Chapter 1

"Paisley, get down here! Family meeting!" shouted my father.

I sighed.

I g2g, dad says it's time for a family meeting, I typed in, and pressed "Enter."

kateluvsthesun: Seriously? I can't believe u still have those! :P

kateluvsthesun: Anyways I guess I'll ttyl... xoxoxoxo

I signed off and closed my laptop.

"Paisley!" yelled Dad again.

"Coming," I called back, running downstairs. I fell onto the couch beside my younger brothers, nine-year-old twins Chase and Jadin. "I'm here," I said breathlessly. "How come you're getting mad at me for not being fast enough when Lane isn't here yet?"

"Lane's out with her boyfriend," said Dad, without missing a beat.

"What about Raynee?"

"At work."

"Kit?"

"Paisley," said Dad impatiently, "we're having a family meeting now. Kit should be down momentarily."

As if on cue, Kit burst into the room, black hair in a ponytail, wearing her customary outfit of sweatpants and a tank top. She sat down in the armchair beside the fireplace. "I'm here!"

My family was just a little bit hectic. Mum died in a car crash when I was eight, and so Dad was left to look after the six kids. First came Lane, who was nineteen. She'd just graduated and was planning to move in with her boyfriend of two years. The second kid was Raynee, who was eighteen, just about to start the twelfth grade in about a month, and worked almost 24/7 because she said that Dad couldn't support all of us by himself. Then me. I was sixteen and going to start grade ten soon. I was older than most of the people in my grade, because in third grade I'd missed almost an entire year of school; I had refused to go to school after Mum died. After me came Kit. Kit was fourteen and extremely excited because she was about to enter the kingdom that was high school. Then there was a lengthy gap of five years before the twins came along. Chase and Jadin were identical, annoying, and had been only a year old when Mum died.

"All right," said Dad, pacing back and forth in between the door and the fireplace. "There's no easy way to tell you guys this, but we're... moving."

"We're what?" I said incredulously.

"Moving," supplied Chase, obviously under the impression that he was being helpful.

"Will I still get to go to high school?" asked Kit, as thought that were the only thing that mattered.

"Yes," said Dad, and Kit smiled, satisfied.

"Where are we going?" asked Jadin eagerly.

"Victoria, BC. In Canada."

"Cool!" yelled Jadin.

"Am I the only one that isn't happy about this?" I questioned.

But they didn't hear me. They were all making plans and rejoicing about the fact that we were going to leave England and go across an ocean, never looking back, leaving our whole lives behind.

"When are we going?" asked Chase. "Tonight? Tomorrow?"

Dad laughed. "No, we'll have to wait a couple of weeks. We're taking a boat all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, and then we have to drive all the way across Canada. You'll start school late -- the boat trip will take a week and a half, and then driving across the country will take us about two weeks, because we'll have to stop a lot for food and sleeping and other things like that, especially all the tourist attractions. Then we'll take a ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, and I've already bought our house online."

"Is it a big house?" asked Kit.

"Yes, everybody gets their own bedroom. Except for Chase and Jadin, they'll share, but their room's pretty big," replied Dad, and went on to describe the new house in great detail. One of us -- me -- would get a bedroom on the first floor, next to the laundry room. There was a bedroom in the basement for Raynee, and a master suite upstairs for Dad, and two more bedrooms upstairs for Kit and the twins. Kit and the twins would share a bathroom, and Raynee would have a bathroom in the basement. And me? I would get the powder room. The little tiny bathroom with a sink and a toilet. On the upside, I was close to the kitchen, and also to the family room, where we'd have our flatscreen TV. Everybody seemed to be excited about a month-long trip that would take us halfway across the world.

I left while everybody was still talking excitedly about the move. I sat on my window seat and stared out at the big backyard I'd played in as a kid, with the lake beyond it and the mountains beyond that. When Raynee came home from work, I head her voice mingle with the others. When Lane returned just before her curfew, she had a yelling match with Dad until she'd convinced him that she would be fine here in England, that she would move in with Jonathan, her boyfriend, that she would be able to take care of herself. So Lane got to stay in England.

After three and a half hours of sitting at my window, I walked numbly over to my bed, sat down, and opened my laptop. The second I logged on to MSN, Kate was talking to me.

kateluvsthesun: So what was the family meeting about??

I sighed and typed in my news.

paisley23: I'm moving.

It took Kate almost a minute and a half to type out the next thing that she said.

kateluvsthesun: What?! Ur dad can't do that to u! What is he thinking?! Should I phone him and yell at him for u? U can move in with me, mum and dad won't mind... Or if they do then we'll move out, I saw an ad in the newspaper for an awesome-looking apartment, I bet if we both get jobs we can get together enough money. Maybe u can get Chase and Jadin and Kit to side with u and then u can convince ur dad to stay here. U can't leave me! U just can't! Who am I supposed to hang out with?! Liliana? Do u know how ANNOYING she is?! I'll die! I really will! U just can't leave, u can't, u can't! Tell ur dad that u refuse to go and u'll move in with me, ok?? Plz just tell him that. U can't lave. I know I keep saying that but it's true! U can't leave!

I smiled grimly and typed, I can't get Chase, Jadin OR Kit 2 side with me. For some reason, they're all super excited about it. I dunno why. Chase & Jadin are just happy bcuz it's something they've never done b4, and Kit's satisfied bcuz she still gets 2 go 2 high school...

I talked to Kate for a little while, venting about the move, and then Dad came and knocked on my door.

paisley23: Crap, I g2g. Bye xoxoxoxo

I quickly signed off and snapped the laptop shut.

Dad opened the door a crack and peeked in. "No point in trying to hide it," he said. "I know you were talking to Kate. Most likely talking about how evil I am, am I right?"

I lay back on my bed and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "Why do we have to move?"

"Why do you have to answer all my questions with more questions?" Dad returned.

"You do it, too," I pointed out.

"I guess I do."

"So why do we have to move?" I asked again.

"It's a big opportunity, Pais. The house was a good price, and Victoria's not a bad place to live. The new house is pretty close to a beach, you can go there anytime. And you'll make new friends," Dad told me.

"But what about Kate?" I whispered. "She's my best friend, Dad. She's been my best friend since second grade."

"You can still talk to her," he promised. "I found a computer program, Skype; you can make long-distance phone calls on it for free, and you can do video on it, too. And you still have MSN, and email. You can even send each other letters and things in the mail. You can still be friends."

"But Lane gets to stay here," I protested.

"Lane is nineteen, honey. She's old enough to live on her own, and she has enough money, too."

"Then I'll go with her."

"No, you're coming to Canada, Paisley," Dad ordered. "It'll be fun. You love the ocean -- we'll be on it for almost two weeks straight, on that boat cruise. It'll be fun."

I sighed. I hated how Dad could do this to me; just convince me in about two seconds that I would love whatever I didn't want.

***

Author's Note: Don't worry, the Twilight-ness is coming soon!