A Sizzling New Beginning I hauled the last suitcase up the stairs, and through the front door. It was an unbearably hot day, even the flowers in the small front yard seemed to droop a little and the street in front of the house almost appeared to be rippling in a heat haze. I had picked the worst day possible to move into a new house. As I dragged the enormous suitcase to the first door in the hallway I could feel hairs from my blonde ponytail coming loose and sticking to the back of my neck. It would be far too exhausting to unpack just now. My small amount of belongings were packed into boxes that sat on the other end of the generously sized bedroom, my dismantled bed frame leaned against one wall and a single mattress had beached itself in a corner. I sighed contently. It must have been only a few minutes later, although it seemed like an eon as I was basking in every moment of nothingness, there was a quick knock at the open door and my new room mate Tessa strolled in. She wasn't particularly tall, although she had a certain graceful length about her, as if someone had threaded an invisible cord through the top of her head and pulled upwards on her. She was ghostly pale with dark brunette hair and clear grey eyes, a blunt fringe and the odd freckle, but her face was open and friendly and she almost always wore a sneaky grin. "Do you need help putting the bed together? …but everything was about to change
