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“Are you kidding me?” Cassidy threw herself on the bed next to me, obviously dejected. “Mom and Dad would have total seizures, and you know it.”

She’s probably right.
“Come on, they’re not that bad.”

“Not that bad?” She flipped around and faced me. “Not that bad? You of all people should know what it’s been like living through their ‘grounding for life’ episode.” She fell back on the bed again. “Never mind that Ethan is only one of the nicest guys ever. And so different from Blake Winter, it’s a joke. Mom and Dad don’t trust me to make my own judgments when it comes to guys. I’m eighteen. Really, you’d think they’d lighten up!”

“Cass, it looks like they are,” I pointed out. “If this vacation is anything to go by, they trust you a lot.”

“Yeah, some trust—banning me from the one guy I have ever really loved for a whole summer.”

“A guy they technically don’t know exists.”
Good grief. Maybe I don’t want her to go if she’s going to be a major mess.
“Think of it this way, Cassidy. If you manage to bring me back in one piece and prove to them that you’re responsible, you could probably very easily include Ethan in the picture once you got home.”

She sat up. The imaginary lightbulb above her head flickered and then lit up. “I think you’re right.” She jumped off the bed and walked over to her window. “So, if I go for like a few weeks this summer, by the time I get back everything will be a whole lot better. I mean, they have to trust me, right?” She spun around with a huge smile on her face. “It’s brilliant! Like totally mad-scientist perfect. If Mom and Dad trust me enough to babysit you all the way in Washington, then they’ll have to trust me with everything else. Hee hee hee!”

Now
she was dancing around the room.

“Come on!” She giggled. “We’ve only got what, three weeks until summer break? We’ve got to figure out what to pack!”

***

Needless to say, I left my older sister much happier than when I’d gone into her room thirty minutes earlier. We planned everything, down to our party clothes, just in case we were lucky enough to go out somewhere. All in all, I was pretty pleased with the idea of going with my sister. She was a lot of fun, if you knew her. Some people only saw her quiet side—the person she’d been ever since the Blake incident—but for a few minutes there, I got a glimpse of the old Cassidy, the Cassidy that probably only Ethan saw these days.

Hmm. Maybe this trip will be better all the way around for a lot of reasons.

I softly closed my door and took a minute to just look around my bedroom. I’d turned sixteen earlier in the year, and I was now almost sixteen and a half. In the pre-Blake days, it would have been the perfect age, because it would have been the time when I could go on my first date. But because of Blake, Dad had threatened to make us wait until we were thirty. Okay, to be fair, I’m sure he would’ve relented and let me go on a date now if a guy actually asked me.

Yep. That was my sorry state of life. Sixteen, never been on a date, never been kissed, never held hands with a guy, never—well, never
anything.
Totally pathetic, right? I blame it mostly on my randomly weird parents—and the fact that after Chloe and Cassidy were born, there wasn’t much magic left in the beauty wand for me.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m pretty enough—just not knockout gorgeous pretty. Take my sisters, for instance. Chloe is a stunning redhead with long, perfectly placed ringlets, who’s practically engaged to the hottest guy in Farmington, New Mexico. And Cassidy has the same exact ringlets, just with bright blonde hair and a reputation for being either a massive wild-child flirt—thanks to Blake—or a soft-spoken mouse—again, thanks to Blake.

Anyway, how can you compete against a blonde and a redhead? Especially when I’m not sure what color my completely straight hair is. Sometimes people tell me it looks dirty blonde, and sometimes I’ve been told it looks brownish.

Fine.
So there you have it. I
’
m the baby in a family of three girls, and my total existence has revolved around the consequences of my older sisters’ action.

With a sigh, I walked around my room almost as though I was seeing it for the first time. The feeling was pretty surreal, as if it knew I was about to leave and have an amazing adventure.
Washington!
Just thinking about it made me giggle again. I ran over to my desk, plunked down in the seat, and pulled down the book above me before my brain had even processed what I was doing.

Twilight,
the most perfect book in the whole world, and subsequently, my favorite in the series. Carefully, I opened up the well-used paperback and allowed the pages to float down in a happy fan. I could feel the gentle breeze they made against my arm before they nestled down again. Almost by instinct, I thumbed through a couple of worn pages and found my favorite passage. It was, hands down, the most romantic paragraph ever written. I sighed as I read the words of Edward Cullen when he tells Bella that she is the most important thing to him now, and how the thought of hurting her has tortured him.

Then I quickly flipped a couple of pages until I came to the most poignant of all things ever said by Edward. I vividly remembered shaking when I first read his description of his desperate battle within himself to not kill Bella. All he wanted was to get her alone, but the thought of what killing her would do to his family kept him from it. Little did I know until that moment how much danger she’d been in! Edward wanted to kill her and had thought of ways to do it.

Bella Swan. The most amazing heroine ever written. I mean, what other female character had ever been so easy to relate to, or so perfectly complex and lifelike? There couldn’t be another heroine more wonderful than Bella—I was sure of it.

So there it was. My deep, dark secret, the reason behind my fascination with Washington. I was in love with Edward Cullen. And Edward lived in Washington. Plain and simple. According to Stephenie Meyer, Washington has the most rainfall of any state. And as everyone knows, vampires have to live in cloudy places.

Since the Twilight series, I had become rather addicted to and obsessed with all things pertaining to the world of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. There was so much to learn. The funny thing was, every time I read one of the books, I found something new—something I’d missed before.

And then it hit me.

I’m going to Washington.

I’m really, really, really going.

Honestly, can life get any better than this?

Seattle or Bust!

Three and a half weeks later, I asked myself the same question repeatedly:
Can life get any better than this?
I thought as I collected my luggage and took it down to the car. I thought it as I hugged and kissed my mom and dad goodbye, promising to say my prayers every night.
Yeah. Say my prayers that I meet Edward.
And then I asked it out loud as we boarded the plane.

By the time we landed, I was in that complete nervous-slash-excited state of mind you get when you’re ready for your amazing adventure to begin. I didn’t realize how excited I was until I noticed I was practically running down the long ramp to get to the terminal.

Cassidy finally caught up. “Why are you walking so fast, girl? The place isn’t on fire!” She panted next to me as she tried to match my long strides.

“Not yet, it isn’t. If you give me a couple of minutes, I’m sure I can cause enough friction with these shoes to start a fire.”

She giggled. “The way you were moving, I don’t doubt it.”

Cassidy and I walked out into the open terminal, then stepped aside and stood near a pillar to wait for Roger and Darlene. I felt a momentary stab of guilt when I realized my actions could’ve been considered rude, running ahead of the group like that. But all my fears were soon put to rest when the Hadleys came bounding down the ramp.

“Well, there they are!” Darlene exclaimed loud enough to be heard by everyone around us. “I’m so glad to see such eagerness. You girls are going to keep me on my toes, I can tell. It’s about time, too.” She walked over and put an arm through each of ours, and we all followed Roger as he carried their carry-on luggage.

After a happy squeeze and a giggle, Darlene asked, “So, are you two ready for your first real adventure?”

“Yes!” Cassidy and I chorused back, laughing. I had never been more ready for anything in my entire life.

Move over, Seattle. Claire Hart just landed, and I plan on taking you by storm!

***

So, my storm had to be patient as we unpacked and moved into the small cottage Roger had rented for the summer. Cassidy and I shared a pretty yellow room with two twin beds. There was a tiny closet tucked into the corner, and a long, white French-style dresser for our clothes. Each bed had a charming little white nightstand that matched the dresser, with a cute reading lamp and a personal alarm clock. I chose the bed closest to the window.

Cassidy opened a narrow door she’d found once she closed our bedroom door. She gasped. “What’s this?”

Probably another closet,
I thought. Unconcerned, I dumped my carry-on on the bed and set my wheeled suitcase next to it.

“Claire, you’ve got to see this,” exclaimed Cassidy in a muffled voice. “You’re never going to believe it!”

I looked up and couldn’t see her anywhere. The small door was wide open. “Cass?”

“In here! Hurry!”

What in the world
?
I quickly dropped my camera and purse on the bed and went to the door. When I peered inside, my gasp echoed Cassidy’s just moments before. “No way. This is amazing.” I actually had to blink twice before I fully comprehended what I was seeing. It was the largest, most decadent bathroom I’d ever seen—at least the size of our room, if not bigger. It was beautiful and bright, with shades of cheerful yellow and pink and white bouncing off the walls and the soft, plush rugs beneath our feet.

Just then, Darlene knocked and then peeked into the bathroom. “This place is great, isn’t it?”

I was about to go off about the awesomeness of the claw-footed bathtub, but she went on. “So, girls, Roger’s classes don’t start until Monday, and since it’s only Friday, what do you say we do a bit of sightseeing while we’re here?”

“Really?” I said. “That would be awesome.” Even Cassidy looked excited.

“Roger and I thought we’d ask the president of Northwest Academy and his family to come, too. What do you think?”

The weird kids—the ones that need friends?
My smile waned. “Sure, why not?”

“We did promise them we’d bring someone they could meet,” Darlene reminded me.

“Who’s this? You promised we’d meet someone?” Cassidy asked.

I’d forgotten I hadn’t told my sister anything about the loser teenagers. In hidden disgust, I walked past our host and sat on my bed. I’d let Darlene tell my sister the good news. I had all but blocked out the horror of Darlene’s explanation when I heard Cassidy’s massive intake of breath. With a grin, I caught her panicked look from the doorway just before she smiled happily at our host, obviously trying not to relay any of the warning flags I’m sure were popping up in her head.

***

I prayed for rain. Like, big-time rain. You know—enough to cancel our sightseeing tour and put off the inevitable meeting as long as possible.

Well, it did sprinkle, but not enough to keep us away from meeting the paragons of awkwardness. In fact, we were soon standing on the slightly damp grass in front of the Space Needle, watching them walk toward us.

All right, I admit it. Anthony and Eleanor Russo weren’t that bad. I mean, sure, there was something about them that just didn’t sit right, something in their movements or the way they talked. I don’t know—it seemed stilted, not natural. Kind of Stepford-y, if you catch my drift. But other than that, I couldn’t complain.

One thing was for sure, they were a whole lot cuter than I thought they’d be. Their whole family was this perfect, white-collar, yuppie-type family. They each had beautiful smiles and beautiful eyes and beautiful clothes.

The parents were Ilene and Jonathan. Both of them looked really young, but they must’ve been in their early forties. And then there was Anthony, who went by Tony, who had just turned seventeen, and Eleanor—Nora—who we later found out was his twin sister.

They were nice, too—almost too nice. I enjoyed talking to Nora the most, because she seemed just a little bit more real than Tony.

“Have you ever been to Seattle before?” she asked as we boarded a large boat with wheels, part of our Ride the Ducks tour.

“No. Does this vehicle really go in the water, too?”

“You’ve never been on these before, have you?” She smiled at me, then climbed into a row and patted the bench next to her. “You’re going to love this tour. It’s really nice.”

“Nice?”
Crazy, yes, but nice?

Cassidy and Tony sat down on the bench across the aisle.

“Fun,” Nora amended. “It’ll be a lot of fun.”

Now “fun” I understood. “Cool.”

“Just wait. It’ll drive us all around Seattle, so you can see everything up and down the streets, and then it’ll drive right down a ramp into the ocean. That’s why they’re called ducks, because they’re on land and then the water. They’re really nice.”

There was that word again—“nice.”
Something just wasn’t right.

Nora’s brother leaned across the narrow walkway between the two benches and asked, “You didn’t tell Claire about the part where we go all the way under the water, did you?”

Huh? Under the water?
I looked out the sides of the duck-slash-boat thing. There were no windows. Just open air, supports, and a roof. The boat would fill up with water in seconds. “Are you kidding?” I asked him.

Tony’s eyes moved from Nora’s to mine. It was the first time I had made real eye contact with him.

Wow. He’s—he’s really cute! And, um, close.