SM owns. I'm just perma-borrowing the books from my ex.


We reached the security checkpoint. He pulled me into a tight embrace.

"Good bye Bella," he sighed.

"Bye Jake. I wish I had more time here this summer."

"Me too, Bells. Take care of yourself, ok?"

"You, too, eh? Don't forget to write, ok?" I said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Sure, sure. Well, you'd probably better get going, huh?" he said, kissing my cheek in return.

"Yeah, I'll talk to you soon." I waved as I stepped into line.

Security was uneventful - I was a pro at this by now. I took a seat in the boarding area and pulled out my iPod.

I never realized how much I'd miss my summers in Forks. My parents Charlie and Renee split when I was young. Renee moved us down to Arizona while Charlie stayed in Forks.

Summers I stayed with Charlie, most of the time spent on the Res with the Black family. Charlie and Billy were old fishing buddies - I'd stay with his family while Charlie worked. Jacob had become the younger brother I never had. Over the last few years we'd gotten even closer, since his older sisters had gone off to college.

I was kind of glad to have a month off between classes and the start of my summer job. It had definitely been worth it. Jake was thrilled to show off the motorcycles he'd been working on. Having turned 16, he was now able to drive legally, and we spent quite a bit of time out riding. We also spent a fair bit of time with his friends - 'the pack' as they called themselves - either down on LaPush's beach or at one of their houses.

Ladies and Gentleman, we are now boarding Group A for Southwest Flight 1007. Non-stop service to Chicago's Midway Airport.

I gathered up my things and boarded the plane. I got lucky and managed to get a window seat in my favorite part of the plane - just ahead of the wing. I settled into my seat and pulled out my travel knitting project - a striped scarf. I learned to knit a few years ago when Renee dragged me to a class - one of her hobbies-of-the-moment. Up until this year, I didn't do much with it. Scarves and sweaters weren't exactly practical in Arizona. Of course, that changed last year - knits come in quite handy in Chicago.

As my fingers worked the ribbing on auto-pilot, my thoughts wandered.

My first year of college was quite an experience. Renee spent more time traveling with her new husband Phil than she did at home, so I wasn't really keen on staying in Phoenix for school. The University was in Chicago's Loop. Our dorm was on the 12th floor, giving us great views of the city. I got lucky - I got on really well with my roommate Angela. Jessica and Lauren, who shared the other room in our suite, were tolerable. Jess and I at least got along pretty well, though we certainly weren't best friends. But Lauren was an absolute bitch to me more often than not, and I never could figure out why. I just tried to avoid her as much as possible.

First semester was pretty much what I expected – lots of studying. I was determined to graduate in four years, so I had a full course load. The only downside had been meeting Mike Newton. I'd had my eyes on an extremely good looking guy in my biology class, but unfortunately I ended up with clueless Mike as a lab partner.

Things only got worse when I realized that Jessica had a thing for Mike. She wouldn't talk to me for like a month. I finally managed to convince her that I had absolutely no feelings for the guy. Thankfully, that brought my personal security threat down a level. I did my best to ignore Mike after that, but he was damn persistent. I still don't think he's given up on me.

Mike pretty much killed my attempts to pursue biology guy. He was just always there. It wasn't to the point of harassment or anything, he was just overly friendly, reminding me of a golden retriever or something. It didn't help that he lived on our floor, and we had a class together second semester as well.

Shortly after the spring semester started, Jess and Ang got letters asking them if they wanted to return as camp counselors for the summer. They decided they did, and encouraged Lauren and I to apply, too. So I figured what the heck and applied. It'd make a nice supplement to my loans and scholarships, right? It absolutely floored me that Lauren applied, too. I just don't see her as the living-outdoors-all-summer type.

My fingers were cramping up at this point, so I put the knitting away and checked my watch – three more hours. I sighed and pulled out Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and escaped into it for the remainder of the flight. I think the cover may have freaked out the guy sitting on my left.

The plane landed a few minutes ahead of schedule. I made my way off the plane and through the airport to the baggage claim area. Ang was waiting there for me. I ran over and gave her a quick hug.

"How was your flight?"

"Pretty uneventful. How's your summer so far?"

"Not bad. I've mostly been watching my brothers while mom and dad have been at work."

I noticed my bag making its way around the carousel and grabbed it.

"That's everything?" she asked. I nodded. "Alright, let's go get dinner. My family's waiting with the car outside."

We ended up at a Chinese buffet not far from their house. Afterwards, Angela helped me get my stuff inside, and we chatted a bit before I crashed.

The next day, Jess came over. Ang and I spent the day packing what we'd need for the summer, while Jess chattered away about her summer so far. Both of them kept throwing out tips and suggestions that they'd learned last year. At some point, we made a quick shopping trip to pick up some essentials that we - well, mostly I - needed. Apparently a plastic tub is better for storing your stuff all summer – it keeps the critters out and has the added bonus of making a bedside table of sorts. They also told me which bug sprays actually worked and which were useless – apparently we'd be dealing with evolved mosquitoes out here. I grabbed a small blue Maglite and Jess suggested I might want a waterproof watch. It wasn't all that stylish, but it had a stop watch and built-in alarm clock as well, which they both said would come in handy.

Having everything we needed, we headed home and finished packing up. We laid out our sleeping bags in the family room and watched a movie before heading to bed. Tomorrow would be the first day of staff training.

I had no idea what to expect.


A/N: Thanks to adoraklutz, Maleficent, and Lambie for betaing this for me. And all the girls on UU for being my cheerleaders and just generally being awesome.

Go ahead. Pop my review cherry. You know you want to.