Author's note: I wanted to get the next chapter up as soon as possible because I feel guilty. Last year I updated more often. Anyways, in order to get it up, I skipped out on editing, so yeah. An unedited chapters...where have I heard this before? all the time. Sorry guys, I just have no time to write AND edit, along with all the other stuff I have to do (SAT studying, end of term finals and projects, swimming stuff).

We passed through the doors of the plane and found our seats easily. A middle and window seat, Sam let me take the window saying that the sun would bother his eyes. We settled in and waited silently for the plane to take off, we would fly from here to Newark Airport in New Jersey and then on to Houston. There were no direct flights from Ithaca Tompkins to Bush Intercontinental. The flight was short lasting hardly an hour. We spent it sleeping during which his hand found mine or perhaps mine found his. I gently slipped it out of his grasp hoping he wouldn't notice as he continued sleeping. The plane's awkward landing sensation awakened its tire passengers and the cabin filled with their sounds. Yawning, stretching, and demands for the time, bathroom, and water filled my sensitive ears and Sam stirred awake beside me.

"Here already?" I nodded as the plane coasted into its landing platform thing. He stretched and then tugged his backpack out from under the chair. "We have forty minutes before our next flight, what do you want to do?" I shrugged.

"Whatever you want."

"Let's just get there first and then decide." We got up and made our way out of the plane and to our next terminal. We made good time. We had half an hour left. "Do you just want to sit and wait?"

"Sure, there's not much to do in an airport anyways."

"True." He was quiet for a minute, but soon turned to me and said: "I should let you know that my family's not the same as other families." I laughed.

"I'm sure your family is fine and besides everyone thinks their own family is weird." He shrugged.

"You've never met my family."

"Well I will in a couple of hours, why don't you let me decide then?" His lips twitched as if hiding a smile but he simply nodded. "So, why did you really ask me to come with you? My staying at the campus can't have bothered you because you know there would have been others. I wouldn't have been alone." He sighed.

"My fraternity brothers. Last year I met a really sweet girl, around the same time. She stayed at campus during Thanksgiving Break and when I got back refused to look at me, talk to me. As soon as the semester was over she transferred to a college in California. I have no idea what they told her or did to her, but I didn't want it to happen to you as well." My eyes widened with shock…wait, no I am so not that gullible.

"Mhmm. Sure, if that's the excuse you want to give me then fine."

"I am being 100% honest Cat, don't you see how they act when we're together?" That stopped me…Maybe it is true. I mean if I could believe that vampires and werewolves exist, surely I can believe his story. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you…"

"No, it's alright. I just…its hard to swallow."

"Yeah…I think I may have exaggerated it just a bit too." I smiled.

"Most likely." There was a slightly awkward pause. "So, why is your family so different?" I asked, changing the subject.

" My family is unbelievable huge. My mother has one younger brother and two younger sisters, each with a million children. Along with my younger sister and the twins, there are about twenty extra people at my house during Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can only imagine the mess and noise. Luckily my father is an only child."

"That is going to be a lot of names to remember." I said, sighing. I am horrible at remembering names.

"Flight 8-33 from Newark to Houston is now boarding." We got up simultaneously and sauntered over to the waiting line. We boarded the plane and sat down the same way as before. Sam pulled out a book and I riffled through the magazines before me until I found Sky Mall. We sat in companionable silence, each reading until the plane reached the proper altitudes for electronics. Sam put his book away and pulled out a silver laptop.

"D'you wanna watch a movie?" He asked.

"Sure." I said, inching closer until our elbows were touching. "What movies do you have?"

"My iTunes has a bunch, you can scroll through it and pick whichever you want."

"Say I wasn't here, what would you watch?"

"Probably 'Mirrors' or 'The Strangers' or 'Quarantine.'"

"'The Strangers' was good. I've never seen the other two but I hear 'Quarantine' is really good."

"I've never seen that one either. My brother recommended it, so I bought it. I just haven't had the time to watch it yet."

"Yeah, I know what that's like. Why don't we watch 'Quarantine' then? I just can't promise not to get scared." He laughed.

"That's alright. I'll protect you." I snickered.

"Of course." I said smiling. He rolled his eyes and handed me a pair of headphones.

Scary movies have never been my strong point. I was never in such a panic in my life, excepting a certain incident half a year ago. I squeezed Sam's arm throughout the entire movie, and muffled shrieks into his shoulder. Thankfully the passengers sitting around us were only amused by my actions and didn't complain. When the movie finally ended, I sat back in my seat and took several deep breaths, trying to calm myself down.

"When you said you couldn't promise not to be scared, I thought you'd been joking."

"If…I…still…wasn't…so…not here. I would glare at you." I closed my eyes. He laughed and I could hear as he put the laptop and headphones away.

"Hey Cat? You still alive?" I opened one eye to look at him, saw him grin wickedly, and decided to close it again.

"No." I answered.

"Oh alright, if you were alive I would have offered you some Kit Kats. But I guess not." My eyes shot open.

"I don't like Kit Kats." I said, perhaps too loud.

"Sorry, Didn't mean to offend you with my junk food ways."

"No, I didn't mean it like that." I said quietly. "High school ruined Kit Kats for me, I can't eat them anymore." He looked about to question me further, but decided against it. My face must have told him he'd get no answer from me.

"Suit yourself. More for me."

I closed my eyes again and finished the ride in a restless sleep; nightmares crowded in and kicked my sweet dreams out for good.

"Cat, we're here. Time to get up." Sam's voice brought me out of a shadowy world filled with terror and blood. I tried to smile up at him and failed. "Bad dreams?" I nodded; I had been getting them since April, since the incident. "Yeah, you tossed and turned a lot."

"I didn't scream did I?" He shook his head. "One less embarrassment then."

"Come on, let's go." He said, ignoring my last statement.

We exited the plane and got out bags from the baggage claim. "My car is in the parking lot E." I followed him out into the fairly warm temperatures of Texas. He has two cars? I wondered if his car in Texas was just as big and expensive as his car back at school. My question was soon answered as he pulled out car keys from his sweater's pocket. It was an old red Toyota pickup truck. I tried not to laugh. That's quite typical for a cowboy.

After a two-hour long drive (with a break for lunch, when I finally got to pay), we arrived laughing and joking with each other to his parent's house in Victoria. Although technically his family lived in Inez, the only schools and things to do were half an hour away in Victoria. His house was at least a mile from anyone else's and consisted of 5 acres. Unbelievable huge. An acre is about 14 NYC blocks2.

"Home sweet home." He said, turning the car off. We got out as the front door open. I had hardly had a chance to take in a breath of Texas air, before we were cannonball-ed into by small children and a pack of all different types of dogs.

"Sam!!!!!"

"SAMMYYYYY" I let each of the nine dogs greet me thoroughly to allow Sam time to greet his family.

"Cat, These are my cousins Giselle, Regina, and Neal. Guys, this is Cat."

"Like the animal?" asked a little boy with a thick mane of dirty blond hair and the largest pair of brown eyes.

"Yes," I replied nodding. "You must be Neal, how do you do?" I knelt down to his level and stuck out my hand. He shook it timidly and hid behind one of the older girls, a blonde with hazel eyes. They looked alike enough to be siblings but I couldn't be sure. The remaining girl had copper hair and bright blue eyes.

"Sam, my darling, you're home."

"Mom!" He said, rolling his eyes at me. "I hate it when she calls me that." I giggled lightly. She walked over to us, as the dogs slowly trailed back into the house.

"Hi, you must be Cat. Sam's told us quite a bit about you."

"Mom." I tried not to giggle again.

"Hi nice to meet you Mrs. O'Reilley."

"Please, call me Leslie."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly"

"Please, Mrs. O'Reilley makes me feel old." I smiled.

"Nice to meet you Leslie." Sam's mom had copper hair, like Giselle, and blue eyes. She was slightly taller than me and lithe.

"Come inside and meet the rest of our pack."

"Alright," I replied. I hoisted my bag on my shoulder and followed her into the large house. We entered through the garage, where they kept tools, bicycles, old toys, and other unused household items rather than cars. Come to think of it, I had yet to see any cars at all. How did they get around? The answer evaded me as we walked into a hallway and then into a spacious living room, where it seemed like an entire football team was hanging out. A chorus of Sam's and buddy and it's good to see you flooded out. For the sake of memorization, I'll simple list the names of Sam's family and what they look like. At the time, it went by too quickly for me to take it in.

Sam's father, Sam Sr. looks almost exactly like Sam but his black hair has streaks of gray and silver, giving him a distinguished look his son can't pull off. Sam's younger sister Nancy is a smaller version of her mom. His younger twin siblings, Conrad and Christa, are both black haired with blue eyes.

His Uncle Gareth is extremely short, I don't believe he quite makes it to 5 ft 2 in. He has copper colored hair, brown eyes, and freckles that stick out on his very white skin. His wife Elinor is blonde, a little bit taller than her husband (but not by much) and with green eyes. They have three daughters, Maya, Carly, and Giselle. Maya has dirty blonde hair with gray eyes (the family tells her she's adopted because of them) and is very tall. I personally think her gorgeous. Carly has blonde hair and amber eyes.

Aunt Persephone (named when Sam's grandmother was studying Greek mythology) has brown hair with brown eyes. Her husband Henry has black hair with brown eyes. They have three sons and one daughter. Their eldest, Matt has black hair and blue eyes, he looks like a football player (and is quite intimidating). Justin has brown hair and blue eyes, he is an avid runner and not as intimidating as his older brother. James has black hair and brown eyes. Marianne, their younger sister, has brown hair and blue eyes. She reminds me of the character from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility for whom she was named.

Aunt Jasmine (Sam's youngest aunt) has the family's copper hair as well as brown eyes and freckles. Her husband Jerry is blond with hazel eyes and is a giant (not literally of course, he's about 6 ft 5 in.). They have four children, two boys and two girls. Their oldest, Georgiana is Maya's age with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She is tall like her father (but not that tall) and pretty. Edmund inherited his mom's copper hair and his father's hazel eyes and length. Regina is a smaller version of her older sister. Finally there was Neal, the youngest of the whole lot and the most adorable creature.

Anyways, back we go. After I'd met Sam's family, I was taken to one of their many guest rooms and left to unpack and shower in the adjoining bathroom. I sat on the bed with a sigh and set my bag down. My brain was still spinning with the names and putting faces to the names. There was a soft knock on my door.

"Come in." I said the door open and a face peered at me from the doorway. I smiled. It was one of the oldest girls…the really really pretty one; what was her name?

"It's Maya, in case you forgot."

"Thank you," I smiled. "There's so many of you. Come in, you don't have to stand in the doorway."

"You don't mind?" I shook my head. "OK." She walked in and sat on the only chair in the room. "So you're from New York?"

"Yeah."

"What's it like? I've never left Texas. I go to Texas A&M."

"New York? Or New York City?"

"City, of course! It's huge right?"

"It's not big in terms of land, but its full of people. There's Starbucks and a McDonalds every several blocks. You don't need a car. There are no stars and buildings much much taller than trees. If you walk out of your building, you can find at least twenty places to eat within walking distance and three different pharmacies. It's full to the brim with people and things to do. Then there's Central Park, right smack in the middle, the city's nature."

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure I want to visit anymore." I laughed.

"Sorry, I tend to paint a bleak picture of the city. I prefer the country and wide-open spaces to it. My family goes out to the country every summer."

"That explains it. Hmm so maybe I do want to go."

"You should visit, if only to see whether you like it or not."

"Smart. Hey, if you don't feel like unpacking or showering or anything, do you want to come meet our horses?"

"You have horses?" Maya nodded. "Yes! Of course I want to meet them. Although I can't promise to remember their names." She laughed.

"Alright, let's go." We left the guest room and walked down the back stairs, not the ones I'd come up through. I followed Maya out of their enormous house and into their pastures. "We keep them in the pastures during the winter so they can roam around and we put them in the stables during the summer. Its too hot to leave them outside." We reached the fence to the pastures and Maya called out for the horses.

"Hobbs, Babe, CD, Stars!" She called out several times. "We have more, but these four are the nicest."

"More?"

"Mhmm, my family breeds them for competitions." Four horses trotted towards us as Maya climbed over the fence and I followed suit. Hobbs and Babe were dark bays while CD was a dapple gray and Stars was a palomino (gold coat with white mane and tail). "Hey Stars, hi pretty girl." Maya nuzzled her horse's face as CD walked up to me.

"Hi," I said softly, letting him sniff my hands and face. His warm horse's breath broke over my face. "Mmm you smell good." I told him leaning my forehead against his. Maya laughed.

"I bet you don't say that to a lot of boys." I chuckled.

"No indeed. Boys don't know anything about personal hygiene."

"Hey Maya, Cat." I turned around and saw one of the boys.

"Hey Matt." Matt, I put his face with the name.

"Maya, telling you all about our precious horses?"

"Yes, among other things." I smiled at Maya and she gave me a gorgeous grin. I wondered if she had a boyfriend and if not, perhaps she'd like one of my brothers. Ah the art of matchmaking.

"Well, Aunt Leslie, says dinner's gonna be ready soon."

"Oh ok, let's go back in then and help out." I nodded and followed her back over the fence and towards the house. We entered through the front door and walked into the biggest kitchen I have ever seen. All of the aunts were there as were the four oldest girls, Nancy, Georgiana, Carly, and Marianne.

"Hey girls," said Leslie. "Maya, I need you to help with the salad, don't forget to wash your hands. Cat, you can go to the living room with the boys."

"Oh no, I'd much rather help out. I think you might need it."

"That's true and we have too many mouths to feed to turn down help. You can help me with dessert," said Persephone. I went over to help her as she peeled apples. "Here, you can finish peeling the apples as I arrange the dough for the pie."

"Alright." So easily, and so quickly was I accepted into Sam's house and family. This would not be awkward at all.