Chapter 1: Challenge

My mother and sister were sleeping peacefully on the plane as I sat in the quiet of the plane and thought of the upcoming events. A new life was throwing itself at my feet with a 100mph force. It seemed too fast. It just seemed like it was yesterday, my mom and dad were coming home from court with the official papers of their divorce. But all that happened 8 years ago. Now, we were leaving out home in Toronto, Canada and moving in with our soon-to-be family in Weston, Maine. I was happy for my mom, she deserved a life filled with love and happiness. I felt sorry for her because her other marriage failed. Not that any outsider who saw their wedding wouldn't say so from the start. "It won't last." They were forced to marry. A type of arranged marriage based on business. I can't say that we didn't live well. On the contrary. We did. My dad was a very successful businessman. He was the CEO of the Rainbow Valley Toy Industry. It was the biggest toy industry in Canada. It still is as a matter of fact. My mom didn't really need to work. She studied to be an interior designer. It was two years after she graduated, that they started having serious problems with being married and decided to get divorced. We lived in the center of the city. Our house was an enormous estate. It stood on 5 acres of land. The house was like a castle. It covered most the land. We had stables and horses where me and my sister Leah would ride every morning. Flower gardens were spread around the whole area. It was heavenly. It seemed like we were living in a fairy tale. But now we were going to move to a small town. I wondered what it would be like.

"Alana, wake up." my mom shook my shoulder. I hadn't noticed that I slipped into slumber.
"What's wrong mom?" I asked her yawning.
"The plane is about to land. Buckle up."
I did as I was told and looked out the window. It was mid October and the earth was decorated with orange, brown, and red leaved. It was beautiful. When we left Canada, the leaved were just turning color, but as I looked out my window, I noticed that most of Maine was already covered with these beautiful colorful leaves.

We landed in Northern Maine Regional Airport in Presque Isle. It was the city 2 hours away from the town we would be living in. We were let out of the plane onto the runway, because our plane was small. Not many people flew here. Presque Isle's population was no more than 10,000 people compared to Toronto of over 5 million people. I wondered what Weston's population was. As we stepped out of the plane, carrying what little luggage we had, the cool breeze hit my face. It was nice. I've always loved the cool weather. Though this was nice, but I preferred the snow. Maybe it ran in the family because mom, dad, and Leah all love the snow.

We entered the small airport and were greeted by, I would say, a man in his mid 30s. I assumed this was my future step father. I didn't know much about him. I knew his name was John Jenks. Mom said he was surgeon at the hospital in Weston. His wife died from a brain tumor about 5 years ago. He had two sons, one was 17 like me and the other was 14 just a year older than Leah. I didn't know anything else. I knew that my mom and him met 2 years ago at a convention held in Toronto for doctor's and interior designers. I know, that sounds weird, but this convention was organizing a competition for designing the best hospital model. Mom and John were on the same team, and got pretty close. Apparently they got so close that he proposed to her and she accepted, thus, us moving to the states.

"John." my mother exclaimed as we walked closer and threw her arms around his neck.
"Jane." He quickly returned it and pulled her into a kiss. Leah giggled. I just smiled. It's been awhile since my mom had this kind of relationship. Well, before 2 years ago. We lived in a town house for 8 years with mom, since the divorce. She hadn't dated until John came around. After a long two minutes of kissing and us standing there with embarrassment, watching people steal glances our way, the two love birds finally broke apart.
"John, I want you to meet my daughters, Alana and Leah." she motioned us to come closer.
"Hello, Mr. Jenks." Leah and I said at the same time bowing our heads in respect and curtsying. You'd say nobody does this in the 21st century. Oh believe me, the upper class is really high on manners. We were raised and educated at home in this environment.
"Alana, Leah. It's good to finally meet you." he said also bowing his head. He seemed to be a gentleman that was also educated by the upper class manners system.
"Please, call me John." he added. We nodded. My mother stood beside up beaming. If it was possible, she would light up like a light bulb. A man came up to us wearing a black suit and took our luggage.

We walked out of the airport and came to a stop in front of a shiny black Toyota SUV. The man in the black suit was John's driver. I later learned his name was Alec. Alec loaded our bags in the trunk and shut it. He walked around to our side and opened the door. The SUV had three rows of seats. Front, middle, and back. Leah and I got in and got situated in the very back. Then my mom and John sat in the middle row, staring into each other's eyes dreamily and holding hands. Alec shut the door and walked around tot he driver's side. I watched my mom with adoration. Though she was 33, she looked young for her age. She was high spirited and an adventurer. Her fashion was a mixture of modern, casual, fancy. Like right now, she wore a light gray knee length shirt that looked like a dress. Over it she wore a black sweater that she didn't button up, around her waist was a brown leather belt. She wore warm dark gray tights and brown two inch heel boots. Her hair was dark brown. It was cut short to her shoulders in a fashionable bob. To complement the outfit, she wore big shades that were now pushing up her bangs revealing her forehead and her big blue eyes.

The ride to the house was quiet. I wondered what Weston was like. I knew it was small, but what kind of people lived there? What kind of house awaited us? What about the people living there? I wondered about the school. Though we were educated at home before, my mom decided to send us to the private school John's sons were attending. I didn't really feel comfortable starting the year late, but my mom convinced me saying that since I was smart I would easily catch up. I don't like to boast, but I store information pretty well in my brain.

After two hours of driving, I noticed a small sign on the side of the road welcoming us to Weston. Population? 203. My mouth hung open for a second. 203 people. You've got to be kidding me. I thought. What kind of place is this? My thought was answered. Much to my delight, I wasn't disappointed. All around we started passing by estates of all sizes. All were beautiful with the autumn trees. It looked very 1800s style. I didn't mind. I've always had a certain fondness to the architecture of that era. About 20 minutes into the city limits we turned onto a gated driveway. Alec punched in a code and the gate slowly opened. Leah and I were awe struck at the mansion in front of us. Though it was smaller than my father's house, it was still big. It was a stretched out peach brick mansion with a green roof. Windows and balconies were facing this way. We drove slowly to the front door and stopped. We were greeted by three maids and three butlers. All six were bowing as we exited the car and greeting us. "Welcome to the Jenks Mansion." We nodded and stepped inside. Alec handed the luggage to the butlers and drove the car away. The front room of the mansion was enormous. A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling. In the middle was a large staircase, separating in two directions as you went up. Leah and I stood admiring the front room as mom and John were making googly eyes at each other.

Two boys entered from a room on the left. The older boy had shaggy brown hair with blond highlights here and there. His eyes were green. He was well built. He wore a white shoes, white pants, a white button up shirt and a white tie. The shirt was unbuttoned a few buttons on top and wasn't tucked in. The tie was tied in a knot below the unbuttoned buttons. He looked really hot, though I would never say that out loud. He was going to be my stepbrother soon, these kind of thoughts were unacceptable. His movement was graceful as he stopped in front of us and slowly bowed greeting us with a low husky voice. "Hello, my name is Lester." His eyes twinkled as he lifted his head and looked at me. I felt very self conscious. It wasn't the first time. When ever I would walk through the streets people would stare. My hair was bleach blond and my eyes were deep blue. For a stranger it would all look like I dyes my hair and wore contacts. But in reality, my hair was natural and so were my eyes. My eyesight was perfect and I had no need for glasses much less contacts. Lester's eyes scanned my body up and down no less than ten times. My hair was wavy and hung down my back just below my shoulder blades. I wore a tight hot pink sweater dress that went to about the middle of my thighs. I wore warm black tights and black leather three inch heel stilettos. I also wore leather black gloves that stopped at my forearm. I suddenly wondered if I was dressed inappropriately for Weston. Oh well, it's my style and they'll just have to get used to it. I shrugged it off.

The short silence was broken by another voice also greeting us. "Hello, my name is Daniel." I turned in the direction of the voice. He was a little shorter than Lester and just a little taller than Leah, I assumed he was the 14 year old. He had dark brown black hair. It wasn't short or long. His eyes were brown and big. He wore what looked like a gray vest and a red hoody over it, leaving it unzipped. He wore gray jeans and white Nike sneakers. Hm. Interesting. He scanned Leah. Leah's style wasn't like mine. She liked to wear jeans a lot. Right now she wore a yellow sweater with black stars and crosses all over it, tight blue skinny jeans and brown 1 inch heel boots. Her hair was brown and layered just below her shoulders. And just like mom and me, her eyes were blue. As a matter of fact, out whole family has blue eyes.

We smiled politely at them and greeted them. "Hello, my name is Alana. Nice to meet you." "Hello my name is Leah, nice to meet you." My mom and John stood to the side watching us.
"Ok kids, let's leave the getting to know you part for after dinner, the girls are tired from their flight." said John. We all nodded. We were each introduced to our maids and butlers. The butlers were in charge of preparing baths, ironing clothes, serving us breakfast, lunch on weekends and holidays, and dinner. Our maids were in charge of cleaning out rooms, and any other requests we might have. Leah's maid looked like she was 20. Her raven black hair was pulled back in a bun and covered with a white cap. Her suit in general was black and white. She wore a knee length black short sleeved dress covered by a white apron. She introduced herself as Katy. She smiled at Leah and went ahead to show the bedroom with Leah following her. Leah's butler Stephan took her luggage and followed close behind. My mom also had a maid and butler. The maid was in her mid 20s. Her hair was light brown also pulled up in a bun covered by the little white cap, wearing the same maid's outfit. She introduced herself as Corean and the butler as Serge. John, mom, Corean and Serge left to their room. My maid's name was Mary and butler Julian. They were both 22. Apparently they were twins. I followed them up the stairs down a hall and finally to my bedroom.

My room was on the third floor as well as Leah's, Daniel's and Lester's. I immediately loved it. It was dark red with a white canopy bed. There was a french door that went out onto my private balcony. As Mary hung up my clothes and Julian went down to help with dinner, I went out onto the balcony. It was beautiful. The fall leaves on the trees were beautiful. The cool breeze blew tingling my skin. The back yard was big. On the left not far were stables. To the right was a tennis court. In the middle was a pool, that was now covered. Past the pool was a garden that used to be covered in flowers. As I gazed past the flower garden there was a gate with a path that led to the ocean. A light house stood in the distance on the edge of a small cliff. It was all so beautiful and overwhelming. My trance was broken by a husky voice that I immediately recognized.
"Enjoying the view?"
"Yes." I said looking over. On the right, was a neighboring balcony that extended from what I assumed was Lester's bedroom.
"How are you liking it so far?" I could tell he was making small talk.
"It's nice. Not much different from Toronto. Though the population is drastically different."
He chuckled.
"Yes, well that's Weston. It never increased in size since it was founded in the 1800s." Is he telling me the town history? Great. I nodded.
"So you're gonna start school tomorrow. Kind of late in the semester."
"Yeah, but I'm sure I'll catch up."
"The curriculum is very challenging. Are you sure you can do it?" he asked with a voice that spelled out I Challenge You.
"Are you trying to imply that I'm incapable of that?"
"Not exactly. Just saying."
"I'll bet you that I'll be caught up within two weeks of my entrance."
"Isn't that a bit drastic? Two weeks is not a lot of time to catch up on a month and a half worth of work."
"Want to make a bet?" I challenged.
I looked wary.
"Ok." he finally said. "If you do catch up, I'll show you a night club that is not far from here. You'll fit in perfectly." he added scanning my body again.
"And if I lose?" I questioned.
"If you lose, then you need to dive from the cliff over there next to the lighthouse and stay in the water for ten minutes."
We stood smirking at each other.
"Deal."
You are so on Jenks. I thought smirking and looking out onto the ocean again. I'll show you what I'm capable of.