"AAAAAAHHHHH!" I screeched, launching myself off my bed and climbing clumsily on top of my dresser. I had woken up to see the great monster of the land on my sheets.

Kenzie burst through the door breathlessly. "Cassie! What is it!?"

"SPIDER! AAAAAAHHHHH, 911, THERES A SPIDER ON MY BED! UGH KILL IT, KILL IT NOW!!"

"Seriously? Look, just calm down-"

"NO, YOU CALM DOWN!"

"Cass, it's only a little-"

"I DONT CARE HOW SMALL IT IS, I WANT IT DEAD."

She sighed, "Fine, fine."

I watched as she picked out a discarded FlipFlop from on the ground, walked over to the bed and brought it down hard on the bloodthirsty little beast.

"EEEEEWWWWW NOW THERES FREAKING SPIDER ON MY DARN FLIPFLOP! GET IT OFF!" I hollered.

She grabbed a paper on my desk and rubbed the spider off my shoe, spitting on it for good measure.

"There. For you," Kenz held my shoe out to me.

"PUT THAT BACK," I slapped it out of her hand and it flopped back on the carpet.

She rolled her eyes, "Are you ready yet? Justin's going to arrive soon."

"I'm getting ready. And I hope that wasn't my resume you wiped spider on," I responded and pushed her out the door. She opened her mouth to protest but I slammed it in her face.

Then I brushed my hands together and began the long process called 'Getting Ready'.

Kenzie yelled, "You're welcome!" From outside the door and I smiled.

Kenzie was my other half. She had gorgeous wavy brown hair and green eyes that had a permanent mischievous glint to them. I'd known her for my whole life, she was like the batteries to my phone, or the Frapuccino to my Starbucks. We're just better together.

Plus, she knows how crazy I am and still chooses to be seen with me in public.

I pulled on a sunflower crop top that just reached the waist band on my jean shorts and slid my feet into my freshly wiped flipflops. My blonde hair was left wavy and down and I looked the mirror.

As I checked myself out like I usually do, I vaguely wondered if the spider had laid eggs in my mouth.

I shivered.

Those were not pleasant morning thoughts.

I walked over to the door and flung it open.

"I'm ready!" I said.

''Good, because they're here," Kenz replied, grabbing my arm. She hauled me down the stairs. Kenzie was living with my family while her parents were on a month long business trip and she'd already made herself quite at home, I should say.

Anyway, she pulled me out the front door and locked it.

"Let's be off!" I smiled.

"I'm way ahead of you," She ran past me and I ran too, quickly over taking her.

"Actually I'm ahead of you," I corrected. She rolled her eyes and kept speeding down the driveway.

"I win!" I smiled smugly, reaching the car before her.

"For now," Kenz scowled.

I suddenly bent over, hacking and choking.

"Wow, I'm choking on the amount of victory lodged in my throat," I commented, catching my breath.

Kenzie opened her mouth to protest but Justin beat her to it.

"Stop your bickering," He spoke from behind the wheel of the BMW. "You're ruining my lovely morning."

"That's a yikes," I said, climbing in. He sped away before I'd even closed the door. I swear, that guy drives like a maniac.

"Good morning, ladies. How are you?" Lucy wiggled her fingers at us, sitting in the passenger seat.

"I'm having unpleasant thoughts that I don't want to talk about," I responded.

Justin laughed, causing him to momentarily get distracted and loose control of the wheel. We swerved to the left before he gained control again.

"You laugh like a girl," Lucy told him.

"An extremely sexy girl," He countered.

"Anyways," Kenzie cut in. "What are you guys going to be for the Halloween festival?"

The Halloween festival was this odd thing a carnival did at the beginning of summer. They carnival jacked up the price by three times and then gave us a bogus discount if we were in costume.

And we loved it.

Jason thought, ''I'm not sure yet."

"You could borrow some of my clothes and be a model," I offered, but he shook his head.

"I'm going to be a giant cupcake!" Lucy grinned, "Way sexier than whatever Kenzie's going to be."

"Hey!" Kenz protested. "Cassie, Lucy said something mean to me!"

I sighed, "Lucy, if you can't say anything nice, at least say it louder so I can hear."

"Where's June?" Lucy inquired. "That pesky teen."

"She's on vacation with her new step father," I explained. June was my cousin, but she's more of a sister to me.

"Aha! We're here! And all in one piece I might add," Justin exclaimed proudly. He pulled up in front of the local convince store and we all hopped out and began heading for the doors.

"Can we get ice cream first?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm hungry," Justin added.

Lucy snorted, "What else is new."

We entered the big building and made a Beeline to the small ice cream shop, the Ice Cream Shop. Creative name, I know.

We stepped in line behind a girl our age and I almost gasped when she turned around. It was Becky Turner, Kenzie's mortal enemy. She dropped her phone to her side, and I noticed she was looking up another picture of male models who lost their shirts.

"Well, well, well," I crossed my arms. "What are you shopping for? Intelligence?"

"Believe it or not, ice cream. Though, seeing you trash has made me lose my appetite," She responded, planting her hands on her hips.

"And this is why you're the reason God created the middle finger," Kenzie narrowed her eyes.

Becky narrowed her eyes, "You think you are so much more smarter than me, but in reality, you are stupider than Arnold Einstein. One day, you're going to get electrocuted too, dimwit."

We were silent for a moment, marveling at her idiocy.

"Wow," I commented, "Almost every word in that sentence was wrong."

Becky ignored that.

"You know what, Cassie? I didn't think you were that bad, but I guess I was seriously wrong. You're as bad as that idiot over there, if not worse, and If I never see you two dirtbags again, it'll be too soon," And with that she took her ice cream and left.

"Have a good rest of summer!" I called after her. Then I turned to Lucy. "Should I have told her I missed her?"

"No," She responded immediately.

The worker called us up to take our order. He was about our age with tousled brown hair.

"Hello! What can I get for you?" He smiled.

I ordered first, "Can I have a double chocolate cone of triple chocolate ice cream please?"

He nodded.

"I'll have a cup of strawberry," said Lucy.

"I'll have a rocky road cone please," said Kenzie.

"I'll have a triple scoop chocolate jumbo cone with three scoops of chocolate ice cream, sprinkles, cherries, chocolate chips, cookie crumble, whipped cream, and what ever that red stuff is?" said Justin.

The guy distributed their ice cream first.

"Is there anything else I can get for you?" He asked, winking at me.

"Free sprinkles would be nice," I responded and he smiled.

"Coming right up."

The worker went back again and returned with my ice cream, and as Kenzie paid for us he handed me the cone. To my delight, when I looked down, little chocolate sprinkles were winking back at me. I looked up to thank the guy but he was already chatting with the next people in line.

We started walking to the clothes aisle when I started to lick my ice cream. But, too bad for me, because the ice cream became unbalanced and the whole first scoop plopped onto my lap.

"Oh fiddlesticks!" I cried. Kenzie turned back and busted out laughing.

"Pfffffft! You are literally the most clumsy person in the world," She grinned. And she was right, almost every meal I manage to spill something on myself. It's a talent really.

I sighed and spotted some napkins on the counter, "Darn it all. I'll go get some darned napkins."

Kenzie chuckled and I trudged over to the counter, grumbling to myself.

I reached the napkin dispenser and took twenty napkins, shoving some into my pockets in case I spilled later. I finished off my cone and threw the rest in the trash, along with my dignity.

I had started walking back over to my friends when my day got a whole lot better. A very sexy guy, like, model sexy, was staring at me from at his table. He was pretty sexy. We locked eyes and suddenly, his eyes lit up. A dozen emotions crossed his face but were gone before I could identify them.

My heart skipped a beat as he stood and started walking over to me. As he got closer I realized just how devastatingly beautiful he was, with his tousled brown hair and sculpted features and I boldly held his gaze until he was right in front of me. He smiled and It was just like in a book, when the two people met and it was love at first sight.

Only then something happened that wasn't like from a book. It was more like a dark and humorous but romantic book written by some immature, sick, twisted author.

The guy spun me around so that my back was against his chest.

And then he put a gun to my temple.