CHAPTER ONE:
A Failed Attempt at Coordination
Sophie's PoV:
My feet dug themselves deeper into the warm sand as I stretched myself out in my make-believe lounge chair. I propped myself up on my elbows with my hands resting somewhere beside my hips and I jutted my right leg up into the cool breeze as my long mess of dirty blonde hair draped freely behind my head and hung back between my shoulder blades.
Feeling completely relaxed as my eyes closed and my lips parted, I could feel the sun hit my chest and legs, which is apparently a rare thing here in Forks, and I swear I could almost feel the tan as it happened. Relaxation has definitely been achieved.
I started thinking about how much I missed California already, the sun was constant there and the beaches were always hot. Rain was never much of an issue there either and there was always something going on.
I've been in Forks for all of 6 hours now, which were spent unpacking, and I'm already regretting agreeing to the move. I love my mom though, and she seemed pretty adamant about moving here.
My face scrunched in a mildly displeased manner as I adjusted my arms in the sand; I think there's a small rock digging into my right elbow.
I gave my head a small shake from side to side to get a rogue strand of hair off my shoulder, it was irritating me.
Opening my eyes I stared into the ocean to watch the waves, I swear I could see something out in the water, like a weird red smudge, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared; reflected ray of sun I'm guessing.
I continued to watch the waves another moment as they continued to come in and crash pretty hard against the rocks, then get sucked back out deep into the ocean to do it all over again; it was really mesmerizing.
Just as I was beginning to drift off for a well-deserved catnap, a shadow cast itself over my entire upper body shielding the sun from cascading over my small frame.
Out of annoyance and interest, I opened my large green eyes to survey this new found obstruction. It started as a silhouette but as my eyes adjusted to the bright light of the sun I saw a very tall, russet skinned male.
I shifted my weight and raised my right hand to shield the sun from my eyes, there were two other males goofing off and shouting behind him a little ways away.
"Hey, how's it goin'?" he beamed at me.
"Well something's blockin' my sun, but other than that I'm pretty good. You?"
"Oh hey sorry 'bout that," he chuckled and stuck out his hand, "I'm Quil."
"Sophie," I responded and shook his hand, but instead of letting go, he yanked me up.
Feeling confused and a little irritated I brushed the sand off my shorts, and with the sun staring me right in the face I cocked my head to the side, scrunched my nose, and squinted up at him through one eye.
Wearing only some ripped up jean shorts; the shirtless boy stood at a solidly built 5'7", about 5 inches taller than myself, and had a sort of boyish charm.
I shot a quizzical look at him in hopes of hearing a reason as to why I've been ripped from my relaxing sprawl in the sand.
He adjusted slightly awkwardly and squinted back at me. He paused for a moment; almost contemplating what he was about to say, "You wanna come play volleyball?"
I glanced down towards the sand partially out of thought but mostly it was the fact that the sun was positively murdering my eyes. I contemplated the thought of sports for a moment; I was never very good at anything that took hand eye coordination, more specifically, games with balls- yup, I said it, balls. I was good at art and things like long boarding, surfing and snowboarding, but that's about where my abilities end.
"The teams are off, we need one more player," he rushed to explain, sensing my apprehension towards the idea. I shifted my squinted and scrunched gaze back up at Quil's face and continued to ponder. "It'll be fuuun!"
His attempts to convince me continued until I agreed, "Yeah sure, but I'm gunna be completely pathetic at this," as I said this I took a few steps forward, fumbled and tripped over nothing.
I caught myself before I hit the ground, sure, but still, pathetic.
Quil surveyed the situation and responded by beginning to walk back towards the two scuffling boys.
Turning to look at me one more time while he walked, with his eyes squinted and face stretched into a smile he chuckled, "It's alright, I've been warned. I just won't take you on my team."
With one last little laugh he picked up pace and jogged towards the other boys leaping on them as he arrived.
This is gunna be interesting, I thought to myself as I slowly ambled towards the small, but loud, squabbling trio of boys, focusing all my efforts on staying upright.
After picking teams, a boy named Paul ended up stuck with me on his team. I glanced over at my newfound teammate, the poor boy is doomed, I thought to myself.
He, like Quil, was tall –a little taller than Quil though- and russet skinned, fairly filled out, and had the same ripped up shorts and shirtless attire. Paul, however, was much cockier than Quil, slightly irritating but he was charming enough that you simply couldn't hate him for it.
The other boy on Quil's team, Embry, was slightly shorter than Quil, but not by much, with the same build and russet skin. He smiled cheerfully and offered a wave.
"Welcome to the Rez darling!"
Based on his comment I'm assuming I had wandered onto the reservation.
I smirked back at him, "Why thank you! I just couldn't Rez-ist coming out!"
I looked expectantly at the boys; they looked blankly back at me.
"Get it? You live on the Rez... rez-ist... like resist... it's a play on words guys, come on!" Quil offered a small pity breath of laughter as my face fell out of its amused smile with a sigh.
We bullshitted around while we set up a net in the sand, the guys were constantly beating on each other while I tried my hardest to say something funny; as much as I try my jokes are just not funny.
I sat in the sand to take off my blue ankle high Converse shoes and started to regret agreeing to sports, I'm tiiiiiired.
"Alright, I think we're golden!" Paul clapped his hands together as he yelled out in enthusiasm and consequently the game began.
XXXXX
After a ruthless game of volleyball and three hits to the head; three boys and I all fell into the sand tuckered out by a solid four hours of game play. We sat talking for a little while until I realized it was almost supper time. I couldn't leave my poor mother to eat alone in the new empty house, that's just criminal.
I stretched out to the side and grabbed my blue Chucks out of the sand and shoved them carelessly back onto my feet. After readjusting the white wife beater I had on- which was now brown from sand- I again stood up brushing the sand off my short jean shorts and, squinting much less than before, put a hand to my head to shield my eyes from the last threads of sun.
"I should probably head home guys, it was cool hangin' out," I gestured towards Quil as I said this.
He got up and scratched loosely at the side of his torso with his thumb. "Yeah it was cool, you got a number? I can give ya a call next time we play."
I lowered my hand and shoved my thumbs into the two front pockets of my shorts and casually looked down at the sand I was pushing around with my right foot, not in an ashamed manner, just a casual habit I have, I can never stay still for long.
"I actually just moved here, we haven't had a chance to set up a line yet. My cell's still got the California area code on it too so it'll be so expensive," I trailed off for a moment and looked up at a slightly crestfallen Quil, "but uhm, I'll be around."
With a little laugh I glanced around me at the beach, "This place isn't that big. I'm sure I'll see ya soon," looking back at Quil we smiled at each other. Peering around him I waved to the other guys, "See ya! It was awesome meeting you."
Embry waved with an awkward smile, "Sorry 'bout the whole 'ball to the head incident, my bad!"
"Same here!" Paul piped in and chuckled as he continued, "Sorry I smoked ya one in the dome... twice…"
I snorted a little in response, "It's alright guys, 'cause with skills like mine it was to be expected."
With one last smile, wave and goodbye I turned on my heels and walked towards home.
