Carpe Diem (An Emblem3 Fanfic)

Chapter 1

*Greer's POV*

"How can you be excited for this?" I ask my twenty-two year old brother Beckett who is grabbing the last of our things from upstairs.

"Greer, California is going to be sick!" Beckett exclaims.

"But it's so different from Ohio! Can I please just stay here while you go to Cali? It my senior year and cross country is about to start, and I have a really good shot at state this year and my whole entire life is here!" I ramble.

"I got custody of you when mom and dad died, and I've been pretty fair to you, have I not?" I nod in agreement. "I'd let you stay here, but you're under eighteen and I'm your legal guardian. And you can do senior year in California and I'm sure they have a cross country team there that you can join and go to state. As for your friends, you'll make new ones."

"Beckett, shut up. You sound like one of those cheesy teen book."

"Well this teen book wants you to get your ass in the car." Beckett teases. I roll my eyes and grab my things and toss them in the back of the cab.

"Ready to go?" Beckett asks. I nod and glance solemnly back at our little house one last time before we drive off and it disappears into the distance.

So here's the story. My names Greer Cummings. I'm seventeen, senior year of high school (wut wut!) I have long wavy brown hair and bright green eyes and am fairly short and skinny. I run cross country, track and I skate and snowboard.

My brother Beckett is twenty-two and recently graduated with a business degree from University of Ohio, which is why we're moving to Cali because he got some business offer there. He takes after my mom. He has short blonde, curly hair and blue eyes. He's tall and well built, though quite pale, because unlike me, he spent his countless hours sitting behind a desk, where as mine were better spent outside running in the fresh air. He wears a lot of suits and dressy stuff because he's all "business-y" and shit like that.

My parents died eleven years ago. They were both in meetings at the World Trade Center in New York when the buildings were struck by a plane, or at least, that's what we told everyone. We lived with our grandparents in Ohio until Beckett turned eighteen and had saved up enough money to buy a little house not to far away from our grandparents and began attending the University of Ohio on scholarship. Our grandparents died less than a year later, leaving us with not other living relatives.

Beckett was my best friend and the best brother that I could ask for. We had some friendly banter that we'd enter in and most of the time we'd try to piss each other off, but all and all we loved each other. We were the only family each of us had left.

"Hey, Greer, I know you're not hot on moving, but it's a chance to start over." Beckett says quietly. He was right, and I needed that. With everything that had happened in the past year, I'm really not sure why I was so sad to leave this place. If people knew my story, they'd wonder why I didn't want to get out of there in a second. But no one knew my story; not even Beckett.

***

We pull up five hours later at the most gorgeous house I'd ever seen. I squeal with excitement, forgetting that I wasn't happy to be here. It was a white, modern looking house that is located right on the waterfront. A staircase on the back porch lead right down to the beach. Glass windows lined the back of the house giving a perfect view of the ocean. (Picture on side --->)

"Beckett this place is awesome!" I cry. We had all our furniture delivered and set up in our house so it was ready when we got here. I race up the stairs and inspect each bedroom.

"Dibs on the one overlooking the ocean!" Beckett's laugh echoed through the house. I grab my boxes and bags and haul them upstairs to my new bedroom. I didn't have the energy to unpack anything tonight so I dug through my boxes until I found a pair of pajamas. I enter the bathroom and wash my face and brush my teeth before climbing into bed and falling into a sleep with dreams about what this new life could lead to.