I woke up and looked out the window of my grandparents’ car. I saw the trees passing by in a blur as we got closer and closer to my grandparents’ home. My home. I almost couldn’t contain my excitement. I was about to spend my summer away from my parents and my little brother. My cousin and I were about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.


This time when I woke up we were there. I practically fell out of the car on my way out. I looked around and took a deep breath. The air was so much lighter here compared to my current “home” in Kentucky. I saw the house, and it was just the way I remembered. The house was a light green that reminded me of puke. The shutters were brick red, and my grandma had the front yard filled with different healing stones that were too large to keep inside and wind chimes. A flag hung in front of the door. My nana had demanded they get a flag after 9/11. I, personally, thought it was a tacky way to display our patriotism. My grandma didn’t seem to mind too much, even though she often complained about it being too big and hitting my great grandma’s face when she walked down the porch ramp.


I ran inside, ignoring my nana’s call for me to say hello, and got upstairs as fast as I could. My cousin, Kerry, ran in after me. We had planned this. We had gotten home just in time for Damien’s birthday party. Damien was my first love. I had met him when I visited during Christmas vacation last year. He broke my heart just a few weeks later on my birthday. He promised to make it up to me this summer though, and I was naïve enough to agree to see him. Kerry and I got ready as fast as we could. When we got downstairs my grandmother burst our bubbles.
“You just got here! You can’t go!” My grandma yelled.
“But Grammy, Alice really wanted me and Taylor to go to her party!” Kerry lied.


Of course my grandma didn’t know it was Damien’s party. My cousin was, and still is, a compulsive liar. My grandma said no adamantly. She knew something fishy was going on, and it wasn’t just because she was psychic. She’s been wary to trust my cousin ever since last Christmas’s debacle. Kerry had lied about being on the internet when she wasn’t supposed to be, and some interesting pictures had popped up on her laptop. Kerry had always been a handful, and that was not the first time she had broken the rules. So, plans foiled, we went upstairs feeling quite defeated, but this was just the beginning of our summer.