"Mom! It's not too late to change your mind and stay in New York you know? We really don't have to move," Jolie offered.

Her Mom laughed. "We're not cancelling the move so just settle in and enjoy the 13 hour drive back home!"

"It's not my home," Jolie grumbled under her breath. She didn't share her Mom's excitement about this move at all.

The thought of starting her Senior year at a new High school in a little tiny town half way across the country full of strangers made her so nervous she felt like she was going to be sick. Her old school in New York had 1,000 kids just in her grade level and she was a master at blending in and not getting noticed. She was shy and didn't do anything to stand out, so blending in was easy to do when you had so many people.

She had Googled her new school in Illinois and found out it would only have 150 in her grade level and 500 in the whole school. She also found out her new town of 8,000 people was extremely boring and didn't offer much to do AT ALL. She had a strong feeling she was gonna hate it there but her Mom was really excited about moving back to her hometown so the odds of her changing her mind were not good.

Jolie stuck her ear buds back in and closed her eyes listening to music, visualizing in her mind that she was back in New York with her 2 best friends, Karragan and Molly and that this whole move was just a really bad dream. They had been her best friends since the three of them were five and being forced to live 13 hours away from them felt like torture.

The whole reason they were making this move is that her Mom found out her Dad had been having an affair for the past 6 months with a woman from his office and she was so heartbroken that she needed to move back to where her Mom and other family lived for emotional support. It was going to be so weird for Jolie, living down the street from her Grandma when she normally only saw her one week a year. Jolie would also be going to her Mom's old high school.

***********************************

"We're here!" her Mom squealed from the driver's seat waking her up. Jolie groaned and squinted her eyes, wiping the drool off from the side of her mouth and slowly sitting up. She blinked as she looked out the window at the small houses passing by with manicured yards and neighbors outside talking to each other or passing a ball in the yard with their kids.

She opened her cell phone camera to check what she looked like and her brown hair was sticking up all over the place and her eyes were bloodshot.

"Nice," she said sarcastically shaking her head. "Oh well. Who am I going to see to impress anyway? Some cows, maybe a goat?"

Her Mom laughed. "We're not moving to a farm Jolie. We're just going to live in a nice suburban neighborhood close to where I grew up. I think you'll like it. The people are really nice here."

They pulled their white Range Rover that was pulling a big U-haul behind it up in front of a two story white house with black shutters and two Greek columns by the front door. There were shrubs and flowers in front with a flowering vine weaving around the columns.

"Welcome to Suburbia," Jolie grumbled, getting out and stretching her legs.

She looked around at the new street they'd be living on and noticed it was a culdesac, a circle road that dead ends, with about six houses on it that were all nice new homes. They weren't near as nice as their mansion in New York that her Dad was now living in with his mistress. Just thinking about it made her clench her teeth in anger.

"Hey," a deep voice said from behind her. Jolie turned around and her eyes widened as they took in the sight in front of her. Standing there was a teenage guy that was about 6'2 and lightly tan with shaggy brown hair and bright blue eyes, wearing a letter jacket, a tight white t-shirt that showed off his muscular chest, blue jeans and high top Nikes.

He smiled at her with the most perfect straight white teeth Jolie had ever seen and clear perfect skin. He was so gorgeous he took away her ability to breath and speak. He looked like he walked right off the pages of a magazine ad.

"My Mom told me to come introduce myself to the new neighbors," he said, looking at Jolie with his toothy, white smile and piercing blue eyes. "I live next door. My name's Austin," he said and the low tone of his voice made her stomach do a flip. He was perfect.

As the realization suddenly hit Jolie that she looked like a total disaster after sleeping in the car for so many hours, she panicked. She lifted a moving box to cover her face and said, "Sorry. Can't stop and talk! I've gotta go!" hurrying past him and into the house. She let out a big exhale once she got inside, her heart racing.

"Oh my gosh! How embarrassing was that? Meeting a guy that looks like that while looking like this!" she groaned and laid her head on the kitchen counter.

Her Mom laughed. "Looks like there's more to impress around here than cows and goats after all!"

She heard her Mom's laughter fade away as she walked down the hall and back out the front door.

It took them a couple hours to finish unloading the U-haul and her Mom finally said, "You know what? Since this move has been so hard on you with leaving your school and friends all behind, how about I do something special for you?"

"What did you have in mind?" Jolie asked.

"Well to help you get excited about your new school and to cheer you up, let's do a total makeover. You've been working so hard this summer to get in shape and you just got your braces off a couple weeks ago, so let's take it even further and get rid of those big ole' glasses and get you contacts, get your brown hair highlighted and get you some new clothes? That'll cheer you up!"

Jolie thought about all of this. "Really Mom? That would be awesome actually," she said smiling.

"Ok. It's a date! Tomorrow we're going to do all of that! For right now, make yourself presentable so I can go talk to the new neighbors. You're coming with me!" her Mom said cheerfully and Jolie groaned, cringing at the thought of facing Austin after their embarrassing encounter earlier.

Jolie went through the moving boxes that were marked for her bathroom and brushed her straight brown hair, put on a tiny bit of makeup and brushed her teeth. She opened the boxes that had her clothes in it and put on a cute baggy sweater that hung off her shoulder with a tank underneath, some high-waisted destroyed jeans that were so loose she needed a belt and her Birkenstocks.

She rolled on some extra deodorant and sprayed on some perfume just in case and looked in the mirror feeling much better. She was still really embarrassed about how she acted earlier. He probably thought she was so rude.

"Much better!" her Mom told her as she came downstairs. "Ok let's go talk to the new next door neighbors."

Her and her Mom stood there and rang the doorbell for a minute and it took Austin a little while to finally answer.

"Hey!" he said, surprised to see them.

Jolie's Mom said, "We wanted to come over and apologize about earlier. We weren't trying to be rude at all. We just had a lot of boxes to carry in and we were in a hurry to get the u-haul back before the deadline."

"That's alright," Austin said. "I wasn't offended. You guys want to come in? I'll get my Mom."

"Sure," Jolie's mom Stacy said, stepping inside.

Austin looked down at Jolie as she stepped inside and he smiled down at her.

"Hi again", he said with his deep voice. She could smell his masculine, musky cologne and it made her insides flutter.

"Hi," she said, looking down and fidgeting with the sleeve of her sweater. "Sorry for being rude earlier," she told him quietly, avoiding eye contact. He made her so nervous she could barely speak. Even in her huge New York school they didn't have any guys that were as hot as him and she didn't make it a habit to talk to hot guys.

"I'll go get my Mom," he told them before turning and heading up the stairs. Jolie looked around and noticed that Austin's house was really nice and modern. It looked like they had just remodeled it within the last couple years and there was a large stone fireplace in the living room with a fire burning in it surrounded by a cozy looking couch and chairs. She also saw that their kitchen was really beautiful with dark granite counter-tops and grey stone flooring and all shiny stainless steel appliances.

Austin re-appeared a couple minutes later followed by a woman in her mid-40's that had shoulder-length curly dark brown hair that looked like it had just been styled at the salon, a large pearl necklace and she was wearing a knee length sleeveless black dress. She smiled warmly and greeted their guests.

"It's so nice to meet you! We've been excited to see who the new neighbors would be! I'm Katherine."

"I'm Stacy and this is my daughter Jolie. We just moved here from New York," she said, shaking Katherine's hand, who looked at Jolie.

Katherine asked, "How old are you? You look about my son's age?"

"I'm 17. I'm a senior in high school."

"Oh wow! What a coincidence! Austin here is 17. He's a senior too so you guys will probably see each other a lot at school. Hey since you guys haven't gotten settled in yet do you want to stay and have dinner with us over here? Stacy you could help me cook and Austin you could get better acquainted with Jolie."

"Sure. That would be wonderful! Thank you so much! I had almost forgotten how nice everyone in Illinois was after living in New York for 15 years!" her Mom said, smiling at Katherine.

Austin looked over at Jolie with his piercing blue eyes and said "Come on. I'll show you my room," as he motioned for her to follow and started walking towards the stairs. Jolie hesitated for a second before finally following him in disbelief.

'Is this really happening? I'm following this insanely hot guy I just met to his bedroom?!?!' she thought. If her friends from home could see this right now they'd be freaking out.