Chapter 1

Nueva's hand trembled slightly as she applied the bold shade of red lipstick to her full lips. She had fantasised about this moment all year, a date with the handsome Ryan Tanner, a senior at the Mountain base high school. She was a sophomore and relatively inexperienced when it came to dating. Not because she was unpopular but because she was shy and awkward around boys. Ryan was next level and totally out of her league. So, like most of the other girls at school, she had just watched him from a distance and pretended that he knew who she was.

Nueva glanced at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her almond-shaped baby blue eyes twinkled with nervousness under the thick black eyelashes.

Surprised to the point of being dumbfounded was what she felt when he walked up yesterday at the end of the school day. Her thoughts wandered back to when she and her friends had seen him waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

Mira had whispered in her ear, "Damn, he's hot." She was about to agree when she heard him speak her name.

"Nueva Winter, are you free on Friday night?" He asked in a voice smooth as honey. His strides towards her as she descended the last steps on the staircase had been confident, like he already knew that whatever he asked her, the answer would be yes.

 "Uhm, I guess", she stuttered before looking down at her white runners.

Ryan chuckled at her blushing cheeks before adding, "Great. I'll pick you up at 7.30 pm."

She stayed frozen in her tracks at the bottom of the large concrete stairs. Practically gawking at Ryan's back muscles straining underneath the fabric of his t-shirt, he looked like a giant next to his friends as they walked away. Her best friends Mira and Evie burst out in a roar of giggles as they patted her on the back in disbelief.

"Oh my god, you are one lucky girl", Evie laughed in a tone full of proudness that her friend just got asked out by the most popular boy in the school.

"What just happened?" she asked her friends, confused.

"You got a big date. That's what just happened." Mira explained in her distinctive bubbly personality.

Nueva sighed and looked at her golden wristwatch for the fiftieth time in the last hour. Finally, the large hand struck twelve as the small hand stayed put at seven on the marble dial. She could feel the butterflies rise in her stomach as it neared the time Ryan was going to pick her up.

She walked out of the small bathroom she shared with her younger twin brothers Asher and Grim and into her bedroom. Luckily, her brothers had been busy playing games with their friends on the computer downstairs in their mum's office and had left her alone all afternoon to get ready for her date. Nueva looked around her usually tidy bedroom and sighed deeply at the mess she had created this afternoon while trying on every piece of garments in her wardrobe. She kicked a couple of jumpers out of the way as she made her way over to the floor mirror, leaning against the wall next to the queen-sized bed that took up most of her small room.

She straightened out the fabric on the Scarlet red cotton dress and adjusted the hairpins holding her side-swept platinum blond locks in place.

She had never been girly and was more of the athletic type. She loved long-distance running and reading maps and had found a way to combine the two in cross country orienteering.

Her body was slim and toned rather than soft and curvy. Usually, this would annoy her, but tonight she felt happy with how the dress v neckline and flirty ruffled hem clung to all the right places on her slender form.

Her face was heart-shaped with high cheekbones and a small nose. The thick curved eyebrows gave her a decisive look with natural self-confidence. She didn't think of herself as pretty but more like old-fashioned beauty and not everyone's cup of tea.

"You look fine, and he will not regret asking you out," she chanted to herself as she walked out of her bedroom and down the stairs into the brightly lit white timber hallway.

Nueva's mum walked out from the kitchen as she reached the last step, bringing the faint scent of freshly baked cornbread with her. She was wearing her favourite red apron with tiny white handprints that she got for Christmas one year from her three children. Her brown hair was pulled back into a small ponytail like it always was when she was baking.

"Oh wow, you look amazing, Nueva", her mum Miranda smiled, cupping her cheeks.

"Thanks, Mum; I am a bit nervous. Does my makeup look OK? It's not too much?"

"Not too much at all; less is more anyway."

The doorbell rang its high pitch tone, startling them both. Nueva's wide blue eyes met her mum's calm and warm hazel brown eyes.

"Go on, open the door" Miranda's soft voice comforted her nervous daughter.

Nueva slowly turned the shiny golden doorknob and opened the large wooden front door. On the other side, Ryan waited, casually dressed in black jeans and a white t-shirt.

"Hey there, Nueva, ready to go?" Ryan's voice oozed confidence.

"I am ready; let me just grab my handbag." She managed to answer without stuttering.

"You look beautiful, by the way", he winked, running a hand through his dark-brown crew cut hair.

His words made the butterflies rise again, and she looked down at her feet.

"God, I must stop doing that every time he speaks to me," she growled at herself inside her head.

 "I'll have her back before midnight Mrs Winter" he smiled at her mum, showing his pearly white teeth.

"Thank you", Miranda smiled back before turning and raising her eyebrows swiftly at Nueva in approvement of what she saw. Nueva shook her head and smiled quickly at her mum before walking out behind Ryan towards his bright blue pickup truck.

Ryan opened up the passenger car door, and she climbed in.

"Thank you", she mumbled under a small smile.

"No worries" Ryan closed the car door and reached the other side in a few long strides.

"So, where are you taking me?" She asked as he buckled his seatbelt.

"Do you know Lucinda Moore?

"Do I, Lucinda Moore is the most popular girl in school, and she's a nasty piece of work!" Nueva thought to herself before answering.

"Yeah, I have heard of her." In a tone as calm and unbothered as possible.

"She's throwing a bonfire party tonight at her parent's lake house. We could go there?"

"Oh, OK", Nueva gulped.

They left the dim lights of the small-town White Creek behind and drove down a dark road winding through an otherworldly looking forest towards the lake house.

She bit the inside of her cheek with nervousness, and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. Ryan's musky scent embedded the truck cabin and filled her nostrils, and she couldn't help to steal a glance of his muscular frame.

Ryan turned towards her; he smiled confidently, like he could sense her attraction. Nueva's quickly looked away, pretending to stare out the window, and she thanked God that the poor light in the car hid her bright red cheeks.

Ryan pulled into Lucinda's parent's large gravel driveway and found a parking spot up the front among the many guest's cars. A large white weatherboard house towered next to them, looking over a skyline silver-coloured lake.

As they stepped out of the car, the smell of rich earthy wood scented smoke surrounded them from the tepee shaped bonfire's yellow and orange glowing flames on the beach.

Ryan put his hand on her lower back as they walked down a small cobblestone pathway. The warmth from his hand spread like wildfire through the thin fabric of her dress in the chilled night air.

The timber's crackling noise consumed by the forking flames mixed with laughter, loud voices and the whizzing from fireworks lighting up the dark sky's backdrop filled their ears as they walked out on the sand.

Nueva looked around at the many faces lit up by the golden flames. She recognised most of them from school but did not see anyone she would typically hang out with.

"Ryan, Ryan over here!" someone called out. Nueva turned towards the sound and froze when she saw Lucinda walking up to them with a determined look under the heavy makeup.  

Lucinda wore a black dress that hugged her curvy hips and pressed her large soft breasts into two pale hills over the low neckline.

 The rhythmical bouncing of Lucinda's chest as she made her way over to them was almost hypnotising.

"Ryan, so good that you could make it", she purred. Without as much as a glance at Nueva.

"Hey, Lulu. It looks like a great turnout tonight. Have you met Nueva?"

"Oh hello, I didn't see you there", Lucinda noted harshly.

"Hi, and thank you for letting me come tonight", Nueva babbled out in one breath.

"Wasn't my doing" Lucinda grunted and turned to Ryan, running her hands over his well-defined chest.

"Why don't you come over to our table" she chimed, batting her eyelashes. "I am sure Nora won't mind if you do?"

"Maybe later, Lulu and her name is Nueva, and we were just about to get some drinks," Ryan said in a cold tone.

He gripped Nueva's arm gently and steered her towards the tables with drinks.

"She's nice", Nueva snorted in disbelief.

Ryan laughed, and the sound made her feel warm despite the chilled lake air.

The large table with drinks contained several metal buckets filled with crossed ice and different bottles of alcohol.      

"What would the lady like to drink?"

"Maybe a pear cider? I see some over there" she pointed to a metal bucket in the middle of the table.

"Your wish is my command" Ryan reached for the bottle and unscrewed the top before handing it to her.

"Thanks" She smiled happily.

"He's so much nicer than I did ever imagine," she thought while stealing a glance of his muscular frame, which was pretty hard to miss under his tight clothes. Ryan almost looked unreal next to average teenage boys. But, of course, his sharp features and gentle eyes just added to those good looks.