"Sienna!" my dad called, "Come on, let’s help grandad get his trunk out of the cab." I smiled ear to ear and went over to tap my grandad on the shoulder and tell him we could do it for him. He smiled back, his dark brown eyes lit up, silvery-white hair and deep, tortoise shell rimmed glasses glimmering in the late afternoon sun."Come on then Sien, let's do this," my dad said, "3, 2, 1, Heave!" We all pulled, me probably a bit too hard as I toppled over as the case came out, taking my dad with me. We landed in a laughing mess on the pavement and my grandad giggled as he pulled us back up again into a big hug.

"Guys! I want to see the villa, it’s going to be so awesome!" my little brother interrupted, his eyes big and blue and dark eyebrows raised as he pleaded with us. In his short 12 years of life he‘d been to Cyprus with us 5 times. I’d been 6 times in my 14 years. We loved it here, so we‘d decided to invite the whole family and even my best friend Ellie and her dad to come with us and stay in a gigantic, super cool villa together. I‘d seen a few pictures on the website and it looked amazing. Just like one of those big houses they set murder mysteries in, but all bright and… holidayish! "Let’s go see it then," grandad said, taking Niall's hand and slowly walking down the street with him. I saw Ellie with her case a bit further down the cul de sac . She turned and saw me and immediately beamed, looking ethereal in her pink flowery headband wrapped around her tightly coiled curls. She was wearing a yellow off the shoulder top, shorts and cute pineapple earrings. Her deep, almost black eyes shimmered in the sunlight and her dark skin glowed. That was my best friend, Ellie. I ran over clumsily with my case (I was wearing flip flops). "Hi!" we squealed in sync, before starting our handshake. "This is going to be so fun!" she said once we’d finished. "I know!" I said, "I’ve got all 4 weeks planned out! Nothing can go wrong! Day one, beach day! Day 2, this place has a pool! Day 3, waterpark! Day 4-"

"I’m sure it’s going to be amazing. Now let’s go and check this place out!"

I grinned."Race?"

"Challenge accepted! 3, 2, 1, GO!" We barrelled down the pavement with our trunks right to the end before stopping in our tracks abruptly.

"WOW!" we uttered.

"It looks even better than in the pictures!" I murmured. Mum and dad never usually splashed out like this. I wonder what made them this time? It was like a painting. The frame was adorned with luscious greenery. We stood on a perfect green lawn before a sandy coloured path that weaved through vivid shrubbery and potted plants of reds, blues, violets, yellows and all colours under the sun. Then past a ginormous pool surrounded by deck chairs with bright teal umbrellas attached. I thought we’d been prepared for the house, driving past the other fancy villas nearby, but this was like a palace. It stood tall and proud before its kingdom at at least three stories tall, topped by a caramel tiled roof. It was snowy white with wooden ochre panels to each of its many windows (which each seemed to have its own balcony). The ground floor’s floor to ceiling windows revealed a similarly creamy white exterior, yet with modern flashes of colour splashed generously. It was like a mansion, how could mum and dad afford it? We turned to each other, knowing immediately what we were both thinking. "Did you bring your swimming costume?" Ellie questioned, Knowing exactly what my answer would be. "Course. But I’m jumping in there before you!"

"Not a chance!" And another race began. We burst through the doors, marvelling at each and every perfect, polished room we passed through making notes of good hidey holes and secret rooms as we went and waving at each family member we saw on the way. We meticulously scanned each bedroom before deciding we most definitely wanted the attic one, with the little circular window and sill to sit on, just like in Paddington. Before rolling around on the pristine, four poster beds giggling for a couple of minutes, wechucked our cases on the floor and changed into our similarly bright swimming costumes. The race down the flights of stairs was a very close one until my strap got caught on the handle of a door to a little room under the stairs. The door swung open and, as I slipped over and hit the floor, my hand scraped down a dent in the wall, almost unnoticeable unless you stared really hard at it. A small section of the wall just wide

enough to fit a couple of matchboxes through cracked open. "Ow," I groaned, pushing myself up from the floor. "Elli-", I started, before hearing a distant splash. She hadn’t noticed. "Oh, if only I hadn’t gone and fallen over, I would’ve won." I grumbled, frowning at my own clumsiness. A lock of nut brown curly hair had fallen out of my ponytail and onto my face. I blew at it. I looked down at my hands, now rested on my lap. "Oh no!" I said. My little finger had started to bleed. LOTS. Okay, not that much. But quite a bit still.I sucked at it as I stood up, just to come up at almost eye level with a smear of the same blood on the opening to the small crack in the wall. "Oh no, no, no." I gasped. I’d cracked the wall and smeared it with blood. What would mum and dad say? The first posh villa we’d ever stayed in and I’d do already wrecked something after five minutes of arriving. They didn’t have to know. No one would look in this cupboard. Not when we had the rest of the mansion to explore. It looked like an airing cupboard, and there was a small first aid kit in the corner, so I cleaned the cut slightly with an anti bac wipe, put on a plaster, left, closed the door and ran out to join Ellie and the rest of my family in the pool.