The brunette girl would sit in the driver's seat of her dark blue 1979's Volvo pickup truck. Her hands were tightly wrapped around the steering wheel as she drove towards the village Lyndhurst. She had been driving for over seven hours now, and it was 1am in the morning. She muttered inaudible words to herself as she drove through the heavy rain, forced to use the windshield wipers over and over again constantly. She switched gears as the light finally turned green and drove full speed towards the said city.
She hated the weather in the UK. She always had. Yet somehow, despite the cold weather and rainy days, people were still attracted to the country. She laughed shortly, making it sound like more of a sudden exhale, as she thought about it. Suddenly, her phone rang. She looked down at the electronic device and picked it up, not checking who was calling.
"Willow Collins." She said as she picked up, waiting for a response.
"Ah, Willow! Thank God you picked up. Me and Charles are already here. We're waiting for you, and all the others. Except for Aaliyah. She came and went to bed immediately." A male voice spoke, and Willow smiled, knowing who it was.
"No, thank God you called, Sam. And that sure sounds like Aaliyah." She said jokingly, smiling even wider as she heard her friend chuckle calmly over the phone.
"We pray for you, you kn-" Her fellow friend was cut off, and a roaring noise could be heard as the phone on the other line was moved around.
"Sam?" Willow asked nervously, unsure what was happening.
"Wrong! The name's Charles!" The guy on the other line said, and Willow brightened up again.
"Hey dumbass, nice to talk to you too. Now give the phone back to Sam" She said with a smile on her face. She could nearly hear her friend's mischievous smile through the phone.
Although Charles did as she asked, and Sam was back after a few seconds.
"So! How's Cambridge been working out for ya?" Sam asked. His German accent wasn't too strong at the moment. It usually got stronger when he was nervous, stressed, scared or tired.
"Eh, it's okay I guess. How about Harvard? I heard the good news about you two getting in." Willow replied, avoiding giving a proper answer.
"Well, it's a true miracle that Charles got in, being the Dumbass he is, but it's all going well. We have most classes together so that's cool" Sam said.
Willow had always liked Sam. He gave off a chill and safe vibe. On the other side, his best friend was more of the definition of chaos. She smiled for herself as she thought about it all, still driving through the heavy rain, having almost only the street lights show her the way through the darkness of the early morning.
"Hey! I can see all of the houses from here!!" Willow exclaimed excitedly as she looked forward, steering the car with her left hand and having the other one pressing the phone against her ear.
"Aye, that's great! Charles did you hear that? She's here already" Sam said happily, and Willow could hear Charles voice say something muffled in the background, sounding enthusiastic.
"Well, then. I better save my battery. I'll see you boys." Willow decided to end the call, and they said goodbye before hanging up.
"Thank God I'm here. No more heavy rain for another few hours!" She thought happily to herself as she entered the village. She had nearly forgotten how incredibly old the whole town was. The buildings looked like they were bult in the 1700's, Atleast as far as Willow knew. She would find the given adress and park outside. Luckily, the roof of the house reached out far enough to provide somewhat of a shelter from the rain for her car. She smiled and went up to knock on the door, but she didn't have to. It opened djust as she came close enough.
"Heyyy!!" Charles said happily and they hugged. Yet, Sam stood politely behind him, waiting for the two of them to finish before hugging Willow himself.
"Hey. We've missed you a lot" He said calmly as he embraced her, kissing her cheek, and Willow did the same.
"I've missed you two too." Willow said calmly, carefully placing her hair behind her ear with her fingers before walking back to the car.
"Excuse all of the luggage." She said nervously as she opened the door to the backseat.
"Eh, we expected nothing less from you. You're a girl after all." Charles teased as he began taking the bags out of the car.
Willow smiled and rolled her eyes, giving her friend a little nudge using her elbow, and he laughed at her. Sam also helped with her bags. Of course she didn't just stand there, since it was her bags after all. It took a while to get everything inside, but soon enough it was all done.
"Well then! Which room would you like?" Sam asked.
"Ah, that depends. How many are there?" Willow asked politely.
"Well, me and Charles share a room, and then there's two more guest rooms. So I thought we'd live two and two. Aaliyah is sleeping in the room at the far end of the hall." Sam explained.
"Ah, I guess I'll just share a room with her then. If she doesn't mind of course" Willow said.
"Yeah, she was really excited to see you again so that's fine." Sam said with a calm smile on his face.
"Well then! I can take all of this Over there myself. I'll see you!" She said happily and began rolling her two suitcases down the hall, with two bags on her shoulders.
Sam waved at her before returning to his own room, where Charles was playing Mario on an old 8bit Nintendo. This was Charles grandmother's house, and she was out of town, so she had told him that he and his friends could stay there for the whole summer break if they'd like. It was very old fashioned as the whole village was built in the early 1800's.
Willow would sneak inside of the room, where she found Aaliyah sleeping on the top of the bunk bed. She smiled as she placed her suitcases and bags by the door, before carefully closing it, making a nervous expression due to the severe creaking noises of the door as she closed it. She then breathed out, thinking she had been smooth.
"What time is it?" A female voice asked from behind, and Willow quickly turned around to see Aaliyah sitting up in the bed, rubbing her eyes. Her dark skin shone beautifully in the soothing light of the only lamp in the entire room. Her big, very dark brunette bun was oblique and messy.
"Good morning, sunshine" Willow said in a soft tone, waiting for the girl to realize, which didn't take long. Aaliyah froze and then looked up at the girl.
"Willow!!! You're finally here, girl!!" The girl exclaimed and threw her arms around Willow.
"Hey, Aaliyah" Willow replied with a soft smile.
Aaliyah then turned her head to see herself in the mirror, and she gasped dramatically.
"Oh, dear God. My hair!" She exclaimed jokingly.
"So! How's it been with your brother in LA?" Willow asked and took a seat on her bed as Aaliyah sat down by the desk with the mirror above it, fixing her hair. She took out her big, white hair elastic, letting her hair frantically point out in all possible directions. She sighed as she brushed it.
"It's been okay I suppose. I haven't met a single celebrity yet." Aaliyah replied with disappointment in her voice.
"Ah, well. I bet you the time will come" Willow motivated her, and she could see her friend smiling in the mirror.
"I hope so. Or moving from California was a big mistake." Her friend said and they both laughed a little.
They sat in silence as Aaliyah put her hair back up in a bun. They both then flinched as the door swung open.
"Guess who's here!" Charles said happily.
"Already!?" The girls exclaimed both at once, causing them both to giggle. They then hurried downstairs along with Charles. Sam was already there.
"Hey, girls!!!" The female said, waving happily. Her short, red hair was all soaked, letting the drops from it leave wet marks on her gray shirt.
"Hey, Marla!" Aaliyah exclaimed happily and the three girls hugged.
"Hey, this might be a girl thing but I was a hug too!" Seth exclaimed, making the girls laugh, and they hugged him aswell.
"We better get the bags upstairs." Marla said, but Seth raised his hands to his own shoulder level.
"Hey, we'll take care of it. You three go ahead and hang out." He said, looking at Sam and Charles who nodded as agreement.
Yet Marla refused to let them carry all of her stuff, and resolutely grabbed her own bags, carrying them upstairs. She had always been like that, and she probably always would be, but her friends didn't see any problem with her being independent. If anything, Seth found it attractive.
"So, how's it going with Marla, man?" Charles asked Seth as they were heading downstairs from Marla and Seth's bedroom after leaving the things. The girls had locked the door to Aaliyah and Willow's room to catch up.
"Still straight forward as ever, huh?" Seth said and sighed with a smile on his lips. "Well," He continued. "We're not an object so far. I'm too much of a wuss to tell her."
"Come on, man! It's not that hard. Just-" Charles began but Sam cut him off.
"Don't be too hard on him. And also, you shouldn't be talking. You haven't dated anybody in your whole life." The boy said teasingly, smiling widely as his best friend's eyes narrowed.
"Don't get cocky just because you've dated people before. That was back in high school." Charles said and rolled his eyes, receiving a nudge from his best friend.
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Edit: W o w - I never expected this story to get any views at all to be honest. Thank you so much to my first ever readers!❤️