Ciao

By Bethany Lopez

Melissa has had a fantastic summer hanging out with her friends and making new ones. Life as she knows it will change when they all come together to begin their sophomore year at Dearborn High. Connections will be made and friendships will be tested. Will Melissa’s family and friends be able to help her through the challenges she will face in the upcoming months?

The Stories about Melissa series is a coming of age series that follows Melissa, her family, and her friends. Similar to Sweet Valley High, each book is novella length. There will be eight books in the series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bethany Lopez
• Release date: Aug 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476463902

Bethany Lopez

Bethany Lopez is a USA Today Bestselling author of more than thirty books and has been published since 2011. She's a lover of all things romance, which she incorporates into the books she writes, no matter the genre.When she isn't reading or writing, she loves spending time with family and traveling whenever possible.Bethany can usually be found with a cup of coffee or glass of wine at hand, and will never turn down a cupcake!Sign up for her newsletter and get a free eBook! https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r7w3w5

Book preview

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CIAO

Copyright 2012 Bethany Lopez

First Edition 09/01/2012

ISBN: 9781477545089

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Cover Design by Makeready Designs

Editing by Red Road Editing / Kristina Circelli

Formatting by Bethany Lopez

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please don’t participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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To Jamie, Joseph, Jacinda, Diego, and Katie

~You can do anything you set your mind to~

I love you!

1

My Fifteenth Birthday:

Happy Birthday to me... That’s right I’m now fifteen years old. You may be wondering where I have been all summer, since I haven’t written since the day of the Buddy Walk. Well, that last entry filled up my journal. I can’t believe I filled two journals already. I didn’t realize how much I like to write! I kept meaning to get another one, but I have been so busy that I just never got around to it. I have to say, I have really missed writing things down at night. I was so happy when I opened Megan’s present, and she’d gotten me another journal for my birthday. She said it is going to be a tradition, and she promised not to write in this one!

I know I have a lot to write about my summer, but I have to tell you about my birthday party first. I had such a great time.

My actual birthday was yesterday, so I celebrated with the family last night. We all went out to dinner and then they gave me presents when we got home. Mikey gave me some nail polish and Monica drew me a picture of the two of us playing Barbie’s (I think that was a hint!). My parents gave me some gift cards, because I like to pick out my own clothes rather than have them pick them out, and they also gave me a new iPod, which I totally needed. Max smiled at me, so I took that as my gift from him. He is turning into a really cute little guy.

To celebrate with my friends, I wanted to do a BBQ deal at the house and just invite everyone over for a great party. So I contacted my friends and told them to invite their friends, and my dad agreed to man the BBQ and try not to be too intrusive.

I went with pink and white colors, because I just love that combo, and my friend, Cassie, helped me pick out decorations and decide what to wear.

Cassie just moved to Dearborn. She moved in a few doors down from my house at the end of June. Being the outgoing and super friendly person that I am, I went down and introduced myself. Turns out she’s really cool, and we’ve spent a lot of time together this summer. She will be starting DHS as a sophomore with me in a few short days. She already knows Brian and Jimmy, of course, but the BBQ gave her a chance to meet everyone that she will be going to school with this year.

Anyway, it turned into an all-out bash! I was feeling particularly cute (yoga is making me totally toned!) in my baby doll pink ruffled tank with white shorts and white sandals. I wore my hair in a side braid with pink hoop earrings and this sweet white flower ring that Cassie gave me as a birthday present. Mom kept Monica and Max entertained and Megan wandered outside a couple of times to grab cheese cubes and a hotdog, but was ghost most of the day. Mikey hung out with my friends the most, but it didn’t bother me. He played catch and basketball with some of the guys and stayed out of my hair.

Brian brought Mo along with him, but promised that there wouldn’t be any trouble, and there wasn’t. They’ve had football practice for about a month now to get ready for the season, so they brought some of the guys from the team along with them. Jimmy brought Kasey, Joshua, and Joe, who run track with him, and they brought their girlfriends. I hadn’t talked to any of them very much since my fallout with Layla, but they were all really cool. The others who came must have heard from word of mouth, because I had about fifty people from school at my house. It was awesome!

The biggest surprise came about halfway through my party. I was looking for Jimmy and couldn’t find him anywhere. He’d told me to come find him later, so he could give me my present. Just when I was about to give up, I saw him coming out of my house, and I started toward him. He caught my eye and smiled and then turned to motion to something behind him - and Jess walked out! I let out a Whoop! and went running up to hug her. She wasn’t supposed to be home until the day before school, so this was totally unexpected.

OMG, Jess! What are you doing here? I squealed, holding her close and not wanting to let her go.

I wanted to surprise you. Happy Birthday, Mis!

You totally did! I’m so happy you’re here! I said as I led her down the stairs.

Jimmy, you knew about this didn’t you? I accused, laughing as I turned toward him.

Yeah... It was tough not telling you, but I knew it would be a great surprise! he explained, grabbing Jess for a quick hug and telling her that he missed her too.

She hugged him back and smiled. Then she turned to Cassie, who had come up next to me and said, You must be Cassie. I’ve heard so much about you. I feel like I know you already! Welcome to Dearborn!

Me too! I mean, I feel like I know you too, with as much as Melissa has talked about you. Thanks, and welcome back, Cassie replied, looking quite stunning. Her hair is a striking red and she has brilliant green eyes. She totally looks like a supermodel and I would hate her if she wasn’t my friend. She would be intimidating if she wasn’t so sweet and friendly.

So, the party was pretty much perfect after that. My mom even gave me a letter from Ben, which she’d saved for me, since he wrote Happy Birthday on the front of the envelope. In fact, I have been saving it and didn’t think about it until now, so I’m going to sign off now so that I can go and read it. I’ll write more later to fill in the blanks about my summer vacation!

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2

More from the Party:

Hey... So, I read the letter from Ben last night, and it was super sweet. We’ve been pen pals since he left for basic training. I’ve

Reviews for Ciao

[alwaysyaatheart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ciao is book #3 in the Stories About Melissa series. The series is about a young teenager, Melissa, or Mis as her friends and family call her. It is written in a journal or diary style, in which Mis tells about her life, her family, her friends, her boyfriends, pretty much everything that goes on with her. This book begins with Melissa's 15th birthday party, and goes into her sophomore year in high school. Melissa and her group of friends, Jimmy, Jess, and Brian are back together and everyone seems to be getting along pretty well. She experiences typical brother and sister issues. In the last book, her baby brother Max was born, who has Down Syndrome. In this book, she meets some new friends, Cassie being one of them, who becomes part of their tight knit group. She isn't sure how she feels when Cassie begins to like Jimmy, but she isn't ready to declare him as more than a friend either. She talks about typical teenage issues, dances, hanging out, being grounded, school, boyfriends, and especially clothes. She really loves clothes. In this book, Missy and her friends have to deal with the death of one of their close friends, and the aftermath of that, so even though this is a light and fun read, it does address a series issue also. Ciao is a really cute and fun story, and brings back memories of being a young teenager again. Personally, I would much rather read about it that actually do the teenage years again. It is much more fun that way. I think this is a book that young tweens and teens would really enjoy and it is a great story, which that age group to relate to.

[stressedrach · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book and even though it is book #3 of the series it could easily be read a stand alone book. The book is diary entries in Melissa’s diary. Melissa is a high school student about to begin her sophomore year with her friends. After a summer of hanging out with friends two of them being boys she is in a situation where she likes both of them but doesn’t want to ruin the friendship so goes back out with the boy who has messed her around in the past.The other boy Jimmy starts dating her friend and she is jealous and then tragedy strikes.The book was what you would expect a typical teenager to write in their diary. Friends, relationships, how they really feel.It was really well written and I enjoyed the book as it was completely different in the way it was written than other books I have read in the past.I really liked Melissa’s character and her friends seemed really nice too. She also had a great family.The story flowed really well without any jumping around and I thought it was fabulous.