Dear Beth
Hey, It's me. I told you I would write to you, didn't I? I'm sending a picture of all the people I told you about. Zac's the shorter guy with the long hair, Isaac is the taller one. You can see me without the black eyes, cuts, bruises, and i.v. bag. *chuckle* Carter is the girl with the short brown hair. And Meli is the blonde one. I guess you could figure that out on your own though, I did talk about them a lot.
How's the snobby neighborhood? It really can't be as bad as you say. But then again, what do I know, I'm not there. I'm sure you'll meet some hot guy with blonde hair... blue eyes... you know, somebody like me. Just kidding. My ego isn't as huge as you would think.
"You know it's raining out?" Andrew looked up at the girl who had been sitting on the wall entrance to his neighborhood for almost three hours now. He lived in a large, white and black house across the street from Beth. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a great smile.
Beth folded the slightly soggy letter quickly and shoved it back into her pocket. "I like the rain." She looked up and smiled into the light drizzle that was falling on her long, light brown hair, causing it to frizz slightly.
Andrew pulled the hood of his windbreaker over his head. "Kinda like Shirley Manson."
"Excuse me?"
"You know... 'I'm only happy when it'... you know what? Nevermind." He laughed when he noticed her vacant expression. "My name is Andrew." He held his hand out to her. After holding it there for a few seconds, watching her stare off into space, he shoved it back into his pocket. "So what were you reading? You looked pretty engrossed."
"What? Oh." Beth reached into her pocket and smoothed her hand over the letter lovingly. "Nothing. Just a letter from a friend."
"Do you live around here?"
Beth nodded and pointed to the bottom of the development. "Down there. That house across from the big black and white one."
"Oh! You're the family that just moved in here! That's my house." He said, referring to the one she'd pointed to. "Have you met anybody yet?"
Beth shook her head. "I haven't really gotten out of my house much. I've been unpacking and arranging and all that."
"Do you want to go for a walk and I can show you who lives where? Maybe I can introduce you to Rae, Jen, and Alana." He blended their names so quickly it sounded like one person.
"Who is he?"
Andrew laughed and straightened his hood as they started to walk. "Rae, Jen, and Alana." He smiled, speaking much more slowly. "They're three girls that live here. Not too many guys though. The only ones are under 7 years old."
Beth smiled at how talkative he was. He reminded her slightly of Taylor. Almost, she'd never met anybody like Taylor. There was just something about him... She shook her head, knowing she had to stop thinking about him. He was in Tulsa, and he was in love with somebody else. Or at least, that's what he said.
"Where are you from?" Andrew asked, snapping her out of her daydream.
"Near Tulsa, Oklahoma."
"Wow, that's really far. I bet you had to leave a boyfriend behind."
Beth shook her head. "No."
"Then I bet you miss all of your friends."
Beth shrugged. She didn't really have very many friends. She never fit in where she lived. There were so many cliques, everybody had a group that they felt comfortable in. Beth had never found her group.
"So who do you want to meet first? Point to a house." Andrew smiled.
Beth looked at him, she just couldn't understand why he was being so nice. "I guess...." She paused and looked around, finally pointing to the huge tan house at the end of the street that seemed to stand out amongst the others.
"Ah, that's Rae. It's a really new house, she used to live on the street above us. They just moved here. We've been friends forever though." Andrew and Beth walked the length of the neighborhood in silence. He stepped onto Rae's porch and knocked as hard as he could. "It takes her forever to get to the door. She's usually under her blow dryer or something." He rolled his eyes and knocked again.
"WHO IS IT?!" Came an almost nasty voice from the back of the house.
"Yup she's in her room." He pounded again.
"JEN, ALANA, SOMEBODY GET THE DOOR!"
"Ah. Alana and Jen are here too. Maybe we won't have to walk all over the neighborhood."
Beth smiled, almost a fake smile.
The door flew open and a blonde girl with a tiny, powder blue, tanktop and little black capris appeared.
"HI!" She smiled and batted her eyes at Andrew. "We were wondering if you were going to come over! Oh gosh, it's raining and you're all wet. Come in!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him in the door, slamming it shut in Beth's face.
The door opened a few seconds later and Andrew pulled Beth inside with a "Sorry" look on his face. As they walked down the hall, Beth noticed how huge the house was. "Great, I'm surrounded by mansions." She mumbled, sighing to herself.
Andrew heard her and laughed, leaning to her ear, he whispered, "Wait till you meet miss, my shit don't stink, Rae."
Beth laughed and then covered her mouth with her hand.
"Hey, Andy." Rae smiled lovingly at him. "Hi..." She paused, looking at the stranger that was hogging Andrew's attention.
"Beth."
"Hi." She smiled. Andrew was right. She did have a 'my shit don't stink' grin.
Rae grabbed Andrew by the arm and nodded in Beth's general direction. "You won't mind if we steal him for a minute do you? Alana, Jen, and I have to talk to him."
"Not at all." Beth smiled, falsely again.
Andrew gave her a sypathetic smile and disappeared into Rae's bedroom. Beth never got to see Jen, but she really wasn't very interested. She took the moment of silence, and lonliness in Rae's house to sit on one of the couches and read the rest of her letter.
I was talking to Carter yesterday and she said you sounded cool. She seemed a little jealous though. I think she's afraid you'll steal me away from her. I dunno, that makes me feel pretty good actually. To think she would be jealous of another girl... over me. Does that sound selfish? Or stupid?
Anyway, Not much else going on here. I got my glasses and I'm getting better. Still have to stay in my bed because me mom is overprotective and insane. Hehe. From now on I figured you could e-mail me. That is, if you have a computer. I hope so. If not, just write. My email adress is Jordan1217@hotmail.com
Jordan is my real first name. Did I ever tell you that?
Ok, Talk to you soon
Love, Taylor
Beth sighed, but then jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Who's Taylor?"
"Uhm..." Beth shoved the letter back into her pocket. "A friend back home."
A short, girl with mocha colored skin, and very pretty black hair smiled. "Don't worry, I wasn't reading it. I just saw the name at the bottom. Is he your boyfriend?"
Beth shook her head. "No." She could almost feel herself blushing.
Jen smiled. "Hey it's cool that you're keeping in touch with friends."
"I haven't really known him that long." Beth shrugged. She couldn't help but notice how nice Jen was. Alana seemed, sweet, but of course artificially, and there was something about Rae that scared her.
Jen put her arm around Beth's shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry, you'll get along fine here. I'll protect you from the rugrats, and as far as I see, Andrew's got eyes for you already."
"Huh?" Beth sighed, confused, as Jen disappeared. Andrew finally came out of Rae's bedroom, flustered, and he grabbed Beth by the hand and pulled her out the front door. "What was all that about?" Beth asked, sliding her hand out of his, feeling a little too uncomfortable with meeting so many new people, Andrew being the main one.
"Nothing. I hate to cut our visit short, but I really have to go home." He was still blushing wildly. "So, I'll talk to you later ok?"
Beth nodded and watched Andrew run down the street to his house across from hers. She sighed, completely overwhelmed, and pulled the letter out of her pocket again. She stared down at the picture that Taylor had sent and sighed when she saw his face again. She'd never seen anything so beautiful, and she knew she never would again.
Thank you SO much to Kelsey Miller, age 14, for making me the perfect group picture. It's exactly what I wanted for the story.
Home
Stories
Mill Creek
Character pictures and descriptions