Chapter One

The room was a mess. Clothes littered the bed and the floor; toiletries were scattered all over the desk and coming out of the bag that was on its side. There was an open suitcase on the bed with clothes folded neatly inside of it, but they would probably be taken out in another minute. Danielle Parks', normally neat and orderly, room looked like it threw up.

Danielle Marie Parks had dark brown hair and light blue eyes. She's five feet tall with slight curves; she looks a lot like her father. Her mother named her after Danielle's great-grandmother. She never met her (she died before she was born), but she knew her mother was close to her.

Dani looked around the room she couldn't find anything. The messy room was driving her crazy. She couldn't wait until all of this was over and she could go back to the way things were supposed to be.

Dani and her parents were going to visit her mother's friend, Alexander Charleston, in Helena, Montana. This would be the first time that Dani has ever been on a vacation, let alone really out of the Cleveland area. She's lived on the same street, in the same house, all her life. She's known the same people since she started school—and was friends with most of them. Her school didn't offer any out-of-state field trips, so this was all knew to her.

She and her parents were going to be staying in a small hotel that Alexander was paying for. The hotel was right around the block from his house, so it was close enough but they still got their privacy (or at least that's what her parents told her).

They had the trip planned for months, but they decided to tell her about it the day school let out. She only had a week to pack for a three-month trip, and now she was digging through her things frantically to get ready in the one day window she had left.

The late notice, Dani could handle. What she couldn't believe was that by the time her parents told her about the trip, everything was already paid for. She couldn't even get her best friend to go with her. It wasn't like her parents didn't like Allison, but they said they didn't think her parents would like her to be gone for the entire summer.

This would also be the first time Dani and Allison ever did anything separately. They had been friends since kindergarten; they did everything together. She had no idea what it would be like not to see her for three months!

On the other hand, she wanted to see where—this guy she's known her entire life-lived. She bet it was amazing. This was probably the only chance she would ever get, so she was going to take it.

As she was thinking, she folded the shirt and put it into the suitcase. The door banged open behind her and a pair of hands landed on her shoulders.

"Hey!" a female voice said happily.

"Don't you knock?" Dani said jokingly, not turning around. She continued to add clothes to the suitcase.

"If I did, you wouldn't answer; this way you can't stop me."

"I could if I locked the door," Dani said, turning around and giving her best friend a hug.

Allison Thompson hugged her back with a squeal. "But you wouldn't do that. You love me way too much."

"That's very true."

Allison had dark skin and dark brown hair that went just past her shoulders. Her brown eyes were set into a long face, and Dani had to look up to see them; Allison was, after all, two inches taller than Dani.

Allie was extremely charismatic; it was very rare that anyone ever saw her get angry. Dani was really the only person outside her family that had seen that, and it was only because they were so close.

They broke the hug; Dani got another look at the room and scowled.

"No offense, Allie, but why are you here?" she asked, turning back to the problem on the bed.

"Oh, look who's a grouch today." Allison lightly chuckled.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I'm leaving in the morning and I'm not even close to done packing yet."

"Well then it looks to me like you could use a break."

"Seriously, Allie, I don't have time for this!"

"Okay, okay, calm down. I'll help you pack and clean up, and we'll have this place looking like normal in no time."

Dani clenched her jaw; her room has never been this messy. She doubted they could get it done, and she really didn't want to leave it like that in the morning; she didn't know what she would do if she had to deal with it right before they left.

"Would you relax? Take a deep breath."

Dani closed her eyes and nodded.

They got to work sorting through all the stuff in the room. It took them about three hours to get everything packed into two suitcases and a carry—on. Dani's ticket was in the front pocket of the carry—on and she was ready to leave in the morning. They picked up the last few things lying around the room.

They hung out for the rest of the day before Allison had to leave for dinner. After she left Dani did one last check to make sure she had everything before bringing it all downstairs for the morning.