Carly Neilson

Carly sighed, running a hand through her reddish brown hair, staring at her reflection in the mirror. This was it. The last day of her sophomore year. Another year had come and gone, and nothing in her life had changed. There had been no first kiss this year, no special academic award, no breakthrough solo in her choir class. She was just Carly, the invisible girl with the pretty face and the voice of an unheard angel. When would her life actually start?

After applying a quick layer of mascara, Carly swept her hair back in a purple headband and rushed downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning, Car," her dad greeted her, his eyes never leaving his newspaper.

"Hey, Dad," Carly replied, hastily pouring herself a bowl of cereal. She glanced at the clock; 7:36. Crap. She had spent too much time reflecting on her year. A bright yellow school bus appeared at her front door and honked.

"Have a good day," her dad said as she inhaled the rest of her breakfast.

"Yeah," she choked. Carly grabbed her worn out backpack from the recliner and picked her heeled ankle boots up from beside the door, not taking the time to put them on. She'd have plenty of time on the bus. "Bye, Dad!" she called.

The bus honked again, and she dashed out the door and scrambled onto the bus.

"Sorry," she apologized to the driver. He rolled his eyes and jerked his head to the back of the bus, silently ordering her to sit down. Carly lowered her eyes to the floor submissively and sank down into the empty seat behind him. She quickly strapped on her boots, and then leaned her head against the cold window. The bus bounced along the uneven pavement, transporting her to the last place she wanted to be: Lake View High School.

The place was a prison. It really, truly was. There had been a rumor going around for years that it was originally built as a jail, but they decided it was too gloomy. Carly knew it wasn't true, of course, but it was an entertaining thought. The hallways were narrow and dark; there were no windows. The school colors were black, gray, and white, and the mascot was a skunk. Really? A skunk? Of all the animals in the world, they had to pick a skunk. It was ridiculous.

Carly quietly made her way into the school, disappearing in the crowd of people. She walked with her head down, and wound her hair around her fingers to keep her hands occupied. Everyone was energetic today. Seniors stood in little groups around the entrance, giggling excitedly, discussing their futures. Freshmen hung out in smaller groups, intimidated by the vibrant atmosphere, but thrilled to have made it through their first year in the big leagues. The juniors and sophomores blended together in a jumbled mob, fighting their ways to their lockers. Carly allowed herself to be shoved around until she finally managed to get inside. Thank goodness her locker was at the end of the first hall as opposed to downstairs like some of her friends.

Carly emptied out her locker slowly, packing all of her remaining books and binders into her bag and carefully prying off the pictures from the inside. There was one of her and her parents at the beach last summer, playing volleyball. Carly sucked at volleyball, but it was great to play with her family. Her mom was a flight attendant, and was always away on business, but she had taken a whole week off to spend that part of the summer with them. They went to Aunt Jemma's house every summer, because she only lived twenty minutes away from the beach, and it was always fun, but a lot of times it was lonely. There wasn't anyone her age that she knew there, and her dad was great to hang around, but after a while Monopoly and Scrabble got old.

The second picture was of her and her friends. Carly had a very select group of friends, and they rarely talked to anyone outside of their circle, but fortunately, their circle was ten people big, Carly included, so there was always something new to talk about.

This particular picture showed her and her friends at their homecoming dance. They had all gone to Melanie Reed's house, because she had the best fashion sense and had basically chosen everyone's dress. Carly's had been a cute and flirty royal blue strapless number that flared out at the waist. Melanie's dress was equally awesome. She had worn a pastel pink dress with a floaty skirt and a sweetheart neckline, paired with sparkling silver jewelry and a large ring shaped like a rose. She had curled her short black hair so that it bounced whenever she did, which was quite a bit.

Her other friends had looked great, too. Dahlia was the only one who actually had a date; she and her long-time friend Ken had gone "as friends," which was really laughable because everyone could see that they liked each other.

Elena hadn't even wanted to go to the dance in the first place, and probably wouldn't have if the girls hadn't forced her. Frankie had caught Lena's boyfriend of almost a year making out with some bleach blonde cheerleader, which would have been bad enough if you don't count the fact that Lena was on the squad as well. Needless to say, she and the other girl, Amelia, haven't spoken since. Carrie, the star of the girls' basketball team, successfully turned just about everyone in the entire sports department against the boy in question, and he's no longer the chick magnet he used to be. Sammy did all but punch the jerk in the face, which she would have done if Luzma hadn't dragged her out of the way. Of course, that left Frankie an opening to kick his shin really hard, which she sometimes does when she's upset.

Oh, yeah. Mr. Jesse really regretted cheating on Lena after he had suffered the girls' wrath. Rachel and Monique had just stood in the background with Carly while the drama unfolded, but everyone was there for Lena. Actually, now that Carly thought about it, that little episode had been the one interesting thing that had happened this year. Something had happened with Rachel as well, but she blatantly refused to tell anyone about it, and over time, the girls had stopped inquiring.

Carly smiled at the picture and tucked it into a pocket inside her bag, along with all the others. When her locker was completely empty, she left it opened as instructed and went to join her friends. They still had fifteen minutes before they had to get to class.

The girls were, predictably, in the sophomore stairwell leaning against the walls, chatting and watching the endless stream of people flood the staircase. Moni grinned when she saw Carly approaching, and called her friend over with her hand. Carly headed over without hesitation, and the girls made room for her in the circle without thinking. Sammy was bouncing up and down, unable to contain her boundless energy and excitement.

"I can't believe it's finally over!" she squealed. "Just have to get through four more stupid classes!"

"We watched Tangled in my English class yesterday," Rachel said. "It was kind of annoying because everyone kept quoting it and singing along…" her voice trailed off as she revisited the memory, "but my point is, we probably won't do anything."

"Oh, that's good," Carly sighed, throwing her head back in relief. "I'm exhausted."

"I'm tired too," Carrie admitted, "but c'mon, Car! It's our last day!"

"I don't know," Carly groaned. "I just really, really want a change of scenery, you know? I'm sick of going to school in a prison." The girls giggled at the reference, but then turned serious.

"Yeah, me too, I guess," Melanie revealed. "It might be nice to go somewhere else, but what can we do?"

"I'd love to get out of here," Elena grumbled. Right on cue, Jesse entered the staircase. They stared each other down, waging a silent battle until Jesse's friend got annoyed and shoved him up the stairs.

"I don't know…I kinda like it here…" Dahlia said dreamily, staring off into space.

"Yes, and we all know why, Barbie," Melanie laughed.

"Oh, shut up, Mel," Dahlia said, punching Melanie in the shoulder playfully.

"I'm going up to my Aunt's this summer," Carly told them, changing the subject. "She lives right next to the beach. My mom's gonna come out, too."

"Take me with you," Lena moaned, still staring after Jesse.

"Holy crap, Lena, get over the stupid guy," Luzma sighed, exasperated. She brightened up quickly, though. "Could we come though, Car? Maybe? I don't get to go back to Cali this summer, so I'm not gonna have anything else to do. And didn't you say before that your aunt lives in like, a mansion?"

"It's not a mansion, really," Carly clarified. "But yeah, her house is pretty massive, and it has a pretty sweet basement all decked out with air hockey and ping pong and whatnot. And like…" Carly counted on her fingers, "six bedrooms? Not including the basement; there's two more down there."

"Air hockey?" Carrie gasped, her smile widening. "That's a deal-breaker, right there. I'm coming." Carly grinned. It would be fun to have her friends come out for part of the summer. The community was great, there were some great stores, the beach was beautiful but never too crowded, and Aunt Jemma had the most amazing closet in the basement full of old vintage costumes. Carly would spend hours down there sometimes trying on all the Victorian dresses and princess ball gowns. Sometimes, she would even do a little photo shoot. Doing that with someone other than just herself would be a gazillion times more fun.

"Well…" she hesitated, "I'd have to ask Aunt Jemma, and my parents, of course, I mean, ten girls…"

"C'mon! What trouble could we possibly cause?" Frankie joked, blinking her green eyes innocently and swirling around her red and white polka dot dress.

"Oh, I can think of a few things," Rachel muttered, unsuccessfully trying to hide her smirk. Frankie stuck out her tongue, eliciting giggles from everyone.

The bell rang for class, and the girls parted ways. Carly headed upstairs to English, where she, true to Rachel's word, got to watch Tangled. Her class didn't sing like Rachel's had, but they did quote the movie a lot. But Carly herself was among them, so it didn't bother her.

The end of the day came quickly, and if the atmosphere had been overwhelming in the morning, it was nothing compared to now. The decibel level had raised quite a few measures as seniors paraded down the halls, throwing their papers in the air. Carly stayed out of everyone's way as much as possible, but she still got rammed into several times by excited students on their way out, and one boy had the nerve to actually pick her up from behind and spin her around, causing her to shriek in surprise and spill everything onto the floor. The boy apologized quickly, but didn't stay to help her clean up.

She barely made it to the bus loop before they pulled out, and she spent the entire twenty minutes ride hoping and praying and crossing her fingers, willing her parents and Aunt Jemma to let her friends come out. Maybe not for the whole summer, but at least a week would be nice. She'd have someone to keep her company when Mom and Dad went on date nights.

Carly was pretty confident that her parents would be okay with it. And Aunt Jemma was okay with just about anything. It'd be fine.

"Hey, Dad?" Carly called as she walked inside her house.

"Yeah, Car?" her dad called from the other room.

"Would it be okay if I had some friends come to Aunt Jemma's this summer? For like, a week or two?" Her dad appeared in the doorway of his office, a knowing grin on his face.

"Just how many friends are we talking about here, hun?" he questioned.

"Oh, um, just a few…I was thinking Rachel, Elena, Dahlia, Frankie, Monique, Melanie, Luzma, Sammy, and Carrie?" Carly said hopefully. Her dad raised an eyebrow as if to say, "Are you kidding me?" Carly sighed and threw her hands up in the air, surrendering.

"Okay, fine," she said. "I just thought, you know, it might be fun to have a couple friends at the beach this year, that's all."

"You don't want to go this year?" her dad asked, furrowing his brow in confusion. "Why not?"

"Because I'm always alone!" Carly answered. "I don't know anyone who lives there!" Her dad sighed and ran a hand through his hair, peering at her from above his rectangular glasses.

"I just don't know, Car. We can hardly ask Jemma to play host to nine extra girls."

"Just let me call her," Carly begged. "If she says okay, will you let them come? Please?"

"If Jemma doesn't care, go for it," he told her, shrugging his shoulders. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"'Kay. Thanks, Dad!" Carly squealed. She ran upstairs to her bedroom for some privacy and punched Aunt Jemma's number into her phone.

"Aloha?" Aunt Jemma's voice answered.

"Aunt Jemma! It's Carly."

"Oh, hi sweetie? How goes it?"

"I'm fine, thanks. I'm really looking forward to coming up to your house this summer."

"And I'm looking forward to having you, dah-link," Aunt Jemma said sweetly. "Is there something you need, fairy? I hate to be rude, but I'm late for a costume meeting with the community theater group and I've really got to run…"

"Oh, yes!" Carly said hurriedly. "Could I have some friends over for a week or two at the end of the summer?"

"How many?"

"Nine."

"Oh, sure, why not? The more the merrier! I've gotta go, fairy. See you in a week!"

"Thank you so much, Aunt Jemma!" said Carly. "See you later!"

"Toodles!" Aunt Jemma hung up, and Carly did a happy dance around her room. She'd get to have fun this summer! Once she was exhausted from jumping around, she took out her phone again and sent out a mass text to her friends.

Carly: ladies, we've got summer in the bag! xoxo carly

I hope you liked it! I'm sorry, that chapter was kind of slow, but every story needs an exposition, right? It'll speed up.

Okay, so I need a little help here. Do you guys like the way it's written, or should I just have this prologue be in 3rd person and have the rest in 1st? Or, I could even do a mixture if you wanted. And would you like different chapters to mainly focus on just a couple girls, or do you like having them all together? I feel like it would be better if it was more specific, but I don't want you guys to not read the chapter because your character isn't in it. What do you guys think of the girls so far?

Tell me what you think in a review!

Luv yah,

Ava