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The flat didn't feel right with Will gone. Monty was all that kept me from feeling alone, although with much lesson planning to get on with after such a hectic weekend I filled the time well, stopping only to text Will to check he'd boarded his flight safely, before heading to bed. I was exhausted, and the thought of dealing with small children all day tomorrow just wasn't appealing for once. Thank goodness it was the second last week before half term- I needed to re-charge my batteries.

Unfortunately, as if sensing my irritability, my class were rowdier than usual on Monday, resulting in four of them missing their afternoon break as punishment for their behaviour. As if the day couldn't get any worse, we then learnt that we had a surprise inspection from Wednesday to Friday, which even the most experienced of teachers dreaded.

I knew I was in for a stressful few days and was up until past midnight triple checking the lesson plans I had to provide for the inspectors and panicking that my class would decide to repeat Monday's bad behaviour. I'd only ever been inspected by OFSTED (the government's inspecting body) once before- two years ago at my old school. It wasn't a pleasant experience- I remember feeling my knees practically knocking together as the beady-eyed inspector glared at me over her spectacles, her mouth set in an ugly sneer.

I barely spoke to Will as he inspection approached, save for a few rushed skype sessions while I ate my tea- half listening to him and half perfecting my power points for the days ahead.

By Friday afternoon it was all over- my lesson had gone as well as could be expected with the troublesome Luke in my class, although even he manged to refrain from pulling someone's hair, or stealing their pencil. To celebrate, all staff (excluding our headmistress, who no one really liked) had ended up at the pub and now were all rather merry. In fact, even the rather frumpy Mr Wilkinson was having a good time- the barman had to come over to tell him not to dance on the table tops.

The last thing I remembered was replying to Will to tell him that I was enjoying the celebrations, before promptly running to the nearest loo to be sick.

Needless to say, I woke up on Saturday morning with a banging headache. I'd left Monty with Mum and Dad while I had the inspection (he was all too happy to spend more time in his new bed. It was apparently much cosier than the one I'd bought him.), fearful that I'd neglect to walk him while I was so stressed and so thankfully I didn't have him barking at m. It may have been 10.30, but I was pretty sure I'd got back at past 4 after me and Miss Gulliver decided to make everyone come clubbing with us in Derby.

Rolling over, I picked up my phone from my bedside table and saw I had 3 missed calls from Will and a response from Becky Gulliver. She'd managed to snag a rather attractive young man on the dancefloor of Perdu and had texted me in response to my garbled message asking if she was okay. Grinning at her enthusiastic response, I fired off a few more texts to fellow staff members, and one to Will, telling him I was okay. I didn't want to ring him, due to the fact that it was probably the middle of the night in Colorado.

Once I was sure all alcohol had left my system and I was safe to drive, I headed over to Mum and Dad's to collect Monty. I was bombarded by Mum about our upcoming Paris trip. With all the stress of the week I'd completely forgotten about the week away that we'd arranged for Mum. Originally, Jack was supposed to come with 'Van, but he'd backed out last minute when they found out they were pregnant, since he was unnecessarily worried about 'Van flying. Dad couldn't get the week off because he was at a surgical conference giving a lecture, so it was set to be a girls' week away. Mum was ridiculously excited- the prospect of a week of shopping and exploring the capital and its food was almost too much for her to bear.

We'd booked to fly from East Midlands, and were to stay at Alice's from Friday for a week. Mum had already packed her case when I arrived to collect Monty. I wasn't so prepared.

"So, I've got our itinerary sorted." Mum began, producing a printed document with a detailed timetable of exactly what we'd be doing each day. I'd forgotten how a holiday with mum was a regimented affair, in which every hour was accounted for. Still, hopefully Alice and I could persuade her to ditch some of the things on her list.

When I finally managed to leave, I took Monty for a walk and spoke to Will on the phone. He sounded stressed- he was off to the office on a Saturday he was that bogged down after being away for so long. It didn't help that his secretary kept forgetting to schedule important appointments. It sounded so unlike the woman I'd met in London. Apparently my drunken texts last night had amused him greatly while he was at work yesterday, which made me groan. Still, at least they'd brightened his mood. From what he'd told me it didn't seem like Will would be able to leave the States any time soon.

During the week, I made sure I planned all my lessons for the week following half term and had all my books marked to make sure I could fully relax and enjoy my time away.

The Friday before a holiday was always difficult as the kids wanted nothing more than to not be in school. I was counting down the minutes until 3pm, having spent my lunch frantically marking their morning's work.

Mum and Dad collected me from school (I felt like a five year old) and we headed straight to the airport from there. Dad dropped us off and headed home – he was working from Saturday to Thursday this week, which meant he could drop us today and then collect us on our return on Friday morning.

Alice met us at the airport and we headed straight to hers to unpack. Since Alice had enough spare rooms to accommodate us all, we'd decided to stay with her rather than pay some ridiculously overpriced fee for a hotel. As soon as Mum had her youngest child in her arms, she couldn't let her go.

"Are you eating enough? How's the apartment? Are you sure don't want to move back to Derby?" Alice answered good- naturedly as we took the metro to her apartment. She'd bought French bread and pastries for tea when we got in, which wasn't until about 11pm. Rather than unpack, we ate and caught up with one another.

"Alice, do you know about Will?" Mum asked during a lull in conversation, changing the topic entirely. Alice nodded and Mum frowned.

"Honestly, the pair of you! Why didn't you tell me if Alice knew, Alexis?" I didn't exactly want to tell mum why I hadn't.

"Erm.." I began, quivering under her stare. OFSTED inspectors could take lessons from my mother about how to be intimidating.

"And Alice, don't tell me you found your soulfinder at the convention and kept it quiet too!"

"Not exactly, Mum." She admitted. And that was how mum found out about Dragon.

It took over an hour (who never normally cried) to stop sobbing once Alice told her what had happened.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She cried. Alice shrugged.

"I didn't want to upset you."

"And that's why you moved to Paris?"

"It was a factor." She admitted. Mum cried harder. Once we'd managed to calm her down, we explained exactly what had happened at the convention- from Alice find out from Yves what had really happened on the night of the fire and finding out from Crystal that she had a new soulfinder, to me running away from Will because he was a Benedict and I didn't want to suffer from the same heartbreak as Alice.

"So when are you going to go and find him?" Mum asked Alice, using her hankie to dry her eyes.

"I don't know." She admitted, biting her lip.

"If you don't go now, you'll never go." Mum warned. "You've been given a second chance- you've got to take."

"I know. It's just it's a long way to go on my own and I don't know where to start looking if he wasn't at the convention. The net didn't have him on record."

"The Benedicts would help you." I said, knowing Crystal would be all too happy to help.

"Why don't you go together?" Mum asked. "Alexis could see Will, and you could go and look for your soulfinder with the soulseeker's help."

"I don't know. It would be way too expensive for me to rent somewhere out there and I don't know if Will would want me to come and stay." To make such expensive, long- haul flights like that worthwhile you'd have to go for at least a month and I didn't know if he'd want me there for that long.

Both Mum and Alice snorted at me. Reassuring, I know.

"Lex, we could go over the summer holidays while the schools are shut."

"You can't expect Will to be the one always flying to see you." Mum chipped in. "And when else will you have as much free time to go and see him?"

"I'll think about it." I hedged.

"No. You'll ring him now, or I will." Alice threatened, pulling out her phone.

"Okay, fine." I said, realising I'd have no option but to ring him. "I'll call him now, okay?" They both beamed and I rolled my eyes at the pair of them as I made my way to my room to call him in private, away from budding ears. He picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, sweetheart. How's Paris?"

"Good, thanks. We got to Alice's about an hour ago- she's finally told Mum about Dragon."

"Ah… How did that go?"

"As to be expected, I guess." The tears, and mum practically hugging Alice to death were not all to surprising reactions. "Anyway, I was just ringing to ask you how something… and I won't be upset if you say not" I babbled nervously. "But I was wondering how you'd feel about me coming to visit you in the States? Alice wants to look for her soulfinder, and doesn't want to come on her own, and with school it's when I get the longest holiday if I came at the end of the year. I don't want to intrude-" He cut me off.

"Lex, I'd love you to come, don't be stupid. How long would you be able to be here for? And when? I'll look the flights."

"Woah, woah, woah! You'll do no such thing! You always insist on paying. They're my flights, so I'll pay." Even if it does nearly cripple me I added silently in my head.

"I've got air miles that need to be used up before they expire, and I won't get the chance. It would be silly to waste them."

"Fine." I agreed. "But you'll let me know how much the flight costs and I'll pay you."

"In cash or in sexual favours? Because from you I only accept sexual favours." He was incorrigible, but I loved it.

"You can have both or neither." I laughed. "In fact, accepting cash means more sexual favours." There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line.

"Okay." He admitted defeat. "When would you be coming?" I opened my diary and flicked through the pages. So far I had no summer plans apart from going on tour to Butlins with the netball girls, which could easily be cancelled.

"Well, term finishes on the 25th of July, and I'll need to be back before September, but that doesn't mean I have to stay for that long." I was quick to point out. "And I'll have to check what dates work for Alice."

"I'm happy for you to stay until September, or whenever you want, really." I smiled, relieved. "How about you check with Alice and let me know? You'll need to appy for tourist visas, but we've got links in that office, and they're more lenient when they know you're coming to visit or look for your soulfinder."

"Sounds good." We exchanged goodbyes, and I went to tell Alice my news. The dates I had, worked for her, and we decided we'd leave after I'd finished school on the 25th of July, and get an open return, since Alice didn't know when she'd be back, and despite Will's assurances that I could stay for however long I wanted I wanted to be able to come back whenever I wished. When I rang Will back half an hour later to tell him we were definitely coming to Colorado he was delighted. He transferred his air miles to Alice who had a few of her own, and she booked both our flights which ensured we were sat together. The Andersons were off to Colorado.

Our week in Paris was wonderful. It was great to be able to spend some quality time together as a family. We visited most of the sites on Mum's itinerary, and enjoyed the great cuisine and sunny weather. Alice and I went running around the city centre at night when it was cooler, enjoying the sight of the Eiffel tower lit up against the dark night sky.

We also got a fair bit of shopping done, although I remained fairly stingy since the flights to Denver had knocked a big chunk of my savings, even though Will kept transferring the money back to me. It had become a sort of game between us- no sooner had it left my account, than Will had transferred it back in again. Eventually, we compromised, and Will, rather than accepting my money, promised to donate it to a charity of my choice, although I was still suspicious that he hadn't told me the true cost of the flights, and was giving me a slightly lower figure. He'd taken to messaging me daily how many days it was until we got to see each other again, and it never failed to put a soppy grin on my face. It was sickening. What was happening to me?

Friday rolled around much quicker than expected, and we were soon swapping sunny Paris for rainy Derby. Alice was coming to stay at my flat for a couple of weeks before we left for the states so she could catch up with the rest of the family- I knew they all missed her terribly.

Over the next few weeks I struggled with the distance between me and Will. My upset was heightened by the fact that I spent many evenings at Rachel and Dan's helping them with their wedding plans, and the fact that at our annual presentation evening I was one of the only girls without a partner. Skype was a godsend, and I kept myself busy by spending every free minute I had doing all the schoolwork I'd usually do over summer, so I had only a minimal amount to do when I got to the States. When Alice arrived she even helped me by offering to mark all of my class's maths books, which was a great help.

Alice's arrival also brought with it the truth about the convention and Dragon, which Jack, 'Van and Dad took just as well as mum did, which was: not very well. Once they'd cried themselves out, however, they were all very enthusiastic at the prospect of Alice finding her soulfinder in Canada. Although she was nervous, I could tell from the gleam in her eye whenever she talked about Canada that she was very excited. I couldn't wait. Colorado couldn't come soon enough.

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