My Forever (Canary Series) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either productions of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  My Forever

  Copyright © 2014 by CL King

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stores in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any methods, photocopying, scanning, electronic or otherwise, except as permitted by notation in the volume or under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without prior written permission of the author.

  I would love to dedicate this book to my loving Pawpaw. He is missed and loved every day. Even though he isn’t here to see my dream come true, I know that he is watching me from above smiling down on me.

  I love you Pawpaw, thank you for always believing in me. This one is for you.

  XOXO

  Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  My Forever Playlist

  Biography

  Acknowledgments

  Dream as if you will live forever,

  Love as if you only have today.

  CHAPTER 1

  The first day that Olivia talked to Ian had to be one of the best days of her life; at least it was until she had to go home. She had always had a slight crush on him but never told anyone because they were in separate houses. Nothing more than a hello in the halls or a good luck at a game was ever exchanged between them. Ian was the kind of guy that dated different girls nearly every week. Olivia always said that she would never date a guy like that, treating girls more like property than human beings. In all honesty though, she was jealous of all those girls.

  Olivia thought back to the first day she saw him. It was at Cedar Country before her eighth grade year at Oakwood. The sun was shining bright; reflecting off the windows in the moss covered stone buildings. The temperature was just right for the end of summer and the start of fall. Some of the leaves on the trees where already starting to change their colors. She loved this time of year, it always brought her peace.

  Everyone was getting their school supplies and the returning students were excited to see their friends that they had not seen since school ended two months earlier. Olivia and Garrett were shopping together with his parents because hers were at a conference for their jobs. The walkways and stores were crowded with students wearing their school jackets of different colors to represent the house they were in and their family members. You could tell which kids where going away for the first time, they were overly excited about everything and the mothers looked scared, almost as if they wanted to cry.

  While walking through the crowd Olivia tripped and fell into Ian’s chest. He was the most handsome guy she had ever seen. His hair was a dirty blonde and touched right at the bottom of his ears, she had never seen such beautiful green eyes with flecks of gold; he was taller than her and made of pure muscle. When he took hold of her shoulders to steady her she felt like she had just been shocked by something electrical.

  "Oh, I’m so sorry," she said as she blushed when she stepped away.

  He smiled at her, “There is no need to apologize, I’m just glad that I was here to catch you. That would have been a nasty fall if I wasn’t."

  She giggled and Garrett called out her name, "I have to go."

  He nodded but couldn't help but stare. "Have a nice day Olivia," he called after her.

  Nate came up and slapped him upside the head, "Come on, let’s go."

  By the time Olivia looked back he was gone. She could not believe what was going on. No one has ever taken away her breath like he did. She didn't even know his name, but she knew that she wanted to get to know him better. She didn't know if he went to Oakwood or not but Olivia had a good feeling about him and knew something was going to happen.

  ***

  Three weeks had passed since that afternoon and school was starting. Olivia didn't know what to expect from the school, arriving with no knowledge of the teachers and not knowing many people at the start. It was Garrett and her alone in the sea of thousands of other students. It felt weird not having their third musketeer with them.

  Garrett had always been her best friend. They grew up together side by side; some people thought they were brother and sister because of the way they looked. He had brown eyes and dark brown hair that was always cut short. His parents made sure that he got his hair trimmed at least once a month. He was thin and didn't have any muscles, but he was strong to say the least. Olivia had medium brown hair with natural blonde highlights. Her eyes were the brightest blue and she had the body of a dancer. Growing up she loved to perform, but her true passion was music.

  They arrived at the train station and there were families saying good-bye to one another, tears falling from mothers and daughters eyes and friends being reunited. Olivia felt alone even though she was surrounded by people. Her parents were, once again, absent from one of the most important days of her life. Garrett’s parents were always there for him. They had kind of adopted her over the years, always there for her whenever she needed someone. They grew up together and told each other everything, but those around them could tell that his feelings for her were more than just pure friendship. People warned her to be careful or else they would both get hurt. She never believed them; she always believed that Garrett and her friendship was always just that. Garrett, on the other hand, was holding a secret from her.

  As they were loading the twenty-car maroon train she saw him. He did go to her school and she knew that it had to be a sign. When he looked up and saw her she smiled and looked away. It was weird for her to be shy with anyone; she had no idea why this was any different. When they got to the school Olivia was filled with mixed emotions. She was happy to be away from her family but scared as to what might happen while she was away. She decided that this was a perfect time to make something of herself. No one here knew her so she could start over new.

  The school was overwhelming and had an eerie feeling in the darkness of the night. The building was made of stone with many different passageways to get from one place to another. She thought it looked wonderful, but there was a certain air about it that gave her a bit of an uneasy feeling. There were three houses, one on each side of the school except the front. They were all made out of stone like the school and each set up the same way. They were four stories high: one side was the boys’ dorms, the other was the girls and in the center was the living area. Each house had bathrooms on each floor, study rooms in the center along with a small library. For security reasons each house also had their own key fobs that the students would receive.

  At the welcome dinner they split the students into their respective houses. Before the school year started each student had to take a placement test to determine which house would be best for them. There was a choice of Riverbend, Rosewood or Mapleleaf. Each house represented a different strength: Riverbend represented loyalty, Rosewood represented bravery and Mapleleaf represented intelligence. Some students could fit into all three but they were put where they were the strongest. Olivia ended up getting into Mapleleaf with Garrett; however she wanted to be in the same house that the mystery boy was in.

  Classes started the next day and all her teachers’ noticed that she was extremely smart and talented. She rose to the top of her year very quickly making nothing but A's on anything and everything she did. When extra
credit was presented as a choice she always took it. Olivia spent most of her time in the library which was dark except for the light that the lamps gave off and the sunshine that came through the stained glass windows. The books were old and smelled musky and most of them were very dusty. She loved it in there and knew that the library was one of the few places she could go and think. It wasn't odd to find her sitting at the piano late at night taking a break and playing some new song that she had written.

  School was very important to her, later on in the year she would find out that the mystery boys name was Ian. The friends she hung out with ran in the same circle as his and her group of friends were all part of the house football team. She quickly fell in love with the sport and went to all the games. On the weekends she and her friends would play just to have something to do. She learned so much from them. Olivia wanted to join the team but knew that she had to wait until her freshman year. Growing up though, she learned that practice makes perfect, so she continued to practice when she could. She was always part of the school paper, helped tutor her fellow classmates and hung out with her friends. When she did find some downtime between everything she would write songs and work on her music to escape everything.

  ***

  When her freshman year started Olivia went out for the football team just to prove to herself she could do it. To her surprise she ended up making the team. She knew that Ian was part of his house team and they would play against each other. That didn't bother her at all because he was just another guy. She obviously liked him, but he dated a lot of girls and that was a turn off for her. Instead of getting into a relationship she just put herself into her school work, her music and the game. She was still a part of the newspaper but wasn't as involved as she had been the year before. The whole year went by in a flash and she was still top of her class.

  Her sophomore year came and went just as fast, except this time she was constantly busy. Olivia felt bad about not being as dedicated to the newspaper and tutoring during her second year like she was her first year. She was determined to make up for it and worked extremely hard. Everyone voiced their concerns for her, especially Garrett because he knew about her past. She just wouldn't hear it and said that, as long as her work didn't suffer, there was no need to worry. Little did she know that the summer was going to change her forever.

  ***

  It was the first weekend of the summer and students were spending last moments with their friends before they were gone. Ian and Olivia were at Cedar Country hanging out with their own groups of friends. Every once in a while both of their groups would hang out, but that didn't happen very often now days. Even then she didn't have much time to hang out with anyone. She saw him at Cedar Country and his expression made her laugh. She could tell that he was surprised to see her there because she was rarely allowed to leave the house during the summer. When she saw him she was hoping to get some time alone with him.

  CHAPTER 2

  Olivia was starting the second term of her senior year at Oakwood and she swore that it would be different from the first. At the end of the last school year her boyfriend, Ian, was killed. That summer things just started going downhill. She was home from school and that right there did not help one bit. Both of her parents didn't understand why she was so depressed and then Michael had turned to the dark side. She had confided in him for comfort but it didn't work out that way.

  The atmosphere at school was completely off when the new year started after Ian's death. Nobody really knew how to act. A summer away helped, but being back where it all happened brought back every emotion that seemed to have just been locked away. The thing that bothered her the most was how everyone was treating her. It was almost as if she was glass that was going to shatter at any moment. She wasn't the type of person to show her emotions, so instead of breaking down and losing it she threw herself into her work. The more people tried to talk to her the more she isolated herself and worked. Her friends were starting to worry about her.

  She had given up playing football and stopped writing music all together. What surprised everyone was the fact that even though she was always working she was failing three classes. Even her teachers were starting to get worried about her. They all urged her to talk to them and even offered extra credit and tutoring. But in the end she turned them all down. Everyone was at a complete loss. They all wanted to help her but she wouldn't even open up and let them in so they would know what they could do in order to help. Garrett was the one who was extremely worried about her. He had seen her go through a lot but this was all new territory for him. Every time he would voice his concern she would just say that he wouldn't understand. He told her to help him understand but she just shook her head and would go back to work.

  Christmas break was approaching and she decided to stay at school. The majority of her school mates went home. This gave her a better chance of working things out and getting herself pulled back together. Christmas Eve came and Olivia slipped into a deeper depression. It had marked the one year anniversary since Ian told her he loved her. It was at the ball that Oakwood threw every year. Except this year the ball was also a celebration of schools coming together to compete in a tournament that caused Ian to lose his life and for Olivia to lose herself. She spent the majority of the break working to try to get her grades up.

  ***

  Olivia was sitting at a table in the library trying to concentrate on her homework, but she couldn't help but think about how this past year had been one of the worse years ever. She was still in denial over the death of Ian. All of a sudden she slammed her pen down and started to cry. She thought to herself, ‘I don't want to be here at school.’ Olivia didn't know what was wrong with her, she hadn't cried since that night and all of a sudden she couldn't stop. She figured maybe all this crying was what was needed to help her move on. Then she realized that what she really needed was a clear state of mind. That's when she decided that she needed to talk to Marcus, the one guy who knew what truly happened when Ian died, so she could get some closure.

  Olivia finally looked out at the moon and sighed. She looked down and started working on her Chemical Reactions homework again and tried to concentrate really hard on it. After thirty minutes she looked up from her homework and saw Nate studying as well. She thought maybe he would be able to help her since they were in the same class. So she got up the courage to get up and walk over to his table. "May I have a seat?" she asked with her hands on the back of a chair.

  "Sure, go ahead," Nate said, looking at her surprised.

  She sat there in silence for a few moments before she started talking to Nate. She asked him how he was doing and just wanted to catch up. After talking for an hour she finally asked him if he could help her with her studies. He said he would help her but he didn't understand why she needed help. She was always the top of their year, but none the less he decided to help her. Olivia had forgotten how much better it was to work with someone on assignments than to work alone. She used to work with Ian all the time. When she didn't understand things he would explain them until she did understand. Working with Nate brought back those memories, and she realized she needed to study with others more often.

  ***

  When they were done her thoughts went back to Marcus and Ian. "Thanks for the help Nate. I really needed it," she said as she packed up her books and notebooks. She left the library understanding everything a little bit better than she had all year long, but she was still distracted. It was late at night when she got to the Mapleleaf living area and to her surprise there were two of her friends sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. "Hey guys, what are you doing up so late?"

  Olivia's friends looked up at her with concern written all over their faces. "Olivia we’re worried about you," Christine said.

  "Really worried, you have changed so much since last school year," Garrett said.

  "I'm fine guys, really. So don't worry about me, OK?"

  "If you were fine you wouldn't be tossing and turnin
g all night in your bed. You’re hardly eating and sleeping," said Christine.

  "Yeah, and you work all the time on homework. You haven't been working on your music. Shoot, you even quit the team. Those are the two things you love the most," Garrett said.

  "Correction, loved. Those were two things I loved the most. Look Christine, Garrett, I'm fine. Really, don't worry about me, OK? Just don't worry; I'm tired of everyone treating me like this. This is why I never wanted to come back."

  Olivia stormed upstairs to her room and slammed her bag onto her bed when she noticed something had fallen out of it. She just watched it hit the red rug that covered up the wood floor between the beds. She moved to get a closer look at what it was and noticed that it was the picture of her and Ian at the MusicFest two summers before. Olivia picked it up and started to cry all over again.

  Christine came in and went over to her, "Olivia, I know you’re sad and you love him still and always will. But you need to let go. You need to get back out there and just be yourself again. I, we, miss that happy go lucky girl."

  "Yeah, well, that girl was lost when Ian died."

  "But she can come back again."

  Olivia started to cry harder and just ran out of the house wanting to leave everything behind. She didn't know where she was going or what she was doing, all she knew was that she was running and crying.

  She found herself at the bathroom by the library and put her hands on each side of the sink to try to calm herself down. She thought about what her friends told her earlier. Olivia looked at her reflection in the mirror and started to talk to herself to try to wrap her mind around everything.

  "Maybe I do need to get back out there and just be myself. I have a lot of friends whom I love very much and who love me as well. Apparently I’m that girl I said I wouldn't be." She got some cold water and splashed her face. She went into a stall and wiped her eyes. After she felt better she went for a walk around the grounds figuring some fresh air would do her some good.