Hey hey. Well, I haven't written on my other stories for a while cos 1. school work and 2. I don't know where I want to take the stories just yet so I'm taking time to plan. So, while I was trying to do that, thiskind of slipped out. Haha.

Hope you like it...

CHAPTER ONE

It all started the day he moved in next door; him in all his stuck-up, arrogant glory.

I probably wouldn’t even have met him if Mum hadn’t pointed out the large moving van parked outside. Well, she hadn’t exactly pointed it out… more like she’d run through the house screaming…

Anyway, my point is if Mum hadn’t made me go next door and embarrass myself in front of him, my life might not be such a mess right now.

…Maybe I should start at the beginning, huh? Yeah… that’s always a good place to start…

“Oh my God! April! Get down here! APRIL!”

I removed my headphones from my ears and stared as my mother burst through my bedroom door, her dyed-red hair sticking up and her brilliant green eyes sparkling with excitement. She bounded over to where I was reclining on my bed, a huge grin on her face.

“Guess what, guess what, guesswhat!” she squealed like a teenager, grabbing my hands in hers as she practically bounced up and down on the spot.

“Er… What?” I asked wearily.

Mum’s grin only grew wider (if that were possible) as she pulled me to my feet. “Come and see!”

I sighed as she tugged me out of my room, unable to resist the smile that curled the corners of my lips at my over-excitable mother. No wonder people mistook us for sisters, what with her seemingly undying energy, good body and beauty.

Other than that, we looked almost completely different. I had inherited my dad’s dark blonde hair, bright blue eyes and athletic body. The only thing Mum and I had in common would be our height. Even though I was the average height for a sixteen-year-old, Mum and I still stood within an inch of each other.

“Come on, old woman!” Mum cried, pulling me down the stairs and into our lounge room.

“What’s all the fuss?” Dad asked from where he sat reading the newspaper in his favourite armchair.

I shrugged to him as Mum pulled me toward the window. “You tell me...”

“No, I’ll tell you,” Mum said. She winked and pulled aside the curtain. “See?”

I looked out the window and saw the orange and white moving van that was parked next door. Three men in their mid-thirties were carrying furniture up the front path to the house. Another man and a woman stood to the side of the footpath, obviously the new inhabitants of next door overseeing the movers.

“So they finally sold the old Miller place, huh?” I said, feigning interest.

After all, they were probably just another middle-aged couple who kept to themselves and had no time for their neighbours, like pretty much every other family on our street. Apart from my best friend and her family, who live directly across the road from us.

“Yep,” Mum said brightly.

“Cool…” I began to turn away from the window but Mum’s hand shot out and grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Mum, I really don’t feel like watching them move in… I don’t know about you but I’m not into the whole beer-belly thing those three movers have got going –”

“That’s not what I’m trying to show you, silly,” Mum said. “Keep looking… He should come out again in a minute…”

“He? You’re not going to try and set me up with another neighbour, are you?” I groaned, remembering last year’s Christmas party at the Klein’s.

Mum had noticed that Mr. and Mrs. Klein had a son for the first time. The only problem was that their son, Tom, happened to be a year younger than me and was only interested in Pokémon and video games.

“Oh, come on, April. Tom was a nice enough boy,” Mum reasoned.

“Mum, he was fourteen and he shoved peas up his nose during lunch!” I cried exasperatedly.

Mum simply shrugged before her grin took over once more. “I’m sure you’ll take all that back once you’ve seen this guy.” She turned back to the window and let out an excited squeal. “There he is! Oh, April, he looks about your age too! This is great! April, look!”

With a resigned sigh, I glanced out the window and almost immediately felt my breath catch in my throat.

“Whoa,” I gasped, my eyes almost popping out of my head.

Mum let out a small squeak of happiness or excitement, clapped her hands together and ran out of the room. Strange woman… But right then I wasn’t exactly too worried about my mother’s sanity… or lack of.

No, I was too busy staring at what had to be the sexiest guy to walk planet Earth. He walked out of the house, the sunlight catching his gorgeous blue (or were they green?) eyes as he flashed a brilliant smile at his parents. Tucking his hands into his dark blue jeans pockets, he tossed his dark hair out of his eyes as he strolled down the footpath toward the couple.

“He’s not that good looking.”

I jumped at the voice and looked up to see Dad standing behind me, frowning out the window.

Regaining my composure, I turned back and sighed. “Come on, Dad. I know you’re a dude and all, but you have to admit that that guy is the definition of hot.”

Dad chuckled, shaking his head slightly.

My eyes found the guy again and I lapsed into silent perving time. That is, until I noticed the guy’s parents both smiling in an unnervingly knowing way and nodding toward our house.

“Oh my God!” I cried, horrified as the guy turned around and looked straight at me.

Even though I’d already been spotted, I immediately ducked, only earning a large bruise on my forehead as I smacked my head into the windowsill. Groaning in pain, I fell back on my butt, holding my throbbing head.

Looking up through watering eyes, I saw Dad politely waving out the window, obviously to our new neighbours.

“April, James, are you two OK?” Mum called from the kitchen. “I thought I heard a bang.”

“I’m fine,” I muttered, slowly getting to my feet but refusing to make eye contact with the neighbours through the window.

“Good! Because I want you to take this next door.”

I turned around in time to see Mum re-entering the room with a plate of fresh-smelling cookies in her hands. My eyes widened in horror at the prospect of going next door after that embarrassing little show I just partook in.

“M – Mum, I really can’t… I’ve got heaps of, um, homework and uh –” I stumbled for an excuse.

“School doesn’t start up again until next week, remember? Seriously, April, you need to work on your lying skills.” Mum’s eyes suddenly lit up. “I just had a thought. The only school in this area is Willow Brooke, right? So our new next door neighbour will have to go there!” She grinned and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

My heart slowly sunk. Not only did I have to deal with the guy living next door, now I had to deal with him at school as well.

Sensing my unease, Dad walked over and said, “Don’t worry, April, sweetheart. I’m sure he didn’t even see that... er…”

“Show?” I finished for him.

He shrugged, smiling.

“So are you going to take these cookies or what? They’ll go cold soon!” Mum warned.

I bit my lip. Glancing between my dad’s supportive face and my mum’s hopeful expression, I decided to cling to the possibility that Mr. Unbelievably-Hot-Guy didn’t actually see my not-so-graceful ducking abilities.

Forcing a smile, I nodded and took the plate of cookies from my ecstatic Mum. “Fine,” I sighed.

“Great!” Mum exclaimed happily. “Go get him, baby!”

I rolled my eyes, fighting a smile, as I headed to the front door. As I stepped out onto the front porch, I glanced into next door’s garden to see that the guy and his family had gone inside, no doubt to tell the movers where to put furniture.

Great, that meant I’d have to ring the doorbell.

A spark of hope returned. Maybe he wouldn’t answer the door!

My attitude brightened as I made my way down our front path while silently convincing myself that he wouldn’t open the door. I entered their front yard through the open gate and walked slowly down the footpath.

I was halfway along the path when I heard a strange ticking sound. Frowning, I paused to listen.

Tick, tick, tick.

My frown deepened as I turned around slowly…

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

A strong jet of cold water hit me square in the face, leaving my hair sopping wet and my mascara running down my cheeks. The sprinklers had suddenly turned on for God-knows-what reason and there I was standing in the middle of the footpath, dripping wet.

My grimace turned into a look of terror as I watched the sprinkler’s jet of water slowly turning to face me once again. Resisting the urge to toss the cookies and run, screaming, down the street, I did the responsible thing and ran, screaming, onto the front porch of my new neighbours’ house.

Let’s just say I didn’t really think through the fact that I’d have to actually deal with my new neighbour in my current state. All I was thinking of was the evil killer sprinklers that were after me.

As I leant against the banister of the front porch, trying to calm my rapidly-beating heart, I heard the front door creak open behind me.

“Are you alright?”

I froze. Deep, sexy, male voice with an Australian accent! If I wasn’t so horrified at who the person obviously was, I would have melted at the knees.

Slowly, I turned around, only to confirm my suspicions that Mr. Unbelievably-Hot-And-Australian-Guy was staring at me like I was an alien. Suddenly defensive, I raised an eyebrow and placed the hand that wasn’t holding the plate of cookies on my hip.

“What are you looking at, buddy?” I said, immediately resisting the urge to wince loudly at my choice of words.

The guy chuckled, his blue-green eyes sparkling. “Buddy?” he repeated cheekily.

I simply huffed.

He looked me up and down once more. “Uh… Is there a reason why you’re dripping water all over my front porch with a plate of soggy biscuits in your hand?” He flashed me a teasing grin.

“I actually came over here to welcome you to the neighbourhood… with my mother’s now-ruined cookies,” I said, looking glumly at the watery treats.

“That doesn’t exactly explain why you’re soaking wet,” he pointed out.

Well, if it wasn’t for your evil, killer sprinklers then I wouldn’t be! I thought indignantly.

The guy raised his eyebrows, his grin growing. “My evil killer sprinklers?” he said, evidently amused.

My mouth dropped open. “Holy crap. Are you one of those psychic, mind-reading dudes?” I gasped in awe.

His lips quivered with barely-contained laughter. “Actually,” he said, “you muttered it under your breath.”

I mentally slapped myself for being so stupid as my cheeks steadily reddened. The guy began to laugh, only causing me to blush harder.

Squelching across the front porch, I thrust the plate of soggy cookies into his hands, muttering, “Take the freakin’ cookies,” before spinning on my heel and storming off down the front porch.

“My name’s Seth, by the way!” I heard the guy call out after me.

I paused slightly in my fast-paced escape, chewing over the question of whether or not to give him my name in return. Apparently I had paused for a second too long, for I was hit in the side of the head once more by the sprinkler’s jet of freezing water.

Embarrassed, fuming and upset that I couldn’t have even a slightly graceful exit where I teased Seth flirtatiously before leaving, I stormed out of their front gate with Seth’s laughter in my ears. Glancing across at my living room window, I was horrified to see that any outsider could look right into the room and see whatever was going on, including that embarrassing ducking incident.

Kill me now.