Meredith threw a rock into the creek and watched as the ripples spread before being swept away in the current. She hated her mother. That was the conclusion she had come to after two hours of brooding on the cold, slightly damp rocks lining the creek bed. And it was a reasonable conclusion, all things considered.

First, her mother had dragged her across the country, away from her friends , away from her home and now she was forcing Meredith to go to some lame-ass summer camp when all she really wanted do was lie on her bed all day happily ensconced in her headphones. "It's good for you," her mother had said. "You'll meet people. Make new friends." Meredith had a sinking suspicion that this forced maternal concern for her daughter's social life was not the real reason why she was sending Meredith away for the summer. The real reason was what lured the incomparable Ellis Grey out here in the first place, with her reluctant daughter in tow: chief of surgery.

Her mother lived and breathed surgery and the holy grail of surgery was being named Chief of Surgery. And the bigger the hospital, the better. Meredith was guessing that was why her mother had gotten them on a plane headed for Seattle mere hours after she had finished her junior year at her school in Boston. Apparently Seattle Grace, being the major metropolitan hospital that it was, qualified as a suitable place for Ellis Grey to rule.

Meredith sighed and picked up yet another rock, tossing it into the creek. As the ripples began to spread, she leaned back on her hands and tilted her head towards the sky. She had to give her mother credit for at least picking a nice place to live. Though Meredith tended to be a city oriented kind of girl, she had to admit that the townhouse her mother had bought, situated on about an acre of land was beautiful. The land was bordered in the front by a quiet street, on either side by a line of trees and in the back by the creek Meredith was currently sitting at. The creek wasn't in plain sight, so Meredith hadn't realized it was there at first. But after exploring the acre pretty thoroughly (which hadn't taken very long), Meredith had wandered down a path leading into a cluster of trees at the edge of the property. The path had ended and she had found herself standing where she was now sitting.

It was peaceful and Meredith had come to appreciate it. She had taken to escaping to its shores whenever the cold, judgmental presence that was her mother became too much to bear. Which was exactly what she had been doing when she came to the conclusion that she hated her mother. But now it was getting dark, which meant that her mother was probably headed off to the hospital, which, in turn, meant that it was safe to go inside. She was just picking up one last rock to throw into the creek for good measure when she was overcome with the feeling that she was being watched. She looked to her right and noticed that there was, in fact, someone watching her, quite intently actually.

She was startled. She stood up, still holding her rock. Her observer was a boy, or a young man, Meredith had always been confused where that cutoff was. He looked to be her age, though. She didn't move and neither did he. She wondered if he was a rapist or a serial killer or something equally horrible. She considered throwing the rock at him, but decided against it. "Hi," the alleged rapist said. Did rapists greet their victims so politely?

Meredith managed to choke up her voice. "Hi."

"You can put that down you know," he said.

Meredith glanced down at her hand still clenched around the rock. She looked back at the boy or young man or whatever he was. She looked him up and down. He really didn't look like a rapist or a murderer. "Are you going to attack me?" she asked.

He treated this totally outrageous question as if it were quite rational. "No, I won't."

Meredith dropped the rock, hearing the dull clink as it hit the other rocks at her feet. "Good."

He didn't say anything more and so they simply stood there, staring at each other in silence. He was handsome, Meredith decided as she studied his face in the dusky light. Curly brown hair, blue eyes, lean figure, relaxed posture. Yup, he was definitely good looking, but for some reason, Meredith didn't care. Usually, she would've immediately started flirting. Usually, she would've instantly started fretting over her appearance. But for some reason, she didn't. It was odd, but also kind of not, if that made any sense.

"You're new here." He said it like statement, not a question. Meredith wondered with a pang of self pity if she really looked that tragically out of place.

"I am," she said. "How did you know?"

He smiled at her and crossed his arms over his chest. "I can sense these things," he said mysteriously.

Meredith frowned at him. "Is it really that obvious?"

"No, it's not," he said. She frowned. "But the moving vans are."

She smiled for the first time and felt herself relax a little. She loosened her muscles, realizing how stiff she had been. "Oh," was all she could muster.

He took a step towards her, letting his arms fall back to his sides. "Where are you from?"

"Boston," she admitted after a moment.

"Never been there," he admitted right back.

"Well then I don't think we can be friends," she said. He chuckled and she smiled. They both sat down onto the cold, slightly damp rocks beside each other. "You're from the Northeast too," she said.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked, a hint of a smile in his voice.

"No," she said. "But the Yankees cap is."

He lifted his hand to the brim of his hat as if remembering it was there. "Oh," he said. "I forgot I was wearing that."

"Yankees fan?" she asked him.

"Greatest team in baseball," he said faithfully.

"Another reason why we can't be friends," she told him. She liked him. And not in the lets-go-makeout-under-the-bleachers way, but in the friends way. It was nice, not to be forced and fake towards a boy for once. It was nice not to feel judged. As they sat there, Meredith mused at how sad it was that there were so few people in her life that she actually liked.

xxx

Derek was not exactly popular, he wasn't exactly the guy that did the whole pep-rally, football game, prom thing. He went to camp over the summer instead of getting wasted in the parking lot at the local mall. He had dinner with his family instead of picking up unassuming freshman girls and having sex with them under the bleachers at football games. He did his homework instead of getting drunk and watching porn in his garage. Some might call him a geek, some might call him a loser, but the thing was, Derek didn't care. He didn't long for popularity. He didn't long to be noticed by the cheerleaders. And for this reason, he was not associated with the nobodies nor the somebodies. He was somewhere in between. He was always somewhere in between.

Because he was born in September, his parents had to decide whether or not to send him into kindergarten when he was just barely four, or just barely six. Because he was on the borderline for diagnosable dyslexia, he had to take special classes with a speech therapist up until fifth grade just to be sure. Because his teeth were almost perfectly straight, he wore braces for a mere six weeks. He was the Almost Guy. Like some strange, half-way superhero. He was an almost geek, with the almost grades who lived in an almost bedroom, because, as the fifth child, his parents had basically ran out of room. He was the king of in between, he was the ruler of kind of, he was the sultan of almost. Until he met her.

There was no part of him that was unsure when he saw her. There was no fiber in his being that was in between when he came upon her, sitting in the fading light, her golden hair matching the golden sky, a frown painted across her features as she stared out at the water. He was sure. Sure of what he didn't exactly know, but it felt good to be standing on his own two feet knowing something definite for the first time in a long time.

He knew he wanted to be near her, he knew he wanted to get to know her, he knew he had stumbled upon something or someone important. And when he saw her smile, he knew that she was someone he could quite possibly fall in love with.

xxx

Meredith lay on her bed thinking about a boy. What was wrong with her? She never did this. She never fretted and wondered about anyone, let alone a boy. She was not that girl. She was not the girl who cared. And yet, here she was, fretting and wondering and...caring.

But she wasn't fretting and wondering and caring about the normal things like whether or not he was good kisser. She was wondering about outrageous stuff like whether or not his parents loved him or whether or not he watched Friends or whether he liked Coke or Pepsi. It was outrageous, it was ludicrous, caring about another person like this. The only living being Meredith had ever really bonded with was her dog named Miles she had had when she was a little girl. Miles had gotten hit by a car on her sixth birthday and after that Meredith had stopped making connections. It hurt too much when they broke.

As she lay there, Meredith heard the front door open. Her mother had returned and was no doubt in the mood to be disappointed about some aspect of Meredith's being. As the footsteps ascended the stairs, Meredith willed herself to look asleep. She squeezed her eyes shut, she huddled under her covers and yet the footsteps still stopped outside her room. "Oh good, you're up," her mother said.

"Actually I'm not," she said.

There was a pause. "Now you are."

"What is it?" Meredith asked, not sitting up.

"You're grades came today," her mother said. There was pause. "I'm disappointed." Of course you are, Meredith thought. "These grades are unacceptable."

This was funny because Meredith knew her grades were quite acceptable. She had figured it out when her advisor had congratulated her on making the highest grades in the class. "What about them is so unacceptable?" Meredith asked, staring at her wall.

"A B minus in Science? Meredith, do you know what a B minus is?" she asked. Meredith didn't answer. This was the part when she was supposed to be the obedient daughter, absorbing her mother's bullshit wisdom. "It's average. I did not raise you to be average, Meredith. I raised you to be extraordinary."

"Well did you also happen to see those six A pluses listed neatly under that B minus?" Meredith asked, her voice cold. "Or do you automatically zone in on the aspect of any situation, which gives you reason to yell at me?"

"You will not speak to me like that," her mother said, striding further into the room. "I won't tolerate it." She paused and straightened up slightly, glancing at the grades, which were clutched in her hand. "I won't tolerate an average grade either. You will improve this grade."

Meredith looked at her mother. You will improve, you will change, you will be extraordinary. She said these things as if she was talking about washing the dishes, as if it was simple matter of hard work. Ridiculously, Meredith suddenly wished she wasn't smart, that she was average, just so she could get revenge on her mother in some strange way. She realized her mother was still waiting for a response, but she couldn't give one. Her anger was clouding her brain. It was making things foggier than they should be.

She stood up and walked past her mother who watched her with a look of slight disbelief at being ignored. She walked down the stairs and outside. She walked across the lawn in her pajamas with bright red cherries on them. Why did she think he would be there? Why did she even hope for it? Disjointedly, she realized she still didn't even know his name.

She walked down the short path and emerged beside the creek. He was there. Of course he was. She sat down beside him and fingered one of the cherries on her leg. She glanced over at him. He was more properly dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. "Hello again," he said. Was he surprised to see her? Was he waiting for her?

"Hey," she said. She shifted her gaze from the creek to his face. He was looking at her as well. "Do you have a name?"

He smiled knowingly. "Yes, it's Derek," he said. He glanced at his legs, crossed in front of him. "Do you have one?"

She smiled. "Meredith." He nodded. She looked away from him and pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. The rocks were particularly cold through the thin material of her pajamas, but she didn't notice. She watched the pretty way the moonlight reflected in the current of the creek. She wondered about the boy sitting beside her. "Hey, Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you like Coke or Pepsi?"

So what do ya'll think? Like it? Should I keep going?