Ooo, Charlie bringing us a girl." One boy said with glasses, he sounded like an announcer you would hear at a sports game, which made me laugh.

I stood next to Charlie, looking at all the boys, "Actually, Victoria and her mom just moved in with me." Charlie replied.

The blonde chubbier one smiled briefly, "Well, any friend of Charlie's is a friend of mine." He smiled.

"That's Karp, Peter, and Averman." Charlie pointed to each of the guys and each of them waved and smiled at me. "Guys, this is Victoria Reed. She's from Michigan and she used to be a cheerleader."

"Ooo, a cheerleader." The short boy named Peter elbowed Averman who was fixing his glasses.

"So," I started, shoving my hands in the pocket of my jacket. "What do you guys do for fun?" I asked, shrugging my shoulders.

The three boys smirked and exchanged looks, "Oh, we know just what to do." Then we all dashed off to a back alley where Karp hopped into a dumpster.

"Oh, Ewww." The stench was so bad it made me gag, so I pinched my nose. "That's disgusting Karp."

"Charlie, go find some canned food," Karp said from inside the dumpster.

"Got it!" Charlie then took off going to find canned food. Averman, Peter, and I watched as Karp dig through the dumpster.

"So," Averman started, he rocked on his feet. "Do you play hockey?"

"No, my dad did." We both looked at each other, Peter listened to our conversation.

"Well, where's he?" Averman asked, pushing up his glasses. My face frowned as I looked at the ground. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't-" Averman stuttered.

"No, it's ok." I cut him off. "You didn't know." I looked back at the boy who was giving me a sympathetic look when Charlie came running up to us.

"I got some chili beans!" He showed us the can.

"Alright!" Peter smiled.

"Any luck?" He gestured to Karp still digging in the dumpster.

"Nope," I said with my nose plugged.

"Hey! I got something!" Karp emerged from the trash with a broken pure that probably belonged to an old lady. Peter helped Karp out of the dumpster, then the boys started roaming the alley.

"What are we looking for?" I asked Charlie.

"You'll see." He smirked at me, I rolled my eyes. Then I saw a cute little white and brown spotted dog.

"Awww." My 'awning' got the attention of Karp who called his name.

"Here Petey, here boy." He opened the can of beans and the dog came trotting over. "Here some nice chili beans to keep you warm." The dog started eating the chili beans like crazy before licking his face and running off.

"Wow. He ate the whole thing!" Peter said while we all followed closely behind the dog.

"And he keeps walking," Averman did a commentary while we followed the dog. "Wait!" The dog stops and sniffs the ground. "He sniffs, he licks! He circles! He squats!" Then all the guys cheered at the pooping dog while I stood utterly confused. Karp then scooped up the poop and put it in the purse, then pulled out a dollar bill to stick in the corner.

"That's nasty." I fanned the space in front of me. We all then followed Karp as he sat the purse on the side of the road from behind a red truck. We then waited for something to happen. A guy in a red sports car got out and picked up the bag, looked around, and got into his car.

"He took it!" Charlie laughed quietly, then we all stepped into the road.

"This is so disgusting but funny." I laughed and put my head on Charlie's shoulder.

The car then slowly started to drive away but stopped abruptly when the guy threw the purse out the window swearing so everyone could hear. We all laughed but quickly was silenced by the driver getting out of the car and staring at us.

Peter's eyes got wide, "Guys, run." He half chuckled before the driver started chasing us down. We went through alleys, a construction site, and up on to a roof before losing the guy.

"That was the best thing I have EVER done!" I jumped up and down, we all gave each other high fives before Charlie looked at his watch.

"Hey guys, gotta go. Dinner." Charlie looked up, the guys all said goodbye to us before we climbed down the ladder and walked home.

Charlie and I mainly walked in silence, I was occasionally asking questions, but he broke it, "What did I tell you Victoria-" He started.

"You can call me Vic." I blurted out quickly.

"What?" He looked at me in confusion.

"You don't have to call me Victoria. You can call me Vic, Charlie." I smiled, he smiled back before adjusting his coat.

"Well, Vic," He emphasized. "Did I tell you that you would love them or what?"

"Oh my goodness, they are so funny!" My face lit up while walking down the sidewalk with Charlie. "I definitely didn't know anyone back at home who would put poop in a purse and lure in drivers with the cash. That right there is a big first!" I chuckled.

"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it, Vic." Charlie nodded with a sincere look on his face before he opened the apartment complex door for me.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome." He bowed and followed me upstairs to the apartment, where our mothers were getting dinner on the table.

"Hey, guys! Did you have fun?" My mom smiled before putting the lasagna down on the heat pad in the middle of the table.

"Oh my gosh! Yes! I had so much fun, momma!" The two of us stripped our coats and hats to sit at the dinner table. The Conway's sat on one side, me and my mom sat on the other.

Mom was getting herself some lasagna, "What did you guys do?"

"We put poop in a purse and put money in it, then lured a person to take it." I rattled off. The whole table went silent. Charlie was drinking some water when he half-choked on it while laughing.

"Oh, that's," My mom paused and looked at me. "Interesting." She half-smiled at me. Then, I got my lasagna and caught Charlie smirking at me before taking a bite of his lasagna.