Chapter 2

Driving in a car this expensive back to the Cohen's house was an experience in itself. The grass did actually look greener as the pulled up to the gated estate. Houses beyond anything Emily had ever see loomed over her. The earthquake didn't seem to have affected this area of Newport. Apparently money could buy you anything.

Sitting on top of a hill, Sandy pulled the car up to the house. The sun was hitting off the windows, even this early in the morning. Unbuckling her belt, Emily stepped out of the car. The sun hit her back, heating her skin. It failed to penetrate her bones though. Sandy and Kirsten led the way to the house, beckoning for her to follow. Emily wished she had a bag or something to hold onto, to make her feel less awkward. Unfortunately she hadn't had the opportunity to get new clothes yet. Her house had been so badly damaged that she hadn't been allowed to get stuff from it. That would cause a problem, but one that she could deal with later.

Walking through the open door, the house caught her breath. The marble tiles clicked under her feet. There was a beautiful stair case to her right, that circled round upstairs. The room was open planned, stretching out to a large sitting room, centred around a fireplace on the left wall. A laugh caught in Emile's throat. Why would you need a fireplace in Newport? Looking up the roof distracted her. Reminding her of pictures of the Titanic, it had a circular dome in the middle, an impressive skylight.

"Hey", Sandy said, coming out of an opening from another room, "Come through, I want you to meet the rest of the family", he smiled, walking back through to the other room. Emily lost her nerve for a moment. She hadn't even thought to think that they would have kids.

Walking through into the room, that she finally saw was the kitchen, she seen two guys – maybe a few years older than her – sitting at the island in the room. "Hey", they both said, almost in unison. Emily simply nodded back to them.

"So this is Seth", Sandy said pointing to the dark haired one, "And this is Ryan", He said, gesturing to the other. Emily didn't quite know what to think of either. Both were attractive in their different ways. Seth seemed to have a cute-geek thing going on, while Ryan looked more the broody, violent type. Not that she was looking at them in that particular way – its just the first thing that came to her mind. "Any one hungry?", Sandy asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Emily shook her head.

Almost laughing at her self, she wondered why she had to suddenly resort to just shaking or nodding – usually she was quite out spoken about her opinions.

"Hey Sandy, sorry to run out on you like this, but I promised Taylor I'd stop by", Ryan said, draining the last of the contents in his cup. "Nice to meet you Emily", he said nodding to her. Pushing back his chair, Seth followed suit.
"Yeah Dad, I better go see how Summers doing. Ryan can you give me a lift", he said following Ryan out the room. The house seemed to echo the slamming door, giving Emily another impression of how large this house was. Emile's face must have been furrowed in confusion, because Kirsten asked her,

"Is everything OK?". Emily was caught off guard.

"What, oh yeah, it's fine", she said lying. Kirsten just continued to look at her. Emily sighed. Not much got past these people. "It's just...why did Ryan call you by your name, but Seth called you 'Dad'", she said, focusing on Sandy. He laughed deeply.

"Sorry, I just keep forgetting you don't know everything around here. We adopted Ryan 3 years ago", he explained. Emily nodded slowly, still unsure of what type of family these people were.

"So what, you collect kids or something", she gestured to herself. Both of the Cohen's laughed.

"Well she's sharper than Ryan anyway", said Sandy, just as his cell phone went off. "Sorry honey, I got to take this", he said, taking his call out into the other room.

"Looks like it's just me and you", Kirsten said to Emily, "So I suppose we should sort out some things, like where your going to be sleeping. Or your clothes situation". Emily suddenly became self-concious.

"Oh no its fine-", she started, but was cut off.

"Don't be silly. You can't wear just those clothes until your house is cleared. And we have no idea when that will be", she said, walking round and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Look, if it's the money your worried about, it's fine. We'll pay for it. Consider it a...welcome to the Cohen's gift", she said, smiling widely.

The stores that they went into were nothing like Emily had ever been in before. Most of the price tags were more than her mother made in a year. However they both stayed nearer the cheaper clothing rails – if you could even call the prices cheap. Emily wasn't much for shopping or anything to do with that whole 'scene'. She wasn't exactly the sporty type either, although she enjoyed endurance sports like cross-country. But most of the time she would rather curl up with a book or a movie...being a creature of comfort.

A few hours later, Kirsten and Emily headed home with all the essentials. It was starting to get late. On the drive home they talked about mundane things like where Emily grew up and what school she went to – both avoiding any talk about her mother. Emily thought it was just to hard to talk about anything yet. She had called the hospital twice so far and both times an irate nurse had told her there'd been no change in her mothers condition. She reminded her as soon as there was, she would be called. Kirsten didn't venture on the subject as the young girl looked so exhausted.

Pulling into the Cohen house, Kirsten announced that she would just phone-in food. When Emily asked about the two boys and weather they would be home for dinner Kirsten said she would call them soon. Emily would have proffered if they weren't coming home. She felt like an intruder enough around Sandy and Kirsten, but around her son's she felt like a fifth wheel. They all just seemed so well connected together.

It was like they were the perfect family.