As I sat in my room, trying to concentrate on the third act of Macbeth, I was really listening for my truck. I would have thought, even over the pouring rain, I could have heard the engine's roar. But when I went to peek out the curtain—again—it was suddenly there.
I wasn't looking forward to waking up on Friday, and it more than lived up to my negative expectations. Of course, there were the fainting comments. Jessica especially seemed to get a kick out of that story. Luckily Mike had kept his mouth shut, and no one seemed to know about Edward's involvement. She did have a lot of questions about lunch, though.
"So what did Edward Cullen want yesterday?" Jessica asked in Trig.
"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "He never really got to the point."
"You looked kind of anxious," she finished.
"Did I?" I kept my expression blank.
"You know, I've never seen him sit with anyone but his family before. That was weird."
"Weird," I agreed
She seemed disappointed; she flipped her hair emphatically—I guessed she'd been hoping to hear something exciting.
The worst part about Friday was that, even though I knew he wasn't going to be there, I still hoped. When I walked into the cafeteria with Jessica and Mike, I couldn't keep from looking at his table, where Royal, Alice, and Jasper sat talking, heads close together. I wondered how Alice felt about having to drive my truck home last night.
At my usual table, everyone was full of our plans for the next day. Mike was animated again, putting a great deal of trust in the local weatherman who promised sun tomorrow. I'd have to see that before I believed it. But it was warmer today—almost sixty. Maybe the outing wouldn't be completely miserable.
I intercepted a few unfriendly glances from a boy with silver blond hair who I didn't know, which I didn't understand until I was walking out of the room. I was right behind him and he was talking animatedly to a girl who also had sleek, silver blond hair, who I realized was Lauren.
"…don't know why Beauregard"—he sneered my name—"doesn't just sit with the Cullens from now on," the boy was muttering to Lauren in a nasal, malicious voice. Lauren's body language seemed to indicate she was put out.
"He's our friend; he sits with us," Lauren whispered back kindly.
I paused to let Jess and Angela pass me. I didn't want to hear anymore.
That night at dinner, Charlie seemed enthusiastic about my trip to La Push in the morning. I think he felt guilty for leaving me home alone on the weekends, but he'd spent too many years building his habits to break them now. Of course he knew the names of all the kids going, and their parents, and their great-grandparents, too, probably. He seemed to approve. I wondered if he would approve of my plan to ride to Seattle with Edward Cullen. Not that I was going to mention it.
"Dad, do you know a place called Goat Rocks or something like that? I think it's south of Mount Rainier," I asked casually.
"Yeah—why?"
I shrugged. "Some kids were talking about camping there."
"It's not a very good place for camping." He sounded surprised. "Too many bears. Most people go there during the hunting season."
"Oh." I murmured. "Maybe I got the name wrong."
I meant to sleep in, but the light woke me. I opened my eyes to see a clear yellow light streaming through my window. I couldn't believe it. I hurried to the window to check, and sure enough, there was the sun. It was in the wrong place in the sky, too low, and it didn't seem to be as close as it should be, but it was definitely the sun. Clouds ringed the horizon, but a large patch of blue was visible in the middle. I lingered by the window as long as I could, afraid that if I left the blue would disappear again.
The Newtons' Olympic Outfitters store was just north of town. I'd seen the store, but I'd never stopped there—not having much need for any supplies required for being outdoors over an extended period of time. In the parking lot I recognized Mike's Suburban and Tyler's Sentra. As I pulled up next to their vehicles, I could see the group standing around in front of the Suburban. Erica was there, along with two boys I had class with; I was fairly sure their names were Ben and Conner. Jess was there, flanked by Angela and Lauren. Two other girls stood with them, as well as the boy who had been whispering to Lauren in the cafeteria. He gave me a dirty look as I got out of the truck, and tried to whisper something to Lauren, she shook out her beautiful hair and tried to ignore him.
So it was going to be one of those days.
At least Mike was happy to see me.
"You came!" he called, delighted. "And I said it would be sunny today, didn't I?"
"I told you I was coming," I reminded him.
"We're just waiting for Lee and Samantha… unless you invited someone," Mike added.
"Nope," I lied lightly, hoping I wouldn't get caught in the lie. But also wishing that Edward would just show up out of nowhere like he always seemed to do.
Mike look satisfied, anyway.
"Will you ride in my car? It's that or Lee's mom's minivan."
"Sure."
He smiled blissfully. It was so easy to make Mike happy.
"You can have shotgun," he promised. I hid my chagrin. It wasn't as simple to make Mike and Jessica happy at the same time. I could see Jessica looking at us with a strange, confused look. At this point I had decided that Mike might like both me and Jessica but, like a puppy, he could only focus on one of us at a time.
The numbers worked out in my favor, though. Lee brought two extra people, and suddenly every seat was necessary. I managed to wedge Jess in between Mike and me in the front seat of the Suburban. Mike could have been more graceful about it, but at least Jess seemed elated.
It was only fifteen miles to La Push from Forks, with gorgeous, dense green forests edging the road most of the way and the wide Quillayute River snaking beneath is twice. I was glad I had the window seat. We'd rolled the windows down—the Suburban was a bit claustrophobic with nine people in it—and I tried to absorb as much sunlight as possible.
I'd been to the beaches around La Push many times during my Forks summers with Charlie, so the mile-long crescent of First Beach was familiar to me. It was still breathtaking. The water was dark gray, even in the sunlight, white-capped and heaving to the gray, rocky shore. Islands rose out of the steel harbor waters with sheer cliff sides, reaching to uneven summits, and crowned with austere, soaring firs. The beach had only a thin border of actual sand at the water's edge, after which it grew into millions of large, smooth stones that looked uniformly gray from a distance, but close up were every shade a stone could be: terra-cotta, sea green, lavender, blue gray, dull gold. The tide line was strewn with huge driftwood trees, bleached bone white in the salt waves, some piled together against the edge of the forest fringe, some lying solitary, just out of reach of the waves.
There was a brisk wind coming off the waves, cool and briny. Pelicans floated on the swells while seagulls and a lone eagle wheeled above them. The clouds still circled the sky, threatening to invade at any moment, but for now the sun shone bravely in its halo of blue sky.
We picked our way down to the beach, Mike leading the way to a ring of driftwood logs that had obviously been used for parties like ours before. There was a fire circle already in place, filled with black ashes. Erica and the boy I thought was named Ben gathered broken branches of driftwood from the drier piles against the forest edge, and soon had a teepee-shaped construction build atop the old cinders.
"Have you ever seen a driftwood fire?" Mike asked me. I was sitting on one of the bone-colored benches; the other girls clustered, gossiping excitedly, on either side of me. Mike kneeled by the fire, lighting one of the smaller sticks with a cigarette lighter.
"No," I said as he placed the blazing twig carefully against the teepee.
"You'll like this then—watch the colors." He lit another small branch and laid it alongside the first. The flames started to lick quickly up the dry wood.
"It's blue," I laughed in surprise.
"The salt does it. Pretty, isn't it?" He lit one more piece, placed it where the fire hadn't yet caught, and then came to sit by me. Thankfully, Jess was on his other side. She turned to him and claimed his attention. I watched the strange blue and green flames crackle toward the sky.
After a half hour of chatter, some of the boys wanted to hike to the nearby tidal pools. It was a dilemma. On the one hand, I loved the tide pools. They had fascinated me since I was a child; they were one of the only things I ever looked forward to when I had come to Forks. On the other hand, I'd also fallen into them a lot. Not a big deal when you're seven and with your dad. It reminded me of Edward's request—that I not fall into the ocean.
Lauren's mean friend, who I found out was her twin brother, Logan, made the decision for me. He didn't want to hike, and he was definitely wearing the wrong shoes for it. Lauren sighed and dutifully stayed behind with her brother. Most of the other girls besides Angela and Jessica decided to stay on the beach as well. I waited until Tyler and Erica had committed to remaining with them before I got up to join the pro-hiking group. Mike gave me a huge smile when he saw I was coming.
The hike wasn't too long, though I hated to lose the sky in the woods. The green light of the forest was strangely at odds with the adolescent laughter, too murky and ominous to be in harmony with the light banter around me. I had to watch each step I took very carefully, avoiding roots below and branches above, and I soon fell behind. Eventually I broke through the emerald confines of the forest and found the rocky shore again. It was a low tide, and a tidal river flowed past us on its way out to the sea. Along its pebbled banks, shallow pools that never completely drained were teeming with life.
I was very careful not to lean too far over the little ocean ponds. The others were fearless, leaping over the rocks, perching precariously on the edges. I found a very stable-looking rock on the fringe of one of the largest pools and sat there cautiously, spellbound by the natural aquarium below me. The bouquets of brilliant anemones undulated ceaselessly in the invisible current, twisted shells scurried about the edges, obscuring the crabs within them, starfish stuck motionless to the rocks and each other, while one small black eel with white racing stripes wove through the bright green weeds, waiting for the sea to return. I was completely absorbed, except for one small part of my mind that wondered what Edward was doing now, and trying to imagine what he would be saying if he were here with me.
Finally, the boys were hungry, and I got up stiffly to follow them back. I tried to keep up better this time through the woods, so naturally I fell a few times. I got some shallow scrapes on my palms, and the knees of my jeans were stained green, but it could have been worse.
When we got back to First Beach, the group we'd left behind had multiplied. As we got closer we could see the shining, straight black hair and copper skin of the newcomers, teenagers from the reservation come to socialize. The food was already being passed around, and the boys hurried to claim a share while Erica introduced us as we each entered the driftwood circle. Angela and I were the last to arrive, and, as Erica said our names, I noticed a younger boy sitting on the stones near the fire glance up at me in interest. I sat down next to Angela, and Mike brought us sandwiches and an array of sodas to choose from, while a boy who looked to be the oldest of the visitors rattled off the names of the seven others with him. All I caught was that one of the girls was also named Jessica, and the boy who noticed me was named Jacob.
It was relaxing to sit with Angela; she was a restful kind of person to be around—she didn't feel the need to fill every silence with chatter. She left me free to think undisturbed while we ate. And I was thinking about how disjointedly time seemed to flow in Forks, passing in a blur at times, with single images standing out more clearly than others. And then, at other times, every second was significant, etched in my mind. I knew exactly what caused the difference, and it disturbed me.
During lunch the clouds started to advance, slinking across the blue sky, darting in front of the sun momentarily, castling long shadows across the beach, and blackening the waves. As they finished eating, people started to drift away in twos and threes. Some walked down to the edge of the waves, trying to skip rocks across the choppy surface.
Others were gathering a second expedition to the tide pools. Mike—with Jessica shadowing him—headed up to the single shop in the nearby village. Some of the local kids went with them; others went along on the hike. By the time they all scattered, I was alone on my driftwood log, with Lauren and Tyler occupying themselves by the CD player someone had thought to bring, while Logan scowled and sulked nearby, and three teenagers from the reservation perched around the circle, including the boy named Jacob and the oldest boy who had acted as spokesperson.
A few minutes after Angela left with the hikers, Jacob sauntered over to take her place by my side. He looked to be about fifteen, or maybe a young sixteen, and had long, glossy black hair pulled back with a rubber band at the nape of his neck. His skin was beautiful, silky and russet-colored; his eyes were dark, set deep above the high planes of his cheekbones. He still had just a hint of childish roundness left around his chin. Altogether, a very pretty face. However, I still grimaced at the first words that came out of his mouth.
"You're Beauregard Swan, aren't you?"
It was like the first day of school all over again.
"Beau," I sighed, but I smiled.
"Right," He said, like he'd already known that. "I'm Jacob Black." He held out his hand. "You bought my dad's truck."
"Oh… Oh!" I felt relieved, shaking his sleek hand. "You're Billy's son. I probably should remember you. I'm sorry."
"No, I'm the youngest of the family—you would remember my older sisters."
"Rachel and Rebecca," I suddenly recalled. Charlie and Billy thrown us together a lot during my visits, to keep us busy while they fished. We were all too shy to make much progress as friends. Of course, I'd kicked up enough tantrums to end the fishing trips by the time I was eleven.
"Rachel and Rebecca and… Jake, wasn't it?"
He smiled. "You do remember that. No one's called me that since my sisters left."
"They aren't here?" I examined the girls at the ocean's edge, wondering if I would recognize them now.
"No." Jacob shook his head. "Rachel got a scholarship to Washington State, and Rebecca married a Samoan surfer—she lives in Hawaii now."
"Married. Wow." I was stunned. The twins were only a little over a year older than I was.
"So how do you like the truck?" he asked.
"I love it. It runs great."
"Yeah, but it's really slow," he laughed. "I was so relieved when Charlie bought it. My dad wouldn't let me work on building another car when we had a perfectly good vehicle right there."
"It's not that slow," I objected.
"Have you tried to go over sixty?"
"Well, no." I admitted.
"Good. Don't." He grinned again.
I couldn't help grinning back.
"It does great in a collision," I offered in my truck's defense.
"I don't think a tank could take out that old monster," He agreed with another laugh.
"So you build cars?" I asked, impressed.
"When I have free time, and parts. You wouldn't happen where I could get my hands on a master cylinder for a 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit?" he added jokingly. He had a pleasant, husky voice.
"Sorry," I laughed, "I haven't seen any lately, but I'll keep my eyes open for you." As if I knew what that was. He was very easy to talk with.
He flashed a brilliant smile, looking at me appreciatively in a way I was learning to recognize. I wasn't the only one who noticed.
"You know Beauregard, Jacob?" Logan asked—in what I imagined was an insolent tone—from across the fire.
"Beau and I have sort of known each other since I was born," he laughed, smiling at me again.
"That's really nice. Isn't it, Logan?" Lauren narrowed her pale green eyes at Logan, who huffed.
Jacob raised his eyebrows at Logan's reaction. "Yes, isn't it wonderful?"
His sarcasm seemed to throw Logan off, but he wasn't done with me yet. "Beau, I was just thinking that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't you think to invite them?" His expression of concern was unconvincing.
"I… I mean…" I looked around to make sure Mike wasn't nearby, "I did invite Edward, but he couldn't come." I said quietly.
"I think it's nice that she invited Edward," Lauren offered kindly. "No one really talks to the Cullens."
"You're talking about Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" the tall, older boy asked. He was really closer to a man than a boy, his hair was cut short, and his voice was very deep.
"Yes, do you know them?" Lauren smiled faintly, I could tell she found him a bit intimidating. I did too.
"The Cullens don't come here," he said in a tone that closed the subject, ignoring her question.
Tyler, trying to win back Lauren's attention, asked her opinion of the CD he held. Logan went back to scowling and huffing.
I stared at the deep-voiced boy, taken aback, but he was looking away toward the dark forest behind us. He'd said that the Cullens didn't come here, but his tone had implied something more—that they weren't allowed; they were prohibited. His manner left a strange impression on me, and I tried to ignore it without success.
Jacob interrupted my meditation. "So is Forks driving you insane yet?"
"Oh, I'd say that's an understatement." I chuckled darkly.
He grinned sympathetically.
I was still turning over the brief comment on the Cullens and piecing it together with what I'd read from Edward's reactions the other day. I looked at Jacob, speculating.
"What?" he asked.
"Do you want to walk down the beach with me?"
He looked at Logan, then back to me and grinned widely, "Yeah, let's get out of here."
As we walked north across the multihued stones toward the driftwood seawall, the clouds finally closed ranks across the sky, causing the sea to darken and the temperature to drop. I shoved my hands deep into the pockets of my jacket. I eyed the sweet-natured boy walking alongside me. Jake just had on a long-sleeved t-shirt, but he swung his arms as he walked, not bothered by the cold. The wind whipped his silky black hair into twists and knots on his back. There was something very warm and open about his face.
"Nice friends," he commented when were far enough from the fire that the clattering of the stones beneath our feet was more than enough to drown out our voices.
"Not mine."
He laughed, "I could tell."
"So you're, what, seventeen?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"I just turned sixteen." He confessed, flattered.
"You're a year younger than me?"
"I'm tall for my age," he explained.
"I'm surprised we didn't hang out more when we were younger." I offered, he grinned. "Do you come up to Forks much?" I asked.
"Not too much," he admitted with a frown. "But when I get my car finished I can go up as much as I want—I just got my license." He said proudly.
"That's great," I smiled, "hey can I ask you a something?"
"Sure."
"Who was that other boy Lauren and Logan were talking to? He seemed way older than the rest of us.
"Oh, that's Sam—he's nineteen," he informed me.
"What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?" I asked casually.
"The Cullens? Oh, they're not supposed to come onto the reservation." He looked away, out toward James Island, as he confirmed what I'd thought I'd heard in Sam's voice.
"Why not?"
He glanced back at me, biting his lip. "I'm not supposed to say anything about that."
"Is it a secret?"
He pursed his lips. "Sort of."
"I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious." I instinctively moved closer to him without meaning to. Something about his personality was warm and inviting. It was even magnetic, but in a different way from Edward.
He smiled at me, he seemed pleased that I had moved so close. Then he lifted on eyebrow and leaned in even closer to me, his voice was even huskier than before.
"Do you like scary stories?" he asked ominously.
For one second, I could hear Edward's voice clearly in my head. Do you think I could be scary?
"How scary are we talking here?"
"You'll never sleep again," he promised.
"Well, now I have to hear it." I realized we were still standing incredibly close, but I didn't really mind. Something about it felt right.
Jacob smirked, then strolled to a nearby driftwood tree that had its roots sticking out like the attenuated legs of a huge, pale spider. He perched lightly on one of the twisted roots while I sat beneath him on the body of the tree. He stared down at the rocks, a smile was hovering around the edges of his full lips. I could see he was going to try to make this good.
"Do you know any of our tribe legends, about where we came from—the Quileutes, I mean?"
"Not really," I admitted.
"Well, the legends talk about Ka'wa'iti who created the first Quileutes by transforming wolves into humans. He taught them how to be human and become a powerful tribe."
"Wolves? That's actually really cool." I smiled. "Not really scary, though."
"Yeah," he smiled, "The scary story isn't actually a Quileute legend. It's more of a folk story some of the elders tell. Stories about the cold ones." His voice dropped a little lower.
"The cold ones?" I asked, deeply intrigued at this point.
"Yes. Some of the stories I hear are old stories, going back to the first Quileutes, and some are much more recent. If you believe the stories, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.
"Your great-grandfather?"
"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf—well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves."
"Werewolves have enemies?"
"Only one."
I stared at him intently, realizing I was totally enthralled by him and his story.
"So you see," Jacob continued, "the cold ones are traditionally our enemies. But this pack that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did—they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So, my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces." He winked at me.
"If they weren't dangerous, then why…?" I tried to understand, I hoped he couldn't tell how seriously I took his ghost story.
"There's always a risk for humans to be around the cold ones, even if they're civilized like this clan was. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist." He deliberately worked a thick edge of menace into his tone.
"What do you mean, 'civilized'?"
"They claimed that they didn't hunt humans. They supposedly were somehow able to prey on animals instead."
I tried to keep my voice casual. "So how does it fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great-grandfather met?"
"No." He paused dramatically. "They are the same ones."
He must have thought the expression on my face was fear inspired by his story. He smiled, pleased, and continued.
"There are more of them now, a new female and a new male, but the rest are the same. In my great-grandfather's time they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been here and gone before your people had even arrived." He was fighting a smile.
"And what are they?" I finally asked. "What are the cold ones?"
He smiled darkly.
"Blood drinkers," he replied in a chilling voice. "Your people call them vampires."
I stared out at the rough surf after he answered, not sure what my face was giving away.
Do you think I could be scary? Edward's voice repeated in my head.
"You have goose bumps," Jacob laughed delightedly.
"You're a good storyteller," I complimented him, still staring into the waves.
"Pretty crazy stuff, though, isn't it? No wonder my dad doesn't want us to talk about it to anyone."
I couldn't control my expression enough to look at him yet. "Don't worry, I won't give you away."
"I guess I just violated the treaty," he laughed.
"I'll take it to the grave," I promised, and then I shivered.
"Seriously, though, don't say anything to Charlie. He was pretty mad at my dad when he heard some of us weren't going to the hospital since Dr. Cullen started working there."
"I won't say anything to Charlie, of course not."
"So, do you think we're a bunch of superstitious natives or what?" he asked in a playful tone, but with a hint of worry. I still hadn't looked away from the ocean.
I turned and smiled at him as normally as I could.
"No. I think you're very good at telling scary stories, though. I still have goose bumps, see?" I held up my arm and pulled back my jacket sleeve to show him.
"Cool." He smiled.
I involuntarily shivered, I wasn't sure if it was from the cold or the story, but Jacob approached and rubbed my arms to warm me up.
"You ok?" He was still smiling.
"Yeah," I looked up at his warm face and smiled, "Yeah I'm great."
He grinned, that warm grin I already liked so much. His grin warmed me from the inside out.
And then the sound of the beach rocks clattering against each other warned us that someone was approaching. Our heads snapped up at the same time to see Mike and Jessica about fifty yards away, walking toward us.
"There you are, Beau," Mike called in relief, waving his arm over his head.
"Is that your boyfriend?" Jacob asked, alerted by the jealous edge in Mike's voice. I was surprised he asked so frankly.
"No, definitely not," I whispered. I didn't know if it was because we'd known each other longer, if not well, or if it was because Jake was so easygoing, but I already felt more comfortable with him than I did with any of the kids I'd be riding home with. I winked at him, carefully turning away from Mike to do so. He smiled, absolutely elated.
"So when I get my car finished…" he began.
"You should come see me in Forks. We could hang out sometime." As I said it, I knew that I truly meant it. I really did like Jacob and I wanted to see more of him. I felt strangely confused for some reason.
Mike had reached us now, with Jessica still a few paces back. I could see his eyes appraising Jacob, narrowing slightly. He looked like a puppy when it couldn't tell if something was a friend or a foe.
"Where have you been?" he asked, though the answer was right in front of him.
"Jacob was just telling me some local stories," I replied. "It was really interesting."
I smiled at Jacob warmly, and he grinned back, filling me with that warmth that radiated from his aura.
"Well," Mike paused, carefully reassessing the situation as he watched our camaraderie. "We're packing up—it looks like it's going to rain soon."
We all looked up at the glowering sky. It certainly did look like rain.
"Okay." I stood up slowly, "I'm coming."
"It was nice to see you again," Jacob said, and I could tell he was taunting Mike just a bit.
"It really was. Next time Charlie comes down to see Billy, I'll come, too," I promised with a smile.
His grin stretched across his face. "That would be cool."
"And thank you," I added earnestly.
I pulled up my hood as we tramped across the rocks toward the parking lot. A few drops were beginning to fall, making black spots on the stones where they landed. When we got the Suburban the others were already loading everything into the back. I crawled into the backseat by Angela and Tyler, announcing that I'd already had my turn in the shotgun position. Angela just stared out the window at the escalating storm, and Lauren was turned around in the middle seat talking animatedly with Tyler, so I could simply lay my head back on the seat and close my eyes and try very hard not to think.