Hallie had finally arrived from Idaho, escorted by Mr. Belden to Crabapple Farm around lunch. After a hurried meal, Trixie went to call Honey and Diana while Hallie unpacked.

To be honest, Honey and Diana were probably more excited about Hallie's visit than Trixie was. Trixie and Hallie had something of an uneasy truce. After a childhood filled with rivalries and competition, they had matured enough to tolerate each other's presence. Sometimes, even enjoy it. But other times, they reverted to what seemed to be their almost natural state - working each other's nerves raw.

Honey and Di, on the other hand, were thrilled for the company. They both hemmed and hawed on the phone for a polite minute, not wanting to rush over too fast and smother Trixie's guest. But they still arrived within an hour, eager to catch up.

Di had just arrived, Mart rushing to open the door to let her in. Trixie, seated at the kitchen table with the girls, was surprised to hear Mr. Lynch's voice carrying through the breezeway. Mr. Lynch didn't usually bother walking Di to the door when he dropped her off. Her ears perked up, trying to listen.

Mr. Lynch was talking to Mart – something about what a fine man he was, keeping "the boys" out of trouble. Trixie assumed the boys meant Larry and Terry, Di's younger brothers, though she knew sometimes Bobby was lumped in there as well.

She wracked her brain, trying to recall anything that might explain the conversation. But nothing came up as relevant. Then she heard Mr. Lynch mention how it was nice Mart solved it himself, rather than going to Mrs. Lynch. "She'd been planning the party for weeks, you know, and it would have just stressed her out. I'm glad we had you there looking out for us."

He laughed loudly then, in his usual jovial manner. Next, there was a muffled thump, and she knew Mr. Lynch had either patted Mart on the back or punched him in the arm. From Mr. Lynch, either seemed possible.

Ah-ha, Trixie thought. A clue. Whatever it was, happened at Di's birthday party.

She heard the screen door shut, and after a moment Mart and Di came in from the breezeway. Mart practically glowed from Mr. Lynch's praise, and Trixie couldn't help but ask, "What was that about?"

Mart furrowed his brow at her, annoyed. "Nunya."

"What?" Trixie asked in confusion.

"Nunya business," he quipped. "Or, as the French say, tend your own onions. In your case, inquisitiveness is the sign of an addled cranium which can be best remedied with abstinence." She blew out an exasperated sigh but dropped it for now.

Meanwhile, Di had already wrapped Hallie up in a hug, squealing. "I'm so glad you're here for two weeks," she practically crowed. "It's going to be the most perfect-est end to summer ever."

Hallie flashed her crooked, lazy grin. "You must have had a pretty boring summer," she deadpanned. Di just laughed.

Hallie sat back down at the head of the table. Honey and Trixie were together on the left. Di took a seat on the right, next to Hallie, and Mart sat beside her.

"Jim has class today," Honey offered. "He's taking a summer course at the community college. He said he'll try to stop by after though."

"Gleeps, I hope we can get everyone in the same room at least once in your visit," Trixie thought out loud. "Brian goes into the city 3 days a week for his hospital job. Jim has his class. I'm working at the Inn part-time. I guess I didn't realize how busy we all are lately."

"I did," Honey said pointedly, though she smiled. "Then these two go disappear to make out, and I'm left all alone, bored to tears," she teased.

Hallie raised an eyebrow. "Make out, huh?"

Di blushed and shrugged. "Spend quality time together," she corrected.

Honey rolled her eyes. "Spend quality time together making out," she persisted.

Hallie looked amused. "I just lost a bet with Cap," she admitted.

Di wrinkled her nose. "Hallie! Gross! Why are you betting on my love life?"

Now it was Hallie's turn to shrug. "Cause I would have made $10 if I won?"

"Wait a minute," Mart piped in suddenly, surprised. "Are you saying you bet she'd never go out with me?"

"No, I bet that you were too chicken to ever make a move," Hallie explained.

Mart looked offended. "That's even worse!" he complained.

"Well, it's accurate," Trixie retorted. "Who did start the unholy union anyway?"

Mart and Di looked at each other for a minute, having some sort of silent conversation. Then they both looked away.

"Never mind," Mart muttered.

"It doesn't matter," Di said at the same time.

Trixie chortled gleefully. "See, you are a chicken," she concluded, taking their silence as proof.

Hallie snorted loudly.

"What?" Trixie swiveled her gaze to Hallie's.

"Oh, I don't know, Trixie," Hallie retorted. "How's Jim?"

Trixie flushed but for once, she could think of nothing to say in response.

Di didn't have that problem, however, and grabbed Hallie's arm excitedly. "Oh, he's good!" She gave a sly look to Trixie. "Apparently, he's really good," she continued suggestively. "In fact, how did you put it, Trixie?" She cocked her head to one side. "Something about stars and fireworks, right?"

Mart grimaced. "No. Please tell me this is an auditory hallucination."

Trixie dropped her head on the kitchen table with a loud thump.

"Well, my oh my," Hallie grinned. "Lawd have mercy. I always thought Jim was cute."

Trixie picked her head up again, shooting daggers at Hallie. Hallie put her hands up defensively. "Hey, not like that. I don't want your sloppy seconds, anyway. I'm not stealing your man."

"He's not my man," Trixie argued. "We just kissed once. Wait. Twice. Or three times."

Now Mart's head was on the table, while Hallie simply looked at her in disbelief. "You've kissed enough that you don't know how many times it was, but he's not your man."

"No," Trixie returned. "I know. It was three." She paused for a minute as if counting in her head. "Three," she repeated. She glanced uneasily over at Mart, who was still playing dead. "It's not serious," she added. "He's going back to school in the fall, so we just…" she shrugged her shoulders.

Hallie looked a little dubious. "So, it's just a summer fling? Little fun on the side?"

Mart groaned loudly.

"I don't think it's like that at all," Di defended her friend. "Jim's too loyal to use Trixie like that. You're talking about Mr. Honorable, here, not just some random good-time guy."

"Speaking of Dan, where is he?" Hallie cracked. "No, I get it. There's nothing wrong with whatever it is if everyone's in agreement about whatever it is." But she still looked just a little bit skeptical, and Trixie finally snapped at her, "Out with it, Hallie."

Hallie just shrugged. "Look, I'm not judging you, Trixie. I'm really not. Trust me, I'm in no position. Just…keep your options open. Don't put all your hopes on Jim deciding he's madly in love with you," she offered pragmatically.

"I'm not," Trixie tried to convince them. "Really, I'm not. I have options. Tad Webster asked me out, you know," she said, a little smugly.

Mart finally picked his head up in interest.

Hallie's lip curled. "Tad Webster sounds like a middle-aged woman's pet iguana."

"He did what?" Honey cried out. "You never told me that."

"Oh, he definitely isn't a pet iguana," Di corrected Hallie patiently. "Tad's dreamy. He's one of the best athletes around. He's like a 9."

Mart scoffed indignantly, and she rubbed his arm. "Don't worry about it, you're a 10."

"Better be," he muttered. She kissed his cheek consolingly.

Trixie rolled her eyes.

"So wait, you're really going on a date with Tad Webster?" Mart questioned.

"No," Trixie clarified. "I said he asked me out. I turned him down."

Di looked at her as if she had three heads. "You did what?" she practically gasped.

"Why would you do that?" Hallie asked.

"You don't even know him, Hallie!" Trixie retorted.

"Fine," Honey countered. "I'll ask. Why would you do that?"

Trixie shrugged. "I can do better than Tad Webster."

"You really can't," Mart offered. "He's definitely your ceiling."

Trixie looked offended. "Tad Webster?! He's my floor!"

"Name one thing wrong with Tad Webster," Honey demanded.

"He isn't Jim," Hallie muttered.

Trixie ignored her. "He's kind of short."

Mart looked around at the table, waiting to see if any of the girls agreed. Luckily, they didn't, mostly because Tad was only an inch or so shorter than Mart.

"You're short." Mart was just pointing out the obvious.

But apparently, it wasn't obvious to Trixie, who gave him a scathing look. "I'm short in like a cute, spunky way. He's just short."

Mart was unimpressed. "Short is short."

Trixie folded her arms defiantly but said nothing else. Honey just shook her head. "I can't believe you turned down Tad Webster."

Diana looked personally offended. "Honey! You're supposed to be on Jim's side!"

"Why?" Honey and Hallie both countered at the same time.

"Jim is her true love," Diana explained. "And he's your brother," she added to Honey.

Hallie rolled her eyes. Honey just shook her head. "Jim had his chance," she said firmly. "That's the problem with men, they think women just sit around on a shelf while they go off and sow their wild oats or whatever it is they do."

Hallie snorted. "No offense, but I don't think Jim has any oats."

Diana gasped. "Honey Wheeler, that's sexist," she protested.

Both Honey and Diana turned, each fully expecting Trixie to take their side when they realized that she and Mart had left the table at some point and were nowhere to be seen.

Hallie just laughed. "Well, glad to see Trixie's listening and taking all our advice to heart," she noted sarcastically.

Jim found Trixie sitting out on the stone wall of the terrace when he arrived at Crabapple Farm. "That bad already?" he asked, assuming she was hiding from Hallie.

She gave him a big, beaming smile, the one that was the only proof Jim ever had that his heart hadn't turned to stone somewhere in the tumult of his childhood. Trixie was too preoccupied to notice, having spent the better part of an hour working herself into a lather. Hallie had an awful lot of nerve to slide into Crabapple Farm, acting as she knew all about boys. She was 15, for crying out loud. Then, to make out like Trixie didn't know what she was doing – like she and Jim weren't capable of an innocent summer romance, no strings attached.

What Hallie should have known, but didn't stop to realize, was that only strengthened Trixie's resolve. Now it wasn't just about Jim, but some immature need to rebel against Hallie's advice and prove her wrong. It was almost uncanny, how anything Hallie said had a universal effect of getting Trixie to do the exact opposite.

Trixie eyed Jim intently for a moment. She had always found him attractive – sturdy and athletic, with strong, capable hands. If she were being honest, it wasn't the first time she wondered how those hands would feel on her body. But this time, she resolved, she was going to find out – just for fun, she quickly clarified to herself. No strings attached.

She gave Jim a wolfish smile. He had no idea what she was thinking, but it was enough to make him nervous in the most fantastic way.

"Jim," she said, trying to sound as sweet as she could. "Let's go to the clubhouse."

Jim started to sweat, but that didn't stop him from taking her hand and practically dragging her there, Trixie giggling the whole way.

When they returned to Crabapple Farm a little later, Bobby was back from his summer day camp. Everyone sat in the living room now, where Bobby was in the middle of pestering everybody with a steady stream of chatter.

"Did your plan have turbulence? I heard that's just clouds or something. The plane shakes like crazy. Larry and Terry told me that. They said one time they had turbulence so bad, Mrs. Lynch spilled her drink and had to change her clothes in the airport. I never been on a plane. Hey maybe sometime I can go to Idaho. Then I can go on a plane. I hope there's turbulence. You think I could? I wanna go dig for gold, too, like the other kids did. I bet I could find a lot of gold. Hey, Honey, did you ever have turbulence? I bet that's why Dan's afraid to fly. Wait, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that Dan's afraid to fly. Especially you Hallie. Pretend I didn't say that. Wait, where is Dan?" he finally finished, a bit breathless.

Hallie held up a slim brown hand as if begging him to stop. "Whoa, Bobby." She began to tick off items on her fingers, trying to respond. "No turbulence, it was a good flight." Bobby made a face. "I think a better flight would have turbulence," he disagreed. "It sounds exciting."

She ignored him and continued counting. "You'll have to ask your parents about Idaho. I don't see why not, though. And I bet you could find lots of gold, too." Here she hesitated, debating whether she should correct his statement about digging for gold, but finally decided against it. It would only encourage more questions, and she was trying to avoid what felt like a Bobby-headache already starting. "Lots of people are afraid to fly," she instead continued, "But I won't tell Dan you said that. And Dan isn't here yet."

Bobby frowned. "Is he coming soon?" he persisted.

Hallie just shrugged. "I don't know, Bobby," she said, looking at the girls for an answer.

Honey tactfully tried to sidestep the question, well aware that Dan had seemed to blow Trixie off every time she mentioned Hallie's visit. "He's been very busy with the forestry project my dad has him and Mart working on," she explained.

Hallie looked a little disappointed, but it was Bobby who spoke up. "But he's gotta be coming sometime," he disagreed. "He wouldn't want to miss Hallie. He likes her. He said she's a looker."

Hallie's expression changed to amusement. "He said that, huh?" she chortled. Mart put a hand over his face, as if vicariously embarrassed for Dan. Exasperated, Trixie suggested, "Bobby, why don't you get your rock collection to show Hallie?"

Bobby bounded away, apparently thinking the suggestion was a good one. Since Bobby's "rock collection" was just random rocks scattered all over his room, Trixie had bought them a few minutes while he hunted.

Jim, whose interest in Trixie had received plenty of teasing from Dan, wasn't quite as sympathetic as Mart. He looked a little smug to see Dan coming across as anything but smooth. Honey and Diana were politely pretending they hadn't even heard it.

Diana quickly interjected, "Oh, Mart, go get my CD. I want Hallie to hear it while she's here. They're sort of a folksy alt-rock, but I think you'll like them."

"Who is it?" Hallie asked.

"Local band," Di explained. "They went to our school. The singer is in Mart's grade, and the guitar player and bass player graduated last year. The drummer goes to a private school, I think. Come on, Mart, let's go get it," she insisted.

When Trixie realized they were heading upstairs, she teasingly called after them, "You better leave the door open, Ms. Lynch." Di just giggled.

Hallie rolled her eyes. "So, we're just going to pretend you and Jim didn't just disappear for the last hour, and who knows where anybody's hands were?" she said dryly.

Trixie put her hands on her hips. "Jealous?" she challenged.

"Ew," Hallie replied, wrinkling her nose.

"Hey!" Jim objected.

"I don't mean, ew, Jim," Hallie tried to explain. "I mean, ew, why would I want to make out with my cousin's boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend," Trixie snapped impatiently.

Jim looked taken aback. "You said that awfully fast," he accused.

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Jim, you're such a girl sometimes."

Hallie snorted. "Well, someone has to be."

Trixie shot her a deathly look, and Honey and Jim exchanged an uneasy glance, Perhaps Trixie and Hallie weren't quite as ready to get along as they thought.

Just then, Bobby came back, his shirt folded up to form a pocket that held his "rock collection". Hallie humored him for a while, but when Di and Mart returned with the CD, she set it down on an end table and changed the topic.

"Let's listen to this when it's dark," she suggested. "Right now, I have a game."

The game, Hallie had explained, was Imposters. 7 index cards were made, one for each player. Each card had a few simple jobs written on the back.

"It can be anything you want, as long as it's pretty easy," Hallie had explained. "Pour a glass of water. Pick a flower. It can even be a chore, like gather the eggs."

She had thought it over for a minute, making a few notes on each card. Then she shuffled and put them face down.

"Everyone draws a card and does what it says. But one just says, Imposter. Whoever has the Imposter card has to kill the other players. You make a gun like this," she demonstrated a finger gun, "and stick it in their back and they're dead. They have to sit down right where they are and stop playing. If anyone finds a dead body, they can call a meeting. If anyone catches you kill someone, they can call a meeting. At the meeting, we vote on who we think it is. The goal is to kill everyone before you get caught. The game is over when everyone has finished their jobs, or when the killer has everyone."

Honey nodded, while Di looked a bit unsure. Hallie wasn't certain if it was the murder aspect of the game or just the long list of rules. "It's really not hard, Di," she promised. "Play a couple of rounds and you'll get it. And you and Mart can stay together unless you're the killer."

Trixie, on the other hand, looked a little too interested. Once again, Hallie wasn't quite sure if it was the glee of "murdering" all of them, or the mystery behind guessing the killer. "How do we call a meeting?" she asked.

Hallie looked around the room for something that would make enough noise to get everyone's attention, when Jim offered simply, "Bob-white whistle."

Trixie snapped her fingers. "Duh," she agreed.

Trixie was sneaking through the backyard, trying to avoid detection. She wasn't sure who the killer was, but she stopped and watched Mart and Di with interest for a moment. Everyone else had split up, looking out for themselves. To see the two of them together piqued Trixie's curiosity – was she about to witness a murder?

Just then, she felt the hand on her back. "You're dead," Jim whispered in her ear.

Trixie just sighed and sat down. "You killed me," she said, sounding insulted.

"I did what I had to do," he replied flippantly. She looked wounded, and he sighed. "Don't look at me like that, Trixie. You make me feel like I just shot a dog."

And with that, Jim was suddenly reminded of a long-repressed memory of the dog he had shot, and he shuddered.

Luckily, the thought was quickly pushed aside, when Hallie came crashing around the bushes that concealed them from view. Her eyes widened, and she pursed her lips to whistle. But Jim was fast and quickly jabbed her in the back as well. "You're dead now, too," he informed her flatly.

She huffed and sat next to Trixie. "What are you looking at?" she asked Trixie.

"Mart and Di went in the barn," she offered. "What are they doing in there?" she thought out loud.

Hallie just scoffed. "Don't be innocent, Trixie."

Trixie's temper flared, again, at what felt like a barb from her cousin. "We're playing a game!" she protested. Hallie just laughed. "Summer lovin' had me a blast," she crooned off-key.

Trixie flushed and grumbled to herself something about decorum and what if Bobby saw them. Hallie was starting to work her nerves.

After several rounds and dinner, Bobby was sent to get ready for bed. The teens gathered in the living room, finally ready to listen to Di's CD.

Mart put it on, while Honey looked at the homemade cover intently. Trixie peered over her shoulder, then exclaimed in surprise, "Andy Fisher!"

Honey and Di both looked at her quizzically. "I didn't know this was his band. I didn't even know he was in a band."

"I didn't know you knew Andy Fisher," Di said slyly.

"He gave me a ride home," Trixie explained, feeling a bit silly. It wasn't like she knew him that well. "We've been in school with his sister for our whole lives, Di," she added, as though she needed to defend why she should have known he had a band.

"Which one is he?" Honey asked, gesturing at the picture on the case. Trixie leaned over her to point. "He's cute," Honey giggled.

Jim gave her a dirty look, then complained, "I told you that you shouldn't have gotten in his car. He's a musician." The words were clearly meant to be an insult, though Honey couldn't quite figure out why.

Neither could Trixie, who gave him an indignant look. "So what if he's a musician?" she demanded.

Jim shrugged. "Musicians. They're after one thing."

Honey and Trixie exchanged a wordless look of disbelief. "Who says?" Trixie argued, frustrated.

"Everyone," Jim countered. "Especially guitar players. They do it to impress girls."

Trixie rolled her eyes, not even knowing where to begin to dispute this incredibly flawed logic. Di, for some reason, felt the need to chime in. "Girls do like guitar players," she agreed.

"It means they're good with their hands," Hallie offered, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Mart's expression had quickly gone from interested to disgusted. "I was just about to ask if I should learn the guitar, then Hallie made it gross," he complained.

Hallie shrugged her shoulders. "Facts are facts."

"This is not a fact," Trixie practically shrieked.

Mart winced. "Both female Beldens display the sonorous protestations necessary to be either illustrious stage musicians or their paramours," he noted.

"What does that mean?" Jim said, sounding a little irritated.

Mart looked at him knowingly. "That love must be not only blind but deaf," he quipped.

Trixie crossed her arms. "In any case, he wasn't trying to impress me, because he didn't even mention it," she snapped. She wasn't used to being the only logical person in the present company.

Jim looked only slightly mollified, and Hallie laughed again. "I'll start practicing for stardom now. Summer lovin' had me a blaaast," she echoed her song from earlier, her teasing gaze fixated on Trixie. Irritated, Trixie stood up. "I'm going to the kitchen. Need anything, dear cousin?" she said, a bit sarcastically.

"Hmm," Hallie pondered. "Can you get me a date with your rockstar?"

Trixie rolled her eyes. "He's not my rockstar," she complained loudly, tired of everyone's jokes. She left the room, with Jim, of course, following right behind.

"She could at least give him a longer leash," Hallie muttered, only half under her breath.

"That's not fair," Honey protested. "Jim's like Trixie. He doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do."

Hallie seemed to think this over. "I think that's the problem," she admitted. "I don't understand how they're the only ones that can't see this isn't no strings attached. There are strings everywhere."

A silence fell over the remaining four as they pondered the implications of this.

Out on the porch, Jim settled next to Trixie. "I was just kidding," he offered. She gave him a scathing look. "Well, partly kidding."

Trixie was silent for a moment, making a valiant effort to control her temper. Finally, she just said pointedly, "I'm not just going to run off with the first guy who talks to me, you know. I don't need a guy in my life. You act like I'm just sitting around waiting for the first offer I get."

She knew, and he knew, they were both talking about Jim's mother, who had quickly agreed to marry a horrible man when she realized she didn't want to be alone.

But neither one wanted to put a voice to that, so they danced around it. Jim quietly just replied "I know," leaving the rest unspoken.

He put his arm around her wordlessly, unable to say what he was thinking. That he hoped someday, he could be the only offer that mattered.

He wanted her forever, and he felt a sudden longing for the innocence of his childhood before his father died. When he still believed that wanting something forever meant you got to keep it.

Authors Notes:

Imposters is obviously a play on the internet game Among Us, though I twisted it for "real-life" play.

The brief mention of Jim shooting a dog comes from the first book when he sees that (possibly) rabid dog and ends up shooting it.

Summer lovin' is a song from Grease, natch.

If there are any other pop-culture-type things I'm forgetting, let me know and I can add them in the notes later.