I know its not really good, but i like to write, and wanted to put this up...... it's only the first chapter cause i didn't think anyone would read it if i put down all 300 pages 
1. Summer’s End
My dad drove his black Mercedes into our driveway, having just come from Florida, and having just angered us all, by driving, rather than taking an airplane.
The only good thing about that moment, is that we were back home, in Ontario, and that as soon as one of my brothers- who had claimed the window seats, climbed out of the car, I would be on solid ground, and able to go to my room and call my best friends.
As it turned out, my brother Charlie was the first to get out, and I knew he would try to race me to the phone, but, I knew what was going to happen, because I knew my parents well enough to know how to get what I wanted- but of course it would only work occasionally, or they would catch on.
Charlie began to run for the door, just as my dad, who was opening the drivers’ side door, called, ‘Charlie, help me unload the trunk!’
‘Later dad!’ Charlie called back, ‘I’m gonna-‘
‘Whatever it is you’re going to do, can wait.’ My mom called back, as she walked to the back of the car.
I was now out of the car, and slowly walking to the door, as my younger brother Dawson whispered to my dad. I didn’t hear exactly what he said, but I heard my name, so before my dad could say anything I yelled over my shoulder, ‘I’m going to call Ashley!’
‘Alright…’ my dad said slowly.
‘Hey!’ Charlie yelled from behind me, ‘I was going to call Miranda—and I wasn’t allowed to!’
My mom sighed, ‘You should have said something, now its Anthony’s turn, and so you’ll have to wait.’
Charlie began to rebuttal, but I just closed the door, and was now in our kitchen. I sidled through the doorway, which was blocked by a pile of boxes, that hadn’t been unpacked from our recent move. I followed through, into the living room now, which had a wall phone, but I knew my mom would eavesdrop if I used that phone, so I continued through the house.
Before I left the living room, I noticed the family dog, Dennis sleeping on a ruined leather couch— I assumed it was him that ripped it to shreds.
Finally I reached our dinning room, which held one of our cordless phones, and I dialled Ashley’s number as fast as possible.
After five rings she picked up the phone. ‘Hey— Anthony?’
‘Yeah,’ I said listening to her talk.
‘Oh, my gosh— I’ve been so bored without you, Bobby and Jo, aren’t back from Europe yet! Hey didn’t you say you were coming back two weeks ago? Oh well, I forgive you- how was your trip anyway?’
I smiled, she was my best friend, so many people thought we liked each other, I always had to set them strait, but I can understand where they got their idea, we were always together, and we never kept secrets.
‘Well, it was really hot… um, I got burned a lot, and it wasn’t as great as everyone thinks, but for the most part it was fun.’
‘Well that’s good, are you still burned?’
‘Only a little on my face, anyway, do you want to get together before school starts again? When does it start anyway?’
‘Ten days. Sure I’ll get together, just say the word.’
‘How about tonight, we can get some supper or something.’
‘Alright, I’ll see you then. Bye.’ She said happily.
‘Bye,’ I said, and I hung up the phone.
I turned to the staircase and I walked up to my room.
I glanced out the window and saw my older brother Charlie carrying my luggage, his luggage, and Dawson’s luggage. Dawson was carrying a box full of souvenirs that we had all picked out. Both of their faces seemed sour toward someone, probably toward me. I smiled at the thought—I was doing my job.
I looked at the clock, and calculated in my head, the time I had until five o’clock, which was the time I planned to pick Ashley up… or rather, meet with Ashley, I couldn’t really pick up Ashley, because I was only fifteen, and didn’t have my drivers license—plus I don’t think I could carry her to the restaurant, if I literally needed to pick her up. I had seven hours.
‘DENNIS!’ I heard my mom scream. ‘Bad dog—horrible dog!’
‘Honey, he’s a dog, what did you expect?’ My dad said defending Dennis. I then drowned them out.
I picked up the book that sat on my bed, and opened it up to the second chapter. That was where I left off before our trip. The book was called ‘Simply Confusing’ which was confusing enough as it is. It was about a young girl who has to solve a mystery to save her younger brother. It was quite a good book, unfortunately it was very unrealistic. I knew that it was unrealistic because I’ve been on a few minor cases myself—nothing major of course, just a few random jobs, such as finding a lost dog, or anything along that line. I really loved doing detective work; my dream was to become one—or a police officer, something like that, something where I could work with my skills.
I finished the book at quarter to five, so I quickly gathered up some clothes from my closet and brought them to the bathroom.
I had a quick shower, and got dressed in the most casual/fancy clothes I could manage. Next I hurdled through the house, jumping over the boxes, and even the dog.
I was outside before anyone even saw me, and was jogging to Ashley’s house. I was going to be late if I didn’t get there soon—luckily, Ashley lived three doors down from me.
Ashley was standing on her front porch wearing an elegant blue dress, and heels. Her hair curly red hair was tied in a knot on the back of her head, and her wonderful sparkling blue eyes were smiling at me.
‘You know,’ I said gaping at her, ‘you really didn’t have to get all dressed up…’
‘I know.’
‘Well…’ I sighed. ‘Let’s go then.’
Neither of us said anything on the way to the restaurant, and even through the waiters seating us. I wondered why it was so awkward, we’ve known each other since we were five, and we were fifteen now, that’s ten years. Was she beginning to have feelings for me—feelings that I didn’t—couldn’t share, of course I know that I’m over exaggerating so I waited for her to say something.
‘Just a pizza to share, I think…’ is what she said. I thought about what kind of double meaning that could possibly have, but then I noticed the man standing next to us with a pad of paper.
‘Oh!’ I felt slightly embarrassed, but I said, ‘yeah sure.’ Hoping we were still talking about the pizza, thankfully we were.
‘Ok, what would you like on the pizza?’ The man asked his voice quite deep.
‘Just pepperoni, please.’ Ashley said.
‘Are you sure?’ The man said, ‘because we also have sausage, bacon…’ the man trailed off into a long list of toppings, to which Ashley said with him. Ashley remembered all of the toppings and she had only looked at the menu once. She had a photographic memory.
‘I’m sure. Thanks.’ She said.
‘Alright, your pizza will be ready soon; in the meantime, you can enjoy yourself with the mazes and puzzles on the menus.’
The man walked away.
I immediately reached for a menu, and a crayon, as Ashley smiled and laughed. She knew that I couldn’t resist doing a maze, I was really good at them, and it usually only took me a minute or two to do an extremely hard maze.
Ashley must’ve been really happy to see me again, because she was really giddy. As I was wearing down the crayon on a maze, I was talking a bit about my trip, and telling some jokes, and she was laughing hysterically. I paused every time she began laughing and listened intently.
I looked up and stared into Ashley’s eyes, and… well, starred. She didn’t seem to notice any change in my attitude, but I had to force myself to look away.
Before the man had come back with a pizza in his hands I had finished all three mazes, the crossword puzzles, the word search, and even coloured in all of the pictures. I know that it’s rather childish, but sometimes I can’t help myself.
‘Thank you.’ Ashley said politely, on that note, the waiter left us alone. Really alone. I had just realized that we were the only ones in the restaurant.
‘So…’ Ashley said trying to make conversation. Right now, I was glad. ‘Why were you late coming back to Canada anyway?’
‘My dad loved it there.’ I responded simply, ‘we all wanted to leave; it’s just that he had a blast in Disneyland. Though, I’ll admit, it was fun—but not that fun.’
‘Oh.’ Ashley whispered.
‘Why are you whispering?’ I whispered back.
We both laughed at the completely non-humorous moment. After that we couldn’t stop talking about what had happened to us in the past two months.
‘I had a really great time.’ Ashley said blushing, as I stood on her porch. ‘You know-‘
‘Yeah… great time…’ I interrupted.
Ashley nodded. ‘Anyway, I think we should do something different next time. I mean we’re always going to the same type of restaurants. Maybe next time we could have a picnic.’
I was determined not to allow a next time. This was too weird! I couldn’t like Ashley. ‘Yeah, I’m sure Bobby likes picnics.’ I said hoping she didn’t get too offended. ‘And Jo too.’
‘Anthony…’ she sighed. ‘I was hoping that it would just be the two of us.’ She leaned forward. I was frantic.
‘Anthony!’ I heard Dawson yell. I turned my head toward the sound, and Ashley kissed my cheek.
‘Oh my gosh! Thank you Dawson—so much!’ I said, accidentally out loud.
Ashley smiled, as I felt guilt. ‘Bye Anthony.’ She said turning inside.
‘Bye.’ I said turning away and running home.
‘Anthony—you could have told us where you were going!’ Dawson growled, ‘I was the one who had to see if I could find you—oh, and you’re probably grounded.’
I walked cautiously inside the house.
‘Anthony, you’re grounded.’ My dad said as soon as I walked in the door.
‘You could have guessed where I was—I mean, I called Ashley, then I disappeared, it’s not detective work.’
‘Anthony—you’re not a detective.’ My mom grumbled.
‘Am too…’ I said under my breath.
My dad began ranting, ‘When Charlie goes on a date with Miranda, he tells us, when Dawson goes on a play-date with Lulu-‘
‘Dad! It’s an actual date!’ Dawson yelled.
‘Even, when they’re just going out biking- they tell us, but when you’re going on a date with Ashley-‘
‘Don’t even go there! It’s not a date! We’re just friends!’ I argued. Why was I so determined?
‘Right…’ My dad said smiling.
‘I’m grounded, I’ll go to bed.’ I said walking towards the stairs. Then I remembered one ongoing discussion that would- I hoped, lead to me winning, so I thought now would be a good time to try again. ‘But… really it’s your fault that you didn’t get a hold of me, because you won’t buy me a cell phone, and if I had one-‘
‘Go to bed.’ My dad said laughing. I knew if I was going to get a parent to cave in, it would be him—mom was way too strict, whereas my dad was loose and funny.
I walked up to my bedroom, and pulled the next book of the series I had read before I had gone on my date— gone out with— gone to a restaurant with Ashley, off of the shelf, and began reading.
I was almost finished at about eleven o’clock, when I decided to get changed into my pyjamas, and go to sleep.
I woke early the next morning, with a Saint Bernard crushing my legs, and Charlie’s alarm clock beeping in the next room.
I walked downstairs with Dennis following me. I poured some dog food into his bowl, and dropped it in front of him. Then I grabbed a bowl out of the cupboard, and dumped some cereal into it. I sat down at the table with my milk-less cereal and ate it.
When I was about halfway done, Charlie came downstairs, dressed, and ready to go to work.
‘Have fun.’ I said half-heartedly.
‘Oh, don’t worry, I will.’ Charlie said sarcastically. ‘Anthony, if Miranda calls—which she might, be sure to tell her to meet me at work, if she doesn’t call, well, call her, kay?’
‘I’ll tell Dawson to, I’m grounded.’ I explained solemnly.
‘For what?’ He asked shoving a piece of bread into the toaster. ‘Going on a date?’
‘Yeah- no, it wasn’t a date.’ I said. Wow. I thought my family never used to bug me—why now? ‘I didn’t tell them I was going out, so they grounded me.’
‘That’s dumb.’ Charlie said, popping his toast because he was too impatient for it to pop itself. ‘I never tell them when I go out—though I’m also seventeen, and you’re not.’
‘I’m quite aware of that, thank you Charlie.’ I said.
‘Yeah. Anyway, I gotta go.’ He said shoving the peanut butter back in the cupboard. ‘See ya.’
‘Bye.’ I said, returning to my room.
I, again, looked at the clock, to calculate how much time I had until mom woke up so I could beg to get out of grounding. For this task, I would have to refer to my mom, because dad wouldn’t make the decision without consulting her, and if she found out I was trying to do it behind her back… well, I don’t want to think about what she’d do. The clock read six o’clock, meaning I had about four or five hours because mom would want to sleep in today.
So I looked around searching for something to do while I waited. I decided that finishing the book I was reading would be a good start, so I picked it up off my bedside table, and began to read the third last chapter.
I finished the book in less that half an hour. It ended with every single character dying… that was horrible. Then I noticed an ad in the back of the book saying find out what happened to Melody and her friends in the next instalment of Simply Confusing.” I looked at my bookshelf and realized that there was another book in the series.
I felt intrigued to read more, but I wasn’t in the mood for reading. So just to make both ways work out, I grabbed the book off of my shelf and read the last page. Melody said something, so I know knew she was alive.
I tossed the book on my bed and looked for something else to do.
Just then Dawson walked passed my door, ‘Hey.’ I said a little depressed.
‘G’morning.’ Dawson responded groggily.
‘Dawson, Charlie said to tell Miranda to meet him at work—and if she doesn’t call, you’re supposed to call her.’
‘Alright.’ Dawson sighed. ‘You know, Mom said we should have the boxes unpacked by last night, but you weren’t here, so if you do that, maybe mom will lighten up about your grounding.’
‘Good idea.’ I said, ‘thanks.’
I started immediately, unpacking clothes, books, posters, blankets, more books, more clothes… it went on for a couple hours. Eventually I had everything unpacked. I sighed with relief and sat down on my bed.
With all the boxes gone my room looked so much bigger, and, well better. The walls were white, and that was going to change in due time. I noticed that one section on the east wall looked strange.
I tapped it with my fist, and heard an echo, so I tapped it again, harder this time, I did it one more time, and screamed.
I wasn’t scared, just startled, but I’ll admit I was a little worried about what my mom would say, when I showed her the rectangular hole in my wall.
‘It’s Ok…’ I said calming myself down. ‘It was an accident…’ I really hated lying; I wasn’t too good at it. I examined the whole closer, and realized it was just a door. A door that matched the wall completely.
I couldn’t believe it. I—I had my very own bathroom. I smiled, and spun around on my bed.
‘Cool.’ My dad said. He was standing in the doorway, startling me. You picked the right room, now didn’t you? He walked away, and I turned to examine the new extension to my room.
I turned around and saw my mom standing in the doorway this time. I jumped in surprise. ‘Why does everyone keep doing that?’
‘What are you doing?’ She asked.
‘Not much.’ I said—which was the truth
‘I see.’ She said. ‘You’re still grounded.’ She walked down the hall.
The next three days flew past. I read as many books as I could cram into that little time, which was somewhere between five and fifteen. Of course they weren’t long books, none of my detective books were, which saddened me slightly. Also, my dad bought a new couch, to replace the one Dennis had destroyed.
With six days left until school started I had quite a bit of preparing to, like shopping, or something—ok, so I had virtually no preparing to do, but I needed to do something!
So I walked downstairs to try convincing my mom, to allow me to go shopping.
‘Mom-‘I started.
‘No.’
‘You don’t even know what I want.’
‘So?’
‘Well, I was wondering if we could go shopping for school supplies.’
‘Oh, well, yeah I guess.’ She said slowly. ‘I guess I forgot about that… I will allow you to go—but be back in an hour.’
‘OK, thanks.’ I said. I grabbed my jacket off of the hook by the door, and ran outside. I noticed Charlie pulling in our laneway in his rusty Chevy truck.
Before he got out of the truck, I, noticing that his window was down, asked, ‘Can you take me shopping? For school supplies.’ I added, to be sure he didn’t think it was for a bad reason.
‘Mom said it was OK?’ He asked. I nodded. ‘Get in.’ he said after a second of consideration.
I did as I was told, and Charlie backed out of the laneway.
As we neared Ashley’s house, Charlie slowed down, as he noticed she was outside.
Ashley looked up from the book she was reading, she looked mad.
She sprinted across her front lawn, and stood by my window. I cautiously rolled it down.
‘Why haven’t you been answering my calls?’ She yelled. I thought about all the possible answers and settled on one that might just get Charlie off my back about liking her.
‘I didn’t know you were calling.’ It didn’t have quite the edge I was hoping for, but I said it quite rudely, so maybe…
‘Oh, well Dawson… he didn’t tell you did he?’
I shook my head.
‘Where are you going?’ She asked.
‘School supply shopping.’ I answered.
Without saying another word, she opened the passenger side door, and crawled into the truck overtop of me.
‘Hi Charlie.’ She said, as she reached over me and closed the door.
‘Hi Ashley,’ Charlie said smiling, ‘care to come along?’
On the way to the store I told Ashley about my being grounded, and she informed me that our friends Bobby and Jo had returned to Canada last night. I made a mental note of that, and planned that I would go to their house later this week—if I was let off my grounding by then.
The store was crowded with people doing their last minute school shopping. Charlie wandered around gathering his supplies while I grabbed eight binders, lot’s of pencils, pens and paper. Dawson wasn’t here, so I figured I’d buy some stuff for him too.
Ashley talked the whole time about this and that, and I thought I would get bored of her, but I didn’t, of course I wasn’t listening to what she was saying, just listening to her voice… no—listen to her!
‘…then we went jogging, and that was almost fun, but again, I got sweaty…’ I drifted off again, but this time because I didn’t want to hear about her sweat-fest.
We finished at the store, I didn’t listen to how much money it was, but Charlie paid anyway, so it didn’t matter.
On the way home Ashley continued talking, but of course I didn’t listen to the content of what she was saying, just to the fact she was talking… maybe I did like her…
Two days left of the holidays. It’s a good thing I had already bought new clothes before we left for the trip, because my mom wasn’t about to allow me out of the house again until school started up. This was horrible because I really wanted to see Ashley again.
I sat around looking for something to do and realized, after all of the books that I had read, I still hadn’t finished the ‘Simply Confusing’ series.
I began reading the third and final book, when Dennis trudged mud into the room.
‘Bad dog!’ I said sitting up. ‘You go get a mop to clean this up.’ I knew it wouldn’t work, but at least now I can say that I tried. Then Dennis left the room. Maybe it did work.
I finished the book at about noon. I liked that book the best out of the series. I stood up, about to grab another book off of my shelf, when my mom called me for lunch.
Charlie was home for lunch today. Odd. He was usually working everyday, except when we were on our vacation of course.
‘Did they actually give you a day off?’ I asked him, “they” meaning the restaurant that he worked at.
‘No,’ he replied simply.
‘Then why are you here?’ I asked, seeking more of an explanation.
‘I took the day off, it’s Miranda’s birthday—though it wasn’t exactly hard to get the day off, because her parents own the restaurant, as I’m sure you already know.’
‘No, I didn’t know that.’ Dawson said sarcastically. Charlie seemed to think it was a thing that he worked at his girlfriend’s parent’s restaurant, because he couldn’t get fired. That was pretty much his only reason. Although if he broke up with Miranda… I always thought about that, but apparently he didn’t want to break up with Miranda, and I sometimes thought that they might even get married. Yes, I know that it’s lame that I have to fantasize about my brother’s personal life—but I really didn’t have one. Yet.
Mom put a grilled cheese sandwich down on each of our plates, and then tossed a pot holder on the table, followed by a pot full of macaroni and cheese.
A fairly childish lunch, but I loved it.
‘Does anyone need anything else for school?’ My mom asked as she sat down. We all shook our heads. ‘I was just wondering because, I have to go into work (my mom was a doctor) so I’d be passing the store on the way there.’
‘Well, I need a new shirt… or five.’ Dawson said.
‘I already bought you five—before the trip!’ My mom said, shocked by his news.
‘Yeah, well, they’re all stained with spaghetti sauce.’
‘How did you mange—no, never mind. I’ll get some—but don’t wear them until school actually starts.’
I walked upstairs after lunch, and grabbed my book off of my bed.
There was a sudden bark—Dennis, I hadn’t realized he was in the room. I spun on the spot to face him, he had startled me, but instead of seeing my dog I saw the ceiling, and had a sharp pain in my head.
As far as I could tell, Dennis had left a puddle of mud in my room, and had slipped on it—I guess he didn’t clean it up.
I stood up, and wiped some of the mud off of my arms, and rubbed my aching head.
When I turned around to see the puddle of mud, I also found a piece of wall missing from beside my bed.
‘Ok…’ I told myself, ‘How bad can this really be?’ I decided not to let anyone know, so I quickly ran downstairs and grabbed a mop.
After the mud was cleaned up, I pulled my bed in front of the hole. ‘Ok, now no one has to know. Really, what is wrong with my room, how many more secret holes will I find?’
I went back to reading, but quickly gave up, I wasn’t taking anything in; my mind was still on the hole in the wall.
I locked my door, and pushed my bed out of the way. It looked as if it were a garbage chute, but it was so clean that I could see my shaggy red hair, green eyes, and my slightly tanned skin.
If it really were a garbage chute, than, it would lead out of my room… right? I felt a surge of excitement. If my parents didn’t find out about this, than I could leave the house, even when I was grounded.
Bad idea. I told myself, if my mom saw me I would be grounded until I was forty.
But, my adventurous side argued, you don’t know that they’ll see you.
Ah, but you find out by trying, and I don’t want to find out, so I won’t try.
Oh yes you will!
And then I was going down the chute.
It was a short ride. I landed in the flower garden by the side of the house. To get in I had to go through a flap in the side of the wall.
This was the flower garden where only hedges grew, which was odd, but it created the perfect cover for me as I sat here.
I peeked out of the hedge cover, and saw that no one was outside; I also noticed that there were no first floor windows on this side of the house, so I ran towards the street.
Where I was going wasn’t too far away, just outside of town, and I was longing to go there. I was headed to Bobby and Jo.
I walked in their long lane way, and immediately spotted a fifteen year old boy with light brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a black cowboy hat, jeans and a long sleeved, button up, red plaid flannel shirt.
He was carrying a fifty pound bag of bird feed over one shoulder.
He stopped for a minute, and then turned around. ‘Anthony!’ He dropped the birdfeed in front of the flock of chickens and ran toward me. ‘I knew you’d be here to see me eventually, I just figured it would be a couple of days ago. Here, I’ll go get Jo.’
‘Just don’t let your dad know I’m here—I’m grounded.’ I didn’t want their dad to know I was here, it could easily come up in conversation and I would be grounded for longer than I already was.
‘You snuck out?’ He gasped in sarcastic shock, ‘cool’ He ran towards the big red house in the distance, and came back moments later.
‘Let’s head to the barn, she said she’ll meet us there.’
We headed over to the barn, which was past the pond, chicken coop, and horse stables. The barn was placed just at the edge of the forest, where a small path laid out with flat stones, led to a beautiful pond, with a small waterfall. I knew this place so well, I’ve been coming here ever since I was seven.
A few minutes later Bobby’s twin sister Jo came running around the corner, her dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. On her head was a tan cowgirl hat that cast a shadow that covered her shining blue eyes.
She didn’t stop running, she ran right into me, and flung her arms tight around my neck. ‘Anthony!’ She cheered, in her sing-song voice. ‘It’s so good to see you, what have you been up to? Has Ashley been a good girl?’
I went into a long explanation about what my trip was like, and what I’d been doing for the past few days.
‘Well,’ Bobby started, ‘I guess we had a better vacation than you did.’
‘Oh, most likely.’ I sighed, ‘I didn’t have a whole lot of fun.’
I was, as much as I hate to admit it, quite jealous of Bobby. He had an awesome sister, a great house, an awesome property, and he was quite good looking—not that I’m not good looking… Although Bobby’s kind of… dumb. Not to be mean, but he’s not all that smart.
We were now sitting with our feet in the water talking about everything that came to our mind—every now and then Ashley would cross my mind, but I tried not to bring her up in conversation.
When it started to get darker, I realized my mistake, I quickly said goodbye, and ran down their lane and down the road.
It took me only ten minutes to get home. The front window was open and I heard my mom tell Dawson to go get me for supper.
I crawled through the hedges, lifted the flap, and sort of galloped up the chute.
I was under my bed when I heard Dawson say, ‘Anthony, supper’s ready!’
‘Kay.’ I said crawling out from under my dusty bed.
I woke up at six o’clock on the first day of school, showered, and got dressed.
I ate breakfast, and fed Dennis.
At quarter to eight I walked to the end of the laneway and waited for the bus to come.
And that's chapter one..... not great, but fun to write 
