Okay, so basically this is just a fluff story that I decided to write. At first I was going to do an OC story, but then I realized that it would probably turn into some dramatic story. The series already has enough drama, and so I just decided to try to do a cute little fluff story that's light-hearted. This chapter is a little more serious then the rest of it's going to be since it's the introduction, but I hope you like it and enjoy reading it anyway.

~ Adventures in Babysitting ~

"Seth, get up!" Leah shouted from the hall, pounding on my bedroom door. I grabbed the pillow beside my head and crammed it over my ears, trying to block out the sound so that I could get back to bed. It wasn't easy having to patrol most of the night and then wake up at five o'clock in the morning, only a few hours after getting to bed. Obviously knowing that I was ignoring her, she said in a louder voice, "Get your butt out of bed, you lazy mutt!"

"Leave me alone," I groaned, my words muffled by the pillow. "Go away."

"We have to pick Aunt Clara up at the airport in a couple of hours, so hurry up!" She pounded one last time on my door and then moved on down the hallway; I heard the bathroom door open and shut, so I guessed that she was probably getting a shower.

I sighed and turned over onto my back, lacing my fingers behind my head and staring up at the ceiling. Aunt Clara coming to visit… what a strange thought. She hadn't been in La Push for years, let along in contact with the family. Then one day she calls out of the blue and says she's coming to visit us and that she's bringing her two-year-old son that we didn't know she had, Riley.

Mom had been pretty surprised; she hadn't talked to Clara for years and years, since I was little, but she was excited to see her sister again and had offered to let her stay here as long as she liked. Naturally, being the youngest kid, I was the one who was being forced to give up my room to Aunt Clara and while she stayed here I'd have to sleep on the sofa. Not something I was looking forward to at all, considering I'm too tall to comfortably fit on it.

In the next room, I could hear my mom moving around as she got ready. She was really, really excited about seeing Clara again; ever since she'd found out about her coming to visit us two weeks ago, she's been talking nonstop about her. It was nice to see her that way, talkative and cheery; God knows she hasn't been like that a whole lot since Dad died. At least Charlie was there for her, though; he's been a big help, and I think Mom's beginning to take their romantic relationship to a higher level.

Groaning, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, rubbing my shoulder. It was still a little sore from patrolling last night, but it was pretty much ignorable. Opening my closet, I looked at the selection of clothes. Nothing much, just some T-shirts and jeans… I hoped that Aunt Clara didn't expect us to be formally dressed. Being a werewolf tended to make you avoid buying expensive clothes since they would get ruined if you ended up having to morph while you were wearing them.

I picked out a simple polo that I dug out of the very depths of my closet and a pair of stonewashed jeans. I felt like the collar on my shirt was strangling me; I hadn't worn even semi-formal clothes since I'd turned into a werewolf about a year ago, and I can't say I liked the feeling. At least the jeans felt okay, though, that was a little bit of a bonus seeing as I hadn't really worn anything but sweatpants for almost a year. Mom still bought me jeans and stuff, even if I didn't wear them much. "After all," she would say, "you still need school clothes."

School. At least I wouldn't have to deal with that for a while. It was the middle of summer, so I had another month and a half before I had to go back. One thing I loved about summer vacation is that I'm able to sleep off the patrols and not forced to trudge into school at seven o'clock every morning and act like I'm not tired. I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not a good actor, and I think some of the teachers think I have a sleeping disorder or something.

Quickly running my fingers through my hair to make it look a little bit better, I checked over my outfit one more time. Polo, jeans… I looked like a freakin' frat boy. Personally, I preferred the looseness of sweatpants and T-shirts.

Slipping on the only pair of tennis shoes I owned that were still somewhat presentable, I headed out to the living room. Leah was pulling on a windbreaker, her short hair as wet as if she had just gone for a swim in the ocean. She glanced at me when I came in.

"Mom says we're heading out in fifteen minutes, so if you have to do anything do it now," she said, shaking her head like a dog to get rid of the excess water.

"What would I do? There's nothing I can do in fifteen minutes."

"You could call Jacob or Sam and see if you have to go on patrol tonight."

"Nah, I already asked them last night. I don't have to go again until tomorrow night, when I'm patrolling with Embry and Jacob. Speaking of which, when are you patrolling next? You haven't gone for a couple of days."

Leah rolled her eyes. "Sam's been cutting me a break, but I have to go to tonight with Colin and Quil. And the weatherman's calling for heavy rains." She wrinkled her nose at this. None of us liked to patrol in the rain, even if we did live in the wettest place in the continental United States and were used to the damp weather. It was just plain miserable.

"You're not complaining, are you?" I asked, grabbing my jacket off of the back of a dining room chair.

"No way. The day I complain will be the day pigs can fly."

"Wasn't that a novel or something?"

"I dunno. Maybe. Do I really look like I'd know that?"

I shrugged just as Mom walked in. Her long black hair was up in a bun, and she was dressed in one of her nicer sweaters and a pair of corduroy pants. She obviously wanted to look presentable for her sister.

"Are you two ready to go?" she asked, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Without waiting for an answer, she headed out the front door and from the window I could see her heading over to the car.

Leah looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and I shrugged. "I guess she wants us to get a move on," I said. Leah nodded and held the door open for me.

"Ladies first," she said, and I glared at her as I headed out the door. She followed me and locked up, even though there was really no reason to. Crime level was in the negatives out here.

It took a while to start the car up, but eventually we were on our way. I stared out the window as the trees flashed past; I could practically see the shadowy forms of my pack members in the forest, running as they patrolled the borders of La Push. Even though I was probably too tired to do a full-out patrol, I longed to be out in the forest, running with the wind whipping my face and ruffling my fur.

It took a couple of hours to drive to Port Angeles, and when we got there it was raining. No surprise there, seeing as it always rains here. The airport was only housing one plane at the moment, and I guessed that it was the plane Aunt Clara had taken to get here. She was probably inside now, getting her luggage or waiting for us to pick her up.

The interior of the airport was nothing special. It was small, the luggage pick-up merely a small conveyor belt in the corner of the building. There were a couple of people there, checking the suitcases and picking out their luggage.

"Sue! Sue!" I heard my mom's name being yelled, and my sensitive ears tracked the sound to a small woman probably somewhere in her thirty's near the baggage claim. She looked almost exactly like my mom, only a little bit younger, and the arm that wasn't waving at us was holding a small child. There was no doubt in my mind that this was Aunt Clara and her son Riley.

"Clara!" Mom headed over to her immediately, and they hugged awkwardly around Riley. Leah and I followed at a slower pace, my hands slipping into my pockets subconsciously as I walked.

"You'd think they hadn't seen each other in ages," Leah murmured as Mom began to chat enthusiastically with our aunt.

"That's 'cause they haven't," I retorted. "Anyway, why should you care? Mom's happy, that's all that matters out of this."

My sister sighed. "I guess you're right. Still, I wonder what Clara's going to be like."

"Well, if she's as much like Mom in personality as she is in looks, I'm sure she'll fit right into La Push."

Leah nodded absentmindedly. But when we actually met Aunt Clara, we found that she had a very different personality from our mother. I can't exactly say that we hit it off right away, seeing as I'd expected her to be, for the most part, quiet and thoughtful. I found that she was loud enough to hurt my ears and obnoxious enough to talk about when I was a baby right in front of my sister.

"I remember when you were this high," she said, holding her hand about three feet off the ground. "You used to trip over your own feet all the time. That's how you fell down the basement stairs that one Christmas. Do you remember that? You wouldn't stop crying for hours."

Leah snickered and I shot her a glare behind Aunt Clara's back. She was never going to let me live this down… crap. And she'd probably think about it when we were in wolf form, and then the whole pack would know. Double crap.

Way to go, Clara, I thought bitterly. You just made me tonight's laughingstock of the werewolf community.

Up until now, Riley had been silent. He looked like an average Quileute kid: black hair, russet skin, dark eyes. He could grow up to look like me or any of the other boys on the reservation.

"Woo tat?" he asked, shyly looking at me. Obviously, he wasn't the best speaker since he was only two, but at least his baby talk was understandable.

I smiled. "My name is Seth," I said. "And this is my sister, Leah," I added, motioning to her. "She's a pain." I felt her step on my toes and heard a soft growl.

Riley cocked his head like a little puppy. "Eth? An Leelah?"

"Yep." Okay, so he added an "l" in my sister's name and forgot the "s" in mine. Hey, he's two years old, so it's not like he's a grammar expert. But he'd learn eventually.

He pointed to himself proudly. "Me Riley," he said.

"Nice to meet you," I said, holding out a hand. He shook it tentatively, his hand dwarfed compared to mine; I never noticed how big my hands had gotten. I guess it's a side effect of the whole turning-into-a-werewolf thing, but I'd rather have big hands than paws or something.

"Nie to meet ew too," he said, shaking my hand a little more confidently.

So that was when I first met Riley. Just your average little kid, complete with bad speech and a fair amount of boldness. Right?

Ha… wrong.

Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry I didn't write sentence-by-sentence translations of Riley's dialect, but I hope you got the effect of what he was saying. I tried to keep it close.

Oh, and just so everyone knows, I am aware that Seth is not actually a werewolf, that instead he's a shapeshifter. It's just easier to write "werewolf" then "shapeshifter who turns into a wolf", you know what I mean?

Reviews are greatly appreciated, though I would ask that you not flame me.