I am reposting this original post from 2009. It did okay the first time and I got some really good stories which added to it in great ways... but I've always felt so much more could be done and written, so I'm re-opening

THE HOME THAT LOVE BUILT universe.

I let out a long, satisfied moan as I stretch my slender body out on the sun lounger. It’s the hottest summer I’ve ever known, but that’s not the only thing that makes it the best summer ever- there’s also the fact that I have a disposable income of my own from not one but two part-time jobs, I have a tall, sexy boyfriend who seems to fancy me more with every passing day, and the not-so-small fact that I’m currently wearing just a tiny bikini, whereas 365 days ago, I was stuck in a cramped classroom wearing a hot, stuffy school uniform.

Mother Nature shows herself as the girls make the annual trip to the Great Minnesota Get Together

Intimate starts to the chapter leading into interactions with Adam and April and an invitation to go out to dinner, more stuff with school and taking over homecoming.

Jem… Chapter 214

Jem…Chapter 214 by Bailey Summers Copyright © 2013 Bailey Summers All Rights Reserved.

“Good- evening,” Janet said, checking her watch as Ellie walked through the door. “Making sure it is still evening and not early tomorrow morning.”

“Hilarious,” Ellie snorted as she dropped her handbag on the coffee table and flopped down onto the sofa. “It’s only, what, 8pm?”

The girls are going on their honeymoon. Where else would they go?

Hunter starts making plans with her and Alex in going to win Homecoming and some shopping and intimacy and food.

I'm not quite sure how best to continue telling this story. There were so many parallel streams of my life set in motion after my birthday, each of them so separate from each other that they almost felt like they were happening to different people at the same time like some weird version of synchronicity.

Caution added for references to rape and suicide - there's nothing graphic here but they are part of the story.

Hunter gets her footing back after the jumping she got from Anika and company and steps up her own game.

Jem… Chapter 211

Jem…Chapter 211 by Bailey Summers Copyright © 2013 Bailey Summers All Rights Reserved.

“Another question?” Becca asks, grinning as several members of the assembled crowd eagerly raise their hands. “Okay, you at the back!”

“What are your favourite tracks on the new album?” The journalist asks, making the four of us grin.

“Ooh, good question!” Adeola chuckles, even though it’s a question we’ve already been asked several times over the last ten days. “Mine’s probably ‘Overcast’, we’ve never really done a ‘dark’ song before, it was fun to mix it up a little. Bex?”

Webster’s dictionary defines Speed as the fallowing: the rate of change of position along a straight line with respect to time over a set distance. In other words, the quicker you can get from one place to another. The question is what do you, do when your family has spent the last two generations in search of ways to accomplish this goal faster and faster. Would do you do when the family business is the search for more Speed. For Robert ‘Robby’ McGuire the answer is easy. You grab your sister and strap on a pair of Formula One racecars then go for broke.

"Miracles do happen, then?" Janet asked, making Ellie roll her eyes as she walked into the kitchen, her fluffy pink dressing gown wrapped around her to shield her from the morning autumn air.

"So I'm excited about today," Ellie shrugged. "Sue me. And besides, it's not like I shouldn't be eager to get back to college- it's not like my summer holidays have been anything to write home about."

The wedding is almost here! The preparations, Bachelorette Party and families add to the tension Alexa and Jenny are feeling

Charlie's life feminine continues and blossoms. Being a birth partner brings about further changes.

“Ahh!” I screech as my ‘seat’ slides across the ground, threatening to tip me on my backside with every movement it makes. “Jeez- how did I let you talk me into this again?”

“You said you wanted a Valentine’s date that was truly unique,” the young Welshman replies with an almost sadistic chuckle as he fiddles with his controls. “I guarantee you, this is something no one will have ever done before!”

“There’s a reason for that!” I complain, grimacing as I feel the cold February air blow up my extra-short skirt. “And I’m not really dressed for it either!”

The preparations have begun for the wedding. The girls' nerves are beginning to show.

“Oh my god, I promised myself I wouldn’t get so emotional…” Laura sobs as she fans her thickly made-up face with her hands, or rather, the dark red fingernails on the ends of her hands. Even though we’re at school today, Laura, Suriya, Harriet, Nicole, Mia and even Megan, have opted to come to school today looking as feminine as possible, because they know that today is the one day they won’t be punished for it. This is because, apart from their exams, today is the last day that any of them will ever set foot in this school.