Chapter 1: THE CURSE OF SUMMER

LANA

Summer seriously is the best time of the year, in my opinion at least. I mean, what is there not to love? Sitting in the sun on a deck-chair, soaking up the sun with a cola in one hand and a book in the other... sheer bliss.

Drip! Drip! Drip!

I shrieked and launched myself at my oldest brother who had just ruined my perfect morning of tanning, the jerk!

"Daniel! You're such a freak!" I growled in frustration, wiping away the water he had dripped all over me before sitting back down.

He grinned evilly at me for a split second before he pulled on his "innocent" face and looked down at me with those big blue eyes which so many girls have fallen hopelessly in love with.

Daniel is probably the perfect combination of our parents with our mother's blue eyes and flawless skin and our father's dark hair and broad shoulders. He could have been classed as tall, dark and handsome if he were just a few inches taller. Instead he has to settle for medium height, dark and handsome – not that the female species mind all that much.

"What did I do?" the innocence oozed from his voice.

"Oh you know what you did!"

He shook his head so that pool water sprayed all over me on purpose, his personal form of sister-torture.

"Daniel!" I shrieked again, trying to kick him away from me.

He chuckled and hovered over me, blocking out the sunlight. I glared at him from behind my sunglasses, in the hope that he'd just back off and leave me alone.

It didn't work.

"Why on earth do you dress like that, just to sit by the pool and not even touch the water? It's pointless." he moaned.

I slipped off the shades and looked down at my bikini clad body, pale from not seeing the sun all through the winter. I can't really tan all that well, being naturally pale, but I don't have to look like a ghost.

"I'll get in the water later. It's too cold now." I managed to whine, sounding like a toddler.

Daniel's eyebrows shot upward and he grinned at me before reciting the phrase I heard so often as a child.

"Would you like some cheese with that whine?"

I slipped my shades back on and close my eyes, determined to ignore him.

"Bugger off, you big bully."

I heard him chuckle again before I felt his arms wrapping around me, one slipping under my legs as he lifted me up, determination in his eyes. I knew exactly where this was leading to – the pool. I screamed, trying to fight him with all of my might, but the bully is bigger than me and I stand no chance. My arms and legs flailed in helpless fury as Daniel tossed me into the pool, following closely behind and splashing water all over the place. The big brute merely grinned at me in triumph and waited for my retaliation.

"Lana, are you alright dear?" my mom called from the deck where she sat, worry clear in her voice.

"She's fine mom." Daniel answered before I even get a chance.

The jerk was always doing silly stuff like this - tossing me in the air, eating my "secret" stash of chocolate, playing dot-to-dot with the few freckles on my shoulders... But I have to love him.

He's my brother after all.

"I'll get you back later." I mouthed to him, climbing out the freezing cold water.

He didn't seem to believe me. Instead he sent a wave of water hurtling toward me, laughing as I jump away. For someone as intelligent as he is, the guy can act like the stupidest person on earth. I'd say that he acts blonde, but blondes may get offended.

"You're such a girly-girl." he complained, floating on his back.

"It's surprising I've managed to keep some level of femininity living with you guys - even if I'm only around for a few months each year." I retorted.

He pulled a face at me but didn't push the subject any further, knowing where it would ultimately lead, and we fell into comfortable silence.

Our relationship has always been different - more jokey and less serious. He would have actually made a brilliant stand-up comedian but he chose to study to be a liar... I mean lawyer... instead.

Yep, we have a Harvard boy in the family.

"When are the twins coming home?" I asked, lying down on the paving around the pool.

Daniel ducked under the water and emerged up beside me, leaning his crossed arms on the edge of the pool.

"Who knows, brat. Sometime today I should think." he mused, drawing pictures with a wet finger on the paving.

I sighed and got up, fetching a towel from the pool chair I had been lounging on and wrapped it around me as a slight breeze attacked my skin with frozen fingers and caused goosebumps to sprout all over my skin. For some reason, this year's summer was cooler than usual – a clear sign that it was going to be a short summer season. That was a bad sign for me.

"What's on your mind, brat?" Daniel shook the water from his hair like a dog would, whipping up a towel and drying his torso before he turned back to me expecting an answer.

I shrugged, trying not to fall prey to his ninja-lawyer skills - I swear the guy could make a mute talk! Instead, I skillfully turned the tables on him.

"Was just thinking that you haven't told me about your year." I smiled at him.

I think he knew that I was lying, but he answered without skipping a beat, unwilling or unable to broach a topic which he hates so much. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and guided me toward the porch where my mother stood with a tray of lemonade and brownies.

"Well for starters, I got dumped. Turned out I was too good looking for Angela and she was tired of looking like death when she stood next to me." Dan grinned stupidly, swiping a glass of lemonade from the tray and kissing our mother on the cheek.

"I'm sure it was like that." she laughed, winking at me, her voice laden with sarcasm.

I couldn't help but laugh, thinking of my brother's supermodel now-ex-girlfriend dumping him because she was intimidated by his looks. It's just ludicrous!

My mother put down the tray and wandered over to the large table which she had placed strategically so that she could watch her children play in the pool while she did her various arts and crafts. Today, hundreds of photographs littered the tabletop.

"Scrap booking?"

She nodded her head, picking up the oldest photo which exists of me and placing it in my hands. I stared down at the face of the scared young girl, freckles sprinkled across her nose and curly ginger hair making me resemble Annie the orphan. Although, I guess the red hair and freckles weren't the only things which made me resemble the fictional character. In the photo I was sitting on my mother's lap on the stairs of the orphange, clutching the most disgustingly tattered doll I have ever laid eyes on. My mother looked gorgeous, as usual, and I just seemed out of place in her arms.

"Mom, why did you choose me?" I asked, a question which I think I've asked over a thousand times.

Mom smiled, as she always does before she replied as she always does, "It was just love at first sight."

The answer has never varied, not since the moment I had driven home with the strangers which became my parents. I bend down and kiss my mother's forehead before handing her the picture. I had grown up knowing that I was adopted, but I never held it against them nor did I have the urge to hunt down my real parents. I had been chosen by the most amazing parents on the planet, and my real parents were clearly not worth my time and effort. I didn't have many memories of my life before becoming the daughter of Julia and John Summers, and those I did have are more glimpses into a past which didn't seem to fit in with my current life. A woman who dressed in black from head to toe waving a ruler at me, a curly blonde lady with a sunny face putting a plaster on my grazed knee... I knew that neither of them were my birth mother. No – that woman didn't feature in my life at all.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

The voice broke through my thoughts and a smile flashed unrestrained across my face.

"On the porch Bill, come on out." Mom called out, not bothering to get up and guide my father's best friend and our neighbour through the house he knows as well as his own.

"Good morning everyone." Bill beamed, shaking Dan's hand and squeezing my mother's before he came over and gave me a big bear hug. "I'm so glad that you arrived safely Lana. Your parents always miss you kids whenever you're gone."

Bill had been fed the same story we had fed everyone to disguise my disappearance for three quarters of the year. To the rest of the world, I went to school at Darlton Academy – a prestigious all-girls boarding school on the opposite side of the country. Only my family and my best friend knew the truth - that I was only awake for a few months each year.

The first time I slipped into the comatose state in which I spent most of the year, my father went into a medical panic and had me rushed into the emergency unit at the hospital he works at. Luckily for me, he insisted in treating me himself and soon realized that my body was shutting down, refusing to digest anything that the nurses pumped into my stomach or fed me through drips and other medical paraphernalia. Heartbroken at my poor prognosis, he decided to let me die at home in peace. 

Only, I didn't die.

"Thanks Mr Douglas." I smiled at him, returning his hug.

My mother offered him a glass of lemonade and he took one, sitting next to her as he took a sip. I watch as he picked up the picture I had just been holding, smiling at it.

"I remember this day, Julia." he said, holding the picture up to show my mom.

She chuckled and grabbed his hand, a sad look in her eyes. I could tell that she wasn't thinking of the day that she and Dad had brought me home.

Danny had once told me that Bill's wife had run away with another man, leaving with their only child only a week after Mom and Dad had brought me home from the orphanage. Dan had said that Bill had seemed to disappear into hiding for weeks, barely eating unless Mom went and forced him to eat what she had cooked for him. I don't remember any of this, but it was pretty clear by the look on Mom's face that she did.

Bill clearly saw the look too because he looked away, toward my mother's rose bushes.

"Rhett's coming to stay with me for his final year in school." he said quietly, as if he's not really expecting anyone to pay him much attention.

I was surprised by his sudden change in demeanour, his happiness turned to brooding within a few moments. Rhett? Who was Rhett? The name rang a bell at the back of my mind but all I could think of was Rhett Butler from Gone with the wind – a film I'd forced my brothers to watch with me about a hundred times.

Mom glanced over to us with a look we all know, and Dan and I quickly but quietly made our way to the back door, slipping inside the house and leaving Bill to the psychological bandage which is Mom.

"Who's Rhett?" I asked Dan as we made our way to the kitchen to hunt down something to snack on.