Temper, Temper.

Prologue

Hello all and welcome! This is the first Twilight fanfiction that I've written, so any constructive criticism and reviews would be welcome. Please review and tell me what you think so that I know if I should keep this story up or just abandon it completely. I'm still writing it, so don't expect regular updates. Sorry. Not really.

Anyway, I don't own anything that you recognize.

Please review.

Now on with the tale.

-ZH

Hello.

My name is Nik. Or, well, my full name is Nikole Underwood, but if you call me Nikole then there will be consequences to pay. I absolutely abhor that name, seeing as how it holds bad memories for me. But maybe you'll hear all about that at a later time in this story.

I'll start off by saying that I was originally from a small town in Oklahoma, then moved around for a bit in different foster homes until I landed in good old Salem, Massachusetts, where I got adopted by a wonderful family that only had one other child, my older brother Bryan. At first, we absolutely hated each other. He felt as if I was intruding on his entire life and I felt as if I didn't belong because of this.

It all got turned around when he saved me from being bullied at school one day and from there we grew as close as siblings could get. He became my sole guardian after a car accident stole my adoptive parents from me at the age of seventeen. I'm now a grown ass woman at the age of twenty-two.

I guess that's enough background for now, so let's get on with the story, yeah?

It all started when Bryan and I were on the road to a little town in Washington, called Forks…

"Bryan, I swear to god, if you don't stop playing that incessant music, I will fucking rip your head off!" I shouted from the passenger seat of my brother's 2015 Nissan Rogue. He was well-paid with his job as a work-from-home web designer. I didn't exactly know the details of his job, but it allowed us to make the move from Salem to Forks after a particularly nasty breakup on his end. According to him, he needed to get far away from the psychotic bitch that had ruined his life and there was no way that I was going to let him go alone. He'd get himself killed by living off of instant foods that held no nutritional value.

"Hey now, don't diss my music choice! Country is perfectly acceptable!" he defended himself. I scoffed.

"Yeah, but not when it's the only thing that we listen to," I retorted. He sighed and finally handed me his iPod that was hooked up to the sound system in the car. Finally I would get to listen to some good music on this long car ride! "How much longer until we're there, anyway?" I asked.

"GPS says about twenty minutes. We've already entered Forks, just need to find the house, now." And he was right. No more than twenty minutes later, and we were pulling up in front of a little one story house. It was a light blue on the outside, with white shutters on either side of the red door. The large front yard looked promising and had a few mature trees in it. All in all, it was very different from our two bedroom apartment back in Massachusetts.

"It's…nice," I said, a small smile on my face. "Didn't know that this Forks place would be so small, though." It made me think about how on earth I was going to get a job here. Better start soon.

"Yeah, I like it. Definitely different from good old Salem, huh?" Bryan laughed as we scrambled to get out of the car. I laughed along and agreed with him. He quickly unlocked the front door to our new house and I saw that there was already furniture inside, covered by white sheets.

"Oh! There's already furniture?" I asked my brother. He nodded and started ripping the sheets off.

"Yup. Apparently the old owners didn't want to deal with having to move everything, so they said it was included in the price of the house."

Well that helped. At least we wouldn't have to fork out the cash to buy new furniture. Sure we were well off – well, my brother was, at least – but we were still very frugal with our money. The less we had to buy, the better. I didn't know if my brother had any jobs lined up at the moment, so it was probably best for me to start looking for a job soon. Sigh.

"Hey, Bryan," I called out. He peeked out from behind the wall that divided the living room and the kitchen. "I'm going to go grocery shopping, okay? We need something other than fast food in our systems before we croak," I said. He nodded tossing me his wallet so I could pull out his credit card, after which I threw it back to him, hitting him on the head and making him cry out in fake anger. Laughing, I took the keys to the Rogue and headed out to find a grocery store.

Pushing my short, dyed black hair out of my eyes, I finally pulled into what seemed like the only grocery store in this small town. Hopping out of the Rogue and locking it behind me, I grabbed a shopping cart and began my quest! Okay, so it wasn't really much of a quest, but I absolutely hated grocery shopping and had to make some fun out of it. I started at one end of the store, intending to make my way aisle by aisle and getting whatever I thought that we might need.

My cart was full and starting to get harder to push when it happened. Turning a corner, my cart bumped into someone with a crash. "Oh my god, I am so sorry!" I exclaimed. Looking up from my phone – hence why I was distracted enough to run into someone – I was met with two Adonis like figures.

They were obviously natives from the Reservation that bordered Forks. The two of them were a whole hell of a lot taller than my measly five foot three, standing no shorter than six foot five and so muscular that it seemed as if either one of them could break me in half.

"Sorry!" I said again, finally looking up to meet the most beautiful pair of chocolate brown eyes I had ever seen in my life. He was staring at me like I was the only light in his word, which was honestly kind of weird, but flattering at the same time. All of a sudden, he got this weird look on his face, as if he didn't know whether to be awed or angry, and spun around, walking off at a brisk pace. His friend, who had a giant grin on his face, turned towards me after that.

"Hey! It's all alright. Don't worry about that," he said, holding a hand out for me. "I'm Jared; are you new here?" he asked me as we shook hands. I had to refrain from flinching at the scorching heat that radiated off of him. Quickly taking my hand back, I nodded

"Yup," I responded. "Just got here today, actually. Hence all of the food." I pointed to my ridiculously full shopping cart with a sheepish grin on my face. The guy, Jared, just laughed and gestured to his own, which – dare I say it – was even more full than mine was.

"Please," he scoffed. "Try feeding a whole pack of guys." He rolled his eyes. "I don't know how Emily does it," he muttered. I raised an eyebrow, and at my silent inquiry, he said, "Oh, Emily's kind of like….like…Uh, how do I put this?" he murmured. "Surrogate mother figure?" He shrugged. "Something like that."

I just nodded, feeling nostalgic all of a sudden at the mention of family. "Well, I'd better go," I said quietly, moving to push my cart and continue shopping, list clutched tightly in my hand. Jared waved to me and also moved along.

Ugh.

Why did I have to be so emotional when it came to mothers?! I hated that part of my life with a burning, fiery passion and I had sworn to forget about it and move on. Unfortunately, my mind disagreed with that fact and refused to let it go. But then again, death can do that to a person. Of course, the death that I had had to deal with was a bit different from the norm, but still. I truly wished that I had more control over these things. I guess I had just better get better at it.

I knew that, over time, it would all fade away as I created more memories – whether they be good or bad – but the point still remained that I wanted them gone and I wanted them gone now. Call me impatient. It'd be true.

Sighing, I glanced at the next item on my list – eggs – and hurried to finish my shopping. Lord knows how much I wanted out of that godforsaken grocery store by this point. I abhorred grocery shopping.

After quickly dropping the groceries off at the house so that they wouldn't spoil, I left them in the care of my brother while I went to search for a job in this small, godforsaken town.

TBC...Again, please review. I crave love. It's a character flaw. If I get a good response for this, next chapter will be up soon.

-ZH