edit (1.26.09) : Yes, I keep changing the chapter titles...consider them under construction for now. Hehe.
edit (12.19.08) : Cleaned up chapters 1-5. C: Thanks to its .Nothing .Special, Twilight Starr, and fencergirl00 for help on catching mistakes.

A/N: I thought of this idea a couple days ago. This is the first story I’ve ever written in 1st person! I usually write in 3rd person, it works better for me that way, because you can see everyone’s views and not just the main character. But I felt like trying something different, so we’ll see how this turns out.

Meant to Be: Just the Girl
(the click five)

She laughs at my dreams, but I dream about her laughter.

xxxxxxxxx

“Annette!”

God, I hate my name. I mean, Annette. It just…doesn’t fit me. That’s why at school I always went by Nettie, but my mom wouldn’t call me that. She insisted on using my “rightful name”, the one on my birth certificate.

“Yes, Mom?” I walked out of my room to the hallway so I could speak to her without having to yell.

“Can you please pick Hannah and Liam up from school?” she asked me.

“What about Penny?” I asked in return.

“She has soccer, so you don’t need to pick her up.”

I sighed heavily, “Fine.”

“Thanks sweetie!” she smiled at me and went back into her room.

Ever since I got my drivers license, my mom had me running all her errands for her. She supposedly was too “busy” to drive down to the store or to pick up my little siblings from school. I walked down to my old, beat up Chevy and climbed in the front seat. I started the car and began to drive down the road to the elementary school.

Then I realized something: I’d be picking up Hannah and Liam. Without Penny. Oh great, this was going to be a fun ride. Liam and Hannah never got along. Liam, being the most annoying 12 year old ever, always makes fun of poor little Hannah.

Hannah is my six year old sister. She’s absolutely adorable – she has cute, curly brown hair and the most beautiful blue eyes. She’s really sweet, but she can be annoying sometimes. But not nearly as annoying as Liam.

My little brother, unfortunately, has anger issues. Just one annoying remark from Hannah sends him over the edge. That’s the reason why I never like to be in the car with the two of them. He just loses it.

I usually have my other sister, Penny, in the car with me to help handle them. She’s Liam’s fraternal twin, but she’s a lot calmer. She can usually help calm Liam down and make sure he doesn’t murder Hannah, but I don’t know how she does it. Must be some weird twin thing.

But today I didn’t have Penny. So I’d have to deal with the chaos myself. Great.

I realized I’d pulled up to the school. I sighed and turned off the car and walked out. I heard the bell that signified that school was out for the day, and waited for my brother and sister.

“STOP IT, HANNAH!” I could hear Liam screaming. I sighed and walked over to where the two stood.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” I asked, trying to sound casual. Hannah looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Nettie! Liam’s being mean to me!” she pouted and I gave her a hug. Liam looked at me with a disgusted look on his face.

“Liam, why are you being mean?” I asked him.

“SHE’S BEING SO ANNOYING!” he answered angrily.

“Hannah, were you being annoying?” I asked my crying sister. She looked back up at me and nodded. I sighed, again.

“Hannah, you know that’s not good. Can you please apologize to your big brother?” I asked her. She nodded and went up to him and gave him a big hug. To my surprise, Liam actually hugged her back.

I smiled. This wasn’t as bad of a fight as they usually were. Hopefully there wouldn’t be more arguing in the car.

“C’mon guys, let’s go home.” I began walking back to the car. Liam and Hannah followed me. After we had all got in, we drove back to the house. It wasn’t long before Hannah began her annoying six-year-old antics. She was making these weird noises with her mouth, over and over again. Oh great. That’s exactly what Liam hates!

After just a few minutes of enduring her noises, Liam snapped, like he always does.

“SHUT UP!” he shouted. He clamped his hand over Hannah’s mouth and she screamed.

“Liam!” I almost stopped the car so I could stop him, but I was a very cautious driver and I was worried about crashing, even if I was just going to pull over. I’d only had my license for a couple of months, after all.

Hannah continued to scream, even though Liam’s hand muffled it. Then I heard a shriek from Liam and saw his hand retreat from Hannah’s mouth. My guess was that she had bitten him.

I heard Hannah giggle.

“Guys, please, stop fighting! We’re almost home!” I begged them. Jeez, I really needed Penny. Stupid soccer practice. They both pouted and faced opposite directions for the rest of the ride. Well, at least they were quiet.

We finally pulled into the driveway of our lovely home. (Note the sarcasm; our house was rather small for a family of six.) Liam flung the car door open and practically sprinted through the front door. I helped Hannah out of her car seat and walked with her into the house.

xxxxxxxxx

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I grudgingly sat up in my bed and switched off the annoying alarm clock.

Great. It was morning already. Morning meant waking up. Waking up meant school. And school meant Lucas Fort.

Ah, Luke. The most stupid, annoying, arrogant guy in the entire world. Ever since the first day I met him (in sixth grade), he has constantly been bugging me. He follows me, annoys me, and he even started to ask me out every day in 7th grade. Turning Fort down was part of my daily routine now.

I never understood the reason behind his actions. I mean, there were hundreds of other girls at the school. Why’d he have to choose ME to pick on? Sighing, I got out of bed and began to get ready for school. I dug through my closet to find something decent to wear.

After rummaging in my closet for a while, I finally found an outfit worthy of wearing. I pulled on the light green T-shirt and denim jean capris, and went to the bathroom to do my hair.

It was a complete and utter mess. Tangles of auburn curls swarmed my head, my almost-impossibly-long bangs covering my light blue eyes. I sighed and began to fix it. After making sure my hair was decent, I bounded down the stairs and got ready to leave.

Nobody else in the house was up yet, but that wasn’t a surprise. My entire family hated mornings. I ate a small breakfast and then drove to school.

Almost immediately after I climbed out of my car, the torture began.

“Annette!”

Oh. My. God. Not again! WHY ME?!

I reluctantly turned around to face a boy my age, leaning on the side of his shiny car and smirking at me. His dirty blonde hair was blowing in his face, covering up his blue eyes.

I sighed heavily, “Lucas.” I spoke his name as if it was some kind of evil death threat.

“Hey, Annette. What do you say to going out to a movie Friday night?” he smiled at me.

Luke Fort was the only person other than my mom that called me Annette. And he did it just to annoy me, too.

“No, for the millionth time. And don’t call me Annette,” I sneered. I was beginning to walk away when he spoke again. Clearly he was not done tormenting me yet.

“Why not?” he asked.

“Why? Because I hate it and it makes you sound like my mother…”

“No, no! I meant why won’t you go out with me?”

I looked him squarely in the eye.

“You know perfectly well why,” I told him.

He frowned. “Actually, I don’t,” he spoke.

How could he not know?! I’d told him enough times, that’s for sure. Oh well. One more rant wouldn’t hurt. Well, it wouldn’t hurt me, anyway.

I took a deep breath and began, “Because you’re a spoiled brat who thinks of no one but himself. You’re rude, you annoy me constantly - AND you think that you are better than everyone else just because you’re rich,”

He looked like he was going to protest, but I wasn’t done yet.

“I’m not done yet! You haven’t stopped asking me out no matter HOW MANY times I tell you NO, and you have absolutely no respect for all the other girls who like you! You just reject them rudely! You know, Fort, you actually have a chance with them, so STOP coming after ME!”

“Nettie!” We both turned to see another girl our age, her light brown hair blowing in her face from the wind. She was waving at me.

I turned to look back at Luke one last time, then stomped off to walk to class with Mikayla, the girl who had approached us.

Looks like he was off the hook for now.

xxxxxxxxx

Reviewwwwwwww, please? –puppy dog face-

You know you want to!

Thanks for reading!

-kyllex. :)