Chapter One.

Verity Hanes looked around the cold, old house that used to be a gamekeepers cottage on the large estate that belonged to one of the oldest families in the Ipswich area. The Pope estate.

The Pope family had long been dead and buried, but Ipswich National Park had kept it as it was seeing as the whole family had been wiped out, there was no one to claim it, so the County trust office had a small amount of funding each year for a cleaner and a handy man to keep it running and occasionally history and literature students would tour the house.

The previous caretaker had been an old local man who had recently passed away of old age. When Dianne Hanes had applied for the job, she didn't think she would get it. She had been a housewife to a wealthy and successful business man in New York, but when he had a break down following the Wall Street crisis, she had decided to take control and move her husband away from the city before it killed him.

Now Frank Hanes stays at home as a house husband, cooking and cleaning and now writing his novel (an honest yet amusing account of the goings on in the Wall Street offices, including scandalous affairs, computer crisis' and the stealing of office stationary) and attempting to be "hip" which results in his daughter blushing and looking like a tomato in her school uniform.

Frank and Dianne were worried about Verity's schooling and the cost of a private education, but Dianne's father came to the rescue. He had wanted Dianne to go to a private school but instead she had eloped with Frank, so her private education fund was going to Verity, plus Verity had the brains to get a full scholarship should she ever have the need to.

So with the offer of a job out of the city and a small cottage that was rent free to go with it, the Hanes family moved from New York, renting their trendy apartment to some up and coming designer and came to Ipswich. A move that Verity was still sulking over.

And now we can join her back in her new bedroom.

It was cold, smaller than what she was used to, and there was no fact the whole house was just plain weird.

For a start it was upside down. To get to the front door, you had to walk up a set of stone stairs. Then the door would lead you in to the kitchen, which was also a dining room. Then you could walk through to the living room, and at the other end of that room was a flight of stairs, which lead out down stairs to the bedrooms. Crazy right?

Verity's room was under the stairs, her mother had come up a week before her and her father and decorated it for her.

On the wall by the door was a floor to ceiling book shelf, filled with all her school and recreational books. Then next to that was a little door, and in front of it, her favourite chair. It was a folding canvas garden chair, but with a duvet draped over it, it was the most comfortable chair in the world.

By the side of the chair was a small nightstand, then her double bed with a small mid length bay window, another night stand and her DVD cabinet. The wall across the other side of the room opposite her bed was a storage heater, her desk, another window and plastic storage boxes with all her photos and junk in. Then the wall joining that held her TV unit and the doors to the closet.

The closet was small, not a walk in. In the middle was a chest of drawers and plastic storage boxes on it holding her jeans and sweaters, with her nice clothes hanging wither side of the unit. On the door hung her new school uniform. And then that bought her back to the door.

The wall where her desk stood was deep red, and the other walls lavender, the wall above her bed was cream, ready for wall paper to go on it when her parents had the time to spare.

Verity sighed, so this was home now?

Next to her room was her parent's room, similar set up with the closet situation, but way bigger. Then there was the bathroom. One bath with a shower head above it, a basin and a toilet.

Verity's old place had a huge kitchen, separate dining room with one of those long old fashioned tables you see in the movies, its own library, she had an en-suite and so did her parents. They both had walk in showers and a two person Jacuzzi type bath. The entire house could be fit in to the kitchen and lounge of her old place. It was so unfair.

They no longer had a driver to take them places, or a list if invites to the most exclusive parties, no designer shopping. It would all have to be done via the internet.

Verity prayed for the coming week to be over so she could go back to New York to see her friends.

However, there was an upside which Verity had to constantly remind herself of.

Her grandfather was a very rich old man, and he had promised her an allowance AND a car of her choice. As soon as she managed to somehow figure out how to drive a car.

Living in New York she didn't have the need to drive. When she went to Connecticut to stay with her beloved grandfather, she drove around, but not often.

She had her eye on a nice new BMW X5, black of course, leather interior with lots of gadgets and a killer sound system. Verity liked to be amused in a car. Have lots of buttons to press to stop boredom.

Why her mother couldn't have restarted her interior designer business, Verity had no idea. She had set up when Verity was a toddler, but as soon as she hit high school, she sold some of the shares, kept a majority, but took a back seat, just doing the admin. Leaving the running of the business to her best friend, Joelle, who happened to be Verity's Godmother.

Her mother had a 4x4 and her father now had a Rolls Royce, and the BMW would be on its way, as soon as her grandfather was satisfied she possessed the ability to drive for more than miles without panicking, crashing or loosing concentration.

Verity sighed as she unpacked her hand luggage from the flight, the only luggage she had left to bring.

Her Louis Vuitton oversized bag contained her iPod, camera, Blackberry, personal organiser and purse. Her mother had insisted that she bring the lap top so she could set up the internet before Verity began at her new school.

Verity wondered over to her desk, switched on her Apple Notebook and plugged in her iPod to charge, she thought about checking her e-mail and Facebook, but since she got alerts from her cell, she saw no point, but quickly logged on to change her status so all her friends would know she had arrived safely. Verity sat on the pine chair and flicked through I-tunes. There was nothing that caught her eye, so she just clicked off and went back over to her bed.

She placed her Blackberry and charger on the night stand next to her pink glitter lamp. The one thing she had demanded was that she have a pink glitter lamp. Her mother had also hung up from the curtain pole above her bed a string of flower lights and there was an old beam running across the ceiling above where the closet and TV unit lived, there were fairy lights hung up along that too, Verity smiled, her mom had really gone to town to make her feel at home here.

Pity that she didn't.

Verity looked at the alarm clock by her bed, it read 6pm. She set her alarm for 7am to giver he self-time to eat and make sure that she had everything she could possibly need for school the next morning.

"Hey Honey. How are you feeling?" Her mother walked in through the door wearing dungarees (?) and a pink sweater underneath, and hugged her daughter.

"Fine mom, tired." Verity replied, she wanted to be in New York, not here, but her mother was so enthusiastic about the move, she had no choice but to lie.

"I got your time table here baby." Dianne pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it. "I meant to put it up on your notice board but I forgot. Why don't you tell me where you want your pictures to go and I'll put them up?"

"Sure. I'll put up post it's." Verity loved post it notes, without them, her life would be a mess. She took the time table and put it on the desk and grabbed her pink post it's.

"Can I get you anything to eat baby?" Dianne asked, watching as her daughter wrote down the description of her pictures and posters on the little pink sticky papers and place them on the walls.

"I ate on the plane with dad." She said, awkwardly.

"Ok then sweetie, but if you get hungry let me know ok?"

"Sure. I was just going to shower and get my stuff ready for school tomorrow."

"Well ok then, try to remember to switch on the water boiler when you're done in the shower."

"I will mom." Verity went back to sticking up post it's while her mother nodded and left the room to join her husband upstairs for coffee and food, she hoped her daughter would come round to the fact they were living her whether she liked it or not.

Verity looked at her time table. Her classes where pretty much the same here as they were back home. Tomorrow she had English Literature, Human Biology, Politics, History and then a free period, which she would use to come home and sulk that she had no friends here and hated it.

She walked over to her closet, pulled out her school bag, she wasn't going to use her usual oversized Prada purple leather bag, instead she settled for an understated black Gucci shoulder bag. She put in her text books, note book and pencil case and of course her favourite book of all time, Northanger Abbey written by the great Jane Austen, just in case she got laughed at, Verity also popped in Cujo, by Stephen King, no doubt she would come up against some really rabid bitches in this town, she thought to herself.

Verity put her hold all from the plan on the storage boxes by her desk and her school bag by the closet door and headed to the bathroom for a shower.

At least I stocked up on decent shampoo from Saks before we hit this dump, she thought to herself. So glad she wasn't one for high lights because she doubted there was a decent salon in this town.

This bathroom had no built in sound system, so for the first time in years, she showered in total silence, and the only sound was the water dripping over her body and her sobs.