Memories in Jars

Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hey guys! So, I must preface this with a few words.  So stick with me, read this before you get all wrapped up in the story, s'il vous plait.  Merci.

This is completely an impulse decision.  I never intended to post this story until I had finished it, but my motivation was, to say the least, ENTIRELY GONE.  I've been writing this at a pace the tortoise from the Tortoise and the Hare would have been proud of for over two years.  Yeah... is that a good thing? I don't really know.  Anyways, I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I posted it and readers showed interest in the story that I might be rejuvinated and find that final push to finish it.  And don't worry...I already have 16 whole chapters of this thing written out.  So even if I do go at the pace of a turtle, I probably will finish it before I post all of the stuff I've written.

So, anyways, back to the impulse thing.  When I say impulse I mean it.  I really wanted to publish a story, so, in a split second, instead of continuing the marathon of Friends I was then currently engaged in, I put down my computer, ran upstairs, did a quick photo shoot for the cover of this book, took entirely too long to figure out how to get the pictures from my phone onto my computer, made the cover, re-read the chapter, and then began to write this extremely long-winded author's note.  Aren't you glad you've just read all this?

As I said at the beginning, I've been writing this for two years.  Thus, this chapter was written when I was two years younger than I am now.  Consequently, I wouldn't call it my best writing OR plot description.  I promise it improves.  Pinky swear. 

Now, I'll let you get on with the story.  Please, pretty please, vote and comment and follow me so you get updates on this story! I hope you enjoy!

Kay (dreamer44)

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 ----- Annabelle -----

            A general air of excitement was almost palpable, radiating off everyone’s faces and expelled in their voices.  All around me, my classmates were cheering, yelling to each other about this party and those plans.  The anticipation of summer, now in their clutches, and what it was to bring brought about a sense of spontaneity that I associated with these hot months during which we were free.

            “Wooo!” Maggie yelled as we turned out of the school’s parking lot for the last time of junior year.  She put on her sunglasses and rolled down her window while I turned up the music and kicked off my flip flops.  An upbeat tune came on the radio, the singer crooning about summer nights.

            “Junior year is done!” I said, the realization still only dawning on me, not having yet set in.  A big smile stretched across my face with the declaration of this simple statement.

            “Thank God,” Maggie said.  As we raced down the road, the wind blowing through our hair, she turned up the radio another notch and we both sang at the top of our lungs, both very off key.  But we didn’t care—it was summer.  

Maggie pulled the car into her driveway and we got out, our faces relaxing to the warmth that now signified summer.  “Do you want to go swim?” she asked me.

            “Yeah, sure,” I said, as I had packed my blue-striped bikini in my sleepover bag.  Maggie and I had a tradition of hanging out and pulling an all-nighter on the last day of school, and this year we were at her house.

            “Hey, it looks like Tim’s already swimming,” Maggie commented as we got dressed and put on our sunscreen. 

            My head shot up.  “Oh, cool,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant.  I caught a glimpse of Tim swimming laps in the pool in their backyard from Maggie’s window.  His lightly-tanned skin glistened with water droplets that sparkled in the sun.  I watched as he rested for a breath of air and a sip from his water bottle, and then went back to swimming back and forth in a rhythm that I found entrancing.