The hot Pacific sun beats down on your trim, tan body as you lie in a bikini on the beach. Next to you, Christina takes a sip from a cocktail and turns the page of the book she's reading. "It could be worse, Ally. Your father could have dragged you off somewhere truly awful, like Alaska. Or New Jersey."

You don't give in to Christina's good humour. You're still brooding that your father had the nerve to bring you along on this vacation. You're 19, for goodness sake, and are capable of looking after yourself in a vacant villa for two weeks. But no--he doesn't trust you. Oh, the excuse he gave was that it would "let us spend some time together," but you know that's just an excuse. After all, he let you bring Christina along. And where is he now?

You crane your neck, turning around from the ocean view to the cabin behind you and the path beyond that leads inland. This tiny island doesn't even have so much as a hotel or resort. A boat arrives once a week to bring supplies, and apparently there's an Internet connection up at the lab facilities, but here on the beach you'd be forgiven for feeling like a castaway in some deserted island B-movie. You, Christina, and your father are crammed into a two-room cabin that just barely has running water and electricity. Something about "not having clearance" to stay in the living area at the lab.

The lab. That's the whole reason you're here instead of suntanning with your friends on some beach back in California. Your dad made his money in the R&D wing of some big cosmetics corporation. You've never paid too much attention to the specifics; all you know is that mommy still didn't think it was good enough and left when you were twelve. But hey, it pays the bills and has let you go to the college of your choice, so who are you to complain?

Except that you are, because now your dad's job has brought you here, to some remote island in the Pacific so small your brain didn't bother to remember the name. Here, an eccentric genius from your dad's company has been developing the Next Best Thing, well away from the prying eyes of corporate espionage and government regulation. It's so top secret you're not even allowed up at the lab. So you get to lie around all day on the beach and brood.

Or do you? It's a perfect day--but then again, they're all perfect days, aren't they? Perfection can get boring after a while.

You could choose to be mischievous and hike up to the lab despite your father forbidding it. If you stayed out of the way, surely he wouldn't get too mad.