Summer Love | TLOS

Ch.1

PICTURE OF L.A.!

14/4/12

It's me, Alexandra Bailey. Guess what? I fell in love. I fell in love today and it was so simple and cute that I can't help but get butterflies all over again when I think about it.

Alex was on the plane to California. She wore her earphones and listened to music as she read her old diary. She started getting teary-eyed. She decided to wipe her tears with a tissue but realized that was a bad idea when the old lady next to her decided to ask her what was wrong.

"Darling, you are crying." The old lady said. She had a German accent and didn't pronounce the English words very well. "You okay?"

Alex nodded. "Yes, I'm fine," she replied. "Thank you."

The old lady was still suspicious. "Are you sure, darling?" the old lady asked. "Why are you crying?"

Alex shrugged. "I'm reading my old notebook," she confessed. "It's a lot harder than I thought."

The old lady nodded. "I know the feeling," she said. "I have done that before."

"You have?" Alex asked. "Did you start crying too or-" she stopped speaking when she realized the old lady had started snoring. Alex sighed.

She continued to read her diary the whole way to Los Angeles.

~

"Alex!" Conner beamed at his twin sister. He hadn't seen her in over two years, and although he wouldn't admit it, he missed her a lot.

"Hey, Conner," Alex said. To be honest, Alex didn't miss Conner that much. She did for the first few weeks, but then life got harder, and she forgot about him. He forgot about her. He forgot to send money. He forgot to help.

They didn't hug. The tension was incredibly thick, and all Alex wanted to do was crawl back onto the plane and fly back to Florida.

Alex bit her lip and turned. "Hi, Mom," Alex said.

Her mother had changed over the years. Instead of those curly red ringlets, it had been dyed to a strange color of brown. Her eyes looked more bright and cheerful, not old and tired like they used to be when John had just died.

Charlotte bit the inside of her lip. "Hello, my darling daughter," She sang, trying to lighten up the mood. She grinned.

Alex didn't smile. She didn't even want to smile because Charlotte had forgotten about her too. She took her Grandmother's secret and shown it to the world. Now there were scientists crawling around the Fairy Tale world, wanting to learn more secrets.

They didn't hug. They didn't even shake hands. No, nothing like that. Alex didn't want to let down her guard. If this had never happened, then Alex would be glad to see her Mother and Conner. But it did happen, and here she was: angry at both of them.

"Well, shall we get to the car?" the man in the suit asked.

Alex's eyebrows scrunched together. "Who is this?" She said tightly.

Conner winced. "I forgot," he mumbled. "This is Ferdinand, our chauffeur."

Alex's jaw dropped. "You have a chauffeur?" She thought back to her and her Grandmother back home, where Alex had to ride her bike everywhere because Grandma could no longer pay for her car like she used to.

Ferdinand smiled. "Conner's always talking about you," he said. "You're the famous Alex Bailey, twin sister."

Alex frowned. "Yeah," she said. "I guess."

Ferdinand's smile faded. "Anyways," he said. "You may get in."

Alex walked towards the trunk. She pressed the electronic button and struggled to force her two suitcases in.

Ferdinand saw her struggling and went to help. "Sorry, Ms. Alex," Ferdinand apologized. "I wasn't sure you had brought luggage."

Alex frowned. "Why wouldn't I?"

Ferdinand shrugged. "Well, that other girl who came earlier today didn't," he replied.

"What was the girl's name?" Alex said, immediately getting more excited.

Ferdinand thought for a moment. "I believe her name was Campbell," he claimed. "She had long blonde hair and blue eyes. She carried a copy of the Book Thief under her armpit."

Alex smiled. That was definitely Bree Campbell. "Wonderful," Alex commented. "This trip just got a little better."

~
Once they had arrived at Charlotte and Conner's mansion, Ferdinand helped Alex inside. "Your bedroom is the second on the right of the third story." Ferdinand described. "Would you like me to accompany you?"

Alex shrugged. "It couldn't hurt," she declared.

Ferdinand smiled and led Alex up the stairs and up the stairs again. "Here we are," he said, opening the door to one of the smaller bedrooms.

Alex gasped. The room wasn't so big, but it was what was in the room that Alex was so fond of. The roof was slanted, and the walls were black that seemed to make the room much smaller. The bed was a twin sized bed, with a white comforter and lots of throw pillows. Behind the bed was a bookshelf that wrapped around the whole room, filled with Alex's favorite books. A desk was in the corner of the room full of fairy tale books, a laptop, journals, and more.

"This is wonderful!" Alex gushed. Maybe Charlotte and Conner hadn't forgotten about her, she thought. Maybe they were waiting for her to come, and this was supposed to be her room all along.

Ferdinand smiled. "I'm glad you like it," he smirked. "You're quite a bookworm, aren't you?"

Alex nodded, still in awe by the room. "Of course," she smiled. "From fairy tales to fantasy, I love them all."

The butler smiled. "Well, I'll leave you to your room. If you need any assistance, I'll be in the staff's quarters." He left the room.

Alex waved goodbye to Ferdinand and ran towards her bed. She plummeted to the soft mattress, clutching the books that were already lying on the bed.

There was a knock on the door, but before Alex could get up, a familiar blonde strode into the room. Bree looked around the room, surprised. "Woah," she said. "Were you here before, or was this room made for you?" she chuckled.

Alex jumped up from the bed and hugged her friend. "Hey! You didn't tell me you were coming to Cali too," she said.

Bree grinned. "I just found out a few days ago, and I was getting ready to leave." She said. "I'm so glad you're here too, it would've been so awkward if it was just him and me since we haven't seen each other in a while."

Alex nodded in understanding. "Right," she said. "Have you been to the hotel yet?" she asked. "I've wanted to check it out."

Bree shook her head. "No, but Ferdinand said he could take me and you," she informed her friend.

Alex laughed. "Really," she cried. "That's awesome. Let's go right now!"

"Sure," Bree replied. "I really want to check out the pool. Conner says it's outside and has three awesome waterslides." She leaned into her friend. "But I'm sure he's exaggerating."

Alex and Bree shared a laugh.

A/N I hope you liked the first chapter of Summer Love! It took me a while to get Alex's sad personality on board, but it finally worked and I hoped you noticed how hard I worked on this! The next chapter Alex and Bree will go to the hotel...and maybe meet someone new!

TO THE AUTHORS
PLEASE READ AND DO NOT SKIP! You might have seen the diary entry of Alex from a few years ago when she met Micah, so please do that every chapter! It's really essential to the story line because of what happened and why Alex is so sad.