Chapter One

"Hope!" I heard my mother call from the house. I was sitting on the dock where the motorboat was tied. I wanted to take a trip out to my cave but it was the middle of November and my mother wouldn't be very happy if I went out when there were ice drifts in the lake.

I stood up and brushed my jeans off. I trudged back to the house wondering what my beloved mother wanted now. She was always calling to me and making up some excuse about needing me to do something for her, but I knew she just wanted to make sure I was safe. She even called my friends houses when I stayed the night to make sure I hadn't been snatched away by some unknown person she was always looking over she shoulder for.

She was standing on the porch with her hands on her hips. She was a very beautiful woman even though she was in her late forties. She had long wavy dark brown hair, just like mine. She usually kept her hair down so it cascaded down her back in shiny waves. She was starting to get some grays but she would just pull them out if she spotted one. She was a vain person, but her hair was her pride and joy and she liked to keep it young.

"Where have you been?" she asked, her forehead creased in worry. I thought she should just have those lines tattooed onto her forehead since they were there most of the time anyways.

"At the dock," I said, "I only got home twenty minutes ago," I brushed past her into the house.

"You knew we were going to out up the decorations for yours and Greg's birthday party tonight," Mom said, coming into the house behind me.

"We have the whole night mom, don't worry," I said. Her protectiveness was really getting on my nerves tonight.

"Greg, Anthony and Erin are coming for dinner tonight, I want it to be nice," Mom told me. She had already told me this about fifty times but it was like she just forgot right after she told me. When she told me something more than once it usually meant she was nervous about it. She was always nervous when Uncle Anthony and Aunt Erin came over. It was weird since Anthony was Daddy's brother and Erin was her stepsister.

"Okay mom, I guess I'll go get ready then," I said and headed for the stairs and my bedroom.

My room was the same one I'd had since I was born. The paint colour had been changed a few times but it was still the same old room to me. It had a canopy bed and a matching dresser and desk. I had a walk in closet and my own bathroom. My closet was full of clothes and shoes. I had never wanted for anything in my entire life. I had everything I ever needed and more.

I gazed at myself in the mirror and wondered for about the billionth time if this was really where I belonged. I loved living in Duncan but I always felt out of place with the small town people. I wanted to live in a big city for just a little while.

My large hazel eyes stared back at me through the mirror. Those eyes that had just appeared out of nowhere. No one that I knew of in my family had hazel eyes. I had asked mom about it a couple times but she always answered in a far off dreamy voice that one of Daddy's relatives must have had hazel eyes. I believed her when I was younger but now I wasn't so sure. Why did I always feel like she was keeping something from me?

I took a quick shower and put my dark hair in a ponytail. I put on a knee length jean skirt and a green sweater. I was happy that Greg was coming over. I didn't see him very much at school since we didn't have any of the same classes.

My mother had insisted a couple of days ago that we have a joint party for our seventeenth birthdays. His birthday was only three days after mine. He didn't have any brothers or sisters but didn't envy me for having a little brother. He saw how much Colin liked bugging me and was thankful to have a quiet house all to himself and his parents.

"Their here!" Colin yelled bursting into my room. He never knocked. I begged for a lock on my door but mom refused always saying it was not what a close loving family did. But I didn't want to be so close to my brother that I didn't scream when he walked in on me changing.

Colin was a cute kid I'll have to admit. He is only twelve but you could already tell he was going to be one of those heartthrob guys that all the girls at school had a crush on. He had dark hair like both mom and Daddy. His eyes were deep blue just like Daddy's and Uncle Anthony. They were fraternal twins and looked vaguely alike but not so much that you couldn't tell them apart.

I hurriedly put on some mascara and followed my brother downstairs. All the adults were already in the den talking. Greg was sitting beside his mother looking more than a little bored. All the adults usually talked about was how the store was doing or what the weather was like. It was as if anything about their pasts was forbidden territory.

I remember one time when Greg and I were only ten, we liked to listen to our parents' conversations. We were eager to know what grown ups talked about all the time. Greg asked why his Grandfather wasn't coming for dinner. All the adults stopped and stared at Greg with a surprised look on all their faces. Neither of us had ever met any of out Grandparents. Of course we were going to wonder about them.

"You know you Grandfather is in Heaven son," Anthony said after a minute. They all went back to talking about the how weather would be for the next month and tried not to look like the question hadn't shook them up.

"Hello Hope," Uncle Anthony, said when he saw me standing in the doorway.

"Hello Uncle Anthony," I said and smiled.

"Come and sit down dear," Mom said patting the spot on the couch beside her. Daddy was sitting to her left and Colin was sitting at his feet. I wondered where Tyler was for a minute but stopped when I remembered how things usually went when he was around. He tended to mention the past too much for Mom liking and the conversation would stop often in an uncomfortable silence until Mom took him into another room to have a talk with him.

I went in and sat down beside my mother. I looked across the room at Greg. He was stared at me intently and his gaze softened a little when I smiled at him.

Greg looked a lot like Erin in some ways and a lot like Anthony in others. He had his father's dark hair and blue eyes and his mother's nose and mouth. He kept his hair a little longer than a lot of the other boys at school. He liked to wear vintage T-shirts and he always wore jeans. When he and I were younger he used to like hanging around Tyler. He used to ask him all sorts of questions about skateboarding. Tyler usually just gave him quick answers or ignored him altogether. Eventually Greg stopped asking him questions.

Greg wasn't a skateboarder, he tried it but he just didn't have very good balance. He loved watching all the competition tapes that Tyler had stacked in his room.

"Are you excited about you birthday party tomorrow?" Erin asked both Greg and me.

"Yes," I said. Greg answered in the same way.

"Not very talkative tonight you two?" Daddy said smiling, "You guys don't have to sit here and listen to us boring adults talk,"

I jumped up right away, trying not to look too relieved about being allowed to leave.

"Just be back in a half and hour for dinner," Mom called after us as we hurried out of the room together.

"Are you excited about the party?" Greg asked once we were out sitting on the dock. The sun was already setting quickly and it was getting colder with the brisk wind coming off the lake.

"Oh yeah, it's gonna be great having a bunch of people form school that I don't even like coming over," I said sarcastically. My mother had invited the children of people she knew from in town. I wasn't exactly one of the most popular girls at school, so my guest list didn't turn out to be as large as mom would have liked so she helped me plump it up a little.

"Hey come on, it could be fun having Becky Newman and James Walters making out on the steps," Greg said laughing. Becky and James were "the couple" at the local high school. They were notorious for being invited to every party and spending the whole time making out on some set of stairs. Even if the house was only one level they found a flight of stairs.

"At least I'll have you there to keep me company," I grumbled. I hadn't wanted to have this party in the first place but mom insisted.

"Look on the bright side," Greg said leaning back on his hands, "We'll get lots of free stuff,"

I punched him in the arm, "Greedy Greg," I called him.

"I guess we better get back in there before they run out of countries to talk weather about," Greg said standing up. He reached down and grabbed my hand, hauling me up onto my feet.

We trudged back into the house together arm in arm. I knew that as long as I had Greg I could handle anything even a birthday party full of people I didn't even like. We would get through it together. Sometimes in the back of my mind, I wished that Greg wasn't my cousin, but he was so I had to push that though away and face reality. Sometimes I really hated reality.