First Meeting

To say I met Isabella Swan for the first time on La Push Beach would have been wrong. But I only had very vague memories from her as a kid; she was the quiet girl who Charlie used to bring along to play with Rebecca and Rachel...but that was for a few Summers only and before I was old enough to notice anything more about the dark-haired girl, she stopped visiting Forks. I heard that she wanted her dad to visit her in California and Charlie obliged...until I turned 15 and Isabella returned to Forks for some unknown reason. Charlie didn't really explain her return but luckily he bought Dad's old truck for her. Why anyone would want such a slow thing was beyond me, but I liked Isabella Swan already, if only for the fact that she let me work on my Rabbit with the full blessing, and some financial backing, of Billy.

Some of the guys from the res and I had gone over to the beach, on one of the few and rare days where the sun was shining in the Olympic Peninsula and we came across a bunch of students from Forks High School hanging out on the beach, a small group with food (Yes!) that they were more than willing to share. Sam was with us and I didn't really like the guy, he was too serious and seemed to consider himself our spokesperson or something, which annoyed me a bit. As the food was being passed around, a group returned from exploring and I caught my first glimpse of Isabella, as one of her friends introduced the returning wanderers. She was really pretty, with big brown eyes and dark hair, but she didn't seem completely at ease with the big group. She did smile tentatively at me when she caught me staring.

The sunny weather didn't last for long (shocking) but the clouds made people restless and the group broke up to explore the village or try and skip rocks on the water...which is really pointless unless the sea is super-calm. The quiet girl sitting next to Isabella (I think her name was Angela) went off with another group to hike and I took my opportunity to sit next to her.

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?" I asked, just as a formality, because even if she didn't remember me, I remembered her...a little.

"Bella", she answered with a little sigh.

Ok, oops, I stuck my hand out quickly and introduced myself "I'm Jacob Black...you bought my dad's truck."

She smiled (in relief?) and shook my hand "Oh, you're Billy's son, I should probably remember you."

She should have, me being the cutie that I was as a kid, but I excused her bad memory "No, I'm the youngest of the family, you would remember my older sisters."

Suddenly, a light bulb popped above her head "Rachel and Rebecca" she remembered. She looked around towards the edge of the ocean, and asked if either of them were there.

I shook my head my head and told her the fate of my "lovely" sisters, Rachel was at Washington State and Rebecca was married. Bella seemed a bit shocked by the news, probably because Rebecca was just a few years older than her. I did think she was a bit insane to get married so young but she got to live in Hawaii. If I lived in Hawaii, I'd be surfing the whole day...needless to say, Becca doesn't do anything that cool there. What a waste.

I distracted her attention to ask how she liked the truck. She grinned and said "I love it. It runs great". Seriously, that truck was a grandfather of automobiles, could barely move over 60 mph. I snorted a bit and told her I was glad her father had bought the truck, because now I could finally work on my own car.

Her face became a bit indignant as she defended her truck "It's not that slow!"

"Have you tried to go over 60?"

Her face fell a bit "No"

I grinned "Good, don't."

She grinned back at me "It does great in a collision" she defended the truck again. I had heard about the accident with Bella, a speeding van had tried to take her out but she had survived mostly unscathed, and apparently, so did the truck.

"I don't think a tank could take out that monster" I laughed.

She smiled at me and asked if I built cars. I smiled "When I have free time, and parts. You wouldn't happen to know where I could get my hands on a master cylinder for a 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit?" I joked, I doubted that she would know what that was but she seemed easy-going enough to tease.

She laughed and said she hadn't seen one recently, but she'd keep her eyes open for it, playing along like she knew what I was talking about.

I grinned at her; she really was pretty and nice too, despite her lack of knowledge about cars. At least she appreciated the fact that I knew about cars. Suddenly, one of the other girls from Forks sitting around the campfire called across in a snotty tone and asked "You know Bella, Jacob?"

"We've sort of known each other since I was born," I replied, still smiling at Bella.

The girl turned her face away "How nice," sounding like it was anything but. Hey, I thought it was cool that I had known Bella back in the day. This time the girl spoke to Bella "Bella, I was just saying to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them?" and there was something in her tone that made it sound like she was baiting Bella. Was Bella friends with the Cullens?

Before Bella or I could speak, Sam responded to the girl's question. "You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" She admitted that she was talking about them and I rolled my eyes while waiting for Sam's obvious response. "The Cullens don't come here" he said finally. I don't get what's up with Sam and guys like my dad...I hadn't really seen the Cullens much but they treated them like a plague, all because of an old legend about vampires (them) and werewolves (us). According to the old stories, a bunch of "safe" vampires had made a pact with our ancestors that they would not come onto our land, even if they didn't hunt humans. The messed up part was that the Cullens were supposed to be the exact same vampires that had made that pact, with my great grandfather Ephraim Black, generations ago.

Bella was staring at Sam now, maybe trying to work out what he had meant but I wanted to talk to her so I asked another question "So is Forks driving you insane yet?"

Bella turned back to me "Oh, I'd say that's an understatement." Honestly, I did feel her discomfort, when you live in warm and sunny climes, Forks is a pain with its never-ending rain and cloud cover.

All of a sudden, Bella looked at me with realisation dawning on her face. Maybe she realised how good-looking I was? How manly? Whatever it was, she smiled at me sweetly and asked "Do you want to walk down the beach with me?"