In the beginning.

"Okay, Hillman. You can move that chair into the back left bedroom." Chrissy said, as she swiped at her red, curly hair from her face, out of her brown eyes.

"You'd better be sure of where you want it, because I only place it once. I don't rearrange anything. How did you land this place anyway? It's hard to get in to." Hillman said, as he grunted the fancy-looking futon down the hallway. "You had to pick the farthest room, didn't you?"

"Just lucky, I guess. The back room suits me best." Chrissy said, shrugging her shoulders. She changed the subject. "By the way, where is your help you promised to bring?"

"I'm it." Hillman said. "He's not actually here yet. I'm kind of irritated because he was supposed to be here yesterday and I have no idea where he is."

"Oh, come on. You, of all people, know you cant' stay mad at someone forever" Chrissy said, as she put her dishes into the kitchen cupboard.  "You'll meet him and be best friends on the better side of thirty minutes." She yelled down the hallway as Hillman took the smaller bookshelf, of a set of two to her bedroom for her. "Do you at least know his name?"

When he came back to  the living room, he said to her, "It's Everett. He's German. That's all I know. Do you have any idea where these roommates of yours are? They're late too."

"Why?" She asked as she opened her next box of kitchen ware to be put away and looked at him. "Do I look like I know?"

"It's just a question, silly. Besides, you've been roommates with Angie and Suzy for three years. You know everything about each other. There are no secrets. If it gets much later and they're not here, I have to go anyway. I have places to be."

"Everyone has secrets, Hill." She smiled amicably and continued unpacking, pausing only to help move the heavy desk and giant bookcase.

It only took her two hours after that to get her things unpacked and situated before her roommates had even shown up. They found Chrissy in her bedroom, putting her clothes away and hanging pictures on her wall.

"Where's Hillman?" Angie asked, brushing her brown bangs out of her eyes, sounding out of breath, for trying to hurry.

"Yeah," Suzy followed. "Where is our mover-in-residence." She paused as the other two looked at her. "Oh, wait. That didn't come out right."

The three friends laughed, They walked out of her bedroom past the other two bedrooms and the bathroom, into the living room. As the new arrivals surveyed the placement of the furniture, they approved of where Hillman had put it all, with Chrissy's help. They looked over to their kitchen, and the table was dressed with a fresh vase of flowers and the chachkis were already in place. The opening in the wall between the kitchen and living room was big enough for four people to stand in, which made the then Chrissy told them how Hillman had to leave and get his own stuff put together at his own place. "If you two would actually show up on time, You'd get the help you need. Now we have to struggle by ourselves."

"That's okay," Suzy said. "We can struggle on our own. I like to fight with my furniture. It's good for the heart-rate."

They all laughed and got to work together.

"So, who did he bring with him?"

"Is he cute?"

"What's his name?"

"Where is he from?"

"Does he have a girlfriend?"

Chrissy's roommates asked her all kinds of questions, all at the same time. She barely could hear the answers in her head before the next one came out of someones mouth. "I'm afraid I can only answer three of those questions, girls," Chrissy rolled her eyes, trying to gain a sympathy vote for no knowledge. "Hillman came alone, and doesn't know where this mystery man, who's name is Everett, was. He's not here yet. Maybe, he's still in Germany."

Angie and Suzy looked at each other in awe, "Germany? Ooohhhh." They both drew their lips into a small circle. and Suzy whistled.

"Did you meet him when you were there?" Angie asked, referring to the time when Chrissy was in Munich for a semester abroad.

"You know? I very well could have." She rolled her eyes. "Do you know how big Germany really is, Angela?"

"Ha! Just testing you." She teased, flicking some of her brown hair out of her eyes with her fingers.

The three friends continued to unpack and move furniture until well after ten O'clock that night. Luckily, the beds got put together and made pretty fast because they found some willing young men to help out, as long as they were fed, so the girls had pizza from Brick Oven delivered. The rest of the night was used for cleaning up boxes, putting away their things and getting ready for church the next day.

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The next day, Sunday, the girls raced to get ready for church. Start time was at Nine a.m. They had to rush so fast, that Suzy declared, "It's a good thing we all showered last night. We would have never made it on time."

"Suzy, you're so right." Angela replied, "although, I wish I could have five more minutes for some cold pizza." She

 "Oh, whatever!"Chrissy snapped, with a smile. "it was your idea to leave right now, to see the new scenery." They ran to her car to get in. As she shut the door, they all

Angela smiled, reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. "Why not? Some people are dense as bricks and need to be broken, a lot. So why not?" She was just a flirt, Chrissy decided long ago, when they met in the third grade after she moved to Provo.

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Chrissy was in need of  a friend when she moved in during the middle of the third grade. Angela was willing and ready to make new friends. She showed her all about the school; Told her all about the other class members; ate lunch with her every day. In fact, there was not a thing they didn't do together since then. Every year, since they turned 15, and were sophomores in high school, they went to Las Vegas.


They celebrated birthdays together, had countless sleepovers, went to dances in the same groups. If Angela would have had a brother around the same age, Chrissy probably would have dated him. Why not? Angela dated Chrissy's twin brother, Jacob.  They suffered break-ups together, and had all-night hot chocolate days all the time.

One time in Vegas, just during their sophomore year in college, the three friends saw a German rock band, called Hawkeye, give a great show, at the suggestion of Angela's uncle, Bob Wilson, who manages a theater on the strip. Oh, it was fun. They got to the theater and saw the show and instantly became fan-girls. Her friends were squealy and girly and silly and Chrissy had to play the levelheaded girlfriend who told them to knock-it-off, and get back to class. As she suspected, they got over it after a couple of weeks, but Chrissy hid her slight obsession with Hawkeye, since she had seen them once or twice when she went to Munich for a study abroad program and ended up staying with the lead guitarists cousin, Heike.

One year, during their new college days, Angela rushed over to Chrissy's house and proposed, "We need to be roommates, and Suzy, from our biology 1010 class wants to live with us. I have the perfect little house to live in and they want to fill it up in two weeks."

"Whoa, slow down there, Ange." Chrissy's eyes nearly popped. "You want to what?"

"...to be roommates with you and Suzy." Angela was obviously ready to jump in the deep end. Almost like she had her bags packed already. "Come on, Chrissy. I've already paid my deposit, and so has Suzy." She was ready for a change of scenery anyway and has already started moving in. We're just waiting for you." Angela widened her eyes and raised her brows in all hopefulness.  "You're killing me, Chrissy. Say yes!"

Chrissy was really giving it some thought. "What would my parents think?". What would Jacob and Brad think? Brad was her brothers best friend who was a little more than like a brother. He was on a mission New Jersey right now, but. Who was she kidding, she knew she needed to get out on her own, and she was pretty sure her parents would support this. Her brother would be jealous, in a twin sort of way, and Brad could deal with it when he got home in just less than a year. It wouldn't make any difference to Jacob because he was too busy playing baseball right now, and forever, to really let it get to him. He needed to live at home to save money for baseball extras. His scholarship just didn't cover everything.

"You, know, I'll do it." She said.

Angela squealed, raised her hands and immediately picked up her phone, "Did you hear that, Suzy?" She had Suzy on speaker the whole time. "She's in."

"YAY!" Suzy yelled back. "Oh, I can't wait."

"What's all the ruckus about?" They heard Kathryn MacDallan, Chrissy's mom, coming down the hallway.

"Oh, nothing," Angela said. "Chrissy just agreed to move in with Suzy and me!"

"Wonderful. See, I told you she would." Kathryn smiled, waving a dishtowel at the girls.

"You knew about this?" Chrissy asked. "How long have you known about this?"

"Oh, for a week or so." Chrissy's mouth dropped, she looked at her mother and best friend incredulously. "Anyway, the deposit, as well as your first months rent has been paid, so we gotta get you moved."

"You knew all along, and weren't telling me? When were you going to tell me?"

"We just did, silly. Now, let's get you moved." Angela said, going to Chrissy's closet, haphazardly pulling things out. The whole time, Suzy just laughed into the phone.

Their first Sunday in their new student ward was where they met Hillman Sinclair. A newly returned missionary who came home early because of a broken leg, from a biking accident, was also a biology major. He and Chrissy then planned to take all their biology classes and labs together, and it proved an invaluable resource for both. For Chrissy, because of Hillman's brain. She'd never met someone as smart, and for Hillman, because he got his "home-cooked" meal away from home, which is in Idaho.
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As the three friends shuffled into the church building, They saw Hillman right away. It's hard to miss someone who's six-foot two, a good four to six inches taller than most of the others in the ward. He was standing with someone they had never seen before, who was obviously not a new freshman and hadn't been there before. It seemed Hillman was showing him around.

When he saw the three friends, he waved them over. "Chrissy, Ange, Z!" He tried not to be so loud in the Church house. They hurried over, just as the tall, blonde stranger turned with a smile. The girls all stopped in their tracks and smiled back. "This is the moving help," said Hillman.

"Oh," Exclaimed Suzy! "You're late. We've already moved in. I'm Suzy Masterson. Sometimes, Hillman calls me Z." She smiled and shook his hand. Why would she not smile or flip her blonde bangs towards her shoulder. He was really good looking and closer to her age of 20, maybe a little older. And he was taller than her, which, when a woman who is five-foot-ten and very comfortable in high heals is hard to beat.

 "Hello," said the stranger. He had an accent. It was so very attractive. "I'm sorry for my tardiness."

"This," Hillman said as he looked for Chrissy, but she had gotten stopped by someone who needed to ask her a few questions. So he looked over for Angela, "is Angela Wilson"

Angela smiled and shook his hand. "Hillman tells us your name is Everett." She looked up at Hillman, "You ought to tell us when Everett showed up, and stuff." Everett blushed and Hillman guffawed.

"What do you expect? A chorus of trumpets?" He was toying with them now, and Everett just smiled and blushed a little more.

"Everett Vogel. I really don't need fanfare." Everett said as he looked sheepishly around. The two girls thought, at the same time, that he is a person they could possibly get used to showing up.

 "Where's Chrissy?" He asked, as he looked around for a second or two before he spotted her catching up. "It's about time you got here. I'm almost done with introductions."

"Sorry." She said to Hillman as she caught up to everyone. "I had to get some things squared away for later." She stopped and turned just as Hillman began to introduce the new guy.

"Chrissy," he started, "This is the moving-help. Everett."

"Hello," Everett said, as he met the last of the three girls, "I'm sorry I'm late, but I am happy to know you got moved in."

"Yeah, well. We managed," Chrissy smiled as she shook his hand and shrugged. Then she paused in a moment of presumption to size him up. There was something familiar about him. His blue eyes nearly spoke for themselves. Chrissy's secret..