Sorry! Another short chapter. But, hey? Two short chapters in one day is like one normal chapter, right?

*Sigh* I know this is moving a little slow, and I promise I'm working on it. So, here's the next chapter, enjoy and review!

-Christianne

Nikki POV

Once I was safely inside CJ's, I leaned on the glass door and grinned.

"Ok, since when do you disappear with the good looking guy for over an hour?" Wendy asked me, cocking her hip to one side before putting a manicured hand on it.

"Yeah, and you never disappear with a guy for over an hour." I said sarcastically. "And even if I did, it's not the worst thing I've done."

I grabbing my pay from Travis and headed back to the door. "I'm going to go home, see 'ya tomorrow," I said quickly, tucking my check into my back pocket as I started the two mile walk to my newly renovated residence.

Travis had offered to drive me, but I wanted to walk. It was calming. Not as calming and interesting as my walk with Sam, but calming enough. The property was only a mile away, but the drive way was a mile in itself. It was dark gravel, imported from some tropical island, and lined with big trees that shaded the wide drive.

The drive wasn't the only impressive part of the house, the house, well, the place was practically a palace, was massive. I pulled out my key, and put it into the shiny, new lock, and turned the old, antique door knob.

After I pushed the heavy door open, and shut it, I turned the shiny new deadbolt and locked the three iron locks that were original to the house. I leaned against the door and looked up at the ceiling. The plaster up at the very top of the ceiling was painted intricately, the restoration people did beautifully, even though I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be from this distance.

I threw my jacket on a coat rack next to the door and wandered into the kitchen, my Converse making slapping noises as they hit the polished wood floor, making echoing noises that bounded around the walls and off the ceiling.

I made sure I had coffee in the cupboard, and then headed towards the stairs. The actual layout of the house was very odd. The mansion was four stories, not counting the attic and basement, and was pentagonal in shape. There was a large courtyard in the center of the house, put there so every room had windows. Every side of the house, also had a large, ten foot wide, wooden spiral staircase, built so no one had to walk far to get to another floor. There were several out buildings, a green house, stables, stuff like that, but they were built to normal 1850's standards. The house was ahead of it's time, and overall, odd.

I thought about that as I went up the stairs on the kitchens side of the house, walking up to the third floor, where my great-aunt told me my room would be in her last letter. Hopefully, Travis had put my stuff in that room. I hadn't seen in anywhere else, and he'd better not have hid it.

I pushed open one of the tall, white double doors and peered into the room. I had to stifle a gasp and I pushed the door open more.

Even in the dark, the room was beautiful.

Smooth, white plaster covered the walls and ceiling, not a flaw in sight. There was a large four poster bed with filmy white curtains and a matching fluffy white bedspread. The posts of the bed where covered in a pattern made of gold, silver, and what looked like copper leaf, as where the various sofas, chairs, and dressers.

But I wasn't looking in awe at those. I was looking at the walls.

Trees. Tall, almost life size trees adorned the walls, and the leaves curled up onto the ceiling, all except for a foot-square area that looked like it held a clear glass ball, bringing moonlight and distorting the beams so each tree had a vein of white light shining on it. I gently touched one of the trees, feeling the smooth, cold metal leaf.

There had to be thousands of dollars' worth of silver and gold in this room.

I let out a small laugh, unable to hold it in as I leaned on my boxes, all neatly stacked by the door.

"You bitch," I sighed, thinking of how my great-aunt Trudy told me she didn't have enough money to help me buy a car. Apparently, she had enough to renovate the house to palace standards.

After briefly going into the bathroom to put my bag of toiletries and first aid kit away under the sink, I took a quick shower in the large, claw-foot bathtub and jumped into the soft, plush bed.

I was out in seconds, thinking to myself, I met a cute guy, and I live in a beautiful house. What could make this any better?