A/N- What's up guys? This story hit me like a bolt of lightning. I'm crazy about it. All other stories are on hold until this Plot Bunny leaves my brain. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW. Also- I'm desperately looking for a Beta! Let me know if you're interested.

You and me together, take on the world forever. I know all your secrets and I promise you I'm gonna keep them. I'll be there when you, are feeling clueless. You and me, oh yeah, we're seamless... Ashlee Davies is moving back to La Push after a long absence. Will she find love? What will she learn about herself along the way? And why is this town so weird?

Chapter One- A Thousand Years

Time stands still

Beauty in all she is

I will be brave

I will not let anything, take away

What's standing in front of me

Every breath, every hour has come to this

One step closer

I have died everyday, waiting for you

Darling, don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

- Christina Perri

Singing to myself quietly, I parked my 2018 green Jeep Wrangler in the parking lot of my destination. I got out of the car lithely after I put back on my black and red spotted pumps and adjusted the black pencil skirt I had purchased for this very interview. I threw on my business jacket, buttoned one of the buttons and made my way out of the visitors parking lot to the campus ahead of me. It was August, so it wasn't particularly cold out today, even for Washington. I had spent much of my childhood on this very campus, but much had changed. I even had to ask directions to my destination. As I opened the very large oak doors leading toward the office of La Push Tribal School that I had been directed to, I suddenly had a wave of butterflies hit my stomach. I subconsciously twirled my chocolate brown hair behind my ear in a futile attempt to calm myself. It didn't help, of course. I walked into the office and was greeted by an elderly Quilute woman in front of a half desk. The desk had a visitors checklist, which I quickly wrote my name on as well as the date and grabbed a visitors tag to put on my shirt.

"Hello, I'm Ashlee Davies. I'm here for a meeting with Mr. Anklem and Mr. Black?" I addressed the elderly woman. She looked my outfit up and down disapprovingly, or at least what I thought was disapprovingly, and grabbed toward the phone to her left.

"Mr. Anklem, Miss Davies is here to see you." Her nasally voice spoke into the phone while she stared me down. Welcome back to the tribe, Ash. I sighed quietly as the woman motioned for me to take a seat and wait for the men I was here to see. A few moments later, Mr. Anklem came out of his office with a friendly hand extended.

"Miss Davies! Welcome. Please, come in!" His boisterous voice greeted me and led me into what was undoubtedly his office. It had pictures that children in the school had drawn for him, with many different cards and photos reading "World's Best Principal". I took a seat and focused my attention both on him behind the desk and the other, older man in a wheelchair sitting next to him. He and I greeted each other and I we began some small talk. Mr. Anklem offered me some tea, which I took gracefully and told the men about my drive in, the weather and other such unnecessary topics.

Mr. Anklem suddenly cleared his throat. "I hope you understand, as we are a Tribal School with grades K-12, we have to have a member of the Council here during Final Interviews for our teaching positions."

He motioned to Mr. Black. I nodded towards them. I was half Quilute after all. I wasn't a total newbie with Tribal traditions. "Of course."

I had already had a phone interview with Mr. Anklem a few weeks ago, but now that my real interview was here, I was trying my best not to ramble on nervously. This was my first potential teaching job, or honestly, even interview after college. All growing up, however, I knew I wanted to come back to where I grew up. I wanted to teach at my childhood school, be an asset to the tribe. I explained that in my interview and it definitely seemed to impress them.

"Miss Davies, I have to ask, what is your Tribal background?" Mr. Black asked me, halfway through the interview.

"Well, I grew up here, on the La Push Reservation and went to this very school from ages K-5. I actually knew your daughters, Rachel and Rebecca? They were a few grades ahead of me. My father's last name is Davies. My mother's last name was Beaty. I went by Ashlee Beaty when I lived here with my mother, Jessie. My father is…not in the picture. My mother died when I was 10 and I went off the Rez to live with my father's parents. They raised me and wanted us to all have the same last name, which is why I now go by Ashlee Davies."

"I knew Jessie Beaty. She was an amazing woman. I knew you as well, Ashlee. I just didn't recognize you, it's been so long. Please, call me Billy. It's wonderful to have a daughter of the Tribe back in the fold."

I grinned. It was a pleasure to be back.

The men asked me a few more questions, mostly about what classes I would teach. They were on an 8 period system, meaning I would have 7 classes and a prep period. I took a look at the schedule Mr. Anklem printed out for me.

1- Intro to Cheerleading

2- ASL 4

3- Junior Varsity Cheerleading

4- Prep Period

5- ASL 3

6- ASL 2

7- Intro to Sign Language

8- Varsity Cheerleading

The schedule looked beyond perfect. I couldn't believe my luck. I had been a cheerleader in both High School and College, along with being a dancer. I was also completely fluent in ASL, as that was my college minor, after a major in Education. My grandparents gave me every opportunity to succeed in anything I wanted to do, giving me private lessons all my life in dance as well as linguistics and music. Now all I wanted to do was give back what they had been able to give me to my students.

My meeting finished quickly with the two men, ending with them telling me that the job was mine if I wanted it. Of course, I jumped on it immediately. I got up to leave after shaking both of their hands, excited to be back on Monday to begin my classes. Mr. Black stopped me.

"Ashlee, I'd love to have you over to a bonfire sometime soon. My kids will be there, they are around your age and can help your transition back to the Reservation. Does that sound okay to you?"

"I'd adore that, Mr. Black. Thank you."

In all honesty, I was just being nice. I didn't really have a lot of interest in meeting tons of new people. My idea of a perfect night was staying at home and reading or doing a puzzle. Maybe watching a movie. But, I most definitely didn't want to be rude to Mr. Black. Especially after he had just given me a job. We coordinated for this Sunday. He informed me that many of the areas young people would be there and that they could help me settle in. I definitely knew I needed to make some contacts here. At this point, I haven't seen any of them for over 10 years. I moved out when I was 10, and at 25, more than half of my life was spent in Sacramento, California with my grandparents.

I made my way back to my car, my baby. My grandparents had given it to me as a college graduation present and it was my literal favorite possession. I looked around the visitors lot and couldn't help but notice, my car was by far the nicest one in the lot. A wave of shame ran threw me quickly. My mother had not been wealthy and my father had not been around, however, my grandparents were wealthy. Wealthy enough for me to have a Trust Fund since I was born. As I was 25 now, I used some of the money on a down payment for my new home in La Push. Well, new to me. Truth be told, it had a lot of work that needed to be done on it. The inside that I had decorated was beautiful, however, the outside was sort of falling apart. I really needed to get to work on that.

As I drove the five miles to my new home uneventfully, however, when I arrived, I saw someone at my front doorstep. I parked my car in the driveway and walked over to the front door. A woman stood there with a welcoming smile, cookies in her arms and three long, red scars down her face. I immediately averted my eyes. She had a child with her, around 10 years old, and a small baby as well, who looked to be only around 6 months old. She grinned a very large grin that took up the entire side of her face that was not scarred.

"Hi, I'm Emily Uley. My husband Sam and I live next door, down the road about a quarter mile to the left. This is my son, William and my niece Claire." She pointed to the two with her and handed me the cookies. Though this was not the sort of thing I would do, going to a strangers house to give them cookies, they smelled divine. I thanked her politely and offered for her to follow me inside to visit. She agreed wholeheartedly and came inside behind me.

I fixed us some tea and we dug into the cookies that Emily had brought. "So," Emily began, "what brings you to La Push?"

"I'm a new teacher at the Tribal School. I teach Cheer and Sign Language. I grew up here actually, until I was about 10 and moved away. I'm very happy to be back."

"So you're Quilute?" Emily asked, taken aback. I wasn't surprised that she questioned it. I was only half Quilute. My dark hair and dark eyes matched my heritage, but my father was half Hispanic, so I had that mixed in as well. I nodded back to her in regards to her question on my Tribal history and turned my attention to Claire.

"Do you go to the school, Miss Claire?" I asked gently. She took a large gulp of her cookie and replied.

"Yes, I'm in fifth grade. I'm even taking Cheerleading this year!" I grinned. Well, at least I'd know one of the children in my classes.

"I hear you're coming to the bonfire on Sunday evening?" Emily asked, even though she already knew the answer. Speaking of that, how did she know the answer? Mr. Black had only invited me an hour ago at most. How fast does word travel on the Rez? I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Uh, yes. Yes I am." Emily nodded as if she was in on some kind of joke or secret. I ignored it.

Emily, Claire and William left after around 30 minutes and I was alone again. I never felt lonely when I was alone. Just at peace. I cleaned up the kitchen and tucked into a book for the rest of the evening.

On Saturday, I went exploring around the reservation. It only took me a few hours of driving in circles before I found a grocery store, gas station, auto repair shop and most importantly to me, a gym. It was a boxing and MMA gym, but maybe they'd be willing to work with me. I parked in front of the sign that said LP MA Studio and walked inside.

The guy in the gym nodded up at me while finishing his set in the small weight training area towards the back of the gym. He was giant. At least 6 feet tall and incredibly muscular. He looked to be around my age, maybe a bit older. As he came over to me with his shirt off, I could see the outline of a Tribal tattoo on his right shoulder.

"Can I help you?" The man asked me. I extended my hand out for him to shake.

"My name is Ashlee Davies. I'm looking for a studio to dance in. I know you're a Martial Arts Studio, but do you think you'd allow me to have some open gym time to dance? I'm happy to pay whatever that requires."

The man looked me up and down. He must have decided I was trustworthy because he spoke next, sort of gruffly. "I'm Paul. Yeah, I'm sure we could work that out. We allow some gymnasts to work out here, I'm sure a dancer wouldn't be any different. Say, are you the chick Billy was talking about? You're coming to our bonfire tomorrow right?"

What the hell was with this place? I was seriously starting to regret saying yes to this stupid bonfire. "Yeah, that's me. So how much do I owe you?"

Paul gave me a number that was far too low for what I was looking to do, but I accepted it anyways. He muttered something about it being the friends and family discount. Except I was neither. How were they expecting to keep this place running if they keep discounting random girls off the street. "Mind if I work out now?"

"The floor is yours." Paul said waltzing away back to the weight training area. I threw my bag on the floor in the corner and threw on some music, beginning my stretches. I was about twenty minutes into my workout, trying out some new cheer routines for my classes Monday when a guy came barreling into the studio. He had entered so loudly, it distracted me. The first thing I realized was that he was a younger version of Paul. Same height, build, everything, just with a more baby face. Maybe around 19 or 20?

"Yo. We gotta go." The new guy said quickly. Paul looked around at me, as if deciding something. Then something silver ricocheted off the wall and into my hands. It was a set of keys.

"Lock up, would ya? I got to go." Paul said grabbing his bag and heading out the door. So now, not only were they barely able to stay open with the discounts they were giving but now, they were handing the keys to a stranger? What the hell was this place?

"Me? You don't even know me!" I yelled towards him, grabbing my bag.

Paul looked at me and grinned a shit eating grin. "Well, you're Billy's niece. Everything will be fine."

I was who's what now?

A/N- Thanks for reading! Reminder to read and review! Also- PLEASE reach out if you're willing to Beta. I'll be working on this story most of the night, so don't be surprised if you get another update today.