Prologue

            Malia Littrell had just turned fifteen in June and she was looking forward to her Sophomore year of highschool, and even more so because she was moving with her parents and older brother to Los Angeles, California. She pulled her dirty blonde hair up into a ponytail and got to the task of packing up her room, before her parents got onto her for not doing it. It was really supposed to have been done two days ago, but in all the excitement and sadness of leaving she hadn’t done it. The friends she had grown up with here in Georgia had all wanted to do one last thing with her and one thing always turned into one more thing and one more and so on. She could never say no to her friends and that was the reason that she had yet to complete packing up her room before tomorrow.

            Across the hall Baylee, seventeen years old was blaring music from his stereo and haphazardly tossing things into boxes that were only labeled as -Baylee- in his messy handwriting. He walked across the room to his bed to see if there was anything underneath it, his stuff often got kicked or thrown under there somehow.

I’m just sayin’, you could do better

Tell me have you heard that lately?

I’m just sayin’ you could do better

And I’ll start hatin’, only if you make me

Uh, cups of the XO

All my people been here

I see all of her friends here

Guess she don’t have the time to kick it no more

Flights in the morning

What you doing that’s so important?

I’ve been drinking so much

That I ’ma call you anyway and say

The stereo was blasting away while Baylee was under his bed clearing things out, there was all kinds of junk under there and most of which probably just should have already been thrown out.

            Malia could hear her brother’s stereo and tried not to roll her eyes, she didn’t know but he seemed to really like this song a lot or atleast he had since his girlfriend left him, she wondered if there was any connection. Mood music was the conclusion that she came to on this one, and sometimes it was best not to comment on things to Baylee when he was in a mood. She was packing up the books on her bookshelf when her cell phone beeped, the phone was a birthday present from her Uncle Kevin and she had also gotten a new laptop from her parents, she was so super excited about both. It was the first time that her parents had allowed her to have a cell phone and a laptop, she had only been allowed to use the family computer when deemed necessary which meant school work only. The laptop was all hers and for her personal use she couldn’t wait to start using it more once she got settled in after the move.

 Turning away from the books she grabbed the phone from where it lay on her pillows to see a text message from her best friend- Kendall.

To : Malia

From :  Kendall

    : * (, I can’t believe u r leavin! Majorly sucky.

She had to admit the worst part about moving was leaving behind Kendall and her other friends, but then moving also meant that she would get the chance to make new friends and have new adventures.

To:Kendall

From : Malia

            :/. It sucks that we won’t finish highschool 2gether. I wish I cud take u w/me.

She hit send after she had finished typing the message and then tossed her phone back onto her bed, then resumed taking the books from her shelf and packing them into a box. The box was neatly labeled as Malia’s Books # 1.

To: Malia

From : Kendall

            U should just move in with me ! my mom won’t care.

there was another beep indicating a reply from Kendall.

            Turning towards her bed she grabbed the phone and read the message laughing softly, ever since Kendall had found out that she was moving she had been begging for Malia to move in with her and her mom and finish highschool. As appealing as that idea sounded it was not for the best in the long run and both girls knew it, well Kendall would eventually know it anyway once she got over the shock of Malia moving away.

            She hit the reply key and started to type a message to Kendall, it was hard to believe that the two girls had been best friends since grade school, and now they were going their separate ways.

To: Kendall

From: Malia

            U kno I can’t. We can still keep in touch though now that I have a laptop too.

She hit send.

“Baylee! Malia! Dinner is ready!” Leighanne called from downstairs. She had been cooking for most of the evening to have dinner on the table by the time that Brian

got home. He had been out finishing up some last minute work and getting things settled with the moving people who would be arriving bright and early in the morning to get moving.

          The stereo in Baylee’s room got turned off as he was exiting his room and making his way downstairs to the kitchen for dinner, while Malia had stopped what she was doing and put her phone away before making her way downstairs too.

          “Everything is packed right?” Leighanne asked the kids as they settled themselves at the dinner table.

          “Give or take a few things,” Baylee said with a shrug.

          “I’m almost done,” Malia replied.

          “Well if it’s coming with us tomorrow then it better be done and boxed by tonight,” Brian said.

          “Yes sir,” both Baylee and Malia answered.

          “Who wants to say grace?” Leighanne asked as she brought their delicious dinner to the table, there was baked chicken with veggies, a salad, fresh bread from the oven and dessert was cheesecake. To drink there was ice cold water for everyone sitting beside their place setting at the long oak dinner table in the middle of the kitchen.

          “I will,” Malia offered.

          Leighanne took her seat at the table and Brian nodded towards Malia to begin, as the family all joined hands and closed their eyes and Malia gave grace blessing their food , thanking god for the family all being together and for them to have a safe journey to California tomorrow.  Once they had said grace they all dug into the food on the table.

Chapter 1

                Early the next day the moving truck was packed and the family was all packed up in the car ready to leave behind a now empty house, that had a for sale sign in the front yard.  Baylee and Malia were in the backseat of the car, Leighanne was in the passenger seat and Brian was in the driver’s seat once everyone was buckled in it was time to hit the road.

                The first thing Baylee did after the car started moving was pop in the ear buds for his IPod and switched it on  he hit the shuffle button to get started with just anything in his music collection.

                “Mom, when we get to LA can we go shopping for new school clothes?” Malia asked from the backseat.

                “Malia, we just bought clothes two weeks ago at the mall,” Leighanne said,” It all still has tags on it.”

                “Mom please I can’t wear that stuff to school in California! Everyone will laugh at me.”

                “Why do your clothes crack jokes?” Brian asked while driving down the road.

                “Dad that’s not funny!” Malia said.

                Brian cracked a smile,” I thought it was,” he replied.

                “Honey, I really don’t think that it’s necessary to get new school clothes when you just got new clothes,” Leighanne said. It wasn’t about the money because with Brian’s career and hers , there was plenty of money. It was the concept of the matter and she would rather not spoil her daughter just because they had the means to do so.

                Malia sighed falling back against her seat,” I wish you guys would understand what it’s like being a teenager. “

                “We were teenagers once too you know,” Brian said.

                “It’s not the same as being one today.” She was tired of having to explain this, she really wanted to fit into the new school and make some friends. Go to school dances with cute guys, get a boyfriend or two. Turning her head she looked out the window at the passing scenery of trees and grass, asphalt, cars, billboards the joys of traveling in a car from Georgia to California; she pulled her phone from her pocket.

To : Kendall

From : Malia

                OMG! My parents so do not understand what it’s like being us!

She hit the send key, and waited for a reply from her friend it probably would have gone a lot faster too if she had internet on her phone but her parents had said that she and Baylee didn’t need it on their phones. If she had internet on her phone then she could have logged onto instant messenger and then sent Kendall an IM instead of the text, but since this was going to be a long car ride anyway the texting would keep her mind off of things.

Baylee had been glad he had his ear buds in when the fighting had started he could tell that his sister was probably gonna pout about whatever it was that she didn’t get this time around for the rest of the car ride.  Moving to LA was kindda cool actually; most of his uncles lived out that way now too so he’d get to hang out with people that he already knew. He wasn’t too worried about making friends either growing up he had traveled a lot with his dad til Malia was born, then it had become only during the American leg of the tours because his mom was worried about having both of them overseas for extended periods of time. Now that they had been in public school for about a year in Georgia, his parents were making the move to LA for work reasons obviously.

Malia’s phone beeped when she got a message from Kendall, she pulled the message up on her phone and started to read what her friend had written in response to the parents things.

To: Malia

From: Kendall

                Ugh. They never do, just sweet talk them into whatever it is or something.

Malia started to type a response to her friend her fingers moving over the keys of the phone in her hand.

                “She’ll get over the clothing thing,” Brian said to Leighanne.

                “I just don’t want her to get sucked up into frivolous things like that,” Leighanne said with a sigh. “There is more to life and school should be about education, not clothes or make up and all of that.”

                “You worry way too much,” he assured her. “Every kid wants new school clothes; she’ll be fine with the ones she just got.”

                “Hello I am sitting right behind you,” Malia said to her parents, she hated when they talked about her like she wasn’t even there.

~*~*~*~*~*~

                Phoenix Mclean was sitting cross legged on the floor of the livingroom while her dad was downstairs in his in home studio messing around with her uncle Nick, she had her laptop in front of her and logged onto her account on Budd-eZ, she scrolled through to see the messages on her wall. She skipped through her friends til she found her best friend- Nisha Dorough and clicked on her name and started to leave a message on her wall, Phoenix and Nisha had grown up together until Nisha had moved with her family. Though rumor had it that Nisha would soon be moving back to town and Phoenix truly hoped that was the case, her fingers flew across the keys as she was typing the super long message to her friend.

                                Omg omg! Tell me it’s true that you are moving back! There is so much we have to catch up on and so much to do! Call me like right now, k?

                                I want full details on when this move is happening and how far away from me you’ll be living! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Friday night slumber parties again!

                                We had better be going to the same school again, I hope your parents have figured that one out already. Talk to you asap!

She continued to type a message and finally hit send, so that it was posted on Nisha’s wall.  It only took about two minutes after posting that message for Phoenix’s cell phone to start making noise so she quickly picked it up and answered it.

                “Is it true?? Is it??” Phoenix wanted to know desperately.

                “Yes!” Nisha squealed excitedly. “Daddy said we’re moving back! We’ll be there day after tomorrow! “

                “Omg omg! What school??? What school?”

                “Bradley Smith.”

                “YES!” Phoenix squealed jumping up from her spot and jumping up and down excitedly. “This year is going to be the best ever!”

                “I know! So there are tons of cute guys right?”

                “Absolutely!”

                Downstairs in the studio A.J. was leaning against the wall and Nick was sitting in a chair at the mixing board,” D is moving back,” A.J. said. He and Howie had been friends for so long and worked together for a long time too, so naturally their daughters had become best friends as kids. Then when the girls were around 10 years old Howie had made the decision to move his family and therefore the everyone only saw him during recording, interviews and tours and a special occasion here or there.

                Nick glanced up from the mixing board,” Rok will be back soon too,” he said with a smile,” Finally we’re all going to be in the same place at the same time more often.”

                “I can’t think of the last time that we were all together in the same place aside from work.”

                “I’m pretty sure it was well before everyone started getting married and having kids.”

                “How are your kids anyway?”

                “Growing up faster than I’d like especially Nevin. I still feel like it was only yesterday that she was playing with dolls and asking me to tie her shoe for her,” Nick said with a sigh. “ I think I’d like it much better if she just stayed a little girl forever.”

                A.J. smiled feeling sad himself, Phoenix and Talon were growing up every day and he didn’t know if he could handle them going off to college and becoming adults. Talon would be graduating from Highschool this year and then Phoenix had two more years of school.” I’d love to keep my kids little if I could.”

                “Least they haven’t started dating yet,” Nick said thankfully.

                A.J groaned,” Please Please don’t mention that word. I don’t want Phoenix dating until she’s out of college.”

                Nick raised an eyebrow at his friend,” Do you have the secret to keep boys away? Because if you do I’d really love to know how.”

                “A shotgun,” he said,” Well okay no not really I don’t. But still no dating til after college.”

                “Wonder if that would work for me,” Nick mused thinking of how he’d love for Nevin not to date for years and years and many years.

                Upstairs Phoenix had finished her phone conversation with Nisha and then taken her laptop back up to her room, she laid it on her bed and laid down on it to scroll through comments and messages on her Budd-Ez profile. She read some of the funny comments her friends left her on photos.  Leaning over to the side table beside her bed she pulled out her camera and the usb cord hooking one end to her camera and the other end up to her laptop to transfer some of the newest pictures to her laptop.  That took all of twenty minutes and then she unhooked everything and put it away then she started to upload the new photos onto her profile page.

~*~*~*~*~*~

                Malia stared out the window at the passing scenery on the drive, they had stopped briefly at lunch to get something to eat and fill up the car. Her parents were now debating over stopping for the night at a hotel later on down or if they should just keep going. She tuned them out as she leaned her head against the window and watched a few other cars on the road with them, it wasn’t too packed right now, and they had been lucky to not get stuck in traffic or anything because then they’d probably be sitting there for a long long long time.

                “Bri it would be alright if we stopped tonight,” Leighanne said from the passenger seat of the car. “I don’t want you to push yourself into driving more than you can today.”

                “I’m fine,” Brian said,” I don’t want to make unnecessary stops because then it will take us longer to get there.”

                “You can’t possibly drive there the whole way by yourself.”

                “I’ll stop for coffee a little bit down the ways.”

                “I’ll drive,” Baylee said from the backseat of the car, he was no longer listening to his IPod and was getting a little bit bored just sitting in the back of the car.

                “Yeah I don’t think so atleast not where there is other traffic,” Brian replied.

                “Da-ad! Come on please I’ll be really careful I promise,” he begged.

                “Son I’ve seen your driving skills and frankly you need to work on them A LOT.”

                “Well I won’t really be driving alone I mean Mom will be there beside me.”

                “I’m not sure what I can do from the passenger seat,” Leighanne admitted,” But I will be here and you could use the time to get some sleep Bri,” she said.

                Brian sighed that actually sounded good to him right now sleep, if he could get some sleep he could continue driving in the morning for the rest of the way. Letting Baylee drive though it just still seemed so iffy especially since the seventeen year old hadn’t driven anywhere except school and to the store a few times or to a friend’s house nearby when they lived in Georgia. “ Why do I feel like this is just going to be a really really bad idea?”

                “Because we could all die if Bay drives,” Malia said.

                “Shut up,” Baylee said and then waited for his parents to agree. “Please, come on. Dad you know you want to get a little bit of sleep.”

                “Well yes I do….” Brian took a deep breath,” Alright but use the GPS I don’t need us getting lost.”

                “Awesome!” Baylee said happily.

                Brian drove down the highway and then took the nearest exit to get off and pulled into a gas station there, it was a chance for anyone who needed to take a bathroom break or get something to eat or drink or whatever now before Baylee would take over driving.