It was an uncharacteristically warm and sunny day for the first of April. The birds were chirping loudly, the trees were starting to come out in leaves, and there were shoots of flowers already starting to pop out of the ground. The grass was turning greener by the hour, and the air was warm enough for just a light hoodie. It was the kind of day that urged you to go to the beach for the first time in months, or to go to the park, or just simply to get outside and go for a walk. I, however, was doing none of these, but instead sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by papers and text books, studying for my finals at the end of the week.

The door slammed open, and I glanced up to see my father hanging up his jacket and holster. I frowned and looked at the clock.

"You're home early," I said sitting up a little straighter. "Something wrong?"

"No, nothing at all," he grunted, trying to pull off his boots without falling over. "It's just been pretty quiet lately, so the chief let me come home early."

"That was nice of him." I looked down at my books and sighed.

He looked at me as he headed to the fridge. "You been studying all day?"

"Yeah," I replied again. "Well, since about 9:30, anyway."

"You should take a break." Dad sounded concerned. "You've been working really hard lately. You must know it all by now."

"I think I've got most of it down pact," I replied, thumbing through my text book. "But I'm just going to go over it once more, and then I think I'll be good."

He pulled a beer out of the fridge, and opened it with a pop that made me jump. I glared up at him, and he grinned back. He sobered up a bit and looked at the counter.

"Your mom called today."

I stiffened slightly at the mention of my mother, and looked back at my book. I took a breath. "That's good."

"Aren't you even going to ask how she is?" he asked, knowing what the answer was going to be.

"Sorry," I apologized, not really sorry at all. "And how is mummy dearest?"

"Katherine," Dad warned. "We've talked about this. You do not talk about your mother like that."

"Yes, Dad, we have talked about it," I snapped, hurrying to gather up my notes. "I don't care what she does with her life. She walked out of mine almost ten years ago; in my eyes, I have no mother."

"Don't leave," Dad said as I went to storm out. "Just sit back down and listen to me. Please?"

I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. "What is it, Dad? I have to finish."

"She wants you to go see her in California for the summer," he said. "Instead of us going somewhere together."

"No." I turned on my heel and marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my room. I heard dad put down his beer and come after me.

"Katy, just think about it," he begged. "I know you don't want to talk to her, but she is your mother. You haven't seen her or spoken to her in five years. You owe to her."

"I don't owe her anything!" I growled, turning on him. "I'm not thinking about it, my answer is no. I'm not going to see her."

He opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind and closed it again, shaking his head. He left my room and went back downstairs. A moment later, I heard the TV turn on to the sports network.

I flopped down onto my bed face first, and screamed, my pillow muffling the sound. These were the only times that Dad and I ever agreed on anything; when my mother called. She was always wanting me to see her, to talk to her, but I refused.

I looked at my books, deciding whether to keep studying or not. It was decided a moment later when my stomach growled audibly. I looked at my alarm clock, and decided that any more would have to wait until after supper. I jumped to my feet and ran down the stairs to start something to eat.

Supper that night was more quiet than usual, which was saying something as we usually didn't talk a whole lot anyway. Dad ate his spaghetti with his usual fervour, but I found that once the food was cooked, I wasn't hungry any more. I pushed the food around my plate absent-mindedly.

"Listen, Katy," Dad said after a while.

"Dad, I don't want to go," I sighed. "I want nothing to do with that woman, and, I'm sorry, but you can't make me."

"That's not what I was going to say," he raised his eyebrow at me and smirked. "But thank you for letting me know. What I really was going to say, is that you'll be done of school in two weeks, and we still haven't made plans for the summer."

"Oh, yeah, sorry," I said sheepishly. "I don't care where we go. We could go back to Orlando, like last year. We had fun there."

"Well, yes, we could," he replied. "But I was thinking, maybe we could go somewhere you've never been."

"Like where?" I asked suspiciously, arching one eyebrow.

"A friend of mine invited me to come visit him this summer, in Washington."

"D.C.?"

"Nope," he replied. "Washington State. Not too far from Seattle."

"Oh…why do you a friend from Washington?"

"We went to the police academy together," he said. "But I haven't seen him since your mother and mine's wedding."

"Wow, that's a while ago," I was surprised. "But yeah, sure, I guess we could go there."

"Good!" he smiled fondly at me. "I'll call Charlie later this evening to tell him. I'm sure you'll really like it there. He's got a daughter that's about your age."

"Okay, I'm fine with that."

The week of my exams were the most stressful of my life. During the walk from my house on Cherry Street to the campus of Dalhousie University, I reviewed my notes, almost walking out in front of cars several times. I wrote all seven exams in a span of five days, which didn't give me a whole lot of time to review in between. I had no choice but to only pray that I had remembered everything right.

I got home at lunch time on the day of my last exam, only to find my father waiting for me in the kitchen. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue flannel button shirt, and there were three bags in the porch.

"What's going on?" I asked, throwing my backpack down on a chair.

"I figured we could leave a few days early," Dad replied. "We can take the car and drive to Charlie's."

My mouth dropped open. "We're driving? From Nova Scotia to Washington? Are you kidding me?"

"Some how I knew this would be the reaction," he sighed, sitting down. "Look, Katy, I thought this would be a good idea. In the past few years you've been so busy with school that I feel that we've grown apart. I thought this little road trip would be a good way to reconnect. You know, have fun, like we used to."

"Dad -" I was going to object, but I looked at Dad's sad eyes, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. "That's a great idea. But my bags aren't packed yet."

"I'll wait," he shrugged. "There's a game on soon anyway. I'll watch that while you pack, and we'll leave by supper time."

"Sure. Yeah, sure, Dad, that sounds great. I'll go pack now."

I picked my bag up again and ran upstairs. I was surprised when I walked into my room and saw a new set of suitcases laying on the foot of my bed.

"Bought you a present," Dad smiled from the doorway. "For passing."

"Dad, I just wrote my exams," I shook my head. "I could have failed all my classes for all you know."

"Don't be stupid," he laughed. "You've worked hard all year. You'll pass with top marks, like usual. Now hurry up. I want to be out of here by five." He left the room, and I set myself to packing as fast as I could.

We were on the road sooner than we had thought. After stopping for a quick bite at a drive-thru window, we began our journey West across the country. I loved my Dad to death, and we did have fun, but I was unsure as to how I was going to handle driving across the country with him alone in a small car.

Five days later, we finally crossed the border into the United States. I was excited to be closer to our destination, not because I couldn't wait to be there, but because my father was starting to drive me insane, and I couldn't wait to get out of the car. We had stopped in many places along the way, which was pretty entertaining, but there were also hours upon hours of driving. When Dad wasn't trying to get me to open up about my personal life (who wants to talk to Daddy about boyfriends?) he was singing loudly to Waylon Jennings. It was a good thing that his gun was safely packed in the trunk, because I literally wanted to shoot myself.

I fell asleep as we were bypassing Seattle. The mid-day sun was shining brightly through the window, but I was exhausted from driving so long, so I passed out completely.

I dreamt I was walking in the woods, alone, and I was scared. I knew someone was following me, but every time I turned around to look, there was no one there. There was a snapping sound to my left, and I jumped around to look. My breath caught in my chest as a horse-sized, sandy brown wolf slipped from between the trees. He was walking slowly towards me, and I found that I wasn't overly scared. He had huge, chocolate brown eyes, and I felt myself falling into them.

I woke up to my father's face right in front of mine.

"Ahhh!" I cried, pushing him away, hard. "Oh my God, Dad, don't do that to me."

He laughed and rubbed his chest, where I had hit him. "Calm down, Katy. We're here."

"Where?" I asked, peering into the dark. In front of me was a small, neat-looking white house. Parked in the driveway was a police cruiser and a silver Volvo.

"Charlie's house."

"Are we not going straight to the hotel?" I asked.

"We're not staying at a hotel," he replied, opening the trunk. "We're going to stay here with Charlie and his daughter, Bella."

"Are you serious?" I groaned. "I thought we were staying at a hotel."

"We were," Dad explained. "But when I said it to Charlie, he demanded that we stay here instead. Now get out and help me take these bags in."

I pulled myself out of the car and unloaded my suitcases. The door of the house was suddenly pulled open, and a group of people came out. The one in the lead was a middle-aged man with dark brown hair and a moustache. I assumed this was Charlie. There was a young woman coming behind him, his daughter, I thought. She was very pretty, with dark hair and eyes, but my eyes were quickly caught by the young man behind her. He was stunning; he had ice pale skin and strangely coloured eyes, almost an orangy-brown.

Wow, I thought to myself. He is beautiful.

The young man smirked as though he had heard my thought, and looked right at me, causing me to blush madly. I dropped my gaze and picked up the first suitcase.

"Hello, Charlie!" Dad said, walking forward to shake the older man's hand. "It's been a long time."

"Has it ever," Charlie replied. "And this must be your daughter?"

"Yes, this is Katy," Dad grabbed me by the hand and pulled me forward to meet his friend.

"Nice to meet you," I smiled at him. "I've heard lots about you."

"Oh, God, what have you been telling her, Vince?" Charlie laughed. He turned and motioned the other two to come closer. "This is my daughter, Bella. And that's Edward," he added with less enthusiasm. "Her boyfriend."

"Hi," Bella smiled, holding out her hand. I shook it, shocked to find it to be so cold. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," I said.

"Hello, Katy," Edward said politely. "I hope you enjoy your stay here in Forks."

"Oh, it's actually Kate," I said, sounding like an idiot. "Only my Dad still calls me Katy."

"Kate, then," he smiled, and I felt my heart beat faster.

"Well, let's get your stuff inside," Charlie said, picking up one of my father's suitcases. "You must be tired."

"Yeah, kind of," I admitted.

"Here, I'll help," Edward said. Before I could say a word, he had picked up two of my suitcases and carried them towards the house as though they weighed nothing.

"Thanks," I said, following him clumsily as I tried to carry my bag up the steps. Bella followed close behind me, and our fathers brought up the rear.

"You're staying in my room with me," Bella said, as we made our way up the stairs. "I hope it's okay."

"It's fine," I said as we walked through the door. I dropped my suitcase heavily on the floor. "All I really need it a bed."

"Well, that it has," she smiled. "So, Dad said that you go to university?"

"Yeah," I replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I'm a nursing student."

"Well that's ambitious," Edward commented.

"You'd get along great with Carlisle," Bella smiled. "Edward's father is a doctor here in Forks."

"Oh, really?" I asked politely. "Well that's pretty cool. I'll probably meet him at some point over the summer." Bella looked confused, so I explained. "I don't exactly have the best luck. It's a pretty safe bet that I'll need to be stitched up at some point."

"Sounds like someone else I know," Edward said, grinning at Bella. She glared back at him.

I tried to hide the huge yawn that escaped my mouth, but Edward noticed and smiled. "We should let you get to sleep. I'm sure you've had a long drive."

"Oh you have no idea," I grinned wryly. "Love my Dad to death, but five days in a car with him is enough to make me homicidal."

Bella laughed. "Yes, I can understand that completely."

Both moved towards the door, but Bella stopped and turned back to me. "Are you planning anything for tomorrow? Maybe we could introduce you to some people."

"Yeah, sure," I agreed immediately. "That would be great."

"Alright. Well, I'll be back in to bed in a little while."

I nodded, and Edward led her from the room. I got up and closed the door so I could change. The previous summer, I had backpacked around Europe with a few of my school friends and had stayed in some pretty sketchy hostels, so I was perfectly fine with sharing a bed with a near stranger.

I pulled my sweater off, changed my jeans into a pair of pyjama shorts and crawled into the bed. I was asleep almost immediately.