A/N

I have been working on this story for a while, and finally got to a place where I was ready to post it. I hope you all like it. There will be a few time jumps in the early chapters. There will be an HEA for C & A. Their backgrounds are a little different than the books. There will be some drama, but not too much. Updates will come once a week. I hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

Ana POV

I am lying in bed, thinking about my future and how it is about to change drastically. My mom received a job offer for one of the largest hospitals in the state of Washington. That in itself is great. But we currently live three thousand miles away on the east coast. She has her own orthopedic practice out of one of the hospitals near our house. She feels this would be a great opportunity for her to use her experience in a different setting and allow her volunteer her time to various charities. She also says there are better schools in the area for me.

In the upcoming weeks, things will be moving at a fast pace. The hospital is paying for us to move to Seattle. Luckily, its summertime and I won't have to worry about transferring midterm. We are flying out tomorrow to look at housing and schools in the area. My father, Ray, is retired from the Marines and dabbles in carpentry work. He has handmade most, if not all, of our cabinets and furniture. He is so talented!

Mom and dad have been looking online at housing that would be closer to Seattle Grace Hospital. We've decided not to live in the city itself, but choose the suburbs instead. I have packed a bag for the next few days. I checked the weather and it looks to be raining the entire time we are there. We have an early flight, and as I am getting ready for bed, Mom comes in my room. "Ana, are you okay with us moving across the country? I didn't really ask how you felt about this whole thing. I'm sorry."

I place my bag near the door and give mom a hug. "Mom, I promise that this is okay. I'm really proud of you for this new job. I do have friends here, but honestly, I'm looking forward to the change."

"Ok honey. Get some rest and I will see you in the morning." She give me a kiss on the cheek and leaves my room.

We are up early the next morning driving to Washington, DC to fly to Seattle. We board the plane and make our way to our seats. I put in my earbuds and get ready for the flight. I fall sleep shortly after takeoff, and sleep until mom wakes me up.

We only have carry-on luggage so we able to pick up our rental car and drive toward Seattle. Our car is a newer model Audi SUV. I have to admit, it's a nice ride. The rain has cleared out for now, and it's actually nice outside.

"Are you ladies hungry? The GPS shows a small Italian restaurant a few miles from here," dad asks as we are driving toward downtown. We all agree that it sounds like a good place. He finds us somewhere to park and we walk inside the small restaurant. It's quaint and has a great atmosphere. The waitress is friendly when she takes our drink order.

I'm skimming over the menu when the bell above the front door rings and in walks a group of teenagers. They take a seat in a booth across from us. I feel like there are eyes watching me so I look up from my menu to see this gorgeous Greek God staring at me. He has dark colored hair with copper highlights and from this distance, his eyes seem to be a shade of gray. He looks at me with a smirk and then starts talking to the people at his table. I am having a hard time looking away from him.

The waitress returns and we give her our order. I try not to focus my attention on the table across from us but I can't help but hear them laughing about something that happened earlier. The young attractive female says, "El, I'm so glad you met us for lunch! I have missed you so much!"

The Greek God says, "yeah Elliott. I've missed kicking your ass on the Xbox."

The guy known as Elliott answers, "fuck you Christian. I can kick your ass with my eyes closed. I've missed you too Mia", Elliott answers the girl with dark, shoulder length hair with tiny ringlet curls. She looks to be my age. I hope some of the people I meet here have her bubbly personality. But, somehow, I doubt it.

We finish up our lunch and talk about what our plans are for the rest of the day. I notice there is a stack of magazines near the door, so I get up to grab a few. I feel eyes on me again, so I turn and face the table Christian and his friends are sitting at and find him staring at me with fuck me eyes. I feel my face blush and I turn to go back to our table. I show the magazines to mom and we agree to check out a few of the houses that we like.

We sit there for a few more minutes talking things over and decide it's time to leave. When we get up and walk to the door, I turn my head around toward the group's table and make eye contact with Christian. He is shamelessly staring and I wink at him. I casually follow mom and dad out to the car. The move here may turn out to be a pretty good one.

During the drive around town, we talk about the schools. Mom and dad both want to place me in a prep school instead of public school. I don't have a preference to either, just so long as it will help me prepare for college. We drive to Seattle Prep and look around. There is no one at the school right now, but it looks like a good school from the outside. Mom said she will call the school to arrange for a tour while we are in town.

Our next stop is a place not far out of Seattle in an area called Belleview. It appears to be an affluent neighborhood with a lot of large houses, but some are smaller and more to our liking. There are many nice houses that are for sale. Dad suggests we choose a realtor from one of the houses we like to help us with our search. Between the private school and this high class neighborhood, I'm not sure how well I will fit in here. I don't consider myself an outgoing person. I don't go to parties and I tend to stay to myself a majority of the time. So, for the sake of my mother, I will give this a chance. I hope I don't regret it.

We check into the hotel and I use the time to search the internet and see what I can find out about the schools in the area. I look at Seattle Prep and it looks like a successful school. A majority of their students go on to graduate and attend 4 year universities and establish great careers.

Mom has been on the phone most of the afternoon. Once she gets done, she tells me we have a tour scheduled at Seattle Prep for tomorrow. She also has an appointment with the realtor to see some of the houses in Belleview.

The next morning, I dress in jeans and a white button up short sleeve blouse. I look at myself in the mirror and try to tame my wild auburn hair. No such luck. Looks like it will be a low ponytail today with minimal make up. Mom is yelling at me to hurry up so I quickly apply some lip gloss and put on my navy-blue flats. Here we go…

During the drive, mom and I talk about her new job. She is so excited to start this new chapter in her life. She has primarily been working from a small office that sees minimal patients. This new position would allow her to work with more advanced cases. There are many colleges in the area, as well as many pro sports teams that would help her branch out.

A few months back, she learned about an opening at Seattle Grace Hospital for an orthopedic surgeon. The position would give her the ability to accept more cases and give her a substantial raise. Don't get me wrong…we are in a good place financially with her salary and dad's carpentry work, but this new position would allow more freedom for her and dad to enjoy life and each other a little more.

We arrive at Seattle Prep and are met at the main entrance by a tall and slender middle aged man, with a receding hair line. Guess he is the principal. Maybe he should invest in some hair regrowth. Heintroduces himself as Principal John Trainor.Mom and I shake his hand.

We are shown into the main office and introduced to a few of the staff. Mr. Trainor asks me what I am interested in after high school and I politely tell him that I want to go into something involving publishing. I have always loved to read, mostly classic literature. Mom tells him I was a straight A student at my other school, so I should probably take advanced classes. He nods his head and off we go checking out the rest of the school.

From the outside, the school appears to be small. On the inside, it is spacious with a lot of classrooms. The gymnasium seating is so large, it looks like it could house a professional basketball game. Further down the hall, we find locker rooms that lead to an Olympic size indoor pool. Mr. Trainor says the swim team won a state championship last year and has a few swimmers in line to receive college scholarships. He asks me if I play any sports and I tell him that I played volleyball at my last school. He says that tryouts for this year's team is a few weeks away and I should try out. Maybe I will. That would be a great way to try and fit in.

We wind our way back through the school and Mr. Trainor gives my mother an application packet and tells her to call him if she has any questions. We head back to the car and I feel a little lighter after seeing the school.

We leave the school and drive to meet the realtor. She has three houses in this particular area that meet our stipulations and in our price range. We get to the first house and it's a little ostentatious. We walk around checking out the rest of the house, but I get the impression from mom that she doesn't like it either. We keep it to ourselves and nod here and there when the realtor explains the house.

The second house is more our style. It's a two-story colonial style house that has 3 car attached garage and a long circle driveway. There is also a stand-alone garage in the spacious back yard. Perfect for daddy to do his carpentry work! The realtor opens the front door, leading us into a huge foyer that branches into two hallways. We follow to the left and find a living room area with a huge fireplace and beautiful hardwood floors. I can see myself sitting in front of a warm fire reading a book. So far so good.

We continue down the hallway further into the house and find a half bathroom on the left, then a large office space on the right. This would be a great place for mom to have an office at home. We come out of the office and at the end of the hall is a large bedroom with an ensuite that includes a large bathtub and a nice size shower. The view from the bedroom is gorgeous and shows the backyard with an in-ground pool.

We make our way back down the hallway to check out the other part of the house. We are led into a huge open kitchen with top of the line stainless steel appliances. There is a breakfast bar that looks over the stylish sink and flat top indoor grill. There is a ton of cabinet space that runs along the counter tops.

We walk to the right and see a large open dining room that is big enough to have a table for at least 10 people. Mom is beside herself! She loves to entertain and this is turning out to be perfect! The realtor shows us a pantry off the kitchen that is enormous! Next to the pantry is a door that opens to a staircase downstairs to a fully furnished basement with an attached bathroom.

The basement is carpeted, with a wet bar and plenty of space for furniture or possible additional bedrooms. There are French doors that lead out to the pool area. The current owners have taken good care of the pool and I could probably take a dip in it now.

We look out across the back yard and notice there are no close neighbors, giving us a ton of privacy. We go back inside and upstairs to check out the rest of the house. When we first came in, I didn't notice a large sweeping staircase to the right of the living room. I guess I was too busy admiring the fireplace.

We are led to the remaining bedrooms upstairs. The only door on the right leads into a huge master suite that could easily be its own apartment. The master bath has a huge marble sunk in tub that could seat 6, and a marble shower that has 2 showerheads, one on each end of it. This is insane!We reluctantly leave the master bedroom to see the two remaining bedrooms. They are nice size and also have a ensuite with a jacuzzi tub and shower. I already know which one is mine!

Whomever designed this house did an amazing job. It is beautiful. Mom and I look at each other and we know this is the one. We don't bother looking at the other house the realtor has to show us. Mom tells her she will contact her tomorrow with an offer and go from there. YES!

"I'd like to go by Seattle Grace and check on things, are you ok with that?" mom says as we get into the car.

"Sure, no problem," I say. Dad decided to stay back at the hotel, leaving the school and housing choices to us.

We arrive at the hospital 30 minutes later and it is huge. Mom says it's a level 1 trauma center. Any type of serious accident, whether it's a vehicle accident or sports accident, will most likely come here. There is a helipad on top of the building for more serious cases.

Mom pulls her new badge out of her purse and puts it on as we walk in through the emergency room entrance. They don't appear to be busy and she is able to talk to one of the attending physicians. We are introduced to an attractive woman with sandy colored shoulder length hair. She has a bright smile and her name tag says Grace. We talk for a few moments and Grace takes us through the ER to another part of the hospital so we can talk.

Once we get into her office, she explains her position at the hospital. She is a pediatric ER physician and also has a small practice that she runs out of the hospital. She asks if we have been able to look around and how long we are in town for. Mom explains that we visited Seattle Prep today and toured a few houses in Belleview. We leave tomorrow to head back to the east coast.

Grace's face lights up and she explains that her children went Seattle Prep and she lives in Belleview. What a coincidence! She says she has 3 children, two sons and one daughter. Her two sons graduated from there, and her daughter goes there now. The oldest son graduated college with a degree in architecture, her other son attended Harvard and now runs his own business. Her daughter is the same age as me.

Grace and mom continue talking for a bit, and they exchange phone numbers. Grace tells mom that once we get settled in a house, to let her know and she will have us over for dinner. We say our goodbyes and tell her we look forward to seeing her again soon. Once we get into the car, mom and I look at each other and giggle like school girls.

For the next few weeks, we pack and make arrangements for our belongings to get to Seattle. I also keep myself ready for volleyball tryouts. I was accepted into Seattle Prep without any issues. They were impressed with my GPA and are excited to have me as a student there. The offer that we made on the house was accepted and the current owners already moved due to a job transfer.

We were able to take possession of the property early and three weeks after looking at the house, we were able to move in. The movers came and packed all our belongings in a tractor trailer type truck and proceeded to drive across the country. We had packed enough clothes to last us at least a week, in case the movers ran into delays with transporting our belongings.

Instead of an early morning flight, we flew out of Washington, DC in the evening. By the time we made it to Seattle, it was after midnight. We checked into the hotel and crashed. The next day, we headed to our new house to unpack. We decided that we wanted to stay in the house instead of a hotel. We found a Walmart and bought a couple of air mattresses, a few groceries and other incidental items.

We spend the next few days figuring out where the furniture will go. Four days later, the moving truck arrives. Dad supervises as they efficiently carry the items in. I have never been so excited to sleep in my own bed. Once the movers put dad's carpentry tools in the garage, I didn't see him for the rest of the day. Guess he needs his mind on something else.

The movers place all of my marked boxes in my room and I took my time unpacking them. I finished unpacking most of them and decide to see if mom needs any help. "Mom, do you need anything?" She pours a glass of lemonade for us and says she doesn't need anything.

As the movers finish up, a black BMW pulled into the driveway. Grace and the dark-haired girl from the restaurant get out. Grace walks up, smiling and gives me a hug. She introduces the young lady as her daughter Mia. I shake her hand and we both smile at each other. I invite them inside and apologize for the mess.

Mom comes in the living room as Grace asks us about joining them for dinner. "Don't worry about it Ana. You all will get it figured out. The reason why I came by is to invite you and your family to a get together we are having tomorrow night. If you are able to come, we will start around 5 pm with drinks and conversation. Dinner will start at 6." I smile and mom tells Grace we would love to come.

We step back outside and Mia walks around to back of the house and screeches with excitement. "Oh my God ANA! Look at that pool!" I laugh and tell her she should come by later and go for a swim with me. She nods furiously and we trade phone numbers so we can make plans for later that afternoon.

After the movers leave, mom starts on dinner. I go to my room and there are a few boxes left but they can wait. My cell phone buzzes on my dresser and I have a message from Mia.

*M- Hey Ana. I'll be over in a few hours okay? Can I bring anything?

*A- okay see you then. You don't need to bring anything. We have plenty of food and drinks here.

*M-okay! See you in a little while!

I take a look around my room and decide on a bath. As I sit in the warm water, my mind drifts to the Greek god from the restaurant. He is one hot man, but there is no way he would find anyone like me attractive. Shaking myself out of the daydream, I check the clock and its almost time for Mia to come over. I get out of the tub, dry myself off and go in search of my bikini.

I hope having this pool will help my pale skin get a little bit of a tan before school starts. I put on the red two piece, and use a sheer cover up. I put my hair in a messy bun and go downstairs to fix some snacks. I see a car pull in the drive way. I place the items on a tray and go outside to meet Mia. What I see getting out of the sports car makes the butterflies take flight in my stomach!