I stared into the mirror, combing through my wet hair. It was tangled and knotty and that freaky shade that wasn't quite blonde or quite brown, with tints of red and umber. It wasn't straight or curly and wild, so I had to flat iron it every day before school. I kind of hated it.

Part of my relief at moving to Forks from Jacksonville was that humidity tended to make my hair curlier and now it could make it through a day without curling up. The downside was that Jacksonville would bleach my hair to a blonde and I didn't have this freaky color. Whatever.

I smiled a little at going to school because I knew exactly who I would get to see in Science, my first class. He was a cute boy who came to our school, Forks High, and he was amazing to me. My friends teased me constantly about my crush but it didn't really bother me, considering that my best friend Liz was dating a vampire. Skylaar approved of him only because he wasn't a werewolf.

Yeah, we knew about that clandestine world. We all had our reasons: Skylaar's sister Kim was imprinted, Liz was dating a vampire, and I... was just normal. I knew about it because of my sister, Angela. She didn't know about it, but her description of the Cullen's matched up with my description of Marcus. I'm not stupid, I can put two and two together. I knew what they were, even if my sister was totally oblivious. It was so obvious... their grace, beauty, the way the never seemed to eat.

It kind of sucked hanging out with people who were in love.

Angela and Ben, Kim and Jared, Liz and Marcus, Bella and Edward... you get the idea. I just wished that kind of thing would happen to me. I can't explain it, but some movies that truly show love make my heartache in an empty way. Like someone was out there for me, but I wasn't trying hard enough to find them. As a result, I would tend to avoid those movies.

School was perfectly boring. I sat through Science, just staring at Christian, wishing something magical would happen to me and he would fall in love with me. Nothing happened. I spent the rest of the day moping.

Skylaar invited me over to her house again, it was easier to watch Jared and Kim drool all over each other with someone else to help dilute it. It was painful for me to watch, it made the heartache come back all over again, but in a show of true friendship, I said yes.

We lounged around her house for a while, she showed me her current prank project and I couldn't make sense of the crazy boxes or the stuff she had thought to order, and then it got kind of boring. We knew exactly when Kim got home, because she was laughing at something stupid Jared had said, but we didn't expect him to bring all of his friends.

They were so big. Names jumped into my head as I watched each of them.

Quil, Jacob, Embry, Paul, Sam, Leah, Seth, Collin, Brady, and a few I couldn't name.

Sam seemed to be the silent leader of most of them, Jacob and Leah seemed to be their own pack. I shrugged it off, staring at one of the boys I couldn't name.

He was beautiful.

He had brown hair that curled gently on his forehead, and the same russet skin that they all shared. His eyes were shocking blue, so different from the chocolate eyes of the Quilletes. I tuned into Sam introducing them:
"Paul, Sam, Collin, Brady, Leah, and our youngest: Griffin." he said, gesturing toward each of the boys.

Griffin. His name was Griffin. I felt something stirring inside of me, as I watched this boy who had yet to notice me. Sam said he was the youngest, he had to be fourteen, like me. I felt happy, and my feelings for Christian disintegrated.

Kim felt the need to introduce us. "This is my baby sister, Skylaar, and her little friend, Kristin."

When she said my name, his icy eyes locked on mine.