I walked into the kitchen, the tile cold under my bare feet. We all walked to the table and began to eat.

"So, how are your grades, Ida? Doing good, I'm pretty sure," Grandpa asked between bites.

"Straight A's, Grandpa. As always. I can't let them dip below that," Both of my grandparents nodded, understanding immediately. After that it was just small talk, asking me how my first week of vacation was, who my friends were in school. Anything to avoid the topic of my parents.

After I washed my dishes, dried them and put them away I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. I slipped into my sneakers, zipped up a black sweater and walked out the door with a quick goodbye to my grandparents.

The cool dusk air greeted me immediately when I opened the door as I put my hands in my sweater's pockets. The slight breeze lifted my straight, black hair as the sky was being painted vibrant colors with the sun beginning to set. The leaves on the oak trees rustled and the birds chirped, creating a soft melody, giving me peace that I was never able to find back at home.

On my way back, I noticed a girl in the neighboring house. Her blonde hair stood out as she was tending to the flowers in the house's front yard garden. Her grass green eyes caught my hazel eyes as she waved at me with a smile. I returned it with my own.

When I got back to the house, Grandma was already at the doorway.

"Oh... are we going somewhere?" I asked. She looked at me smiling.

"Would you like to visit our neighbors? They have a graduated sophomore. One year above you," she said smiling. "Her name's Juniper. You two could be friends," she suggested.

I couldn't say no. Besides, I needed a friend. It would soon start to get lonely if I didn't have one over the summer. I took one of the three hair ties on my right wrist and tied my hair up in a quick ponytail and both of us walked out to the house next door.

The night had already started to settle in as Grandma rang the doorbell. When the door opened it revealed a woman and the girl that I saw out in the garden on my stroll around the neighborhood.

"Ah, Catherine. This is Idaline, my granddaughter. Ida, this is Juniper," Grandma Abby introduced me to the blonde haired girl.

"I remember you taking a walk outside here a few minutes before," Her kind green eyes held a brightness I haven't seen in a week.

"And same to you," I smiled. The girl turned to who I assumed to be was her mother.

"Hey, Mom. Do you think we can bring them inside?" the girl, Juniper, asked.

"If it's okay with Grandma Abby," She answered, warmly.

"Of course! I do need to talk to you Catherine. The topic from yesterday," Grandma Abby said vaguely.

"Right, of course! Come in, come in!"

***

The house was big and bright. There were white walls everywhere I turned. Juniper brought me up the stairs, her hand having a good grip on my wrist. She led me to her room. It was filled with lots of things. The walls were a soft green and I saw pictures of animals everywhere. She seemed to be a nature-y girl and then seeing a few plants on her balcony proved it.

I gawked at her room.

"Wow. I see we have a hardcore naturalist," I commented and sat on her bed.

"Yeah. I've been given a lot of awards for my science projects. And I've volunteered in a lot of community service and stuff like that. I'm a busy girl. But this summer, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to hangout sometime," She collapsed next to me.

"I don't have a choice anyway. You'd be the only person to hangout with this summer," I said.

"I have a couple friends but they live far, so sometimes my summer's can be very lonely," Juniper nodded. After a couple minutes, she then broke the growing silence.

"I need to go ask Grandma Abby something," She got up. "You can go on the balcony if you want. Or anywhere for that matter. I'll just be a sec," She walked out of the room.

Getting up and looking around, I slid the balcony glass door open and was greeted by the night air.

I loved second floor balconies. They always calmed me down. Bringing me high enough to only hear the wind and the birds was nice, along with the fresh air. Seeing the sky and feeling like I'm flying.

And then when it was raining... those were the best times. The chilly droplets falling onto my skin on a warm summer day, was always relaxing.

I looked up at the night sky to see it clear. The stars shone brightly and I could make out some of the constellations the Santos siblings taught me.

Then a knock on the glass. I turned to see Juniper sliding open the glass door.

"Wanna stay over for the night? Just so you can get used to the place, since I'm pretty sure you'll be staying awhile. Wanna try?" She suggested.

To be honest, I didn't need to give much thought into it.

***

I quickly went to my grandparents' house and grabbed a couple things, stuffing them into my backpack, then headed back over to the Hathaway house.

When the both of us were settled, we sat on her bed and started a somewhat awkward conversation.

"Let's see," Juniper put on a thinking face. Then her smile widened, indicating she got an idea. "Shall we play Twenty Questions? Basically we ask each other a question and then both of us have to answer. So ten questions each," She explained, briefly.

"Sure. That's a good place to start,"

"Birthday?" She started.

"July seventh,"

"June twenty-first. The Summer Solstice,"

"Cool. Colors?" I asked. She gestured around her room and laughed.

"Um... I think it's green," I let out a soft chuckle.

"Right. Mine are black and white. Since technically they're not actual colors. White is all the colors combined and black is the absence of color. So basically, every color and no color," I answered. Juniper smirked.

"Smart girl, are we?" She joked. I nodded with a smile. "Let's see... hobbies?" I brought up my hand and started to count.

"Reading, writing, cooking, breathing, eating, sleeping, living-" Juniper laughed hard at the last ones.

"Sarcastic, too, I see. What kind of books?" She asked.

"Oh all kinds. Mostly in the Fiction genre. But then there's Dystopian and, of course, with Fiction you have to have the Adventure," I smiled. Juniper nodded then paused, her eyes locked onto something.

"What's that?" She pointed at my hand.

"What?" I looked at it. Then saw the 'x' shaped scar. "Right... um... it's kind of personal. It's just a mark I put for a promise I made to myself to work hard," I explained rather vaguely. She nodded and opened her mouth like she was going to say something.

Then closed it.

Instead, her eyes lit up.

"Oh! My mom said we could have a movie night. She already set up the popcorn. Let's go?" She asked.

I smirked.

"Hell yeah!" We raced down the stairs in our pajamas. In the microwave was the much needed buttery popcorn.

I grabbed a bowl while Juniper grabbed the bag and we went to the living room. And I must say it was huge! With an even bigger flat screen T.V.

Juniper led me to the shelves that held so many genres of movies. In the end, we decided to have a Disney marathon cause why the hell not?

We began with some classics, Aladdin being the first.

We laughed, commented, ate and pretty soon dozed off on the couch with popcorn strewn everywhere and the TV playing the credits song.

But I was okay with it. This night made me forget about the pain of my lonely first week.

It gave me the memory of my broken home but also the happy memories I shared with everyone there.