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summer Storms: Prologue

I thought I had everything. I thought I could trust those closest to me. Everything I thought I knew, was wrong. It was just oh so wrong. I had a family who loved me, friends who adored me. I did well in school, kept to myself, worked hard at a job I loved. It was during the summer of my high-school graduation where my life literally turned upside down. I went from being �normal� (or whatever the closest thing to �normal� was) to something else entirely.
� �My family wasn�t poor; in fact we were well off. Not only were we well off, but we were all close. Something that was uncommon. My father Michael was an accountant. He was an average built man, with a height of 5�9� and roughly 175 pounds. He was not jacked up with muscle, but he could still definitely hold his own. Michael had chocolate hair and brown eyes. My mother, Ruby was the manager of the towns flower shoppe. �She was roughly 5�5� and 125 pounds. She too, was athletic with auburn hair and green eyes. I also had a brother, Xavier who was more like my twin. We were both roughly the same build as our parents, both with brown hair, and blue eyes.
� � �Remember when I said that we weren�t poor? Well, we were not considered rich either. That did not mean that I asked for everything over the moon. As someone who had her own job on top of high school, I had a habit of buying my own things. I had a job at the towns elderly center, taking care of the residents. It didn�t pay much, so I saved often, but I loved the job. I couldn�t see myself doing anything else. When it came to spending my money, it wasn�t on clothes or the latest fashion or the newest gadgets like most of my classmates. If I had books, music, movies and art supplies, I was happy. I spent most of my free time in my bedroom, where I was known for creating. Be it in writing, sketching or painting-I was always creating. It was my release from the many emotions I carried. Those emotions from the stress school and work caused, the drama from friends and other family members. It was an outlet that didn�t require me to bother anyone or allow anyone to judge me based on actions or words said.
� � � � � � Xavier was more of a jock in school, more outgoing than I, but still always protective of me if someone stepped out of line. We protected each other from the judgmental sharks in school. We preferred it that way. Her loved playing football and swimming, and often spent his free time chasing girls that either didn�t know he existed or were way out of his league.
� � �In school I pushed for straight A�s and never took a summer off. Doing this allowed me to graduate a year early along with Xanviers class. My parents were so proud, they decided to gift me tickets to a cruise for the whole family that summer when I graduated. It was the first trip I was taking since I was a young girl. Most teenagers wouldn�t want to take the trip with their parents; and I guess that�s what made me unique. I loved and cherished everything my parents did for me. I knew that without them I wouldn�t be where I was in life. I mean� Xavier and I were both the legal age of eighteen and still living at home-not because we couldn�t afford it, but because we made sure our parents knew we appreciated them.
� � �To say that I was excited about the trip was an understatement. We were headed on a week cruise to Neptune Shores. It was one of the places that had been on my bucket list of places to visit. Although on most cruises you can dock and get off the ship for a while, Neptune Shores was not one of those places. Its beauty was post-card beautiful; and so, the cruise line wanted to keep it that way (and honestly, I don�t blame them). There was so much mystery and myth surrounding Neptune Shores, some believed that its ancestors still lived which was one theory as to why no one could ever get off the cruise ship. Another theory was that the natives were savages and kept any stragglers left behind of those who dare defy the cruise line�s request. Some say it was the home to Poseidon �back in the day� and thus it should remain undisturbed.
� � � �Neptune Shores was something out of a fantasy world mixed with world history. Once upon a time there used to be a castle upon an island, now just rubble surrounded by a forest or jungle. It was still on an isolated island, but it seemed to be a favorite place for a vacation. You could swim among the coral, maybe even sharks or dolphins. No one knew much of the island except that it was there, and supposedly cursed. Leave it to me to want to vacation to a place like that.
� � � We were sitting outside at the schools� football field, parents, aunts, uncles, children and grandparents lined the bleachers. Even though we were outside, in the warm sunlight and we could hear the bustling of cars, the chatter of excitement was very loud. It wasn�t just the students that were excited, it was their family members too. The uproar was a little overwhelming. All the student slowly took their seats on the folded chairs in their caps and gowns waiting for the principal to start. As he started to speak, I felt myself slowly start to zone out, thinking about the past three years and how the school community has been shaped with tragedy.
� � � �Throughout the last three years, the school lost three students, with at least one death affecting everyone. One student went each year into the heavens, and the deaths seemed connected somehow, but also seemed like random freak accidents. One of those students I knew of was named Maleko.
� � � �Before he died, Maleko explained that his name was Hawaiian and that it meant �defender of the sea�. He somehow knew who I was and about my family, my real family as he pointed out, but he mysteriously died before we could have that conversation. The newspapers reported a fatal car crash, of him and his parents all dying upon impact.
� � � �However as I recall every encounter before that, I had always had a serious case of d�j� vu; and it wouldn�t be until my summer vacation until I found out why. We were meant to be connected, and no one was any the wiser for it.