Billy and I were eating pizza and watching the basketball game when Charlie called. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but it sounded urgent. I stood up. Billy looked worried, more than worried, terrified.

"No, she hasn't been around here," he was saying. There was a pause. "Of course, yeah. I'll send some of the boys over right away." Another pause. "We're gonna find her, Charlie. These boys know the forest netter than anyone." Billy hung up and looked over at me. "Jake, Bella's missing. Charlie can't find her anywhere and he's real worried. I told him that I'd send you and some guys over to look."

I turned and headed for the truck. Behind me I heard Billy making calls. Bella was missing? That explained the look on Billy's face. He was so superstitious about the Cullens, including Bella's boyfriend Edward, that he could only be thinking one thing. Even so, I was pretty worried myself. Animal attacks weren't exactly rare around here. And, even without the help of an animal, from what I heard Bella was clumsy enough to do some serious harm to herself.

When I got to Charlie's, it looked like half the town was already here. Charlie must be really worried. I grabbed a flashlight from under the seat and jumped out to help.

I had only been looking for about ten minutes, when I heard someone yelling, "I've got her. I've got her." It was Sam Uley. How did he get here before me?

I quickly forgot that thought, when Sam came running past me with Bella in his arms. What had happened to her? She looked like death. She looked like every bit of spirit in her had been broken. Like someone had taken the very meaning out of her life. What the hell had happened to her? Physically, she seemed fine. But otherwise…

Everyone gathered in Charlie's little house and Bella's responses to the doctor's questions were whispered back.

"She's not hurt."

"Got lost in the woods."

"Doctor Snow said that the Cullens just up and left. Do you think that has something to do with it? She and Edward were dating…"

So that's what happened. Cullen had left her like that in the woods. Told her he was leaving and just left her there. Anger exploded in me. Bella deserved better than that. Maybe Billy was right to be superstitious of the Cullens. I mean, I didn't believe that they were vampires, but maybe they shouldn't have been trusted.

I got back in the truck and drove home to tell Billy that they found Bella.

"They got her," I told him later.

"What happened?" he asked urgently.

"Well, apparently the Cullens left all the sudden. The story is Edward told Bella about their moving and just left her in the woods. She looked bad, Dad. Like everything had lost its meaning. Like she just didn't care anymore."

Billy nodded. "But she wasn't physically hurt. I mean, she was still Bella."

"Yeah. She wasn't hurt physically."

The phone rang and Billy went to answer it. "Hello?" He paused and nodded. "Yeah that's fine, Sam. Just be careful about it."

"What was that about?" I asked him.

"Sam and some of the boys are having bon fires. They're celebrating the Cullens leaving. You can go over if you want."

"I don't think I want to celebrate anything that hurt Bella like that." My voice had an icy edge to it.

"Jake, this is for her own good. She's safer now."

I shook my head and walked into my room.

Early in the morning I heard the phone ring yet again and I heard my Dad wheel himself over to get it. "Hello?...Oh, that's okay. How's Bella?...I'm glad she's okay…The boys are having bon-fires, celebrating the Cullens moving…Charlie, I'm sorry…Listen, they're being careful. They know what they're doing…No problem. They were happy to help find Bella. I'll talk to you later."

For months I didn't hear anything about Bella Swan except for the worried calls from her father saying that she wasn't getting any better.

Then one day I heard the familiar sound of our old truck, now Bella's, coming up the road. I met her halfway between the house and her truck.

"Bella!" I said, excited to see her.

"Hey, Jacob!" she called with more enthusiasm then I would have expected. She even smiled back at me. "You grew again!" she said it in such a way that it sounded like she was accusing me.

I laughed and my smile widened. "Six-five," I said pleased that she was acting better, despite what Charlie kept saying on the phone.

She shook her head, her hair flowing around her, as she said, "Is it ever going to stop? You're huge."

I grimaced. "Still a beanpole, though. Come inside! You're getting all wet."

"Hey, Dad," I said meaningfully to Billy. "Look who stopped by."

Billy wheeled himself over and said, "Well, what do you know! Its good to see you, Bella." And he shook her hand. "What brings you out here? Everything okay with Charlie?"

"Yes absolutely. I just wanted to see Jacob—I haven't seen him in forever." Her words surprised me and I felt some of my earlier hope for a relationship. I smiled.

"Can you stay for dinner?" he sounded eager for her to hang around. Billy, too, had noticed quite a difference in the Bella in front of us and the Bella that Charlie kept telling us about.

"No, I've got to feed Charlie, you know."

Billy wasn't taking no for an answer. "I'll call him now. He's always invited."

But apparently she was stubborn, too. "It's not like you'll never see me again. I promise I'll be back again soon—so much you'll get sick of me," she said with a laugh. Her words satisfied both Billy and myself. This wasn't just a one time visit.

Billy laughed and conceded. "Okay, maybe next time."

Before any silence could make Bella feel uncomfortable here, I asked, "So, Bella, what do you want to do?"

"Whatever," she said nonchalantly. "What were you doing before I interrupted?"

I didn't answer right away. In my little experience with girls, I had found that most of them didn't get into cars the way most guys did. I didn't think Bella would prove that theory wrong, but I didn't want her to leave. "I was just heading out to work on my car, but we can do something else…"

She quickly responded with, "No, that's perfect! I'd love to see your car."

I doubted that she actually wanted to watch me work on my car. I figured she just felt bad about making me switch my plans, but because I didn't have a better idea of what to do, I let it go. "Okay. It's out back, in the garage."

She seemed strangely pleased. She waved to Billy and said, "See you later."

I led Bella around to my garage and flipped on the lights. She surprised me by knowing the type of car it was. "What kind of Volkswagen is that?

Impressed I answered, "It's an old Rabbit—1986, a classic."

She nodded. "How's it going?"

"Almost finished," I said proudly. Then I hesitated. Should I mention last spring when Billy said he'd get me the master cylinder if I crashed Bella and Edward's prom night to tell Bella to break-up with Cullen? Maybe that's why she came here. To talk. I continued in a slightly quieter voice, "My Dad made good on his promise last spring."

"Ah," she said in a pathetic attempt to seem indifferent. So she didn't come here to talk about Cullen. That pleased me immensely. I didn't want her thinking about Cullen. I wanted her having a good time…here…with me.

"Jacob," she said suddenly, "what do you know about motorcycles?"

Was this her attempt to change the subject? "Some," I said with a shrug. "My friend Embry has a dirt bike. We work on it together sometimes. Why?"

"Well…," she paused, like she was trying to decide if she was going to trust me with something. "I recently acquired a couple of bikes, and they're not in the greatest condition. I wonder if you could get them running?"

"Cool." I was looking forward to working on these bikes. "I'll give it a try."

She held up one finger, telling me to wait. Conditions. "The thing is, Charlie doesn't approve of motorcycles. Honestly, he'd probably bust a vein in his forehead if he knew about this. So you can't tell Billy."

Bella was probably right about Charlie. And I wasn't completely adverse to the two of us having a secret. "Sure, sure. I understand."

"I'll pay you," she started to say, but I wasn't having that.

"No, I want to help. You can't pay me."

Definitely stubborn. "Well…how about a trade, then? I only need one bike—and I'll need lessons, too. So, how about this? I'll give you the other bike, and then you can teach me."

This day just got better and better. "Swee-eet," I said in response.

Suddenly she became very stern. "Wait a sec—are you legal yet? When's your birthday?"

"You missed it," I said, teasing her by sounding offended. "I'm sixteen."

Bella shook her head. "Not that it stopped you before. Sorry I missed your birthday."

I waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I missed yours. What are you, forty?" She certainly didn't act seventeen.

She played along. "Close," she answered.

"We'll have a joint party to make up for it," I suggested.

She seemed willing. "Sounds like a date." Boy, did I like her choice of words. "Maybe when the bikes are finished—our presents to ourselves," she added onto my original plan.

"Deal," I agreed. "When will you bring them down?"

She looked embarrassed. "They're in my truck now."

"Great," I said with feeling. I knew Bella was still having a hard time and I didn't want her to feel bad about anything, even the little things.

"Will Billy see if we bring them around?" She looked a little nervous. She really wanted to keep this from Charlie. Although, knowing Chief Swan, I can't say I blame her.

I winked at her and said conspiratorially, "We'll be sneaky."

We sneaked around the side of the house that was concealed by trees. I left Bella by the trees edge and hurried over to the truck. Luckily, I knew the truck well enough to know the trick of how to open the trunk bed without it creaking loudly. Push it up, before pulling it open. Works every time. I pulled the bikes back to Bella and the camouflage that was the trees, one at a time.

We started pushing them back through the trees to the garage. "These aren't half bad," I said as I looked more closely at the bikes. "This one will actually be worth something when its down—it's an old Harley Sprint."

"That one's yours, then," she said decidedly.

"Are you sure?" I didn't want it to seem like I had wanted her to offer it to me. Though I wouldn't mind having the Sprint.

"Absolutely." I was liking her more and more.

I decided it was time to warn her about the speed bump ahead of us. "These are going to take some cash, though. We'll have to save up for the parts first."

"We nothing. If you're doing this for free, I'll pay for the parts."

She couldn't let someone just do something for her. That just didn't seem right to her, unfair. And it wasn't like she wasn't giving me anything for the work. She was giving me a motorcycle, the more valuable motorcycle. "I don't know…," I told her.

"I've got some money saved. College fund, you know." Well, if she did have the money already that would make this process a lot faster. And the faster we got the parts, the faster I got her finished bike to her, which would be helpful to her. Okay, I guess I'll let Bella have her way with this one. I nodded.

When we got the bikes back to the garage, I opened the passenger side of the Rabbit for Bella to sit. I pulled the bike that would be Bella's apart immediately to better see how the engine was. It wasn't too bad, but not great either.

"So," Bella asked, "how's your sophomore year going?"

I had my hands working while my mouth did. "Oh, you know, its school. How good can it be? But its not so bad. I'm not taking anything special, probably all the classes the sophomores take at Forks High School, but we also take a class based on the history and legends of the Quilette people. They're all about tribe pride here on the rez. The cool thing is I have at least one of my two best friends in every one of my classes. That makes it better because there is someone in each class who I know is as clueless as I am."

Bella laughed and asked, "Who are your friends? Anyone I know?"

"Probably not," I laughed. "They're Quil and Embry. Quil's more aggressi—"

"Quil and Embry?" she said, interrupting me. "Those are unusual names."

I chuckled. Those poor guys heard that from everyone they met. "Quil's is a hand-me-down, and I think Embry got his name after a soap opera star. I can't say anything, though. They fight dirty if you start on their names—they'll tag team you."

"Good friends." Bella seemed doubtful and raised an eyebrow.

I guess it did sound like I was giving them a bad rep. "No, they are. Just don't mess with their names."

"Jacob?" I heard Quil yell. Aw crap, this could be bad. Quil would probably flirt with Bella and they'd both knew enough to embarrass me.

"Is that Billy?" Bella asked, worried that the bikes would be discovered.

"No," I said, blushing slightly. I hoped she wouldn't notice. "Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear."

"Jake? Are you out here?" Quil called again.

"Yeah," I shouted back to him, before sighing. A few moments later Quil and Embry walked in. The both stopped right in the doorway with their mouths open like the idiots they are. When they finally closed their mouths it didn't get much better. Embry was looking back and forth between me and Bell as if their was some kind of invisible connection he was trying to see. And Quil was looking at Bella, slowly smiling, like he was about to make a move.

"Hey, guys," I said with a lot less enthusiasm as I would have I they had showed up when it was just me here.

"Hey, Jake," Quil said, to me without looking, before winking at Bella and saying, "Hi, there."

"Quil, Embry—this is my friend, Bella." Would Quil look away from her for like a second!

There he goes. He held out his arm and said, "I'm Quil Ateara." While she shook his hand, Quil flexed his bicep. I almost groaned.

Bella was taking it well, though. She smiled. "Nice to meet you, Quil." Almost too well. She wasn't enjoying Quil's attention, was she?

At least Embry was shyer. "Hey, Bella, I'm Embry, Embry Call—you probably already figured that out, though." He waved once before putting his hands back in his pockets.

Bella nodded at him politely. "Nice to meet you, too."

His eyes still on Bella, Quil asked, "So what are you guys doing?"

Knowing it would get their attention, I said, "Bella and I are going to fix up these bikes." And with that they came over and started looking over the parts, asking me about the models and what pieces were needed.

After a few minutes I heard Bella sigh and looked up in time to see her stand up out of the Rabbit. "We're boring you, aren't we?" I said with an apologetic look.

"Naw," she said with a wave of her arm. "I just have to go home and cook dinner for Charlie."

I told her I'd finish taking the motorcycles apart tonight and she asked if she could come back tomorrow. Despite the fact that I saw Embry and Quil nudge each other with grins on their faces, I told her it'd be great. We decided that we'd go get the parts and I started to argue about her paying for everything.

Bella got an exasperated look on her face and said, "Jake if I took these to a mechanic, how much would he charge me?"

"Okay," I finally agreed. "You're getting a deal."

"Not to mention the riding lessons," she reminded me.

That's when Quil decided to be funny and whispered, "Are you sure she's still talking about the bikes? I could give her a few lessons in riding anytime."

Annoyed and embarrassed, I reached over and smacked the back of his head. "That's it, get out," I told him.

"No, really, I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow, Jacob," Bella said before walking out of the garage.

The second she was out of sight, Quil and Embry called out, "Wooooo!"

I promptly smacked them both on the back of the head. Embry said, "Ouch." As Quil said, "Hey!" We were not going to have a repeat of this situation. "If either of you set so much as one toe on my land tomorrow…" I let the threat hang in the air.