wrap my poor little fragile mind around this. After asking for something fun to do during the summer since the eighth grade, they finally give it to me!

"You're lying!" I said, my jaw dropping slightly.

Mom lets out a laugh, shaking her head, "Dead serious."

"Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Oh, my god!" I repeated, wrapping my mom in a hug and jumping up and down. She let out a laugh as I ran over to my dad and wrapped him in a hug and he patted my back, laughing.

I smirked at Lydia and she squirmed in her seat. I ran over to her to wrap her in a hug, too, but she ran out of her seat. I chased her and caught up with her, wrapping her in a hug and carrying her back to the table.

She let out a strangled laugh, "Get off me, Eden!"

I laughed and put her down and turned to both Mom and Dad, "You know I love you guys, right?"

They laughed and mom rolled her eyes. I stopped, "Wait, you guys paid for everything?!"

Mom shook her head, "Goodness, no. We had the six families pitch in."

I nodded. That's good.

Wait, six families? My family, Julia's family, and Leah's family are three.

"Six families?" I asked.

She nodded. I turned to dad with a confused look on my face.

"Who are the other three people coming?" I asked.

"If you want to go, I promised a few ladies at the Book Club that their sons could come."

I stopped, "Sons?"

She nodded.

From the other side of the table, Lydia giggled, "Eden's going to go with boys. Ew!"

I frowned, "You're letting me go to Europe with my two friends and three boys?"

She nodded, "I trust you. We trust you, right?"

I turned to Dad to see him nodding.

"But..." I said, trying to figure out what was happening.

"Who are they?" I asked.

She thought a little, "Atlas Foreman, Dawson Halifax, and Jude Kenneth."

I frowned, "I've never heard of them before."

I nodded to myself trying to understand all this. I giggled, a smile making its way to my face, "Thank you so so much for doing this. I love you both so much!" 

Dad chuckled, "We love you too."

"When are we leaving?" I asked.

My mom looked at me and thought a little, "I have to double-check, but I think in a week."

"Thank you," I said and ran towards my room.

"What are you doing?" Mom asked.

"I..." I tried to come up with an excuse, "I'm going to thank God."

Before they could respond, I ran up the stairs and closed the door. I was so happy and excited, I wanted to cry.

I jumped onto my bed and called Leah, "Where are you guys?"

"Huh?" Leah said.

"Come over and bring Julia with you," I said.

"What? Why? What happened?" She asked, panicking.

"They told me the surprise and holy shit! I'll tell you when you get here." At that, I hung up and jumped off my bed, and went downstairs.

Dad was sitting with Lydia on the couch and Mom was in the kitchen cutting up some slices of cake. I walked over to her.

"This is crazy, also Leah and Julia are coming over," I said, smiling giddily.

She nodded, a small smile on her face, "It's going to be great."

I nodded, "Where exactly are we going?"

She opened a drawer and pulled some forks out, placing them on the sides of the plate. She looked at me, "England, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Greece."

My eyes widened, "Woah, how long are we staying?"

She frowned, "Uh, I think a month or two."

My eyes widened in surprise, "That's a lot of money." 

She nodded, smiling, "Ms. Foreman, Leah's mom, and Mr. Halifax were very generous."

I nodded. I watched as Mom gave Lydia and Dad each a slice of cake and came back to the kitchen. She handed me a plate and she picked one up herself.

"I expect you to call me at least twice a day, take lots of pictures, and be responsible, okay?" She said, eyeing me.

I nodded, urgently, "Of course, you don't even have to worry about it."

She nodded, a small smile on my face. After a few minutes, we wandered over to Dad and Lydia to talk. 

The doorbell rang while we were in the middle of laughing at all the cake on Lydia's face. I quickly jumped up and ran to the door. Leah and Julia were standing on the other side of the door and I smiled, dragging them inside.

"Your dad's here?" Leah asked, her eyes wide. I rolled my eyes and dragged her towards the stairs.

"Hi, Helena." Julia said, referring to my mom, "Hi, Mr. Fitzgerald."

They smiled and returned the hello. Leah waved at my dad, but before he could respond, I jerked her forward towards my room.

"We'll be upstairs!" I said.

I quickly dragged them into my room. I sat down on my bed with Julia and Leah took a seat on the chair near my desk.

"Your dad is hot," Leah said.

I rolled my eyes and cringed, "Please stop."

Julia giggled and turned to Leah, "How would you like it if she said your dad was hot?"

Leah's face contorted into one of disgust, "That's nasty, but her dad on the other hand..."

I rolled my eyes, "Anyways!"

Leah let out a laugh, "So what's the surprise?"

I giggled, "We're going to Europe."

"Oh, cool. You and your family?" Julia asked.

I groaned, "No, us three and some others."

Leah's jaw dropped and so did Julia's. I giggled as I watched them look at each other in disbelief. Julia turned to me.

"Our parents agreed to this?" She asked.

I nodded, "It's all paid for. We're going to Greece, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and England along with three other guys."

"Say what?" Leah asked.

I nodded, "Three guys, never heard of them before. Atlas Foreman, Dawson Halifax, and Jude Kenneth."

Leah frowned, "Who?"

I shrugged. Julia frowned, "We can try searching them up."

Leah nodded and clambered up onto the bed, leaning over Julia's shoulder, peeking into her phone. I peeked over too.

I watched as she opened Instagram and went to the search page. She first searched up Jude's name and I watched as she searched up different remixes of it. She came up empty every time. She then moved on to Atlas and then Dawson, but couldn't find them either.

"What the hell?" Leah asked.

I nodded, "What if their parents are super strict and don't let them have social media... or something?"

Julia shook her head, "Maybe..."

"What if we ask your mom?" Leah asked.

"No, that's so weird," I said.

Julia shook her head, "We can ask."

Before I could say anything else, they were already up and on their way out of the room. I groaned and followed them.

"Helena..." Leah said to no one in particular.

"Yes, Leah?" Mom replied. We walked into the living room and noticed that dad wasn't there. I looked to Mom.

"Where's dad?" I asked.

"Oh, he had to go," She said. I nodded and watched as Leah and Julia sat next to her. They were getting right to it.

"So, who are those guys?" Leah asked, smirking at my mom.

I rolled my eyes and sat down next to Lydia who was watching Miraculous. My eyes widened and I looked away as Chat Noir came on screen. I focused on their conversation instead.

"Who's who?" My mom asked.

"Those guys that are going to be coming with us?" Julia said.

"Yeah, are they cute?" Leah piped in.

My mom let out a little laugh and looked at me. I shrugged, acting disinterested.

"Well, they are about your age and come to some of my book clubs with their mom." She said, smirking. My mom was smirking, I noted.

"So, they're nerds?" Leah asked.

My mom let out a laugh and smiled after she quieted down, "I don't know,"

Julia spoke up, "But, hey, some nerds are really cute,"

"Yeah, " I piped in.

Don't hate on nerds. Peter Parker's one, too.

"Yeah, but I like a bad boy, or an emo guy, or a jock, or a-," She said, but I cut her off.

"We get it, you're not very picky," I laughed.

"Is that all you know?" Julia asked softly.

Mom shrugged, "I guess,"

She knew a lot more. She just didn't want to tell us.

"You know a lot more, miss ma'am." I pointed out.

She raised her eyebrows and let out a small laugh, "So sue me if I want to save it as a surprise."

"Mhm, Helena making moves," Leah said, getting up and smirking at my mom. Mom rolled her eyes, a soft smile on her face. They did this small handshake and I rolled my eyes.

Sometimes I wondered if Leah was a better daughter to my mom when I was her actual daughter. I laughed at that thought.

After we got more cake from the kitchen, we went back upstairs and started making a list of things we'd need from the store and when we'd meet up.

"I'm supposed to meet my mom and her boyfriend for breakfast tomorrow," Julia said.

I looked at her and frowned. She didn't like how her mom was moving on from her dad who died from cancer two years ago. She was happy for her mom, but she didn't like it, even if she didn't say it.

I placed my hand on her lap, reassuringly. I smiled at her and she smiled back.

"Well after, we can go to the mall and pick up the things we'd need," I said. 

"Oh, and on Monday, can we stop by that big ass store in the next town over?" Leah asked.

I frowned, "Why? It's like a 45-minute drive to get there."

"I saw this new drink online that's supposed to help make your face clearer and clear up a hangover in a jiffy."

"Why would we need that?" I asked, "You have the clearest skin I've known and it's not like we're getting hungover."

She gave me a blank look and then started to laugh. Not just a regular laugh, a very loud and long one.

"What?" I asked, confused, "We aren't."

"Oh, my sweet Eden." She said, smiling and shaking her head.

I looked at Julia, confused and she smiled, shrugging. I decided to ignore Leah's little outburst.

We started making a list and Julia raided my closet for things she could wear on the trip. She had a lot more clothes than I had, but she liked my taste better.

From somewhere in the room, Leah stubbed her toe. She cursed so loud I was pretty sure my mom heard it.

"Fucking hell! Shit! Ugh!" She screamed.

"Leah?!" Mom yelled from downstairs. I smiled, she heard it.

"Yes, Helena," She groaned, already knowing she was getting in trouble. She opened the door a crack to hear her better.

"$5 in the swear jar!" She said. I could hear the amusement in her voice. I laughed a little.

She let out a small cry and stomped out of the room. Julia and I laughed.

I laid down on my bed and smiled at the ceiling. I haven't felt this happy in ages. I really hoped this trip would be as great as it sounded.