Chapter 1: Girl Without a Name

"Seth Clearwater, if you don't get your lycanthropic rear end downstairs in the next five seconds Aunt Emily will serve mine for dinner to a pack of ravenous wolves!"

The aforementioned Seth Clearwater groaned in response to this. He was dead tired from running patrol each night for the last few days without any real rest, even the mention of food managed to just barely rouse from him sleep. The boy brought his eyes to the alarm clock on the nightstand a few inches away from the bed, informing him that it was currently 7:18 in the evening.

It's not even close to the time that Emily said the party would start, thought Seth drowsily, still have time for a couple more snoozes…

Seth closed his eyes, ready to slip into dreamland again. He could feel his consciousness slither away in sweet surrender until a bang of the door slamming open startled him awake.

"Wakey, wakey eggs and bakey! Well actually in this case it's more like Emily's steaky but you get the picture," announced a painfully cheerful voice.

Sitting up on the bed, he rubbed his eyes in hopes of erasing the tiredness out of them, then proceeding to send a glare to the girl standing in the middle of doorway.

The girl stuck her tongue out and said, "Don't give me that look. It was either me or Jake, and who would have been more likely to drop kick your ass down the stairs? FYI, Sky's just about ready to strangle you, just so you know." Short dark hair, amber brown eyes with a sneaky glint sparkling; Taranee Redwood was her name, sweet mischief her terrifying game. The tall girl proceeded to grab Seth by the arm, dragging him out of bed right outside the bedroom.

"Get off me, Tara," mumbled Seth sleepily, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the door on his way out. Why did she have to be so annoyingly perky at this moment? All he wanted to do was go back to his cousin's room and sleep the night away, forgetting all about some party gathering thing that Emily had arranged for half of La Push.

Tara shrugged her shoulders, "If you say so Sethie, dear. Just stay here a moment then."

Seth stared after her groggily; momentarily suspicious with the too-innocent tone of voice she had just given him. Even with only five percent of his brain cells awake he knew his friend was anything but innocent, before he could pursue the train of thought, sleep shut him down. If only he had paid more attention to what his extraordinary hearing was trying to send to his brain, he could have avoided the start of an uneventful evening.

"In your face with some H20 motherfu-"

Before said sentence could be finished, Seth found himself being sprayed with water from all directions, instantly forcing him out of his stupor. In the end the only things left at the scene of the crime were six laughing werewolves with six NERF super soakers, and a very awake, extremely furious, soaked to the skin Seth Clearwater.

"TAARRAAAA!"

"Wasn't me!"

After evidence of the dirty deed had all been cleaned up by the culprits, and the now calm Seth had dried and changed clothes, he headed down the stairs for the shindig currently in full swing that awaited him. Unfortunately he ran into the source that originally awoke him from his slumber at the bottom of the steps, foot tapping, arms crossed, not moving an inch.

"Err, hello Sky?" He intended it as a statement but came out more sounding like a nervous question.

"You look like shit," was her sweet response.

Before he could rant off to her that it was her fault for waking him up too early in the first place, she was saved by entrance of Tara.

She nudged the girl on the side playfully and said, "Watch your mouth Skylar darling, daddy dearest might hear you and take you back to the Makah rez."

"My father won't be here for another hour and frankly I could care less right now if he was. Seth could do with a couple of curse words flung upon him," she tried to skewer him with her brown eyes, "and maybe a hit or two from Collin if I feel like it."

Seth struggled to remember why his cousin could be so mad with him at the moment but his mind came up with blank. Wait a moment. Aw, crap…now I remember.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and tried not to look at her in the eyes too long as he apologized, "I'm sorry Sky, but pack duties have worn me out dead."

"Apparently they've worn out your brain cells also," she muttered to herself.

Seth sighed in relief, relaxing his stance at having avoided conflict with family. Just as he made a move to walk past her and follow the aromatic scent of steak in the kitchen she rapidly grabbed his arm, preventing him from leaving. Granted he could have easily shaken her off, but Skylar wasn't exactly athletic much less sturdy enough to not have her wrist sprained at the movement.

"Apology not accepted! You were supposed to help me and Auntie Emily today with all the stuff for the party! I had to run down and drop off Claire and Nate at Quil's so they wouldn't mess with Aunt Emily while she started the cooking, grab some ingredients that Uncle Sam forgot to pick up at the supply store, and…and…and a whole hell lot of stuff that I can't remember right now because I'm too livid with you!"

Skylar breathed heavily as she let out all her anger in one breath and a torrent of words. Meanwhile Seth looked for anyone that could save him from Skylar's wrath, but it seemed that everyone else was smart enough to stay clear from the scene, along with Tara who had slipped away without anyone noticing, as per usual. It seemed that there was only one thing left to do before she caught her breath again.

He pulled her to him and hugged her.

"Not working, Seth," said Skylar in a muffled voice considering she was sandwiched against his chest and arms.

She pulled herself away from him, keeping her gaze to the floor, bangs covering her eyes. That still didn't stop Seth from seeing a tear fall to the floor.

"Are you crying," asked Seth, bewildered at thought of his usually calm and collected cousin close to breaking down.

"No," she huffed, turning away from him. "I'm just tired, worn out, exhausted, and on my monthly."

"Sky… way too much information."

Taking a deep breath, rubbing the tears out of her eyes, and fixing her mussed up braid, she quietly said without looking at him, "I'm sorry for snapping at you Seth, but next time I let you sleep for a while, remember to put an alarm. Aunt Em's a drill sergeant; I swear she was going to call me maggot at one point."

Chuckling at her words, he gave her a smile, one that she returned. One mess was averted this evening, now, to confront Tara.

"You were just as deep as me in this prank, Brady! How come you didn't have to sit through Seth's lecture; I swear he was about to go wolfy ass on me and ruin his good clothes," harrumphed Tara as she took an angry swig from her soda as she stood next to Brady.

Brady laughed at her as he tried to eat his food without choking on it. "It was your idea, oh smart one."

She punched his shoulder, causing him to spill his steak and rice on the floor. Brady groaned and headed back inside the house for more food.

"That's your fifth plate, so don't be complaining. Wouldn't want to have an out-of-shape wolf on our hands," she smirked.

"Screw you, Tara." With those kind words Brady walked out of the girl's sight.

Tara was all alone by the drinks table now. A feeling of abandonment greeted her like an old friend as she watched groups of people around her stuck in their own conversations. She had a mind to follow Brady into the kitchen and grab herself another plate until she heard Emily's voice say, "Is this your daughter, Evan? Why she looks like a lovely mix between you and her mother."

"Thank you ma'am," responded a quiet voice, accented from some place she couldn't recognize.

Tara turned towards the source of the voice and saw Emily talking with a middle-aged man, alongside him was a teenage girl. She looked younger than Tara, what with her short stature, frail-looking frame, and baby face. Then again, almost everyone my age looks younger than me, she thought.

It seemed Tara's boredom was solved; the girl was walking away from her father towards one of the empty tables, perfect chance to corner her.

She approached the girl who was setting down what looked like a fancy lunchbox and a messenger bag on the table and swiftly sat on the other chair without asking.

"Hey midget girl, wanna grab some food in the kitchen?"

The "midget girl" looked startled and stared at her as if she had mutated in front the girl. Tara chuckled inwardly at that thought.

"I'm sorry, is this table taken already?" She grabbed her things and proceeded to walk away, but Tara grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving. This caused the girl's grip to loosen on her bags, spilling them on the floor.

With more speed than Tara thought possible, the girl re-packed her bags before she could get a good chance to look at the loot she had stored in them.

"Whoopsie daisy, sometimes I don't know my own strength. Sorry 'bout that…uh, you okay there?"

Tara noticed the panicky look in the girl's eyes as she looked at anything but Tara, biting her lip nervously. The girl responded with forced laughter, "Yeah, I'm good. I just have some stuff in my bag… that not everyone can see."

This Tara could understand. "Ah, okay, girl stuff to hide, huh? Maybe you should meet up with Skylar later, you'd already have something in common to talk about," she laughed.

"Umm, yeah…okay," finished the girl lamely. Again she fidgeted with the bags she was carrying, making sure the latch that held them closed was secured tightly.

Awkward, thought Tara.

Deciding to break the silence she said, "Name's Taranee with a double E at the end, but save yourself the trouble and call me Tara."

The girl gave her a hesitant smile, extending her hand to shake Tara's. "I'm…"

But who she was Tara wouldn't find out until later since precisely at that moment the wristwatch on the girl's arm decided to start beeping.

Girl without a name yanked her hand away from Tara's and looked at the time with wide eyes. "S-sorry, I've really got to go. Nice meeting you Tara!"

And with that rushed farewell mystery girl ran full sprint ahead out of her sight, leaving Tara alone yet again. Tara slumped back on her chair and sighed, so much for the company. Her moping was quickly ended by Seth joining her at the table.

"Who was that running away," he inquired, "and what'd you do to her?"

Tara gave him a look, but decided to shrug it off. "Girl without a name."

Seth gave her a questioning look.

"Didn't catch her name, but she was a weird chick all right, and that's coming from me," observed Tara as she leaned back and lifted her feet on the table wondering what exactly had been up with her.

Seth snorted, "That's deep."

"Oh shut up. So anyways, what brings you here? Didn't think Sky would let you go without making it up to her or that Border Collie would let you get away with making her cry. I could smell the tears all the way from here."

"Nah, it's all good between Skylar and me. Collin just freaked out for five seconds until he saw that she was happy enough," he responded, but it suddenly seemed that his mind was at a faraway place.

A sudden pain on his forehead broke him out of his reverie. "Did you just flick my forehead?"

"Okay space cadet, I know you didn't come here to chat me up, especially after my beautifully executed prank. What brings you here when Captain, First Mate, Embry, and Quil are over yonder fifteen feet away from us?"

Tara peered at him curiously; awaiting his answer while Seth leaned back, hands behind his head, looking after the direction that mystery girl had run towards.

"Don't know, just felt like I had to be here, a pull I guess."

Tara rolled her eyes. Tomorrow was most definitely going to be an interesting Monday; she had a feeling Girl without a name wouldn't remain nameless for too long.

Author's Note:

For the record, I know I don't Twilight (good, I'd be embarrassed if I did). This "disclaimer" stands for the rest of the story, because there's no need to be doing this every single chapter. Understood? Good.

First of all, English is NOT my first language, so please tell me when (not if) I make mistakes.

So…what's your opinion on the idea of the story? Any particular scenes or lines that made you laugh? What characters interest you? Really, just tell me what I did wrong and/or what you liked.

Sincerely,

ThatOne