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Here’s a sneak peak at another Michelle Lynn’s novel - LOVE ME BACK

Chapter 1 – 11 years old

“Madeline Dolores Jennings!” Bryan yells teasingly at me from the bottom of the hill.

“What do you want, Bryan Otto Edwards?”

“Hey, I’m just joking, Maddy.” Bryan runs up the hill, throwing his arm around me. “You knew it had to be coming; I have been holding it in all day since Kenna slipped at lunch.”

I hate the days my mom “works late”. It entails me having to walk up the grassy hill from my grade school to my brother Jack’s football practice with the other latchkey brothers and sisters of the football heroes of our small town. There are four of us that make the trek every day.

Mackenna Ross is my best friend and our polar opposite personalities only enhance our different qualities. She is free-spirited, whereas I am more conservative. She speaks her mind and I keep my thoughts to myself. We share a love for tennis, swimming, and the game MASH (mansion, apartment, shack or house), where we try to map out our perfect lives.

Our brothers are teammates but not the best of friends. In fact, they have been known to fight with each other on several occasions. The most recent battle is over a girl… Cindy Rydel. I don’t see what is so intriguing about her, but I am not a seventeen year-old hormone-induced boy either. It doesn’t matter to Kenna and me that they don’t get along, so long as it doesn’t keep us away from one another.

Jack glances up to the bleachers on his way to the field, giving me a wave as he checks to make sure that I made it safely across the hill from our school. I wave back and take my seat next to MacKenna. She already has her notebook out, wanting to go first. We keep all of our MASH games in a binder, marking stars next to the lives we want. I grab her notebook, flipping to the next blank page.

“Alright Kenna, four boys?” I ask.

“Let’s do five today. I can’t decide who to leave out, Jackson or Tyler,” she says, tapping her lips with her finger.

“Fine, five,” I reply. Mackenna never changes the cars she desires or where she wants to live, but the boys’ list is forever rotating between the boys in our school.

“Ok, well my usual four boys and…” she pauses, glancing over to the field next to us where the latchkey boys are tossing a football around. “Bryan,” she says, spitting it out so fast I barely catch what she said.

“What?” I scream at her. Two days ago, Bryan told her that her butt is big, and now she is picking him to be her future husband?

“Maddy! Shhh…it’s my choice. Write it down,” she says, pointing to the paper with her neon-green painted fingernail.

“Alright, but I don’t understand you at all.” I shake my head back and forth, writing it down and hoping that the rotation eliminates him. I love Mackenna but Bryan is a jerk; I would not let her marry him.

Luckily, Mackenna ends up married to Tyler, living in a shack in California with eight kids, and driving a Range Rover. I am happy Bryan was eliminated in the third round.

“Not my best life but I’ll take it. I got my Range Rover.” Mackenna shrugs her shoulders, moving her eyes toward the grassy area again but quickly turning back toward me. “Your turn, hand it over,” she says, holding her hand out.

I dig through my bag and pull out my purple binder, handing it over to her.

“Maddy, this time you cannot put Trent down four times; you have to choose other boys.” She starts writing MASH across the white sheet of paper.

“I only did that once, Kenna.” I look over at Trent throwing the ball to Bryan. “Plus, I don’t like him anymore,” I say, trying to convince myself as much as Mackenna.

“I’ve heard that before,” she says, tapping the pen on the paper.

I have known Trent my whole life. His brother, Doug, is Jack’s best friend. We have been thrown together during our brothers’ t-ball and football practices and games, as well as too many Cub Scout events to count. We would play together when we were little, but as we get older we tend to ignore each other, doing our own thing when forced to be around one another.

Mackenna is right though. If I am being honest with myself, I have had a crush on him my whole life. I have written “Mrs. Trent Basso” millions of times and scribbled over it a zillion more. Regardless of my current feelings toward Trent, he is always on my MASH list for a future husband.

Today I hate Trent because, during recess, Evan Graham said that Trent asked him to ask me if Mackenna liked him. I tried to act as though it didn’t bother me, but I wanted to march over to Trent and kick him in the shin. I told Evan I would ask and get back to him tomorrow. I already knew her answer without having to ask her; she would never do that to me. I am so mad at Trent Basso today that I knock him down from his number one spot to my fourth option for future husband. Baby steps.

At the end of my MASH, I am married to Jimmy Schmidt, the class clown, and drive a minivan around Alaska with only one child. Not even close to my best life. I throw my binder on the bench in front of me, leaning back to enjoy the sunshine.

“Let’s do it again,” Mackenna says eagerly.

“No, I’m tired. Let’s just relax.” I don’t open my eyes. I want to empty my mind and enjoy the peace, knowing it will end when Jack and I go home.

“You go ahead and relax; I am going to play some football.” Mackenna walks down the bleachers over to Bryan, Trent, and the other boys.

I open one eye, peering down at her. I am jealous of her confidence. She just walks right up to the guys, grabs the football from Trent, and throws it to Bryan. The boys seem annoyed that she is interrupting their game but they let her join in. I see Trent trying to show her how to throw a football, but she just pushes him away and takes the ball again. I love that girl.

About fifteen minutes later, Mackenna comes running up the stairs and grabs her bag. Practice is over and the football team is making their way to the gates that enclose the field.

“Move your asses, Littles,” Trent’s brother Doug yells over to us. All the latchkey younger siblings are called “the Littles”. MacKenna is ‘Little Ross’, Trent is ‘Little Basso’, Bryan is ‘Little Edwards’, and I’m ‘Little Jennings’.

None of us say anything as we venture down to the end of the gates to meet our older siblings.

“Let’s go Mad; we’re going over to the Basso’s for dinner,” Jack says, motioning for me to hurry up.

“I’ll be right there.” I hold up my finger and give Mackenna a hug, even though I will probably talk to her in a couple of hours. I walk over to where Jack is already climbing into his Mustang, and see that Doug and Trent are already waiting for me. Doug pushes the front seat forward so I can climb in the back next to Trent.

“Hey, Maddy,” Trent says, turning his head to stare out the window.

“Hi, Trent,” I respond, staring out of my own window. That pretty much sums up our friendship lately. I have tried to figure out what happened to us but have come up with nothing.

We arrive at the Basso’s ten minutes later. They live on the outskirts of town and have acres of land with horses. Their house has a wraparound porch with flower baskets hanging out of every opening. It looks like something out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. As the Mustang comes to a stop at the top of their gravel driveway, their yellow lab greets us the second we open the door.

I bend down, letting Dixon climb on me while I pet him with both of my hands. I stand up and Dixon follows me to the front porch and into the house. I know this house as well as my own, since I have probably eaten dinner here more than mine. As soon as we walk in, Trent goes up the stairs to his room, Jack and Doug head to the basement to play pool, and I venture into the kitchen.