Chapter 1 || Hello Cruel World

Jenna POV

When you're younger, you want to be older. It's just how the mind of an eight year old works.

When they look at a fourteen year old with their own cell phone and realize that they'd never watched anything other than Disney channel.

I wish I could go back and tell that sweet little eight year old me that it's not anywhere near as fun as it looks.

In reality, all the fourteen year old thinks about is how they're going to juggle homework, studying, three projects, five clubs, two essays and one huge unit test all due by the end of the week.

And if they're lucky, if I'm lucky, I get to spend time with my siblings because it seems they're my only friends these days.

Maybe it's because we just moved from New York to a small town in Flordia called Oceanview or maybe everyone in my middle school just secretly hated me. Or not so secretly.

I can honestly say that all those people who say middle school is AMAZING, are the biggest liars on the freaking planet. It's the worst three years of your life, so if you feel like throwing yourself off the top of the building (please don't),someone else is probably thinking the same thing.

Everyone says high school is better and I really hope that's true.

_______

After the first week of living in the town my parents grew up in,they kept reminding me, I found out that it was only a five minute walk to the beach from our house. It was small, probably private property of one of the neighbors since there weren't any tourists, which was the only problem with Flordia beaches.

So for a while it was a peaceful little sanctuary where I could lie in the partial shade and read a book or play on my phone or just get away from my family.

Until Jackson found it.

He followed me after a month of having a spot for peace and quiet.

And he somehow always managed to fall into the water.

Nothing screamed Jackson more than a soaking wet T-shirt.

He strutted up to me, grinning even though he was soaked from head to toe.

"Mom called a family meeting to say bye to Noah," He held out his hand and I grabbed it and pulled myself up.

Just what this family needed. A going away meeting for Noah. He hadn't even unpacked any of his stuff because he was turning around and going to Yale.

It only affected me apparently.

Him leaving is natural and apart of being a kid and growing up.

Yeah well that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt a whole heck of a lot.

Nothing, nothing is worse than having an older sibling. Or any siblings at all. But it makes life so much better. Especially when they're the only people who understand that moving around every two years means having no friends.

Sure sometimes I want to bash their heads against a brick wall, but what person doesn't feel that about their siblings.

I look over at him and stand up.

"Why does mom have to call a meeting? Can't she must be normal and buy a cake that's says 'Hey you got into Yale can Jackson have your room?'" Jackson laughs beside me.

I think he was trying to get me to laugh. Not hard but apparently not easy either.

"You should take it.It was never really his anyway," I tell him and he frowns.

I look down at my feet and watch the cracks in the road get more and more common until I walk right into Jackson.

He snorts.

"Stop doing that," I punch him in the arm which only makes him laugh harder.

"Dude, you do not know how to punch," He says.

I roll my eyes, bring my fist up and punch him in jaw, harder than I meant to, but effective nonetheless.

His hand immediately goes to where I hit him and he glares.

"You vastly underestimate me," I say with a smile

He rolls his eyes and pushes past me and runs into the house first. I take a deep breath and follow him inside, attacked immediately by our border collie Bella.

"Have a nice swim?" Noah laughs

I was shocked for a second, how hard and full he laughed, how happy he was even though he was leaving.

He was probably excited to go now that I think about it. Get away from these insane people we call a family.

I shoved my hands in my pocket and tried to keep smiling as mom patted a spot on the couch for Jackson and I.

We had three hours twenty minutes and well about thirty-ish seconds before he had to leave.

And all I wanted to do was lock myself in my room and make myself believe that this was all a hazy dream.

Maybe I'm being dramatic. It's just college. But then again, Dad was only supposed to be gone six months when he got deployed. And let's just say that didn't exactly end well.

We sat on the couch next to our parents.Mom looks like she's gonna start crying at any moment.

We talked for a long time. Well they did,I didn't say a word.I wouldn't have been able to even if I wanted to.Which I didn't.

One hour.

Noah looks down at Jackson who had somehow fallen asleep. Noah chuckled lightly before kicking him in the side and bringing his feet back up.

Jackson jerked awake and glared.Noah laughed harder.

I couldn't help but notice how much he looked like dad, especially with the blue Mets cap that always occupied his head.

Even if the team did suck a majority of the time.

"Are they still in your closet?" He asks quickly

Jackson looks at me and we share a look and then all three of us are running to get to his closet first.

I pull it open and Jackson dives to the back where we stashed the box from last News Years Eve.

Firecrackers.

Noah grabs the box and runs with it into the backyard. Charlie ran behind us screaming about how he wanted to set one off too.

"KEEP THEM AWAY FROM THE CARS,"

Noah grins at the both of us as he pulls a lighter out of his pocket.

Which he wasn't technically allowed to have since he caught one of the trees on fire a few months back.

Which is why we hid them in Jackson's closet and not Noah's.

Noah throws it in the grass and pulls Charlie behind him as it makes a loud crack. I can hear our parents laughing as Jackson lets out a high pitched scream.

I looked over at him, looking like someone just insulted his honour. He looked disgusted and ready to fight someone all at once.

Noah doubled over in laughter.

Twenty minutes.

He lights the rest of the pack, throws them, and pulls Charlie back again. The kid seemed to have a death wish.

I cover Charlie's ears as they all start to go off and Jackson and I start cheering, really hoping there isn't a cop car around.

They sound a lot like gunshots.

Ten minutes.

Noah grabs his backpack off the couch and we follow him outside to his car.

His tiny silver Ford Focus.

Our parents hug him for a long time, mom was crying already trying to pretend she wasn't, and dad was wiping at his eyes.

He claps him on the back and Noah turns to the rest of us.

He pulls us into a group hug and looks at us for,well a weirdly long amount of time.

He opens his car door and pulls out a cap.

"So when I got accepted the first thing I did was buy a hat," he starts.

I don't really know where he's going with it but I look over at Jackson and he's grinning from ear to ear.

Noah takes off his Mets cap and put it on Jackson's head so that its covering his eyes and pulls the Yale one onto his.

"Take care of it alright?" He smacks him lightly and ruffles my hair.

"Be good for mom and dad while I'm away alright,"He holds out his fist for Charlie and they fist bump.

He looks at me last and grins.

"Enjoy high school while you can kiddo," he says.

I felt heat rush into my cheeks and I know I'm gonna cry even before the first tear rolls down my face.

He gives all of us one last hug before getting into his car and driving off.

We all watch him until we can't see his car anymore and I feel an arm around my shoulders.

"You alright?" He asks me.

"Yeah," I slap his hat off his head and he laughs.

"God I hate you!" He smiles.

"Yeah I know."