A/N: Yep, new story. Nope, it’s not the one advertised on my profile. Sorry about that. Hah. Well I’ve been developing this story in my head for ages, always meaning to write it down, but never actually doing so. I finally got off my lazy ass and got to it, though, so now you get to read it! Hooray! I really hope you guys enjoy it. Here goes! (:

Summary: When she moved away, it took all she had to try and forget Jared Herrington. But it was a lot harder than she thought it would be. And now, two years later, she’s finally gotten over him…but he’s back. And it seems like all her hard work may have just gone down the toilet.

Note: Jared lives in England, and therefore has a British accent. Dylan does not have an accent, because she grew up in America until she was eight years old, and then moved there. Get it? Got it? Good.

…

In his entire sixteen years of living, Jared Herrington had broken his nose three times. The funny thing about this is that in all three situations, there is one common factor: a very peculiar young girl named Dylan Ricardo.

The first time his nose was broken was in the third grade, when Jared was eight. It was the middle of the school year and there was a new girl in his class, Dylan. The first thing that he noticed about her was that she was ten million times prettier than everyone else in the class. He particularly loved her mahogany brown hair that shone red in the light. He decided to let her know just how fascinated he was by her in the form of teasing her all throughout the day.

The second thing Jared discovered about Dylan was that she had a massive temper, even as an eight year old. He had, unfortunately, figured this out the hard way. After pulling on her pigtails during recess, the innocent looking new girl screamed, and then socked him hard in the face.

She had great aim and an extremely powerful punch for someone so young. Jared had looked at her with an unreadable expression as he clutched his newly broken nose; more intrigued than angry. Dylan was taken to the principal’s office, but let off easy because it was her first day.

That day in third grade only led to an eternity of bickering between the two. They were constantly getting into fist fights (only avoiding suspension because of the frequency and stupidity of said fights), and they never really seemed to get along.

Fast forward two years, and you’d see that very little had changed. The two kids were still fighting just as often as ever. The only changed seemed to be that they were older – double digits now – and that Jared’s fascination with Dylan had developed into a huge crush.

It was the last day of the fifth grade, during the last recess of their lives. It seemed like more than two thirds of the fifth graders were either crying or freaking out while trying to figure out how not to waste their last recess. Jared and Dylan were sitting underneath the play set – their secret hide out. They weren’t talking, or even fighting; they were just sitting.

It was then that Jared pulled an incredibly stupid move, one that would cause his nose to be broken a second time. He turned to face Dylan and smiled at her. She looked up, puzzled and not knowing what he was up to. And then, he kissed her. Of course they were just kids, so it couldn’t really be classified as a “real kiss”. But that didn’t matter to Dylan; she freaked out none-the-less.

Her instant reaction was to punch him in the face. He fell backwards, clutching his nose just the same as he had before.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

“What do you think, Herrington?!”

Dylan had, once again, been sent to the principal’s. By now she was used to it, and so were her parents. They seemed surprisingly chill about all the trouble she’d been getting into. But then again, they knew their daughter was a perfectly nice girl. It was just around Jared that she got fired up. And they understood why.

The third time she’d broken his nose was entirely an accident. Well, maybe not entirely, but mostly. They were snowboarding during winter break with their families (the Herringtons and the Ricardos were neighbors and close family friends) when Jared took a huge fall down one of the slopes.

Dylan had, of course, started laughing hysterically. It wasn’t until her older sister Kendra told her to go help him up that the real damage was done. Rolling her eyes, the smug seventh grader and newly turned thirteen year old boarded over to help her friend up.

But instead of stopping in front of where he lay flat on the snow, she kept gliding past and ran over his face. As soon as he heard and felt the familiar crack of the bones in his nose, Jared knew that it had just been broken for the third time.

“Whoops,” Dylan had said, chuckling at the boy as he clutched his nose yet again.

“Dyl, you bitch! You just broke my nose again!” he screeched at her, lying defenseless in the snow.

“What? No way! How would you know? You’re not a doctor!”

“I think I know what it feels like, considering this would be what – the third time you’ve broken my nose?”

At this statement Dylan had paled slightly, realizing that he was probably right. Despite the fact that it was pretty funny, she did feel slightly guilty. He hadn’t actually done anything to piss her off that time.

Kendra had called her parents, who contacted ski patrol, who came and put Jared on a stretcher and took him down to the hospital wing. Dylan was silent the entire time.

But despite how much they fought, Dylan and Jared were actually very close. Best friends, even. They did almost everything together, and went through elementary and middle school knowing that they had each other’s backs. There were times when Dylan had needed Jared, or vice-versa. If either of them needed a shoulder to cry on, they didn’t have to search very far.

Things were going great until one fateful day when Dylan’s parents got in a plane accident. Jared remembered how tragic the event was…and he remembered how somber and depressed his best friend looked for weeks afterwards. He wanted her to know that he was there for her, but she just wanted to be alone. Kendra was more mature about it, and though she mourned for her lost parents, was much calmer about the situation.

After the accident, the sisters had lived with their older brother, Isaac, in his college dorm. It wasn’t the best arrangement, but since they were orphans now, they had no where to go. After the funeral, Isaac would go back to class, and Kendra and Dylan were going back to America to live with their uncle.

Upon hearing this news, Jared was devastated. He didn’t want the fun years he’d spent with Dylan to end; even if it would spare him a few more broken bones. Unfortunately, this had to happen just after he’d realized that he was in love with the girl. Even as a young kid (only fourteen years old), he knew that what he felt for her had to be love. He’d never gone through as much with anyone else, and he didn’t want her to go.

The Herrington’s had offered for the girls to live with them, but the government wouldn’t allow it. They had to live with relatives, since they were both under eighteen. And so, they were leaving.

Dylan’s very last day of school in England was just like any other – except for the fact that she didn’t quarrel with Jared once. She was too depressed to be mean. When the last bell rang, they walked out of class together, as usual. They stood waiting in the parent parking lot for their rides, as usual.

It was silent for at least a straight two minutes until Jared couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’m gonna miss you, Dyl,” he said casually. He gazed at her somberly as he said this. Embarrassed, Dylan looked away and tried to act as if this was not the last time she’d ever see him – as if it wasn’t goodbye.

“Well, I’m not going to miss you at all.” She smirked lightly and her green eyes met his bright blue ones.

“Really? Because I think you’ll find that you will,” he retorted, smirking back at her. Her light smile faded when she saw her brother’s car pull into the round about – her ride was here.

Before she could process what she was doing, Dylan stood on her tiptoes and gave her best friend and rival a goodbye kiss. It wasn’t a make out or anything, but a sweet kiss filled with hope and longing. Jared was surprised. And, he realized, angry. Why did she have to choose today of all days to do this to him? Was she trying to make this harder? He kissed her back anyway.

But then, just to stay in character, Dylan broke away and elbowed Jared in the gut. He grunted in surprise. Of course she would do that. Why was he even surprised?

“Maybe I’ll miss you, just a little bit,” she whispered, and then ran off in the direction of Isaac’s car.

That was the last time he ever saw her.

…

Dylan Ricardo was currently very hungry. She hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning, and they had a late lunch today due to some crazy two hour delay schedule. Always being one for complaining, Dylan spoke up.

“I’m starving,” she whined, causing her cousin Shauna to roll her eyes.

“We know, Dyl. You’ve only said that about ten times in the last five minutes,” she said.

“Seriously. It’s getting a little annoying, so stop being such a whiney-pants! We’re all hungry,” one of her friends – a brunette named Melody – pointed out.

“I knoooow,” Dylan said, “but at least you guys ate breakfast. I had to skip this morning because someone didn’t have the heart to wake me up on time.”

“Not my fault you slept in.” Shauna shrugged.

Shauna, also known as Shaun, lived with Dylan – along with Kendra, and Shaun’s three younger sisters: Lily, Cassie, and Ryan. It was a full house with six girls and one overworked dad/uncle who raised them all by himself. Anyone that knew him would have to say that Mr. Ricardo sure had his hands full; taking on the responsibility for not only his four daughters but his two nieces as well.

In their tight-knit group of friends, there were five people: Dylan, Shaun, Melody, Chris, and Trevor. Melody and Trevor had been dating for about a month – and were probably the cutest couple anyone had ever seen. Chris, Dylan, and Shaun had been best friends back in their diaper days, and when Dylan had lived in England, Chris and Shaun remained close. When Dylan was reunited with her two besties from her earlier days, she was overjoyed – everyone hated being the new kid. But it wasn’t so bad when you had your cousin and one of your best childhood friends there for you.

As for Jared, Dylan rarely ever thought of him now. She was trying to forget that part of her life, although it was probably the hardest thing she’d ever done. She knew it was waste to try and believe that she would ever see him again, so she pushed away the memories whenever they came up. The first few months without him were hard, but she learned to cope. She was still saddened whenever she saw something that reminded her of him, or even whenever she heard someone speak in a British accent much like his own adorable one.

However hard it was for her to get over him, she had never once mentioned Jared to her friends. They didn’t even know of his existence – she feared that if she shared her memories of him with them, she would never be able to put their interesting relationship in the past.

Even Kendra never spoke of him; she knew that it would be a bad idea. And nobody wants to make Dylan angry, that was practically suicide.

“Just shut up and wait until lunch, there’s only thirty minutes left of class anyway,” Chris said. Dylan groaned, and her stomach growled in response. Shaun rolled her eyes again.

The class they were currently in was psychology – one of the only two classes the five were lucky enough to have together. Dylan had to admit, it was a very interesting class, but it was incredibly hard to concentrate when her stomach was practically screaming at her. Good thing they had lunch next, or who knows what would happen.

“How the hell do anorexic chicks do it? I can’t even go a few hours without food!” Dylan whined.

None of her friends answered her; they were all engrossed in listening to Ms. Anderson’s lecture. Not that she wasn’t interested in “expanding her field of learning”, as her uncle would say, it’s just that….yeah. She was hungry, god dammit!

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the bell rang and the group of friends made their way to lunch. Dylan nearly died of happiness when she received her chicken burger and fries; she’d never been so happy to eat school food before in her life.

Trevor laughed as he watched her wolf down the food. He was newest to their little “posse”, and so he found her hunger extremely amusing rather than extremely annoying. Dylan ignored him as she finished her food quickly.

“So, Melody. I was thinking, we should go dress shopping together! Tolo is soon, and we need to look amazing,” Shaun said. Melody’s hazel eyes lit up.

“Absolutely! Dylan, you should come with! It’ll be super fun,” she said, nudging her friend in the side.

“Eh, maybe. I don’t even think I’m going to tolo. I mean, really, it’s boring. Dances aren’t my thing anyway.” She shrugged. “You should drag Chris and Trevor with you guys. I’m sure they’d enjoy that,” she finished.

“Right, because I want to spend my weekend dress shopping with those two,” Chris said, the sarcasm in his voice heavily apparent. Shaun made a face, and then proceeded to punch him playfully in the arm.

Dylan cracked a slightly evil smile. She knew the subject she was about to bring up was a touchy one; but that’s what made it fun to talk about. “Well if you went with, then you and Shaun could coordinate your outfits. You are going together, riiiight?” she pressed.

Both of the mentioned teens turned bright red and mumbled incomprehensible nonsense. Dylan snorted at her handy work, and Melody had to hold in a chuckle. Trevor didn’t seem to think it was funny.

“Oh come on you guys. You can’t pretend forever,” Melody said, a huge grin escaping onto her lips. Shauna glared ferociously at her so called “best friends”. Chris just turned even redder (if that’s even possible).

“Uh, I just remembered, I have a paper to turn in to the office. Come with, Chris?” Trevor said nervously in a feeble attempt to change the subject. Chris stood up without hesitation and followed his friend to the office. It was now Dylan’s turn to roll her eyes.

“You guys!” Shaun shouted as soon as the boys were out of earshot. “I’ve told you a million times; Chris and I are just friends.”

“Which is why it’s so stupid that you guys won’t even go to freaking tolo together. It’s just a dance; people go with their ‘just friends’ all the time,” Melody said, putting air-quotes around the just friends part.

“Yeah, but – “

“But nothing! There is only one explanation to why you think it’d be weird to go with Chris, and that is this: you guys are in loooove with each other.” Dylan grinned. At that comment, Shaun stormed off angrily. Melody just shrugged, and Dylan sighed heavily.

It really was dumb how defensive Shaun got whenever the subject of her relationship with Chris was breached. She was in huge denial. Dylan had been around the two of them long enough to know that they really did like each other a lot, so she didn’t buy their denials one bit. She’d even pulled Melody over to her side. Trevor, however, was hard to convince. Being the genuine nice guy of the group, he was typically against forcing people to do things they didn’t want to do. So, he tried his best not to make any of them feel uncomfortable. This, of course, was a great quality to have. It just got annoying at times like these.

“Those two need to get it into their thick skulls that their crazy for each other.”

“I know! It’s so cute, but they refuse to accept it. They’re so weird,” Melody said; twirling her chestnut curls around her fingers absentmindedly.

“Tell me about it.”

…

Jared had just finished packing the last of his bags, and he was exhausted. Packing up your entire room in one day was a lot of work. Everything had come on so fast; his father had only just told the family that they were moving to America two days before their flight was to leave.

A part of Jared hoped that with a new neighborhood and school district, he would be able to forget Dylan Ricardo much faster. This place bore too many memories, and they were all painful. He tried his best to get over her, but even after two years, he was still having a hard time. It was pathetic. He was angry at himself for still loving her even after two whole years of separation – but he couldn’t help it. She was just that special to him.

Every day he regretted the fact that he hadn’t asked Dylan what her new address would be. He would have definitely written to her, but he just hadn’t thought of it at the time. The only think he could think about was how he was going to get through high school without her.

He’d had several girlfriends since she’d left. But none of them were as perfect as she was. No other girl made him happy the way she did, and that’s what upset him most. He knew he was wasting his whole life lusting after someone he’d never see again. He didn’t even know where in the US she lived! It could be in any of the fifty states…and the chances of the Herringtons moving in to the same one she had were very, very slim.

But you never know; Jared’s luck had always unnaturally been in his favor.

…

A/N: And there’s the first chapter! Sooo, what’d you guys think? I hope you liked it! Please review and tell me what you thought, even if it’s negative. I appreciate all comments and constructive criticism (NOT flames, though).

Tune in next chapter to see the fateful reuniting of Dylan and Jared! I promise it’ll be drama filled and intense! Also next time, meet the rest of the Ricardo's and learn a little more about their family, as well as much more about Jared. (:

Thanks for reading!