Chapter 1
“Close your eyes”
“What why?”
“Just do it”
“Everleigh, here goes one of your fantasies again.”
“Shhh. Now, listen to the ocean whispering in your ears. Feel the breeze playing with your hair. Open your arms and let it all take you away. Somewhere better, somewhere safer, somewhere with no worries or pain.”
“Eve, I am 7 years old. My only worry is for Olivia not to get to the swings before me during recess.”
That’s my sister, Tessa. She goes to first grade and apparently her only worry is her competition with Olivia. Anyways, let me introduce myself: Hi, I am Everleigh Brady and this is the mess I call my life. Today is the first day back from winter break. Which means two things: 1. I have to deal with a crap load of homework. 2. It is finally lacrosse season and all I want to do is jump and scream from excitement. I have been playing lacrosse for over 6 years now, but nothing is better than the first day of practice. My best friend, Emma Carson, plays with me on the Varsity team. This makes it overall 10x better, and we can’t wait to watch the boys practice after school and see Shawn Anderson. Oh Shawn, he is the most popular junior in school and so handsome. His light green eyes and dark brown hair, beautiful smile and dimples. Those dimples definitely make him the most attractive person on this entire planet, in my opinion he is cuter than JJ from Outer Banks. As you can obviously tell I have a huge crush on the captain of the boys lacrosse team. Now, you are probably wondering and asking yourself how he feels about me. Well, I wouldn’t say he feels the same about me and I wouldn’t even say we are friends. To be honest, I have no clue if he even knows my name or if I exist, but the whole point of having a crush on the most popular boy in your grade is basically to get over it after a couple of years and act like nothing ever happened. This is the type of thing you see in movies: there are the popular kids and everyone else; I am everyone else. Some people call me a nerd, however that is not true at all. Considering I only have all honors classes and AP English, I think of myself as smart and just above average. I am definitely not the type of person to sit and study or think about school 24/7. I love drawing and painting; just like lacrosse this is the only thing that can take my mind off of everything else. I live in Key West, Florida; this means I basically live on the beach. It’s all fun and games until the hurricane season arrives and we get buckets pouring rain and winds up to 120 mph. However, there is nothing more relaxing than going out to the beach or boat and enjoying nature and all its wonderful creations. Me and Emma have a tradition, every Saturday we take her dad’s boat and go to this little island we discovered 15 minutes away from shore. It is like our own little secret paradise, well ours and the iguanas who live there. Saturdays are my favorite days of the week, because I enjoy the beach and our little adventures more than anything. Lately, I have been enjoying writing a lot too. When I am upset or overwhelmed I write in my journal. It’s not exactly a diary, because trust me I know those are lame. It is more of a sad story of my life; I write down situations or events that make me feel uncomfortable, angry or depressed. Over the years I have noticed that people are so selfish and two faced, it makes me sick. There are people who lie, talk bad about their “best friends” and who would do anything to seem popular. Sadly I knew one of those people and the worst part is that I used to call her my best friend.
