by Jillian Dodd
“I liked what you had on before, but it’d probably cause a riot on the boules field.”
He grins, looks me up and down, like a very typical boy and says, “Do you always answer your door in your bra? Because I think I’m going to have to come up here more often.”
“I thought you were one of the girls.”
“Here,” he hands me the bouquet. I put it on my desk. Smell them. Walk back over to him and straight up to his face, wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.
And if I were him, I’d probably think I was a partial god too. It was that good of a kiss.
We walk hand in hand to the cafe.
“Why don’t I go get lunch, while you get coffees?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Oh, and that table over there, with the Reserved sign on it, that’s ours.”
He thinks of everything. Seriously.
I get us two Café au laits and a couple little fruit tarts for dessert and sit at our table. He comes out with our Croque Monsieurs that look really pretty authentic. We sit in the sun and pretend we are in Paris. I make him speak to me in French, give up and try speaking to him in French, see if he can decipher what I say. He does better with that task. It feels sorta surreal to actually be out on a real date with Aiden, like sitting out here in front of everyone. A few people flit by and say hey on the way to the playing fields and the art show. I even see Dawson walking with Jake and Ace, happily munching chocolate filled croissants.
Aiden won his men’s lawn bowling competition, and I sucked the field up enough that we were out of our couples competition by the second round.
“How can someone so athletic suck so bad at lawn bowling?” he teases me.
“I’m better at croquet. We shoulda chose that.”
He gently touches my waist with his hand, and I lean in toward him. “I don’t care if you suck. I’d play anything with you.”
“Maybe I wanna play a kissing game.”
“Like I said, anything,” and he kisses me. A lips touching powerful kiss. I keep thinking the more I am around him, the more I kiss him, the less power his lips will have on me, but it seems to be the opposite, like my kisses are making him stronger. The more my lips touch his, the more powerful the kisses become.
Maybe more meaningful.
He looks at the side of my head, puzzled, hooks my hair behind my ear. “You’re wearing just one feather earring, huh?”
“Well I didn’t know if you always have your back pack readily available or not, so you know, I thought just in case you needed something like that tonight.”
He looks at his watch. “Hold that thought, Boots. It’s time to go to work.”
“No, you get to go to work. I have to go change real quick. I’ll meet you there.” (A lot of this is different, so get ready for it. You’re almost to the end of the first draft, and you’ll get to read the alternate ending. You’re going to find out if when I planned the series, if I planned for her to end up with Aiden or Brooklyn. Compared to the way the story ends in the published version, this seems a little anticlimactic now, but it’s still sweet. So, here you go…)
The sun is starting to set.
7:30 pm
I run back to my dorm, touch up my makeup, brush out my hair. It had straightened it this morning, but it’s humid out, and my hair has turned all wavy. It doesn’t look bad though, I add some styling balm, work it through the waves to soften them. Then i put on my dress for tonight.
It’s a strapless black ruffled tulle dress. Around my neck, instead of a necklace, I wear a black satin ribbon choker. I look at the pink flowers Aiden gave me, grab one of the big pink roses and pin it to the choker. Add some pale pink sandals and head over to the football field.
Aiden is handing out picnic baskets when he sees me. Stops dead in his tracks. Holds my eyes. Leaves the baskets almost in a trance, never breaking our eye contact, walks over to me, grabs my hands in his. “Wow. You look so beautiful.”
“The flower made the outfit,” I smile.
“Come on, beautiful, we have to do some work.”
So we work, handing out everyone’s picnic baskets. The turnout for the movie is fantastic. Like everyone is here. People are wandering around, talking, blowing bubbles, holding hands, kissing some. Uh, well if you don’t count Riley and Ariela, who is apparently trying to eat his face.
It’s one of those things were you really do wanna yell, Get a room.
Dallas shows up with Katie. She looks adorable in a teeny floral print dress. Dallas is holding her hand, and they look ADORABLE together. Like seriously.
Peyton comes up and talks to me and Aiden. She’s kinda giggly.
“Why do you seem so giggly?”
“Brad just asked me to homecoming!”
I hug her, “That’s awesome.”
“So what’s going on with you and my brother?”
“I’m his date tonight.”
“And Dawes?”
“I was his date last night.”
“I see. How’s that gonna work out?”
“I think maybe it’s gonna be okay.”
“Well, that’s good. This really turned out cool. You know I kinda thought it would be lame, til my brother decided it was his mission in life to impress you.”
His mission in life to impress me?
Aiden waves at this sis, grabs my hand and says, “The sun is starting to set. Come on!”
“Where are we going? Aren’t we going to do the picnic and watch the movie?”
“Yeah, we just have to do something else first.”
He drags me quickly over to his dorm, past the cardboard Eiffel Tower and up the stairs, down the third floor hallway and into someone else’s dorm room. He lets go of my hand, walks to the window and says, “Look. The sun is setting.”
And I was like, “Uh, cool.”
Then he sings to me, one of our songs about how he has faith in us and to put my hand in his.
I take his hand and smile. “Hey, that’s one of our songs. From the 29 song playlist. I had never heard it before. Now it’s like my favorite.”
“What’s the rest of it?” He gazes at me, and I’m caught in a moment. The sun is setting behind him, and I know I will remember this moment for the rest of my life. I’m not sure what’s going to happen up here, but I can feel it.
I smile at him and say, sorta sing, “Our love is a sure thing.”
He pulls me toward the window, opens it, and says, “Look down.”
I stick my head out the window, look down see that we are basically standing on top of the Eiffel Tower they made.
“Top of the Eiffel Tower, sunset,” I murmur as he moves behind me and wraps his arms around my waist, my back nestling gently against his chest. We can both watch the sunset now.
He speaks into my ear. “Go to Homecoming with me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Look, you don’t have a date, I don’t have a date. I know you’re still not sure about Dawson, and I get that he hurt you. I get that you think you loved him. I get that he wants you back. But maybe there’s someone who wouldn’t ditch you when his ex wants him back, maybe there’s someone that thinks he’s in love with you. Maybe there’s someone who fell madly in love with you when you kicked a soccer ball past him while you were wearing boots. Maybe there’s someone out there who’s better for you. Someone who wants to ask you to marry him in France someday. At the top of the Eiffel tower, at sunset.”
And what can you do when a god looks you straight in the eye above a pop and beer can box Eiffel Tower and asks you to Homecoming?
You kiss him and say yes.
The End
So, that’s it. My first version of the series. Rough. Different. Mixed up. But at the core, the same story of Aiden and Keatyn’s love. I hope you enjoyed it.
CHARACTER PROFILES
What follows below are my original character profiles and notes for many of the characters in the series. Because there were so many characters
, I felt it was important to give each one a very different set of qualities.
Although I do give readers a bit of what each character looks like physically, my goal is to give you just enough to create your own vision of how they look. What’s more important to me is giving my characters strong personalities. I want readers to relate to the characters and feel like they are living the story along with them. When I set out to create a character, I design his or her personality first, and once I have that done, I figure out how I want them to look. So let’s get started.
Keatyn Douglas
Physical Appearance
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 125
Eye Color: Blue with a tint of purple
Hair Color: Dark blonde with light highlights
Birthdate/Age: August 18th (Leo). She is sixteen when we first meet her.
Lives in: Malibu, CA
Positive aspects of personality: Confident, ambitious, loyal, generous, encouraging, friendly, proud, mature, worldly, well-traveled, grounded, balanced, sophisticated, warm, caring, chill, laid-back attitude.
Negative aspects of personality: A bit melodramatic, she worries about what people think, stubborn, quick to react, sensitive (but hides it well), loves praise.
More about her: She actually likes the spotlight, likes being the center of attention, but because of who her mom is, she wonders if she would be the center of attention and popular if she weren’t Abby’s daughter. She hates routine, likes adventure, travel, and trying new things.
Interests: Surfing, soccer, loves the water, the beach, loves to travel to learn about different cultures and lifestyles. She also loves shopping, clothes, and shoes.
Personal History: Her mother is America’s sweetheart actress, Abby Johnston, and her father was the successful underwear and clothing model, Mark Douglas. He passed away in a small plane accident when Keatyn was ten.
She took her father’s death hard, like any young girl would, but it made her quite close with her mom. Her mom was a hard-working actress and had done many films, but she wasn’t hounded by the paparazzi until about two years after Mark’s death, when she did a film with action star and bad boy, Tommy Stevens. They fell in love instantly, and by the time the movie wrapped, Abby was pregnant. Together they have four-year-old triplets, Avery, Emery, and Ivery, as well as two-year-old Gracelyn.
Her paternal grandparents live in East Texas and are a big part of her being so grounded. She traveled to filming locations with her mom, and she always had tutors. She speaks fluent French, as they have a home there.
She was around adults most of the time, and her mom treated her as such. Even more so after her father died. People who know her would say she is quite mature. Her dream was to be a “normal” teenager. She pictured herself living out a teen sitcom. A High School Musical sort of thing. She wanted to live in one place, go to high school, be fabulously popular and loved by all, and she wanted to date the most popular boy.
Not surprising to her, she got her wish. Her freshman year the family settled in Tommy’s recently renovated Malibu beach house. She got to start high school and quickly made friends with Vanessa and RiAnne—two of the prettiest girls at school. The three of them ruled their grade both freshman and sophomore year. She met Sander, a former child star, and they became the perfect couple.
Then there is her crush, Brooklyn. They’ve been friends since he taught her to surf a few years ago. Brooklyn is different than her friends from school. He’s two years older. He is very smart, but struggled in traditional schools. They bored him. He started doing a combination of tutors and online, self-paced studies, where he thrived. He graduated high school at fifteen and by nineteen had a degree in Philosophy.
Her friends don’t like Brooklyn. All he ever wants to do is surf, smoke, and go to hole-in-the-wall places. He never wants to be seen or go to the best parties. He doesn’t care what he’s wearing, which makes him unacceptable to her friends.
Brooklyn also hated her friends. He tells her they are fake, that she acts differently when she is around them. She can be bitchy and mean—and he is right. With B, she can be herself, well, mostly herself. With her friends, she always has to be Abby Johnston’s daughter.
She began living two different lives. She was one way with her friends, one way with Brooklyn. The question she struggles with is—which one is the real me?
Brooklyn seemed to think if it weren’t for her mom’s celebrity status and all the perks Vanessa and RiAnne got because of it, they wouldn’t be her friends.
And she had to admit, she wondered that herself. And even though she felt like she’d finally gotten what she wanted, it did feel fake. False. And she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She loved hanging out with Brooklyn. She felt like she could be herself with him. She could be laid back. She didn’t have to worry about what she was wearing. She didn’t worry about who might see her, if they were at the right parties, all of that. With Brooklyn there was no pressure.
At the same time, she kind of likes the attention she gets at school. She kind of likes the spotlight.
Her romance with Brooklyn heats up the summer before her junior year. She’s in love with him and decided that she doesn’t care if he is acceptable or not. Her friends would just have to deal with it. She can’t wait to show him off at her big birthday party. Problem is—he tells her he’s not going because he doesn’t want to be around her friends and that he doesn’t like how she behaves when she’s with them. He tells her it’s all fake.
On her birthday, B buys her a cake. She blows out the candles and makes a wish. She wishes that she could have true friends.
Enter her mom’s stalker. The stalker becomes obsessed with her because she looks like her mom did in her first movie. There are some scary moments and an almost kidnapping. In an effort to keep her safe, she agrees to go to boarding school. She can’t tell anyone who she really is. It’s literally a matter of life and death.
She believes that she is self-actualized when she goes to boarding school. And at the very beginning she will have everything she needs to complete her goals.
She meets Dallas and Riley. Two new boys who will be her best friends.
She meets Aiden. The boy of her dreams, her soulmate. A boy who also doesn’t care about popularity, but who is adept in any social circle and is used to the spotlight himself.
She quickly forms her own group of girlfriends. Slightly nerdy Annie, bouncy Katie, and dry humored and a little slutty, Maggie. These girls are not part of the popular crowd.
She also meets Peyton. Peyton is Aiden’s sister and really a nice person. But she’s in the popular group. She is nice to Keatyn when Whitney (alpha girl) is not around. Peyton and Whitney have been friends since freshman year. They know each other’s secrets.
Keatyn is very excited to be making friends on her own. It’s a kick to her ego. But then she meets Dawson, and they start a romance that pulls her exactly where she didn’t want to be. The popular group. But she fights it. Or more specifically, she fights the old version of herself, Whitney. Whitney knows a rival when she sees one and instantly hates her.
They have mini encounters. And pretty soon she finds herself exactly where she didn’t want to be—sitting back at the popular lunch table.
As she and Whitney battle, Keatyn and Peyton will become closer. The two of them would make powerful allies and Whitney will not allow that. The stakes get higher as the series progresses.
One of the reasons people like Keatyn at her new school is her lack of bragging, her choice of friends, her honesty. She is big on honesty with her friends. But she sort of forgets that she’s lying to them all. In her mind, it doesn’t count. She is being true to herself.
If she were to write down her goals for boarding school, they would be this:
Make true friends.
Not be popular.
Not be a bitch.
Not be a fake.
Stay alive.
Whitney represents everything she does
n’t want to be.
Eventually they will discover who she is. The school will find out that she lied about who she is. This will be a dark moment for her, because her friends will feel betrayed. They don’t know why she’s lying.
Fears: She is afraid of being judged by people.
Dreams/Goals: Her secret wish, that she wishes as she blows the candles out on her seventeenth birthday cake, is that she could make true friends based on just her. She secretly fantasizes about going somewhere where no one knows who she is and trying to make it on her own.
She thinks she wants to act but doesn’t have the confidence yet. Her mom casts a big shadow.
Stressors: Making decisions, the stalker, worrying about her family, that her secret will come out.
Inner Conflict: Trying to be herself without telling people who she is. Also, allowing herself to love, when she knows she will end up hurt.
Blind Spot: She thinks she is mature and has the world all figured out.
Main Problems: Long term for the series, the stalker that has caused the changes in her life. She must hide who she is so she can stay alive. Eventually, she will face him to take her life back. Short term problems are that when she goes to school, she decides to be herself, that she doesn’t want to be popular. She wants to make true friends based on the friends’ interests and talents. The problem is, she’s a nice, pretty girl, and this approach only ends up making her more and more popular. This pisses off Whitney, who will cause trouble for Keatyn.
