The Not So Girl Next Door

Chapter 1: Dreams

THE BEST THING ABOUT dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, and when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it is really happening.

          I saw him. He was there, standing at a distance, looking more like an angel and less like a sixteen year-old-boy. He looked much different than the last time I saw him a few years back when he was still here in Apple Valley, and yet still the same. He was walking towards me, his blue eyes sparkling like a million stars. Then, the next thing I knew, he had his hand at the small of my back and I had mine at the back of his head, twisting my fingers in his messy blonde hair. I hadn’t realized what a great kisser he was. The way his lips were so gentle…

      Suddenly, I heard the sound of my cell phone ringing furiously at my bedside table. I woke up groggily.

      That was probably the worst thing that has ever happened to my whole entire life!

        Ugh! Why, oh, why did I have to wake up at the best part of my dream?! Angrily, I turned off the alarm in my pink Sony Ericsson W580i.

“Stupid phone!” I said to myself. I considered throwing it at the wall but I don’t think my mom would let me buy another one if she found out I just threw my old one like that. Besides, I love my phone.

          I sat on my bed and sighed. Man, how I wish that dream would happen! It felt like it really was until that stupid cell phone woke me up.

          I got up and went to the bathroom. I washed my face and examined my reflection in the mirror.

          As usual, there was no change on how I looked. The figure I have was what you would call “flattering”. That’s because I didn’t spend my time stuffing down calories into my mouth like other people do. All the hard work of staying away from high-calorie food really paid off. My height of five six was pretty much a little above the average height of a normal sixteen year old girl. Come to think of it, with a height like this, I would be able to join the volleyball team. But I guess no way in the whole wide world will I ever qualify! Abby would probably break no sweat with one tryout but I suck at sports! The only sport I could play is a little tennis.

          My head was still topped with brown wavy hair with blonde highlights that fall just beneath my shoulders, framing my heart-shaped face. It used to be colored honey blonde when I was younger but as I grew, my hair color became darker and darker until it turned into brown. My cheekbones, flushed from the dream, were a little bit higher than it was supposed to be. The color of my skin remained cream just like it used to be even though my best friends—Abby and Precious—and I spent most of our summer soaking up as much sun at the beach just to get our skins tanned. Turns out our pity attempts didn’t have any result at all. I remember when my Nana told me, when I was little, that the color of my almond-shaped brown eyes reminded her of warm chocolate. The reflection of my face looked back at me from the mirror. Sigh. Nothing changed. I mean what do I expect? That one day I’d wake up with the body of a supermodel and blond hair? Yeah, right.

       “Kelsie, Danny, breakfast is ready!” I heard my mom shout from the kitchen downstairs. I also heard my brother’s feet as it thumped hard against the stairs.

          Impatient little freak.

       “Coming!” I shouted back.

          With one last look at the girl in the mirror, I got a brush and quickly tugged on the tangles in my brown hair. When it seemed to tame, I hastily made my way down the stairs.