Chapter 1: Lizzie

I woke up with a start as my brother Simon started banging on the drums in his bedroom next door. A few seconds later I heard the door open, the drumming stop, and my mother yell "STOP LIZZIE IS STILL SLEEPING!". I heard the quiet retort "Sorry Mom" come from Simon.

I checked the clock next to my bed. It was already 9:00 in the morning, the latest that I've slept in all summer. Up until yesterday, I had a job at a small bakery called Knead, but I was fired because I used my cell phone on the job. My ex-boss, Mrs. Graham, was a real nasty woman of fifty and she owned the bakery. She and I were the only ones that worked in the bakery from 7:00 to closing at 5:00. It was pretty nice job and I was good at it too, but I'm a little relieved that I won't have to deal with Mrs. Graham anymore. She would yell at me whenever something went wrong, from the air conditioning breaking to me accidentally dropping a plate. I'm a little disappointed though, because we need the money. I'm taking the day off today, but tomorrow the job search will begin.

I threw on a black tee shirt and jean shorts and brushed my tangled dirty blonde hair. I dab on a little bit of lipgloss and mascara before heading down to greet my family.

I only have one parent, my mom, who adopted me when I was ten. When I was born, I was automatically put into the foster system, bouncing from family to family until I met my mom, Ms. Jane Halter. She is one of the prettiest women I've ever seen. She's stick thin (unlike me) and she has long shiny brown hair which she styles differently every day. She's also very stylish. The reason she isn't married is because she wanted to jumpstart her career and became sidetracked in the search for a husband. She tells me all the time that a woman needs men like a fish needs a bicycle. She's my role model. When I was thirteen, my mom adopted a set of seven year old twin boys, Simon and Brandon. Simon and Brandon were deemed "impossible to raise", but my mom decided to take a chance on them. They've settled down in the five years that they've lived here, and my mom loves them to death. They are great kids and really interested in sports. I, on the other hand, love to sketch and read.

When I come downstairs, Mom has already prepared a breakfast of eggs and bacon for me and the twins. She is wearing a blue pantsuit and her hair is in a ballerina bun because she has to jet off to work in an hour. Mom works at an accounting firm not too far from our house. I take a seat and dig in to my breakfast.

"Good morning Lizzie" my mom says, smiling "What are your plans for today?"

"Well," I swallow a mouthful of food "if you don't need me to watch the boys, I was thinking about going over to Vera's and watching a few movies with her. She just got back from Hawaii yesterday."

"That sounds great!" My mom begins cleaning the dishes "Mike is coming over to take the boys to a baseball game, so you have the whole day to do whatever you want. Do you think you'll be home for dinner?"

"Yeah I'll be home at six."

Mike Fischer is my mom's boyfriend of three years. He's a great guy, really muscular and kind-hearted. He loves the twins as if they were his own kids and sometimes will take them for the day to sports games and the dinosaur museum. He always invites me, but I usually opt out because I'm not a huge sports fan. Mike hasn't proposed to Mom yet, but I have a feeling that before long she will be the next Mrs. Fischer. She's crazy about him.

As I'm finishing up breakfast, Vera sends me a text saying "What did your mom say? Can you come over?"

I reply, "Yup I'll be there in 10 min".

Vera has been my best friend for the last three years and she's great. She plays tennis in her spare time and is even on the tennis team at school. She loves music and reading just like me. We met in our math class when I saw that she was reading the same book as me and we've been inseparable ever since. She has long black hair and loves to wear sundresses and big sunglasses. She travels a lot, so I only get to see her occasionally during the summer.

My mom finishes the dishes, kisses all three of us on the head, and leaves for work. Mike is a couple of minutes late so I have to watch the twins until he gets here. Right now they are playing one of their video games in which you have to shoot all the enemies to win. I don't really understand it.

"Where's Mike?" Brandon calls out "He said he would be here ten minutes ago! Do you think we're gonna be late for the game?"

"I'm sure he's right around the corner" I retort. I head up to my room to pick out a book to give to Vera. Every time we hang out, we exchange our favorite books. She usually reads Young Adult fiction novels while I prefer fantasy or classics. Today, I'm going to give her the first Game of Thrones book, which is 1,000 pages at least, but she's leaving for Europe in a week so she's got plenty of time to read it on the plane. I wish I could go to Europe with her, I've never been. As I'm sitting in my room thinking of England and France I hear the doorbell ring.

"MIIIIIKKKKEEEE" Brandon calls out and I hear the door open downstairs.

"Morning sport!" Mike laughs. "You guys both ready to go? Lizzie? Are you home?"

I bound down the stairs to greet him. "Morning Mike! I'm just about to head out."

"Same with us." Mike grins "Have a good day! See ya around!". He and the boys practically scramble into the car and drive off. I lock up the house and start my car. I was lucky enough to get the car that Mom drove when she was my age. Its a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle and I love it. Grandma kept it until I turned sixteen, and since then I've kept it in pristine condition. I've never gotten into a wreck and I was my car every month to keep it looking good. Vera's house is a good twenty minutes away, so I crank up the radio and roll down the windows. San Diego is perfect during the summer, and I can smell the sea and I drive through the city. Vera lives a ways out of the heart of the city and when I arrive she's sitting on her porch to greet me.

"LIZZIE! I've missed you! Come on in." She grins hugely and opens the door to her enormous mansion house. I love Vera's house; it's especially beautiful because her mom is an interior decorator, and a good one at that. Vera's dad is a radiologist and is around her house occasionally, but he has weird work hours and sometimes is sleeping in the middle of the day. Today is not one of those days.

"Good morning Lizzie!" her dad greets me while sipping his coffee and watching the news. "Are you having a good summer? How's work?"

I grimace. "I got fired yesterday. But besides that I'm doing alright! Mom's boyfriend has taken Simon and Brandon to a baseball game so I've got the whole day to myself before looking for a job tomorrow."

"Sounds great" her dad is smiling, but I can see he's a little jetlagged. When Vera and I get to her room she tells me about how Hawaii is on a different time zone so she is used to sleeping it till one in the afternoon San Diego time. She showed me all the cool souvenirs she got, including a can of chocolate covered macadamia nuts for me. She goes to Hawaii every year, and she always brings me back chocolate macadamia nuts because she knows they are my favorite. Regular macadamia nuts? Disgusting. But chocolate covered macadamia nuts? Heaven on earth.

Vera puts on Lana Del Rey over her speakers and flops on her bed. "Lizzie, how did you get fired? I thought you loved your job!"

"I did! Mrs. Graham has a two strike policy, which she explained to me on the first day. If you mess up you get a second chance, but mess up twice, and you're fired. Yesterday I was leaving on time, but my car wouldn't start, so I made my mom wake up and drive me in her PJs! It was pretty funny!"

At this, Vera laughs. "I can't imagine your mom doing that!"

"Wells she had to! I got to work ten minutes late, and Mrs. Graham told me that was my first strike, even after I explained what happened. Later that day I was caught on my phone during a lull. I should've been more careful but there was NOBODY IN THE SHOP!"

"She shouldn't have given you a strike for being late. That's just unfair."

"Well now I'm stuck without a job and a whole summer doing nothing."

"I'd tell you that we could hang out all summer, but I'm not really in town. At all."

"I just really sucks because all the good jobs are taken. I was hoping to get some money before I go off to college to help pay for stuff but I only made about $600 before I got fired"

Vera frowns. "Maybe something will come up! You never know!"

"Yeah I guess." I pull out my laptop. "What movies should we watch this time?"

"Eighties movies!" she exclaims. She watches Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller, and the Breakfast Club on a loop. This time we watch some different ones :Rocky Horror and Pretty in Pink. By the time we finish both movies it's lunchtime and I'm starving.

"Let's see what we have in the fridge" Vera says doubtfully. She just got back from Hawaii yesterday so she doesn't have a lot of food. Just a can of soup and cereal. Then she suggests, "Let's go out to eat! I'm buying!".

Before I can refuse, her dad walks in. He's showered and more alert. "I'll take both of you girls out to lunch. How does Chinese sound?"

"Delicious" I say before Vera has a chance to say anything.

Vera's dad took us to a great Chinese restaurant I had never heard of: The Golden Dragon. We got lettuce wraps, orange chicken, fried rice, and steamed vegetables. I love Chinese food, and this food was even tastier because I didn't have to pay for it.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Tran." I say as we finish the meal.

"You're welcome Lizzie. I wanted to tell you before I forgot, I remembered you told me that you lost your job? Well I have a friend that just opened a new sort of theme park in San Diego? It's called Wild West World, and they are looking for teens to help get it up and started. If you want, I can talk to my friend and I'm sure he can get you the job. It looks like it could be fun!"

Sounds way better than being yelled at by an old woman and standing in front of a counter all day. "Sure Mr. Tran that sounds great! Thank you so much!"

"Fantastic. I'll call him after lunch." he says. Vera smiles at me. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about finding a job tomorrow, if I can get this one then the painful process of going to interviews is out of the picture. Besides, working at a Wild West themed park and wearing all plaid can't be so bad. Right?