We Never Knew

We never knew is my current new project, about a Mormon girl who befriends a boy, earning the disapproval of family and friends for more reasons than one. Read more here, and enjoy the first chapter below!

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Chapter One: The Pond
It was hot. The sun was setting, the windows were open and a light breeze drifted through the house, but still the heat was stifling. Lucy left her parents in front of the television and made for the front porch, hoping for a glimmer of relief. Lights were beginning to twinkle on in the houses that lined her cul-de-sac and shadows of families settling down for the night danced in the windows. Lucy’s eyes drifted to the small grove of trees that divided the street directly across from her house, which hid a little bench and a tiny pond. Lucy glanced around. No one was out at this time of night; she could easily sneak into the grove and relax in the cool grass and the still pond. Silently, Lucy crept off the porch and across the street, the gentle wind playing in her skirt and hair and crickets chirping a soft melody in the dim light.

The air in the grove was light, a beautiful reprieve from the heat of the day. She slid off her shoes, settled at the edge of the pond, and sighed as the cool water embraced her ankles and her mind wandered with the breeze. Yesterday she had graduated high school, which in her mind meant that today was her first day as a real adult. No more curfew, no more public school, just the rest of her life. Which so far didn’t look like much, she admitted to herself. A local community college in the fall, her job at the local restaurant, and the same old room in her parents house, with no foreseeable change in anything. She sighed again.

“You know the HOA has rules against that,” a voice said behind her.
Immediately Lucy whipped her feet out of the water and scrambled away from the pond edge.
“I wasn’t--”
“Relax, I was kidding.” A young man materialized at the tree line and settled himself on the ground against a tree. “But seriously, someone from the Home Owners Association caught me in the pond when I was younger and got me in a lot of trouble, so be careful about it. I won’t tell, though.”
“Erm, thanks,” Lucy muttered, her heart still racing in surprise and blood flooding to her cheeks when she realized she’d been caught breaking the rules. She debated going back to the confines of her house, but she didn’t want him to think she was leaving just because he was there. Which, technically, would be why she left, she thought to herself.
“We’re neighbors, aren’t we? I live in that house there,” he said, pointing to the lights from a big white house at the very end of the cul-de-sac, three doors down from Lucy’s home.
“Uh, yeah, I’m right there.” She gestured behind her and wondered what her parents would say if they knew she was out there with a stranger. A young man, none the less. Her father might very well have a conniption. Just in case, Lucy tried her best in the fading light to get a good look at the guy.
“Oh, you’re the Quinn’s daughter. Your dad let me borrow your lawn mower when ours died this spring. I’m Ryan.”
Lucy blushed again, grateful for the concealing darkness. “Pleased to meet you, Ryan.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” he said with a chuckle.

Ryan seemed content to sit silently and enjoy the relative quiet of the summer evening. Lucy, hoping for any excuse to leave gracefully, slid her phone out of her pocket, checked the time, mumbled a goodbye, and stumbled away. She was on her front porch and half way in the house before she realized that she was still barefoot. Her shoes had been forgotten by the pond edge. She debated, there in the doorway, whether it was worth awkwardly going back out to get them and embarrassing herself, or just waiting until morning. Just as she made up her mind to go get them, her mom called from the living room.

“Lucy, are you still outside?”
“No, Mom,” she said back, stepping inside and letting the screen door shut behind her.
Lucy sat on her bed that night, thinking of the pond and the trees. Ryan had seemed nice enough. He wouldn’t steal a girl’s shoes, would he? Hopefully he just left them there so she could grab them in the morning before her parents asked any questions. She tried to sift through her knowledge of her neighbors, hoping to remember who Ryan of the White House was, but she drifted off to sleep before she could even conjure up a last name or face.


Ryan finally came in a little before midnight, Lucy’s shoes in hand. Two of his older brothers, the twins, were still sprawled on the little couch, their huge bodies filling the entire space, the television turned low.

“Melodie woke up while you were gone. Mom put her back to sleep,” Luke said over his shoulder.
“Yeah dude, where’d you go?” asked John.
“Just around,” Ryan said as he climbed the stairs. He checked on Melodie, set Lucy’s shoes beside his door, then collapsed into his bed and was sound asleep before his thoughts could keep him awake any longer.