The day was long; each second on the clock seemed to go by slower than usual. I felt like I was being stared at everywhere I went, but I also had the feeling of being totally ignored. I let my long brown hair fall over my face the whole day, shielding myself from the other students and threw myself right into my schoolwork. When the bell finally rang for the end of the day, I walked out as fast as I could, avoiding the rowdy and violent kids, and headed straight for my car. I hopped in and joined the line of cars waiting to pull out of the parking lot. As I slowly inched forward, I thought about meeting Tucker that morning. He had come across as such a jerk, the way he acted toward the teacher and talked to me like he owned the school. He was your typical stereotype

A dark blue truck suddenly pulled out right in front of me, cutting me off just as I was about to leave the parking lot and narrowly missed the front of my car. I angrily leaned forward and honked my horn, trying to see who the a**hole was that had cut me off. The windows were tinted pretty dark and I couldn’t see inside so I huffed, aggravated, and leaned back, turning on my country music to distract me. The truck moved forward I slowly coasted my way out of the parking lot onto the road. I was angered even more when I realized the blue truck seemed to be going to exact same way as me. I tried to keep my eyes focused on the road and made my way home.

The mysterious blue truck person was my next-door-neighbor.

I got out of my car, slammed my door closed and stomped over to the edge of my driveway, waiting for the jerk to get out of his lifted truck. I stepped back in alarm when Tucker stepped out of the drivers seat.

“You?” I exclaimed.

He whipped around, clearly startled by my random outburst, and then grinned slightly. “You’re the new neighbors?” he asked with a smirk.

“Um… yeah,” I said, still surprised, my anger at him for the parking lot incident slowly ebbing away.

“Did you need something?” he asked, nodding at my car door, which I’d left sitting ajar, and my balled up fists.

“What? Oh, um, yeah. I just wanted to tell you to watch where you’re going in the parking lot. You nearly crushed my little car pulling out today.” I didn’t say it with nearly as much anger or harshness as I had intended to. There was something about his adorable curly blonde hair and tan skin that just made me lose my train of thought.

“My bad,” he said, raising his hand and then dropping it.

I nodded, satisfied that I at least got a semi-apology, and then turned around to get my things out of my car.

“So do you like the new house?” he inquired.


I turned around, trying to see if he was going to make some wisecrack or make fun of me, but he looked genuinely interested in my answer. “Yeah, it’s alright. It’s a lot bigger than my old house.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

I shrugged. “It just doesn’t feel as homey.”

He cocked his head to the side a little, as if giving this deep consideration, and then just nodded, pushing his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans.

“I love the view though. I’ve never had mountains this close to my house before.”

He grinned, looking over at the rolling, magnificent beauty of the Rocky Mountains to our left. “It is pretty awesome, huh? It’s my favorite place in the whole world.”

I nodded. “I can see why. I’ve never spent much time in the woods. My family would go hiking sometimes when I was little but that’s basically it.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, sounding like it actually made him sad. “I’ve been hiking basically every day since I was seven. I’m actually about to go right now.”

“Well, have fun,” I said, realizing I was keeping him from leaving. “I’ll see you later, neighbor.” I walked up to my front door, fumbling with the key for a moment.

“Hey, California!” Tucker suddenly called. He was still standing next to his truck. “There’s always room for one more, if you wanna join me.”

“I’m good. I’ve got too much to do. But thanks.” I inserted my key into the lock and then, after just a brief moment of hesitation, turned around and yelled back, “On second thought, I’d love to.”

He grinned.