Early the next morning, Roxy's mother shook her "Roxy, it's time to wake up, We have to leave in an hour." Roxy turned over and groaned she still felt exhausted. Once her mother left, Roxy turned over and went back to sleep. 10 minutes later Roxy's mother came in again to check on her, when she found Roxy asleep again; she threw off the comforter, and pulled her by the legs, slowly dragging her off the bed. When Roxy realized what was happening she grabbed hold of the edge of her mattress and held on. Eventually Roxy's grip slipped and she slid off her bed, landing on the floor with a loud THUMP. Roxy, realizing her defeat, rose and still half asleep changed her clothes and grabbed her small suitcase and backpack, and crawled into her car, where Mark was already sitting slumped against the window with a pillow, apparently asleep. She set her things on the seat in between them, and stared out the window, she was surprised to see her grandparents maroon van drive into her driveway.

"Hey mom, what are grandpa and grandma doing here?" she asked her mother, who was already in the car.

"They're coming with us to Washington" She answered

"hey, I forgot where does aunt Gertrude live in Washington?" Roxy asked

"In Sunnyside," she answered simply. Mark groaned

"How long will it take?" he asked stretching

"8 hours," there mother replied getting out of the car again. She returned with there dad, and they pulled out of the driveway. About 15 minutes into the trip mark groaned again and said,

"oh, great I forgot my books"

"Well, you won't need them were going to listen to a book on tape" there dad answered pulling a thick plastic case out with a picture of a dragon on the front.

"What's it called?" Roxy asked "and how long is it?"

"Eragon, and its 16hours long" there dad replied producing the first tape out of the plastic case and popping it in. mark groaned but didn't say anything. The trip dragged on, and mark kept trying to sprawl out over the seat, and whenever Roxy tried to do the same she always got the most uncomfortable position, finally she gave up and resorted to occasionally pinching Mark's leg, which was on her, and staring out the window. When they were about an hour from her aunt's house, Roxy decided to try her luck in her grandparent's car. She grabbed two of her books, and switched cars at the next gas station. At first this arrangement was great for Roxy, because she had all the room she could want and a full seat to lie down on. But eventually it became hot in the back of the van, and her grandparents were listening to a book on tapeabout a guy in themafia, and a speaker was right next to her head, which kept interfering with her attempts to read and sleep. Roxy found that her feet could get a little air by pushing on the window in the back of the van, which allowed a small stream of cool air, but it didn't help the temperature in the back of the van. When they finally arrived at her old Aunt Gertrude's house, which was a small home in about a half of a mile in front of some brown mountains, her face was flushed and she was sweaty and her hair was all ratty and tangled. Roxy was beginning to feel very tired, so her eyes were also about only half open. She staggered out of her grandparent's car, and when she came in view of her aunt she stopped suddenly, there, standing next to her aunt was the cutest guy she had ever seen, he had longish brown hair, was tall and his hair had subtle golden highlights, and was about an inch taller than Roxy. Roxy turned around and walked quickly back to her grandparent's car, luckily, the boy's back was turned, Roxy was sure that he hadn't seen her yet.

She reached her grandmothers car and started pulling her fingers through her blonde hair and trying to cool her face with her hands, she had only half succeeded when her mother came and found her and told her to go five her aunt a hug. She walked slowly to her old aunt, and as she got closer the boy looked up at her and grinned, she noticed his straight, white teeth and noted that he was even cuter from the front. He has mischievous green eyes, and very muscular arms. She walked to her aunt, greeted her and gave her a hug, then there aunt introduced them

"Roxy, this is Jeremy, he helps me around the house sometimes, and her lives just down the road." She said and with a devilish look in her eye said "Why don't you two get to know each other while the rest of us go in for a cup of tea. Everybody went into the house; Roxy stared at her feet for a moment, and then looked up when the boy said laughing slightly

"I can't believe her, you know what she's doing, don't you?"

"Yea, I didn't know she had it in her" she answered with a small grin of her own. They talked for a while, with small pauses in between, each aware of a blind occasionally being lifted and someone peeking out, before it was quickly shut again. Finally the boy said

"This is really weird; do you want to take a walk, where they won't be spying on us the whole time?"

"Sure" Roxy replied. And they started walking down the road. Once they were away from the house, words seemed to come easier, and soon they were talking normally. Roxy found out that he had a younger sister and an older brother, that he lived in Florida before he moved to Washington, and that he liked to surf, and had done it often before he moved to Washington. By the time they had returned to the house it was getting dark, and they were friends.

"See ya tomorrow!" he called heading down the road to his house

"See ya!" she shouted back she opened the door and practically floated into her aunts house. When she shut the door and looked up she saw that everyone was sitting around the table looking at her with small smiles on there faces, after a moment of silence her aunt asked slyly

"So, how do you like Jeremy?" everyone at the table looked at her expectantly, but all she said is

"He's nice". She avoided all of there glances and sat down at the table, ate the supper that had been saved for her, and walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. By the time she got out of the bathroom, a hida-bed had been pulled out, with a sleeping bag, and a pillow, she climbed into the sleeping bag, and the last thing she thought about before she fell asleep was how Jeremy's eyes sparkles when he laughed.