Saturday morning, in a bout of good spirits and because the weather was just so nice, my friends decided to to walk to the lake. I was dragged along, of course, and when we finally got there, they proceeded to remove their shirts and dived into the dark depths. I watched them, torn between fascination with their abs and a sinking feeling that they would try to make me swim too.

"Come on in, Ethan." Hans said.

"The water is great." Frans added.

Edmund wiped wet hair from his eyes and said, "Or is it that you're afraid?" in his British accent.

"I'm not afraid." I protested. "I just don't like to swim." Neil came up from behind me and began to remove my shirt. I yelped, pulling it down. "I don't want to swim!" I shouted, and that was that.

After a while, Taki waded back to the shore. "Ethan, I'll keep you company." He pulled himself up onto the rock I had climbed to better watch my friends.

"Don't you want to swim?"

He shrugged. "Nii-chan's onsen is way better. Do you like hot springs?"

"I've never been to one." I replied.

"Then you have to come to Nii-chan's this summer. You can stay in the main house with me. We can even go to Tokyo one day, or visit Kyoto, or--"

"Hey,slow down." I held up my hands in surrender. "I don't even have a passport, and there is no way you can smuggle me to Japan and back."

"You don't have a passport?" Taki said this like it was some outrageous, egregious crime. He stood up and called down to the others. "Guys, Ethan doesn't have a passport."

They stopped their game of aquatic Ultimate Frisbee and looked up. "No passport?" They all asked at the same time.

"Well, I guess I should have assumed so." Edmund said. "After all, he is a commoner."

"But we've heard of commoners having passports." Hans and Frans said together. "Isn't that what they call tourists?"

"I agree, this is most disappointing." Edmund stepped out of the water and retrieved his cell phone from his neatly folded shirt. "And, by calculating the average rate of bureaucracy, time for processing and verification, not to mention obtaining medical treatment and the correct vaccinations," He pressed some buttons on his phone, "It would take roughly six months for Ethan to receive his passport."

"But that's the whole summer vacation!" The twins said in shock.

"This is terrible." Taki said sadly. "I was going to take you all over Japan, and we were going to have so much fun. You would have seen the natural beauty of the land. We could have visited Okinawa and the island resort. And then we could have gone for walks on the beach and..." He stopped abruptly and turned red. "We would have been together all summer."

"We were planning on taking him to our Oma's castle." Hans and Frans climbed out of the water. "As a commoner, he doesn't get so see cool things like that or drive one of our cars on the Autobahn."

"Well, at least you don't have to reschedule tea with the queen." Edmund replied, punching in a number on his phone. "Yes, this is the Baron." He said into the receiver. "Yes, put on James." There was a long pause. "James, I want you to move all of my summer things to the New York penthouse, I have a guest coming there this summer....I know it's completely unsuitable for normal inhabitants, but this guest of mine doesn't have a passport."

"Stop." I shouted. "I can't go to New York any more than Paris. I'm planning on getting a job."

The silence that followed was so absolute, so all-consuming, that even the waves seemed to stop. "A job?" Hans and Frans asked in hushed voices. "Like...work?"

"Yeah. Work." I replied. "So I'm not going anywhere this summer."

Edmund shut his phone with a click. "I guess that changes things."

"Yeah." Neil agreed. "I was planning to rest this summer. Maybe staying in the States would be good for everyone. Where were you planning on working, Ethan?"

"I was going to stay with my grandmother in Florida, and work at the amusement park nearby." I answered, almost afraid of what they would do with the information.

Edmund re-opened his phone with a snap. "Scratch that, James. I'll be in Florida."

Hans and Frans exchanged evil grins. "We should call Oma and cancel." Hans said.

"We should." Frans smiled wickedly.

What had I gotten myself into?