Ashleigh stared sullenly out the window of large van she was sitting in. This van was bringing her, and most of her belongings, to a house in Chicago, Illinois. She was moving to Chicago from Florida, where her life had been more than rotten. By coming here, she was hoping to start a new life, make new lifelong friends. One of her friend's cousins bought a huge house, and had offered for Ashleigh, as well as 5 others, to come live with her. Ashleigh was somewhat scared and nervous about this, seeing as none of the people knew each other. Who knows what could go wrong, or go right.

She watched the beautiful Chicago skyline pass by as she sang along (softly, of course) to the song that was playing on the radio, smiling as they passed the Art Museum and later the Shedd Aquarium. Those were two places she HAD to go while she was here.

Finally, the pulled onto the street. She stared in awe at the size of the houses they passed. I don't know if I'll ever get used to this huge of a house, coming from that tiny apartment! she thought, amazed.

The car pulled into the driveway in front of the house. Along the drive were rosebushes in the middle of blooming. As she stepped out of the van into the early morning sunlight, she breathed in the scent of marigolds, daffodils, roses, irises, and so many more unidentifiable flowers. Behind the two 10 foot high pine trees stood the most gorgeous house she had ever seen. It seemed to have come right out of a story such as Homer's Odessy or Illiad. The house was three stories high, with a delicate Greecian appeal to it. Four Ionic columns stood tall in front of the front door, which was garnished by a wreath of roses and lillies.

"Hey, you must be Ashleigh," a voice called out. The front door opened. There stood a tall girl with dark black hair flowing down her back. "Hi, I'm Maria." she smiled.

"Nice to meet you Maria," Ashleigh smiled. "As you know, I'm Ashleigh."

"Well, Ashleigh, come on in! The only other person here is Kevin," Maria smiled, motioning for Ashleigh to follow her. She took one of the bags from Ash's hand.

**Chapter Two**