With the approach of summer vacation and two long, sweet months away from the hell known as school, I expected a bit of boredom and not much of anything. But my summer was far from expectations. After final exams had terminated, I went home and celebrated to my heart's content. I spent the first few days of my vacation playing Final Fantasy X and watching TV. That weekend began the excitement of my summer. My high-light? You'd think it would be once I tell you, but it actually wasn't. That weekend I was forced to go against my will to my neighbor's house. Mama despises, or maybe that's too strong of a word, well she dislikes the woman who lives there. I'm not very fond of her, her daughter, who attends my school and is a year younger than I, and her youngest son. Her husband and eldest sons I don't have issues with but that might very well be because I don't know them very well. One of her eldest sons, the second eldest, is two years older than me. He was a senior at my high school and like Sin, he graduated. His mother was throwing a "Graduation Celebration" party for him. My family was invited. At the time, I just wanted to stay home playing FFX rather than being in the household of "them". But Mama has a certain power over me, it's called "I gave birth to you, now submit to me until you move out". You just can't decline.

For the occasion, I decided to wear a mint green sundress instead of my usual attire which consists of denim jeans and a t-shirt. My hair was pinned back with a frosted butterfly clip. I would've prefered to be sitting comfortably in lounge pants on my couch awaiting the new episode of Hannah Montana but it was not to be. I strolled down the street to the house of the party. Mama waltzed into the backyard and I lugged myself behind her regretably. The boy which had just graduated, Peter, was the first person I saw. I stood hidden behind Mama. Half of the people at the party were all neighbors and the other half, I assumed, were members of Peter's family since I didn't know them. Mama began to chat with some of our neighbors, specifically Jenny's mother. Jenny was a girl who lived at the end of my street. One of her brothers is two years younger than me and the other was the same age as Peter. Jenny was around twelve, more or less. I still stood next to Mama but my back faced Peter.

An arm grabbed me tenderly above the waist and pulled me near a warm body. Insinctively, I spun my head around coming face-to-face with Peter almost caught in...a lip-lock! I spun my head back around in the other direction just in time as he planted a kiss to my cheek. I felt my face get all heated as I blushed a dozen shades of deep red. He greeted me and left just as suddenly as he came. I watched him for a bit as he greeted other people. No kisses or anything boarding romantic affection. I felt really awkward being there, even more than I had when I'd entered the backyard feeling like an outsider. I don't understand even now what had happened. I was the only one. Sure, we go, or went rather, to the same school. He was on my bus and I sometimes ran into him during school. But other than that, we never saw or spent any time together. We've never even exchanged words! Sometimes I'd wave to him if I saw him outside, but that's me just being polite. So I don't get it. Why'd Peter try to kiss me? It's not like I did anything remotely amazing.

Mama had seen the whole thing and took it as a golden oppurtunity. She wasn't the only one. Jenny's family saw too and began to tease Peter before he'd left my side. I sat next to Mama for the duration of the party not wanting to run into Peter. Later, Mama wanted me to get her a soda and I refused.

"If you go, you might score some points with Peter," she retorted. How encouraging. I ALMOST had my first kiss and here Mama was teasing me that I had my golden chance but didn't seize the oppurtunity. Um, hello! First kiss! I wouldn't have wanted it to be like that, especially not with my mother watching. Mama told me she thought Peter had been flirting with me. Hell, I'm too dense to realize when someone's flirting. He's sweet from what I know and a real cutie too...AND HE'S 18! Whoo! Me being 16 almost being kissed by a guy who's 18! That's definetly exciting! But it still bothers me why he tried to kiss me. Even if he did like me...I just don't know...I've never been on a date and I don't know how to handle a relationship, especially when I run from anyone who wants to get close to me. But that wasn't all to my summer.

In early July, I went to AnimeNEXT for three days with Daddy. On Friday, the first day, I saw the Anime Music Video contest. I put in my votes and then went to the Dealer's Room. Sin and I met up there as I was dressed as Sakura Haruno and Sin was wearing regular clothes. With graduation and exams, Sin never had the chance to make her Karin cosplay costume. She and I walked around with some of her friends from New York. After a little bit, Daddy met up with me in the Dealer's Room and walked some more with Sin and I. Sin and I parted and I continued geeking out at the best con ever! I saw so many things. I loved the Artist's Alley. They had plenty of nice stuff there. In the Artist Alley I bought Chibi stickers!! One of Cloud Strife, one of Axel and one of Sora dressed in his Halloween Town attire. They're so cute! Later that evening, AnimeNEXT was holding a concert which Daddy and I were staying for. Neither one of us had been to a concert before and there wasn't an extra fee to see it. All the attendees were forced to leave the con and line up outside as the Dealer's Room, the Artist Alley and smaller spots in the con closed for the night and the Main Theater set up for the concert. The band playing was a Japanese band, one I've never heard of, 12012 (Ichi-Ni-Zero-Ichi-Ni). I really enjoyed the concert but sat most of the time. I didn't understand how some of these cosplayers here at the concert could stand for the whole thing. I got tired after ten minutes. I mean, all of us there had been walking around all day! The concert was an amazing experience since I've never been to one and I thought it was funny that my first concert was for a Japanese band! Daddy and I took many pictures of cosplayers we'd seen as well as the voice actors we met such as the girl who voices Kyoko in Full Metal Panic. After the Ichi-Ni concert, Daddy really needed to use the bathroom. Before I could stop him, he took my digital camera in with him. I wanted to have it in case I saw any more cosplayers I wanted to take a picture of. I waited outside the bathroom for him, my back facing the restroom exit. Suddenly, a pair of warm arms wrapped around my waist. My first thought was that it was Daddy just trying to scare me or something like that. Until I had looked down to find that the arms holding me I hadn't recognized. They were clad in white fabric from the elbows to the wrists. A cosplayer! I slowly turned my head to see the face of the person clinging to me. It was definetly a cosplayer, he was dressed as Sasuke Uchiha who is Sakura Haruno's object of affection in Naruto. He looked up at me. There weren't many attendees around since most of them had left by now. I felt as if I were living the greatest dream, that I was really Sakura. Here I was being hugged by a super cute boy. He continued holding me as he spoke in the sweetest voice.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I just had to do it, You're...Sakura." He pulled away from me. I took a better look a him. Not only was he cute, his costume was amazing! His, like mine, looked like it came straight off an anime poster. He had been the best looking Sasuke cosplayer I'd seen. I only wish I had my camera at the time. He walked away just as Daddy was exiting the restroom. Sasuke took one more glance at me before he was out of sight forever.

Saturday, day two, Sin was no longer around. She only went for one day. I browsed the Dealer's Room again. I wanted to buy something but couldn't decide what. There was a lot of nice things but they all were really expensive. It was so difficult. Daddy and I went to a bunch of panels and got more signatures from voice actors, but I still didn't want to leave without buying something for myself from the Dealer's room. In the end, I still hadn't decided. Daddy and I attended the Cosplay Masquerade which was very entertaining. There were tons of cute and funny skits performed by Cosplayers. My favorite was the Fruits Basket skit which had won "best in show". It was a dance performed by girls cosplaying as Yuki Sohma, Kyo Sohma and Tohru Honda and the song, which I had not heard until that skit but instantly fell in love with, was "Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)" by BT. The girl who had cosplayed as Kyo looked amazing! I found it hard to believe from where I had been sitting in the Main Theater that it was a girl. Day three, I had gotten tired of wearing my pink wig so I threw some clothes I had together and I cosplayed as Kyo Sohma. I had my small Kyo-cosplaying-as-a-cat plush hanging off of the belt on my pants and a small name tag pinned to my shirt that had said "Hello, my name is...KYO". Since it was a rushed cosplay, I did not have an orange wig so I didn't look too much like him. To be honest, I looked as if I was cosplaying as Tohru Honda if she'd stolen Kyo's clothes. But at least I was immensly comfortable and I wasn't wear a wig for the third day in a row. That day, I made it my mission that I wouldn't go home until I bought something. The night before, at the Cosplay Masquerade, I had seen a really cute Roxas plushie I wanted. I was in search of it. I looked the Dealer's Room up and down. I found a Cloud Strife plushie, but I didn't want it. I couldn't even find the Axel plushie I'd seen the night before. I guess it was a hot item. I did manage to find a Kon plushie for $5. That I bought for Harmony. Daddy and I found nothing else to do and so I went home empty handed. I was not very happy that I hadn't been able to get at least one rare item for myself other than my stickers, but there wasn't much I could do.

The rest of the summer had moved like that first weekend had with the exception of August in which Harmony and I had flown down to Florida. It was a trip both fun, boring and annoying. Such a trip is only fun when you are with people you have fun with, such as my cousins. But staying with my grandparents...my days couldn't move any slower. There wasn't ever anything to watch on tv and drawing can only keep me occupied for so long. The month was droning on, longer than the rest of my summer. I wish so much time had night been wasted. Then there was the fact that my grandmother would throw a fit when I wouldn't let her buy me any new clothes. I'm a book worm, not a fashionista. Now I'm not saying that I've got the style of a librarian. Oh, hell no. I just care more about getting a new book rather than getting new clothes. Eventually, I was able to come back home. Yes!! I had something to do again in my usual lonesome.

Mama and Daddy's divorce was still in debate. Nothing was down on paper yet. Good gracious, it was taking so long!! Why couldn't it just be a simple "I am divorcing so-and-so as of today" with a simple signature at the bottom? At least for the moment I still had a piece of mind. I wasn't being bothered, just the way I like it. Nobody was ever home, just the way I like it. But summer would soon draw to a close and I felt as if nothing had been accomplished...Why had I wasted so much time...?