between the lines

The week before summer ends is a scary time. I’m only fifteen and I feel like life is passing me by. I don’t want to grow up; it feels like last week I was in kindergarten. Maybe going to Summit High was a mistake, I should’ve enrolled into Morton High. Stupid, stupid Amelia. I can’t do anything right.

My phone buzzes.

Hey! Everyone’s getting together @hoovers, wanna come? Jordan says.

Sure! What could go wrong? I reply.

I’ll be there in 10. She texts back.

I sigh and get up off my bed. I walk over to my closet and open the door. “What to wear, what to wear,” I say to myself. After a few minutes of going through my closet, I finally find something, a light pink ribbed shirt and my favourite high-waisted jeans. I walk out of my room and down the stairs into the kitchen, I see my mom, “Hey mom, there’s a party at Hoover’s. Can I go? Please?” I beg.

My mother glares at me for a second before replying, “Yes Amelia, but please be careful and be home by 1.” She nods her head, signalling me to agree. “Oh yeah, of course, mom. Thank you!” I wave to her goodbye and rush to get my shoes on.

“Oh my gosh, Amelia! I haven’t seen you in forever!” Elijah runs up to me and hugs me. My body goes rigid, “Uh, hi there, Elijah. How have you been?” He finally lets me go; he still holds me by the shoulders. I look him up and down, white Nike Air Force 1s, Adidas joggers, and a pink hoodie. Cross branding at its worst.

“Heh, I’ve been good, just working at my dad’s place this summer. What about you? What crazy things have you been doing?” Elijah runs his hand through his hair.

“Oh, you know, the usual,” I say. He has no clue what my usual is. Actually, I don’t even know what my usual is.

He nods along, pretending to be interested. A girl with long black hair walks past us. Elijah’s eyes wander to her.

“Well, it was nice to see you again. I’ll see you at school,” He walks towards the dark-haired girl.

I look around, scanning the crowd for Jordan, no sign of her. I sigh and head to the bar. Hoover’s is a little rustic restaurant. Obviously I can’t drink, I’m only fifteen; even if I did try, everyone in Yachats knows each other. Heck, the owner, Mr Lopez, comes over once a month for dinner.

“Hey Amelia, what can I get ya?” Mr Lopez asks me.

“Can I get a Shirley Temple?” I say as a pull out a five. Mr Lopez shakes his head, “This one’s on the house.” I nod my head and sit on the barstool.

“Hey, is anyone sitting here?” A boy with curly hair points to the chair next to me. I shake my head no.

“I’m Joseph; I just moved here from Los Angeles. And you are?” Joseph holds his hand out to shake mine.

“I’m Amelia, welcome to Yachats. What school are you going to?” I shake his hand.

Mr Lopez sets the Shirley Temple down in front of me. “Summit High. Is that a good place? Should I switch?” Joseph’s eyes widen. I shake my head, “No, no, Summit is a good highschool. You’ll fit right in.”

I feel someone tap my shoulder; I turn around, I’m face to face with Jordan.

“Melly! I’ve missed you so much!” Jordan pulls me out of the chair and hugs me a little too tight. Jordan pulls away from me and eyes Joseph, “And who might this be?” Jordan smirks.

“This is Joseph, he just moved here from Los Angeles,” I explain. Jordan nods her head and turns to me, “Have you seen Elijah?” She asks.

“Yeah, I talked to him before he went after some girl,” I roll my eyes. I point to the couch across from the three of us, Elijah and the mystery girl are way too close for comfort.

“Oh her? She’s my cousin, we moved here together. Her name’s Leah,” Joseph shrugs, “She’s cool, I guess. She thinks she’s all that sometimes.”

All three of us look over to the couch, “Might as well introduce ourselves.” Jordan plasters on a fake smile and essentially skips over to the two lovebirds. I grab my Shirley Temple and drag Joseph along.

“Hey, Elijah, who’s this?” Jordan smiles. I don’t know how she does it, she’s just so darn nice.

Elijah raises his eyebrows, “Oh, she’s Leah, she’s new to Yachats,” Leah sucks her teeth.

“I’m from L.A. Pretty boy over there is my cousin.” Leah juts her chin out to Joseph.

“Are y’all going to Summit?” Jordan asks. Everyone nods their heads. Great I have to go to school with Elijah and Leah. I have a feeling Joseph’s pretty chill.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not really feeling this party. Wanna head back to my house?” Elijah gets up from the couch. I look at the clock on the wall, 8:15.

“Sure, but I got to be back by one.” I sit down my Shirley Temple and walk towards the door, “Come on, you guys!” I wave my hand. The four of them follow me.

We all cram into Elijah’s Range Rover. Yep, Elijah’s rich, well not him, his parents are.

“Woah, dude, you have a refrigerator in your car?” Joseph open the fridge in awe. I guess fridges in cars is normal when your parents are rich. I’ve been friends with Elijah for over a decade and he’s never been snobby, until now.

“Yeah, this is the new Range Rover, I custom designed it.” Elijah winks at Leah, who’s in the passenger seat. I look over to Joseph and roll my eyes. Somehow, I’m stuck in the middle, even though Jordan is smaller than me.

“Why would you ever need two IPad size tablets in your car. It’s not like you live in it.” Leah snorts.

“It’s called aesthetic, sweetie, I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Elijah turns on his playlist. His taste in music is horrible. It’s comprised of mumble rap and singers that have “Lil” in their names. It’s absolutely terrible.

Jordan and I look at each other and sigh, this is going to be the longest twenty minutes of our lives. Joseph nudges me in the leg; he hands me an Airpod. I take it, praying that his music is better. I put the earbud in my ear and fortunately, Joseph and I have a similar taste of music. I thank God. Upfront, Leah and Elijah are rapping along to a song that I barely understand, while my right ear is listening to Khalid. Jordan’s all alone in this, poor thing.

We finally arrive at Elijah’s grandiose house. Why do four people need six bedrooms? No one knows it’s unnecessary, but I guess when you have a crapton of money.

Joseph takes out his Airpod, causing the music to stop. I take it out and hand it to him. Joseph’s eyes widen at the sight of Elijah’s mansion. I’m guessing Leah and he did not live in Beverly Hills. Elijah wraps his arm around Leah’s shoulder and starts walking to the front door. We all enter and we’re greeted by Mr and Mrs Stonewall in the living room.

“Hi, Mr and Mrs Stonewall,” Jordan and I say together. They both wave, then, their eyes land on Leah and Joseph.

“And whom might they be?” Mrs Stonewall, Lisa, asks.

“I’m Joseph and this is my cousin, Leah, we just moved here from Los Angeles.” Joseph holds his hand out to shake theirs. Mr Stonewall, Paul, stands up and shakes his hand.

“Whew, you’ve got a strong handshake. Jordan and Amelia better watch out.” Paul pats Joseph on the back. I feel my face growing hot. I nervous laugh and pretend to check my phone.

“Madeline’s up in her room, sweeties. She’ll be so happy you two are here.” Lisa smiles. The five of us head our separate ways, Joseph, Jordan, and I to Madeline’s room and Leah and Elijah to the basement.

“Maddie? It’s a-me Jordan!” Jordan yells towards Madeline’s room. I hear crashing and then rapid footsteps.

“JORDAN!” Madeline yells. She runs out of her room, sees me, and smiles ear to ear. “Jordan! Amelia! What are you guys doing here? And who’s this?” Maddie looks at Joseph.

“I’m Joseph, I’m new to Yachats.” Joseph smiles. Madeline turns to Jordan and me, “ What’s taken you guys so long to come over?” She asks.

“Oh, you know, I’ve been busy,” I shuffle my feet. That’s not a lie, I have been busy for most of the days. I run a blog; it’s really hard to maintain, I’m getting hundreds of messages a day, so, I’ve been pretty engrossed in that.

Maddie glares at me, “Well, anyhoo, I’ve missed you guys. It’s been a while.” We both nod. Maddie gestures for us to come into her room.

She’s repainted it; it used to be this light pink colour, now it’s a lavender colour. Everything matches now too, it’s too… neat. But I guess people can change.

“So, I’m a freshman now,” Maddie flops onto her bed. Jordan and Maddie are the same age, fourteen. And I’m guessing Joseph and I are both fifteen.

“Yeah, I’m gonna head down to the basement, wanna head down there with me?” I ask. Jordan and Maddie both shake their heads. I guess it’s just Joseph and me then. I pull Joseph along to the office.

“Follow me,” I say as I open the window and crawl out onto the roof. Just like I thought, Joseph is right behind me.

“Wait, grab those blankets,” I point behind me to a chair. Joseph crawls back to the room, grabs the blankets, and heads back towards me. I snatch the blankets out of his hands and continue scurrying over the roof.

“What are we doing?” Joseph whispers. I wave my hand for him to come closer. I start laying out the blanket on the roof, then I lay on top of the blanket.

“Look at the stars.” I turn to him. He smiles and crawls onto the blanket next to me.

He points towards a cluster of stars, “That’s Ursa Major.” He says.

“I didn’t know you liked astronomy,” I turn to lay on my side. “You just met me,” Joseph smirks. I roll my eyes, no duh.

Maybe this year isn’t going to be that bad.