Chapter 1

A Letter

“Bree! There’s a letter for you!” I skipped down the stairs happily to the living room to get my mail. “Thanks Mom!” I couldn’t wait to open the letter. It’s been a long time since I received mails from the mail box. In this modern century, almost everybody uses e-mails and IMs to communicate. So it’s quite rare if you receive a snail mail from a friend or family. I ripped the envelope open and read the letter.

Dear Bree,

Hey, how’re you doing so far? Just to let you know, this is gonna be a really really short letter. Guess what? I’m inviting you over to my dad’s resort for a holiday! Remember the beach we used to go to when we were young? There was an empty land for sale, so dad bought it and built his resort there! Isn’t that cool? And, I’m inviting you over for the opening ceremony. It’s during the summer holidays. It’s gonna be a blast! Don’t forget to invite your friends too. Carrie and the cute guy. What’s his name? Josh, is it? Anyway, I can’t wait to see you guys again. Tell Aunt Cecil I said hi, k? Love ya!

Lotsa love with a whole bunch of hugs and kisses,

Liz

I smiled upon reading her letter. Liz is my cousin. Her name’s actually Elizabeth, but we all call her Liz for short. She’s a year younger than me. Liz has two younger brothers, Alvin and Evan. Both of them are ten. They’re adorable yet extremely disgusting twins, especially during meal time. From past experiences, I’ve learnt to keep a three meter distance away from them when they’re eating. Once you see the way they eat, you’ll know why. During my last visit, my favourite blouse was covered with potato gravy. It’s been hanging in my closet since then. My poor blouse. I only got to wear it twice for goodness sake!

Oh, I forgot. Let me introduce myself. My name’s Brianna O’ Conner, but I prefer Bree. Brianna sounds a little too old-fashioned to me. Bree is nice. It’s short, casual, easy to pronounce and a little sophisticated in a way. Anyway, I’m still studying at Pullman High School. My brother’s still sending his applications for college. Yes, I have an older brother. His name is Brad. Most of my friends think that he’s good looking and all, but to me, he’s just plain annoying. When we were younger, we used to fight a lot. Usually, when I’m close to losing the fight, I’ll just scream and cry. Then our parents would come rushing towards me, checking if I was alright. And that means I’ve won the fight. I always feel smug after winning a fight between Brad and me. Of course, Brad would get some scolding from them. But he doesn’t really care that much. Most of the time he’ll just stand there while they lecture him and then walk away when they’re done. Now that we’re older, we don’t really fight that much anymore, though we still argue with each other over little matters. I still win most of the arguments, but I sometimes feel like Brad’s just giving in to me, letting me have my way. Although we both squabble a lot, we still love each other. I guess it’s the blood-tie that keeps us together.

Both of us live with our mother. Her name’s Cecilia, everyone calls her Cecil for short. We don’t see our dad anymore. Not since I was in first grade. He died in a car accident. Some drunken driver was speeding down the road at night and ran over him. It was a hit and run. The driver isn’t caught yet. I still remember how much I fidgeted on the couch while waiting for him to return that night. Mom was pondering around the room and Brad was watching TV. Finally the phone rang, and it was the cops. They were the ones who told us the news. Mom rushed us to the hospital immediately after the call. Of course, we had no idea what was going on. Mom was too distressed to explain. When we reached, they took us to dad. He was lying on the hospital bed; his clothes were stained with blood. We only had a few minutes with him before he drew his last breath. We were crying by his bedside for hours. Even after we went home, it was still hard to accept the fact that dad was gone and never coming back. I used to cry every time I thought of him. That was nine years ago. Now, I’m somehow stronger. I don’t cry that often anymore. It’s not that I don’t miss him; I still miss him a lot. We all do. Once in a while I’d shed a few drops of tears when I think of him. Life goes on no matter what happens. So mom had to take over the responsibility of raising both of us all by herself. Luckily she had both her family and dad’s to support her. It’s not easy raising two little kids alone, especially when they fight a lot. Which is so true in our case.

When I went into the kitchen, Brad was there with his head stuck in the refrigerator. Searching for food, as usual. “Ow! Damn, that hurts.” I was so excited to tell mom about Liz’s letter that I didn’t see where I was going. I accidentally hit the table leg with my big toe. It really hurt a lot. “What’s wrong? Did Lil’ Miss Clumsy hit her toe?” Brad was looking at me with a sarcastic smile plastered on his face. With milk around his mouth, it’s obvious that he’s been drinking cold milk out of the carton again. I frowned at him.

“No. The table came alive and stepped on my toe. What do you think?”

“Oh, how very interesting. I wonder when will your bed come alive and swallow you whole.”

I wanted to snap right back at him. As I opened my mouth, I shut it back. It’s better not to start a fight now. I wouldn’t want mom to be in a bad mood when I tell her about the letter. So, instead of snapping back at him, I stared at his milk moustache and teased him back. “Brad, why do you always have to be so disgusting?” As usual, he looked at me with that innocent face, making me look like the evil villain next to him. “Haven’t you looked into the mirror yet, Santa?” Then he understood. Without answering my question, Brad went to the sink and washed his mouth, and then looked in the mirror. He always repeats the same sentence after styling his hair in the mirror. “Yo Brad, looking good.” Brad always thinks that he looks like Alex Pettyfer because they both have blonde hair and dreamy eyes. But the fact is, Brad is nowhere near to Alex. Sure, he’s slim, tall and has six packs with many girls crazy over him, but Alex is so much hotter than him. And cuter too.

“Where’s mom? I need to ask her something.” He ignored me. I was starting to get impatient. “Hello? Can you stop drooling over yourself in the mirror and tell me where mom is?” He finally turned his head and looked at me. “She’s out in the backyard, Bree-an-na. And, if you’re smart enough, you would take my advice and wait for her in here.” That’s weird.

“Stop calling me that. You know I hate it when you call me with my full name. And why would I wait here for her?”

“Mom’s keeping the laundry. If you go out now, she’ll ask you to mow the lawn.”

I was a little confused. I’ve never mowed the lawn. “Mom has never asked me to mow the lawn.”

Brad sighed loudly and said “Yes, she doesn’t ask you to mow the lawn because she always asks you to ask me to mow it instead. I’ve got a date with Michelle later, and I don’t wanna get all sweaty and smelly. So can you please just wait for her here?”

“Michelle? Who’s she?”

“Oh, nobody. Just my new daughter. What do you think?”

“Okay, now you’re just being sarcastic. What about Rose? I thought you

liked her.”

“We broke up.”

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. We broke up."

“What?! Why? You just started dating her 3 weeks ago!”

“Yeah, but we don’t get along that well. Besides, she bores me to death.”

“Oh, sure. Next thing you know, you’ll think that Michelle is boring enough to be your grandma.” Without waiting for him to answer, I went out to talk to mom. I ran as fast as I could across the yard.

Most people think that running is not a problem for me since I have slim and long legs. But they’re wrong. Unlike athletic Brad, I can’t even run for a hundred meters without stopping to catch my breath. And, most of the time, I trip over my own feet when I run. So, running was never my kind of sport. In fact, if I had a list of my favourite sports, running would be way down at the triple digits. By the time I reached my mom, I looked like I’ve just ran for 10 miles. Mom looked up at her red-faced daughter in surprise. “What’s wrong? From the way you ran, you looked like you were being chased by a ghost.” Ha-ha. Very funny. “No. The letter’s from Liz. She’s inviting me to her dad’s new resort on the beach during the summer hols. Can I go? Please?” I said everything in one breath.

It took mom a while to think my words over. Finally, she looked back at me. “Are you sure it’s safe? I mean, going there alone without Brad and I. It could be dangerous. What if you got lost in the woods or someone caught you?” This was expected. Their kids going somewhere away from home, every mother’s nightmare. “Don’t worry mom, it’ll be fine. Nothing’s gonna happen.” I urged. “Besides, Carrie and Josh will be going too, and Liz will be there, and her family, and…”

“Okay, okay. I get it. Many people are gonna be there.” She looked thoughtful for a while. I put on my most angelic face and looked at her with my puppy-dog eyes. “I’ll have to talk to Celine about th-”

“Yes!” I pumped my fist up in the air. “Thank you mom, I love you!” I started jogging back to the house. “Wait! That’s not a promise! I said I’ll talk to her first.” She called after me.

“Okay mom!”

“Oh, and ask Brad to come out please. The lawn really needs some mowing.”

“Sure. No problem.”

When I opened the back door, Brad was nowhere to be seen. I could hear heavy rock music blasting from his room. I dashed up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, and burst into his room. It took my eyes some time to adjust to the sudden brightness of the room. Brad’s room window was open, and the blinding sun light shined directly at his door.

“Geez, haven’t you ever heard of knocking before you enter someone’s room?”

“It’s not like you’re undressed or something. By the way, mom wants you to mow the lawn. Now.” I pressed my lips together to stop myself from smiling. Brad looked frustrated. He gave me the you-are-so-annoying stare as he slowly got up and reached over the bed for his shirt. “Good luck mowing the lawn. And, have fun on your date with Michelle.” I turned to leave and headed for my room.

I reached for the phone and dialed Carrie’s number. After three rings, someone picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Carrie! Can you wait for a minute? I’m gonna put Josh on the other line.”

“Sure. I’ll wait.”

It took Josh seven rings before he picked up the phone. From the sleepiness in his voice, I guessed that I must have woke him up from his sleep. Glancing at my clock, I didn’t feel bad. It was almost 12 noon; he should be awake a long time ago. After connecting all three lines together, and making sure that Josh was wide awake, I asked them to wait for a few seconds. I could hear the anxiousness in their voices as they answered me. I was so excited. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths, calmed myself down, and slowly opened my eyes.

“Guys, we have a holiday planned.”