All Along | ✓

Chapter One

—

"Something tells me I'm going to love you forever."

- Unknown

—

Luna's POV

—

"When are Claire and Zoey getting here?" I jump around my mom excitedly while she stands in the kitchen, making her morning coffee.

She chuckles, looking down at me with a smile. "Any minute now, baby. And they're bringing Oli. Remember I told you about him?" She asks, glancing up when my dad walks in the room.

"They adopted him... Right?" I ask, a little unsure that I used the wrong word. Some long words sound the same to me and I get them mixed up.

"That's right. He's been settling in with them for a couple weeks now. They wanted to wait a bit before introducing him to family and friends." Mom steps back against Dad who wraps his arms around her waist while I tilt my head at them.

A sharp knock on the door makes me perk up immediately and I grin widely. Mom gives me a knowing smile before she leaves to go let them in. I bound over to Dad and ask, "You think he's nice, Dad?"

"From what I've heard, he's shy and maybe a bit mean at first. But Claire said he's a very nice boy when you get to know him." He reassures me, bending down to ruffle my hair a little.

I giggle and scramble out of his hold. "I hope he'll play tag with me! Or hide and seek!"

He starts walking out of the room and I follow after him quickly. "I'm sure he will, love. Just give him a bit of time, yeah?" I nod quickly, walking into the living room just behind him.

"And this is Max, Bella's husband." I hear Mom's best friend, Claire speak as we walk into the room, "We've been friends with him since we were about your age." She continues and I poke my head out from behind my dad to see them.

I pause when I see a tall boy standing there - he must be more than a foot taller than me! But he's still almost a foot shorter than my dad. He has scruffy dark hair and dark eyes with tan skin. He has a deep frown on his face, and he doesn't look very happy to be here. He looks like he's quite a bit older than me as well. This must be Oli.

"And peeking out from behind him is their daughter, Luna. She's eight." Claire smiles at me, crouching down a little and gesturing for me to come out and say hello.

I quickly run forward and crash into her legs in a hug. She laughs, hugging me back before I pull away and do the same to her wife, Zoey. Claire and Zoey have been friends with my parents since away before I was even born, so I've known them forever. I turn to look at the boy standing with them when I pull away from the hug. I tilt my head at him and offer a wide smile. "Hi! I'm Luna!"

He doesn't say anything. He just stares at me.

"He's a bit shy, Luna," Zoey says softly, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder, "But this is Oli."

"Do you like playing hide and seek?" I ask him eagerly, bouncing up and down on the tips of my toes.

"No." His voice is deeper than I expected it to be. Not as deep as my dad's, but deeper than boys' my age. I guess that makes sense. He's a teenager and I'm not.

I frown at his short response. "Tag?"

"No." He repeats

I try again, "Frisbee?"