The Bucket List

There were more people than Grace thought there would be at Kennedy’s which put her out of her comfort zone. After her confrontation with Bailey, she got ready without another word, feeling a little bit more comfortable in her body, especially after John has said that her body didn’t disgust him.

But as soon as she got to Kennedy’s the insecurities started to come back. There was so many people there she didn’t know, and she automatically just wanted to go back home and crawl under her quilt while reading one of her novels.

“Come on I see the guys” Bailey whispered as she led Grace and John towards the deck chairs to the left of the pool where everyone was laid chatting.

She instantly went and sat in the spare chair in between Tim and Jared, smiling at them as they each greeted her. Everyone was wearing pretty much the same thing, trunks or bikini’s sunglasses pushed up against their nose.

As soon as Bailey and John came over the were instantly pulling off their outer clothing, John sitting down on the chair in between Nick and someone that Grace hadn’t seen before, Bailey sitting down in front of John leaning back against his chest as he wound his arms around her waist.

Grace just glanced around looking around as everyone began talking amongst themselves. She pulled her feet closer to her, sitting Indian style as she rifled through her bag before pulling out some bobby pins and hair bobbles before placing her bag on the floor.

She gently gathered her head to the top of her head, winding it round and round before bunching it all together placing a hair bobble around it, before clipping her bangs back.

Once this is done she picked up her black sunglasses and placed them upon her nose, leaning back against the chair, her knees still bent.

She looked around the circle thinking of all the friends she made, new and old.

Tim, the most loveable guy in the world, he is so sweet and would pretty much do anything for his family and his friends.

Halvo, so dorky and immature he was like the little brother Grace had always wanted, someone she could tease but he would still love her anyway.

It seemed that it was a consistent thing, to hear Pat’s girlish shriek every day, like it was now programmed into Grace’s mind, and if she didn’t hear it, she would feel lost. Pat was basically adorable, he reminded me of the puppy Grace always wanted, but was never allowed.

Nick seemed nice enough, even though he was Halvo’s best friend Grace didn’t see him much, but he seemed okay with the few words that they had exchanged.

Kennedy, reminded her of Russ. Whether it was him demanding she ate and then bustling around in the kitchen to make her a snack, demanding that a girl should have a healthy appetite. It was quite funny at time and he was always there if she needed someone to talk to, all in all he made her miss her big brother.

John was practically family, he was constantly around the house and he made Grace feel like they had been friends since they were born, he brought the best out of Bailey and Grace could tell just by looking at her that Bailey was the happiest she had ever been.

Moose was such a flirt that in some cases he was actually uncomfortable to be around but once you got pace that he was a big softy although no one had yet told her the story behind the name Moose.

“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late” a voice called our, snapping Grace out of her thoughts. She hadn’t realized that her copper haired best friend wasn’t sat there and this automatically made her feel awful.

Grace continued to stare at him unsure of what else to do, she hadn’t really seen him since a couple of days ago when they first made the list.

Garrett looked around trying to find an empty chair before shrugging and heading towards Grace’s chair.

“Budge up Gray” he whined, pouting down at her as she rolled her eyes, before standing up straightening her romper out as Garrett jumped in her seat with a wide smile as everyone laughed.

Grace rolled her eyes again, pushing his legs out of the way with one hand as she perched at the end of the seat now, turning to look at everyone as they began talking again.

It wasn’t long before she felt something poking her back, Grace snapped her head round, turning to see Garrett feigning sleep as he laid with his knees bent behind her, one of his foot lifted up to poke her with his big toe.

“Stop poking me Gary or so help me God...” she mumbled leaving her threat empty, as she turned around starting to pay attention to everyone else.

“...so John and I headed upstairs, to get ready for Kennedy’s-” Bailey continued as everyone say listening, Pat scrunched up his face as he interrupted mumbling something about not wanting to hear about Bailey and John’s bedroom time, Bailey either didn’t hear or pretended not to as she carried on with her story.

“...and we go to check on Grace to see if she’s ready but all we can hear coming out of her room is Ryan Adam’s so we open the door to see her stood there with a hairbrush in her hand singing as loud as possible to ‘Come Pick Me Up’ it was the funniest thing I had ever seen” Bailey finished as everyone began to laugh causing Grace’s face to heat up with all the sudden attention.

“Grace will you play pool volley ball with me?” Pat turned to her a pout on his face as he begged her.

“Pat I wasn’t going to actually go in the pool” Grace mumbled back to him, carefully a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, this caused Pat to slump back into his chair, his pout growing as he played with his hair.

His face broke Grace’s heart and she hated saying no to him, but as she looked around and saw the other girl’s stood in their swim suits with the perfect bodies she just felt sick but she couldn’t let this get the better of her.

“Okay” she muttered quietly, hesitantly slipping off her flip flops and placing them under the deck chair Garrett had stolen from her, she closed her eyes quickly unzipping her romper before pulling it off and folding it placing it on top of her shoes before she turned to Pat waiting for him to grab the ball and head to the pool with her.

She crossed her hand over her chest, her right foot scratching the back of her left leg as she waiting nervously for Pat to finally locate the ball from where he last put it.

Finally he remembered that he had left it in his bag and pulled out the neon pink ball, smiling sheepishly at Grace who took off her sunglasses and headed to the pool, gently lowering herself into it as Pat did a cannon ball.

Wiping the water off of her face she swam over to the net, standing next to Pat as she bit her nails, waiting for the other team to get in the pool.

Once Tim and Nick got in the pool and the game got on its way, Grace began to relax, realizing that no one was in fact laughing at her or looking disgusted by her.

After Pat and Grace got thrashed by Nick and Tim they headed out of the pool and back to the group of friends who had now got a cooler of beer placed in the middle of them.

Grace grabbed the towel out of her bag wrapping it around her as she reached into the cooler to grab a can of Dr Pepper cracking it open as she stole Tim’s previous chair, smiling innocently at him as he glared at her.

Everyone was chatting and laughing around her as she placed her sunglasses on, leaning back into the chair, curling under the towel like a blanket.

She was starting to doze off when she felt someone poke her shoulder, she shrugged it trying to ignore it as she drifted off but they kept poking, she opened one eye, looking at the culprit as it landed on Garrett.

She glared, as he just smiled sheepishly and wavered, which caused her to grin back.

“I thought you weren’t coming, you didn’t reply to my text” he explained as she just shrugged, taking another gulp of her drink as he rolled her eyes.

“What made you change your mind” He asked turning to lie on his side so he was facing her.

“Bailey” she sighed as the conversation continued. When Grace was around Garrett she felt like a different person, it was like her cancer didn’t exist and she didn’t have a care in the world and she loved that.

They continued talking, laughing and sharing facts for what seemed like hours before she got a tap on the shoulder, she turned to lay on her back as she saw a beaming Kennedy stood over her a couple of girls stood behind him.

Grace’s smiled faulted as she sat up pulling the towel closer to her body as though a barrier between her and everyone else.

“Grace there are some people I want you to meet” Kennedy exclaimed, grabbing her hand and pulling her up so she now stood next to him as he turned beginning to introduce the girls.

“This is Faith” he said indicating to a very petite girl, her white blonde haired curled into a top knot on her head, her body covered in an oversized male shirt, the girl was beautiful with her wide baby blue eyes and pale skin she was basically every boy’s dream. Faith smiled and sent an awkward wave into Grace’s direction, who noticed the quotation mark tattooed on each wrist.

“Faith is Jared girlfriend” he continued, Grace looked at the girl noting the bright smile that graced her lips when the boys name was mentioned.

“Then there is Piper” he said turning to point to a familiar looking brunette girl, her hair was long and dark, bangs sweeping across her forehead as he hair began to fall out of her fish tail braid. She was thin but tall, with familiar striking features.

“She’s Gar’s sister” when Kennedy said this she turned to look at Garrett mouth wide open.

“You never told me you had a sister!” Grace exclaimed at Garrett just chuckled at her shocked look. “How come I never met her that summer I was here?” Grace questioned her gaze turning into a glare as she awaited his answer.

“Because my baby sister was at science camp” he said as everyone laughed, Piper obviously used to their antics rolled her eyes and hit her brother over the head as she turned to smile at Grace.