Chapter One

Tori looked at all the unpacked boxes she had left to unpack and let out a sigh wondering when she would finally be finished decorating her new room. She reached for a small box and opened it surprisingly managing to not cut herself with the small knife used to cut the tape. As she finished opening the box her loud, obnoxious sister decided to yell up the stairs telling Tori dinner was. The sound of Trina's voice surprised Tori enough that she dropped the small knife on her toe and began to silently scream in pain.

Once Tori reached the bottom of the stairs-doing a mix of limping and hopping-she noticed the grave expressions on her parents' faces causing the sixteen year-old to stop her footsteps as her bare feet reached the wooden floors of the dining room.

"What's wrong?" the teen asked quietly resuming to hop-limp towards the dining table. Her parents rarely wore those expressions, and the last time they ever did it was to give her the tragic news of her grandmother's death.

Her father took a deep breath and handed Tori a folded section of the newspaper faced down. As Tori took a seat at the dining table, she turned the newspaper so that the eye-popping title was facing her. The title on the front page read: "KO Strikes Again". Under the bolder title was the picture of a male body with the letters KO scraped into the back of his head. Tori put the newspaper down as quick as possible to avoid looking at the horrific picture any longer.

After a few seconds Tori's eyes met her parent's gaze again-Trina had already left to get her "beauty sleep". Her mother placed her hand on top of Tori's own and gave Tori the only news worst than the move from Casper, Wyoming. "Your father and I have special work we have to take care of all the way in New York," Tori's mother said giving a slight nod of her head towards the newspaper.

Tori's parents are both special agents in the FBI and tended to go on special missions usually once a year. Most kids or teenagers Tori knew would have loved this, but she never found it enjoyable. One, because her parents usually left her with her cousins, while they were gone which was surprisingly worse than staying alone with Trina. Two, when her parents were on missions that required traveling, which was most of the time, it took them months to return home. The it hit Tori that her family did not live anywhere near their cousins or anyone they knew, her sister would be studying world culture in Paris for about one and a half semesters now, and her parents wouldn't be home for who knows how long. Who am I supposed to stay with for this school year, Tori thought as she began to mentally panic.

Holly, Tori's mother, noticed Tori's now worried expression quickly added,"You'll be staying with this nice couple your grandmother used to know."

Tori checked her mother's eyes for any sign of sadness due to mentioning grandma after her sudden death. She gave up after finding nothing and suddenly felt a little bit-not fully- relieved that the couple watching after her was a friend to one of the most closest people who Tori could depend on in life.

"So... When do I move in with this couple and how long will I be staying there?" Tori asked curiously stabbing at her now cold meatball which she finally decided on eating after hearing a slight growl from her stomach.

"You are moving with them a week after school starts, and we have no clue how long we'll be gone. Probably until late June or early July," answered Mrs. Vega while loading the used dishes into the dishwasher.

Tori suddenly began to struggle getting the meatball down her throat. "Next week!" She exclaimed after swallowing the meatball, "We just moved here almost a month ago. Now, I have to pack everything up that I just unpacked."

"Well you I guess you should start re-packing now," was the only response she got from her mother which received a groan from Tori. The teenager looked to her father for any sign of him agreeing with either her or her mother, but only found him staring at the still newspaper with a blank expression on his face. With another groan Tori trudged up the stairs taking one last glance and began to smirk at her mom who was surprisingly having trouble figuring out how to work their new dishwasher, but could easily figure out how to defuse a high-tech bomb.

When Tori finally was in her room, with a quick slam of the door, she landed on the bed she would only stay in for two more weeks.

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Tori and Trina started laughing loudly at a joke that only a person still awake at 3 am would laugh at. Tori began to drink the orange soda that her and her sister had smuggled into Trina's room only a few days ago. "So... I can't believe you're going to France tomorrow," Tori told her older sister hesitantly after one of the happy moments they actually shared in life. It had been a week since Tori learned about her parent's new "business trip".

"I can't wait," Trina replied not noticing her sister's slightly crestfallen face. "So, doesn't school start in a few days for you?" Trina asked extending the o in so.

"Yeah, at least I'll be able to see you board your flight tomorrow."

"Yay," was all Trina could think of to say.

After a few moments of awkward silence Tori finally broke it. "What's the thing you're the most excited to see in France."

"The boys!" Trina squealed so loudly Tori thought her mom and dad would wake up, so she rushed over to cover her sister's mouth.

"And what makes you believe that the boys in France will like you?" Tori chuckled out teasing her sister after she realized her parents were still asleep.

"No Tori. I know all the boys in France will love me," Trina replied oblivious of Tori's teasing and reaching for the hand mirror on her dresser."See I'm drop dead gorgeous. I mean I'm waaay prettier than you are."

And there goes the rare, happy moments with Trina Vega, Tori thought as her sister stared at herself in the mirror. Tori got up and muttered a quick goodbye to Trina only to receive a whatever from her sister. This left Tori to lie on her bed and leave her in her thoughts until she fell asleep.