Sorry it took me so long to update. I had horrible writer's block. I hope to have more out soon. Thanks to anyone who has read and reviewed. And thanks for adding me to your favorite author and/or story list.

We got into a routine at Stonehaven very quickly. The days flew by, mainly because every day was so packed full of activity, there was no time to get bored at all. Mornings were spent learning to control our powers. Afternoons were free, and evenings were spent learning as much about the supernatural community as we could. The whole thing was fascinating.

Take half-demons, for example. There were many, many different kinds. Apparently, Elena's best friend (outside the Pack) was a childhood friend of Rae's half-brother. It was a small world, really. There was so much that I still didn't know, and even though Derek and Simon had a whole lifetime to know about it, they didn't know much more than me, either. So, I didn't feel completly ignorant all the time.

My lessons with Jaime were coming along nicely too. Practicing with her was easy, and she made it fun. After the first week, I was no longer afraid to sleep at night. Especially since I had released Liam's spirit.

Something had happened with Tori and Simon. They had stopped bickering so much, which worried Derek. He and I were out in the woods, having a stolen moment from all the activity of the house. He was carrying a blanket and a cooler filled with food.

"Still, it's weird. He smiled at her today. Actually smiled. I asked him if his blood sugar was low, and he said it was fine."

"Derek."

"Yeah. I know. It's none of my business. I should stop worrying. It's like we're reading from a script sometimes, you know." He said teasingly, then opened his mouth to say more, but I cut him off with a kiss. Five minutes later, I was satisfied that Simon was the last thing on Derek's mind. It was definitely worth getting a few leaves in my hair.

We walked through the woods to a meadow we had discovered on our second full day at Stonehaven. Since it was early spring, it was still chilly enough for us to need jackets. Derek spread out the blanket and we sat down.
"Are you hungry?" He asked me. He kept stealing longing glances at the cooler, so I took pity on him.

"Starving," I replied. We ate in silence for the next few minutes. When we got to dessert, he asked me about that morning's necromancy lesson. We spent the next twenty minutes going over my successful ghost summoning. Jaime considered it a breakthrough because I hadn't been able to summon even Liz without raising any of the dead animals within a half-mile radius. Apparently, I was the most powerful necromancer she had ever heard of. Usually, it took a lot of concentration to raise anything as a zombie. I had raised people in my sleep. Surprisingly, I had mastered that the first night. My determination to not put some poor soul through that had been the catalyst, I think.

Living with werewolves meant that I never had to find my own corpses to raise in my lessons. No, that does not mean they went around killing things for me all the time. They were just really good at finding dead animals. Besides, any deer or rabbit they killed, they ate. They had no use for a decomposing rabbit, but they were glad to be of help to me.

I knew a girl in school who celebrated every week she was with this one guy. She got flowers for their One-Week-Anniversary. I got a dead badger. But he was really sweet about giving it to me.

I tried to picture what my old friends at school would have said, but I kept drawing a blank. It seemed now more than ever that my old life was a dream that had happened to someone else. And even though I had lost so much, I was still happier than I had ever been in my entire life.

Derek finished eating, then cleaned up the food, putting everything back in the cooler. He took of his sweatshirt, then rolled it up into a bundle, so he could use it as a pillow. He pulled me down beside him, with me resting my head on his chest.

Even though Jeremy totally didn't care, Derek and I had an unspoken agreement to keep our make-out sessions out of the house, mainly because Kate seemed to have radar. She always seemed to find us, just when things were getting interesting. And if it wasn't her, it was someone else. One time we were in Derek and Simon's room, and Simon had walked in on us. That memory still made me cringe with embarrassment every time I thought about it. I didn't have a shirt on, and Derek had been in the process of removing my bra when Simon felt the need to get his art supplies. I don't think he did it on purpose, but Derek still didn't care. Not only was it hard to have privacy with Simon around, but Derek was also worried about things going too far, too soon. At least if we were outside, we'd probably be too cold to let our hormones completely take us over. That was the theory, anyway.

Tonight, we were having a bonfire. The twins were really excited about it, mainly because marshmallows were going to be involved.

Derek was surprisingly good with them. He didn't treat them as if they were babies, just small adults, and they really liked that. Logan in particular followed Derek around whenever he could. Derek would act all annoyed by it, but I would catch him smiling at Logan when he thought no one was looking.

So, we stayed in the meadow for a couple hours, just enjoying the day and each other. Occasionally we would talk, but mostly we were exploring our limits. I was getting really good at not blushing every time Derek put his hand under my bra. He said it was cute, but the last thing a girl wants when her boyfriend is feeling her up is to be seen as "cute" so I was working on it.

We were kissing, and this time we had taken my bra off before my shirt so I wouldn't freeze. So far, that's as far as we had gone, just above-the-waist-action. I wanted to take things further, but he would always stop me as soon as my hand drifted to his waistband. That afternoon was no different, but instead of just going on like I usually did, I stopped kissing him and pushed him off me.

"What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" he asked me hurriedly.

"No, of course you didn't hurt me. How could you have hurt me? We never do anything that would hurt me," I responded angrily. Sexual frustration was not something that had ever happened to me, but I now understood what my friends from school had been talking about all these years.

"Chloe, you know we can't-"

"I wasn't trying to have sex with you, Derek. You know I'm not ready for that. But I am ready for other things, and you aren't even giving me a chance to do them. You know, like a normal teenage, hormone-driven couple. There should be more to it than you just feeling me up all the time."

He was very quiet for a few minutes, and wouldn't look at me. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he turned back to me. I started preparing my list of arguments when he completely floored me by simply stating,

"Ok."

"Did you just say, 'Ok'?" I asked him after my head stopped reeling from the shock.

"Yeah. Ok. You're right. I'm being unfair to you. You deserve to have as normal of a relationship as I can give you, and I have to learn control anyways, so… Ok."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, but couldn't think of anything else to add, so I just smiled at him instead.

"Good. So where were we?" I asked him.

"I think we were right about… here" he said, then he kissed me. We kissed for a few minutes, and his hands went back under my shirt, and my hands drifted down. And of course, as soon as I started making some actual progress-

"DEREK! CHLOE!" Simon's voice called from the house. Unfortunately, we were close enough so that we couldn't pretend not to hear him. One of Jeremy's rules was staying in hearing distance at all times.

"Damn," Derek muttered. "Perfect timing. I think I'm going to kill him."

"Be nice. I'm sure it's something important."

He rolled off of me, then stood up in one fluid motion. He pulled me up next to him, then tilted his head towards the house. Then he handed me back my bra, then gave me a quick kiss and started jogging back towards the house. I could hear the sounds of someone approaching through the trees, and judging by the accompanying swear words, it was Simon. Derek intercepted him before he could see me, so I turned around and performed the time-honored Putting Your Bra On While Still Wearing Your Shirt ritual that all self-conscious girls learn how to do the first week of gym class.

"I'm decent," I whispered, so I knew that only Derek would hear it. He and Simon had been facing the house, and he must have said something to Simon because Simon then slapped him on the back and gave him a high-five. Or tried to. Derek's response was a glare that was so chilly I could practically hear the air-particles freezing.

"Oh, come on, Derek! Don't be like that! You know I didn't mean anything by it! Oh, hey Chloe."

"Hi, Simon. What's up?"

"Jeremy called a house meeting."