The Curse of Summer (BOOK ONE OF THE SEASONS TRILOGY)

Chapter 1

Alana

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?"

"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 huge 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.

"Alana, 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 skilfully 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, 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 Alana. 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 realised 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.

Dan opened the freezer and grabbed the tub of chocolate mousse ice-cream which he had bought specially for me, grabbing two spoons from the dishwasher and handing me one. We both jumped up onto the kitchen counter and sat facing each other, legs crossed with the ice-cream between us.

"Rhett is Bill's son. He comes here once every two or three years for about a week at most before he heads back to his mother. I don't really know him much, but he was a jerk last time I saw him." Dan said before shoving a spoonful of ice-cream into his mouth.

I copied him, remaining silent and trying to wrack my brain for an image of Rhett stored somewhere in its vast expanses. I came up empty handed.

"I don't remember him." I admited.

"You wouldn't. He usually only comes in December and spends the week partying anyway. I don't think he's come here in the summer since you were about seven and then you two hated each other. The last time he came was about four years back and I remember Bill saying to Mom that he doubts Rhett would be back."

My eyes widened, thinking of all the possibilities as to why Rhett wouldn't be back. It would have to be Rhett's fault though – Bill was too nice to be anything but an amazing father.

"Oh well, I guess I'll have to meet him this summer."

Dan rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Don't sound too excited." he commented sarcastically.

We both took one more spoonful of ice-cream and put the tub back in the freezer, knowing that if Mom caught us we'd be in trouble for eating it straight from the tub. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect either, as Mom led Bill to the front door.

"We'll see you and Rhett tonight, Bill. And don't worry about him too much. You've done all that you could to make sure that he receives the best and he'll just have to acknowledge that some day." I heard her say as they walked past the kitchen.

Dan darted me a look and we crept forward to hear the rest of the conversation, like naughty little kids.

"Thank you so much Julia. You and John have kept me sane through all this drama and I can never make it up to you." Bill replied before he shut the door behind him and made his way down the garden path.

In a flash, Dan and I resumed our positions – Dan sitting on the counter speaking about some football something or another, while I proceeded to make sandwiches for the two of us. That was how our mother found us.

"That poor man." she says, shaking her head. "Your father and I are so blessed to have such amazing children."

She went to both Dan and myself and kissed our cheeks before she waltzed out of the room and back to her scrapbooking, leaving Dan and I mystified.

"I don't even want to know." Dan said aghast.

I agreed with him. Some things are just better left unsaid.

Sandwich in hand, I trudged upstairs to my bedroom to change out of my damp bikini, smiling at the photographs which decorated the stairwell. My mother seemed to believe that the more pictures you had up around your house, the better.

I paused outside the door to my bedroom for a second, taking a breath before I pushed the door ajar and stepped inside what was meant to be a refuge. But my room isn't a refuge... it's a reminder. A reminder of the curse I've had to endure since as long as I could remember. I hate my room and its pale blue paint littered with white butterflies which were painted across the walls and on the ceiling. I hate the blue curtains which are parted so that sunlight can spill onto the butterfly bedspread. Most of all, I hate the heart monitor which my father had insisted on remaining in my room. "Just in case" was his excuse, and my mother couldn't argue with him.

I sigh again, determined to be in and out of my hell-room in a matter of minutes.

I swung open my closet doors and selected a pale green summer dress which flew out in a perfect circle whenever I twirled, slipping it on me as I stood in front of the mirror. I marvelled as the silky fabric glides down my skin. I suppose that when you're a cursed "Sleeping Beauty", you try and enjoy as much as you can.

My cellphone beeps and starts flashing, begging me to read the text which had come through. I find myself smiling as I read the message from my best friend – my only friend – as she welcomes me back into the "realm of the awake, alive, alert and enthusiastic". I quickly text her back so that she wouldn't think that I'd forgotten her before setting the phone back on my dresser. I'd call her later.

"Drop my bag and I'll f*****g slaughter you!" I heard a familiar voice angrily shout as a car door slammed shut.

I rush downstairs, almost tripping on my mom's cat – Whiskers -as it lounged across the bottom step.

"Honey, we're home!" two voices cried out in unison as their owners stood in the entrance hall, revelling in the way that the sound filtered through the house and brought everyone running.

"Matty! Mikey!" I called out, launching myself at the intruders.

I found myself fully enveloped by two pairs of identical arms, squeezing me until I'm gasping for air.

"Let her go doofus twins." Dan taunted, leaning against the wall and smirking at the twins.

The only reply he got was to be pulled into the circle and vigorously squeezed until he couldn't breathe and began bashing on the nearest twin's back.

"Matthew Dean Summers and Michael Drew Summers, let go of your siblings before I bring out the wooden spoon." I heard Mom threaten.

Sheepishly, the twins pulled apart sending each other a look which had to have been encoded in twin language because an instant later they moved as one and were squeezing the living daylights out of our mother. Eventually, they pulled apart and each kissed Mom on the cheek like naughty little boys trying to suck up to the agitated parent.

"Oh, get on with you." she chastised with a wave of her hand and a hint of a smile on her face.

Mom really did try to be stern... sometimes it worked, other times it failed miserably. In this case it was a complete and utter fail.

The guys and I traipsed up to the room they had shared since they were babies, never liking to be too far away from each other. Dad actually had to knock down the drywall between their room and the spare room and had put up a movable screen in its place just so that the guys could have a bigger room with their own space, but still invade on each other's privacy whenever they wanted to.

"How was the drive?" Dan asked the two as he and I jumped up onto Mikey's Spiderman covered bedspread.

"Woah it was crazy, man! Stuck behind trucks all the way from campus until home." Mikey clearly embellished.

Matty rolled his eyes as he set down his suitcase on his side of the room which was littered with guitars and other musical instruments.

"It wasn't that bad. Mikey just wanted to travel at the speed of light and I wasn't willing to get another speeding ticket because of him. It's bad enough that he used my driver's licence when he got the first ticket. Being identical twins with that sponge is a pain in the ass!"

Mikey pulled a face as he began chucking all of his clothing into his cupboard in a haphazard manner, muddling up shorts with shirts and vice versa. I had to smile at how different the two were as I turned and spotted Matty's immaculate closet (the clothes are even colour coded!), and I was rather happy about that. Too much of either of them would be just painful. At least they almost seemed to balance each other out.

"Okay, done." Mikey grinned, flopping onto the bed next to me and wrapping an arm around me.

"So, what's news this side Sleeping Beauty?" he asked.

"Well... I woke up three days ago to find that this beast over here" I kicked Dan softly "had come home alone and single. Then I discovered that Mom had replaced the lounge suite and earlier today we learned that Bill's son is coming to stay with him for a year."

Both of the twins looked at me horrified.

"Oh hell no! Say it isn't true!" Matty begged Dan, who nodded sadly.

"It's true."

The twins moaned in unison.

"And it sounds like they're coming for dinner." Dan continued, grimacing.

"Dude, do you think it's too late to head back onto the road and pretend we didn't make it home in time for dinner?" Mikey asked Matty, his eyebrows waggling as if he'd just suggested a master plan.

"Too late man... Momzilla already saw us." Matty sighed, diving onto his bed.

"I guess we'll have to put up with the prick... at least for tonight." Dan gave-up.

I rolled my eyes at their dramatics, surely the guy couldn't be all that bad... could he? He could have grown up too. I mean, three years can make a serious difference. Maybe he'd surprise them all.

"Hold on there little sis... did you say that the beast got dumped? I mean – I know he'd not as sexy as me but he still has an okayish personality." Mikey's voice was a tad incredulous.

The twins were both taller than Dan and had grey eyes instead of blue, but all three boys had Dad's broad shoulders and dark hair. Another thing that seemed to run in the family was brains. Dan may be studying to be a lawyer but Mikey was studying engineering and Matty was premed. I wished I could have had some of those genes, but being adopted makes that kind of impossible.

"I was too hot for her." Dan sounded genuinely sorrowful, but I knew that it was probably just another act so I ignored it.

I heard a car pull up and I leapt up from Mikey's bed and strolled to the bedroom window, hoping that it was Dad getting home from work. Instead, a taxi had pulled up against the curb... it's passenger none other than Rhett Douglas.