A/N: Okay, so this is my frist fanfic. :) Please let me know what you think...and go easy on me ;) I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer - First and Last. I do not own anything. :D
Introduction
You know, I've always been a pretty honest person. I just figured that lying wasn't worth all the trouble it caused. However, there is one thing I'd lie about.
My name is Mackenzie Reed, but most people call me Kenzie. I guess you could say I'm your average Quileute girl. I'm 17, almost 18 years old and I have straight, dark brown, almost black, hair that curls just past my shoulders and dark brown eyes. I have russet-colored skin and I stand at an average height of 5'7. Of course, compared to the size of the guys in my town, I feel like a midget. Like I said before, I'm completely average. Not gorgeous. Not ugly. Just kinda pretty, nothing special. I tend to have a slight attitude problem occasionally, but I guess that just makes me, me.
Now that my senior year is coming to an end, I really don't have any interest in leaving La Push. Yeah I know, why would anyone want to stay in this small, wet, and boring Indian reservation? Honestly, I'm not sure why I want to stay; I just have a feeling that I should. I plan on taking some online college courses and I already have a job lined up for after graduation. My parent's friend, Sue, offered me and my best friend, Kim, a job at her little diner that's close to the beach.
You see, Kim and I have been best friends since we were in diapers. She is a couple inches shorter than I am and has long, wavy black hair that hangs to the middle of her back. Kim has light brown eyes and she is extremely pretty, although she doesn't believe it when I tell her that. She's always been pretty shy, that's why she just recently started dating her long time crush, Jared Thail. Lucky for her he finally noticed her. I haven't ever seen Kim as happy as she is when she is with Jared. She has practically been obsessed with this guy since seventh grade. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many late night conversations we've had about Jared. Well, Kim always did most of the talking; I was just being the best friend and listening…mostly.
I may have been a little pre-occupied occasionally when we would talk about Jared, because his friend Paul would sometimes make it into our conversation. So maybe I had a small crush on him. It was nothing like Kim's crush on Jared, okay maybe it was exactly the same. I just couldn't and wouldn't tell anyone about my feelings for him though. Not even Kim. She would be so mad if she knew that I'd lied to her about it every time she asked if I liked anyone, but there are just some things that I'd rather keep to myself and loving Paul was one of them.
Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to tell Kim because it would have been too embarrassing. Paul is a hot-head and has major anger issues. He's rude to pretty much everyone and he can be really mean to a lot of kids around school. If and when Paul somehow makes an appearance in our conversations, we usually just talk about how much of an asshole Paul is. Kim is even dating his best friend and he is still rude to her. I do agree with Kim on the fact that Paul is an asshole, but I've also seen a glimpse of his sweet side. What sweet side, you ask? Well, it's hidden pretty deep in there now, but I swear that I have seen it before. The only reason I was given a chance to see his sweet side is because my mom used to baby sit Paul occasionally and now she still baby sits his sister, Chloe. Although, sometimes I will watch her at their house on the weekends if my mom is busy.
I don't think Paul's dad trusted him to watch after Chloe and that's why he hired my mom or me to watch her, even if Paul was there too. One thing I learned about Paul was that he is NOT good at dealing with his emotions and he just resorts to anger. Of course he didn't actually tell me this, but I've spent enough time around him to figure it out. I think he started resorting to his anger when his mom passed away. She had been diagnosed with some kind of cancer, but only lived about four months after the diagnosis. Paul was twelve and Chloe was three when she passed away.
His sweet side still doesn't make up for him being an asshole though. About five months ago, Paul changed. Not only did he have several extreme growth spurts, but he skips school a lot too. He never did let any of his friends know that we were sorta friends, but he always acted civil to me in public. Not now. Now he completely ignores me, except for the occasional rude comment as I walk by. He won't even look me in the eye. I can't figure out why though. The only thing he started doing differently was working for and spending time with Sam Uley. I won't go so far as to say that I hate Paul, but let's just say that after the way he's treated me, I can't stand him. At ALL.
He couldn't have changed his personality because of being friends with Sam. That wouldn't make sense. Sam is a really nice guy, a little intimidating, but really nice. My father is on the tribal council and he even says that Sam and the guys he has working for him are doing good around La Push. They are technically working for the council, but I don't know what they actually do. I have overheard my dad calling them the "protectors," but who knows what they are protecting us from. It can't be anything too bad though, because Dad even let my little brother, Brady, start working for Sam a little less than a month ago. In our tribe legends, the protectors are shape shifters that can turn into wolves and they protect us from the cold ones. We all know stuff like that doesn't exist, but how awesome would it be if the wolf part was true? It's too bad stuff like that isn't real…