Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

me. There was something about him from her story that didn’t sit well, but I hated seeing Annie upset more than anything in the world. My thoughts and judgments would have to take a back seat.
    “You’re right,” I said. “You always are, as scary as that sounds.”
    “Well, I’m sure you’ll meet him soon. He asked for my email so I gave it to him. I hope he writes soon. Zoe, you’re just going to melt when you see him, I swear.”
    “I’m looking forward to it,” I lied. “Maybe I’ll even get the courage to say hi.”
    “We’ll work on it,” she smiled. “Anyways, how was your afternoon?”
    My mind raced through the events of earlier, trying to pick out what to tell her. So much happened but yet I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell her about my dream. But, telling her that a stranger accidentally spilled his ice-cold water on me would probably save face for the day.
    “You’ll never believe this, but I kind of met a guy today too,” I started to say as we began to pack up our bags and head out of the park. Annie froze mid-step and stared at me in shock.
    “Oh, no! Not like that!” I added quickly, realizing how bad it sounded. Annie seemed to thaw out after that, but she still looked at me skeptically while we continued to walk.
    “Then what was it?” she asked.
    I proceeded to tell her the story of my water wake up call. Annie laughed, but when my face turned sour, she stopped almost immediately.
    “Um, did you at least talk to him?” she asked hopefully.
    “Not really. I kinda yelled at him instead,” I said sheepishly.
    Annie’s jaw dropped. “You yelled at him?”
    “Well he just walked away! What else was I supposed to do?”
    “He didn’t even apologize?”
    “Not really. He gave this insincere apology and then walked away.”
    “Wow, what an ass!” she exclaimed. “Did you even see his face?”
    “No, the sun was in my eyes and my glasses had fallen off while I was sleeping,” I said.
    “Don’t you worry Zoe, that one doesn’t count,” she said, giving me a friendly push. I smiled and pushed her back.
    It may not have been the day I was expecting, considering the fact that the only guy I met was the one jerk who dumped water on me and walked away. And on top of that, the eerie dream about my parents and the random fire just made me wonder what was really going on inside my head. But the purpose of the day was to relax and spend some quality time with Annie. Although we didn’t spend all day together, the last few minutes where we just walked, talked and joked had pushed all of the negatives out of my mind, even if it was only for a day.

Chapter 2: Surprises
    The sun was blazing early when we stepped out of our condo the next morning. All around us, groups of students had flocked out of apartments on their way to campus for orientation. Annie and I chose our complex because the school built it specifically to give new students a chance to get that “living on your own” feeling. They were nice, modern looking homes, with two units per building.  There was a single driveway per building, big enough for two cars, although Annie’s was the only car in ours since we moved in. It was two stories and painted a rich, southwestern adobe color. There was a lawn of rust color pebbles that lined our entire front yard, which was encased by a white picket fence. It looked like we were living on the moon, without a glimpse of green anywhere in sight. It was quite a difference from our traditional northwestern desert of evergreens. Finally, a curvy sidewalk went from the driveway, around the lawn, up to a single staircase that led to our home. As we were walking down the stairs, we noticed two girls emerging from the downstairs unit.
    “Hey!” Annie exclaimed as we reached the bottom.
    Both girls turned immediately as the taller of the two sported a very welcoming smile.
    “ Hi,” she replied enthusiastically. “You the girls that live upstairs?”
    “Yep, I’m Annie and this