Author's Note: I just finished writing this story literally three minutes ago. The end goes right up until before All My Life Begins. Keep in mind here, this story is covering about five years of Mia's life so be prepared for an epic.

We all met up later that night and went to a club for one last night of regular old fun. I had been introduced to a lot of people, and with my princess skills I was able to remember all their names. Grandmere had taught me to say their name when I was being introduced to them, and then to remember a key part of their face. I was dancing with a bunch of girls my age. Alicia, Bella, Sophia and Tawny. "That Joshua is sooo adorable!" Ali exclaimed, staring off toward the bar where he was talking to some of the older kids. "You know, in a dorky way."
I looked over. Butterflies once again. He caught me looking (wouldn't he have to though? I mean, does he notice when Ali looks? Of course not!), and then wove to me. The girl he was with, my roommate Kate, laughed when she saw that I was looking over. She tried getting his attention back, but he kept looking over at me. He gave me a wink and then took another sip of his drink.
"That wasn't embarrassing or anything," I said to my new friends. They started laughing hysterically. "I am not going to talk to him again. I tend to embarrass myself around good looking boys."
"Honey, he ain't a boy. He is a damn fine man," Tawny said seriously.

I don't get it. He probably wouldn't have been looked at twice back in New York, why was everyone freaking out about him here? The more I thought about the more I realized it was because of a lack of boys on the trip. He was the best looking one. Also, rumor has it that he's the nicest one as well.
I burst out laughing. "We should get back to the motel. We are leaving really early tomorrow," Sophie suggested.
"No. We all have to find ONE boy to dance with before we leave. Come on girls, let's go," Ali said pulling us into the crowd.
That wasn't a problem. At these types of places guys just come up behind the girls and start dancing with them. The girls, meanwhile, have no idea what the guy looks like, she must rely on friends to give opinions.
Ali's eyes shot to the size of baseballs when she saw who came up behind me. Oh great. I probably had a total loser behind me. I tried pulling away, but the guy had a solid grasp on my waist. These are the times I wish I had Lars with me. But no. I wanted to be normal for a summer.
I turned and realized it was Joshua. He didn't seem to care that I had a star struck look on my face. I turned back to my new friends and grinned nervously. When the song finished, however, he disappeared into the crowd. Man did that guy have the whole mysterious thing down.
We boarded the ship at five AM the next morning. A mere five hours after we left the club. Kate looked fresh as anything though. I bet she is actually some kind of robot. The perfect looking Lana types.A Lanabot.
"You should put tea bags on your eyes," a voice said behind me. I turned and saw Joshua.
"Beg pardon?" I asked.
He walked into my cabin. "Steamed tea bags get rid of the little sleep bags under your eyes."
"Thanks for the info. I'll keep it in mind." Damn him. Damn Michael. Damn all men. Why do they have the most perfect eyes? Like, this guy, Joshua, had these crystal clear blue eyes that were the color of the Pacific ocean. They were so different from Michael's eyes, which were a deep dark brown puppy dog kind. Maybe that was why I was infatuated by this guy. Can you even be infatuated by someone after twenty four hours?
"You looked pretty last night," he said as he left the cabin.
"Oh, thanks, you too," I said back. Did I just say he looked pretty?
 He grinned and walked out of my cabin. This was going to be a long trip.
We reached Guyana the next morning and started putting all of our stuff in the transport trucks. "Hey Mia!" Bebe greeted. I hadn't seen her since that first day. That seemed like a million years ago, even if it had only been one day.
"Hey Bebe! Where've you been?" I asked.
"Doing my father's bidding. Paperwork. What about you? Have you made any new friends?"
"Yeah. Definitely. That's my friend Ali over there...I saw Sophie somewhere..."
"Listen sorry about rooming you with Kate at the motel. She was the last one to sign on for this trip. We had originally planned on your bodyguard coming along so when we found out he wasn't we had that extra bed."
"Oh, it's not a problem. I didn't really see her."
"I figured you wouldn't," she said, tossing a duffel into the flatbed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"She's a group leader. She thinks anyone who isn't a leader isn't worth talking to. Don't worry about her though."
I looked over at Kate, who was flirting with Joshua. It was kind of gross how she was throwing herself at him.
"She's basically here because she wants him sooo bad," Bebe explained. "I have all the juicy gossip."
"What's his story?" I asked, placing a box of our food into the truck.
"He's this English guy...family in nobility I think. Well, he's going to Oxford anyways. He's totally brilliant. I bet he'll be a really big lawyer over there or something. Anyways, he's been doing this ever since he got out of high school. He had taken a year before going to college so he's only a junior this year."
"You know a lot about him," I said.
"Well, pretty much every girl has a crush on him. He's kind of like a brother to me now. I mean, sure I had a crush on him when I first met him, but now it's kind of silly. Every girl throws herself at him. I am just the one to give the worthwhile ones the details," she said with a wink.
"You guys never..."
"Oh God no! His mother would have totally flipped out!" I looked at her with questioning eyes.
"His mother, on his first trip, demanded to come along with him to make sure everything was suitable. She left after a week. She was soo.....prissy. She didn't think anything was good enough. Can you imagine me being good enough for her precious little boy?" she asked.
I looked at her. She was pretty, in a non-conventional way. She had dark chocolate skin, big crazy black hair. I actually loved her hair. The ringlets were so...I don't know, cool I guess. Well, she also had a lazy eye, but the other one was really pretty. "She wants him to be with someone like that Kate girl. Even if she is American." I couldn't help but to look at him again. He was handsome...but not like Michael. No one would be like him.
He was the total opposite of Michael. He had wavy blonde hair, tan skin, and that accent.... I highly doubt I would ever be able to utter a syllable to him because I go weak in the knees for British accents. I always thought Michael would be perfect if he just had that accent.
"Are you going to cut your hair?" Bebe asked.
"No, why would I?" I asked, getting out of my Michael daydream.
"It gets as hot as hell here. I'm cutting all my hair once we get settled in. Hey, we have to set up the showers in a little while, you gonna help with that?"
"Yeah, sure."
We finished packing up the trucks then we all got onto a bus to drive to our real site. I have never smelled something so rancid in my entire life. These poor people had to live here? I definitely had to have Grandmere send some money over as soon as possible. Sophie was sitting next to me on the bus, "I noticed that Joshua guy checking you out," she whispered.
I rolled my eyes, "He's probably one of those guys who sleeps with all the newbies or something."
"Oh come on Mia! Like you don't have a thing for him?"
"I haven't even spoken a syllable to the guy!"
"It's called love at first sight. I definitely am feeling that right now," she said with a dramatic sigh.
I laughed. These girls were so different from my friends from back home. Well, actually they were the perfect mix of them. They had the do- gooder of Lilly, and then the boy craziness of everyone else. There was this huge tent we were going to be living in. The guys were on one side, and the girls on the other. I was going to be sleeping on a cot between Sophie and Ali. Tawny was next to Ali. Bebe was sleeping up front with all of the other group leaders.
"I never realized how many species of insects there are until just today," Ali complained.
I giggled, "No repellant?"
"All of my luxuary items are batteries for my discman."
"You brought your discman to a third world country?" Tawny said in shock. "Ali, you need to get your priorities straight."
Ali laughed, "Oh well. I can't sleep without music."
"I'm sure you girls won't have to worry about falling asleep at night," Joshua said throwing my duffel on my cot. "We'll be working you too damn hard," he said with a wink.
"Where'd you get my duffel?" I asked.
"It was way in the back of the truck. I remembered it from the other day."
"Oh, thanks," I said softly, avoiding his eyes.
"Well, get as much rest as you can before we set up the showers, okay girls?"

He then left.
"He knows your duffel?" Ali asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah, he brought it up to my motel room the other day when I arrived..." I then realized something. It said Princess on it. How could I be so stupid?
"Hey, where'd you get this bag? It's cute. I get anything that says Princess on it. My boyfriend always calls me that," Sophie asked.
Relief. They thought it was one of those cheesy things from Claire's or something. "Um, my dad had it made for me."
"Oh cool."
I was really happy when we set up the showers later that afternoon. I smelled to high heaven. I was really considering Bebe's idea of cutting off my hair. I tried reaching to connect the nozzle to the top of the shower but for once my height had forsaken me. An arm came behind me, "There ya go," Joshua said triumphantly.
"Thanks," I said quietly.
"Why are you so damn quiet?" he asked with a laugh.
"I-I.."
"Don't worry. You'll get used to all of this. I promise you," he said with a grin. "Have you met a lot of people yet?"

I nodded.
"Good. Good then...okay, well, it looks like Kate over there needs some help. I'll talk to you later though?" I nodded. I am such a mute.