Chapter One- Alexander Fricking Ludwig
"Hey! Mom! Shrimpy!"
I groaned as my brother, Brett, ran towards us. It was officially the first day of summer, and my mom and I had just arrived in Los Angeles to visit my brother. We were staying the entire summer, which basically meant the obvious-two months of hell.
On the bright side, my mom said I was allowed to visit my friend Emily, who'd moved to Los Angeles two years ago. She said she liked it here. I, on the other hand, much preferred my small town in Iowa. It was far less busy, and...quiet. And for a bookworm/nerd like me, quiet was good. Quiet was...blissful. Los Angeles was loud and busy, and far from blissful.
"What have I told you about calling me Shrimpy!" I growled, elbowing Brett in the side.
"Hey! Serena, Brett, no violence!" My mom laughed, running to hug Brett.
"Mom! Geez! No hugging in public..." Brett whined, pushing my mom away. I laughed.
"Wuss." I chuckled.
After we found our luggage, we headed to the beach house we'd rented out for the summer. I-being small and fast-claimed the biggest, coolest room before anyone else had a chance to. So, naturally, I got the room with the king size bed and balcony with a view of the ocean. My mom settled for this-she wasn't exactly the most strict parent out there. After that, I was dropped off at Emily's house. I hadn't seen Emily since last year when she came to visit me in Iowa, so I was pretty excited. The only thing I wasn't excited about was seeing Emily's little brother Josh.
Josh was an annoying, disgusting seven year old who always had some form of goo on his face. It was disgusting.
"Hi Shrimpy!" Josh giggled, as Mrs. Lancaster (Emily's mom) answered the door.
"My. Name. Is. Not Shrimpy!" I grimaced at Josh as he called me by my brother's nickname for me. I hated Brett for teaching Josh to call me Shrimpy. Just because I was short, did not give them the reason to call me Shrimpy!
"Josh, why don't you go tell Emily that Serena's here?" Mrs. Lancaster said, using her "sweet-mothering -voice". Josh smiled and ran off to find Emily.
"It's nice to see you again, Serena!"
"You too, Mrs. L." I said. Emily ran downstairs as fast as she could and hugged me.
"SEREY!"
"EMMY!"
We ran into each others arms and started laughing.
"I missed you!" Emily exclaimed. Her light brown hair tickled my face as she hugged me.
"I missed you too, Em. Now can you please get your hair out of my mouth!" I laughed as Emily pulled away and brushed her hair behind her ears.
"So, how's life in Iowa been?"
"Peacful. How's life in the big city been?"
"Busy. And I swear I saw George Clooney the other day!"
I laughed. "Sure you did, Em."
"I did!"
Mrs. Lancaster chuckled. "Emmy, why don't you take Serena out to see the city?"
Emily's face lit up. "Yeah! Come on, Serena, let's go!"
"Well...uh...okay, I guess."
Emily rolled her eyes. "You'll like it, trust me."
~~~
"Em, I think we're lost."
"We are not lost! I know my way around L.A!"
"But Em, we've past that candle store five times!"
"...Okay, we're lost."
Somehow, after Emily showed me around Los Angeles, we'd gotten lost trying to find out way back to her house.
"I'll call Brett." I sighed, taking out my phone and dialing my brother's number. He answered on the fifth ring.
"Whaddaya want!?" He groaned. I heard loud rock music blasting in the background.
"Em and I are lost. We need you to pick us up."
"Why should I?"
"'Cause you're my big brother and I need your help." I said, in my cute little kid voice.
"That doesn't work on me, Shrimpy."
"Fine then! I'll pay you. Five bucks."
"Twenty!"
"Fifteen. I'm not going any higher."
"Ugh, fine. But i'm meeting my friends in an hour. So if I can't get you back to Emily's before then, you're gonna have to come with me."
"Whatever." I rolled my eyes.
"Where are you?"
"Uhm...Near a candle store on Santa Monica Boulevard."
"Ugh, but that's half an hour away from where I am!"
"Then hurry."
About half an hour later, we were in Brett's car, and headed to the beach to hang out with Brett's friends. Unfortunately, Brett didn't have the time to get us all the way back to Emily's house. If there was one thing Brett never was, it was late.
"I'll let you stay with us on one condition...You don't talk to any of my friends, you don't make snide comments about any of my friends, and you don't...fan-girl on any of my friends."
"Fangirl? Why would I fangirl on your friends?"
"Well...One of my friends, he's an actor. Not a very talked about actor...But knowing you guys, you'd fangirl on him. None of that, please? It's embarrassing. And awkward."
"Uhm...Okay." I gave Brett a confused look.
"That goes for you too, Emily. No fangirling on my friends."
"Oh, please, I'm used to seeing famous people now. I've lived here for two years. I've seen everybody."
"Okay, good. So it's just Shrimpy we need to worry about."
I grimaced. "Stop calling me Shrimpy!"
"I'll call you what I wanna, Shrimpy."
I rolled my eyes and slouched back in my seat.
Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the beach. Emily and I followed Brett over to his friends, who i'd just learned were a guy named Alexander and a girl named Ashley. Ashley and Alexander were dating, apparently. According to Brett, Ashley was a self-centered annoying ditz and he didn't even understand why Alexander was dating her.
"Remember. No talking. No snide remarks. No fangirling." Brett whispered to Em and I, as we approached Alexander and Ashley.
"I don't understand what you mean by the fangirling. I mean, whoever it is can't be that famous. This place would be crawling with paparazzi!" Emily said.
"He's not incredibly famous...But still. No fangirling."
"Uhm. Okay..."
As we got closer and closer to Ashley and Alexander, Alexander began to look more and more familliar, until finally, I was able to put two and two together.
"Wait-isn't that the guy I used to-"
"Yes, that's the guy you used to be obsessed with when you were twelve, now shut up and no fangirling!"
"Uh..."
" GOD, SERENA PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE NOT FANGIRLING IN YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW!?"
"Uh..."
"Serena!"
"It's not my fault!"
"Whatever, just shut up and don't say anything."
I nodded and followed Brett silently towards his friends.
"Hey! Brett!" The girl, Ashley, called, motioning for us to come over to them. When we got to Ashley and Alexander, Ashley grimaced at Emily and me.
"Who're the kids?" She asked, giving us looks of disgust.
"This is my little sister Serena and her friend Emily. They got lost. I had to save them from the big bad city." Brett smirked, and I elbowed him in the kidney.
"Emily got us lost, thank you very much. And when are you gonna take us back, anyways?"
"When i'm done here! Geez! Why don't you guys go...swim or something?"
"Then we'd be wet." Emily said, frowning.
"And?"
"We'd be wet. I don't like being wet." Emily glared at Brett.
"Come on, Brett, let them hang out with us. It's not that bad-no offense." Alexander said. Ashley rolled her eyes.
"They're a couple of kids. I mean, how old are you two, twelve?"
"Sixteen, and Serena here's turning sixteen next month." Emily said, smirking at Ashley.
"Oh, whatever."
"You don't need to be so mean, Ash." Alexander said, then turning to Emily and me.
"I'm Alexander, and this is Ashley." He said.
"I'm...Uh..." Had I honestly forgotten my own name? Oh, wow. I had it bad.
Serena, get ahold of yourself! He's just a guy!
But he wasn't.
He was Alexander fricking Ludwig.
"Serena, I know." Alexander laughed. He had a cute laugh.
"Yeah, uhm, right."
I wanted to kick myself. How could I have forgotten my own name? Was that even possible?
Yes. Apparently, It was.
"Hey, um, Sere?" Emily asked, waving her hand in front of my face. I then realized that i'd been staring at the ground for the past thirty seconds, frozen.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"You don't look too good."
Now that she mentioned it, I did feel a little lightheaded.
"Uhm...I'm fine...Really..."
But sure enough, the moment I looked up at everyone's faces, I started hurdling towards the ground and the world turned to black.