Memories of Summer

[Week 1: Laura]

Dear Diary,

It's the first week of summer break. When I was a child this was the season which lived on forever. It was full of adventurous, exploring and games. The feeling of being unstoppable was like a wind not able not keep up with me as I rode my red bike around the neighborhood. The swings were reaching higher than the sky and never did a day with rain stop me.

That was so many years ago. Today is the first day of summer break. I'm seventeen, I have just ended my senior year in high school and my brother Oliver, Ollie, just turned fourteen. He is a nice kid I guess, quiet and kind. It's not that he doesn't get along with the other kids, I just guess he doesn't actually want to be with them. He just rather sit and read.

Which of course was a big disappointment - to but it lightly - for my dad. The coach of the East beach soccer team.( Haven't heard enough jokes on mine and Ollie's behalf on that one.) But Ollie did really great in school, which I guess made up for it.

I got a new postcard from Maggie yesterday. It said India on the back but that doesn't at all mean she's there now. But at least it shows she's still alive. Like the ones from Egypt, South Africa, Norway, Australia, and Venezuela.

Ollie didn't want to look at it and I hid it from dad to not hurt his feelings. My father, John Collins, was an easy man. He liked things clean and uncomplicated.

Which absolutely does not explains how he and my very "lively and colorful mother" got together. She was an art student and he was the top-scorer on his team. Teen parents. And I guess that could say a lot more than it actually does.

My mother left a note. She was going to travel the world and if my father didn't go with her that would be his choice. Not a single word to either me or Ollie. But it's still us she addresses the postcards to. Which has been coming for the last five years.

As said my father is an easy man and I saw him look at the "Goodbye"-note once and then look away. I found the note in the trash can, I actually have moments where I think "what if I hadn't found that note". Would my father have acted as nothing?

My mother's name is Maggie. But as you can understand we don't really say that name here. It just creates an awkward environment which neither of us wants to endure. I might have it sound as if I and Ollie live under some dictator of a father which wakes us up at 6 A.M just to do some push-ups. But he's often gone on the weekends, with the soccer team, and therefore we don't see each other much.

The only family member I really feel I can count on is actually Ollie, and grandma Mell isn't all too bad. I'll write about her later on.

Today I woke up to flowers lying on my window sill. I knew whose flowers it was without having to even check ones. I know that he deep inside had a kind soul, but I don't know what I was thinking when I started to date my neighbor.

The legendary Liam Moore, ladies and gentlemen.

I guess I fell fast and I fell hard, but you can't really blame a girl for wanting those green eyes and chocolate hair... Can you? I mean he played on my father's soccer team and even got along with Ollie. So I guess he was going for the win.

We grew up neighbors but had been going to different schools and classes until last semester. I'll admit that first it was awkward but weirdly it all got along very well.

That was until he cheated of course. I might have hazel eyes and blonde hair but I wasn't a cheerleader. Like Debra. Ugh. Debra, Debra, Debra... I even helped you with math ones. You still didn't get it... but I helped you.

So as you can understand this made the whole situation awkward, to say the least. Liam didn't want to make things awkward with my dad, I didn't want to make things more awkward for me since we lived like neighbors and our parents knew each other... I really should have thought this thru, I'll admit.

(Maybe Maggie should have given me some sort of advice.)

A part of me would always love Liam. The way we had grew up and played superheroes together as we hunted the ice cream truck during the days of summer which you thought you would pass out. The night we had stayed up, our windows facing each other and our secret languages with short commands.

But he had done the unforgivable. He had tossed me aside for Debra and hadn't even told me about it. So fafucackak yayou (Secret language for... well it's pretty obvious). Actually, it came from Debra herself. Which is probably why I can't get myself to hate her.

I don't like her, I don't want to be with her and I don't want her near me. But I can't hate her.

She, after all, wasn't the one cheating. Not on me at least. But Liam, where did we go wrong? Sorry misspelling, where did you go wrong?

My best friend Samantha, Sammy, is gone for the summer. She has some family which she always visits during the summer. Last year I came with her for some weeks, but considering the fact I'm off to college next semester I had to work the whole summer.

This diary was found a few years back in the mail. It didn't say who sent it but in the back of my mind, I'm picturing Maggie as I knew she as well kept diaries of her own during many years.

But as I have on a few occasions looked thru her diaries, I can't imagine she stayed for as long as she did.

She wrote about so many adventurous of hers. She really was a wild spirit which couldn't be tamed. It's not an excuse for leaving everything and just go but, in some part of my mind, I can kind of understand why. I don't always want to understand Maggie, it hurts me, but I think I do.

I can see it now that it was written directly before my eyes that she would one day travel and live only by her own dreams. It just didn't hit me that it would be before I really needed her.

My first teenage years had been tough. I felt like I didn't fit in, my weight was going up and down without control and I once found a tweezer... Do I have to say more?

(After some parenting, by Sammy, I would like to speak for my eyebrows and say that they are today alive and recovering.)

But why start writing after all this time?

Some might say that I have opened a book in the middle and that viewers won't understand the content, too much history has passed to keep up with the present. Well... I'm not here to share this with the world, I'm not Anne Frank, but this is for me. To one day maybe look back and see what my teenage summer looked like.

I mean I hope I don't get too disappointed in what the future has to offer. As of now, I want to become a nurse. But over time that might change. Note to future me: If you are a circus actress, Good job!

Love, Laura Nancy Collins 

(By the way, this is my diary. So Ollie, but it down. Your way too smart to not figure out what's going to happen if I catch you reading this.)

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Dearest reader

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So for now.. Keep reading.

Your dearest,

6th of April