"Yeah," Kylie mumbled, and looked at the black computer screen. "Just checking my e-mail."

Della let out a sarcastic chuckle. "I think you need to turn the computer on first. Or do your powers now allow you to read your e-mails with the computer off?"

Kylie clicked the computer on and glanced over her shoulder to frown at Della. "Don't you remember the rule? You can't be a smartass until after breakfast. I need energy to deal with that."

Miranda skipped into the living room from her bedroom. "I personally think she should wait and be a smartass after lunch. That gives us two meals of energy to put up with her crap."

"You two think you're so funny," Della bit out.

"We are funny," Miranda said.

"Just a couple of comedians." Kylie clicked open her e-mail to do a quick check. One from her stepdad.

To answer later.

One from ... Sara.

Damn, she hadn't thought about her old best friend in almost two weeks. Funny how someone could be so important in your life and then ... then you go a long period of time without them even entering your thoughts.

It wasn't anyone's fault. Life took people in different directions. She'd read in some teen magazine that it usually happened when you graduated from high school. She guessed her different-path part of life had just come a little earlier. It was still sad.

An empty spot seemed to open up in her chest. A spot Kylie knew used to be occupied by Sara.

She clicked open the e-mail from Sara, praying it wasn't bad news, as in: her cancer came back, or she thought she was pregnant again, or she'd decided to go into a convent and become a nun. With Sara, anything was possible.

Hey ... Got my hair cut. Thought you might want to see it. Don't laugh. I'm feeling spunky now that I survived cancer. I'll bet your friend Miranda will approve. Call me when you have a chance.

Knowing Della and Miranda were waiting, Kylie clicked open the picture for just a peek. When the image of Sara with short, spiked pink hair filled the screen, a smiled slipped across Kylie's lips.

She heard shuffling behind her. "I'm coming," she said, thinking any minute Della would complain.Kylie grabbed her phone and wallet, but right as she stood up, another e-mail came in. It was from her mom, who was supposed to have gotten back to the States on the red-eye flight. Obviously, she'd made it home.

"Really? I don't see you moving," Della said.

Okay, Mom's e-mail would have to wait, too.

Meeting the girls at the door, Kylie glanced at her two best friends and she felt a wave of sadness. Not for what was, but for what might be.

"Promise me something," Kylie said.

"What?" they asked in unison.

"When we graduate from here we won't lose track of each other. We should all go to the same college.

And I'm completely serious. Holiday was talking about getting some college forms and we should send them out to the same colleges. And we could get an apartment together."

"We could become lesbians and have threesomes," Della said, and chuckled.

"Sorry," Miranda said, and snickered. "I've already seen you naked and it did nothing for me."

"It was the little bitty tits, wasn't it?" Della asked, grinning.

They laughed all the way to breakfast.

* * *

Derek and Lucas didn't show up for breakfast and that was just fine with Kylie. Less drama must be good for the appetite, because she actually ate her runny eggs and burnt bacon in record time. Her phone rang just when she was about to push her tray back. When she saw her stepdad's number, she decided to call him back a little later. She didn't think she could take his heartbreak over her mom this early.

Her phone chimed with an incoming text. Couldn't be her dad, the man didn't text. Kylie waited a second before checking to see who it was from. Three words popped up.

Miss you. Lucas.

Miss you, too, she thought, but didn't type it in. Emotion whispered across her chest.

The sound of another tray being placed on the table brought Kylie's gaze up.

Steve, the hot shape-shifter who'd left a hickey right below Della's left collarbone, sat down beside the little vamp.

Della sat completely still, frozen, and stared daggers at her uneaten breakfast. If looks could kill, that breakfast would be pushing up daisies.

"Hey," Steve said.

"You have to leave," Della said without looking at him.

"Why?" he asked.

Della hesitated. "Because I'm shadowing Kylie and don't need any distractions."

That was the lamest excuse Kylie had ever heard and Steve's expression said he knew it, too.

"So I'm distracting to you, huh?" he said, leaned against her, and half smiled.

"Leave!" She looked up, her eyes glowing a pissed-off green.

The half smile faded from his eyes, and he popped up, took his tray, and went and sat at the shapeshifter table.

"That wasn't nice," Kylie said."I know," Della said. "I don't know why he did it."

"I was talking about you." Kylie leaned forward and shot her a frown.

"Yeah, and it was a lie, too," Perry added, sitting two seats down. "I'm the one on shadowing duty right now."

Della made a face and stood up. "Are you finished eating?"

A few minutes later they walked outside for the announcement of Campmate hour-Della on one side and Miranda and Perry on the other. Kylie found herself looking around for Derek or Lucas. Still both noshows. But then she felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck. Looking back, she saw Derek standing about eight feet behind her. His green gaze met hers and Kylie remembered the kiss from the dream again.