Once in a Full Moon Page 0,4
were swimming in her in-ground pool when a moving truck pulled in next door. A girl with a dark ponytail hopped out of the car. When she saw us, without hesitation she came right up and said, "Hi, I'm Abby Kensington. I know we'll be great friends."
I thought it was odd, since she didn't know a thing about Ivy or me. But it turned out Abby was right. She inserted herself into our twosome and we became an inseparable threesome.
Abby was athletic, with olive skin and black hair that waved like the sea, while Ivy was wiry and had alabaster skin and blade-straight blond hair. I fall somewhere in the middle.
At first, I was jealous of the new girl. Since Abby moved next door to Ivy, I was convinced they'd hang out together behind my back. They also shared a passion for designer clothes that I lacked. Abby was just as interested in scoring pristine high-end sports gear as she was winning a game. But Ivy never let anything sever our relationship.
Another attribute that my friends shared was accusing me of being too nice because I was cordial to everyone. Just because students were from various parts of the community didn't make us that different, I tried to tell them. We are all united by the same town and the same school, I reasoned, but Ivy and Abby preferred to hang out with Eastsiders. I tell them they aren't outright snobs but, rather, inward.
Juliette was of the same snooty mold. Two years older than me, she was cover-girl pretty. I was always in her shadow. Juliette did her best to make me a miniversion of herself, but it just didn't take. She took modeling classes, and as much as I tried to follow in her footsteps, I couldn't walk in a straight line even without a stack of books on my head.
While I ran around with Ivy and Abby, Juliette always kept company with one of the many adoring guys pursuing her.
Now that Juliette was a freshman in college, I was the only young adult in the house. I received more attention from my parents than normal and the house was much quieter with her absence, but I secretly did miss her. She didn't seem to miss home, though, since she was super busy dating college guys with Greek letters on their sweatshirts.
Unfortunately, my love life wasn't as glamorous as my sister's, until one day when I was approached by a guy I had had a crush on since first grade - Nash Hamilton.
Nash, Dylan, and Jake have had consecutive numbers on their football jerseys for as long as I can remember. Ivy and Abby had been dating Jake and Dylan since ninth grade. Since the three of them were best friends and two of them dated my best friends, it was always assumed that Nash and I should be sweethearts. But Nash always had a girlfriend.
It was at the end of sophomore year when Nash broke up with Heidi Rosen.
Ivy, Abby, and I were at a football practice when the team had a break. My friends chatted with their boyfriends, and I was writing ideas for future stories in my notebook. I went to the water fountain, and Nash approached me.
He leaned toward me and asked me out. I thought I didn't hear him correctly. When he repeated his request for a date, I almost laughed.
"No," I said, and walked away.
"Hey, come back."
It was then, I think, he really noticed me. Not as one of the popular girls, but as someone who was different. I don't think a girl had ever said no to him before. And I know he never chased after one.
I really thought it was a joke. Nash was known for pranks around school - gum on chairs, funny sayings on blackboards, sticking naughty pictures in textbooks - and I'd yet to be picked as his victim. I was sure that at any moment the school photographer was going to jump out from the bleachers and claim he'd captured the whole thing on video.
But more than that, I wondered why a hotshot like him would want to go out with me.
Ivy and Abby hung by the bleachers with a "What are you doing?" look on their faces.
I realized, then, that Nash wasn't kidding. It wasn't a prank, a hoax, or a hazing. Nash Hamilton was really asking me out.
Nash was a great catch - literally. He was the