Okay, so in this story Claire is from La Push, and not the Makah reservation near La Push. You'll understand why later. :] So this is a Claire/Quil story. Hope you like.

Disclaimer: I don't own the book. Sad, but true.

"Stop screwing with the wheel!"

I screamed as I swerved, narrowly missing a squirrel taking a nap in the middle of the road. I straightened my path out and turned to give Tommy a death glare. "Is it your goal in life to kill us on this trip or do you really just love to piss me off?"

He turned to give me a mocking smile. "More the latter than the former Sis."

I huffed and turned back to the road. "You are absolutely impossible."

Tommy rolled his eyes in my direction and went back to toying with his cell phone like a true younger brother. Biologically, I was a year older than Tom, but physically, Tommy looked like he was at least two years older than me. This past year Tommy went from being a fourteen-year-old shrimp to a fifteen-year- old-body-builder-look-alike. He denies steroid use, but it is seriously abnormal for a fifteen year old boy to grow so fast and become so big.

"My God, where are we?" I muttered under my breath. "In a The Hills Have Eyes movie? Where is civilization!"

My brother snorted. "More like the trees have eyes. Jesus, I didn't think this many trees in a ten mile radius was possible. Hell, I didn't think that this many trees period was possible."

"Why in the world would mom and John have ever lived here? Where would mom get her shopping fix, where would John get his playboy?" I snickered.

My mother and her husband/my-step father John hadn't always been the New York royalty they were today. Mom had been born and raised on a little Indian reservation in Washington, a placed named La Push. That's where we were headed. John had grown up in Seattle, but was still from Indian descent. They had moved away from Washington, and to New York, about fourteen years ago. Come to think of it, they never really told us, my siblings and I, why. I had always assumed it was to further their careers. John was a man worth eight digits nowadays, and he and my mom definitely lived the high life. He was CEO of a large internet website that was growing in popularity every day, and a very successful investor. Mom, well, she used to work and be independent. However, now she spent more time out with her girlfriends than she did at home. She was the typical New York housewife. And I had grown to hate her for it.

My mom and John weren't the people they used to be. She used to be a caring mother, and he used to be a responsible dad. They used to love each other. Now they only pretend to love each other for shown, even when everybody already know that they screw other people behind the scenes. They had given up on each other, and had lost interest in their children. I think they got tired of pretending to care for Tommy and I, and that's the reason why they just shipped us off to the middle of nowhere. They had stopped caring years ago, and now they were starting to admit it.

Tommy chuckled and turned to stare out the window, returning to his previously dejected mood.

"Come on, Tom. Don't be lame, this isn't going to be that bad and you know it."

Tommy turned to give me exasperated look. "No, Cee. You know that this is going to be bad and you're just trying to feed me bullshit so I don't jump out of the car on your watch."

"Ugh, you are such a drama queen. Look at the bright side of this-"

"What bright side? There's no fucking sun. It looks like it's going to rain…"

I rolled my eyes and gave him a pointed "shut-up-and-listen-to-me" look. "As I was saying…there are tons of new opportunities just waiting for you here."

"Like what, becoming a professional lumberjack? Or maybe a bear fighter…"

"Shut the hell up and listen to me you pansy. I'm trying to cheer you up!"

Tommy just raised an eyebrow and started laughing. I banged my head on the steering wheel, causing the obnoxious horn to blaze. That just made Tommy laugh harder, and before I knew it, I had joined him.

Tommy was the first to finish laughing. "Well, you're not really succeeding."

"Huh?" I asked, not remembering what we were talking about before.

Tommy turned and looked at me with his large brown eyes, very different from my smaller blue eyes. Tommy and I had never looked very alike. He was a tall, built boy who's Indian heritage showed through in every aspect. I was a petite, pale girl who couldn't look any farther away from being a descendant of Indian heritage. It made sense that we didn't look alike though, for he and I only shared one parent. His dad, John Jersen, had married my mom when I was one. They had met when mom was pregnant with me, which I found pretty hilarious. Not many men hit on pregnant women, but John had said numerous times that as soon as he saw mom, he new she was the one. Large stomach, fat ankles, and all.

Tom had been a honeymoon baby, which Marc and I had teased him about endlessly. Marc was John's only child from his first marriage. Although Marc and I hadn't been related by blood, we were always the closest of siblings. Or, once upon a time we were.

"The cheering up, Cee. You're not succeeding." He said with a sad smile. I felt bad for the kid. I mean, I was in the same situation, but he was taking it much harder. But hey, he was a fifteen year old kid being ripped away from the only life he knew. Who could blame him for having less than positive feelings about the situation.

I checked to make sure the road was clear before taking one hand off the wheel and clapping it on his shoulder. "Hey, why don't you try to be a little positive about this Tom. It's not going to help if you go in frowning."

He shrugged my should off and turned back to his window. "No. I'm not going to pretend to be fucking happy about this. It's bull, and you know it. There's no positive thing about this. Moving to some Podunk town to hang out with my asshole of a brother. Sounds awesome."

I didn't really know what to say, because what he had said hit a cord with me. I wasn't sure how living in a small town would be for me either. I had been raised a true New York socialite, and the small Indian reservation of La Push didn't seem like the ideal environment for a girl like me. As for the brother thing, I wasn't so happy about Marc being here either. Marc was two years older than me, and had moved to La Push three years ago. I never new why, he just up and left one day. Mom and John never talked about it, and weren't around enough for me to really ask. When he left New York, he and I had a major falling out. We hadn't spoken for two years, and I didn't know if there was any hope for us to ever reconcile. Tommy was very defensive of me, and had taken my side after Marc and I cut off contact. Although I appreciated his support, I hate that just because of the issues Marc and I had with each other, that Tommy refused to have anything to do with Marc. Right now in his life, Tom could really use that older brother figure in his life. And unless I got a sex change, I couldn't do that for him.

And that definitely wasn't going to happen.

I bit my lip and stared at out the windshield, trying to mask my own insecurities from Tommy. He didn't need to worry about me right now. Tom had always been the strong one, and now it was my turn. "It'll be okay kid. I promise, you'll see."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"We're lost."

I growled at Tommy, refusing to admit defeat. "No, Thomas, we are not lost. We're just…taking the long way."

Tommy gave me an incredulous look before turning to fiddle with the radio. "Damn radio, doesn't get any reception up here…"

I sighed, studying the hand drawn directions that Tommy had supplied me with. "You know Tom, before we left and I said 'get the directions', I was thinking more along the lines of map quest and not a pen drawing on a napkin."

He just shrugged, still messing with the radio. "You didn't specify. Not my fault."

"Whatever…"I mumbled. Okay, so I'm supposed to take a left at the fork in the road…

"Tommy, why the hell wouldn't you put the street names down?!" I screeched, reaching my boiling point.

"You said map." He said, turning his face towards me. "And I drew a map." He gestured towards the pitiful drawing in my hands. "You're just lucky I drew it on a napkin, and not my hand."

I just glared at him. Boys can be such idiots.

"One of these days Tommy…I am going to take a stick and-"

"GAS STATION!"

Tommy's sudden outburst scared me and cause me to swerve the car. "What?! What are you talking about?!"

He pointed out to what surely was, a small gas station. The Forks Express. Well, I guess that makes sense. Forks was a small town near La Push, so at least that meant that we were close!

"Yes, yes, yes." I chanted under my breath and I turned into the station. "Okay Tom, why don't you just stay in the car and-"

"BATHROOM BREAK!" Tommy scream before jumping out of the car and bolting for the building. I placed my hands over my face. Sometimes, I swear that kid acts like he's four.

I slowly got out of the car, trying to regain the feelings in my legs. It was no short drive from New York to Washington. It had been a multiple day drive, and I was sick of hotels, and sick of driving. But there was no way I was leaving my car in New York. The thing was like a kid to me, creepy as it was. It was a beautiful, deep red BM3. It had been a gift for my sixteenth birthday, which was about six months ago.

As soon as I was sure I could walk, I made my way inside. It was surprisingly cold for a June day. I moved my hands up and down my arms, trying to create a little heat. I'm going to have to go shopping for warmer clothes once we get settled in.

A little bell went off as I entered the little store. At the register stood a short, acne faced guy who looked close to my age. I smiled, absently thinking about how different the boy was from the guys I usually went for and hung out with. I had never had many girlfriends back in New York. In the society I grew up in, it was hard to trust anyone. Someone was your friend one day, and your enemy the next. The girls especially, were vicious. I had few close friends, and the friends I did have, were always mostly guys. Now just because I hung out with guys, didn't mean I was a tomboy. I had plenty of opportunities to date, I just didn't take them. In New York, guy's weren't all that genuine. So I'd be friends with a guy…but never their girlfriend. I had never wanted to set myself up for such an inevitable heartbreak.

"Hello-" I said, walking up to the guy at the register. He was wearing a nametag that clearly indicated his name to be Evan. "-Evan."

"H-h-he-hello." He stuttered, clearly a little flustered. I smiled, cursing myself for not dressing to blend in more. I didn't think my high heels were going to fit in much here in Forks.

I tucked a strand of blonde hair behind my ear, and looked up into his eyes. Poor kid, he had a major problem with eye contact. "I'm new in town, and a little lost." I said with a shrug. "Can you tell me how to get to La Push?"

Just them Tommy emerged from the bathroom and made his way up to where I was standing. Of course, he grabbed about ten snacks on his way. The kid never stopped eating. "Hey!" I yelled back to him. "Grab me a Twix bar!"

I turned back to Evan, who seemed even more nervous than before. "W-w-ell..to g-get to La Push, you h-have to take a r-right on Hemming S-s-treet and then a left o-on Birch L-lane. Hemming Street is j-just d-down the street form h-here." He finish, pointing out the window and down the street.

"Oh." I said as Tommy dumped a huge load of snacks on the counter and Evan immediately began to scan the items with shaky hands. "Well, thank you."

He gave me a nervous smile. "Y-your w-w-welcome."

Tom was trying not to laugh at the guy's obvious discomfort. I nudged him with my shoulder, silently reprimanding him. "Geez fatty, enough food?"

Tommy nudged me back and let out a laugh. "I haven't eaten in hours. Come on, I'm a growing boy."

I laughed as Tommy paid for the large bag of food. As soon as Tommy had the bag in his hands, he ran out the door and back to the car. God, what a freak.

"Thanks again, Evan. See you around!" I called as I made my way out the door. The bell rang again as I left the warmth of the store and felt the slap of the unusually cold Washington air.

I hopped in the car and immediately started the car and turned up the heat. "Burr! Cold!"

"What?" Tommy asked, slightly confused. "It's not cold."

"Are you kidding? It's June, and it feel's like September."

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO."

"YES."

"Whatever…" Tommy muttered, giving up. "It doesn't feel cold to me."

"Well, maybe you're running a temperature."

"Nah." Tommy said, chuckling a little. "I've just always been hot."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Huh." I said, shutting of the engine. "This must be it."

The house Tommy and I now sat in front of was not small, but not extremely large either. It had a very…family style look to it. There were toys littering the yard of the faded yellow house, and a porch that held a few lawn chairs and a wooden swing, that I'm sure several late night neighborhood parties took place on. It looked like a real home, and not the artificial home that Tommy, Marc, and I had grown up in. Tommy seemed to sense what I was thinking.

"You ever wonder if we would have been better off if we had we never moved to New York?"

I turned in my seat to face Tom. "I don't know, the two life styles are so different. You can't really compare the city to a place like this."

"But, come on Cee. You have to think that if we hadn't grown up in such a screwed up society, where true friends were almost nonexistent and parents let their kids do whatever the fuck they wanted…that maybe we would be better people."

I snorted. "I don't think we're bad people, Tommy."

He smiled. "Yeah, but there's always room for improvement."

We both got out of the car and started up the brick path leading up to the house. I was tempted to skip up the path singing "Follow The Yellow Brick Road", but held back, not wanting to make a bad impression. I gigged at the thought, and Tommy gave me a look that said he new what I was thinking. Tommy always seemed to know what was on my mind, and this was both annoying and comforting at the same time. It sucked because I couldn't hide anything from him, but it was also nice…because I couldn't hide anything from him. As convoluted as that sounded, sometimes I had issues with putting what I wanted to say into words. And with Tom, sometimes words weren't needed.

We reached the door, and I heard Tommy take a deep breath. I looked over at my brother, even though he looked to be in his late teens, he was still young, just like me. We needed each other now more than ever, and at that moment, I swore to myself that I would always be there if he needed me. I knew deep inside, that he would do the same for me.

I knocked on the door three times. For some reason, whenever I knocked on a door, it had to be three times. No matter what. Tommy thinks I have a slight case of OCD, but I think it's just a weird habit.

Not long after I knocked, a small, lean, middle aged women answered the door. She would have been beautiful, if it weren't for the red scars the marred the right side of her face, pulling down her eye and her mouth. It reminded me of one of those masks where one side of the face was happy and the other side was sad. Whatever did that to her, I never wanted to run into.

I focused on the women's eyes, not wanting to stare at her scars and be rude. "Hello, I'm Claire, and this is my brother Tom. We're looking for Sam and Em-"

"Oh my!" The women said, eyes opening wide. "Little Clair and Tommy? No, you guy's are way to old to be my niece and nephew!"

The women, who I could only assume was my aunt Emily, rushed forward to embrace my brother and I in an awkward, double huge. Tommy laughed, and so did I. "So…" Tommy said. "You must be our aunt Emily."

Emily pulled back and smiled at us. "Yes I am! Oh I am just so excited you're finally here. I haven't seen you two since you were just babies. You're so grown up."

Emily's mind seemed to drift to the past for a moment, clearly digging up some long forgotten memory. Emily was my mom's younger sister. Apparently, they had a huge fight when I was two, and hadn't spoken since. Strange that my parents would send us here, to live with an aunt and uncle that our parents absolutely refused to talk about.

Emily snapped back into the present and continued to smile at us. "Come in, come in! You two probably aren't used to the weather yet."

Tommy and I stepped inside the house and took in our surroundings. The interior was quaint and homey, much like the outside. There were wood floors and warm colored walls, a large living room and a medium sized kitchen. The smell of lemon pledge in the air was a sign that the house had been scrubbed for our arrival.

Emily led us into the kitchen, which wasn't high tech, but modern enough. It had a dishwasher, an oven, a microwave, etc. The walls were a warm yellow color that resembled the outside of the house, only less faded.

"Are you guys hungry?" she asked as she indicated for us to take a seat.

"No thanks." I answered quietly, just having eaten my Twix bar. Tommy, on the other hand, said that he was starving and Emily immediately began to search the fridge for something edible. I just stared a Tommy, how could he eat after he just devoured that bag of gas-station snacks.

The kid never stops. Poor Emily, he's going to eat her out of house and home.

"Is leftover spaghetti okay?" Emily said, taking a Tupperware container out of the fridge, which I noticed for the first time, was massive.

"Totally." Tommy answered, busying himself with a lose string on his shirt.

"So." Emily began. "Sam and the rest of the gang are working, but will be back later tonight. They were so disappointed that they couldn't be here when you arrived, but duty calls." She laughed as she put the spaghetti in the microwave. "They will be so surprised to see how much you have grown! I still can't believe it, and you're standing right here in front of me!"

"Who's the gang?" I asked quietly, not sure who Emily was talking about.

"Family friends. You'll meet them tonight, they're coming over for dinner." Emily answered, setting the spaghetti out in front of Tommy. "Is that okay? That they're coming over? I mean, if you just want to get settled in…"

"Oh, no! That's fine! It's your house. My brother and I are just grateful that you are giving us a place to sleep." I smiled at her, and felt Tommy shake with laughter beside me. He thought it was hilarious when I was polite. He says it's a side of me that he doesn't see much.

"You're family dear, and you are more than welcome!" As soon as Emily finished her sentence two young children came running into the kitchen, a younger looking girl and an older looking boy.

"Tommy, Claire, these are my children Sarah and Ethan. Sarah is seven and Ethan is eight. Sarah and Ethan, these are your cousins, Claire and Tommy."

The two children looked at my brother and I warily, and I couldn't blame them. I would be wary of two extended family members invading my house too. "Hi." They both said quietly.

"Hi." I answered back. "It's nice to meet you both."

"Ditto." Tommy said cheerfully, still chomping on his pasta.

The kids didn't stay long, they only came in the kitchen to ask Emily is they could go to a friends house. Emily obliged, telling them to be back by six. The way Emily looked at her children made me a little sad. The look was so full of love and joy…My parents hadn't looked at me like that since I was around their age. At least Sarah and Ethan would have a better upbringing than I did.

"Okay." Emily said, clapping her hands together. "How about I show you your rooms?"

"Sounds great." I answered, actually excited to be able to see where my personal space would be during my stay at Sam and Emily's. Emily led us up to the second floor, and down a hall that had four doors. Emily pointed to the first door and said it was Ethan and Sarah's room, the second door was the bathroom, the third door was Tommy's room, which he immediately went to explore, and the fourth door was my room. Emily left me outside the door and said that dinner would be at seven, so if I wanted to take a nap or a shower, than I should do it before then. I smiled and thanked her before heading into my new room.

The room was a decent size than had two windows and wood floors. There was a bed pushed up against the right side room, and the closet and the dresser was on the other side of the room. The walls were a warm, cream color. Overall, it was nice.

In the corner of my room I could the see the multiple boxes that held the things I had sent here about a week ago. I smiled and made my way over to my stuff, enjoying the familiar smell of my jeans and sweaters.

I sighed and fell over on my new bed. Now that I thought about it, I was pretty tired. I hated sleeping at hotels, so I hadn't got that many hours of sleep this week. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and set an alarm for five, giving myself enough time to get ready before dinner. If my mother had ever taught me anything useful, it was to always make a good impression.

I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow that had been put on my bed. I was really starting to think that living in La Push would be for the better.

I just hoped that I would prove myself right, and not wrong.

You like? Want me to continue? Let me know! Sorry if it sucks a little, I'm just getting back into writing. Comment! I'll love you forever!