A/N ok guys this is the same story it's just edited. I got a beta reader cause I wanted oneXD now onto the story.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine

Stella's thoughts

Chapter 1

I was standing in front of the funeral home with my mom, the both of us waiting for her old middle school friends to show up.

"Lilly? Lilly Connelly?" somebody
called out to my mom.

I looked over, and saw a short guy walk on up to mom. He was close to my height, which - when you think about it and consider the fact that I'm fourteen - is kinda' weird.

Mom's eyebrows furrowed. "Rob? Rob Hilliard?"

He nodded, and hugged her. Truth be told, the fact that mom was hugging a guy that she hadn't seen in nearly thirty years (so she said) wasn't all that surprising to me; really, she'll hug any guy, and vice versa. Mom's...(what's the word I'm thinking of?) To put it nicely, she's...easy.

"So nice to see you," she smiled before gesturing to me. "I'd like you to meet my daughter, Stella."

'Rob' looked over at me. "You're Lilly's little girl?"

I smiled politely, and nodded. "Yes sir, I am."

Rob's eyes met mom's. "She has your smile, Lilly," he told her with an assuring nod.

Yeah, mom and I have the same smile, but that's it. While mom's got the bright blonde hair and blue eyes that make her look like a Barbie doll, I have my dad's thick jet-black hair and green eyes. Mom says that I'm the spitting image of him.

Well, even though I have NO idea who my dad is, I'll just assumethat she's right about that.

An older woman (probably in her late 60's) breezed up beside Rob.

Noticing this, Rob grinned, and pointed to her. "Lilly, Stella - this is my wife, Gloria."

Mom was barely able to hide a wince. "Nice to meet you," she managed.

I nodded. "Yeah, nice to meet you."
So, that explains why he's not hitting on mom, I thought. He's into older women. - italicized

Gloria gave the both of us this super-friendly, toothy smile. "I like your earrings, honey," she said to me as she pointed to the dangly star earrings I was wearing.

I bit my lip awkwardly, and stared down at the sidewalk. I stared at her velvet covered kitten heels for a second. "I like your...shoes."

There was uncomfortable silence between the four of us. Luckily, the
MacKenzies pulled up in their Volvo, and unknowingly saved me from the conversation I'd gotten sucked into.

I jogged over to their car, and excitedly waited for Charlotte - my best friend after only hanging out with her and her family five times - to get out.

"Charlie!" I squealed as she got out of the back, and slammed the door shut.

A look of glee bloomed on her face. "Stella!" She ran over to me, and hugged me. "I missed you!"

"Missed you, too!"

"Hey, I don't get a hug?" Looking over Charlie's shoulder, I saw her older brother, Andre, give me this teasing smile before he held his arms out.

I sighed, let go of Charlie, and went to hug Andre. I smiled softly."Andy,
Andy, Andy..." I play-scolded him with one of his MANY nicknames.

"Hey, Stella!" I glanced behind me, and saw Andre and Charlie's parents waving at me.

I quickly unwrapped my arms from around Andre, and skipped over to them.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie," I
chirped.

Mr. MacKenzie gave me a high-five. "Hey! Great to see you!"
His wife quickly added in, "By the way sweetie, you can call us Kurt and Deanne." She sent me a goofy look. "So we don't feel TOO old."

"Sure thing."

All of a sudden, this huge woman with what looked like an airplane propeller on her head waddled over, almost knocking Kurt over in the process - the one and only Mama Ronzoni, Charlotte and Andre's grandma.

Oh, DEAR LORD. She grabbed my cheeks, and gave me a big kiss on the forehead. "Look at how big you've gotten, Stella! You still need some meat on those bones of yours, but my goodness, you're tall!"

"Thank you?" I said, not really sure how to react to that.

By then though, Mama Ronzoni had let go of my cheeks and walked away. I shook my head - I was never gonna get used to that woman.

"Hollywood!" I heard Kurt yell to somebody

I turned around, and saw that Kurt was yelling at a guy with black hair and a big nose. He was standing in front of a big black GMC Yukon with a Hispanic
woman, two boys, one girl, and an Asian woman who looked suspiciously like a nanny.

The black-haired man laughed. "Hey, look at that! Kurt MacKenzie and the whole MacKenzie clan!" He walked over to Kurt, gave him a man-hug, then turned to mom with a laid-back, one-sided smile on his face.

"And this must be Lilly
Connelly." He gave mom a hug.

"Nice to see you again, Lenny," mom beamed. She rolled out the same gesture she'd used when she introduced me to Rob and Gloria.

"Lenny, this is my daughter, Stella."

Lenny looked at me, and nodded. "Ah, so you're the infamous Stella Connelly," he said as he shook my hand.

"Yep, the one and only."
He pointed to the three kids behind him with his thumbs. "You oughta' meet my kids - I think you'd like them."

Interested in meeting his kids, I gave Lenny a why-not shrug, and walked over to his car with Deanne, although I doubted she felt like doing what I was doing.

Apparently, I was right; Deanne made a beeline for the Hispanic woman (Lenny's wife, probably), and struck up a conversation with her.

"Hi, Roxanne!" she greeted the woman cheerfully. "I don't know if you remember me, but I was at your wedding - I was table dancing all night. Deanne MacKenzie."

'Roxanne' gave Deanne a cordial smile. "Of course Deanne, hello!"

She gestured to Deanne's stomach, which - at six months pregnant - was about the size of a
beachball. "Oh my gosh, you're glowing. You look so beautiful with your pregnancy."

Immediately after Roxanne said that, I knew that there were two possible responses to that compliment - either Deanne would thank her for it, or she
would crack a joke. Knowing Deanne, she was probably gonna go with option number two.

And she did. Deanne looked completely serious as she said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

As Roxanne's smile started to fade, Deanne burst out laughing. "I'm just
playing! Oh god, you should've seen your face! You were like 'huh?'"
she
cackled as Roxanne's cheeks turned the color of a cherry tomato.
Watching her, I felt kinda' bad for Roxanne; the poor lady looked like she was about to croak.

So, I threw her a bone and introduced myself. "Hi, Mrs. Feder," I said somewhat-shyly. "I'm Buzzer's granddaughter, Stella
Connelly."

"Hello, Stella," Roxanne smiled, "I'm Roxanne. Nice to meet you."

She pointed to the two boys and one girl standing behind her. "These are my kids" - she pointed to each kid and gave their names - "Greg, Keith and Becky."

I looked at the boy Roxanne had called Greg. He looked like he was my age. He was pretty cute, too; he had wavy dark-brown hair, and an overall good-looking face and body.

I nodded to myself - I could definitely get used to hanging around this boy.

"Hey babe," he said to me in an attempt to sound cool.

On second thought, never mind. - italicized

I quirked an eyebrow. "What's up, hot stuff?" I shot back mockingly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but his phone went off just before he could give me lip.

His ringtone was some stupid rap song about being a gangsta, shooting big guns, having girls, and all this other crap.

I rolled my eyes as the ringtone played and as Keith rolled out some weird swag-dance.

Lenny looked at Greg irritably when his phone went off. "Didn't I tell you to turn the phone off, Greg?"

"Yeah, but it's my massage therapist!" Greg protested.

Massage therapist? SERIOUSLY? What kind of fourteen-year old has a massage therapist? - italicized

Lenny shook his head. "What? No, no cell phones."

"What? No cell phones? Then I'm outta here!" a voice behind us said jokingly.

I mentally squealed at the sound of Marcus Higgins' voice. I turned around, and ran to give him a big hug.

Marcus and mom had a thing back when I was younger, and he was always around our house, just hanging out and having a good time with me and mom.

The guy was sorta' like an uncle to me. The guy might seem pretty skeevey/perverted/flirty around most people, but he's really
cool when he's hanging out with me and mom.

He caught me, and squeezed me in a bear hug. "If it isn't Stella," he said.
"Any boyfriends yet?"

I shook my head. "Nope, not yet."
Repeating something he told me a couple years ago, he chuckled,

"You're too
pretty not to have a boyfriend. Man, if we were your age, we'd be all over you!"

I looked at Marcus with a creeped out look on my face, and scooted off to the side.

Marcus laughly loudly at that. "Relax Stella, I'm just kidding. That would be illegal."

I wasn't all that convinced. "I'm gonna go inside," I said quickly.

"Alright, say hi to your mom for me!"

I nodded, and kept walking towards the funeral home.

It was PACKED when I got inside, to the point where it was hard for me to find a seat.

Not that it annoyed me though; it was actually nice to see so many
people here bidding my grandpa goodbye.

He was the type of person who always put others first before himself, no matter what. And now, we were all doing the same for him.

I finally found an empty spot next to Charlotte, so I ran over and took it before anybody else could.

"Hey," I said to her as I sat down.

"Hey." Charlie suddenly got this impish look on her face. "Soo...I saw you meet Greg."

I glanced to my right, and briefly stared at him as he played a game on his PSP.

My face puckered up.

"Ugh, don't remind me," I groaned.

"Aw c'mon, he's cute, Stella! You two would look great together!"

Yeah, NO.

"I don't care if I haven't had a boyfriend yet, Charlie - there's no WAY that Greg Feder's gonna be my first."

"Yeah, we'll see," Charlie snickered.

Oh, BRILLIANT.

A/N I liked the way this one turned out better then the first. Thank you
phoenixfire53! Reviews are love