Here is the first chapter. Lots of questions remain!
Oh and since I forgot to tell you... the prologue isn't the beginning of the story. The prologue takes place sometime during the story.
Chapter 1
“I can’t believe you are leaving me” Lillian said while she sat on Mackenzie’s bed helping her pack up the things in her room.
“Lil, you know this is hard enough, without you making me feel all guilty” Mackenzie said while putting clothes into a suitcase.
“I know, I’m sorry” Lillian said. “It’s just that I’m going to miss you Kenz, you’re my best friend.”
“You, don’t think I am going to miss you?” Mackenzie said while putting the clothes down and sitting next to her best friend on the bed. “I’m moving to LA, all by myself. I don’t know anyone out there. The only thing I know, is the address to my apartment to give to the taxi driver.”
“Remind me again, why a seventeen year old is moving to LA all alone” Lily asks.
“All I did was ask my dad, and he said yes. We went to LA and found me an apartment, we bought a car and yeah, that’s it” Mackenzie explains with a lack of emotion.
“Kenz” Lillian says in a soothing tone.
“No, don’t worry about it Lil. This way I won’t have to wonder if he’s coming home or not. I’ll be on my own, officially. It will be great” Mackenzie said, more trying to convince herself than anyone else.
“Once you make it big, you are going to fly me out there to visit you, right?” Lily asks with a smile.
“We will have to see about that” Mackenzie said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“Shut up and tell me what you still need help with” Lily said with a smile while starting to take Mackenzie’s pictures off of the wall.
After packing up Mackenzie’s room for about thirty more minutes, the girls decide to go get dinner before it got too late. Mackenzie grabbed her bag off of her dresser along with her keys and they bounded down the stairs.
“This is something I am going to miss about New Hampshire” Mackenzie said as she drove down the road in her black Mercedes SUV. “Driving down the road, with the leaves changing, with my best friend.”
“I think you forgot what comes after the leaves changing” Lillian said. “Because while we are shoveling twelve inches of snow, you will be lying on the beach with seventy degree weather” Lilly added with a laugh.
“But, this is home. Well it was home. I can’t help but miss it” Mackenzie said. “This is where I grew up, the park by the river is where I had my first kiss, the road by the old syrup factory is where…. I drove for the first time after getting my license.” Mackenzie said, hoping that Lily wouldn’t notice her slight pause, and luckily, she didn’t.
“Yeah, but you are also moving across the country from Brooke, that’s a good thing” Lillian said, trying to find a small positive in a bad situation. “But enough of this mopey conversation” Lily said while turning up the radio and rolling down the windows in the car.
A few moments later, Mackenzie pulled into the parking lot at Fratellos. Mackenzie and Lillian had been coming to Fratellos for as long as they could remember. The owners knew them by name as did the servers. When they walked in the restaurant, they seated themselves, skipping the menus as they walked past. Lillian walked to the waiter stand and filled two cups with half Coke and half diet Coke, it had half the calories as a regular coke.
“Are you girls here for your weekly ‘Kenz and Lil at Frats’ adventure? Or is this an extra helping” Max, one of the owners of the restaurant said, while setting a basket of breadsticks on the table.
“Well, since Kenzers is leaving us tomorrow, this is our weekly visit, and a bonus visit, and a goodbye visit, all in one” Lily said while taking a bite of a breadstick.
“Oh that’s right, Mackenzie’s voice is taking her all the way to California, and I couldn’t be happier” Celia, Max’s wife, said walking up to greet the girls.
“Yep. Our girl is all grown up and moving to Hollywood” Lily said while reaching over the table to pinch Mackenzie’s cheek in a playful manner.
“She’s not grown up yet” Max said in a somewhat defensive tone. “I still don’t understand why your father is letting you go, much less letting you go alone.”
“She’ll be fine. She’s a feisty one” Celia said while ushering her husband away from the table. “Let’s go, they probably have a lot to discuss in the next… 12 hours.”
“I still can’t believe that someone at Hollywood Records got that copy of that performance” Lily said while remembering the phone call that Mackenzie received two months ago.
Junior year, Mackenzie’s grades started slipping because she was focusing so much on singing. After talking it over with her vocal coach, the school counselor, and her dad, Mackenzie decided to enroll in an independent study program for her senior year.
Every day she woke up at eight and did three hours of school work; she left her house at 11:30 so that she got to the rehearsal hall by noon. From twelve until three she practiced singing, through vocal warm-ups and training techniques and singing songs. She had an hour off from three until four, which was usually spent doing school work, before her acting class. Once her acting class ended at six, she had two hours of dance class. She made it home by eight o’clock. She would cook dinner for two and prepared a plate and put it in the microwave to keep it warm. She would take her plate into the living room and find something on television to watch. And she was in bed with the television, every night by nine. When she would wake up in the morning the plate was always picked clean and in the sink. Whether or not her father ate the meal was up for debate, but the food was always cleaned off of the plate.
This was her routine every weekday. Except for when Lily would come over after rehearsals. But that was always difficult, since Lily was still enrolled in public school. But no matter what, Lily spent every weekend at Mackenzie’s house, or Mackenzie at Lily’s.
A month and a half ago, Mackenzie’s singing company put on a concert and she had the envied solo song. Mackenzie had chosen to sing All By Myself by Celine Dion, and received a standing ovation as she held the final note.
Ms. Jenny, the vocal teacher, had recorded the performance and uploaded it on Youtube a few days later and a week after it was uploaded a talent scout from Hollywood Records called Mackenzie and said that her video was the talk of the office. Tasha Night flew to New Hampshire the next day heard Mackenzie perform and offered her a record contract on the spot. Mackenzie’s dad faxed the contract to the most expensive lawyer in Los Angeles and after receiving the legal okay the papers were signed.
Her move to California was delayed one month because Mackenzie insisted on honoring her commitment to the production company that she acted with. She had been cast as Maria in the play adaptation of The Sound of Music.
“I am a firm believer in commitment. When I agree to something I keep true to my word. Not everyone does, but I do. And I have people counting on me to be in this play and I am not going to let them down” Mackenzie would say when anyone from the record company would call to ask about her arrival date. “I will be there September 5th.”
“I know, it feels like Tasha called me two days ago, and now here we are on the night before I leave” Mackenzie said as Max and Celia set their plates of food on the table. “I sure am going to miss this lasagna.”
“I’m taking you to the airport tomorrow, right?” Lily asked, confirming the plans.
“Who else would take me?” Mackenzie asked back in a ‘no-duh’ kind of voice. “You are staying the night at my house and then you are going to take me to the airport in the morning.”
“Well Max. Celia. I’m gonna miss you guys” Mackenzie said as they get ready to leave the restaurant. “You guys know that you were my pseudo-grandparents. I love you both.”
“Honey, you’re going to make me cry” Celia said with tears in her eyes. “Just don’t forget about us when you get to Hollywood and become a famous singing star.” Mackenzie gets pulled into a hug and felt tears burning in her eyes, but refused to let them spill.
Mackenzie and Lillian walked back to the car and once Mackenzie was covered by the darkness in the car, she silently let her tears fall. Without looking to her left, Lily knows that if she were to turn on the light, she would find her best friend with tear stained cheeks.
Once they turned onto the road Lily spoke. “Are you going to tell me why you’re crying, or are we going to pretend that you aren’t wiping your cheeks ?”
“For the last two years, this place has felt more like home than my own house” Mackenzie said not even attempting to lie. “Max and Celia have been there for me when no one else was.”
“And they will continue to be there for you Kenz” Lily said. “But you know as well as I do, that they want you to follow your dreams. You have an amazing talent and you have been writing songs for as long as I can remember.”
“I know, but I will still miss them” Mackenzie said. “You will have to FedEx me some of their food sometime” Mackenzie said with a laugh, to lighten the mood.
Mackenzie and Lily pull into the driveway and are not surprised to find the house dark, since her father had not left his office before eleven at night for the last two years. Lily went upstairs to Mackenzie’s bedroom to set up the movie while Mackenzie popped the popcorn.
For the next two hours they watched How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. And as the credits began to roll, Mackenzie looked over at her best friend sleeping beside her. She quietly slid off of the bed and grabbed her shoes waiting until she was downstairs before sliding them on her feet. She quietly shut the front door behind her and started walking down the street. Even in the dark, she knew exactly how to get where she was going.
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