Judging by the reviews you guys all want something t happen between Alex and Marissa s I think I now know exactly where to put it. Not in this chapter but probably next or the one after that. :D

"Alex, come on. You know that's not what I was doing."

"You know? I used to be able to trust you when you said things like that. Now, ever since last night, I'm not so sure I can." Alex didn't even look at her mother when she spoke. Her voice was cold though she didn't intend it to be. Her anger was taking over her mouth, and she hated herself for that.

Stacey didn't speak for the rest of the trip. She decided that it would be best if she just gave Alex some time.

Alex also knew what her mother was doing, and as bad as she felt and as much as she wanted to take it back or apologize, her mouth just wouldn't let her.

Stacey also knew that Alex sometimes, no matter how hard she tried to keep it from happening, let her anger get the better of herself. Stacey was always beating on herself for not finding a way to help Alex with it, but she also didn't know how Alex would relax if she accused her of having an anger problem.

Why do I always have to let my anger get the better of me?

What if Marissa finds out about this or I blow up on her and she hates me for it?

Stacey was thinking about similar situations. She thought about what would happen if Alex blew up on Marissa and Jimmy got mad at her for not having much control over her daughter. Stacey thought that he might even kick them out of the cabin for the summer and then they'd have to go back to the place they had been trying to go to in the first place, but now Stacey would have lost a very good friend. Alex could read the worry on her mothers face.

"Thanks for worrying about me mom," Alex snapped sarcastically, "And I won't blow up on Marissa and ruin your relationship with her dad."

"Alex, that's not why I was thinking about it."

"Sure it wasn't." Alex turned to see they were on the other side of the lake of the cabin, which meant there was only about an hour of driving left.

"Only an hour of dri-"

"I know." Alex replied coldly never taking her eyes off of the ditch off to her right.

Stacey finally decided to give up and just drive.

45 minutes later

"The cabin should be just up here. Tell me if you spot it."

After a few minutes Alex finally spoke, "All I can see is that house." Alex pointed towards a fairly big wooden house. "Wait, is that it?"

"We'll find out. Jimmy said he had earned a lot of money over the past while but I thought he was exaggerating. If this is his, imagine how big his real house would be. It'll probably be too big to be classified as a mansion."

Alex thought about what her mother had said for a second and realized she had just given her one more reason to hate Alex. She lived in a crappy old apartment ever since her father left a while ago. Her parents were still together but being the greedy man he is wherever he goes, the money goes. Alex quickly brushed the thought away, "Exaggerate much? Besides, it's probably not even there's." Alex hoped and hoped that this wasn't Marissa's cabin. Not that she wouldn't be happy for her but she knew she'd feel embarrassed as to what she lived in let alone what she stayed in during the summer. Her mother pulled up and parked beside the cabin as her and Alex got out. Alex slowed down near the front to let her mother ring the doorbell and talk, she wasn't shy or anything but this whole seeing Marissa again thing had her totally racked up.

Jimmy answered the door, "Stacey, Alex, come on in. Marissa's just upstairs getting everything ready?"

"Ready for what?" Stacey asked totally oblivious to all of the camping supplies behind Jimmy.

"Well I thought about what you said and why you are coming here and I realized that this isn't much of an escape from home, big screen television, stereo, all of that. So I figured I'd surprise you and we could go camping instead."

"Hey, I'm cool with the whole big screen stereo thing," Alex said as she tried subtly peaking behind Jimmy to try and spot Marissa.

Jimmy noticed this and laughed, "Upstairs first door to the left. Just go in I'm sure she won't mind."

"Uhh, thanks," Alex replied, a little caught off guard. Alex walked up the stairs as she left the adults to talking.

"Don't worry about Alex. We're only going camping for two of the eight weeks, the rest of the time she can eat junk food and listen to her music as loud as she wants, or err, uhh, as loud as you want her to."

Upstairs

Alex stood outside of Marissa's door having an internal battle with herself contemplating on whether she should open the door or not. After about five minutes Alex finally opened the door a crack to see what was going on inside. She saw Marissa sitting on her bed with headphones on listening to really loud music. Alex grinned from ear to ear as she crept up behind Marissa who still didn't notice that anybody was in her room. Alex seized Marissa by the hips and started tickling her. At first Marissa screamed but then calmed down a little but was still laughing hysterically.

"Oh my god! Alex is that you? You look so different," Marissa managed after Alex had stopped.

Alex looked at one side of her and then the other checking herself over, "Hmm, yep! Looks like me, and I'm guessing that is you, and now without an annoying lisp."

"Hey it wasn't annoying. My dad said it was cute." Marissa tried to put but she was too happy.

Alex laughed, "He's your dad, better yet, he's Jimmy Cooper. He's supposed to say that. If he didn't he wouldn't be a very good father or Jimmy Cooper."

"True."

"So, I guess we should get downstairs now huh?"

"Yeah, I guess." But neither of them moved. Alex just stared Marissa deeply in the eyes as a comfortable silence fell between them. As soon as Alex realized what was going on she reached into her pocket and handed Marissa her iPod.

"Here, I, uhh, took it off the floor so you wouldn't break it when you were rolling around."

"Thanks." Marissa said now looking the other way.

Alex got up and walked towards the door. "C'mon, you're dads probably wondering where we are." Marissa just nodded her head and got back up to follow Alex out of the room. At the bottom of the steps Jimmy and Stacey were talking and laughing when they spotted their daughters.

"Hey sweetie. You two ready to go?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah," Marissa said forgetting all about the moment the two had in her room. "Alex?"

"Hmm? Oh, uhh, yeah. Sure." Alex was still in a complete daze on what had happened back in Marissa's room.

What was that?

Did she look at me like that too?

Did I creep her out?

Dammit Alex you freaked yourself out. Imagine how she must be feeling right now.

Maybe we should talk about it?

Nah, that'd probably scare her even more.

She'll probably forget soon anyways.

What if she still thinks of me different though?

Ahh, screw it. I'm Alex Kelly; I'm not supposed to care.

I'll just deal with it if she brings it up.

"Marissa, what do you say if Stacey and I take the car up with all of the stuff and you take Alex up the walking path, you know, catch up and stuff." Jimmy said noticing the early awkwardness between the girls.

"I don't know. What do you think Alex?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"C'mon. The path is beautiful at this time of year."

"Sounds good. Just let me grab my coat. How long of a walk is it anyways?"

"Hmm, I'd say about forty five minutes."

"Long walk."

"It'll get shorter after you've been down it a few times."

"What like twice this summer."

Marissa pulled Alex out the door and spoke. "You really think I spend all of my time at the campsite with a big screen TV and a giant stereo this close?"

Alex smiled, "So little miss perfect ain't so perfect."

"Better you know now than later. Besides it'll be a lot easier with you here. I'll just say we're going for a walk and ditch you to come back here.

"Wow, you really aren't perfect."

"Touché."

Q A

What do you think should happen between Alex and Marissa during the walk?