Montana Mansion

The Lodge

Amanda's POV:

"Wow," I gasped as I spied Charlene's mansion in the mountains, "Charlene, you said it was a cabin."

Nonchalantly, Charlene glanced back at me over her shoulder and shrugged, "It is. Now the one in Paris, that's a mansion. But Mrs. Nash wouldn't let us take you and Jess out of the country, so here we are. Trust me though, this place is fun too."

I almost rammed into Finn, who had stopped directly in front of me, "That," he paused for dramatic effect, "is a big house."

"How did you not see it before, stupid?" I asked, starting to walk around him.

"I was messing with your suitcase that you asked me to carry, remember?" Finn playfully glared at me.

I blushed, "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that."

Finn's mouth was posed in a way that made me assume that he would say something when Willa oh-so-rudely interrupted, "Come on you guys! Hurry and unpack, I can't wait to show you the pool!"

"Wait," my eyes widened, "there's an indoor pool?"

"Of course! And don't forget the movie theater with eight seats, and the ice rink. Come on! It's going to be so much fun!"

"You've been here before?" I asked, surprised.

"Only four weeks every summer!" Willa exclaimed, "Didn't you guys wonder where we went when we disappeared for a month every summer?"

"Um, never really thought about it," I answered, somewhat guiltily. I had hardly noticed they were gone!

"Yeah, well, sadly, this year's trip was downsized to two weeks," Willa pointed at pointed at Finn and I, "thanks to you people."

"Poor baby," Finn made a face, "You're so lucky! I wish I got to come here for a month every summer."

"Benefits to being Charlene's best friend. But trust me, I pay my dues. A minimum of two crisis a month, not counting breakups," Willa sighed, "Poor girl. As they say, pretty hurts, but not in the way you'd expect. Boys dump her as soon as they realize she's got depth."

I felt really guilty then, looking up at Finn. I had always knocked Charlene for being vain. I didn't know this kind of crap happened to her constantly.

"Besides getting dumped, what other crisis is there at our age?" I asked nosily.

"Shallow girls that use her, lost cheerleading, gymnastics, ice skating, and track competitions, and..." Willa trailed off, "The rest isn't for me to say," recovering quickly from a clearly unpleasant memory, Willa smiled, "But let's not think about that now. We're in the mountains for peter's sake! Let's go enjoy ourselves!" Obviously trying to dodge any more questions of mine, Willa hurried to follow Charlene, Jess, and Maybeck, who had already made it into what Charlene insisted was a cabin.

I looked up at Finn, "Why do I have a feeling something's brewing in Charlene's life that we're going to find out about in the next two weeks?"

"Because we'll be packed in a house together for two weeks with no adult supervision. Heads are gonna roll, tears are gonna fall, and, in Charlene's case, secrets are gonna spill."