As we sat in our room, trying to concentrate on the third act of Macbeth, I was really listening for our truck. Bella told me that Alice Cullen would be bringing it home. I would have thought, even over the pounding rain, I could have heard the engine's roar. But when I went to peek out the curtains â again â it was suddenly there.
Neither of us were looking forward to Friday, and it more than lived up to my non-expectations. Of course there were 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 the boys' involvement.
"So what did Edward Cullen want yesterday?" Jessica asked Bella during Trig.
"I don't know," Bella answered. "He never really got to the point."
"You looked kind of mad," she fished.
"Did I?" Bella's expression remained blank.
"You know, I've never seen him sit with anyone but his family before. That was weird." She turned to me. "Speaking of which, what was going on with the Hale cousin?"
"I really don't know, but I didn't like it," I huffed.
Jessica seemed annoyed; she flipped her dark curls impatiently â I guessed she'd been hoping to hear something that would make a good story for her to pass on.
When we walked into the cafeteria with Jessica and Mike, Bella and I both looked at their table, where Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper sat talking, heads close together. And I couldn't stop the gloom that engulfed me as I realized I didn't know how long I would have to wait before I saw him again.
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.
Bella intercepted a few unfriendly glances from Lauren during lunch, which I didn't understand until we were all walking out of the room together. I was right behind her, just a foot from her slick, silver-blonde hair, and she was evidently unaware of that. "...don't know why Bella" â she sneered my sister's name â "doesn't just sit with the Cullens from now on." I heard her muttering to Mike. I'd never noticed what an unpleasant, nasally voice she had, and I was surprised by the malice in it. We really didn't know her well at all, certainly not well enough for her to dislike Bella â or so I'd thought.
"She's my friend; she sits with us," Mike whispered back loyally, but also a bit territorially. I paused to let Jess and Angela pass me. I didn't want to hear any more.
That night at dinner, Dad seemed enthusiastic about our trip to La Push in the morning. I think he felt guilty for leaving us 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 Bella's plan to ride to Seattle with Edward Cullen. Not that I was going to tell him.
"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 â 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 during the hunting season."
"Oh," I murmured. "Maybe I got the name wrong." Bella and I shot each other a knowing look over our food. We'd have to get some answers for that.
I meant to sleep in, but an unusual brightness woke me. I opened my eyes to see a clear yellow light streaming through our window. I couldn't believe it. I got up to check, squinting my eyes as I looked outside. Sure enough, there was the sun. I walked over to Bella's bed and shook her awake.
"Bella, wake up. You're never going to believe this."
"Ugh... turn the light off." She grunted as she rolled over, covering her face.
"That's it! The lights are off."
As she processed this, she nearly shot out of bed and ran to the window. She was still staring outside when I left to the bathroom to get ready.
The Newtons' Olympic Outfitters store was just north of town. I'd seen the store, but I'd never stopped there â 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 and as Bella pulled up next to their vehicles, I could see the group standing around in front of the Suburban. Eric was there, along with two other boys I had class with; I was fairly sure their names were Ben and Conner. Jess was there, flanked by Angela and Lauren. Three other girls stood with them, including one I remembered Bella falling over in Gym on Friday. That one gave her a dirty look as we got out of the truck and whispered something to Lauren. Lauren shook out her cornsilk hair and eyed my sister scornfully.
So it was going to be one of those days. I narrowed my eyes at them as Bella pulled me along.
At least Mike was happy to see her. "You came!" he called, delighted. "And I said it would be sunny today, didn't I?"
"I told you we were coming," Bella reminded him.
"We're just waiting for Lee and Samantha... unless you invited someone," Mike added.
"Nope," Bella lied lightly. She knew I'd tried to invite Christian and maybe he'd extended the invitation. But we doubted they'd actually show.
Mike looked satisfied. "Will you ride in my car? It's that or Lee's mom's minivan."
"Sure." Bella answered for the both of us.
He smiled blissfully. It was so easy to make Mike happy.
"You can have shotgun," he promised. It wasn't as simple to make Mike and Jessica happy at the same time. I could see Jessica glowering at us now.
"Actually," Bella said, stepping back to my side, "I think I'll ride in the back with my sister."
Mike's smile vanished and he turned a bright shade of red.
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 it twice. I was glad I had a window seat.
We'd rolled the windows down â the Suburban was a bit claustrophobic with nine people in it â and Bella was absorbing all the sunlight she could.
I'd been to the beaches around La Push many times during my Forks summers with Dad, so the mile-long crescent of First Beach was familiar to me; I'd missed it. 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.
We picked our way down to the beach, Mike was 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. Eric 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 tee-pee shaped construction built atop the old cinders.
"Have you ever seen a driftwood fire?" Mike asked Bella. We were sitting on one of the bone-colored benches; the other girls clustered, gossiping excitedly, on either side of us. Mike kneeled by the fire, lighting one of the smaller sticks with a cigarette lighter.
"No," Bella said as he placed a blazing twig carefully against the teepee.
"You'll like this then â 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 said 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 went to sit beside Bella. 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 thing I looked forward to when coming to Forks. On the other hand, Bella had 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 of Bella â that she not fall into the ocean. I could only bet she was thinking of the same thing now.
Thinking of Edward got me thinking of Christian and that was something I really didn't want to be doing. So when Bella stood up to join the pro-hiking group with Mike and a few others, I followed suit. Leaving most of my friends â and any thoughts of Christian â behind on the beach.
The hike wasn't too long. The sky was eventually lost to the woods. The green light of the forest was strangely at odds with the adolescent laughter. Bella and I had to watch each step very carefully, avoiding roots below and branches above; watching out for each other. We soon fell behind. Eventually, we broke through the emerald forest and found the rocky shore again. It was low tide, and a tidal river flowed past us on its way to the sea.
Along its pebbled banks, shallow pools that never completely drained were teeming with life.
I was very cautious 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 with Bella, 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 Christian was doing now, and trying to imagine what smart-ass comment he'd make if he were here with me. Maybe he'd try to push me in the ponds.
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 with Bella, so naturally we both fell a few times. Bella suffered shallow scrapes on her hands, while 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. My grip on my sister's arm tightened as we got closer and I 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 Eric introduced us as we each entered the driftwood circle. Bella and I were the last to arrive, and as Eric said our names, I noticed a younger boy sitting on the stones near the fire glance up at me in interest. I felt my cheeks begin to burn and I turned my eyes away. We sat down near 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. The name sounded familiar, but the reason escaped me.
It was relaxing to sit with Angela; she was a restful kind of person to be around â 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 never seemed to notice this before when I visited and that led me to believe there was a new cause for 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, casting 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 â with Jessica shadowing him â headed up to the one shop in the immediate area. Some of the local kids went with them; others went along on the hike. By the time they all had scattered, Bella and I were sitting alone on our driftwood log, with Lauren and Tyler occupying themselves by the CD player someone had thought to bring, and the 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 fourteen, maybe fifteen, 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, my positive opinion of his looks was damaged by the first words out of his mouth.
"You're Alexandra Swan, aren't you?"
It was like the first day of school all over again. Bella chuckled quietly beside me.
"Yes," I sighed.
"I'm Jacob Black," he held his hand out in a friendly gesture, "You bought my dad's truck."
"Oh!" I heard Bella exclaim, before I had a chance to answer. "You're Billy's son. I probably should remember you."
"No, I'm the youngest of the family â you would remember my older sisters."
At this, my sister paused, probably trying to remember so she wouldn't be embarrassed. I filled the silence.
"Rachel and Rebecca." Dad and Billy had thrown us together a lot during our visits, to keep us busy while they fished. We were all too shy to make much progress as friends, but our dads thought it could work since we were all twins. Of course, Bella had kicked up enough tantrums to end the fishing trips by the time we were eleven.
"Are they here?" Bella examined the girls at the ocean's edge. I wonder if I would recognize them now. "I'm Bella Swan, by the way. Alexandra's older sister."
"By two minutes." I muttered.
Jacob ignored our little spat and shook his head. "No. Rachel got a scholarship to Washington State, and Rebecca married a Samoan surfer â she lives in Hawai'i now."
"Married. Wow." I was stunned. They were only a little over a year older than we were.
As I was thinking that, Bella got up to walk over to our group of friends who were coming back from the convenient store. She wiggled her eyebrows at me as she went.
"So, how do you like the truck?" Jacob interrupted my thoughts.
"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?"
"No," I admitted.
"Good. Don't." He grinned.
I was still grinning back. "It does great in a collision," I offered in our 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 to know 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 Alex, Jacob?" Lauren asked â in what I imagined was an insolent tone â from across the fire. It seemed that if one sister was disliked, then both were. Great.
"Alexandra," I corrected.
"We've sort of known each other since I was born," he laughed, smiling at me again.
"How nice." She didn't sound like she thought it was nice at all, and her pale, fishy eyes narrowed. "Bella," she called, now watching my sister carefully, "I was just saying to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them?" Her expression of concern was unconvincing.
"You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" the tall, older boy asked before my sister could respond, much to Lauren's irritation. He was really closer to a man than a boy, and his voice was very deep.
"Yes, do you know them?" she asked condescendingly, turning halfway toward him.
"The Cullens don't come here," he said in a tone that closed the subject, ignoring her question.
As Tyler tried to win back her attention, asking Lauren's opinion on a CD he held, Bella and I stared at each other.
He'd said that the Cullens didn't come here, but his tone had implied something more â that they weren't allowed; they were prohibited. His manner left a strange impression on me, and I could tell Bella felt it, too. I tried to ignore it without success.
Jacob interrupted my meditation. "So is Forks driving you insane yet?"
"Oh, I actually like it here, but I bet Bella is taking it hard." He grinned understandingly.
I was still turning over the brief comment on the Cullens, and I had a sudden inspiration. "Do you want to walk down the beach with me?" I asked Jacob.
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.
"So you're, what, sixteen?" I asked.
"I just turned fifteen," he confessed, flattered.
"Really?" My face was full of surprise. "I would have thought you were older." It was my idea to ask Jacob about the Cullens away from Lauren's prying eyes and the sternness of the older boy's voice, but I genuinely found myself wanting to know more about Jacob Black, too.
"I'm tall for my age," he explained.
"Do you come up to Forks much?" I asked archly. I was afraid he would turn on me with disgust and accuse me of fraud, but he still seemed flattered.
"Not too much," he admitted with a frown. "But when I get my car finished I can go up as much as I want â after I get my license," he amended.
"Who was that other boy Lauren was talking to? He seemed a little old to be hanging out with us."
"That's Sam â he's nineteen," he informed me.
"What was that he was saying about the doctor's family?" I asked.
"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. I'd have to update Bella later tonight.
"Why not?"
He glanced back at me, biting his lip. "Oops, I'm not supposed to say anything about that."
"Oh.. I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious." I wonder how I sounded to anyone but myself.
He smiled at me, though. Then he lifted one eyebrow and his voice was even huskier than before.
"Do you like scary stories?" he asked ominously.
"I love them," I enthused. It was true.
Jacob 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 hovering around the edges of his broad lips. I could see he was going to try to make this good. I made sure to focus on him, wanting to know anything he could tell me, but also feeling allured in the moment.
"Do you know any of our old stories, about where we came from â the Quileutes, I mean?" he began.
"Not really," I admitted.
"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood â¼ supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." He smiled, to show me how little stock he put in the histories. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves â and that the wolves are our brothers, still. It's against tribal law to kill them.
"Then there are the stories about the cold ones." His voice dropped a little lower.
"The cold ones?" I asked, not faking my intrigue.
"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, 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?" I encouraged.
"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolfâwell, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You could call them werewolves."
"Werewolves have enemies?"
"Only one."
I stared at him earnestly, waiting.
"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 the others of their kind did â 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, struggling not to let him see how seriously I was considering 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."
"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 two new males, 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 exposing.
"You have goose bumps," he 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 that some of us weren't going to the hospital since Dr. Cullen started working there."
"I won't, 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 goosebumps, see?" I held up my arm.
"Cool." He smiled.
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 Eric and Bella about fifty yards away, walking toward us.
"There you are, Alexandra," Eric called in relief. He was waving his arms over his head.
"Is that your boyfriend?" Jacob asked, alerted by the jealous edge in Eric's voice. I was surprised it was so obvious.
"No, definitely not," I whispered. I was tremendously grateful to Jacob for the information he shared and I didn't want him to get the wrong idea.
"So when I get my license..." he began.
"You should come see me in Forks. We could hang out sometime." I really did like Jacob. He was someone I could easily be friends with.
Eric had reached us now, with my sister still a few paces back. I could see his eyes appraising Jacob, and looking satisfied at his obvious youth.
"Where have you been?" he asked, though the answer was right in front of him.
"I was just telling Alexandra some local stories," Jacob spoke before I could, raising a challenging eyebrow at the other boy.
I smiled at Jacob warmly, and he grinned back.
"Well," Eric paused, carefully reassessing the situation as he watched our camaraderie. "We're packing up â 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 jumped up. "I'm coming."
"It was nice to see you again," Jacob said, and I could tell he was taunting Eric just a bit.
"It really was. Next time my dad comes down to visit Billy, I'll come, too," I promised.
His grin stretched across his face. "That would be cool."
"And thanks," I added earnestly.
As I neared her, Bella eyed me suspiciously. I just smiled and shook my head 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 to the Suburban, the others were already loading everything back in. Bella crawled into the backseat by Angela and Tyler and I turned my face to the rain.
When we were all piled in, I laid my head back on the seat and closed my eyes, trying very hard not to think.