“Hello Mrs. Basso.”  I say.

“Hi Maddy, I assumed you would be in town this week” she comes over giving me a short hug.  Cold compared to how she used to hug me.  “Why are you guys driving together?”  She seems irritated.

“We ran into each other at the airport, thought we would share a rental car this week.”  Gabe tosses the keys in my direction.

Catching them I hear Ian clear his throat behind me.

“Oh I’m sorry.  Mrs. Basso this is my friend Ian.  Ian this is Gabe’s mom Mrs. Basso.”  I motion back and forth.

She eyes him up and down.  “Please, call me Wendy.”  She extends her hand.

“Nice to meet you…Wendy.”  Ian shakes back.

“Alright then, let’s go.”  I say to Ian.  “Nice to see you again Mrs. Basso.  Gabe, let me know if you want the car.”  I turn around before either one of them can say anything back heading back to the driver side of the blue monster.

“Wait Maddy.”  Gabe is jogging over to me.

“What’s up?”  I impatiently say.

“I don’t have your number.  Give me your phone.”  He demands.

I dig it out of my purse and hand it to him.  He programs his number and then calls himself.  After he hands it back to me I see he stored himself as the Hot Basso Brother.

“Nice” I smirk up to him.

“It’s not my fault my brothers got stuck at the shallow end of the gene pool.”  He puts his hands out for me to disagree.  I don’t.

We pull out of the driveway of what I considered my home once and I want to cry for what has happened between myself and the Bassos.  I won’t let myself get dragged into it again, I promised myself.  I see Mrs. Basso giving Gabe the third degree about why he would be with me and he is shaking his head back and forth.

“She’s a trip.”  Ian says.  “What is her problem with you?”

“She used to be nice.  I was like a daughter to her.”  I say staring at the road ahead of me.

“What happened?”  He asks.

I don’t answer.  I don’t want to talk about it.  I can’t tell him that I took something from her that I could never replace.

Chapter 3 – 12 years old

Trent and I “went out” for about two weeks before we broke up.  We were able to keep our friendship going surprisingly when Trent started “going out” with Candice Montgomery, Katie Pierce, Amanda Schmidt and Jenny Roberts.  Needless to say Trent was a lot like Mackenna, hard to make up his mind.

Over the year Trent, Bryan, Mackenna and I became a close-knit group.  We usually got together with the Bigs and watched movies, played video games or went bowling.  We had turned into the best of friends.

There were some days I talked more to Trent than I did to Mackenna. When Jack’s football team went to play in the state championship we traveled with the Basso’s up there.  We were able to convince Trent’s parents to take Bryan and Mackenna with us.  We piled in the Basso’s conversion van with games and snacks not realizing that Madison was only a few hours away.

We were staying in a hotel with a pool, which we were so excited about.  We threw our bags in our rooms, changed into our swimsuits to meet down there.

“Mackenna Ross, what are you wearing?”  I ask when she struts down the hall in a bikini top and towel wrapped around her waist.

“Well Mad, it’s called a bikini.”  She says sarcastically.

“I know that but why are you wearing it?”  She looks gorgeous.  I stare down at my one-piece pink swimsuit.

“Duh, I am going swimming.”  She puts her hands on her hips.

Suddenly, I am not so excited to go swimming. Mackenna can tell I am upset.

“I have another one if you want to borrow it?”  She puts her hand on my shoulder.  “But I think you look amazing”

Isn’t that what best friends are for, to boost you up.

“Thanks Kenna, but I would never be able to hold that top up.” I point to her breasts.  Kenna matured early compared to the other girls our age.

“They aren’t that great Mad, believe me.”  Her looks goes from happy to sad.

“I know, but you look gorgeous Kenna.”  I respond hooking my arm through hers.  “Let’s go show the boys how to dive.”

She smiles back.  It’s funny that we are both self-conscious about the same thing for different reasons.

When we walk closer to the pool the smell of chlorine fills the air making my body itch to get in the water. The boys are already diving and splashing each other.  In fact it’s not just Trent and Bryan but all the Little’s and a lot of the Bigs too.  They are all fixated on Mackenna, staring at her chest.  I look over at her and she suddenly turns around bringing the towel from her waist across her chest and sits down on one of the chairs facing the window.

I sit next to her putting my hand on hers “Kenna, let’s go in the water.  It’s a good thing they are staring.”

She shrugs her shoulders and I see her eyes watering.

“Don’t let these boys get you upset.”

“Come on Kenna, we are diving for pennies.”  Bryan screams over to us.  He is always making sure she is ok.

I wave my hand telling them to give us a minute but when I turn around Mackenna is standing up taking off her towel.

I take off my cover up and the only person I see staring is Trent as I enter the water, go figure. When I fully submerge into the water Trent comes up to me asking me if I want to go first.  I think that is his way of making me feel better that no one is looking at me.

After a half hour of diving for pennies where the Bigs win each throw since they are taller and don’t have to go down as far as us we give up.  Trent and Bryan start jumping off the diving board, doing cannonballs and flips while Kenna and I rate them.  Kenna and I start arguing about one of Trent’s cannonballs which I gave a 10 but she said since he had a leg out it wasn’t a full cannonball.  I am about to splash her when someone comes up under me and my body starts rising out of the water.  I look at MacKenna and she is too.  All the boys start screaming chicken fight.

I look down and I am on top of Gabe’s shoulders and Kenna is on his friend Paul’s.  Gabe is holding my knees and walking towards them.

“What am I supposed to do?”  I look towards Trent and Bryan for advice.  They are sitting on the edge of the pool with scowls on their faces.

“Knock her off Paul’s shoulders.” Gabe yells up to me.

Before I know it Kenna is grabbing my hands twisting them backwards.  I fall to the side but Gabe is able to keep me up.  We are laughing more than pushing each other so Paul tries to take Gabe out by his legs but Gabe holds his own.  I feel myself slipping off his shoulders but he grabs my thighs bringing my legs tighter around him.  When did he become so strong?

I see Kenna start grabbing at Paul’s head trying to stay upright so I put my hands on both her shoulders and she falls back into the pool.  Everyone starts laughing and cheering.  Kenna pops up and I am happy to see her smiling as well.

Gabe goes underwater letting me off his shoulder and then puts his hand up to give him high five.  “Way to go Madgirl.”

“Thanks, couldn’t have done it without you.”  I slap his hand back.

All the parents come walking into the poolroom with handfuls of pizzas a few minutes later.  We all hop out and grab our towels.  Kenna and I get our pizza and go over to sit with Bryan and Trent but they are ignoring us while they talk with the other Little’s.  Eventually Kenna and I finished our pizza and go back to her room.

I don’t know what made the boys so upset but they seemed to be over it the next day.  We went to the football game and Jack’s team won State for the third year in a row.  It was exciting since Gabe was part of the team as well being one of only two freshman playing varsity.  The other being Paul.  I knew Bryan and Trent secretly thought the streak would continue until they played.  One day they would be the state champs like their brothers.