"Ok, new game." Scout waited until everyone stopped talking before he continued, "Who's hotter, Sarah Michelle Geller or Tara Reid?"

The girls in the car groaned.

"Sarah, definitely Sarah. I just keep picturing that girl/girl lip action in Cruel Intentions." While Hamilton spoke of this infamous kiss, all the boys in the car glazed over with a smile as they replayed it over and over in their minds. He shot Jake a suggestive glance.

"Keeping dreaming..." she grumbled, "God, you're such a typical guy sometimes."

"One of us has to be."

Rolling her eyes, she sought Bella for sympathy, "You see what I have to put up with every day?"

"Well, I like Tara Reid. I mean, after Americ-"

Jake cut Scout off, "Guys, there are women present, so let's try and keep the games to a testosterone minimum please? Thank you!"

"What's left then?"

"Umm...MindTrap?"

A groan arose from the car.

"MindTrap it is then." Grabbing the box from Will, she randomly selected a card and began to read.


The seating arrangement had altered slightly during the last two hours. Jake was moved to the front passenger chair to direct Scout to the cabin, assuming she still remembered its location. In addition to that, she had the job of holding the map and trying to decipher the roads as they twisted together and broke in different directions, altogether making it difficult to discern.

Bella and Will had taken over the middle row. Currently, Will slept with his jacket serving the dual purpose of pillow and insulation from the frosted window pane. Bella rested with her head on Will's shoulder. Located in the very small, very back, elevated seat, was Hamilton. Without much room, he was forced to throw his legs over the seat in front of him to sleep comfortably; another reason why Bella had to invade Will's personal space to sleep.

"Hey, we're almost there!" Scout's exuberant cry awoke the people in the back.

"Wake me up when we get there, not when we're almost there." Hamilton's groggy voice drifted to the front compartment. Shifting, he placed the pillow over his ears to drown out further unwanted calls.

Bella stirred slightly and sat up. Rubbing her eyes and patting her hair down, she looked out the window to gauge where they were. The landscape, however, looked the same as it had an hour ago; white cloaked mountains, small water falls dripping down the rocky mountain hills, and every once-in-a-while, a frozen pond which people ice skated on. Accepting Hamilton's outburst as the correct solution, she sighed and snuggled back up to Will's shoulder.

"No, Hamilton. We. Are. There." Jake glanced in the back to see his unresponsive form, "Will, take that pillow off his head and hit him with it."

"Wha-?" Hamilton blinked multiple times, being awakened by a pillow assault was not high on his list of entertainment.

"Orders from the queen," Will nodded to Jake, "We're here."

They rounded a snow-covered bend in the road and turned onto a newly paved road, surrounded by snow laden trees. While proceeding back, they came to a gate with a small guard house that was meant to look from the early twentieth century.

Scout rolled down his window, "Excuse me?" He had to reach out and tap the glass to wake the guard.

"Can I help you?" The guard, Jim according to his unadorned name tag, asked, uninterested.

"Yes," Jake leaned over Scout, "Can you point us to 2495 Olivedale Avenue, please?"

"2495 Olivedale Avenue?" Jim asked curiously.

"Yeah..?"

"Didn't think anyone lived there anymore. It's kinda taken on this haunted rumor-" Glancing up at them, he got back on topic, "Uh, well...you just go through this gate and follow the main road until you come to Kingston. Take a right and follow it until you get to Vandalia and go left. Then when you run across Olivedale, you take a right and go to the very last house on the street."

"Thank you."

"How long are you kids staying?"

"About a week or so."

"Have a nice time-"

"We will. Thanks again." Scout rolled up the window, tired of idle chitchat, and drove through the opening gate.

"Jake, did you get any of that?"

"Yeah, I think so."

The main road was absent of houses. It did, however, have an abundance of bus stops and coffee shops. The first house, more appropriately called a mansion, did not appear until they reached Kingston, the first intersecting road to the main one. It was three stories, wood planking covered the first story, and brick was used from there on up. A large veranda was spread across the front of the house and the left side; on it rested a porch swing and an outdoor table that could be used in the pleasant weather of the summer. From then on, the houses only appeared to get larger.

"Look at that one," Bella pointed to a rather conservative, by these standards, two-story house, covered with stone and mortar. "I want a spiral tower on my house." The circular addition to the house stretched the two stories, interspersed with small windows. They were on Vandalia by then.

"God, I have never seen so many Lexuses."

Jake glanced at the houses on the street and noticed what Bella said to be true. Parked in front of almost every house was a Lexus, BMW, or some other extravagant car.

"Lexi." Will mumbled, as he too was glued to the ever increasing number of gaudy, exorbitant houses.

"What?"

"Lexi...the plural of Lexus. I think." Smiling sheepishly, he pretended to be extremely interested in the stitching of the leather seats.

"Thanks Grammar Boy." Hamilton clasped his hand on the back of Will's neck.

"Guys, not to disappoint or anything, but my cabin is not one of these..." Glancing out the window, Jake shook her head, "Most of these weren't even built the last time I was here. It was just open land."

"Ah, Olivedale Avenue." Scout broke their intense inspection of the incredible houses before them as he turned onto a gravel road. The car bounced as they traveled to the end of the street. "You weren't kidding Jake."

The house, to their regret, was just what Jake had said it was - a cabin. A one story log cabin set back into the trees. Everyone lumbered out of the car, grabbing their luggage and trudged toward the house. Jake struggled to get her key out and unlock the door, "Home sweet home," the door swung open revealing a very sparse living room.

Setting down the luggage in the middle of the room, the group turned around to take in the cabin. There wasn't much to take in. Spider webs clung to the corners and the tables, dust filled the cabin and swam in the air; so much so that when Scout plopped on the couch, he couldn't stop coughing for five minutes.

"Ok, so maybe not sweet. How about adequate?" In the kitchen, Jake found the fridge and cabinets empty of food. "Ok, how about we get changed and go out to eat? Then we can get some groceries." She led the guys to the back room and left them to change.

"We are going to have to share the pull out couch. I hope you don't mind." She took Bella down the hall and past the living room, "But at least we get our own bathroo-"

"Jake!" Both girls looked where Will had called from. "The lights in here aren't working." He flipped the switch to demonstrate for her.

She sighed, "Great. Ok, we can fix this." After a few minutes of searching, she found the fuse box in the back of the hall closet. Flipping some of the switches, "Do they work now?"

"Nope."

"What about now?"

"Nope."

"Ok....now?"

"No."

"Damn it. We're gonna have to get someone out here. We can ask that guy on the way out." She came back into the bedroom.

"What guy?"

"That Jim guy or whatever."

"Well, what are we supposed to do now?"

"I'm sure you can handle dressing in the dark, it you can't - you have bigger problems than no electricity."

"Grouchy." Scout muttered as she left the room.


The car turned back onto the gravel road as they returned from the restaurant.

"I'm so stuffed."

"I should hope so Ham. For a couple of tense minutes, I thought they might ban you from the salad bar, you went back enough times."

"God, I hope the power is back on." Bella mumbled to herself as she pulled her jacket tighter and jogged to the cabin.

"Thank you!" Jake mouthed to the ceiling, dropping her purse on the floor upon opening the cabin door. The lights were on. The refrigerator worked. The phone line worked. Everything was well in the Pratt Hotel.

"Yes!" Bella jumped behind her, "I love that Jim guy!"

The guys entered the cabin, carrying groceries, and were equally overjoyed at the idea of power, which also meant TV and videos.

"Here," Jake grabbed the bags from Scout and Will, "I'll put these in the kitchen."

Hamilton followed her, closing the screen that separated the kitchen from the living room, "This was a good idea," he kissed the back of her neck.

"Yeah, the idea of eating appeals to me too." She handed him a box of cereal to place in the cabinet.

After putting it away, he turned back to her, leaning on the marble counter, "No...I mean us, here, in Vermont. Together...sharing a room."

Laughing as she washed her hands, "Hamilton, as much as I would love to share a room with you..." she turned around to face him.

He grinned and raised his eyebrows at her.

"I can't."

His face fell, "But...?"

"No, Ham. That would mean Bella would have to room with Will and Scout. Even I'm not that mean."

"Come on, they are like brothers to her, they wouldn't mind."

"Well, I'm gonna chose to ignore the obvious irony in that statement and just leave you with the knowledge that - after living in an all male dorm for three years - I know that's not something you subject your friends to."

"So..?"

"So, you guys are gonna stay in the back bedroom - we have a cot around here somewhere. And Bella and I will sleep on the pull out couch."

"Ok...I guess I can accept that."

"That's very chivalrous of you, Ham, but there will be no guessing. That is what is going to happen."

Laughing, he grabbed her arm and led her into the living room where everyone else lay, watching a movie, "Wooh....You drive a hard bargain."