Chapter 1 – Of Unexpectedness and Surprises

This summer is going to be different. It’s going to be the summer of transformations! As a fresh graduate of high school, I think it’s time I changed myself. Maybe I’ll even change my name once October comes around and I turn 18. Something plain and normal like… Sue. Surely there aren’t any lame pick up lines with the name Sue. Definitely nothing as bad as, “Hey Remy Martin… Cognac is amazing, I bet you’re amazing too.”

Not that I get hit on that often. I like to think it’s not because I’m hideous that I don’t get hit on, rather that I’m a bit of a nerd and shy as hell. I’m half Japanese and half Dutch, which makes for pretty freakishly pale skin with dark hair and eyes. And I don’t tan. Ever. Is it too much to ask for? Just one summer where I can be golden along with everyone else. Not vampiric, or lobsteric.

Now you’re probably thinking, “Where the heck does a girl get a name like Remy Martin?Good question.

The answer is – I gave my dear mother a lot of grief when she was pregnant with me, kicking and all that fun stuff. She drank a lot of alcohol to put up with my immature behaviour inside her stomach. To punish me, once I was born, she decided it would be absolutely brilliant to name me Remy, since my dad’s last name is already Martin. Mom wanted me to suffer during school and be the brunt of many jokes.

Just kidding. The truth is, my mom’s great. At least, she didn’t drink alcohol when she was pregnant with me.

The truth behind my name…

My mom thinks the name Remy is incredibly cute. The end. And my mom and dad had already agreed that she would get to name me, since my dad got to name my brother. His name is Martin.

That was a joke by the way. I mean, honestly, Martin Martin? Nah, my brother’s name is actually Phoenix, which is also a pretty weird name. But my brother and I are close. He’s only two and a half years older than me, so that made for plenty of fighting when we were younger. But since around four years ago, when he was sixteen and me fourteen, we stopped getting on each other’s nerves as much.

Now Phoenix has miraculously morphed into an awesome brother and often experiences Protective Older Brother syndrome, even though he’s five hours away, at Rockyview University; where I’m going this coming fall.

Anyways, I’m off topic. I’m calling this summer The Summer, because I’m determined to change! The Remy of old will die, with a new, more confident, risk-taking Remy emerging in her place!

Who am I kidding, in all honesty, I’m a bit lacking in the self confidence department. And interaction with boys? Nonexistent.

Ok that’s a bit of a lie. I have a couple of guy friends and I don’t have a problem talking with ordinary boys. I’m not that big of a loser.

But when it comes to one of Them… the incredibly attractive manly boys, well, I turn into a stuttering fool.

And I don’t even like most of those types of guys. I’ve learned the majority of them know they’re hot, and know you think they’re hot.

Not that I’m opposed to good looking boys. Not at all. In fact, I love the male species; maybe a little too much. Whenever I have a crush on a guy, I stalk him constantly.

Actually, let’s not use the word stalk. That’s just a little creepy. Let’s just say I fall for guys really fast, and really hard.

But after I stalk-ahem-notice a guy for a little longer, eventually I become disappointed by his flaws – which would have made him human.

Because, see, I tend to put boys I like on a little pedestal, since I tend to like boys I don’t talk to. I just feel like it’s such a let down when the guy you like ends up being a total jerk face. Hence it’s safer to like guys you don’t know. But once I’ve stalk - - followed them around long enough, I get disappointed and move on to someone else to swoon over.

My closest friend, Alice Remington, always tells me to loosen up and have fun. To stop trying to find the “perfect” guy and just experiment around once in a while. But trust me, that’s impossible for me. I experience broken-heart-syndrome every time a guy turns out not to be whom I thought he was.

Imagine if I went out with a guy for a couple weeks, months, years, and we suddenly broke up. Remy would be a blubbering, suicidal mess. And I really don’t want to kill myself just yet. So I’m perfectly happy admiring from afar.

Besides, Alice is totally opposite from me. She has no problem dating and dumping them; and first of all, she has no problem finding them. The male species tend to flock to Alice like… like… bees to honey. She’s drop dead gorgeous, all 5’8 long-legged-ness with the kind of flowing blonde hair people like me only dream about. To put it in a sentence, she’s unrealistically beautiful.

Alice makes me want to grow. 5’4 and a half is not the ideal height when you want to get noticed along with your best friend. But lately, Alice has changed too. She no longer dates them and dumps them. She’s been used by guys so many times that she’s pretty much given up on them. Which probably has something to do with me having a fear of relationships as well.

Oh, and I’m very, very non confrontational.

Today is the second official day of summer vacation, and it’s not going well. Alice left last night to go on a family vacation to Florida and my parents left this morning to go on a month-long cruise by themselves.

So I’m all by my lone-some until tonight, when Phoenix comes home. My parents badgered him until he agreed to come back home to “take care of me.” How humiliating. A 17, almost 18 year old girl needs her older brother to come home and take care of her.

But in all honesty, I’m kind of glad he’s coming back. I hate, despise, abhor, loathe being alone in a house. My rather active imagination has no trouble coming up with hundreds of scenarios where I end up killed by a random thief. Oh, and I suck at cooking.

I changed my pajamas into comfortable sweats and padded into the kitchen to find some breakfast. Pouring myself a glass of chocolate milk while humming mindlessly to myself, and finding the Chocolate Cocoa Puffs cereal, I sat down on the kitchen table and started reading the newspaper.

I flipped and read through each section’s front pages. In my mind, if the news is important, it would be in the front page of each section. Nothing is worth reading in the other pages, except for Sports and Entertainment. Heh.

I finished my breakfast; put the bowls in the sink, ran back upstairs to change into jeans and a t-shirt, and grabbed my camera. Photography is a passion of mine. I don’t like taking pictures of people, but more of scenery and buildings.

I always feel like people look fake in pictures, unless it’s an unplanned picture. I’m pretty sure everyone practices smiling in the mirror, looking for the exact perfect angle and smile to look the most attractive. The result is unnatural faces and fakeness.

The wall in my room is filled with both black and white and coloured photographs. I’m not a hardcore photographer, with fancy equipment, but I love my pictures.

I had a couple hours by myself before Phoenix arrived so I decided to head out on a walk and take some random photos and see how they turned out.

I walked around for longer than expected, and it was pretty dark by the time I got home. I noticed Phoenix’s car in the driveway. Oops. He probably thought I got kidnapped out of our home and was being held for ransom. Phoenix also had quite an imagination.

I opened the front door and looked around tentatively. No sound.

“Hello?” I called out. Immediately, I heard the familiar sound of my brother’s pounding footsteps and within seconds I was lifted into the air and spun around.

“REMY! WERE YOU TRYING TO GIVE US A HEART ATTACK? I EXPECTED YOU TO BE AT HOME ONCE WE ARRIVED!” My brother yelled at me, whilst still hugging me tightly.

Wait… we?? Who was we? “Can’t… breathe… can’t… explain…” I gasped. Phoenix quickly set me down with a muttered apology.

I finally got a good look at him. He looked the same as usual, all six feet of him. He actually looks like me, except… more masculine.

I showed him my camera as a way of explaining. “I went out to take some pictures and lost track of time, sorry. And what’s this whole ‘we’ thing?” I asked him, with eyebrows raised.

Phoenix actually had the decency to look a little embarrassed, and glanced behind him. I looked behind him, and a few feet away stood a boy and a girl his age, looking at me tentatively.

I groaned. Brother dearest always had a way of bringing friends home to stay over. This was probably going to be another summer filled with Phoenix’s friends.

I looked at the girl a little bit more and realized she was Phoenix’s girlfriend, Victoria. She was pretty in a bubbly way, with slightly wavy auburn hair and a few freckles on her face. I liked her, whenever Phoenix brought her home to hang out, she always treated me like a friend and not her boyfriend’s annoying little sister. I gave her a little wave.

Victoria returned my wave with a huge smile. I then turned my attention to the boy beside her. And gulped. And felt myself turn red as a tomato.

Mystery guy was a major heart-attack-hottie. He was taller than Phoenix, about six feet two maybe, with brown hair so dark it was almost black. But his eyes were bright, vivid green. Those kinds of eyes should be disallowed. My eyes were feeling quite inferior. But somehow, I got a feeling that this boy-man (definitely not a boy, but not quite a man) was really sad, or depressed inside.

I glanced at Phoenix with question in my eyes, silently screaming WHO IS THIS GUY??

Phoenix cleared his throat awkwardly and said, “Remy, meet David Masters, Victoria’s twin brother. David, meet Remy Martin, my sister.”

Now, you’re probably thinking that I’m really lucky to have such a heartthrob living in my house for at least the next month. Nope. My summer is ruined. How can anyone expect me to live in peace when there was some David Masters living possibly next door to my room? My entire day would be filled with blushing and stuttering.

David took a step forward and stuck out his hand. I tentatively accepted it and looked up to see him smiling at me. Not a jerk-smirk-I-know-you-want-me smile, but a genuinely nice-to-meet-you smile. His voice was deep and surprisingly soft when he said, “Nice to meet you, Remy… Martin.” I looked up again when he said my name, and saw his eyes laughing at me. At my stupid name probably.

All guys were the same! They never take me seriously once they make the connection from girl-Remy Martin to cognac-Remy Martin. I huffed, looked away, and announced loudly, “Well then, since obviously I don’t have a choice in whether you guys are staying here or not… I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

As I stomped upstairs, I heard Phoenix laugh quietly and say, “She likes you man. Usually when I bring strangers home she doesn’t even talk to them.”

See?! I’m mad and nobody even takes me seriously. I don’t like it when Phoenix brings people home unannounced. Stupid, ignorant, brothers.

Knock knock.

I had been rearranging some photos on my wall and jumped from the sudden intrusion of the silence. I called out an absentminded “Come in,” and tried to finish hanging the last photo, which I wanted to hang a couple inches higher than I was able to reach. Jumping up and down in a vain effort to reach the elusive ‘perfect spot’ for my photo, I suddenly realized someone had opened the door and was hanging around my doorway.

I turned around and realized it was Victoria’s twin brother, David. I promptly turned a beet red and started nervously fidgeting with my stubborn picture that had caused me to act like a loser.

I saw that David was fighting a smile at my embarrassing antics. Okay, so he liked to laugh at me. At least he was trying to be nice. So I gave him a shy smile back, still feeling my face heat up like a microwave oven does when heating a pizza pop.

David suddenly turned serious, took a step closer and said, “Remy, I’m really sorry if you thought I was in any way rude downstairs. And I thought Phoenix had told you that my sister and I would be staying with you guys this summer.”

I sighed, “Phoenix never tells me anything. But whatever. Make yourself at home I guess…”

“Okay, thanks. Do you want me to hang your photo for you?” David motioned towards the forgotten picture I was still holding.

I blushed slightly, remembering the whole jumping up-and-down event. “Sure, that would be great.” I handed him the picture, and without even having to go on his tippytoes, David got the picture in my envisioned ‘perfect spot’. I beamed happily. It was perfect!

I noticed David surveying my room, from my double bed, to the ordinary white dressers, to the walls, all plastered with different photographs I’d taken in the last couple of years.

“Did you take all of these?” David looked at me questioningly.

“Yep… I know I’m not a professional or anything, but I love capturing things on film, so I can remember them forever.” I realized I was embarrassed and rambling, but continued, “I really should take them down sometime, since it’s not that good and my dad says my wall is getting really cluttered, but-”

David interrupted me with a small grin, “Your pictures are beautiful.”

With one last wave, he walked, no, sauntered out of my room.

I closed the door and leaned against it, closing my eyes. Okay, so Mr. Dashing David is hot and nice. I don’t think having a crush on your brother’s girlfriend’s brother is a good idea though.

That being decided, I jumped into the shower. I can’t exactly turn off my emotions towards somebody, but usually once I make up my mind that some guy is off limits, I can usually control my urges to pounce on him or something.

Friends. We can be friends. Easy peasy. I’ll just shut off any non-platonic feelings I have for him. And seriously, he keeps giving me the impression that something’s a little off with him, not in a creepy I’m–going-to-rape-you way, but just a kind of quiet sadness around him. I heard from Alice that it’s not a good idea to be involved with a guy that has a lot of baggage. And since Alice’s word is usually truth, I should listen to her.

BAM

The door to my room slammed open, and the next thing I knew, my blankets were yanked from on top of me, exposing me to the chilly morning air.

I screamed, and opened one blurry eye to see Phoenix standing by my bed, a huge grin on his face.

“Come on sister darling, no time to waste! We’re all going to Julia Stevenson’s party tonight, and Victoria said you two need some female bonding time so she arranged a shopping trip. Apparently me and David are supposed to stay three feet behind you guys at all times, to hold your bags and stuff.” He beamed happily.

Yeah, Phoenix is weird like that. He’s so desperately in love with Victoria he’ll do anything for her. He also loves the fact that Victoria tries to hang out with me as well, so I’m not always feeling all third-wheely.

I glared at my brother, “Nobody goes shopping at,” I looked at the clock to my right, “9:30am. Wake me up at a less unholy hour.”

I never wake up early unless it’s for school, or if I want to catch a sunrise on film. Shopping trips are not worth losing beauty sleep over.

I turned around, fluffed my pillow, and tried to reclaim my sleep. I suddenly heard running footsteps and a “Remy! We have to get to the mall before the rush! Let’s GO!” Victoria’s voice was way too cheerful for this time in the morning.

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes again, only to see Phoenix, Victoria and David all standing at the foot of my bed, fully dressed and all looking as beautiful as… Abercrombie models. These situations are what cause me to have no self esteem.

Remy equals pajama-clad loser.

Phoenix + Victoria + David equals not pajama-clad losers.

“FINE! GET OUT AND LET ME CHANGE!” I screamed, pushing them out of the door and slamming it behind them.

Great, and last night had to be the night I wore my faded pink Hello Kitty pajamas to bed. Hello embarrassment. Goodbye dignity.

A/N: I feel like this is a really, really slow first chapter. I've changed it a bunch of times but I just can't get it to be more 'hooking'. Hmm..

UPDATE 03/24/08: I'm slowly going around reformatting the chapters, as all my "--"s to change scenes got deleted, so I have to insert a horizontal ruler instead. :)