The diary of Lyla Maddison

New neighbor

Dear diary,

Today is the first day of junior year, I normally wake up at 4:30 am so I can meet the girls down the road for an early morning run before school. And today was no different. When my alarm went off at 4 I ran to my bathroom to pee, wash my face, brush my teeth, and put my hair in a messy bun. I quickly threw a gray tank and black basketball shorts on. I grabbed my white sneakers and ran down stairs.

“Hey, sweet heart, how did you sleep” dad said as he drank a large cup of coffee and flipped the pancakes he was making.

“Good, did you have another late night surgery?” I said pointing at his huge under eye bags.

“Yeah, I had 3 four hour surgeries last night” he said and placed a pancake in front of me. “You need to eat before your run” he scooted the plate toward me.

“Ok” I started stuffing pancakes in my mouth and chewing.

When I was done I saw it was already 4:25, so I slipped on my shoes, told my dad I loved him, and ran out the door.

When I got outside I met my friends at the stop sign before you go to the beach. I saw Nancy is athletic shorts and a tee shirt with bright yellow shoes, she wore her hair half up. Then there was La’Helah in her matching track suit and wedges for shoes. Of course she had a full face of makeup on.

“Hey guys, it’s a lovely morning.” I said as I ran to them.

“Hey" Nancy said and smiled, I smiled back.

"So what are we doing for your birthday!!”La’Helah exclaimed as we started running along the beach.

I am not sure why she does this every year. I am not the type of girl that makes a huge deal out of my birthday. It’s just another day, and it’s still a month away. But La’Helah likes to be on top of things.

“Ummm, I was not planning on doing anything different than I always do. You know at the gazebo at the beach: me, you, Nancy, Drake, and our parents.” I said hoping she would be ok with it.

“Sounds great to me I always love your birthday parties!” Said Nancy.

“Nooo, we can’t do the same thing it’s your 18th birthday, the year you get your……ummm.” La’Helah whined but then cover her mouth like i was not supposed to know what umm is.

“What does umm mean??” I questioned.

“I uh can we just pretend I didn’t say anything, we can even do your party thing.” She nervously said while looking at her watch. “OMG, look at the time.” She said and ran the other way.

We followed her and went to our houses with were on the same block. When I got home it was 6:00 am, and my dad had already left for work. I ran up stairs and showered. While I was in there I could not help but feel like La’Helah was hiding something from me, and I want to know what it was. Does my dad know about this? Has everyone been with holding important information from me.

After I got out of the shower, I brushed my wet hair and let it hang down my back. I put on ripped jeans and a dark blue top with white roses on it. And ran down stairs and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. I looked at the the time and it was 6:30.

I slid on my shoes, grabbed my bag then started walking to the door.

When I got outside, I texted my dad to tell him I needed to talk to him after work. He said he would be home by 10. I looked up to keep walking when I hit something.

It was a tall, dark headed man. He had almost grey blue eyes and towered over me. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. He had a white v-neck on with black jeans.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” I said.

“That’s ok, I’m your new neighbor, Kason Andersen.” He said in a deep voice.

“I’m uhh I’m Layla.” I said nervously.

“Hi Layla, lovely to meet you. Can you show me to Freeman high?” He said looking me up and down.

I started blushing, “yeah, just follow me.” I said jogging away while he followed close behind.

It was a quiet walk all the way to school but I could feel him staring.