Chapter 1

Ashleigh O'Hara was a control freak. She was totally regimented. She got up at the same time every day. Exercised approximately one hour and forty-five minutes every day without exception. She counted calories and watched her weight.

You see Ashleigh was raised by free spirits. They lived by the motto, "Do Your Thing!". They lived in an old VW van. They smoked pot. They made love, a LOT! They ate what they wanted and followed no rules. Which was fine. For THEM!! But poor little Ashleigh wanted nothing more than to have a little structure in her life. She believed in that old saying "a place for everything and everything has its place." She was absolutely conventional. She was bound and determined to look like everyone else. She followed the latest fashions, kept up with the latest fads, listened to nothing but popular music. In short, she did everything in her power to be NOTHING like her parents. And they were cool with that. After all, if being completely square was Ashleigh's thing, then that was cool with them.

That's why it should have come as no shock that Ashleigh grew up to be the epitome of conventionality. She studied hard in school and got good grades. She tried out for the cheer leading squad and made it. Never became captain like she wanted but at least she made the squad. She ran track and cross-country and played volleyball all throughout high school. She went to college and got a degree in business, majoring in accounting. After graduation she got a job with a large accounting firm and then set out with typical determination to become a CPA, which she did in just under a year.

In spite of their differences, she dearly loved her parents and visited them regularly. Although she'd never admit it, she was actually a little jealous of her mom and dad. It wasn't that her life's decisions made her sad or miserable or anything like that. If she had to describe her emotional state in one word it would have been SATISFIED. But she didn't have the same joy of living her parents had. They embraced life come what may, seeing the wonderment in every hour of every day. And there were times Ashleigh thought it would be wonderful to be like her folks, but she could never get up the gumption to just let herself go and embrace life like they did.

And then one day.........