CHAPTER ONE

Casey Cartwright looked around at her bedroom and at all the boxes surrounding her. She had been packing up her things the past week and she was still in shock over all the things she had. Half the things she was looking at right now had not been used or worn the last couple of years. How could she let all this stuff pile up like this?

She took a seat on her bed and looked out the window. She couldn't believe it. In less than a week, she would be graduating from Cypress Rhodes University. She was amazed that four years had gone by so quickly. She was going to miss CRU a lot. Was she really ready to be in the "real" world, as they call it? She barely survived her internship last summer. How was she going to face another internship this summer? She smiled as she thought about her upcoming internship. In two weeks she would be relocating to southern California to start an internship with GabFab – one of the up-and-coming hottest magazines that featured everything from celebs to fashion to travel and music.

She was excited and nervous at the same time about moving out to California. She'd always lived in the Midwest and she knew California would be very different from anything she'd ever experienced. Her parents had been supportive though, which she appreciated. She had gone out to California a few weekends before with them to look at apartments. Luckily, she was able to find something affordable and cute. She'd forgotten that cost of living would be much higher out west. Her one bedroom apartment was right in the heart of Los Angeles, even within walking distance to GabFab. She would be living in a building that had only seven other units. It was quiet and most of the people that lived in the building were older. Her parents felt assured as soon as they saw the other tenants.

Despite being nervous, Casey was also happy that she wouldn't be alone in L.A. Her boyfriend, Max Tyler, was also relocating out west and he would complete his PhD program at Cal Tech. She had freaked out when she first found out he gave up Cal Tech to stay at CRU for her. It was endearing, but at the same time it was overwhelming. Over the past school year though, their relationship had grown stronger. It had grown tremendously strong when Max went to London for a month to intern with the esteemed Dr. Magda Stephanopoulos. For the first time, she was in a relationship that was quite healthy. Max treated her right and with respect and he was unbelievably crazy about her as she was about him. At Kiki's wedding in the fall, Max had given Casey her sorority letters – his own version of lavaliering her.

As she thought about her current relationship she couldn't help but think about her ex-boyfriends, Evan Chambers and Cappie. She still couldn't be in the same room with Evan without feeling weird. The fact that he had dated her Big Sister, Frannie Morgan after their break up was quite a shock to her. Frannie's betrayal had hurt her more than she let on. She just couldn't believe that Frannie could do that to her. Frannie had picked Evan over their friendship and sisterhood. At that point, she knew things with Frannie would never be the same. Their relationship was ruined. Then Frannie had to go and start the IKI sorority and take half the ZBZ sisters with her. She shook her head as she realized how dramatic things were a year ago. Even if she didn't talk to Frannie or Evan after graduation, she hoped things would go well for them in life.

Her thoughts went to Cappie and Casey felt her heart flutter a bit. She didn't know why, but Cappie seemed to have that affect on her. Cappie would always be her first love no matter what. They had shared something special during their freshmen year. She knew she would get nostalgic as graduation loomed ahead. Besides Ashleigh, she would miss Cappie the most when she left CRU. She was happy that they had decided to mend their friendship and Cappie had been an amazing friend to her over the last couple of years. She knew they had shared their own moments over the last two years.

She thought back to the time when she asked Cappie where he wanted to be in ten years. Her heart ached as she remembered his answer: "I wanna be with you." It was the most romantic thing she'd ever heard, yet she was back in Evan's arm and Cappie had witnessed Evan lavaliering her. It was one of the hardest decisions she had to make. But Cappie was still Cappie. He would always pick fun over responsibility. But in many ways, she had to admit that Cappie had come through for her on more than one occasion.

She knew Cappie couldn't stand her relationship with Max. For her sake though, he put his feelings aside to be nice towards Max. She also loved that Cappie had reached out to her brother Rusty and taken him under his wing. She had no idea what Cappie was doing after graduation or where he was going. All she knew was that she was going to miss him a lot.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. Casey turned towards the door and smiled at her Little Sister, Rebecca Logan. "Hey Becks," Casey greeted.

"Hey Bis Sis," Rebecca said coming into the room. "I have a little something for you." Rebecca came into her room carrying a little gift bag.

"Becks, you don't have to give me anything." Casey told her. She was glad that over the year, she and Rebecca had learned to put their differences aside and become friends. They had such a torrid history that it gave Casey a headache to even think about it.

"I know," Rebecca said. "But I wanted to anyway. It's an early graduation gift."

"Thank you." Casey said, taking the bag from Rebecca. She opened the bag and pulled out a small velvet jewelry box. "Rebecca, seriously you shouldn't have."

Rebecca smiled and said, "You haven't even opened it."

Casey gave her a smile and opened the jewelry box. She gasped as she saw an amazing pair of sparkly diamond tear drop earrings. "Oh my god. They're beautiful. But you shouldn't have."

"Case, as soon as I saw them, I just imagined how they would make your eyes sparkle. I had to get them for you. Please take them as a gesture of our friendship over the year. I really do appreciate everything you've done for me since I've been in ZBZ." Rebecca told her, looking down shyly.

"I love them, Becks," Casey told her putting the earrings on. "Thank you so much. And I feel the same way towards you. I'm glad we put our differences aside, too." Casey looked in the mirror and smiled. Rebecca was right; the diamond earrings made her hazel eyes pop.

"They look beautiful on you." Rebecca told her.

Casey gave Rebecca a hug and was surprised when her eyes started to water a bit. She pulled back and noticed Rebecca was also blinking back tears as well. Casey laughed. "God, look at us. Pathetic right? Last year we wanted to tear each other's eyes out and now we can barely say good-bye without crying."

Rebecca laughed. "I know. It's sad, right? But I do mean it when I say I'll miss seeing you around next year. You made me believe in sisterhood and ZBZ."

Casey could feel the tears starting up again, "I'll miss you, too. But you'll do great things for the house next year as Social Chair and I know by senior year, you'll be President."

"Thanks Case." Rebecca said looking at her Big Sister. If someone had told her that she and Casey Cartwright would become friends, she would never believe them. But Rebecca appreciated the way Casey had stuck up for her after the whole Spring Break debacle. She knew Casey could've kicked her out of ZBZ, but Casey had been loyal to her and stood up for her. It was one of the reasons she had stayed with ZBZ after Frannie formed IKI. "Well, I better get going. I have a date!"

"I want details tomorrow!" Casey exclaimed. "Who are you going out with anyway?"

Rebecca's eyes sparkled as she gave Casey a salacious smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Yeah," Casey said. "I do want to know. You're not stealing some other girl's boyfriend are you?" Casey teased.

Rebecca stuck her tongue out. "Ha ha. I'm going out with the President of Lambda Sig."

Casey whistled. "Good catch. Mike Templeton is really cute."

"I know!" Rebecca agreed. "Anyway, I better go get ready. What are you doing here on a Friday night anyway? Where's Max? Shouldn't you be out and about?"

"I know I should, but I have so much packing to do. Max is actually out of town this weekend and Ashleigh is with Fisher so this was the perfect time to do this."

"Have a fun night. If this is actually considered fun." Rebecca told her.

"Ha ha. Go get ready for your date." Casey said. As Rebecca made her way out of Casey's room, Casey called to her. "Becks?"

Rebecca turned around. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for the gift. I really love them."

"Anytime, Big Sis." The two girls smiled at each other and then Rebecca turned and left the room. Casey looked at herself in the mirror and admired the earrings. They were beautiful. It was very generous of Rebecca to give her such a nice gift. She had to think of the perfect thing to give Rebecca before she left ZBZ. It was a tradition at ZBZ for the graduating seniors to give their Little Sisters a going away present, sort of like leaving a legacy behind. Casey had to find the perfect gift for Rebecca along with her new Little Sis, Jordan, who also happened to be Rusty's girlfriend.

Casey went back to packing and was so absorbed in what she was doing that she didn't see the figure standing on her patio looking at her through the window. Casey picked up some books and was about to pack them in a box when she noticed a shadow move behind the window. She screamed as the books flew up in the air.

The figure stepped out of the window and put a finger to his mouth. "Shhhhh. It's me Case."

Casey composed herself. The figure was wearing a hooded sweatshirt so she really couldn't see his face. But she knew who it was. "Cap?"

Cappie lifted the hood off his head and gave her a big smile. "The one and only."

Casey went over to Cappie and smacked his arm. "You scared the crap out of me." She bent down to grab the books she had thrown in the air.

Cappie laughed. "Sorry, but if you could see your face, you'd know it was worth it to just to see how scared you look."

"Ha ha." Casey scoffed. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I'm surprised you're not out seducing some innocent girl."

"Ha ha." Cappie scoffed back. Cappie cleared his throat. "So Casey, I was wondering if you'd like to go for a walk tonight."

"You're serious?" Casey asked.

"I am. The night is beautiful Case. How about it?"

"Sure. Let me grab my jacket." Casey grabbed her jacket and slid it on over her form fitting white t-shirt. She slipped her feet into a pair of Puma's. "Where do you want to walk?"

"Anywhere and everywhere." Cappie replied staring at Casey with his clear blue eyes.

Casey could feel herself getting hot as Cappie looked at her. She ran a hand through her blonde hair and said, "Ready to go?"

Cappie was climbing back out the window. "Come on."

Casey laughed. "Cap! I am not climbing out the window. Let's just go out the front door."

Cappie smiled at her. "I was just teasing you."

Casey stuck her tongue out at him. "Very funny." She grabbed Cappie's arm, "Let's go Funny Man."

Cappie felt his heart flutter when Casey grabbed his arm. When Rusty told him Max was out of town, he knew this was his chance to tell Casey everything. He'd been holding everything in all year and he couldn't leave CRU without telling her the truth. He just hoped that Casey was ready for everything that was about to come out of his mouth.

As they descended down the stairs of ZBZ and headed out the front door, Cappie noticed the other sisters smiling at them. Even Rebecca Logan grinned at him. He was glad that Rebecca had no hard feelings towards him. She had been wonderful when they dated last year, but like every woman he dated after Casey, no one compared to Casey Cartwright. They stepped outside the doors of ZBZ and Casey turned to look at Cappie. "Which way?"

Cappie nodded his head to the right. "Let's go that way."

Casey smiled at Cappie and he felt his knees weakened. In the twilight dusk, her eyes were sparkling and she looked beautiful. He just hoped she would still be smiling after he told her everything.