Here we go again. Hope you like this one. Bit of a boring chapter, just review in case you haven't read 'Stars In The Night'.

It felt weird. Being the center of attention. Not just me; I mean my twin brother Jacy sat next to me. But he enjoyed it, oddly enough. You would have thought, since we were twins, that we both had the same likes and dislikes.

"1, 2, 3," I heard my mother clap the beats with her hands, then the entire room started up in the "Happy Birthday" song.

My mom had originally wanted to put a big "2" on my cake; since I had only existed on the Earth for two years; but I strongly objected that. Over the past two years we (my brother and I) had shot up. We were both 5'2" and had facial and bodily features of a thirteen year old. We had decided this would be our thirteenth birthday instead of our second. It made us feel more grown up.

It felt like I was always speaking in plural forms "us" and "we" instead of "me" and "I". Jacy and I were a pair; a package deal you could say. I stood up for him, and he stood up for me. We fought a lot, but that was because we were brother and sister; could you ever find siblings who didn't fight constantly? Yet, I knew I would feel incomplete without him.

Happy Birthday Elle, I heard him say. It surprised me in the least; I had been so deep into my thoughts I had forgotten he could do that. We could do that. Some vampires possessed special gifts; like my mother, my grandparents, Aunt Alice, and Uncle Jazz.

This was our gift. Another thing we shared. We could hear each others thoughts, just by thinking. Although, over the first few months we had learned how to shield our minds; so we weren't constantly in one anther's head. I still struggled a bit with keeping it up most of the time; sometimes I forgot and it went down; Jacy would usually tell me if he could hear me, if he thought that it was not intended. And I did the same for him.

I let my shield down.

Yeah, you too Jay.

Then, instantly it was back up.

Jay? I could hear tell he was awed, About damn time I got a nickname.

I almost giggled aloud, but then remember how no others would have a clue what we were talking about.

Then I realized that calling him 'Jay' was just shorter version of Jacy, that's why I must have done it, my mind was just trying to go easy, I guessed.

After all, my nickname was only one syllable also. My full name was Sarella (After my dad's mom Sarah and my mom's mom Bella). I had no clue why my mother even bothered naming me Sarella, since she and everyone else called me Elle.

They continued to sing, and I looked them all over once again, smiling. Everyone I loved was here, everyone.

I knew the only reason half of them were in Minnesota was because of the wedding that was going to be taken place in a few days. I thought about how unoriginal it was to have kids for two years and then finally get married. On television, everyone who was normal actually got married before they even decided to have kids. Just like Sam and Emily, or my grandparents.

My mom had gotten pregnant around the same time as Emily; but her pregnancy had been six months shorter. And now little Sammie Jr. was looking over the crowd, atop of Sam's shoulders. His wife Emily was sitting on a chair in front of him; she was pregnant again, approximately two months until their little girl would come.

When I said that everyone came down, I meant everyone. Grandpa Charlie, who was the only one who was actually normal. In fact, he knew little about the world we lived in. Grandpa Billy was also human, but far from normal; he was my favorite of our visitors. Then there was Jared and his fiance Kim, they were going to be married in December (Kim wanted a 'Winter Wedding'). Paul was here with my Aunt Rachel. My other aunt, Rebecca, came down by herself just a day ago. Then there was Collin and Brady, who both had girlfriends that I didn't know too well; Stacy and Amanda. It was weird how half of the pack had their mates; who they were all one-hundred percent dedicated to, and the other half seemed to be without a partner. There was Quil, though it seemed he was single, he always looked as if he were missing some one back home; so I often wondered if he didn't have a love he was hiding. Also, there was Leah, Seth, and Embry. And then there was Chayton. I wasn't sure on why I categorized him separately from the others. Perhaps it was because he wasn't like the others, he was mine. I didn't know how, but I felt closest to him out of all people. He lived with us here in Minnesota, so I guess that's why I favored him most out of all the pack. Maybe it was because of my father; he was Alpha, and Chayton was his Beta. He had to like him and respect him, maybe the gene passed down or something.

I jumped as I heard the sound of air being blown hard aside of me. I hadn't realized that the birthday song had stopped. That my father had shouted, "Make a wish!" and that Jay had blown out every single one of his thirteen candles.

"Your turn Elle," he said. And I wondered quietly why he had spoken it instead of just telling me through his mind.

There was only one thing that could complete my life. All I wanted was to grow older so that I could be with Chayton. He was physically twenty-four, and mentally twenty-six; which was twice my physical age. I knew it wouldn't work out, so I would wait a couple of years; no matter how much I wished I didn't have to.

I made my wish final by saying it once more, I want to be older so I can be with Chayton respectively.

My shield was still up, so Jay hadn't heard a word of it, thank God. I gently bent forward and took in a giant breath and released it; and all of the candles flickered out. But only for a second, because the next moment, they started back up again. I tilted my head and tried again. The fire was gone, and then it was back again.

What was happening?

There were chuckles spread across the audience, the loudest one was Embry.

"Is this some kind of joke?" I spoke quietly , trying not to get mad about nothing.

He smiled up to his eyes and nodded, "Yes," was all he could manage to get out of his throat.

"It was all Chayton's idea, I swear!" Quil boomed with laughter as he clutched his stomach.

I looked over at the man I had grown to love. "You," I squinted my eyes, faking anger.

He didn't deny it, "Of course, who else?" He asked.

I twisted my lips up, thinking hard, "You'll get your revenge soon enough," I assured him in another whisper. My father leaned forward from behind me and blew the candles out in one blow. My daddy; always to the rescue.

Then came all the hugs, a mix between the hot and cold. Then came the cake, the pack's favorite, of course. I got only a piece out of my cake, and same with Jay. We had such a big crowd, and everyone was anxious to dig their face into Grandma E's wonderful cooking. Even without half the family eating (the ones who only drank blood) the cake was gone within five minutes. That was fine with me, I had had a huge dinner beforehand.

After that, everyone gathered in the living room to open presents. I groaned in my mind as I saw a huge pile of gifts all wrapped up prettily and had a sign on it saying "For Elle". Next to mine was Jay's, which said "For Jacy". Oh well, it had to be done sooner or later.

One million and one gifts later, I was surrounded by wrapping paper and pink things. Perfumes, jewelery, shoes, outfits, all things girly. Only one thing from Grandma B. wasn't all too bad. It was a book that had "Jane Eyre" on the cover. It was fairly big; I was excited on reading it once everyone left to Washington and our lives were back to 'normal'. Leave it to my Grandma B. to understand the concept that I didn't really need gifts. Much less pricey stuff; I could have gotten books from everyone and still been happier than pie.

Although, the necklace Chayton had given me was really nice. It was like a miniature dream catcher hanging from a piece of thin leather; and I knew I would never have another nightmare again. Never, with this lovely reminder of Chayton hung around my neck.

Mom and dad started putting all the wrapping paper inside big, black garbage bags. Chayton helped me carry some of my new stuff up to my room. Aunt Alice helped Jacy with his stuff; probably wanting to arrange things to her liking. No doubt she would do that with me later.

When we got up to my room, I felt more relaxed. Like we had some privacy. I rolled my eyes, it wasn't possible to have privacy in this house. Everyone could hear you, if they were listening, I supposed. Which, you couldn't help but wonder if they were...

"You like your necklace?" Chayton asked of me, opening the box that it was in.

"I love it," I told him, eager for him to know how much I adored it.

"Here, then," he pulled it out and held it up in a triangle-sort of way.

I laughed as I bowed my head through it, and he let it lay atop of my chest. I took my long, black hair and pulled it out from underneath the leather. I turned to look in the mirror, to made sure it looked right. My eyes only focused on it for a slight second, and then to the beautiful man behind me.

He stared at my eyes as I to his as we faced the mirror together. "It looks real nice against your pale skin," he commented, and then looked away at the bed; where all my stuff had been set down.

I blushed and went over to my dresser to hide my red face, "Here, I can fold up some of the clothes and put them in here," I reached my hand out towards him and he handed me a few tops. I folded them all quickly.

"Where do you want these?" He asked, holding up two perfumes bottles (from Aunt Rose). They looked really fancy, and they were in very abstract shapes.

I pointed to the top of my dresser, "Aunt Rose will be happy if she sees I put them on display," I mumbled to him. He laughed, at something that I wasn't sure what.

I heard a slight spray sound from beside me, Chayton had sprayed himself on accident, "Damn," he cursed under his breath.

I giggled.

"What, do I smell pretty now?" He asked, letting a smile take over his olive-toned face.

I leaned in to him to get a better look at the bottle, it read 'Glamorous' across it. "You smell glamorous," I told him, hiding my giggle with my hand.

He sniffed himself, and then straightened up, "I do," he acknowledged.

My knees went weak as he said those two words. I knew he hadn't meant them in such a manner, but I just couldn't help my thoughts. What could I say? I was hopeless.

We carried on for a few more minutes, goofing off just a little as we put things in random places. I placed a pair of jeans hanging outside of one of my drawers. I put my shoes upside down in my closet. I hung my bracelets in 'necklace' compartment of my jewelery box. Aunt Alice would get a real kick trying to organize this. She would probably consider it fun though...

I could tell Chayton was anxious to get out of the room. He knew the others would be a bit weirded out by the fact he had been in my room alone with me. For the family that lived with me, though, they expected it. For some reason Chayton was always with me.

We arrived down in the living room again, everyone was too much engaged in conversation to notice our entrance. Some had left for the hotel for the night. We didn't have room for everyone, but Grandpa Carlisle paid all the money they needed for the nights they wanted to stay. We did have quite a bit of room, since most people here didn't sleep, but the wolves didn't like the "stench" I heard them saying once. The only visitors who stayed were Leah, Seth, Quil, and Embry. I couldn't help but notice the fact that the ones without partners stayed, and the ones with partners went.

It was just something I noticed.

Chayton took a seat next to my dad, easily joining their conversation about something not of importance. I made my way into the kitchen, where I saw Aunt Rose leaning over the counter doing something.

I hopped up next to where she was standing, so we were at eye level.

"What's up?" I asked her casually, actually curious on what she was doing.

She looked up with me in an evil sort of way, "You wanted revenge, right?" She asked, pulling a cloth off something beside me. A pie. She took a can of whip cream and started spraying it all over.

When she finished it, she set it in my lap and started to walk out of the kitchen. At the doorway, she looked back to say, "Do with it what you may," she grinned, evilly, liked before.

I giggled and jumped off the counter. A pie to the face for Chayton. Sounded like a classic joke that he would absolutely love.

I balanced it on my hands behind my back, and started walking slowly back to the living room. Luckily, Chayton was facing the opposite direction. I tried not to snicker as I got up to him.

"Hey, Chayton," I said, as if I was going to ask him a question.

Immediately his head whipped toward me, as if a reflex. I took the pie out from behind me and slammed it into his face, not too hard. The pan slid onto the ground.

The room went absolutely silent. I couldn't see his expression from behind the pie. After second though, I could see his smile. This made me smile even huger. He wiped it away from his eyes and flipped me on to his lap.

He started tickling me all over. On my hips, under my arms, my neck, and the worst spot: behind my knees. I squealed as I tried to squirm away from his grip, "No fair!" I screamed while laughing. He stood up and held me above his shoulders, still tickling me.

"Hmm...." he stopped for a second. "What to do now?" He asked himself, and then distributed all my weight on to his one hand, his other tapping his chin.

"Throw her in the lake!" I heard either Embry or Quil chant.

I squealed again, as I felt myself being tossed across Chayton's shoulders.

"Good idea," he said aloud, starting to walk out the back door. He turned on the yard light before stepping outside.

"Want to go for a swim?" He asked me, grinning.

I playfully screamed, "No!"

"You sure?" he held me out from him as he got ankle deep in the black water that reflected off the night sky.

"Yes!" I giggled again.

He let me down on my feet, and I got a second of 'vertigo' from the motion stopping.

Before I could speak, I heard hollering coming from the back door. Sure enough, three dark boys were throwing their shirt off and running into the water; throwing water at one another.

Quil threw a fistful of water at Embry's face. Embry squinted his eyes, and then pondered something.

"Where's the salt after-taste?" he asked, pretending to be appalled. "This tastes like melted snow."

Probably was.

I can guarantee next chapter will be better.