Saving Summers (Books 1&2 combined)

10

Monday morning had come and Emma was getting ready to leave for school. Her father and Emmett were already gone.
After getting dressed, Emma decided to look through old photo albums to find one specific picture that she wanted to frame.
She found the picture of herself and Jay that was taken on Halloween when they were in third grade. She was dressed as a chocolate pudding cup and he a wasp.

Before leaving the Summers house last night, Jay revealed to her his new tattoo on his right index finger. It was a small tattoo of a wasp. It was a way for her to tell him apart from Ray but also a reminder of third grade Halloween, a milestone event of their life long friendship.

Emma removed the photo of herself in 8th grade from its frame and replaced it with the photo of her and Jay. She smiled in satisfaction at it.
She grabbed her school bag and made her way to the front door.
Her eyebrows came together in confusion when she noticed Marcus's truck parked upfront.

Marcus got out of the car and stood there.
"Hey...What are you doing here?" Emma asked as she walked towards him.

"So, how would you like to accompany me to FeatherHill?" He asked.

"Uhhm, we have school." Emma stated. "And we are going to be late if we don't leave now."

"Come on. It's just one day, we won't miss a lot." Marcus said. "Please?"

Emma narrowed her eyes at him. She did not have enough details to agree to this spur of the moment trip.
"Are you for real? That town is like hours away!
What is so important that you are skipping school on a Monday?"

"You will find out if you agree to come with me." Marcus answered.

The response made Emma even more curious and willing but the idea was crazy and quite suspicious.
"Nope." She said and started walking to her car. "I'm going to school."

"Are you seriously gonna make me beg?" Marcus asked. "Just trust me on this? We are friends right?"

Emma stopped at her car door. Her budding friendship with Marcus was going great and she did not want him to think she didn't trust him.
She groaned.
"Fiiiine... but this better be worth it."

"It will be. I promise." Marcus assured.

*

Featherhill was the next town after McCollumford. The drive between the two towns was about one hour thirty minutes.

Featherhill was more of racially diverse town compared to Summerville. As a matter of fact, 70% of the town consisted of people of color. Like McCollumford, people actually voted for their leaders. Summerville was the only town that followed the founders clause.

This was Emma's first time in Featherhill. It was named that because one of the hills surrounding the town was in the shape of a feather from bird's eye view. It was a pretty neat town, houses that were situated in the same neighborhood were more or less similar in color.

Marcus pulled up in front of small brick building. It was on a busy street because people were walking by going in different directions. There were also some shops and businesses on that same street.

"I should probably tell you why we are here." Marcus said as he turned the car off.

"You should." Emma stated as a matter of factly.

Marcus chuckled.
"So my friend Ava is a fashion designer and she called me this morning to tell me that the models she hired for today could not make it so..." He said with a little bit of hesitation.

"So?" Emma asked, her mind running a blank.

"I volunteered for us to be models." Marcus said quickly.