A/N:

Title: The Grass Is Greener

Summary: Suze Simon always thought she was normal. Average. Sure, weird things happened to her, but ghosts? No way. Only when a dark, mysterious guy called Paul comes into her life, her world is turned upside down...

Disclaimer: No. We do not own the characters. They all belong to Meg Cabot. :)

Tinkerbaby466- (Formally known as Tink) Hey there! Dynamic Duo Luna and Tink here! Hee hee. Well, tag team fic, (My first, what about you Luna?) and I hope yall like what turned out! With a little bit of thinkin and time pOoF out came a good fic idea! YaY okay enough of me.... p.s. Lunas the bestest.

Luna29- Hello :) Wow thanks for reading! I don't know if this idea has been done before but we really had fun writing it, huh? It's basically what life would be like if Suze was never a shifter. And what if Paul offered her dark powers later?

This was so much fun to write, we hope you enjoy it! (tink is the bestest! lol)

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Carmel, California.

My own little Pleasantville, USA.

It was right near the Pacific Ocean, so it was always sunny and warm, like California should be. The sun was always shining, the birds were always singing and the flowers were blooming. Not to mention that people were so friendly here, especially at the airport, that it was comforting.

Then I saw the family. They looked like strangers, if not The Brady Bunch. God, all we needed was our Cindy and Jan. Alright, I'll admit: the whole scene was way cheesy and even a little sickening.

My mom was wearing what my best friend Gina and I had dubbed, her I-just-met-the-most-wonderful-man-fell-in-love-and-got-married smile when she greeted me. Andy, and his kids, David, Brad and Jake were there, too. My new family.

While my mom squeezed the life out of me with that hug of hers, the boys reached over and grabbed my bags, tossing them over their shoulder like nothing. At least Jake and Brad carried them like nothing, anyway, the two of them being pretty well-built, if that's not a gross thing to say about my step-brothers. David on the other hand, who--I am sorry to say--was a bit scrawny for his age, struggled to carry my bag until Andy took it from him. Hey, I felt kind of bad for the little guy. I'd packed them myself and believe me, they weren't exactly light. I mean, it was basically my entire spring and winter wardrobe in those bags.

Anyway, once my mom had finally let me go, I'd wandered a little light-headedly to the boys, mumbling my hello, before smiling at Andy. He held out his hand and I shook it tenatively, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey, kiddo," he laughed. "How was your flight?"

I forced a smile as my mom wrapped an arm around my shoulder and we headed outside and through the automatic doors. The first thing I felt on the way out was this rush of warm air, welcoming me into this new life as I left the comfort of the nice, air-conditioned airport. As if leaving this airport was the final step in giving up my old life for good.

Not that my old life in New York was bad or anything. I mean, I had a ton of great friends, I was vice president of my school, and I had an adorable boyfriend, Kyle (even though we had to break up before I left). The last thing I wanted to do was leave this perfect life. But it didn't seem like I had much of a choice, now did it?

Anyway, I was greeted with this rush of hot air and by the sizzling hot sun that glinted off of the cars and nearly blinded me, no matter where I looked. The rest of the family, though, seemed to be aware that this would happen as they were all wearing their own sun glasses. I cursed myself for having packed my Calvin Klein sunglasses in with the rest of my clothes.

We walked over to the car and the boys threw my bags in the back. We all piled in. I must say, it wasn't very fun sitting next to three sweating step brothers. I quickly got over the fact when the air conditioning came on. We pretty much drove home in silence, with the occasional pointing out of carmel landmarks and such.

"Look Suze, that's the Mission, your new school." David pointed. I looked out the window at the very old looking, adobe-ish mission which would be my school starting tomorrow.

"Its nice... Old.." I said out of the corner of my mouth.

"Well yeah Suze its practically been around since the Prehistoric Age--OOGA BOOGA! " Brad remarked stupidly, laughing at himself.

We drove father past the beautiful beaches, I saw a lot of people, my age, there enjoying the surf and tanning. I SO wanted to be there right about now too, soaking what was left of the afternoon sun. We didn't have beaches in New York, you see. The closest we got to a real beach was the tropical fish exhibit at the Central Park Zoo.

We finally pulled up to their--no, our--new home. Wow, was it nice to say that. It took my breath away. Yeah, it did. The house was actually very nice, not like I was expecting it to be trashy, my mom would never marry a poor guy. Not that she was a gold digger, though. I mean, my dad wasn't really rich, either. But whatever. The house was nice.

"It's great, isn't it?" Andy asked as he pulled my bags out of the back of the Land Rover. "It was built back in the 1850's. It was used as a boarding house, actually. This place was notorious, home of many gunfights. Bad ones."

Once we were inside Andy showed me the bullet holes from those 'bad gunfights' he had framed in the ceiling--how sensitive of him, huh? It all kind of gave me the chills, though, thinking that the bullet that caused one of those holes could quite possible have killed someone. Someone could have died in our house. I shuddered and spun around.

You could totally tell that this house was inhabited by men by the empty milk cartons on the table and the footballs and things thrown around. But then, you could also tell that my mom was here, too. There were vases on the tables all filled with bright crimson roses and stylish paintings on the walls. The pillows were neatly arranged on the sofas and picture frames hung on the wall above the fireplace in neat rows. My mother had so been here.

"Boys," Andy said, "show Suze her room, and bring her things." After a bit of whining they started carrying my things up the stairs. David was struggling to help, since he had such little muscle and all. Cute little guy. He was so short and nerdy.

"Your room is the best of all" said David with a chuckle. "Theres a lot of history about it, plus the good view." I wasnt really paying much attention to him, I was busy looking at framed pictures on the hallway walls. There were some pictures of Andy and my mom's wedding, the three boys' baby pictures (God, Brad was an ugly baby, and, funnily enough, one picture of me. My mom was the real picture person, ya know.

Jake opened the bedroom door to a beautiful, pink decorated room. It was so beautiful I actually gasped at the sight of it. Light was spilling from the big window, with pretty frayed pillows and such. I had a big canopy bed, which was really pretty. There was a desk for school work, a dresser, closet space, and I presumed a door leading to a bathroom--my very own bathroom!

The boys put my baggage on the bed and started to make their way back out the door. "Well, I hope you like it, I think your mom is coming up to make sure your settled, and all." Jake said, shrugging.

"Thanks guys" I said, smiling a little, and they all left. I studied my new room. It was really great. I could tell my mom set it up for me. Did I mention she was also a great decorator? I sat down on the window seat but felt an icy chill suddenly jolt through me. "What the hell..." I muttered and sprang up from where I was sitting.

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Jesse's POV--

150 years. 150 years banished to this cursed bedroom. Many people my age can barely sit in the same spot for even ten minutes--we're so full of energy and life. That is, except for me. All these years I have been shackled to this bedroom as merely a figment of the past. Not living, nor dead. Just here. Living in the shadows, forgotten for so many years.

It was never easy. For the first years the boarding house was just that: a boarding house. I saw men like myself just stopping by for the night. Sleeping in the very bed I was in when I breathed my last breath. Contrary to what you might believe, though, time did not necessarily pass by normally for me. If I was interested in something I could slow down the time (at least for me) and when things were particularly dull, I could speed things up for myself.

Although I could control the speed of the things around me, that did not meet I didn't get lonely. After the boarding house was abandoned, I was living alone for many years. Occassionally someone interested in buying the house would come in and look around. They would always leave, though. No one ever bought it. They would complain of an eerie feeling, the children would whine to their parents that the bedroom at the end of the hall was freezing, and they would leave. End of story.

Because of this, the house never sold and became rundown very quickly. I was forced to find little ways to entertain myself. Sometimes I would find a book forgotten somewhere in the house, or some other thing I could inspect. Often I would find things, take them apart, and try to reassemble them again. Or I would just day dream the years away, thinking about what life would have been like if I hadn't lost my life.

Things were incredibly dull, you see, until a new family actually moved in. And, to my surprise, they didn't seem to have any intentions of leaving. At first, I have to admit that I felt a little insulted, as they were invaded what was my home for so long and began making it their own. But soon I grew to like the Ackermans. They were interesting to observe--the first real people I had come into contact with that were of the 21st century.

That is, until they began moving furniture and other things into MY room. Painting MY room pink! By the time it was done, you'd have thought that a four-year old was moving in.

Only when I saw her walk in a few days later, her brothers towing all of her things, she was anything except a child-- a beautiful woman. I know, it was very dishonerable of me, but I cannot deny a beautiful woman when I see one-- and I was sure that her beauty wasn't just something I had imagined after 150 of solitude. No-- her beautiful, sparkling emerald eyes weren't just imagined. I couldn't possibly have imagined something so divine as her flawless figure and perfect brown hair that cascaded down her shoulderrs. She was beautiful but....

I would be sharing a room with this girl. This would not be pleasant, but completely awkward.

I sat with my eyes completely glued to her own when she began walking straight towards me. For some reason, my cheeks began to burn furiously and my eyes darted around the room frantically, as I had this crazy notion that she was going to say something to me.

But, instead, she sat down right where I was sitting on the window seat. I scrambled to dematerialize as I heard her grumble, "What the hell..."

I chuckled to myself from where I was now standing across the room. This was going to be interesting. Very interesting.

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Suze's POV--

I raised my eyebrows, but quickly shrugged it off. It was probably just the air conditioning coming on or something like that. Instead, I started putting my clothes (about 3 big bags worth, but very much needed) into my new dresser when I heard a knock at my door.

"Come in!" I called. My mom opened up the door with a big grin on her face. I smilied back and sat down on my bed.

"So, honey, how do you like it?" she gushed, taking my hands in hers in a motherly way. "Its great mom! I fully like it, thanks alot. I'm almost starting to feel at home already." I said. Okay, maybe I was overdoing it just the tiniest bit, but you should have seen the look on my mom's face. She was just so... happy.

She started rambling about how long it took her to put the room together, and how happy she was that we finally had a good family. Not like my past life was sucky or anything. It just wasnt the same since my dad, well, pased away. I quickly told my mom I loved her ushered her to the door so I could finish up settling in.

"Dinner's in a bit, come down when your ready," she said and gave me one last hug.

She ran her hands over my hair (just curled it, so not cool, mom) and bit her bottom lip, a little tear running down her cheek dramatically. "Oh, Susie, honey, I'm just so glad that we're finally settled. I know you're going to love it here. The kids are so friendly and welcoming. You'll be great, hun. Don't worry."

I smiled back, just eager to get some alone-time. "Yeah. I know, mom. Really. But, uh, I have to finish unpacking so maybe we can finish up this conversation at dinner?"

Finally, she was gone. I heaved a huge sigh and fell backwards onto my bed.

I was lying there, staring at my ceiling, thinking about how my new life in Carmel would turn out. I was actually really excited to start fresh, but worried how it would all turn out. I got up from my bed and continued unpacking. I shuffled through my bag when I came across my diary. Yeah a diary.

You can stop laughing now.

I grabbed it, opened up to a new clean page, plopped down on my bed, and began writing a new entry. All these thoughts were buzzing through my mind and I had to find some way to tame them. Often this diary helped me out through my darkest times.

"Susannah! Dinner!" I heard my mom call. My head snapped up in alarm. Sometimes I lose myself for hours, not even thinking of what I was doing. It's like a whole other person takes over me.

I placed my diary in my desk drawer and bounded downstairs. Once I got down into the dining room, everyone was already sitting at the table. I took a seat next to my mom, excusing myself for being a little late. Andy said it wasn't a problem as he pushed some spaghetti with maranara sauce onto my plate. It looked good, but tasted even better.

(a/n: Tink- ha ha, luna! RAMEN!)

"Andy is quite the chef. They didn't have pasta like this back home, did they, Susie?" my mom asked, smiling as she took a sip of her lemonade.

"Yeah, really. This is one of the best pasta's I've tried. Except for dad's, his was much better than this--" I said but stopped quicky. I don't think I should have said that because it suddenly got really quiet. My mom was just looking down at her pasta, twirling it with her fork. A tint of red flooded her cheeks as she struggled to avoid eye-contact with Andy.

"Oh..." I mumbled, blushing a lot myself. "I'm sorry."

"It's no problem," Andy said, forcing a smile.

It was silent for about five excruciating minutes after that. You could only hear the clanking of the boys' forks as they ate. My mom just stared at Andy with a miserable look on her face. Oh, why did I always have to screw things, up?

"Um, so Andy, what are the neighbors like here?" I said, finally breaking the awkward silence.

"They are actually really nice, older folks, don't have kids that I know of." he said, a slightly pleasant look returning to his face.

"Oh yeah, Dad, speaking of the neighbors, I heard them saying one day that our house was haunted--BOO!" Brad remarked. I simply stared at him. Was he kidding? Oh my God, this kid could NOT be the same age as me.

Andy looked over at Brad and gave him a 'look'.

"Well, it may be true, dad. I heard there were many fights in this boarding house. According to my research, there is great paranormal activity at this very spot." David said matter-o-factly.

"Neighbors say they saw a man looking out of Suze's window late one night." Brad added. Jake was leaning backwards, his eyes closed. He didn't even seem to notice that any of us were here.

"Oh please boys, ghosts! Don't be silly! You are just making those things up to scare Suze." Andy said.

I felt a sudden bump on my leg. I jumped, my heart thudding, and looked down, but it was only the Ackerman's dog, Max. He quietly laid his head on my lap waiting for some food to fall. I gave him a nudge. I didn't want his slobbery head on my new khakis.

"Can I be excused? I am pretty tired, from the jet lag, and all." I said getting up from my seat and bringing my plate over to the sink.

"Sure honey, good night. First day of school tomorrow so rest up." my mom said giving me a hug.

As I trudged up the stairs, reading to hit the sack, I laughed to myself. Ghosts. What a joke. There is no such thing as ghosts.

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A/N: Wow, that was fun. We hoped you enjoyed it. Please review! 3

(Yay! Thank you Lolly for helping out and for the summary and everything! Hugs!)