A/N: So a big thankyou to all of those who reviewed the last chapter. I love you guys. This chapter was really hard to write, but I'm proud that I still got it up there. And I'd like to give the most BIGGEST and most GRATEFUL thankyou of all time to my new beta… Auriela.

Leaving

Nate

I'm not one to brood, honestly. But sometimes, situations such as these can call for a good session of just that. Brooding. That's why I'm currently staring moodily out at the rain that's been pouring down since yesterday.

Vida's leaving today. I'm leaving tomorrow. I mean, school's starting soon, and it's just all starting to get to me. I actually want to leave. I was having a good time…but that was before Evie's…enlightening…conversation. But I just need to get home and sort out my life, and my messed-up head, before I go back to school. I won't be seeing Grace, since she goes to a different school, and is currently hitching a ride to the Gold Coast and back, but no doubt she'll keep me up to date with emails, just as she promised.

Why can't I get Vida out of my head?

Vee

I shuffle around Christian's desk drawer, searching for an envelope. Kind of old fashioned, I know, to be giving him a letter. But I know that if I sent him an email he'd just delete it. I slide the thick letter inside my chosen envelope, glancing at my handwriting, reliable with its cramped and painstakingly small script. I write his name on the front and stand get up, adrenaline rushing through me.

I wait a while. For the rain to stop pouring; for my heart to stop beating so fast. Evie checks on me to make sure I'm all packed.

The rain slows eventually, changing to what Evie calls spitting, and what I call nothing. The small drops falling every so often don't make a difference to me. So I grab my bike and make my way to Jacinta's.

He answers the door. It starts raining again. We just stare at each other for a while, an awkward silence enveloping us. I can't believe I'm here - I want to run, to rip up the letter, but I know I can't. For all I know, I may never see him again, and I could never live with him believing Grace.

I bite my lip and glance at my feet before looking back to him. His blank stare makes me shiver. I hand him the envelope, hating my hand for shaking, hating my throat for the lump that's slowly rising, hating my belly for doing somersaults over and over.

'Please…' My voice quivers and I clear it self-consciously, 'just read it.'

I don't look for his reaction, but instead turn my back and leave him standing there, riding as fast as I can, through the never-ending rain.

And then I leave with Evie, the atmosphere dismal because although I'm leaving a place I no longer want to be in, I'm going back to a place I don't want to be either.

Nate

The temptation was hard for the first couple of hours. I'd pick up the letter, and then put it down again. I couldn't read it while Chris and Jacinta were there; for some reason it was just wrong.

I'm surprised I lasted this long. A whole twenty-four hours. Now I'm on the bus, still fumbling with the edges, already worn and dirty.

I weigh up the pros and cons of opening the letter for another whole hour, the guy beside me giving me odd looks. I sigh one last time and look down at it. The guy slowly removes his heavy earphones.

'Look mate, just open it. How bad could it be?'

I nod but don't say anything as I rip open the envelope and unfold the pages. At first I'm stunned by her handwriting as the first sentence curls on the paper. It's like when you pick up a heavy, thick book, and half expect the writing to be big to accompany the size of the book… but then you see the tiny writing and you get a shock. I ignore my surprise and read.

My mum died last year of breast cancer. I suppose Grace told you that. I guess she also told you that I wasn't there when she died. It's the thing that everyone says when they mention it – me not being there and all, despite being her daughter. Yet Grace was there. I was in London. That's where my school is. Grace had gone up for the weekend. My mother and her were close. After Grace's father left, she spent a lot of time at our place. We always came up on alternate weekends though...

Something about seeing Grace's face as I rushed into the hospital, ten minutes too late, has haunted me since then. Words can't describe how I felt when she told me that mum had died. We had fallen out years beforehand – we simply grew apart, different interests and everything – and I guess we were still very bitter about it.

In her will, Mum had left Grace any money she needed to help with her education. Since Grace's family lived in Australia, and she hadn't contacted them, or her father after he had left. That was all. So I gave her money for her to continue her schooling and I didn't see her again, really.

It was fine, for the first part at least. I just stayed around Pemberly with Greg, comforting him. It hadn't sunk in yet, that she'd be gone forever. It almost felt like she was just away on business, like she always was.

The first time it really hit me was when I had to babysit the next door neighbour's kids. This was when I was back living in London for school. I had gone over at the last minute and was having a terrible time - running after them, slaving after them. All I wanted to do was ring Mum up and ask her how she did it. And then it hit me. I couldn't. I could never ask my mother a single question again.

For a period of two weeks I wouldn't come out of my room, only crying and sleeping. Knowing that she'd never be able to comfort me, read to me, laugh with me. It was during that time that I got the first call from Grace. She'd been kicked out of my school within four weeks of starting back. She asked for more money to get an education at another of England highest schools. I said no straight away, believing she had already used up my mother's charity. I was still so bitter.

After two weeks though, Greg came and got me, and fed me, and looked after me. I knew then that I'd be okay, because we had each other, and that was enough.

So I called Grace again, and transferred the money she needed to her account. She didn't use it on her education, though. Within weeks she had spent it on drugs. So I did what I thought was right, and signed her into a rehabilitation centre, and took away all the money I had given her – not that there was much left. I didn't listen to her any more, every time she asked for money. She badmouthed me to my friends, and they slowly turned away from me, believing I was horrible… not knowing the truth.

Eventually, about six months later, I got a letter from the rehabilitation centre, saying that Grace had been released. A little while later she turned up at Pemberly, looking for Greg.

This bit might be the hardest of all to explain. It's still so raw for both Greg and I.

She took him to a few parties, and introduced him to drugs. He became addicted to heroin and ecstasy. She wanted to bring him down, and she got her way. She got him to give her the money for the drugs. In the end she got the money she always had wanted.

One night though, Greg had an overdose. She panicked, fleeing the country, leaving him stranded on the gutter. This whole time I had been away at school, and hadn't heard a single thing about Greg's habit. When I was called, I was asked to come to hospital straight away because my little brother probably wouldn't make it through the night. My little brother who had just turned fifteen.

He did make it through the night, thank God, and slowly got better. That's when Patti, one of Mum's closest friends who looked after us after Mum died, came to Pemberly full time. She blamed herself for what happened to Greg.

He got through the worst of it, despite looking like a corpse for about a year. Sometimes he was so weak from withdrawal symptoms that he couldn't even stand. He was determined though, and has never taken any drugs since. And I'm so proud of him because of that.

As for your brother, I am so sorry for the misunderstanding on my part. It was not my place to do anything like that, and I abused my relationship with Cate in doing so. At the time, I thought I was just helping her out. I was wrong.

So these are the incidents that I wanted to tell you about – the truth. I don't blame you at all for being misguided by Grace. We all have been. Acting and manipulating are things that she strives for.

I will be forever sorry for all the pain that I have caused to you and your brother. Please forgive me.

Davida Darcy

She hadn't even signed 'Vida'. The name she supposedly hates is the one that she signs with. That's the thing that hits me hardest, or at least that's before all her other information sinks in. It's like now, after revealing her life story to me, the one person she despises, she can't even hide behind the name she prefers. Everything about her, including her name, has been laid bare to my scrutiny.

What probably hurts most of all is that I had suspected her of so much that she had been innocent of. I believe her. Her side of the story is so much more put together; it has links. The puzzle fits together. I just can't believe Grace could do something like that. To do so much to one family, without any good reason.

I rub my head painfully, scanning the letter again.

'Well?' the guy next to me asks.

'It's worse,' I mutter. 'Much, much worse.'

Vee

The quietness in the car almost kills Evie. I can tell. But I can't start a conversation.

We pass by a swing set and I ask her to stop. We get out. She takes my hand as I sit on the seat.

'I'm sorry,' I say. She squeezes my hand but doesn't make a sound. I know that this term will be an adventure. The start of my adventure, really, since it is nowhere near the end. I will meet new people. Go to a new school. Learn a completely different syllabus. And it will be just like this until I leave for home on the plane. Watching the fuzzy clouds as I skim above them.

Nate

My house is in complete chaos as I enter through the back door. Matt finds me first.

'You came at a great time,' he says sarcastically before locking himself up in his room.

I walk through to the kitchen hearing the familiar bellows of Liam, Tim and Mum. I sit down beside James, loosening my school tie, noting mentally to myself that for the third time this week I've been late home because of Extension English and my family hasn't noticed.

Dad sits to the side, watching the fight with amusement. 'Of course you can't go Tim, they didn't invite you.'

'But Mum,' Tim whines. 'How can he go to the Gold Coast when I can't?'

'Because I'm better than you!' Liam says inappropriately, sitting down triumphantly beside Dad.

I glance over at James who nods at me briefly in greeting.

'Liam's been invited to go to the Gold Coast next holidays. Tim wants to go, but Mum won't let him,' he sums up for me. I stare at him in shock, the information about Grace, still raw in my mind, going round and round in my head. It's been a month since I last saw her, but that doesn't make me forget it. Who could forget things like that? I glance back at the fight, but it seems to be finished, Tim having stormed out of the room leaving my mother to follow him.

James turns to me. 'How's Chris? You haven't spoken about him since you went on holiday. But you never really said much about that either did you?'

The urge to crack my knuckles suddenly comes over me – a nervous habit I had as a kid – as I measure up telling James about Vida. I still can't believe that I haven't. When I came home, there wasn't much to tell in comparison to James' amazing stories. And maybe I didn't really want to. Maybe it was too soon.

I can't help it, and the sound of my cracking knuckles makes James' head snap up. I realise that I can never lie to him.

'Chris is great. And I had a great time there. I actually saw Vida there.'

His eyes narrow as he tries to figure out why I kept this from him.

'Did she says anything about Cate?' he asks. I shake my head immediately. Instead, I tell him all about it, and he listens as he always does, shaking his head in disbelief at the things that have gone round and round in my head for a month now.

'He can't go,' I say, sitting on a stool as Mum cooks dinner. She sighs and starts stirring the soup.

'Babe, we won't have any peace in this house unless I let him go.'

My jaw drops. 'That's all you care about?'

She runs a hand through her hair and turns stove down. She comes over and sits beside me. 'If I don't let him go, your father will throw an even bigger tantrum than Liam, and my youngest son won't speak to me for months.'

'You know all the types of drugs there's going to be there,' I say, attempting a different route, thinking all the while of Grace.

'Of course I do.' She gets up and goes back to the oven. 'He's not going to give up pestering us until he tries everything on his own.'

'What, so your giving him permission to get stoned?' I ask, trying hard not to get to angry. She frowns at me.

'You know Liam and Tim; they'd go behind my back anyway. I'd prefer to know that they're doing it than the other way round.'

I sigh angrily.

'I'm sorry babe, but it's the best I can do for now.'

And I leave.

I sit down at my computer and groan. Why? is all I can think. I look over at the picture that James put as my background just to annoy me. It's the picture we took at the gelateria. It's of Chris, Evie, Vee, and I. When I was still being hostile and cold to her.

I look closely at her photograph and try to work out why she confuses me so much. I stare at the photo for a long time before I realise that her image won't change. If I look away and she'll be back in exactly the same place when I look again.

I sigh and rub my head with my hands. I miss her, amazingly. I miss the time we had together that day. What is wrong with me? I thought I hated her.

I start going through the letter again… and again, trying to work out if it's all for real… But nothing.

I think back to Bowral. Running through the maze, her free will and easiness, laughing as she ran. I was intimidated by her in a way. The old Vida was easy to fight with. The new one, was nice, and so, so… I just didn't know how to act around her. My heart beats faster as I think back to the conversation we had on the hill, but then I relax, because I know it's happened now, and I can't change it.

I smile, thinking of when Evie had whooping cough for about three days, her voice had gone husky, and each time she spoke Vida and I would raise an eyebrow at her, as if to say, are you being seductive? It was the only time I was slightly civil to Vida.

I shake my head, trying to rid her from my thoughts. How could a simple letter drive me so absolutely crazy?

I think of the first time we danced together, both seething with anger. It was like there was nobody else in the room, like it was just us, swaying to the beat.

I jump up suddenly and turn on the radio. Triple J blares out one of my old favorites for an afternoon quiz.

Wake from your sleep. It's a song by Radiohead: Exit Music for a movie. I remember suddenly that it was her favorite band. I sigh. Is the world just against me today or something? It seems all I can think about is her.

I look at the picture willing her to come out of it, her whole self, body smell and all. Her smell…God she smelt good. Like rosewater.

I sound like a lovesick puppy. I don't even like her. I pretty much hated her for the better part of these last two months.

I want her to appear, just to explain why I can't get her off my mind. That damn letter's the answer. Just thinking about it makes me dizzy.

I think of the way she said goodbye; her face smiling, but her eyes hurt and sad. I need to see her, to demand that she turn my head back the way it was before she even came to Australia.

I'd do anything to see her.

I hit my head, and turn to the computer yet again. I click on the net and get on Hotmail. I've got a message from Chris. I open it before realizing that it's a forwarded message.

To: Nate Bennet

From: Chris Jonson

10 signs of liking someone…

.TEN.:

U LOOK THEIR PICTURE CONSTANTLY

.NINE.:

YOU READ THEIR MESSAGES OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

.EIGHT.:

YOU FEEL SHY WHENEVER THEY'RE AROUND.

.SEVEN.:

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THEM, YOUR HEART BEATS FASTER AND SLOWER AT THE SAME TIME

.SIX.:

YOU REALIZE THAT YOU'RE ALWAYS SMILING TO YOURSELF WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THEM.

.FIVE.:

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THEM, YOU CAN'T SEE THE OTHER PEOPLE AROUND YOU, ALL YOU SEE IS HER.

.FOUR.:

YOU START LISTENING TO THEIR FAVOURITE BANDS

.THREE.:

THEY'RE ALL YOU THINK ABOUT.

.TWO.:

YOU GET HIGH JUST FROM THEIR SCENT.

.ONE.:

YOU WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR THEM, OR ANYTHING TO SEE THEM.

WHILE READING THIS, THERE WAS ONE PERSON ON YOUR MIND THE WHOLE TIME...

By the end I'm hyperventilating. Damn Chris and his great sense of timing. Just when I had convinced myself that I didn't like her. Ten signs of liking someone. Damnit. I hit my head on the table in the classic male response.

'Nate,' James opens the door just as I raise my head from the table, shaking his head and laughing at me. 'Bea and Rod are here.'

He all but runs down the stairs like an excited child on Christmas awaiting his presents and I follow him. Rod and Bea have just come back from India. They share presents, adventures and photos, enjoying telling their stories the whole while.

'So,' Bea says once dinner's over and we've cleared up the plates. 'I have an offer for you my dear.' She takes Rod's hand and glances over at me.

'We were thinking that since we've just had an adventure with James, we should definitely have an adventure with you.' I smile, liking where this is heading. 'We just so happen to be going to England during your holidays… Want to come?'

I laugh and give them both a huge hug.

'I'd love to.'