1

It was in the middle of the August, summer vacation, and I found myself here in the popular island of Hawaii. It wasn't really my idea, I hated summer vacations because it deprive me of a lot of things, and that included hanging out with my best friends, Maya, and Ava. They were twins, but they had different personalities. Maya was an atheist like me. while Ava was a dedicated Christian probably following in our father's footsteps. He was a deacon at the local church.

"Paris….go get some fresh summer breeze or at least get out of your hotel room" my dad called peering into my room.

PARIS?? How I wish he would stop calling me that and just call me by my real name, Charlotte.

I peered into the book in my hand, burying my face into it as though I was reading it, but I wasn't actually I just wanted to ignore my dad. He's way to annoying. I wish he would just let me be.

"Paris, I'm talking to you" Dad shouted.

I dropped the book angrily and stepped out of my room and out of Monago hotel.

Hawaii was great but I just want to go home to Chicago. I took a go kart and went to the beach where I rented a swim suit and laid on the sand savoring the cool evening breeze. I wouldn't dare go into the water except I wanted to commit suicide. I was a terrible swimmer.

"Hey Paris" I swore I heard my brother's voice. I opened my eyes and there he was towering up over me. How the hell did he find me?

Noah was 19 years almost 20. A dropout and acts just like dad finding it amusing to call me Paris.

When I was five, my then suddenly school teacher had asked me to describe the beauty of Christ and I had answered "Just like Paris" of course everyone knew Paris was beautiful.

My teacher has told my dad what I had said after a lengthy story on 'Paris' the beautiful Prince of Troy whose love affair with Helen caused the Trojan war.

Ever since then, dad called me Paris and Noah who was eight then did the same.

"How did you know I was here?" I asked Noah, he couldn't have followed me, we had barely crossed paths since we came to Hawaii.

"I thought I saw someone who was looking as bloated as you are…I just wanted to confirm and boom, it was you" Noah said with a smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes. " I was actually doing a couple of things here in preparation for the musical festival" he added

"Did you just say musical festival?" I stood up immediately. I loved music so much that I could stay in any kind of hell as long as there's music.

"Yeah, it's a competition, wanna come?" It wasn't a question, Noah knew I'd definitely come.

"Sure, what time?"

"7:30"

I glared at his watch, it was 4:20….the musical festival was going to start in a few hours.

"Are you sure you wanna come?" Noah asked, the smirk still on his face… he looked like dad.

I was a printout copy of mom, as far as I could tell from pictures. I had faint memories of her because she had died when I was six after suffering from leukemia.

Dad was poor then, mainly because of mom's expensive medical bills. So when mom needed money for chemotherapy, dad couldn't raise the money and he turned to the church for help. Mom was a deaconess so he believed the church would help. However, the church didn't, stating that the only money available was for the roofing of the church and couldn't be given to anyone.

Mom died a few days later and it was then Noah and I had our minds made up that we would never step foot in church again. Younger me questioned the existence of God, if he was really loving as they painted him to be, why then would he create humans just to watch them suffer and die.

After mom's death, dad got a high paying job and by the time I was eleven, he had enough funds to open a big fashion house, he currently has branches in three different states. Dad got married to Claire who gave birth to Emma a year later. Emma was an angel and currently five years old, Noah and I couldn't help but become obsessed with her. Another thing we had in common apart from hating church. Claire was a Christian so Noah hated her, I on the other hand liked her but vehemently refused to follow her whenever she insist I follow her to church.

I walked away trying to find something doing before it was time for the musical festival, I couldn't swim so that was out of my option.

"Ouch" I yelled as someone or perhaps something bumped into me, I lost my balance and nearly fell. I turned around sharply ready to give my offender a mouthful.

"Oh..I'm really sorry…did I hurt you?" My offender asked. He was tall and outrightly skinny with silver hair. He wore a short and carried a box of microphones. His hairless chest was inviting.

"Yeah…I mean no…not really…not at all" I stumbled on my own words. All my bitter expressions and mouthful had disappeared into thin air.

"That's good…..see you around then" He said and walked away….I wanted to call him back to at least ask for his name but my lips stayed glued together.

"He's cute right?" A girly voice asked, I turned to the direction of the speaker.

"I didn't notice I was staring" I replied coldly.

"No one does, you just get lost in him…..I'm Emma by the way" she said.

Emma? Same name as my sister.

"I'm charlotte" I told her in a much warmer tone trying to sound as polite as possible.

"Well charlotte…I gotta go prepare for the musical festival…..see you at 7:30" Emma said and skipped off.

I found other petty stuffs to do and time moved on, soon it was 7:30.

Everywhere was crowded, no seats and everyone struggled to get a better view of the hastily prepared stage.

"Good evening ladies and fine men, welcome you all to the annual summer musical festival for the year get ready to be blown away because we are giving you hot…. Should I have said fan yourself? Anyway before the competition kicks off, let's hear it from our very one Liam as he entertains us with his musical performance." The man, whom I assumed was in charge said. Everyone clapped as the 'Liam' walked up the stage. It was him…the same boy who had bumped into me earlier….so his name was Liam??