Summary: Nikki Harlem is an aspiring young ballet dancer getting ready to make her way to her dreams at Juilliard School of the Performing Arts. The school she’s been dreaming about going to since she was a little girl. She was finally accepted, and she was going to follow her dreams of dancing all the way to the top. The American Ballet Company. The one thing she’s been working on since she started dancing at the age of six.
The summer before school is scheduled to start her friend Nina comes up with an idea. Before they start at Juilliard they should go to her family’s cabin for the summer to clear their heads before school starts in the fall. At first she’s unsure about the idea of going to the cabin for the summer. Than she meets one of the boys staying next door.
Chapter One
“Come on Nikki this will be good for you. Just loosen up and have some fun.” Nina said to me only giving me a quick glance before turning her eyes back to the road.
“Yeah it might do you some good to get away from the city life for a while, and have some fun.” My friend Kayla said from the backseat.
“Yeah. Also my mom said that a new family bought the house next to ours. She also told me she met them, and their three sons. Ones twenty-one, ones eighteen, and the other is fifteen. Maybe you’ll like one of them, and get together with him.” Nina said. She’d been trying to set me up for years. That was until I met my boyfriend Ryan. I’d been dating him for three years.
I’d gone over to his house after Nina had invited me to the beach house. She told me I could invite him along. I went over to his apartment to tell him. Only to find him cheating on me with a girl that was going to be in my dance class at the beginning of the year. I’d invited her out with my friends, and me one night after we met everybody in the dance class. Ever since that night Ryan had been sleeping with her.
So now the vacation was just us girls. I liked Ryan. I loved him. I really didn’t want to start dating any other guys right now. Right now I just wanted to focus on my career, and not boys that just seem to screw everything up. “Guys seriously I really don’t want to date any guys right now. I just want to go on this vacation, relax, clear my head, and get ready for school in the fall.” I said feeling like I’d had this conversation with them a hundred times. I probably have had this conversation with them a hundred times.
“Oh come on Nikki loosen up. This is going to be fun, and all you can think about is school in the fall, and dance.” Kayla said to me. I could tell she was tired of me always worrying about school. I’d been doing the same thing since I was a little girl.
“Well Juilliard is the one way ticket to our dreams. I’m not about to let it all go for a vacation. We’ve all worked so hard to get where we are. We can’t lose it all now.”
“Okay we’ll make you a deal,” Nina said. “We’ll go running everyday to keep in shape. If you don’t want to stay after a month of being at the beach house you can go home.”
“Also you at least have to try talking to some guys by the end of the month, or else you can’t go home. Just because you had one bad relationship doesn’t mean you can swear off guys for the rest of your life,” Kayla said I turned and glared at her over the back of my seat. She just smiled sweetly at me.
“Fine I’ll agree with your deal. Only because I really want to run with you guys. I don’t like running alone. Also because I really want to go on this vacation and get away from everything in the city. This seemed like the only way to get away.” More like to get away from Ryan, and his endless knocking at my apartment door. I just wanted to get away from my poison of a relationship and move on. If I had to flirt with guys than fine. I’d do it. I just wanted to get away from the city.
“Whatever just get ready to party girls because we’re here,” Nina said as we all looked out the car windows as we pulled up the drive to the beach house. Most of the house was made out of floor-to-ceiling windows for the amazing view. You could see the sand and the ocean behind the house. I couldn’t wait to out into the ocean. All three of us had grown up on the West Coast. We all moved to New York after we got into Juilliard. It was good to be back home.
We all climbed out of the car hurrying to grab our bags, and get the best room. I made it to my room first. Which means I got the room with the best view of the ocean. also with the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the balcony.” Guys come down here,” I heard Nina shout from downstairs. She already had a bedroom here with a good view. It was on the first floor, and right under my room at the back of the house. The view of the ocean clear from both our rooms. We both had floor-to-ceiling windows.
I started downstairs wondering what Nina wanted. “My mom told me she had gifts here for us. You have to see them. She led us down the hallway that led to a backdoor. When you opened it you stepped out on the deck, and then you stepped off the deck right onto the warm sand of the beach. When we saw what was leaning against the wall by the back door we all smiled and cheered.
Their were three surfboards leaning against the wall. All with different designs. They all had stickie notes on them with our names on them. Nina got a flora surfboard with a whole bunch of flower designs on it. Kayla’s was made to look like waves in the ocean. Which fit Kayla perfectly. Mine had a design of four different lines, and designs. It went from bottom to top, connecting in the middle to spread out again to the top.
“Oh I so can not wait to try these out,” Nina said. We all nodded agreeing. We all looked at each other before squealing, and running off to get ready to take our new boards out and try them. I quickly grabbed my blue bikini putting it on before putting a pair of boardshorts on over it.
I ran back downstairs and reached the boards at the same time as Nina and Kayla. We all grabbed our boards running out to the ocea. We all got on to our boards smiling as we swam out into the ocean and started riding wave after wave. It was a great start to the perfect vacation.
| The | Boy | Next | Door |
“Oh my god that was so much fun. Surf like that is what makes me miss living on the West Coast,” Nina said as we all climbed out of the ocean a couple of hours later.
“I hope you guys don’t mind. I think I’m going to go visit my family for a couple days. I want to see them,” Kayla said to us.
“Yeah I think I might go visit my family too,” Nina said agreeing with Kayla. They both looked at me. Yes I’d grown up on the West Coast. I’d moved around a lot though. My parents had died from a house fire when I was five.
My mom had forced me out of the house than went back inside looking for my father. I passed out from the smoke inhalation. I’d woken up in the hospital. All the smoke had hurt my lungs. I was on an inhaler for months to help me breathe. They said I got asthma from the smoke. It had damaged my lungs. They also said it would be an amazement if I was able to do any excruciating activities. Somehow I’d proven them wrong with dance.
It was hard at first. Trying to dance with my lungs being as bad as they were. I always had to have an inhaler. Using it pretty much every five minutes. Than my lungs got better, stronger. I was able to dance. I still had an inhaler on me in case I had an asthma attack. I was better now, and I could dance. That’s all that mattered to me.
After my parents died I lived with my grandparents in San Francisco where I met Nina. Senior year my grandmother died. My grandfather was admitted into the hospital a couple months ago. He was really sick. They said he had lung cancer and they found it too late to do anything. They put him in chemo. It helped I guess. He was a little bit better. We had to face the facts that their was nothing we could do. He was still to weak, and the chemo wasn’t helping. He was losing the battle slowly, he was going to die of lung cancer.
“I think I might go visit my grandfather in a few days. Just to see how he’s doing,” I said shrugging my shoulders. I knew what was going to happen to him. So did all his nurses, and doctors. They just made him comfortable waiting for the inevitable. Kayla and Nina knew how I felt about my grandfather’s situation.
“I can give you a ride up their tomorrow when I go visit my family,” Nina said. She lived ten minutes away from the hospital my grandfather was at. Kayla lived an hour away from the Hospital, and an hour and a half from the beach house.
“No. That’s fine. I’ll call the hospital and see how he’s doing before I make my decision. You guys go have fun. I’ll be fine on my own tomorrow.”
“Okay. For tonight though lets have fun. there’s this place where they put you in a harness and lift you up in the air. You can do all kinds of tricks. It should be fun. We should go do it. They also have mats, and trampolines so you can do tricks on the ground and stuff too. They also take you outside, and teach you how to do all kinds of trapeze tricks with the net underneath.”
“That sounds like fun, let’s do it,” Kayla and me agreed with Nina’s idea.
“Okay lets go get dressed,” we all nodded before heading inside to get ready to enjoy our first night of vacation.
| The | Boy | Next | Door |
When we got to the trapeze place their were people everywhere. Some flipping around on the mats. Others being held in the air as they did their tricks. I looked around as a lady came up to Nina. “Would you guys like to try the wires first?” She asked we all nodded. She led us over to a harness hanging down off a wire. Hooking Kayla into the harness first. I looked over to see a guy watching us. He smiled at me when he noticed me staring before turning back to the other two boys with him.
Kayla flipped around in the air smiling. Nina was next after her. Grabbing her leg from behind her and bending it over her head in the air. I smiled and shook my head as I saw her smile and wink at the group of boys across from us. The group of boys where one of the boys had been staring at us. She was always focusing on boys. It was my turn next. As I got lifted into the air I flipped over so I was hanging upside down. Bending my legs so I was doing the splits in mid air. Smiling as I bent one leg towards my head so it was touching my forehead as I bent my neck back.
I smiled at my friend as I got out of the harness. Heading over to the mats I did an aerial with Nina and Kayla doing the same thing. I moved around the mats. Fanning my legs in front of my face. I stayed on my feet. Twisting sideways in the air. I landed on the ground on my hands before pushing myself up. I did the same thing except this time I landed on my feet.
“That was cool. What’s it called?” I heard somebody ask from behind me. Surprised I turned around to meet the eyes of the boy I caught staring earlier.
“It doesn’t have a name. I made it up myself.” I said shrugging my shoulders at him. The boy had light grey eyes that contrasted with his chocolate colored brown hair.
“I’m Asher Reed it’s nice to meet you,” he said holding out his hand. I took it smiling, and shaking it gently.
“Nikki Harlem nice to meet you Asher Reed,” I told him. “I really need to get back to my friends.”
“Okay maybe I’ll see you around Nikki Harlem,” he said to me before smiling as I turned around and walked away from him. I could feel his eyes on my back as I walked away.
-_--_--_--_-
Another one of my dance books. Except people don't really seem to like them. I know that I don't dance, but I actually know a lot about dance. My mom was a dancer, and I like to dance. Just maybe not the way I write about.
I may not dance, but I make sure that I learn a lot about the dance moves I'm writing about before I start writing. So if its not good, because I really don't know all that well what I'm talking about you can tell me. Although this book doesn't have a whole lot of dance in it.
It's more about the romance then the dance. The dancing is just the background story, and part of the plot. There actually won't be a whole lot of dancing in this book. So you don't have to worry about not knowing what I'm talking about.
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