Notice: I’m home from school early today (January 26). It was a half-day because of midterms, and I only had one today first thing, so I left early after taking it. Since I have free time, I thought I’d post this! Enjoy.

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Chapter One

“So you want to go to the movies later?” Alex asked Steven, his best friend, over the phone on their first official day of summer vacation.

“Well, actually,” Steven responded, sounding remorseful, “Aiden and I were going to go to the movies. But you can come with us!”

“Nah,” Alex replied sadly, “I don’t want to be the third wheel.”

“You’re not going to be the third wheel,” Steven reasoned, “Besides, we owe you. You got us together.”

“You got yourselves together,” Alex told him, “No, I’ll pass. I’ll hang out with Ginny or something.”

“You sure?” Steven asked guiltily, “Or I can cancel on him.”

“No, it’s alright, Steven…” Alex told him, “Go be with your boyfriend. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Steven asked.

“Just peachy. Have fun with Aiden,” Alex replied, “Tell him I said hi.”

“I will,” Steven assured him, “Bye.”

“Bye.”

Alex closed his flip phone and plopped onto his bed, sighing. It was the first day of summer vacation, and he had absolutely nothing to do. Now that two of his closest friends were boyfriend-boyfriend, he had nothing to do. He had other friends, but some of them he had dropped due to a certain photo incident towards the end of May that past school year.

“Maybe I’ll call Ginny,” he told himself, staring at some of his sketches on the walls.

“You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity,” said a female voice from Alex’s doorway.

Alex didn’t even have to look over at his door to know who was there, and he said, “What’s up, Lynnie?”

Alex felt something soft hit his head, and he realized it was a Koosh ball. His older sister walked into his bedroom and looked at his sketches.

“How’s it going, baby brother?” Lynn asked him, admiring the sketches her younger brother drew. Her unnatural brunette hair fell into her face in long layers, and she kept flicking it out of her face.

“Fine,” Alex sighed, “I’m bored out of my mind, but I’m fine.”

“Why don’t you call up Steven?” Lynn asked, finally looking at Alex. They both shared the same clear, blue eyes. People said that if Lynn hadn’t dyed her hair and if she was younger, they could almost be twins.

“He’s busy.”

“With his boyfriend?” Lynn gushed, “I’m telling you… If I was only three years younger, and he wasn’t gay…”

“And he’s taken,” Alex reminded her.

“I know, I know,” she admonished his reminder with a wave of her hand, “I’m just saying.”

“Where’s Scott?” Alex asked, referring to Lynn’s best friend.

“No clue,” Lynn answered, “Hey, he wants to know how that documentary went that he was in. How’d it go?”

“Eh,” Alex shrugged half-heartedly, “It went as well as can be expected. Some people liked it, others didn’t. Some people thought I was gay, some people praised me for it. It’s no big deal.”

“Well, did your teacher like it?” Lynn continued.

“Yeah, Winchester loved it. He gave me a one-hundred for it.”

“That’s something to be proud of, don’t you think?” Lynn asked him.

“I guess,” Alex responded, rolling over on his stomach and burying his face in his pillow.

Alex heard a knocking on his door and, “What’s up, mini-Martin?”

Alex glanced over at his doorway and saw Scott standing there next to Lynn, smirking.

“Go away, Scotty,” Alex mumbled, “Go do whatever it is you oh-so powerful seniors do. Leave me to sulk in peace.”

“Dude, it’s vacation. Lighten up,” Scott said to him, sprawling himself out on Alex’s bed.

“Dude, can you leave me alone?” Alex asked, grinning slightly at Scott’s immaturity.

“Come on, Scott,” Lynn said as she pulled Scott off the bed, nearly knocking the mattress off its frame, “See you later, Alex.”

“Uh huh,” Alex said noncommittally as his bedroom door shut behind them.

He rolled over onto his back and stared up at his ceiling, the only space in his room that wasn’t plastered with drawings. He liked the vacancy. It made his room seem slightly more normal. After all, how many fourteen year olds in his town had their rooms covered in their sketches? Not many…

Alex pulled out his cell phone again and scrolled through the contacts. He came across Ginny’s cell phone and listened to the ringing. A moment later, a brisk “Hello?” interrupted his thoughts.

“Hey, Gin,” Alex said.

“You’re bored, right?” Ginny said, amused.

“Yeah,” Alex sighed, “Steven and Aiden are off doing their own thing, and I’ve got nothing to do. Have any plans?”

“Well, I was going to go to the bookstore in town with Jenna and Ellie tonight. If you feel like tagging along, you can.”

Alex sighed. He just couldn’t win, could he? If he wasn’t going to be the third wheel on a date, he was going to be the fourth wheel on a group outing with all girls. “Alright, are you all meeting there?”

“Yeah,” Ginny confirmed, “Be there by six. We’re heading over to Spill the Beans afterwards.”

“I still hate that name,” Alex grinned, amused by the thought of the only coffee shop around, which just so happened to be stationed directly across the street from Squire Bookstore.

“You and me both,” Ginny said, “But whatever. So be there by six, okay? I got to go. Bye.”

“Later.” Alex bid his farewell and shut his cell phone, rolling over on his bed. It looked to be a very eventful summer.

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“What’s up?” Alex asked at three past six that same evening as he met up with Ginny, Jenna, and Ellie outside Squire.

Alex hadn’t bothered to change out of the white short-sleeved polo he had been wearing earlier that day, or the ripped jeans that he had just thrown on. He had ended up falling asleep on his bed after talking to Ginny, so he only bothered to fluff up his bed hair a little before throwing on a pair of flip flops and leaving his house. It appeared as though the girls had spent a little more time in getting ready though, as it seemed to have been a mutual decision among them all to wear loose, flare-y skirts and spaghetti-strap tank tops. Not to mention the excessive use of make-up. Alex never understood the appeal of getting dressed up; it just didn’t suit him.

“Nothing,” Jenna answered him. Her long, black hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. Alex thought she looked prettier with her hair up as opposed to down, which was how she normally wore it. She seemed to have gone with a blue theme, wearing a dark navy tank top and a baby blue skirt with ruffles on the bottom. To top it off, she was wearing turquoise flip flips.

“Yeah, we were just waiting for you,” Ginny said, jumping into conversation, “Ready?”

“Sure,” Alex said half-heartedly. After all, he was only there because he needed to kill time. There wasn’t much else he had to do, unless he wanted a date with Ben & Jerry’s Half-Baked (courtesy of the Stop and Shop just outside of town) and his TV, watching whatever tacky teen romance they were playing on FX or TNT.

The small group entered the quaint bookstore. It was old, to be sure, but it sold all of the popular releases. Whenever a new Harry Potter book came out, it held a Midnight Party, just like all of the large Barnes & Nobles and Borders that littered the country did. Alex never missed those parties.

Alex automatically made his way to the small new releases stand directly next to the front door. Ellie followed close behind, and together they looked at the books that Squire recently acquired. Ginny and Jenna took off straight to the back of the store to the Young Adult area, no doubt to search for new sappy teen romance novels that they had discovered on the internet.

“Don’t you want to go look at all those fun, corny little romances with Ginny and Jenna?” Alex asked her as he flipped through a newly released sci-fi book.

“Absolutely not,” Ellie replied sharply, flipping her honey blond hair out of her face, “I like a total of one teen romance author, and that’s Meg Cabot. I don’t think she’s come out with anything recently, so I have no reason to go back there.”

Alex merely nodded, though Ellie had lost him at “absolutely not.” He kept nodding until he realized he looked like an idiot, and promptly stopped. Ellie led him back towards the history novels, and pointed at the shelves.

“What about them?” he asked, eyeing up the thick volumes ranging from The Battle of Gettysburg to World War II to Mesopotamia.

“These are what I wish more people read,” she said, picking up one of the books about Gettysburg.

“Why Gettysburg?” he asked her, picking up another copy of the same book.

“My mom’s from Gettysburg,” she answered, “I’ve been there billions of times, I’ve been on the battlefield billions of times, and I still have relatives living there. It’s a part of me, I guess you could say.”

“Yeah…” Alex said, taking into consideration what Ellie had told him, “My parents are both from New York.”

“How’d they end up down here?”

“Well… My dad’s company has a branch down here, and they needed employees at this branch. We moved from Buffalo when I was four, so I really don’t remember it much.”

“That’s interesting,” Ellie said, shelving a book.

“You’re just saying that,” Alex replied, smiling and shelving his copy of the book as well.

“No,” Ellie said earnestly, “I’m a history buff. You just gave me history right there.”

Alex could only laugh at Ellie’s logic, and she laughed as well. He headed back towards the Young Adult section to look for Ginny and Jenna and Ellie followed. As expected, their heads were buried in some glittery, pink novel that told Alex quite plainly it was romantic. He groaned out loud, and the two girls looked up at him.

“Yes?” Ginny asked impatiently.

“What are you guys reading?” Ellie asked them, walking forward to look at the book.

“A new Meg Cabot book just came out,” Jenna answered, her nose already back in the book.

“Are you serious?” Ellie squealed, “I thought nothing new was out!”

“It’s new, look at the copyright,” Ginny replied, holding out her book for Ellie to see.

After peering at the copyright at the front of the book, Ellie whirled around to face Alex. Alex had a smirk planted firmly on his face, and he was leaning coolly up against the side of a shelf. “Alex, do you mind-”

“If you feed your teen romance obsession?” Alex finished for her, “Knock yourself out. I’ll occupy myself.”

“Thank you!” Ellie breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly grabbed a copy of the book Ginny and Jenna were so enthralled with.

Alex rolled his eyes and walked towards the front of the store again. A few adults he knew from the town were meandering around. Some college students that were home for the summer had their laptops with them and were milling through books that were obviously for their majors: Psychology, History, English Literature, Classics…

“Gotta love summer vacation,” Alex mumbled to himself as he made his way through the small book shelves throughout the store.

“Didn’t your mother tell you not to talk to yourself?” said a voice from behind Alex.

Alex turned around to glare at the person who had interrupted his thoughts, but instead came across one of his favorite people in the entire world, Tristan Giberson.

“Hey, Tristan!” Alex said enthusiastically, “How goes it?”

“Can’t complain,” Tristan answered, smiling, “You?”

“I’m okay,” Alex sighed, running his hand along the spines of some books on law, “I’m bored as anything, though.”

“First day of vacation is always boring,” Tristan said, “At least you don’t have a job. I had to get one. My money tree is officially dead.”

“Your dad isn’t giving you money anymore, huh?”

“Nope, but he stopped that a while ago,” Tristan said with a slight scowl on his face, “Mom does, though. I’m spending the summer with her at her house.”

“You’ll be back for school though, right?” Alex asked nervously, “I’m going to need some upperclassmen to protect me.”

“Yeah, I’ll be back, It’s just the summer,” Tristan answered. He ruffled Alex’s hair and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. But freshman and junior year are the hardest, I’ve heard. We’re in the same boat.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Alex said dryly, “So wait, where are you working?”

“Spill the Beans, remember?” Tristan said with a shudder, “Don’t you just hate that name?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, “But hold on, I thought you said you were spending the summer with your mom.”

“Yeah, Mom just bought a house twenty minutes from here. She’s driving me every morning on her way to work.”

“Good luck with that,” Alex smirked.

“Shut up, mini-Martin.” Tristan ruffled his hair again. “Well, I got to go. Brenda and I are going to the movies.”

“Really?” Alex said, though he wasn’t really interested, “Where’s Brenda?”

“Some new book is out by some person called Meg Cabot. She just had to buy it ten minutes before the movie starts.”

Alex laughed at Tristan’s predicament, and said, “Yeah… I came here with Ginny, Ellie, and Jenna. They’re all huddled in the back reading that book now. It’s glittery and pink, right?”

“Yeah,” Tristan sighed, “Well, I should probably head back. I’ll see you around, Alex.”

“See you,” Alex said.

As Tristan made his way back to the front of the store, Alex leaned against another book shelf. He hoped he didn’t see any more people he knew. He didn’t like making useless small talk with people to pass the time. Sure, Tristan was nice, but the conversation took a turn for the worse and quickly became boring. Who wanted to talk about Tristan’s job?

---

“Sorry we took so long with that book,” Jenna apologized to Alex as they emerged from Spill the Beans with their chosen snacks, “It was just so good.”

“You all bought it, right?” Alex asked.

The three girls nodded their confirmations. Alex sipped his hot chocolate, the only hot drink from Spill the Beans that he could stand. Jenna and Ellie had decided to go more “sophisticated” and get coffee, and Ginny had chosen a simple cappuccino.

“I love hot chocolate,” Alex said, stirring his mixing stick around to help melt the generous helping of whipped cream the Spill the Beans employee, Ann, a senior that was friends with Lynn, had given him.

“You’re insane,” Jenna replied, “I hate chocolate.”

“So do I,” Alex said, taking a sip.

“And you’re drinking hot chocolate because…?” Ginny asked, her eyes never leaving the full-to-the-brim paper cup she had in her hand.

“I already told you I love hot chocolate. But besides hot chocolate, cake, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and occasional chocolate milk or ice cream, I hate chocolate,” Alex explained, taking in a large whiff of his hot chocolate as it floated into the air.

“You’re crazy,” Ginny said, trying to take a small sip of her steaming hot cappuccino.

“That’s what you get for ordering a cappuccino,” Ellie said as Ginny spilled some of her drink on the ground.

“Thanks, El,” Ginny replied, “That almost fell on my foot! Do the words ‘third degree burns’ mean anything to you?”

“Oh please. That’s what you get for wearing flip flops,” Ellie said, whose own feet were covered in pearl white tennis shoes.

“Shut up,” Ginny said, “I can’t believe we’re drinking this in June.”

“I’ll drink hot chocolate any time,” Alex said, taking one large gulp of his already-cooled-thanks-to-the-whipped-cream hot chocolate.

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Notice: Well, here you go! This is the first installment of “Special,” formerly known as “Everything.” I changed the title of this thanks to my current song obsession as of December 29, 2006 (which is when I am writing this; yes, to answer your question, I wrote this well before “Chocolate” ended). It’s called “Special,” and is by Better Than Ezra (one of my favorite bands). I think that this is a pretty interesting start for it… Well, anyway. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of the story. Thanks for reading.