The Secret to Summer

Chapter One

            It was on the complete opposite side of the country, in Seaside California.

            Just thinking about moving all the way across the country for this job made butterflies appear in my stomach. I live in a small town in Vermont. Readsboro has a population of around 700. Seaside has a population of around 33,000; I'd looked it up. Even our capital city barely had a fraction of that number.

            Imagining all those people and knowing I'd be alone caused me to hesitate. But not only that, I'd never been separated from my friends. We'd been together since diapers, practically. Our town was a small town. Grades had been put together at the local middle school because there weren't enough of us. We'd promised each other we'd always stay together even after college. None of them had plans on moving from the state.

            But it was my dream job. How could I pass it up? And yet the thought of being alone and not having my friends held me back. I still had time before I had to make my decision, seeing as I still had one semester left of school, but they wanted an answer by the end of summer. I hadn't told my friends yet, too scared of their reactions, and not wanting them to try and sway me before I made my own decision.

            I was dragged from my thoughts at the sound of the doorbell ringing. Ling ran to answer it before I could and I immediately heard the squeals of our two other best friends, Layla and Cameron. I checked the time on my phone, realizing it was later than I thought. I scrambled to stuff all my make-up in my makeup bag, making sure to snatch my toothbrush and toothpaste of the sink as well.

            "Chloe!" Cameron shouted as I emerged from the bathroom, her green eyes lit in excitement. "Are you ready? Please tell me you're ready."

            Cameron was the youngest of us by a couple months, but she was definitely the most mature. She was the "mom" of our group. And she I think she secretly enjoyed filling that role.

            "Almost," I told her when she gave me an impatient look.

            "We need to start telling you our plans are an hour earlier than they actually are, then maybe you'll be on time."

            I grinned. "Better late than never, right?"

            "Ah, just hurry. The car is still running."

            I waved her off, rushing back to my bedroom. Everything I was bringing was still scattered on my bed so I quickly began stuffing it into my jumbo-sized suitcase. It was barely enough room considering it had to hold five weeks worth of stuff. Especially when you're a girl. Still, I somehow managed to get it all packed in, using my body weight to hold it down so I could zipper it. Then I shoved my laptop into my backpack along with its charger and my phone charger. Last year they installed Internet and we started having Netflix horror movie nights. There was a projector there too, so all I had to do was hook my laptop up to it.

            Layla was in our kitchen, going through our fridge when I popped in to get my water bottle. Her color streaked hair looked freshly dyed and she had on a pair of wedge sandals. Only Layla would dare to wear heels into the woods. "I'm starving, don't you have anything to eat in here?"

            "Seeing as we are going away for five weeks... no," I answered, rolling my eyes. "We can just stop for tacos."

            "Deal," Layla said, turning to me, her lips bright red.

            Like me, Layla loved make-up. It was something we bonded over. If I was taking a trip to beauty store, she was going with me. We always swapped and exchanged whatever we didn't like when we could. Our skin tones were too different for us to swap some things, like foundations or blushes.