I was having a horrible vacation and it was all because of the bruise that idiot Harding gave me. My face was swollen for two days and though the swelling was now gone, I still had that monstrous bruise. Christmas dinner had been especially bad. I had felt all the guests gawking at me – including my boyfriend, Jonathan.

And now school was only four days away...

“It’ll be okay, JJ,” my mother said soothingly while I sat at the kitchen table, moaning over a bowl of ice cream – which had almost as much whipped cream on top as actual ice cream. “It’s almost gone now.”

“Almost, but not completely. I can’t go back to school looking like this!”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “Get over yourself, Jamie.”

I glared at him but he wasn’t paying attention to me.

“So what’s for dinner?” he asked my mother, ignoring the fact that I was stepping on his foot.

“Lasagna,” my mom replied. She was making it to make me feel better, I knew. “Would you like to help?”

Aaron gave me a panicked glance. “Ah...no, thanks. What time will it be ready?”

“Give me two hours. I have other things to prepare for our guests.”

I dropped my spoon. “Guests? We’re having guests? With me looking like this?”

“You got through Christmas dinner fine.”

“I don’t want to go through that again,” I moaned.

“I think I’ll go to Tonie’s for a while,” Aaron announced.

“Mom, can I go to Tonie’s?”

“No!” Aaron yelled.

“Jamie...”

“Please?”

She sighed. “All right. You can hide and I’ll save you some dinner.” She pointed at Aaron with the tip of a knife. “But you can’t hide. You’ll be back in two hours, all right?”

“I hate you, Jamie.”

I jumped up and kissed my mother happily. “You’re the best, mom! You’re awesome!” I exclaimed, skipping to the door.

Aaron sighed. “I’ll be back,” he promised my mother as he followed me out. “All right, Jamie. Do you really want to go to Tonie’s with me?” he asked once we were outside.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You don’t like her. And you don’t like it when we’re together.”

“That’s not true. It’s just that when you’re together, you make me sick. But I don’t care. I mean, Jonathan’s there.”

Aaron sighed again. “Fine. You can come with me,” he growled, taking my hand and leading me around the house to the garage. “Just don’t bother us, understand?”

“Perfectly,” I said with my most winsome smile.

Aaron grumbled a little about it, but he didn’t really have a choice. He stuffed me into the front seat of my car, got in on the driver’s side, and in forty minutes we were driving up the Melmans’ driveway, which was more in the nature of a road than a driveway. The Melmans were not as rich as the Hardings were, but their estate – which was right next to the latter’s – was a fantastic place. It had a lake, an orchard, and vast stables which were at the heart of the family business. Jonathan and Tonie’s mother bred horses – for races, mostly – and also looked after horses whose owners were too busy to even remember they had one. Helping his mother out took up most of Jonathan’s spare time, and so I was happy to see him step out onto their porch as we drove up to their house.

“Jonathan!” I exclaimed, running out of the car as soon as Aaron stopped it.

He looked surprised to see me but didn’t seem half as pleased as he should be. “Jamie. I didn’t know you were coming over.”

I pointed to my eye. “We have guests. What’s wrong?”

“I have to go. My parents have gone off on a trip and I’ve got a horse to move and tons of other errands. I’m sorry.”

“Oh...Well, I’m hanging out until our guests leave. Maybe you’ll be back home before then.”

He hesitated, studying me carefully. “I guess I should tell you. Tonie’s got her own guest. One I’m not sure you’ll be thrilled to see.”

“Really? Who?”

He hesitated again. “They’re in the kitchen,” he said. He nodded to Aaron, gave me a hurried kiss, and then ran for his car.

"That was odd," Aaron murmured as Jonathan drove off.

"Let's go see this guest of theirs," I muttered to Aaron, dragging him around the house to the back door that led to the kitchen.

It was still bright outside so it was kind of hard to see through the screen door. But we could hear voices. Whoever Tonie's guest was, it was a guy.

Aaron pulled the door open and I followed him inside, only to receive the biggest shock of my life.

There was Tonie, cookie dough smudged on her cheeks, holding a wooden spoon.

And there was Mike Harding, his hand over hers on the spoon, flour in his dark hair. They appeared to be arguing over something.

Aaron cleared his throat. "Harding," he said ominously.

Mike looked up, startled, then realized what Aaron was glaring disapprovingly at. He quickly dropped Tonie's hand.

"Aaron!" Tonie squealed happily, bounding over and hugging my cousin. "I'm so glad you're here! Make him leave me alone!"

Mike threw his hands up. "I don't want to be here in the first place."

“Then why did you come?" Tonie asked.

"Because I have a conscience. I couldn't let you starve out here," he snapped. "Though things would be so much better if you'd get over your irrational fear of pizza!"

"Will somebody please tell me what's going on?" Aaron asked, exasperated.

“There was no food. I asked Mike to come over and help make dinner for Jonathan and I."

“Why didn't you call me?”

“No offense, Aaron, but neither you nor Jamie can even toast bread right to save your lives. I had no choice. Besides, Mike lives the closest."

"Yes," Mike spoke up. "It's one of the things I'm looking forward to rectifying when I move out."

"Aw, you don’t mean that," Tonie told him. She peered around Aaron and smiled at me. "Well, Jamie. Aren't you going to say anything?"

I glared at her.

"Maybe I should leave," Mike suggested.

"What? We're not even done with the cookies!"

"Why are we making cookies for dinner?"

"It's not for dinner. I just want a snack."

"I don't have time for this," he groaned.

Tonie pouted. "Oh. Okay. You must have a date so now your old friends aren't good enough company for you."

"I can do without the melodrama," Mike said dryly.

"No, really. I understand. We must be boring such a cool, sophisticated – Mike, what are you doing?"

He balanced the bowl of cookie dough carefully in one hand. "What do you think?"

"Oh, no, you don't!"

"Try me."

Tonie backed away then finally turned and ran from the kitchen screaming. They seemed to have forgotten all about us as Mike chased her out.

"Wow, I knew Harding and Tonie were friends, but I didn’t know they were the come-over-and-make-me-dinner kind of friends." I told Aaron numbly.

He sighed. "They go back a long way."

"I think I should just go somewhere else," I said slowly, heading for the doorway leading to the hall. “Maybe I could jump in the lake and drown.”

Aaron caught up with me. "What do you mean? Where are you going?”

"I mean, I'd rather not be here while that moron—” I got cut off in mid-sentence by a loud shout as Tonie shot past me. She was screaming her head off and Mike was still running after her.

I probably shouldn't have been surprised by what happened next. But really, who could ever have thought that such a great athlete could be so klutzy?

Mike Harding ran right into me. Actually, he sort of tripped into me. And like a pair of dominoes, we both went crashing to the floor, the contents of the bowl of half-mixed cookie dough landing on my head with a dull splat.