Chapter One
"Treading water"

Waking up was like emerging from a pool after treading water for an hour. Your brain is foggy and your limbs heavy from exhaustion. Your dreams cast away like water dripping from your face. And then there's the harsh reality of life that you have to face.

My feet splashed in the shallow puddle on the pavement outside the door of the car. I clambered from the Land Rover, reluctant excitement bubbling up. I tried not to show my parents, tried to keep up the mask of annoyance that they had moved me (however many miles California is from England) miles across the Atlantic, but I wasn't a grudge holding type of person, especially with my family. I mean that's what they're there for, right? To forgive anything you do.
I looked through the slight fog and drizzle (seriously, wasn't California supposed to be constantly sunny and hot?) to our new house. Unfortunately, my family knew me too well. It was my idea of a perfect house. Not too big, not too modern, just... a happy medium. It was painted a gorgeous colour of blue that glowed even in the grey day with a white border and door. There was a porch, just like in an American film.
Our car was parked on the drive that ran up to the garage next to the house and there was a large front garden, or 'yard' as they said over here. I was really going to have to look up American terms if I was going to fit in. I turned to my family who had joined me out of the car, exchanging knowing, smug looks. My brother saw me looking and grinned then quickly grabbed his backpack and sprinted to the porch. I just sighed, swallowing a smile and followed him in. There was a large entrance hall that was painted pale blues and greys, but instead of looking cold, the colours were inviting and calm. Stairs wound up to a second floor and I followed Reese's banging footsteps upwards. His face popped from across the hall.
"Mer, I totally beat you, sucker!"
I heard the quick light steps of my younger sister Lizbeth behind me.
"Which rooms biggest?!" she asked, breathless. Our parents had told us we could take our own pick of the bedrooms, so long as it wasn't theirs. Naturally, Reese had gotten upstairs first and bagged the bigger room. There were another four bedrooms in the house, and I raced Lizbeth, who surged forward to one of the doors. I picked the one at the far end of the hall and whipped it open. Expecting a bedroom, or even a bathroom I was faced with steep winding stairs. I gasped and sprinted up them. They led to a small-ish room in the roof of the house with a slanted ceiling that I would almost bang my head on towards the edge of the room. There were two windows overlooking the street and one behind me with a view of our overgrown gard- back yard.
I instantly knew it was mine.

Lizbeth managed to bargain the biggest room beside our parents' from Reese by threatening to release some unfortunate pictures and/or information from his childhood before he started school and he settled for the next biggest. My sister is an evil genius, even If she is only fourteen. By the time we had chosen our rooms, our parents had managed to carry all the luggage we had taken in the car into the house. Our furniture and clothes and everything else had been shipped over a couple of days ago and the house had already been decorated, apart from the bedrooms so for our first weekend in Beacon Hills we wouldn't have to do too much unpacking. By the evening my parents, with Reese and mine help
had set up the bare furniture in the bedrooms, which was hard work, especially trying to fit it up the small staircase to my bedroom. It was dark when we managed to set up the spare bed. Reese volunteered to go to the shops and get 'groceries', mostly to get out of helping unpack the remaining boxes, and I followed suit, eager to get outside and see the rest of Beacon Hills. As a condition of the move, he'd been given a new car on his seventeenth birthday, a beat up dark grey Chevy pickup truck. It suited him perfectly, and I was glad for the guaranteed ride to school. We got in, and he cranked up the radio, which happened to be playing some Rihanna and set off.
"Oh my god, can we listen to some real music please?!" I asked, reaching for the knob. Reese swatted my hand away.
"Hey this is real music! And it's good too!" he said.
I shook my head. "Sometimes, my dear brother, I fear for your sanity." I swapped to an alternative station, and he just sighed resignedly.
"So...where are the shops again?" he asked to change the subject. I shrugged,
"Why the hell are you asking me, I have less of a clue than you!" I said, smiling. "just drive, we'll find it"
We passed a large green that I noticed would be perfect for my early
morning runs and walks with Indigo, our black Labrador and a quaint coffee shop that I knew we would stop by every morning before school for Lizbeth to get her coffee fix. We drove through the streets and passed the high school we'd all be starting at in two days time. Being a Friday night, we had the weekend to prepare and then we would be going to school there on Monday. I was the most nervous out of us. Reese and Lizbeth had always been socially amazing; Reese was good at sports, and in England he'd had endless girlfriends, and I knew that with his English accent girls would be throwing themselves at him. He would be starting as a senior, Lizbeth was starting her sophomore this year, and I knew she would be instantly as popular as our brother. She had the same good looks and winning smile, the same sportiness we all possessed but a confidence I lacked. Instead, I knew that when I started my junior year on Monday along with everyone else, I would be a total wallflower people would ask for help and completely forget by the end of the lesson. But I was fine with that, so long as I found at least one friend on my first day.

After ten minutes of driving around our new town hopelessly we finally managed to spot the supermarket, and Reese parked in the car park.
We shopped for half an hour, totally lost in the foreign supermarket- even though it was all in the same language; the food was quite different to the food back home. I realised everything would be.

I walked into the chilly fog and it enveloped me, and I released my breath in a cloud of steam. It was early in the morning- I had been waking up early since after the accident and I found I actually loved this time of the morning where it was just you and the birds. Indigo padded beside me, enjoying the fresh air and promised walk. I had checked the local vets' opening times and knew that after an hour's walk with Indigo, I'd be able to register her there. I had been allowed a dog when I was twelve, after many years of begging, but it was made clear she was my responsibility. Still, my family had instantly fallen in love with the adorable puppy and I'd been allowed to share the responsibility with them, although I always took her on my morning run.
After running for a while I looped back to the veterinary practise and walked in. The morning chill had kept me cool and I was barely sweating so I was happy to go in before going home to have a shower or at least changing. The reception area was empty, although the sign on the door said open so I dinged the bell on the desk. I heard raised voices coming from the back, when a tall man slammed into the room.
"What?" he half growled, half snapped a t me.
I stood at a loss for words. Even though he was probably the rudest man I had ever met, he was definitely the hottest. My head barely reached his chest which I could tell was totally muscled beneath the plain grey t shirt he wore. His chest broadened to strong shoulders that led to a sharp jaw lined with stubble (aah, stubble) and his eyes were a piercing dark hazel, framed by long dark eyelashes and dark brows, that were at that moment turned down in a frown. Before I could pull myself together to answer, he wrinkled his nose and said
" You stink."

AN- I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I've also uploaded the next chapter because this one was pretty short (the next ones will be longer). I've got an actual storyline idea for this story, so it is definitely going somewhere, so follow if you want to see what happens next! Please review! This is my first fanfiction EVER, so I'd really appreciate your comments :)