Chapter 1: Spencer

As I stepped out into the bright sunlight of Heidi's gymnastics studio, I happened to glance at my watch. "Dang!" I yelled. "I'm gonna be late for violin!" So I got in my car and sped off to Mrs. Parrish's house. I had to speed most of the way, and when I got to her house, I ran smack into Keith Morris and Jack Parrish, the two most annoying boys in the soon-to-be-senior class.

"Whoa, slow down there Tinkerbell!" Keith said. I glanced down at my lime green leotard, my hair in a ragged bun.

"Please move." I said in the nicest tone possible. WOW. Keith and Jack had changed! Jack was had definitely grown since the end of our junior year, and Keith's short, cropped, bowl-cut hair had been grown out and was shaggy. It was the beginning of August and I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand.

"Maybe we don't want to move." Keith snarled at me.

"Whoa! Anger issues! Just scoot over." I said, this time trying to be rude.

"Hi Spencer." Jack said quietly, and stepped aside so I could get through.

"Thank you." I said to Jack. His attitude had changed with his height. I guess SOME soon-to-be seniors do change. When I got inside, Mrs. Parrish and I worked on my new piece, "Se Vuol Ballere" from Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro."

When I was done with my lesson, I went home and called Phoebe, Taylor, Aria, and Bethany. We have all been best friends since 6th grade. As Aria's cell was ringing, I placed my I-Phone between my shoulder and cheek, grabbed a bottle of water and an apple, and plopped down on the sofa.

"Hello?" I heard Aria's voice on the other end of the phone.

"Hey! It's Spencer! What's up?"

"Oh, you know. The sky."

"Harhar. So funny. So what're you doing?" I asked her.

"Just sitting around, mentally preparing myself for the invitational's next Sunday. What about you?"

"I was calling to see if you wanted to come over and we could go to the pool and have a sleepover afterward." Dad had already said I could so I called all my friends to make it a girls-night-out.

"Hang on, let me ask!" Aria stepped away from the phone. "Dad! Can I sleep over at Spencer's tonight?" I heard as she yelled to her dad. She put the phone back up against her cheek. "My dad says I can!"

"Yay!" I squealed. This would make everyone but Taylor. I was dreading calling her. She does not know the meaning of LEAVE ME ALONE! "Okay, well, come over at 2:00 (p.m.) so we can go to the pool."

"Okay! See you in 15 minutes!"

I then called Taylor, who talked for an hour about Danny, her new obsession, apparently. She also talked about her last crush, who is now 'the biggest jerk in the entire world.' Eventually I had to interrupt her and say "Okay, well, do you want to come over and go to the pool and then we could have a sleep over.

"Okay!" She asked her mom, who said yes, and the talking began again. I hung up on her.

And the squealing began. Aria and Bethany arrived first at the same time, Taylor arrived next, and then Phoebe. Once the squealing ended, my dad reminded us we were going to the pool and should probably change into our swimsuits. We all raced upstairs and while we were changing we were all talking about the latest gossip.

"So, did you hear that Karen got her bellybutton pierced?" Bethany said.

There was a flood of "EW GROSS!"'s, "OMG"'s, and even one "HOLY POOP!" Phoebe's latest catch phrase.

"Elizabeth Morflord got her side pierced and it was like one of those sewing things so it looks like she was stitched up the side." Uh oh. Taylor just one-upped Bethany.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" Bethany screamed. I was startled because Bethany was always so quiet. We fought until we were rolling on the floor laughing.

"I think," I gasped between breaths. "We should go to the pool now." We started walking in silence, except for Bethany and Taylor, who were talking about piercings.

I looked around at my BFF's. Bethany was about 5'8" and had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a blue tankini. She had just lost a lot of weight, and we were all SO proud of her. She wasn't SUPER FAT before, but she thought she was. Bethany is usually very quiet and shy, but really sweet. We consider her the most neutral of us all.

Phoebe, at 5'8", had short brownish black hair and was wearing an orange neon bikini with pink swirls all over it and a floppy sunhat. Phoebe loves to cook. Sometimes, she bails on me so she can finish her chocolate soufflés or homemade gourmet cinnamon role.

Taylor was about 5'10", she was really tall. She had dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a lime-green one piece and black flip-flops. Taylor is obsessed with reading. She can finish reading an entire book in, like, two days. She was held back a year in 6th grade, and we were the only people who would take her in. She is also very talkative and a drama queen at times.

And last but certainly not least Aria. Aria is teeny-tiny, at 5'5". Aria has brown and blonde hair, and some major natural highlights, and hazel eyes. She was wearing a purple bikini with green polka-dots. She is quite the fashionista, always updating her wardrobe. Sometimes we say that she lives at the mall. She is also crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean CRAZY. Her parents do not allow her to have coffee, or any caffeine for that matter, because she will GO CRAZY. But that's why we love her.

We walked into the pool area and recognized a bunch of people from school. They were messing around, and a group of middle- schoolers were playing chicken. I also noticed Phoebe making googly eyes at Danny, a life guard across the pool. We watched as he started blowing his whistle and motioning towards the middle-schoolers, probably about 7th grade. He saw Phoebe and all of us and waved us over.

"Hey guys," He said, staring straight at Phoebe and smiling. "Be careful around those kids over there. They're knuckle heads." He said, pointing at the middle-schoolers playing chicken.

All of a sudden I heard a scream and turned to see Phoebe struggling in the deep end and Taylor laughing mercilessly. "OHMIGOSH! Phoebe!" I kicked off my flip-flops, threw my sunglasses behind me, and dove into the water (I'm a trained lifeguard, as is Aria), but Danny beat me to it. As Danny jumped in, Taylor was still laughing, and there was no sign of Phoebe. I've never had the urge to slap someone as hard as I did her.

"Taylor, OMG!" Bethany screamed as she swam up next to me. "What's the matter with you?"

"I thought it was funny!" Taylor smiled, and continued laughing.

While Taylor was still in hysterics, I saw Danny rise to the surface with Phoebe in his arms, and she didn't look too good.