Summer Days, Oh, Our Wasted Ways

The wind whipped her auburn hair causing it to break away from the ponytail and fly behind her. Strand by strand they escaped from her ponytail and ventured out into the air, annoying her as they did so. She sighed and finally got fed up by her hair pulled the ponytail out, letting every single strand free. She let out a sigh of relief once she could smell the sea water in the air. The sea, a beach, something she loves but hasn’t seen since she was little.

Now, as she sat in her father’s Cadillac she could finally smell the sea and hear the waves crash against each other. The radio of the convertible was softly playing the Beatle’s Here Comes the Sun and she softly sang along to the song.

Her olive green eyes watched the scenery that changed as her father drove. She played with her younger brother’s hair as he slept with his head on her lap. She listened to her mother’s voice tell a story that she has already heard. She relished the time she spent with her family before she left them for the summer. She didn’t want to leave them especially since it was her last summer before she went to the Royal Academy of Music in London for college but she couldn’t wait to spend time under the sun.

Soon they arrived in front of a cream colored two-story house. She gently shook her brother awake as her parents got out of the car. He woke up and wiped the little drool that was on the side of his lips. He stretched his arms before following his sister out of the car.

She hugged her grandparents and kissed them on the cheek. She watched as her father got her things from the trunk of the car and put them down on the sidewalk. They all stood in the front yard as her parents talked to her grandparents while on the side she and her brother were playing a simple hand game and soon enough they were saying goodbye. She hugged her parents’ and her brother and watched them as they drove off.

She tried picking up her suitcases and cursed herself for bringing so many books. She declined her grandparent’s offer to help bring in her suitcases but reluctantly gave her backpack to her grandfather. She tried once more in vain before her grandmother called out to someone.

“Matthew! Hi dear!” she called catching a boy’s attention. He turned around and ran over to his neighbors’ front yard.

“Hello Mrs. and Mr. White.” He greeted them with a smile. He had been their neighbor for as long as he could remember. They took him and his sister in when their parents’ went away and would always bake them brownies. He showed his thanks by doing a few favors around the house seeing that Mr. White was too old and fragile to do it.

“Matthew, meet our granddaughter, Catherine.” Mr. White said with his husky voice. “Catherine, meet the neighbor, Matthew.”

Catherine shook his hand, smiled, and said a polite hello. She again struggled to try to pick up the heavy suitcases but her petite form just didn’t let her. She groaned in annoyance and tried again but failed miserably. Her pink lips formed a straight line as she tried to concentrate. Matthew chuckled as he watched her try to lift her suitcases off the ground.

“Do you need help?” he offered as he watched her fail again.

“That’s exactly why I called you here Matthew. Could you please help dear Catherine with her bags? She has been trying to bring them in for quite a while now.” Her grandmother said causing Catherine’s cheeks to turn a light shade of red.

“Sure thing Mrs. White” He said and picked up Catherine’s two suitcases with ease. He followed the aging couple but stopped and looked back at Catherine whose mouth was ajar as she stared at him amazed. She could barely lift the suitcases and he lifted them and carried them with ease on his first try. The world is not fair.

“Come along now” he said breaking her train of thought. She quickly picked up her handbag and caught up with him.

“Sorry, it is just unfair how you lifted it so easily!” She exclaimed pouting at the world and its unfairness. Matthew shook his head and laughed causing her to pout even more.

“Aww, you look so cute when you pout.” He said causing her to blush instead of pout.

“Um, thanks.” She said, unsure how to respond to the compliment.

They entered the cozy and home and Matthew dropped the bags on the floor and Catherine thanked him again. Mrs. White called them into the kitchen where she had a fresh batch of brownies waiting for them.

“Matthew, would you mind taking Catherine out to see the town? She hasn’t been here since she was a little girl.” Mrs. White asked with a warm smile.

“No problem Mrs. White.” Matthew said as he ate the last brownie. He stood up and stretched out his hand for Catherine to take. She looked at his hand and then looked up at him before another blush overtook her face. She accepted his hand and soon they were out of the house and under the bright sun.

They walked in an awkward silence before Matthew decided to start a conversation.

“Tell me something about yourself.” He said, breaking the silence.

“Pardon?” She asked. She was taken off guard by the sound of his voice.

“Tell me something about yourself.” He repeated. “The town is still pretty far away.”

“Oh,” she said unsure of what to say. “Um…I am 18 years old. I am here to visit my grandparents before I go to college. I have a younger brother and uh, I like ice cream.” She added not knowing what else to say. He chuckled and smiled as he noticed she was blushing once again.

“You know, you blush a lot.” He stated causing her face to redden even more. “Like now, you are blushing again. Do you really blush a lot or is it because you are very white?”

“Hey,” She said as a light laugh escaped her mouth. “In my defense I have gone to the beach since I was a little girl.”

“Hmm…well we’ll see about that.” He said with a certain expression on his face making Catherine laugh.

“What about you Mr. I-am-so-tan-and-almighty? Tell me something about yourself.” She said, her shyness slowly disappearing.

“Well, I am 19 years old. I live here, right beside you grandparents actually. I am on vacation from college and this coming September I go back to school. I have a younger sister and I too like ice cream.” He smiled cheekily as they continued to walk.

They continued talking as they made their way into the town. As soon as they got into town Catherine stopped dead in her tracks and stared at it, amazed.

“What?” Matthew asked her as she just stood still.

‘”It’s so calm and peaceful.” She said, a small smile forming on her lips. Matthew just laughed and tugged her arm so she would move forward. She looked at everything with such wide eyes and amazement that instead of thinking she was from the city, you’d think she was from a desert.

“Don’t you have a traffic light somewhere here?” She asked as they ate their ice cream in the middle of a park.

“No, there is no need for that here.” Matthew said quickly before stopping his ice cream from dripping of the cone.

“Cool, so is like in the TV series where everyone knows everyone?”

He nodded his head and continued to focus on his task, eating his ice cream.

“That is so cool.” Catherine said and was still stunned by the town. Another silence surrounded the two of them before it was broken by someone calling out Matthew’s name. A group of two guys and two girls ran up to where both of them were sitting and eating their ice creams.

“Hey Matthew” the brunette guy said while doing that weird handshake thing that guys do. The blond guy did the same as the two girls scrutinize Catherine with confused eyes. The girls each kissed him on the cheek as Catherine watched. She didn’t know what to do and she felt like a bird with a bunch of butterflies, totally out of place.

“Matthew!” The blond girl scolded him. “Don’t be rude!” She said obviously talking about Catherine. She quickly looked away as all the attention was brought on to her making her blush.

“See what you did Elle?” the blond boy said. The girl, Elle, rolled her eyes and hit him lightly on his forearm. He let out a barely audible ‘ow’ as he rubbed the spot where she hit him.

“Catherine” Matthew called, getting her attention. She quickly turned her head in his direction and saw four foreign eyes looking at her. “Catherine this is Elousie,” the blond girl, “Nathan,” the blond boy, “Mitchel,” the brunette boy, “and Taylor,” the brunette girl, “they are twins.”

She let out a soft hello but was soon crushed in a hug given by the brunette haired girl, Taylor. She was caught off guard and almost fell off the bench she was occupying.

“Taylor! You are going to break her!” The brunette boy, Mitchel who also looked a lot like Taylor, said while going to Catherine’s other side to hug her. She looked at the two of them as they had declared war over who could hug more of her.

Soon they were both pulled off her and led away by Matthew and Nathan, leaving Elouise with Catherine. She faced Elouise with unsure eyes. Elouise let out a light laugh before sitting down beside her.

“Don’t worry, I am not like them and I won’t squish you to death.” Elousie said as she pushed up her large glasses that covered half of her face. Catherine let out a sigh of relief making Elouise laugh. “They are really nice you know. It’s just they get really excited when they meet someone new. Small town, not that many people.”

Catherine nodded her head and looked around to see if she could spot any of them.

“Relax, Matthew and Nathan just went to get them some ice cream so they’ll be too pre-occupied to try and squish you again.” Elousie informed her. Catherine let out a soft laugh and soon an awkward silence came.

“You’re the shy type aren’t you?” Elousie asked, breaking the silence. Catherine blushed and nodded. Elousie broke out a huge grin before grabbing Catherine’s wrist and running. “We’ll see about that.”

Four hours later all six of them were on the cliffs watching the sun slowly set into the sky. Matthew and Taylor were eating chips as Nathan lay in between them. Mitchel sat beside his sister, stealing chips from her every now and then. Elouise sat in the end taking pictures of the sun set. Catherine sat in between the two of them just watching the sun. She doesn’t remember ever seeing the sunset like it is now, slowly disappearing as if it was sinking into the sea.

She was covered in dirt, they all were. After their excursion of the whole town they found their way to a field that had gone muddy from the rain last night. Nathan had chased Mitchel through the field, narrowly avoiding the puddles of mud until Nathan tackled Mitchel causing them to land in the biggest puddle of them all. The four who were clean and spotless, stood where they were and laughed at them.

Nathan stood up all covered and mud with a smirk on his face. He quickly helped Mitchel up and whispered something in his ear. Soon both of them had smirks on their faces but before anyone could notice they were covered in mud. Thus, started the mud war.

It lasted for at least an hour before the all tried, keyword tried, to get all the mud off them but failed. They then decided that instead of going back into town to be discriminated by everyone they would watch the wonderful sunset from the cliffs.

As soon as they sun had completely disappeared they had gathered their things and went on separated, going to their own homes. Matthew and Catherine walked together seeing as they were right next to each other. They talked and said goodbye once they reached the middle of the two houses.

Later that night after an hour long bath Catherine lay in her bed thinking about today. She had never expected her first day to go like the way it did. She expected to stay in the house and talk to her grandparents but instead she spent the whole day with a group of people who she now considered as friends and barely talked to her grandparents, who didn’t really seem to mind.

It was wonderful and she couldn’t wait for the next things to come.