Among the Stars Read online

  Synopsis

  Jennifer Hunter knew exactly who she was, who she wanted to be and how she would get there. She planned her future from the beginning, taking each detailed step toward a life that would be sure to reward her with success. But Jen was not able to plan on Taylor, and her carefully laid out future seemed to be unraveling right before her eyes.

  Taylor Montgomery-Fields was popular, had an amazing voice, the offspring of two famous Hollywood stars but quiet when it came to Jennifer Hunter. The young woman wouldn’t even speak to her, until a mistaken comment by Jen set forth a friendship that would soon turn into something both girls couldn’t quite grasp.

  It’s funny how the universe brings people together, and then pulls them a part. We may not know why but there is a reason in the end. Follow Jen and Taylor as they build a friendship that lasts years and a love that will last a lifetime. Well, of course, if they could get the timing right.

  Prologue

  Stephen Hawking once said “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet.” I wish that I had taken his words more to heart every time my life seemed to not go as planned.

  I lived life with my head turned down. I knew the future, I could see it in my mind, but I watched and considered each step that I took to get me there. I knew not to step on cracks, I knew to walk in a straight line and I knew that if I walked far enough, I would eventually be happy in my own universe.

  It wasn’t until I actually looked up, that I realized that keeping your eyes casted downward wasn’t a full proof plan.

  I don’t know when it happened, but suddenly, my straight path was met by a fork in the road and I was challenged with choosing which road to take.

  If I chose the left, I would have everything I thought I wanted. I would continue with my eyes on my feet, taking care not to stumble along the way.

  If I chose the right, I would struggle with the darkness of not knowing what was ahead of me.

  I didn’t know that choosing the left path would lead me to another fork and then another. If I had, maybe I would have chosen the right path from the beginning. Maybe I would have been ready and able to battle all that was inside of me from the start.

  But we can’t go back in time, not physically at least. And the road that I had chosen led me to the future that I am in today. My head is now turned upward to the stars and my eyes train on one, glimmering sun in particular. I found it when I was young, not truly understanding what it was until I was older. Until I could gaze up for longer periods of time. Until I would realize that the star was there all along, guiding me and telling me which way to go, even when I walked down the wrong path.

  Chapter 1

  It all started at the Lombardi’s pumpkin patch.

  Well I guess that’s not exactly where it all started but Lombardi’s Pumpkin Patch was definitely where my seemingly safe, habitual life turned into something confusing and altogether enigmatic.

  I had been tasked with escorting my older sister to pick out a pumpkin and partake in the kiddie activities of the day. The type where kids run and scream at the top of their lungs to get a chance to ride on the pony and go on the hay ride. But my sister wasn’t like them. All she really ever wanted to do was pick out the largest pumpkin she could hold and paint a ‘scary’ jack o lantern face on it and proudly show it off to everyone that would take the time to look at her work of art.

  I was proud of my sister and even though some people may see her disability as sad, I couldn’t help but think that it was anything but that.

  Elizabeth Hunter was three years older than me, however, at twenty-one she had the mentality of a seven-year-old. The extra chromosome she was born with saw to her staying in a constant state of childhood. But as I walked with her, watching her face light up with how many pumpkins there were, I couldn’t help but think that her innocence was anything but sad. She was usually always smiling, aside from a tantrum now and then when she was frustrated. Elizabeth laughed constantly, was friendly and loving, and her favorite thing to do beside opening presents was to wrap her arms around you and give you bone crushing hugs. If only the majority of the world was like that.

  “Look at this one, Jen!” I smiled as Elizabeth bent down and tried to pick up the largest pumpkin I have ever seen. I chuckled at her and shook my head, moving toward her to divert her attention.

  “I think that one is the display, Beth. But look at this one!” Beth pouted but then she saw the pumpkin I was pointing to and her grey eyes lit up. Her laugh rang out loud and people looked around to see what the commotion was. They must have thought she was crazy but one look at her and their understanding, yet sympathetic smiles, graced their faces. I smiled back at them but forced myself not to roll my eyes. They didn’t need to be sympathetic. Beth was awesome. They should only be so lucky.

  “Come on, Jen. Paint!” Beth had already picked up the large pumpkin and was currently dragging me along with her free hand to the painting booth. I knew the large orange ball she was holding under her arm was heavy, but Beth was definitely stronger than she looked. At four-foot ten and a hundred and fifty pounds, most of it pure muscle, Beth was stronger than anyone gave her credit for.

  We made it to the booth where I pulled out my cash and handed it to the attendant to pay for the pumpkin. I recognized him from the high school I go to. His shaggy blonde hair fell over his eyes as he fixed the worn out cap on his head. His name was on the tip of my tongue, the recognition trying to form. I knew it was either David, or Tim or…

  “Thanks, Jen. You and your sister can take the chair on the end. The paint is free so have fun.” He gave me a quirky smile and I mirrored it in kind. I wasn’t surprised that he knew my name. Most people did.

  “Thanks, Mister Paul!” Beth said, as she dragged me away again. I shook my head in disbelief. Paul, that’s his name.

  “How did you know his name, Beth?” I asked her as she pulled out the chair at the end for me, placed her pumpkin down hard on the table and started to gather every bottle of black paint she could find.

  “He’s my friend. My best friend!” Beth giggled and I smirked at my sister. I wasn’t really surprised that Beth knew Paul. She had an amazing memory and could name every person she had ever met, even if it had been a quick introduction. Names and time. Those were the two things that Beth had a knack for. She always knew what time it was, even without looking at the clock.

  I sat back as I watched Beth squirt as much paint as she could out of the bottle and onto a paper plate. She dug right in with her brush, stuck out her tongue and zeroed in on the pumpkin. I knew she wouldn’t surface until her pumpkin was perfectly ‘frightening’.

  I took the time to look around the large booth. Kids from ages two to twelve were sitting with their own pumpkins. Their mothers and fathers helping them reach the different colored paints, assisting them along to where to place an eye or a mouth. I caught one mother’s eye as she smiled at me and nodded to my sister.

  “She’s having fun, isn’t she?” I chuckled as I looked toward Beth quickly. The black paint that was supposed to be on the paper plate had managed to make it on her hands as she decided the paint brush wasn’t nearly as a great of a tool as her fingers.

  “She always does,” I responded. She went back to her son as he smiled up at her, her hand immediately going to swipe away the fine hairs that landed on his eyes.

  “How you think?” Beth asked me. I turned toward her and took a look at her masterpiece. I chuckled as I saw a crude drawing of a happy face. Beth’s scary pumpkin looked a lot happier than most of the teenagers that had been forced to come out with their families today.

  “It’s beautiful, Beth.” At the words she turned her eyebrows down.

  “It’s not beautiful, it’s scary!” Beth pushed b
ack at the table and stood, pulling up her pants that had ridden down some. “It’s scary like Jack from Nightmare!” I stood up too as I tried to calm my sister down.

  “Oh, that’s why he looks so familiar. Jack is scary, isn’t he?” I smiled at my sister and that seemed to do the trick. As long as she knew that I knew she had drawn Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas, she was a happy girl. She laughed as she pushed me playfully. Although, like I said before, Beth is stronger than she looks, and her hands landed perfectly on my chest and pushed me down on the chair that I had just recently stood up from.

  “Ouch, Beth. That hurt.” I winced as I stood up again, the low back of the chair surely bruising my middle back.

  “Sorry,” she said while shrugging a shoulder. I shook my head as she picked up her pumpkin, silently letting me know that she was done and wanted to get home to show mom and dad. I thanked Paul as we left and he waved, sweetly telling Beth that her pumpkin looked great and that he would see me at school. I nodded at him as we made our way through the pumpkin patch and toward the dirt parking lot.

  Beth sang loudly as she danced with her pumpkin on the way to my car. I pursed my lips, as I saw kids coming into the patch, stare at her and tug on their parent’s arm, obviously pointing and asking what was wrong with my sister. I shook my head, not knowing why they had to point.

  As I helped Beth into the back seat I watched as a sleek black, Ford F150 truck pulled into the empty spot next to my car. I recognized the older woman in the passenger seat immediately, and as she stepped out of the truck she smiled.

  “Hello, Jenny. How did the painting go today?” I smiled at B Montgomery as Beth bounded out from her seat holding her pumpkin.

  “B! Look!” Beth held her pumpkin head high as I heard Mrs. Montgomery give an impressed ‘wow!’.”

  “That’s Jack Skelington, isn’t it?” She asked as she placed her dark long hair behind her ear. Beth nodded and giggled as she started singing “This is Halloween, this is Halloween” to the pumpkin head.

  “Wow, Beth. That’s even better than last year’s!” I waved as the other occupant of the car came around the front, placing her arm on her wife’s shoulder. Their daughter also rounded the corner and stayed behind them as she poked her head from behind her parents to see Beth’s creation.

  “Thanks!” Beth rang out loudly. Madeline Fields waved a hand in my direction.

  “How are you Jenny? And your parents?”

  “I’m great, thanks for asking. Mom and Dad are good, too. They were busy this morning and Beth just had to get her pumpkin today.” Madeline and B chuckled and I thought I saw a smile come from behind them, but their daughter’s eyes stayed glued onto Beth’s pumpkin.

  “I bet she did. Taylor, did you say ‘Hi’ to Jenny?” Taylor looked up at her mother with wide eyes, as if she had done her an injustice and then finally, looked over to me with a blank expression.

  “Hi.” It was all she said and I just nodded in turn. I took my eyes off of Taylor and then looked back at Beth.

  “Well, we better get going. It was nice to see you.” The two older women waved and said their goodbyes to us as Taylor just said her goodbye to Beth and Jack. I forced myself not to huff loudly at the rebuff.

  I was finally able to get Beth seated in the backseat, her voice still carrying the same words of “This is Halloween”. As I drove out of the dirt lot, I passed the Montgomery-Fields again. They waved one more time as I watched Taylor follow my car with her damning blue eyes. Then, something weird happened. Taylor gave me a grin and pointed to her shirt and then pointed to me. I looked at her with a confused expression and finally looked down at my white blouse. Two small black hands, the size of Beth’s hands, were imprinted right above my chest. I cursed myself and then looked back up at Taylor. That time, I didn’t hide my frown.

  Chapter 2

  I don’t know why Taylor Montgomery-Fields hates me.

  It’s not like we’ve ever fought, or had a disagreement of any sorts. We’ve gone to the same high school for the last four years. We have mutual friends. We see each other at parties but for some reason the girl just has it out for me. I’m pretty sure that ‘Hi’ was the third word Taylor has ever said to me in the last four years I’ve known her. The first two being, “Oops, Sorry,” when she steamrolled me in the hallway the first day of freshman year.

  I had apologized as well, laughing that I wasn’t looking where I was going but instead of her smiling and laughing with me, she just looked at me, picked up her books that fell and scurried away.

  It wasn’t too long that everyone found out that Taylor was the daughter of Madeline Fields and B Montgomery. Of course the hyphenated last name was a tell, but she was also the spitting image of Madeline and extremely intelligent like her author mother, B Montgomery. Taylor was the only child, but if anyone would think she was spoiled they would be wrong. Even with her one mother being a Hollywood actress and her other mother being an award winning author, Taylor was actually humble and modest. Everyone that was friends with her said she was sweet and authentic and from what I’ve seen, I managed to be the only one in the school that she actually disliked.

  I put aside my musings as I parked my car in the driveway of my house. Beth quickly barreled out and as I called for her to wait, she looked back at me, snickered and ran to the front door, opening it and yelling for mom and dad.

  “Woah, kiddo. Look at that! It’s frightening!” Dad smiled as Beth hugged him, laughing as she twirled with her pumpkin.

  “See! That’s his eyes. That’s his nose, and that’s his mouth!” She mocked an evil laugh and shook the pumpkin. My father laughed with her as he saw me come in, hugging me around my shoulders.

  “Thanks so much for taking her, Jen. We appreciate it.” I nodded as I sauntered into the kitchen, peaking into to the oven with the smell of homemade cinnamon buns tickling my nose. In the background, I could hear Beth starting to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas.

  “I saw the Montgomery-Fields before we left.” I picked out my favorite mug from the cabinet, an old navy blue Smithsonian cup, with constellations surrounding the painted ceramic. I poured the hot coffee and watched as the stars turned a deep yellow.

  “Oh? I thought Maddie was working on a project and wouldn’t be back until next year.” My father stood beside me as he refilled his own mug. He motioned toward the creamer that he had placed in his coffee and I nodded as I watched him place the perfect amount in mine.

  “I guess not,” I said as I took the creamer from him and placed it back in the fridge.

  “B told me there was some issues with the production and the movie fell through.” I looked up and smiled as my mother came into the kitchen. She gave me a kiss on the temple and stole my dad’s mug of coffee. I heard him give a little scoff and she chuckled at him, taking a long sip and handing it back .

  “That sucks,” I said. My mother gave me a look that said she wasn’t happy with my choice of words. Instead of lecturing me though, she sighed and made her way to the oven.

  “She said that Maddie wasn’t too upset about it, though. She likes being around when Taylor starts school.” Mom’s words were a bit muffled as she grabbed the cinnamon buns and placed them on top of the stove. Throwing the pot holders next to the pan she raised her eyebrow.

  “I hope you were nice to them and didn’t say anything about your animosity toward their daughter.”

  I raised a hand and placed it over my heart in mock hurt. “Who me? Of course I was nice. Even though Taylor was forced to say ‘hi’ to me.” My mother shook her head and made a ‘tsk tsk’ sound.

  “I don’t understand why you two don’t just put aside your differences and get along.” I heard my dad chuckle and I looked over at him, trying to give him my best ‘mom’ look like he was in trouble. It didn’t work.

  “It’s not me. It’s her. She doesn’t like me. I’ve tried to be friendly but she just looks at me like I’m the creature from the black lagoon.”

  “Ho
w do you even know what that is?” My dad asked. I looked at him and shrugged my shoulder, laughing. “I thought it was just a saying.” My dad just shook his head and retreated to the living room to sit with Beth, but saying ‘kids’ before he left.

  “Why do you think she doesn’t like me?” I asked my mother as she started to plate the warm cinnamon buns. My mom looked over at me, her dark eyes softening.

  “Maybe you have her all wrong. Maybe she’s just intimidated by you.”

  I had to laugh at my mother’s preposterous assumption.

  “Why would she be intimidated by me?” It really was asinine to even think that would be the reason. Taylor had popularity, intelligence, beauty and famous parents. What did I have? Sure, I wouldn’t say that I was ugly. I was kind of popular, too, but I wasn’t in any league close to Taylor. She didn’t even look like a high school senior. She was far above everyone at that school and I bet she knew it too.

  “Because you’re the captain of the soccer team and the president of the acapella group.” My mother wiggled her eyebrows and I rolled my eyes.

  “That’s not intimidating. That’s just nerdy.”

  “No, nerdy is being the president of the astronomy club.” My mom chuckled at my deadpanned face. So what if I liked astronomy and physics? Wanting to become an engineer who built robots that went into outer space wasn’t anything really nerdy. Was it? Okay, I had to give it to her there.

  “Whatever. No one thinks that my love for science is intimidating.”

  “Intelligence is intimidating, Jen.” She pointed a finger at the acceptance letter hanging on the fridge. “That would intimidate any person.” I looked back at the letter and smiled. The California Institute of Technology letter head filled my eyes and made my heart race. I had received that letter at the beginning of summer along with a nice little stipend to help me get through the four years of my Bachelor’s degree. And although I knew that early acceptance to CalTech was no easy feat, I still couldn’t wrap my head around why that would make Taylor hate me.