Highmore Manor

I woke with a start as the turbulence shook the plane, throwing me half out of my seat as we rocked violently. I just had to pick the worst day of the year to travel back home, the heat waves coming off Australia were causing the plane to go mental.

We’d been on the plane for about 20 or so hours now, with the usual stop over in Singapore, where Callie had gone crazy with her shopping budget.

I glanced to my left at Callie, fast asleep despite the violent turbulence. She was used to flying more then I was, considering as she’d traveled just about everywhere there was to travel to, or at the least the places with the hottest fashion outlets.

I was incredibly nervous about going back home, even though I knew my friends probably wouldn’t be there.

I refused to believe they had completely deserted me, even after the email I had received from Payton. My thoughts flashed back to what it had said,

'Sorry I won’t be there when you arrive next week. I’ve gone to Fiji with Ricky’s family. Sorry. Love Payton." I'd read it a few time before I had left and the words were etched into my brain like a glowing hot branding iron.

It felt selfish that I expected them to be there but, I mean, Payton was the one who had been crying and upset that she wouldn't get to see me, hurt that they weren't going to be there, and even thought part of me was happy that Ricky and Payton had obviously grown closer in my absence I had this niggling bit of jealous gnawing at my feelings.

I sighed and leaned back against the head rest of my seat.

The events from last night were hardly more then a blur for me, I mean I knew about Chase kissing that other girl because parts of that memory were still there for recollection with the holes painfully filled in by Callie's sympathetic retelling of what had happened.

I'd woken up by myself in the small cabin down in the bottom of the yacht, although the sheets were oddly rumpled beside me and I knew right then that someone had been sleeping next to me.

Callie had told me that I'd disappeared with Jesse all night after the Chase incident. She'd raised her eyebrow knowingly, to which I had blushed furiously and informed her I had woken up with all my clothes still on my body.

Jesse, Camilla, Callie and I had disembarked the boat as soon as it had docked back at port. Jesse had driven us back up to the villa, waited patiently while Callie and I rushed around packing all of our stuff and then driven us all the way to Nice airport.

We never saw Chase in the four hours that it all took, and quite honestly I was thankful, I didn't think I could face him. I'd probably end up attacking him or something.

And the whole time we'd been in Jesse's company he hadn't said a word to either of us really, or even looked at me completely. He was doing his normal mood swing thing, it was like after every time he was nice to me he had to make up for it by being stubborn and anti-social again.

Although he had been kind enough to carry one of my bags and one of Callie's, without even a hint as to how heavy they obviously were and as we were about to go to the gate he'd finally met my eyes, smiled - although forced and mumbled 'See ya,' before turning and walking off into the post-Christmas crowds at the airport with his hand stuffed in him pockets.

Watching his disappear had made me wonder what I had said or done to him that night.

I was mainly worried because I knew I'd drunk a lot. My pounding headache and urge to throw up every five seconds was proof enough of that. The sight of breakfast alone has made me dash to the bathroom and empty my guts gracefully into the toilet.

So I hadn't had anything to eat except for one water cracker since about nine that morning.

It didn't help that the movement of the plane was making me feel extra queasy.

I made a quick mental note never to that trashed again right before taking a 22 hour flight halfway across the world, or perhaps never again full stop. Even if my side effects were probably worse because it was first time drunk, I certainly didn't feel like experiencing this kind of hangover again, thank you very much.

Callie had an amazing immune system which meant she'd woken up with a slight headache which had disappeared after half an hour and about four cups of ice water.

I was immensely jealous, that ice water had only proceeded to give me brain freeze, which didn't help.

Once on the plane she'd been a nervous ball of energy, she was so happy to be coming with me and pretty stoked I had even invited her.

We'd exchanged presents, mine to her was a bracelet with quite a few charms on it, she'd put it on and hadn't taken it off since, and one of the Cd's she'd said she wanted when we'd gone shopping in Monaco.

Her present for me was a new case for my camera and a charm to hang off of it, as well as some money to go towards the Polaroid camera I had been wanted for ages now. I loved it all.

I glanced over at my sleeping friend again, she looked so peaceful. Both of our lives were thrown just a little into turmoil thanks to boys.

It sucked.

I groaned as I bent over to fetch my laptop from my carry on bag. I set it up on my lap and turned it on.

There was another email from Alex, he'd been keeping correspondence with me the whole time I had been away, it was rather reassuring. It was weird because I didn't know whether to trust him or to go back over to England and hit him with something hard. Tough decision indeed.

I opened the email and read it quickly.

'Hayley!

Ahh so you're keeping me out of the loop as well are you? Can you please just tell me what it is that I've done to upset Callie. I won't tell her it was you that said anything....'

Only problem there is that I'm the only one she's told. I thought to myself cynically as I read.

'....The snow is still here, it should definitely still be here when you get back. But if it isn't, here's an awesome pic of me and Ryan in the snow....'

I laughed at the picture of Alex with a snowball in mid-throw, the expression on Ryan's face was priceless as he saw it flying towards him. Alex was right, the snow looked amazing. I'd seen snow, we do get that down in New Zealand but never that deep, at most we would only ever get a couple of inches.

'....Can't wait until you get back from NZ, missing you guys heaps.
Sorry this was short.

Alex.'

I replied quickly and then opened up the Internet, clicked open Facebook. The first thing that popped up on my screen was a message telling me Payton had added some photos. I clicked on the the notifications tab to see them.

They were of Payton and Ricky and his family in Fiji.

So it was right, she really was in Fiji with him. My heart sank slightly, and I shut my laptop with a decided click as it fitted into place.

I'd been hoping she'd been kidding.

Suddenly the light above my seat binged and showed the symbol for buckling our seat belts. I shook Callie lightly until she woke up and then did up my own belt after putting my laptop back in my bag. Callie groaned and yawned, putting her seat back upright and wiping her hand over her eyes.

"Are we there yet?" she asked groggily. I leaned over and looked out the window, the city was stretched out below us.

"Yeah, we're just coming into Auckland," I grinned, my heart beating faster. We were almost home. I was almost back.

Callie perked up immediately. Out of the all the places she'd been around the world she hadn't been to New Zealand as of yet, so she was understandably excited. As was I, that I got to show her my home.

The pilot spoke over the intercom and then we were bumping down on the tarmac, our ears popping and hearts racing. We raced as quickly as we could to get off the plane, the stormed though customs and baggage claim and then headed for the gate.

Callie was babbling the whole time, listing off all the things she really wanted to do while she was here. Some of them a little bit too adventurous for only a week.

We walked through the gates and suddenly I was swamped by a hug. When whoever it was pulled away from me I found it was Tamati, my neighbour and part time farm hand.

"Tamati!" I exclaimed, grinning happily.

"Squirt!" he laughed, calling me by my local nickname, most of the guys in my community called me Squirt, especially Ricky. I grimaced at the thought that he wasn't going to be there and forced the smile on my face to stretch wider to hide it.

Tamati had been a firm family friend, being the son of my dad's best friend and only four or so years older then me. He'd been my main babysitter when I was younger, and had helped out on the farm even before Dad hadn't been around to tend to it himself.

He still looked the same as I remembered, his short brown hair spiked up with gel and his big brown eyes glowing, he was so tall as well about the same height as Chase although much bulkier. I turned to Callie, who was conveniently eying Tamati up and biting her lip as flirtatiously as she could.

"Cals, this is Tamati," I introduced them.

"Pleased to meet you Tamati," she giggled slightly holding out her hand, Tamati grinned and shook her hand.

"You too, aye," he replied, sounding extremely Kiwi with that sentence.

When I looked between Callie and Tamati I realized just how pale she looked against his rich brown skin, inherited from his Maori background. I knew I stood out sometimes with the other girls at Highmore because of my Kiwi tan but their contrast was amazing, and she wasn't even English.

Tamati grabbed Callie and my heaviest suitcases and led the way to his pickup, chatting happily with me as we walked.

“So where’s Mum?” I asked casually as I climbed into the passenger seat beside him, after squishing Callie in the back seat and putting the suitcases in the trailer under the tarpaulin.

"She couldn't make it down, she says sorry," Tamati said gesturing with his hand like waving away a fly.

"Oh," I said looking down at my lap. I could feel Tamati's eyes on me as I fiddled with the hem of my shorts. He looked back at the road after a bit and wiped his hand across his mouth.

"So why can't I see the Sky Tower yet, guys?" Callie asked excitedly, staring out the window. I laughed at her and pointed out the windscreen.

"You're looking the wrong way, dork," I said.

"Ooohh nice!" she said ducking down between mine and Tamati's seat to get a proper look.

The car ride took about an hour so I spent most of the time filling Tamati in with most of what had happened while I was away, tactfully leaving some things out, all the while knowing I was going to have to repeat this all for my mum and sister again later.

"So if it's alright if I punch you, yeah?" he asked raising his fist playfully after I told him about the cliff accident. I laughed at him and shook my head.

"When has it ever been alright for you to punch me?" I snorted. He pulled a face in agreement and then punched me on the arm anyway. I cried out in mock pain and hit him back.

He laughed and put on a mock serious tone, "Not while I'm driving young lady." I grinned across at him happily.

"So Tamati, what do you do for a living?" Callie asked, pronouncing his name like tam-eet-e. She'd been quiet the majority of the trip, letting me talk to my friend. Tamati chuckled light and corrected her, then spent about 10 minutes trying to teach her how to pronounce his name properly.

I zoned out of their talking, and playful flirting and stared out around the familiar scenery.

There was the barn that we always passed on our way past the farmer who lived there was a crazy old man who didn't look after his sheep very well and had almost lost them all when Mr Johns had told the police and RSPCA.

There was the road that I had my first driving lesson on, it hadn't gone very well and Ricky has ended up getting so pissed off with me that he banned me from ever driving in any of his cars again while Payton laughed her head off in the back making jokes about my bunny hops.

We turned the last corner and came into the main township of Ferncreek, the memories started flooding faster and I realized just how much I missed the place and how homesick I had really been.

As we drove down the main street some of the people I knew grinned and waved as we went past. I had grown up around all these people and it felt so weird, even though I'd only been away from them all for about 5 months.

I waved back enthusiastically and looked around myself with happiness. Callie was looking around too, only she was looking more in awe and wonderment, pointing out things that both Tamati and I knew where there.

We drove out of the main township to what you could call the outskirts. Here the houses were slightly further apart and had more land surrounding them. My family owned a farm, but you could hardly call it one really, we just had a few sheep, two cows and a pig out the back, plus my cat Julian. There were much bigger farms out further on all sides of Ferncreek.

We pulled in the drive and up to my house. I'd even missed my house.

I jumped out of the pickup truck and ran to the door, hoping to find Mum or Libby. I swung open the door with a bang and took a left into the living room and ground to a halt.

My living room was full of people, everyone I was close to and knew the best.

Ricky, Pay and my Mum were standing closest grinning their heads off at me.

"Surprise!" they all yelled.