Chapter 1

"Sarah! It's dinner time," yelled Sarah's mother, Nancy, out the door of their large house in the country.

Sarah slowly got off the ground, and trotted towards the house, towards the call of her mother. She had been enjoying her first day of summer vacation by being lazy. She had pretty much just laid in the grass and stared at the clouds, and comtemplated what it would be like to start high school next fall. Not that she was in a rush to start school again, but she envisioned finally being part of the "cool" in-crowd.

Although Sarah was pretty, and was somewhat wittty, she was seemingly always on the outside of the little popular cliques. She had been one of the smart girls that was too serious about school to be popular. Nevertheless, she felt she could change this once she started out at a new school with new some new people who had not known her for being the "booksmart geek".

Sarah's mother had already finshed setting up the table for dinner by the time she made into the house, and was serving her portions of chicken parmesan.

"Guess what honey, your cousin Jake is coming to visit us for the summer. Now you two will get to know each other better."

"Mom!," exclaimed Sarah with a sour expression. "Does he have to stay for the whole summer? He's like retarded or something."

"Oh, but that we could all be as intelligent as like, the goddess of, like the smarties," Sarah's father, Ed, mocked her as he sat down to take his place at the head of the table. Sarah stuck her tongue at her father, it was her usual response for when he started mocking her for getting a big head.

"Besides, I don't think he is retarded. His doctors say he suffers from some kind of generalized anxiety disorder that keeps him from being 'functional' around others", said Ed between the mouthfuls of dinner he was shoveling into his mouth. Sarah wondered, not for the first time, how her father maintained his slight build despite his rapacious appetite, as he plowed through his food like a man that had not eaten for days.

"Mmmm, maybe not," said Sarah unconvinced, "but he's definitely weird. The only things he said last summer were 'yes', 'no', and when he was feeling particulary loquacious, 'I have to use the bathroom'. Why does he have to stay so long anyway?"

"I prefer to think of him as laconic. He's staying the summer because his parents are in crunch-mode to finish their latest project and don't have to time to watch over him, and they've been offered jobs at Simtech once they finish it, and they want to see how Jacob handles the new environment before they make a final decision. Anyhow, since Jake doesn't have any friends around here, you'll have to keep him company."

Jake's parents, Trey and Linda, were programmers for some database company in Texas. Since her father was a programmer for Simtech, she knew what crunch-mode meant, several weeks of work of at least 70 hours per week, and usually much more. Luckily, Sarah's mom didn't have to work so she always had at least one parent at home.

Sarah went to bed that night realizing she would have to accept her fate, because she knew that Jake, being the way he was (she still suspected he might be retarded despite what her father said), would be unable to take care of himself. She loved her aunt and uncle but still hoped they wouldn't end up taking the jobs at Simtech. Having one summer being ruined by having to watch over her cousin would be bad enough. Having to watch over him through high school would be intolerable.