Dear Diary (The Exchange #1)
Read Dear Diary (The Exchange #1) Online
Authors: M. B. Feeney
Dear Diary
{The Exchange Series}
Book One
a novella by
M.B. Feeney
Copyright © 2015 M.B. Feeney
All rights reserved.
COVER DESIGN BY: © J.C. CLARKE
COVER ART: © The Graphics Shed
Copyright ©
M.B. Feeney
2015
Published by
M.B. Feeney
The right of
M.B. Feeney
to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
License Notes: This novel is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This print may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Acknowledgments
Tammy. Thank you for being the star that you always are. I wouldn’t get half of what I get done without you. Rach, you are just a constant beacon of support. Thank you.
To everyone over in Feeney’s Fabulous Friends, thank you for every tag or notification on Facebook. They mean a lot.
To anyone who has bought this book. It may be short, and it may be fluffy, I just hope you enjoy it and maybe tell a friend.
Dedication
I want to thank all those American sitcoms and teen flicks that gave me unrealistic ideas about visiting when I was a teenager. I still haven’t made it across the pond. One day. . .
Also, this is dedicated to YOU, yeah, you. The one reading this right now.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
April 2012
Dear Diary,
God, you'd think that after all this time, I'd have a much cooler greeting than that!
I just wanted to say that I hate airports. Nothing to do, other than sit around, waiting... waiting... oh, and more waiting. What am I waiting around in the airport for? So nice of you to ask. I'm finally off to America (I'm doing a silent happy dance in my seat!) for six weeks. I never thought that my college would have arranged something like this to give a bunch of seventeen and eighteen year olds "life experience". I mean, it's not even a 'proper' exchange programme. No-one's off to the U.K. to stay in my house in return. I just get to go and stay with a family I have never met before. Oh crap, now I'm getting nervous.
Oh well, it's too late, flight's being called.
Holly x
~DD~
April 2012
Dear Diary,
You know in the movies, when a girl is met off her flight by a hot guy holding up a sign with her name on it? Well, only
I
could miss it when it actually happens to me. That'll teach me to look at my iPod when I walk into arrivals. There I was, the last one left waiting, feeling a bit lost when this guy taps me on the shoulder. He was fucking HUGE! I nearly peed myself and ran away—until I saw the sign in his hands. Yeah, I'm an idiot.
So . . . Tyler King . . . is fucking BEAUTIFUL! There is simply no other way to describe him. He's gorgeous, in that big, brawny rugby player kind of way. His hair glows like a bloody neon sign saying "
Hey girls, look at me
" it's so pale. I've never actually seen anyone with white-blond hair outside of a magazine before. Then there are his eyes . . . My knees may have actually weakened slightly. They were beautifully wide and ice blue, almost colourless, but not in a creepy way. When he looked at me it was like he could see right into my soul. Urgh, corny much?
He grabbed my case as if it were lighter than paper, while laughing at me. His voice was all deep and rumbly. I have to admit, my girly bits tingled a little.
Maybe I can make the most of these six weeks.
Sitting in his beast of a car was kind of awkward. He chatted away to me, mainly taking the piss out of my accent and my height. He actually called me dinky! The cheek of it. Then he told me all about the school I’ll be going to, giving me the lowdown on all the teachers and stuff like that. I really didn't know what to say without sounding like a total airhead. Eventually I stopped even trying to respond to him and spent the rest of the drive gazing at him sneakily out of the corner of my eye while he bopped his head to a song I've never heard of.
We arrived at his huge house. When I say huge, I mean it was like a fucking palace, especially compared to our crappy three bedrooms back home. The King house is all white and postcard worthy. The inside is just as amazing, like something out of that American makeover show where they rebuild houses from scratch, and I cry every single time I watch it.
Chapter Two
April 2012
Dear Diary,
Wow, jet lag hits hard and fast! One minute I was sat on my extremely comfy bed, writing. The next, its morning and my face is covered in ink.
Luckily, I woke up to find the house empty. There was a note propped up by the kettle written in the neatest writing I have ever seen, explaining that the family had gone to church and would be back in time for lunch. It gave me time to shower, dress, and reflect. My poor brain is operating on overload.
When Tyler had opened the door to let us in yesterday, I was completely gobsmacked. His mum,
"Please call me Marie",
had laid on a welcome spread. We had just sat down to eat, when his dad,
"Please, call me Joseph,"
and his brother, Aiden, walked in. I thought Tyler was tall, but Aiden must've been raised in horse shit! I didn't see much of him cause he went straight to his room after we exchanged pleasantries.
Oh, they're back from church, gotta go be sociable.
Holly x
~DD~
April 2012
Dear Diary,
Joseph and Tyler decided, on their way back from church, that we were going to have a full on barbecue. They'd stopped at a supermarket and bought a shit load of food which Joseph put straight into some homemade marinade before going outside to the enormous brick barbecue in the garden to do whatever it was men did with those things. I wouldn’t have a clue. Back home we always buy those disposable ones.
I offered to make a salad to make myself useful and Tyler decided to 'help'. I swear he could charm the knickers off a nun. He's one of those good looking guys who knows it, and blatantly uses it to his advantage. I can't even remember what he actually said to me, it was more the way he was saying it . . . and he is
very
touchy feely. It was almost as if he was trying to tell me something without actually saying it, or maybe I am reading him completely wrong. After all, he's a university student whilst I'm only in my final year of college (or High School here). Once again, Tyler's brother disappeared pretty much as soon as they got back, mumbling something about needing to finish an assignment. Tyler laughed at him and called him a nerd. It’s easy to see what kind of relationship they have.
From what I can gather about Aiden (well, from what Tyler told me about him) is that he's the same age as me, which means he'll be in my year (grade as they call it here) at school. He's all about the studying. Yesterday, he wasn’t very visible after I'd arrived, so I haven't spoken to him much. I don't know if we'll have any of the same classes, I kinda hope we don't. He makes me feel a little . . . unwanted.
It's my first day tomorrow and I'm crapping myself. Tyler goes to the university across the city, which allows him to live at home rather than pay rent on campus, and has offered to drive Aiden and me to school in the morning. Aiden's car is
"in the shop"
for a service and he isn't sure when he'll have it back.
What if I don't fit in or make any friends? It'll be a lonely six weeks if I don't. Best go and sort my stuff out so I don't look a fool when I forget something, especially as the school sent me an epically long email telling me my timetable and what I would need.
Holly x
Ps, Diary . . . I really hope I can pick up how they speak over here. Our word differences are making me feel quite nervous.
~DD~
April 2012
Dear Diary,
I had a bit of an emotional phone call with Mum. I only called to let her and Dad know I'd arrived and was okay, but she got a bit teary, which made me feel a bit homesick, but time will fly... won't it?
Marie came to see me in my room before she went to bed. She's really nice and just wanted to check I was settling in alright. It's only been two days but I still feel a bit overwhelmed, especially after speaking to Mum. They've all been really welcoming, well, most of them. Aiden's barely been in the room long enough to actually speak to me. I think Marie's a bit relieved to have another woman in the house to counteract all the testosterone for a bit. She reminds me of my mum a little, just in the way she checks on everyone else before thinking about herself. I guess it's a mum thing.
Joseph even popped his head round my door (after knocking, why don't my parents do that?) to see if Marie or I needed anything. He's really nice too. It's lucky that he doesn't have any daughters; otherwise the house would be full of teenage girls swooning over him. With his long sandy-blond hair and piercing blue eyes. As pretty as Marie is, the boys got their looks from Joseph.
Marie stayed for a little while, just chatting. She left me alone when she caught me trying to hide my yawns. Night.
Hx
Chapter Three
April 2012
Dear Diary,
That was fun. If you enjoy being stared at and whispered about ALL fucking day!
It all started when Tyler dropped us off. I mean his car is more than enough to get anyone noticed. It's insanely big . . . and loud. A bit like the man himself. He pulled into the school car park and let us out. He made this big show of getting out and opening my door for me. Let me just say now, that with him being so close to me, he smelled really good. He got back into his car, revving his engine and turning his music up, then he peeled away from the curb so hard and fast his tyres squealed. I couldn't believe it, how bloody embarrassing! Then, when I turned to Aiden in the hopes he could show me where to go, he had fucking gone and left me. I saw him slip back through the crowd near the main doors. Arse!
Eventually, I found my way to the office and got all my paperwork sorted out. Walking into that first classroom was horrendous. I thought I was going to throw up everywhere. Luckily (for me) the teacher didn't make me talk about myself and sat me next to this really pretty, olive-skinned girl, Bethany, who seemed pretty okay.
Bethany was in my next class too, so we managed to chat a little as we walked across campus. She seemed to be impressed that I'd arrived with the King brothers. She proceeded to launch into a brief history of them.
As I'd worked out for myself, Tyler was the life and soul of the party. Not the most academic, but a superstar at most sports which had earned him a full scholarship at Uni. Aiden, on the other hand, was a shoe in for an Ivy League school, not really much of a surprise. What did surprise me was the tidbit about him hooking up with a cheerleader after tutoring her last year. Apparently, he and Jessie were together solidly and publicly for about eight months before she moved on to greener pastures.