OKAY I DON'T LIVE IN VIRGINIA BEACH OR BISMARCK NORTH DAKOTA SO THIS'LL PROBABLY BE INACCURATE. JUST WARNING YOU.

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"Ellen Marie Brady," I used her full name through gritted teeth. "Play that stupid Wiggle song again and I'll wiggle your face into the nearest brick wall."

She turned down her music as she stared back at me with a horrified expression. "Jesus, what crawled up your ass?"

"The rain," I answered gruffly, looking out the window grimly. "What if our flight gets delayed?"

"So?" she zipped up her bag. "At least then we won't have to fly to that hell hole."

"Virginia is not a hell hole," I rolled my eyes. "North Dakota is. Which is why I'm more than happy to be leaving it."

"What's there to do in Virginia? Visit Colonial Williamsburg?" she asked, sarcastically jumping with excitement.

"What's there to do in North Dakota?" I countered. "Look at the Scandinavian Heritage Park? I swear to God if we go there for another field trip I'll kill myself."

Elle laughed and leaned back against my bed's headboard. "I don't know, there's something about looking at the torn plastic at the bottom of the half-full ponds that just gives me a rush."

I laughed and threw her pillow to her, to which she caught and simply placed on top of her suitcase. "At least we're going to Virginia Beach. And we're staying in a beach house."

"True," Elle looked down at her arms. "I do need to get tan."

"Yes you do," I laughed jokingly, and she threw her pillow back at me before I could dodge it.

I chuckled as I tossed it on top of our bags. "But I guess we are staying with my Gramma Sherrie."

"Gramma Sherrie's the best," Elle laughed. "What are you talking about? Hold on, I'm gonna go play Wiggle for her."

I smiled as I shook my head, packing every last important thing I could think of. I grabbed my copy of The Beautiful and Damned, possibly my favorite book ever written during the 20th century.

Elle returned a couple of minutes later, seeming like she was ready to show me something on her phone. She pulled it out excitedly, but stopped when she saw something on my bed.

"You're not brining Nathaniel?" she pointed to my beaten up teddy bear I've had since the minute I was born.

I shook my head. "I think it's time I outgrow that thing."

Despite the sentimental value Nathaniel held, he being one of the last things I had to remember my mom by, I realized it was time to move on from him. I did always have the heirloom necklace from my mom's attic Gramma Sherrie and I found last year.

"Bring Nathaniel," Elle picked him up off of my bed and handed him to me. "You may be over him, but I'm not," she winked.

I gave her a grateful smile as I delicately stuffed him into the front pocket of my first suitcase.

I had packed 3 suitcases, which seems like a lot, I know, but I think it's necessary, you know? I'll be gone for an entire summer! In addition to those suitcases, I had two duffel bags filled to the brink.

I feel bad for having to check so many bags, but I told Gramma Sherrie I'd help pay.

"Ready?" Elle asked me as she grabbed her stuff.

"As I'll ever be," I sighed, unsure of just how great my summer was going to be.

A half an hour drive to Bismarck Airport and a stuffy, three and a half hour flight, Gramma Sherrie, Elle, and I had finally arrived in Norfolk Airport in Virginia Beach.

•

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•

"Pick your bedrooms, girls," Gramma Sherrie shooed Elle and I away as she sat on the couch.

The house was beautiful. It was three stories, and even though it didn't have a finished basement, it had a finished attic. The interior was almost log-cabin like, with wood next to each other, but only on the main floor. In the living room, there was a skylight, and an entrance to the back deck outside.

Elle and I raced each other up the wooden steps, me winning because she tripped and fell on her face.

I laughed as I helped her up and practically dragged her up the rest of the stairs. "Elle, come on!"

There were three rooms, which were incredibly convenient, because there were three of us staying here. One of the rooms had a huge king sized bed, its brown covers contrasting well with the sky blue paint on the walls. The floors were wooden, and the bathroom in there was just as nice, too. Elle and I knew this room was Gramma Sherrie's.

I followed her into her room next. It was a queen, elegantly covered in a pastel yellow, the only splash of color in the white painted, white carpeted room. There was a night stand next to her bed with an old alarm clock, the kind that hits the two bells to ding. She also had a television across from her bed on the other side of her room.

I let her settle in as I began to unpack in my room. My room was the smallest, but I wasn't complaining because I had a walk in closet. My bedspread was a plain, white, fluffy cover with a couple of pillows. My walls were almost a periwinkle, and I loved that it was so subtle. Like Gramma Sherrie, I had wooden floors, except my closet was carpeted.

Elle and I shared a bathroom, and soon enough, we were unpacking all our toiletries together and she decided to put on Pandora as she plugged her phone into this large boom-box - which really was just technically an iHome.

"Turn it up," I urged with a smirk as I dumped a bunch of hair ties into one of the drawers. "This song is my jam."

•

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•

"Girls," Gramma Sherrie scolded us. "Go do something. It's the first day! Don't just sit on your buckets all day watching tv."

Old people talk. Yeesh.

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked her. "We don't know the town."

"Then learn it," she smiled. "Make it yours."

I looked over at Elle, an eyebrow raised in mischief. "How's 'bout it, Brady?"

"Eh," she shrugged. "Why not. Maybe we'll make a friend on the way."

"That's the right positivity, Ellen!" Gramma Sherrie applauded her as she stirred something in the kitchen. "When I was your age, I'd love to meet new people."

"Yeah, but," I shook my head. "Times are different, now. People are different."

"How so?"

"They're bitchier," Elle answered for me as we exited the house.

I laughed as we walked down the pathway. "My grandma doesn't like swearing, you know."

"She'll get used to it, I guess," Elle laughed as we both turned down the street. "Okay, there's the beach."

"Wanna go?"

"I don't have a suit on," Elle said, folding her arms.

"Fine, we'll just check it out, and then we can look more, okay?"

"Yeah, alright."

I really wish I wasn't wearing my Chucks right now, because walking on the beach is just going to fill them with sand. But, I guess in the two and a half months I'll be here, I'll just have to learn to live with it.

"There's a hot guy looking at you right now," Elle muttered to me. I began to turn my head to see, but Elle stopped me. "Don't look now!"

I looked anyways, and sure enough, a very good looking guy was squinting at me, either because the sun was in his eyes or because he was confused. I didn't know what to do, so I gave him a slight wave. A bit uncomfortable, he turned around and began throwing the football with the rest of his friends.

"Goddammit, Beth," Elle scolded me. "We're gonna be around a lot of boys this summer, you're gonna have to learn how to not be an awkward freak."

"I'm not awkward," I disagreed stubbornly.

"Prove it," Elle said, her gaze leading to a girl, around our age, laying out on the beach. "Go introduce yourself and make a new friend."

"Fine," I grumbled, approaching the girl. When I began to cast a shadow over her and block her sunlight, she sat upright and pushed her glasses up to the top of her head.

With a polite smile, she asked, "Can I help you?"

"Hi, my name's Beth, and that's my friend Ellen," I introduced myself and referenced Elle with a hand gesture. "We're staying here for the summer, and we were wondering if you could possibly show us around? You know, be our tour guide for a bit?"

"Um," the girl's gaze moved over to the boys playing football. "Sure, let me just tell my brother."

I nodded as she turned to the group of boys. "Drew! I'm going around town with my new friends, Beth and Ellen!"

The boy slowly nodded, confused.

"I'm Kristin, by the way," she said, sticking her hand out so we could properly introduce ourselves. Elle and I shook it.

"That guy's your brother?" Elle asked as Kristin stood up, de-sanding her towel. "He doesn't look much older. Are you twins?"

"Yep," Kristin nodded. "Fraternal, thank God."

I laughed as Elle's head tilted slightly. "He's kinda cute," she stated bluntly. Kristin snorted.

"Right, cute."

"What about his friends?" I asked as we began walking, my eyes not leaving the group of boys as we trekked down the black tar, leading to town.

"Well," Kristin said, stopping to make our vision more clear as we all turned to face them. "That one with the dirty blonde hair? That's Chris. He's a bit of an ass at first, but once you get to know him he's not so bad."

"And that guy?" Elle asked, pointing to the one with a light shade of dark skin who tossed the football.

"That's Marty," Kristin smiled. "Possibly the nicest guy you'll ever meet."

I couldn't help but stare at the last one. He had caught the ball and was tackled by Marty. He landed on the sand with a thump and sat there, cracking up. He was, in my opinion, the cutest.

"What about him?"

"That's Jack," she simply said. "There's not much to say about him."

"What do you mean?" I asked Kristin, finally tearing my eyes away from him.

"Well," she sighed. "He's not really a good guy."

"So he's a bad boy?" Elle asked.

"I guess you could say that. Really, though, he's just a boy."

"So he's...simple, then?" I asked her, perplexed at her puzzling statement.

"No," she shook her head. "He's the most confusing bastard that ever lived. He's different."

"Good different?" I pressed, intrigued.

She looked at me a little suspiciously. "I don't know. Maybe you can find that out for me."

Confused at her words, I decided not to bring him up again.

"Okay," Kristin said as we neared an ice cream shop. "This is Bucky's Ice Cream. Great food, terrible workers."

"How so?"

"They are really impatient, so you better know what you want before you go," Kristin answered with a smirk as we passed the shop. We rounded up a bunch of little stores.

"These are what we like to call The Outlets," she said. There were a couple popular name brand stores, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Sperry, Nike, Finish Line, and Polo. But there were also a couple of local boutiques and shops.

"And here's the Sparkle Club," Kristin pointed to a bright sign, dazzled by LED lights against a bright, neon background. "Despite the fact that it sounds like a gay bar, it's actually just one of our night clubs."

I chuckled as we passed a couple more landmarks of Virginia Beach. The entire time, I was happy to have made a new friend, but also to prove Elle wrong.