The house was big. Very big. Jaxyn had occupied her thoughts for the past few months with scenarios of life in the 'wilderness' and saying that she had misjudged her soon to be new lifestyle would be an understatement. When her mom said they would be living in the country for the summer Jaxyn's thoughts immediately wandered to the old western movies she used to watch with her dad and the make-shift log cabins that the characters inevitably ended up in. It sounded queer to hear the words 'country' and 'living' coming from Miss Dubois's mouth in one sentence and Jaxyn wondered if someone had kidnapped her mother and replaced her with some sort of doppelganger, but now that the girl stood by the fountain in the center of their new round-about driveway looking up at the four stories of victorian craftsmanship, everything made sense.

"Do you like it?" Miss Dubois asked her daughter, smiling up at the blue house with an uncharacteristic aura of pleasure.

"It's...nice..." Jaxyn replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Miss Dubois seemed not to notice the lack of enthusiasm that her daughter produced and took a deep breath of the country air, her red lips curling into a rare smile.

"Just two more days," she said. "The movers have to get everything arranged but once that's done this wonderful place will be ours!"

"Ours?" Jaxyn asked skeptically.

"Yes...Well, for the summer at least."

Jaxyn shaded her dark eyes from the sun and squinted at the building. Although it did not show and she would never have admitted such a thing, she was glad to be spending the summer away from the city in a place where no one knew her and no one would bother her. The blue house was indeed beautiful, with a long white porch and lots of elegant patterns carved into the trim, just like in the books Jaxyn was always reading. She could already feel the warm sun coming through the large window in her knew bedroom and the thought of no alarm clock nearly burst her heart with joy. However, like her mother, Jaxyn remained calm and collected, holding her chin high without so much as a smile.

"Well I have to get back to the office," Miss Dubois said, shoveling through her sleek black purse for the car keys. "Would you like to come with me or stay here and help Del for a while?"

Jaxyn shrugged and looked impartial, but in her mind she was adamant about staying. The office was such a cold and dreary place and everyone there smelled of mint and hairspray.

"I don't know, I don't really care," she lied. "I guess I'll just stay with Del."

Miss Dubois was already getting into the car and waved a hand dismissively. "You do that, hon," she said, both shiny black heels disappearing into the mustang as the door slammed shut.

Pushing the gas pedal to the ground Miss Dubois sped around the fountain and back down the long driveway in a spray of gravel, disappearing into the trees and leaving a cloud of dust behind.

There was silence again.

Jaxyn sighed and kicked at the ground drowsily, turning to look back at the house.

"Finally we're alone," she whispered, allowing a small smile to cross her flawless features.

There was a tall stone wall wrapped in ivy that encompassed the house and the immediate yard, which was practically all garden, and Jaxyn remembered a book that Del had read to her as a young girl. It was about a garden that was locked up for ten years behind towering stone walls, covered in ivy just like the ones before her.

"It would seem the gardener has been slacking," Jaxyn muttered with displeasure. Her eyes had wandered over to the tall weeping willow, its branches hanging like a green curtain all the way to the ground.

"Why no, Miss," a familiar voice spoke up.

Jaxyn turned quickly and cocked her head to the side, looking at her Nanny Del with a challenging expression. "What do you call that?" she asked, pointing to the tree.

"Beauty, Miss," Del replied.

"I call it untrimmed and neglected."

Del smiled her pearly white grin and placed a gentle dark hand on the girl's slender shoulder. "Look closer, Miss," she said. "The rest of the garden is just as trimmed and pruned as you be. Now why would anyone who takes that much care of those there flowers neglect the tree?"

Jaxyn said nothing but listened to Del's melodic voice, still staring at the weeping willow with a skeptical frown.

When she did not reply Del took it as a cue to answer. "Because it ain't neglected, Miss. The tree is most beautiful when it's able to grow, without bein' cut. You don't go cuttin' off a rose's petals 'cause they gettin' too big, so why is it any different for that there tree?"

"Because I don't like it!" Jaxyn argued. "If a tree gets too big than it gets tangled in the telephone wires or it blocks the windows. It might even fall over in a storm and break something."

Del smiled once more at the her stubborn mistress and looked back at the tree. "Then plant it in the right spot! Don't go plantin' things willy-nilly without thinkin' first. If you put the wrong flower in the wrong spot at the wrong time it gon' up an' die on ya. Trees ain't no different. It don't choose where it gone be planted. That weepin' willow is in just the right spot. Away from wires, and off by the pond."

Jaxyn folded her arms indignantly and looked at Del through her long dark lashes.

"It could still fall in a storm and break something," she said.

"Oh honey, trees were made to brave the storm!" Del replied, wrapping an arm around Jaxyn and turning her towards the house. "Come on now, you gone help me or not?"

The inside of the house was just as vintage as the outside, with swirling staircases and elaborate molding as well as patterned wallpaper in several of the rooms. Most of the floors were hardwood with pastelish looking carpets along the hallways and under furniture. Jaxyn did not care much for the dark color of the wood and most certainly did not approve of the carpets, but alas she knew it would not matter. Afterall, her mother was the designer and she merely the daughter. Anyway, it was only for one summer and carpets were hardly a matter worth ruining vacation for.

As Del led her through several different rooms all stuffed with semi-unpacked boxes and scattered furniture Jaxyn ran her hands along the molding, some of which was painted gold, and offhandedly noticed how clean everything was. Not a speck of dust in the whole great house.

"Did you do all this cleaning, Del?" Jaxyn asked, a small hint of admiration entering her tone.

"Me, Miss? Oh no, I just got here like yourself...Well, maybe not just, but a might closer than what it would take to get this here place sparklin'. Must've been them movers' kids."

Jaxyn looked up in astonishment at her Nanny, following the middle-aged woman into the large kitchen.

"Kids?" she asked.

"Yes'em."

"Whose?"

"Them people your mother hired to unpack everythang. I suppose she asked em' to clean up some too."

"Kids?" Jaxyn asked again, sitting down on one of the stylistically rusting stools.

"Well now, maybe not kids. A young lady and her two brothers came to unbox everythang. Mighty fine kids too, and strong at that!" Del replied with a chuckle. "I suppose they still be around somewhere's, gettin' everythang ready."

Jaxyn's mouth fell open for an instant with undignified shock and she shot up out of the stool.

"In here?" she whispered.

"For crying out loud, Alek!" said a voice that Jaxyn assumed to be one of the young men Del had mentioned. "Here, let me take it."

Jaxyn swallowed nervously and stared at the closed swinging door of the kitchen. There were strangers in the hall, and they were coming closer!

"No! It's not heavy anyway," said another voice. It was a girl, and one with a voice that Jaxyn marked instantly as quite odd. It was deeper than her own, but sounded somehow lighter and more... 'Relaxed' was the only word Jaxyn could think of, but even that did not quite suit it.

"You'll break it," the guy replied.

"Oh shush and grab that other box."

"You can't tell me to shush!"

"Too late, already did!" the girl laughed, coming through the kitchen door with a large box in her arms. It contained the priceless china vase that Jaxyn loved so dearly. The girl's face was not visible over the top but Jaxyn still managed to contain her surprise at the site of her bare feet and pants that looked like they came out of a construction site. The arms wrapped around the box were covered in a plaid shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and the bare skin was tanned in a way that only meant one thing. This girl spent very little time indoors.

Jaxyn suddenly felt herself already growing fond of the stranger in a queer way that she had never felt before. Never once in her life had she ever met anyone that came out of a book. Surely that was where this girl had come from!

"Alek, I tol-" the male voice stopped short when a tall young man in similar attire walked through the door. Jaxyn at once noticed the turquoise color of his astonished eyes and tried not to stare at them creepily, averting her attention to the situation.

"Oh, I'm sorry we didn't know you were here," he said, scratching the back of his tanned neck rather bashfully.

"What?...Oh," the girl Alek stopped short after placing the box on the counter. It was quite evident she had been completely unaware of the other persons in the room, which would explain the shouting. "Well this is awkward," she laughed lightly.

She too had the turquoise eyes and this time Jaxyn found herself feeling just a twinge of jealousy.

"Sorry we were being so loud," Alek apologized. "I'm Alek and this is my brother, Vin."

Jaxyn looked quickly from one to the other and matched the similarities. The same mesmerizing eyes, obviously, the same tanned skin, the same light brown hair, and the same smiles. Jaxyn decided that they were not what she would call really handsome or pretty, but the both of them would make anyone do a double-take.

They would look marvelous on canvas hanging in a gallery! Jaxyn thought. Her imagination only wandered for a split second and she managed a friendly smile, nodding politely before things got even more embarrassing.

"I'm Jaxyn Dubois," she replied.

"We assumed that," Alek remarked and Vin jabbed an elbow into her ribs.

"It's nice to meet you," he said, shooting a small glare at Alek who refused eye contact.

He's older.

"We were just moving some things around," Alek continued, gesturing towards the vase. "That looked expensive so we decided not to take it upstairs until we know where it's going."

"Where be the other one?" Del asked, grabbing the box and carefully removing the contents.

"Caolan? He's out back on the patio," Alek answered.

Her attention was quickly averted to the contents of a smaller box on the floor and Vin was already unpacking the glasses from his box and putting them in the closet.

"Did you clean this place?" Del asked.

"Well, yeah I guess we did," Alek replied, continuing with her unpacking.

"You guess it? Now what on earth does that mean?"

"Well 'we' as in collectively. Our family did as well as the Jeromes. They live next door to us across the creek. It's about a ten minute walk, five minute run."

Neighbors that it took ten minutes to see; that was something Jaxyn could get use to.

Not really knowing how to help and feeling herself unable to ask, Jaxyn quietly left the kitchen, walking back down the short hall into the dining room where there were millions of boxes piled everywhere marked 'Dining Room'. Back in the city the Dubois's had a dining room but they always just ate either in the living room or in their bedrooms. Human interaction was possible, but far from necessary. At least, that's what Jaxyn thought.

Getting bored the girl stopped peering into boxes and decided it was time to see her room. Miss Dubois had specifically asked Jaxyn what she wanted and being the so-uninterested girl that she was Jaxyn merely said, "Anything but grey!" in reference to her current room that was done in silver and grey. Everything, from top to bottom, looked like a storm cloud. A very expensive storm cloud, but still a storm cloud.

Slowly making her way up three flights of stairs Jaxyn came to the fourth floor - she had mentioned wanting to sleep up there - and looked around at yet another set of moulded walls made of the same dark wood. It was not the wood she hated so much but the fact that the color of it made everything look so dark.

The railing of the staircase turned to the left and at the end of the walkway there was a sort of indoor balcony that had been converted into a library. There were two dark and sleek leather 'easy chairs', if you could even call them that, and surrounding a huge circular window was a built in bookshelf from ceiling to floor.

"Who knew we had so many books," Jaxyn mumbled, running her fingers along the old bindings.

The bookshelf continued into the center wall and stopped by a tall and oddly skinny door, continuing again on the other side and along the right wall.

Looking around for another door Jaxyn shrugged her shoulders and walked over the polished wood floor, pausing in front of the door with slight hesitation. She was of course excited to see her new room, but also scared that her mom had ruined it, deciding to paint it lime green or something equally undesirable.

Lifting her chin and straightening her back Jaxyn quickly turned the knob and stepped into the bedroom, immediately regretting her lack of faith in Miss Dubois.

The room was lovely. It was painted the perfect cream color and the moulding was accentuated by very fine lines of gold. Being the last floor of the house the whole room was shaped more like an attic with a slanted ceiling and odd nooks and crannies everywhere making it quite a challenge to fit everything properly, but Jaxyn's mother had finally managed to impress her daughter. Off to the left was her twin sized bed with brand new quilted bedding made of different shades of blue fabric and the head of it fit perfectly into the gap between two walls. To the center of the room there was a sort of square nook that protruded outwards into a window and a new stained wooden desk was inserted into the nook just below the window. It was the perfect spot to sit and do whatever while having a wonderful view over the wall and out across the grassy pasture to the surrounding forest.

Where the ceiling slanted between the bed and the desk nook Miss Dubois had inserted a cleverly made bookshelf, the top slanting with the ceiling and fitting perfectly in. All of Jaxyn's most treasured books were set on the shelves along with several of her knick knacks she had collected from various countries. The back of the bookshelf had been done over with cork board and at the foot of it Jaxyn found a whole container of decorative tacks and a shoe box filled with all her old photos and postcards.

"Wow," Jaxyn laughed, the relief quite evident. She quickly removed her black pumps and felt the muted red carpet with her free toes, a rush of joy fluttering in her stomach. It was a strange choice of carpet with little specks of cream and extremely pale blue mixed with the muted red, but somehow it actually matched and let the rest of the room take the attention. The sunny clay colored curtains were tied back in a swooping manner and the moulded light fixture was painted with little red and blue flowers, the green leaves surrounding the whole thing. Jaxyn loved pretty curtains and she never even thought about painting mouldings to look like murals.

The room was definitely approved but Jaxyn did not understand the lengths her mother had gone through until she turned to look back at the door. Off to the right side was a closet door the same color as the wall and growing up from the side of it someone had painted an elegant blossoming tree, it's branches growing around the edges of the closet door and across the ceiling to the far wall where a floral couch sat, enveloped in the white petals.

"I don't believe it!" Jaxyn gasped.

Running across the room and falling onto the bed she stared up at the ceiling, suddenly feeling the urge to cry. She did not know why and she definitely did not do such a thing, but the urge was still there.

"You finally listened," she muttered.