Sunset

A Spashley Story

By JewWitch

Chapter 1

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Spencer shivered reflexively as soon as she stepped out of the plane, into the poorly insulated tube that would lead her into the airport in the tiny town of Port Angeles, Washington. Even though she'd packed a thick sweater and a parka in her carry-on, the damp air was still bitingly cold against her tanned California skin, and her teeth started to chatter loudly in her head. I guess I'll get used to it, she thought dully, zipping up her parka as she stumbled awkwardly down the walkway to the gate where her father was waiting.

"Spencer! Welcome home, baby. I'm so happy to see you." Arthur Carlin enveloped his daughter's smaller frame in an enthusiastic bear hug. It had been a long time since she'd been hugged like that; she was surprised to feel a swell of tears behind her eyes as his large hands patted her on the back.

"I'm glad to see you too, Dad," she said quietly, with a weak smile, as he pulled back to look at her. It was true—neither Spencer nor her brother Glen had laid eyes on their father since their parents' bitter divorce five years ago, when Spencer was twelve. She'd tearfully begged her father to take her with him, but her mother had made sure that would never happen. Now, as it turned out, all those expensive lawyer's fees had gone to waste—Spencer hadn't turned out to be quite the daughter Paula wanted, after all, and she was more than happy to send her as far away as possible once word got out that her only daughter was a freaky lesbian. Spencer didn't mind being exiled to her dad's old hometown; but she did sort of wish that he had grown up somewhere a little warmer.

"C'mon sweetheart, let's get your bags so we can get out of here. I think you'll really like your room—it's got a fresh coat of paint, and I managed to scrounge up an old laptop from the station that no one was using. The connection's pretty slow, but at least you'll be able to go online. You can email your brother, and your friends back home." He smiled, and Spencer felt a hard lump rising in the back of her throat. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she no longer had any friends back in LA. Maybe if she'd gone to a regular high school, it wouldn't have been such a big deal…but at the private, all-girls Catholic prep school her mother had forced her to attend, it wasn't exactly the 21st century. She wondered vaguely if there would be any gay kids in Forks. It was a pretty small town…the odds didn't seem good.

She followed her dad out onto the icy pavement, where he automatically steadied her as she slipped and crashed into him sideways. "Whoa!" Arthur laughed, gripping her firmly by her upper arm. "Still the same old Spencer, I see."

"Yep." She smiled stiffly. "I hope you have insurance." Arthur stopped walking, looking down at her tense expression with his warm blue gaze.

"Listen, Spence…I know I can't make up for everything your mom has put you through. I know it's been hard. But things are gonna be better now. We'll make them better. That's a promise."

"That sounds good." She smiled up at him again, only this time it happened naturally; not like she was acting the part of a girl who was happy to see her dad, but like she actually was that girl. She followed him out to the parking lot, where she immediately spotted the police cruiser they'd be driving home in. When she was younger, before her dad left, she'd been proud of getting driven around town in a police car…but at seventeen, it was a definite embarrassment. Not that she'd ever say anything to him about it.

They drove the hour from the airport back to Forks in relative silence; neither of them had ever been any good at small talk. Spencer remembered that. It was always her mother who chattered away at the dinner table, while Glen prattled about sports teams and his friends. It might have been awkward to sit quietly for so long with someone else, but with her dad, it felt comfortable. She leaned her head against the window and watched the thick green foliage whizz by, letting her mind drift vaguely. The time went by surprisingly quickly, and before she'd been expecting it, they were pulling into the driveway of her father's house. It had been her grandparents' once, but she hadn't been here since they died, more than ten years ago. Her dad had kept the house and rented it out after that, which turned out to be a good thing, because it gave him someplace to go after the divorce. Spencer had sometimes wondered whether he didn't plan it that way, on some level.

As they pulled in, she noticed an ancient red pickup truck parked in the driveway; it had the thick, sturdy frame and rounded edges of cars she'd seen in movies from the 1950's. "Is someone else here?" She asked, frowning.

"Nope. It's just you and me, kiddo."

"Then whose truck is that?" Spencer frowned.

"Well, actually…it's yours."

"What?" Spencer squealed, shocked by the feeling of a real smile on her face. "You bought me a car?"

"I know it doesn't look like much, but it runs great, sweetie, I swear. I got it fixed up by a friend of mine who builds engines. You'll never have to do anything but fill the tank and change the oil."

"You didn't have to do this, Dad. It must've been so much money…"

"It wasn't that much, Spence, honestly. And you don't have to thank me. I want you to be happy here." She launched herself across the seat and hugged him, then scrambled out of the police cruiser to examine her new mode of transport. A car—well, truck—all her own. Paula would never in a million years have allowed this. Running her fingers over the worn old paint job, Spencer felt a fresh grin creeping onto her face. This was already more than she'd smiled in weeks. Maybe months.

"Thanks, Dad. I love it."

"Well, you're welcome. Use it in good health, as your grandmother would say." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys, dropping them into her hand. As much as Spencer wanted to stay outside examining her new (well, new to her) truck, she was already shivering in the cold night air of northern Washington, and anyway, she had bags to unpack. The little house was much as she remembered from her childhood, though the "old people" smell had, thankfully, been replaced with her dad's familiar scent of leather soap, pipe tobacco and peppermint. The little bedroom facing the back woods was to be hers; Arthur had painted it pale lavender, and put up gauzy white curtains. The double bed was in the corner under a slanted ceiling, and the promised laptop lay on a small but sturdy-looking wooden desk facing the window. It couldn't have been more different from her room in LA.

"It seems…peaceful here," she remarked, dropping her carry-on bag by the bed.

"Yep, it sure is that. It'll be a bit of an adjustment from the exciting LA life, I'm afraid."

"That's okay…I think I've had enough excitement in my life already." They shared a brief smile of encouragement.

"Well all right, then. I'll leave you to get settled. Come on down in about an hour for dinner, okay?"

"What are we having?" Spencer asked slyly, already looking forward to her first home-cooked meal in years.

"Spaghetti with my homemade meat sauce."

"Oh, snap! That's my favorite."

"Yeah, I remember." Arthur grinned and kissed the top of her head before leaving the room; a moment later, she heard his heavy footsteps clunking down the stairs. Maybe life in Forks wouldn't be so bad, after all.

The rest of the night passed quickly. The heavy feeling of a stomach full of spaghetti, combined with the gentle patter of rain in the trees that started sometime after sunset, caused Spencer to fall deeply asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, in stark opposition to her usual tossing and turning. It wasn't a completely peaceful night, though—she had an unsettling dream of being lost in the deep, green woods, and woke with her heart pounding. It wasn't a nightmare exactly; she hadn't felt scared, just anxious. Like she was looking for someone, somewhere in that endless forest, but she couldn't remember who…like maybe they were just beyond the next bend in the wood, and maybe she could find them, if she could only call out. If she knew who to call for.

Shaking the dream off, Spencer got dressed for her first day of school, wearing all new winter clothes that she'd managed to scrounge up with her small savings before leaving LA. Arthur was waiting downstairs with pancakes, eggs and sausages, and Spencer joked that if he kept this up she'd have to ditch the truck and jog to school every day just to burn the calories. It was still early when they'd finished their breakfast, but Spencer felt too anxious to just sit around the kitchen, so she grabbed her keys, kissed her dad goodbye, and marched boldly out the door.

The school turned out to be easy to find, just like her dad had promised. It was a tiny place; even smaller than her private Catholic school in LA. And these kids, no doubt, had all known each other since they were born. She felt a sharp squirm of insecurity bubble up in her stomach, and firmly pushed it back down as she hopped out of her truck, and walked towards the front entrance of Forks High School. She went to the office first, and the kind, grandmotherly woman behind the desk seemed to know who she was before she'd even said hello. Of course, what else had she expected—how many new kids could a school like this have? Thankfully, word of the scandal back in LA didn't seem to have reached Forks. Spencer assumed that she wouldn't be getting this smile from the grey-haired school secretary if her expulsion from St. Anne's for homosexual conduct was public knowledge; and for this, at least, she was grateful. It wasn't that she wanted to go back into the closet…but she was hoping to avoid being an object of gossip in Forks, at least while she was the new girl. If it came up, then fine; but she wasn't about to broadcast it.

Since she was so early, she had time to stop in the library to pick up her new textbooks, and by the time she was done with that, the halls were filling up with students. She decided it was worth making a trip to her new locker to drop off all her books, even if it made her a couple of minutes late to her first class; teachers have to be nice on your first day, after all. Staggering under the weight of the heavy pile of books in her arms, Spencer tripped over her stiff new boots and crashed rather spectacularly into something very hard, that sent her sprawling to the floor. When she looked up, dazed, at what she'd hit, she realized it wasn't a what…it was a who.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," she panted, used to making such apologies, even as her stomach leapt up into her throat and her heart started thrashing against her ribs like a fish out of water. The girl she'd just crashed into was…too beautiful to be real. Certainly too beautiful for Forks, or for high school in general. Her dark hair fell in soft curls over her shoulders and down her back, in sharp contrast to her milk-white skin, so pale it almost seemed to glow. Spencer couldn't reconcile her delicate features with the extremely solid thunk she'd just taken when she bumped into the girl's ivory shoulder…but that thought was swept wholly from her mind when she looked up into the girl's liquid-dark eyes, staring furiously back into her own. She looked so angry, so alarmed, so utterly bewildered, that for a second Spencer wondered if she'd managed to hit the girl harder than she'd realized. But, no; she wasn't holding her side, or rubbing her arm, or giving any other indication that she was hurt. Why then was she so furious?

"I said I'm sorry," Spencer said again, slightly indignantly—she was the one sprawled on the floor, after all. The gorgeous girl narrowed her onyx eyes, visibly gritting her teeth. She made no move to help Spencer off the floor.

"Whatever," She mumbled, before turning on her heels and walking briskly in the opposite direction, leaving Spencer alone and bewildered on the floor. Jesus, what's her problem? Spencer thought furiously as she picked herself up and gathered her fallen books. Her heart was still thumping unsteadily in her chest when another newcomer approached her, thankfully with a smile on her face instead of a scowl.

"Hey, you're Spencer Carlin, right?" This girl was pretty, too, though nowhere near the realm of the pale angel she'd just crashed into. Stop it! She's not an angel, she's a big jerk. Spencer forced her attention back to the girl who was actually bothering to talk to her. She had light brown, wavy hair, hazel-ish sort of eyes, and a creamy, vaguely ethnic skin tone—Latina, Spencer guessed.

"Um, yeah. How did you know?" Spencer joked weakly, with an awkward smile.

"Girl, please. You are the top news item today! I'm Madison. Welcome to Forks High. Do you know where your first class is?"

"Um, sort of…" Spencer pulled out her new schedule to consult. "I'm supposed to be in Junior English now."

"Ooh, me too! I'll walk you." She grabbed Spencer's upper arm unceremoniously, steering her down the now crowded hall and talking a mile a minute. Spencer knew she should be relieved that she'd made a friend so fast, but instead she was annoyed that Madison had interrupted her alone-time before she'd had a chance to properly process her strange run-in with the gorgeous dark-haired girl, whose face she couldn't seem to push out of her mind. Luckily, Madison seemed like the type who didn't need a lot of encouragement to carry a conversation; in fact, Spencer didn't have to say anything else until they reached English. She introduced herself to the teacher, and was beyond grateful when he allowed her to take her seat without standing in front of the class to introduce herself. They were reading The Scarlet Letter, which she'd already read in LA, so she didn't feel too guilty about paying only marginal attention to the teacher's lecture. Instead, her thoughts turned back to the strange and beautiful girl from the hallway, whose name she didn't even know. Even if she was some popular alpha-bitch type, her reaction had seemed wildly out of proportion. And she hadn't said anything biting or humiliating—she hadn't really said anything at all—and that didn't add up with the type of popular-girl fury that Spencer had encountered before.

And she hadn't just been angry…she'd looked deeply freaked out, too, and that didn't make sense, either. Spencer was not a scary person. What about her could possibly have wigged the other girl out so badly that she couldn't even manage a sarcastic retort? Before Spencer was able to form any sort of conclusion, the bell rang, and she was off to her next class, with Madison happily leading, still chattering away about the "cool kids" who she'd introduce Spencer to at lunch, how exciting it was to know someone from LA, and how they all couldn't wait to hear about it. She wasn't thrilled with being the center of attention, but it was certainly better than being ignored completely, so she let Madison guide her through the rest of her morning, all the way to the lunch room, where she was introduced to Mike, Tyler, Lauren, Jessica, and Ben, all of whom were as eager as Madison to hear stories of her exciting LA life.

"Um, actually…things in LA got kind of crazy for me," she said carefully, looking down at her apple and twirling it around the stem. "I'm sort of looking forward to the quiet life here."

"Well we've certainly got plenty of that," Madison snorted, rolling her eyes, clearly disappointed. Then Jessica asked Mike if he'd finished his half of their Biology lab, and the little group dispersed into smaller conversations, for which Spencer was deeply grateful. She looked up then, covertly stealing glances around the room. It didn't take long for her eyes to find their target. In a far corner of the lunch room, an entire ten-person table was taken up by just three people: the stunningly beautiful girl from this morning, another girl, and a boy, all of them painfully gorgeous. They looked more like runway models than high school students. They were all pale, with dark hair; but they didn't look related. The other girl looked vaguely Asian, with straight, glossy brown hair that fell down her back in a sheet; unlike her, the boy had wavy, thick hair that was almost black, cropped fairly short above his ears, and he was very muscle-y. He had his hand on the shorter girl's thigh, in a casual but intimate way that made Spencer sure they were dating. Yet they all had the exact same milkbone skin, the same pitch-black eyes…

"Who are they?" Spencer breathed quietly, too transfixed to make the question come out casual.

"Oh, they're the Davies," Jessica said, hearing her question from across the table. "The boy is Aiden, the shorter girl is Kyla, and the other one is Ashley. They moved here from Alaska or something with their dad a couple of years ago. Well—their adopted dad. None of them are really related."

"It's still sick," Madison shot back viciously. "Kyla and Aiden are together," she added to Spencer, as if she'd needed clarification. "It's not natural."

"But…they're not really brother and sister, right?" Spencer asked slowly, though right now she really didn't care if they were. She was only thinking about one thing: Ashley.

"No," Madison sniffed grudgingly. "But they live together. It's a sin." Discussions about sin and who would burn in the fires of hell for all eternity was the last thing Spencer needed to hear about, so she just tuned out, staring covertly over at the Davies' table whenever she had a chance. Just after the last time she looked back down at her own lunch tray, Jessica stage-whispered across the table—

"Oh my God, Spencer, Ashley Davies is totally staring at you."

"Does she look mad?" Spencer asked meekly, feeling a blush warming her cheeks.

"No," Jessica replied, sounding puzzled. "Should she?"

"I don't think she likes me," Spencer said lamely, too terrified to turn and look the girl—Ashley—directly in the eyes.

"You're in good company there," Mike snorted. "Her highness never talks to anyone but her family." There was a note of bitterness in his voice that made Spencer sure he'd asked her out at least once, and been rejected—probably not gently, based on what little she knew of the girl. Still…it was nice to know she was single.

The bell rang then, and Mike and Tyler both jumped up at once to show Spencer to her next class. Spencer noticed that both Lauren and Jessica seemed annoyed by all the attention the boys were showing her, and hoped it wouldn't last—the attention, or the annoyance. She already knew there was only one person she wanted attention from, and unfortunately, the odds of that didn't seem good. Already weary of her first day in Forks, Spencer rose to follow the others to her next class.