We all submitted our study abroad applications by the start of July and spent the rest of the summer pretty much doing whatever we wanted. I mostly mastered Russian but finding Russian films to test it on was difficult. I ended up buying three half current ones online, two of which were now in my worst-films-of-all-time-list. Rydian joined me for the best of the lot in the games room one night but I think that was mostly because Verity said she was only making her amazing pecan pastries for people who were inflicting Russian cinematography on themselves (she had heard my reviews of the other two over scones the past two mornings).

Tulip ended up hooking up with an English guy who was staying in the local town thirty kilometres away. It was ill-fated from the beginning considering a) He was there for four days with a tour group and b) the guy wore skinnier jeans than Sherry when she went to rock concerts. I seriously did not get how any decent, straight guy wore pants that revealed that much.

We, Cam, Lucian, Sherry, Tulip and I, met up by the river at least once a week and the more wine bought by the loser, the more unmentionable things that went down in "Truth or Dare". By mid August, everyone had made out with everyone else at least once. A classic dare for when the wine stunted the imagination. We ate, drank and talked about whatever was happening in our lives. But now we were talking about packing, apartments and googling cheap places to eat in New York, Rome, Madrid and London. Crystal had headed out to New York at the start of August and was staying there with Xavier in a spare room in the home of a savant who owed a favour to her older sister, Diamond. She wanted to see the various types of apartments available so no one could "bullshit" (her word, not mine) her over the internet or the phone. Xavier pretty much went wherever she wanted and vice versa so I got more than one phone call from him, play pleading with me to "take" him "away from the demon lady". Or at least I was pretty sure he was play pleading. He really abused the power of the "call me if there is an emergency" condition of me giving him my phone number.

But they were looking for an apartment building where Tulip and I could live near them. Preferably in the same building and not break our bank accounts in the process. So far, about half way into August, they were not lucky and my stories tended to focus on the lack of perfect accommodation when we gathered down by the river.

But then, sometime in the third part of August, Crystal came through. I think Xavier was more delighted, being he was the one who had walked through at least a dozen different apartments while Crystal found faults with them all. Crystal had sounded ecstatic as she found two apartments in a modest enough, oldish building in a decent part of the city. She was slightly sheepish, an oddity for her, when she said that Xavier had called dibs on the apartment on the top floor of the six storey building. Tulip and I would be living a floor lower but I think I preferred not having access to an attic space. It was a bit creepy and who knew what was living up there?

The minute she called and gave us a quick run down on it, Tulip thankfully had been hanging out with me in the basement at the time playing on the playstation, we number one screamed like the girls we are and two, then ordered her to give us contact details so we could put our names down for it. I think we both knew that the apartment must be pretty decent if it passed what Xavier called the "Nit picker list" of Crystal's terms.

I could practically feel the relief surrounding us all when we both got the apartments without too much hardship. It was pure luck to even get them within days of our flights out. Lucian, Sherry, Cam, Tulip and I celebrated with Lucian's mother's whiskey that night down by the river, even though Cam was flying out the next afternoon to Madrid. He swore on his dead budgies life that he was all packed and that he would not drink so much that you could catch anything off his breath tomorrow. It would be only him that would probably try to sweet talk the security staff by talking about the fancy as heck whiskey he drank the night before in an attempt to impress them. And probably then try to convince them he was sober.

"To my amigos" Cam called out to the dark sky and us. "While they may try to stop me drinking the best whiskey Lucian has ever brought down here tonight, I love them. And that counts as I am still sober." He belched. "I think."

Lucian rolled his eyes but smiled with the rest of us. "I have no idea how I will ever enjoy London without you bro." Lucian said.

"I have no idea either." Cam said, draining the last of his plastic picnic cup. "Awesomeness like this deserves to be international so I might make it my job to visit London pretty soon."

"Ok we lost the toast vibe so let me start it again. Cam, you have my permission to half fill your cup for it." Sherry said. With that, she gave a genuine smile. "To us and whatever lies before us. That being not homelessness for a certain two girls and hopefully soberness to the guy who put way more than half a cup of beer in that cup."

"To us" we all yelled. We all said our goodbyes, unofficially calling this our last night down here for a while. Lucian gave me a tight hug and I felt him bury his face in my hair. With that we all split ways.

"Where is my passport?" was my welcome to Tulips house the morning of the flight to New York. I next to never lost anything so I had to smile. This exclamation was promptly followed by "Crap, crap, crap! My phone mom! Where is it? I had it like two seconds ago!"

"Check your back pocket" I called out to her as I let myself into her kitchen. "Hi Evelien."

"Hi Willow dear" she replied, a small smile on her lips as she drank her morning coffee at the large island table in the kitchen. It was half seven in the morning but Tulips mother looked perfect, her blonde hair carefully turned in above her suit clad body. I did not even see red lipstick marks on her coffee cup despite the sharp red colour on her perfectly shaped lips. She seemed the polar opposite to Tulip who was running around, throwing random things into her carry on. Using my telekinesis, I helped fling a few snacks for the plane into her bag. I remembered where everything was and so simply opened cabinets mentally and then physically opened them if I thought there could still be snack food there.

"Well, Willow, I am sure the two of you can find your own way to the airport. I have to head. Work awaits." Evelien said, placing her coffee cup in the sink. She gave my head a playful pat, despite my height, before heading out the door.

"I swear she wishes you were her daughter sometimes." Tulip muttered as she opened a cabinet beneath the sink. I bit my lip from smiling. I had to admit, Tulip had a point. Her mother was a translator and usually spent her time translating books so she did not have to move around but helped elsewhere too. Her savant ability allowed her to understand any language. I wanted Russian perfected before I played with her ability and Evelien smiled when she got to tell me if I messed up. This was rare so she loved to have long conversations with me to catch me out. Tulip often just left the room when this happened.

"Well, you can tell her to head off to the hospital if you spot anything. She could owe you her life someday." I pointed out.

"Touché." Tulip nodded. "Right, lets go."

I could not stop my sigh at this. It would take at least four if not five trips to drag all of her luggage out to my brother Rydian's SUV. The thing was huge and we had to pick Rydian up on the way so he could drop it home afterwards. He had stayed the night in town and I just did not feel up to the tales of his exploits at this hour.

Nevertheless I endured Tulips wailing "Did I remember –insert random item that is apparently essential here-?" every two minutes and Rydian's deeds that would have mom ground him even though he was twenty six and officially moving out in a month when the job he was offered became available at the end of September. Tulip filled him in that he had low iron levels and should probably take something as he should be feeling it by now and Rydian turned up the radio louder, yelling he might do something if he felt like it later.

He left us outside the airport after grabbing us some trolleys for our stuff and unceremoniously kissed the top of my head and gave us both a hug goodbye. It took a full forty two seconds before I could feel any form of a pulse on my wrist. I was that stunned.

And after stocking up on enough sweet things to replace our blood with sugar, we boarded the plane. This was after I convinced Tulip not to scream "Terrorist!" as the plane lifted off. She got four bubblegum flavoured lollipops off me to shut her up. I had a feeling "arrested for faking an incident of international safety concerns" would not help either of us trying to get jobs in the future.

Hello humans!

I have updated! I meant to a day or two ago but I was irritated after my bus home from college was full and I had to wait for nearly an hour for another, after already waiting half an hour for the first one! I figured I would rant here if I updated that night. Or make Willow rant. With a lot swear words *gasp*. So I hope you liked this chapter.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying this and pretty please review! (And favourite and follow if you like it!)