Sorry it took a while to upload the first chapter , but here it is!
1 2 3, breathe. Ignore the rain. 1 2 3, breath.
Hayden's brain was like a frazzled end of string as she jogged along the shoreline. The rain pounded down on her red t-shirt and bare arms as she contininued jogging, determined to power through the rain considering she'd be forced to adjust to it somehow. She recalled her 'discussion' with her mother, regarding the amount of rain in their new town.
"Mom, do you have any idea how much it rains in La Push? How am I going to run?" she had whined to her mother during the car ride. "You're going to run just as you would back home." her mother had calmly replied, eyes never once faltering from their set on the road.
And so here Hayden Taylor was, running just as she would back home in their quaint little neighborhood. Soon enough the ocean came to an end and was replaced by the treeline, causing Hayden to slow to a walk and change direction towards her new home. She sneered in disgust as the house came into view, the tattered white shutters opened despite the rain. Unwillingly, she dragged herself up the worn front steps and across the deck. The screen door in front of her was coated in dust, quite obviously ignored by it's owner- another reason for Hayden to hate her mother's boyfriend. "Making me move to the middle of nowhere, bastard." Hayden mumbled under her breath, turning the knob and stepping into the warm house. The aroma of her mother's pumpkin spice candles hit her nose and soon her mother came into view, a disgruntled mess of herself from the moving-in-process. "Hi Ave!" her mother's bright smile welcomed her in, a small grin playing on her own lips. "Hi ma," she was at a loss of words for her mother, her bitter attitude of the move returning. Without more words, Hayden navigated her way through the house, up the stairs, and down the hallway to her designated bedroom.
"Rick was so excited that you were going to be here!" her mother had gushed. "He said that he's always wanted a daughter, and now here you are," Hayden had stopped her mother there, "I'm not his daughter." she snapped. "Well you know what I mean! He's been so excited that you were coming, he had some of the boys from the neighborhood come in and paint your room. Wasn't that so nice?" she had just nodded and mumbled in reply.
As she stepped into the room now, she almost felt guily for being so rude about her room being painted for her. The walls were a light blue with pale wainscoting partially up the wall, complementing the pale wooden bedframe that sat against the far side of the room with her matress already set in. Her boxes were scattered around the room, various lables on each one indicating what it contained. Hayden released a sigh, pursing her lips as she began unpacking.
Hours passed as Hayden and her mother, Andrea, diligently unpacked. It was six when Andrea called up the stairs to her daughter, the sixteen year old gradually making her way down, the bottom of her sweatpants catching underneath her feet. "What?" Hayden looked up to meet her mother's eyes, suddenly taking in her surroundings. Three men stood in the kitchen along side her mother and Rick, their height exceeding Rick's 5' 11" stature tenfold, their muscles buldging with their lacking of shirts. Hayden's eyebrow cocked, as she looked back to her mother for an explination. "Hayden, these are the young men who painted your room." Andrea explained, beaming. Slowly, Hayden nodded, her eyes scanning over each one of them.
Silence seemed to fill the room and finally one of them cleared his throat uncomfortably, "I'm Jacob Black." He offered a friendly smile and his hand out to Hayden, the much smaller girl hesitantly shaking his hand, "Hayden." The remaining two followed suit in intruducing themselves. "Paul Lahote." He smirked as he shook her hand, resulting in Hayden raising her eyebrows and releasing a small laugh. The last one to shake her hand was quite obviously the oldest of the three, worry lines painting his face, "I'm Sam Uley." his voice sent a feeling of power throughout the room, even Andrea being able to sense it.
As the following morning came, Hayden's heart was racing a million miles per hour as she ransacked her freshly filled closet. "Hayden Avery, I can hear your pacing from downstairs, please calm down." Andrea slowly opened the bedroom door, slipping in and on to the bed. She watched her daughter file through the hangers, briefly stopping at one before flying to another. "Have you even thought about what's going to happen today, mom?" for a moment, Hayden stopped what she was doing and faced her mother.
The two were practically identical, fair skin, prominent cheekbones, botton noses, large gray eyes with long eyelashes - their only difference was Hayden's long blonde hair as compared to her mother's dark short hair.
"You'll be fine. Just blend." Andrea shrugged as if it were nothing, quite obviously it being something to Hayden. "Blend in?" she snorted out and shook her head, "Not going to happen." she sighed as she began again with her closet raid. Knowing that she could be of no help, Andrea slipped out just as she had in. Twenty minutes passed before Hayden settled for jeans, a blue sweater accompanied by a cream colored scarf and cream boat shoes. She threw her hair into a loose bun and put on her glasses before grabbing her messanger bag and venturing downstairs. "Morning kiddo!" Rick smiled, offering an apple to Hayden. She eyed the apple, contemplating whether or not to take it. Looking at Rick's genuinly kind face, she sighed and took it, pulling together a thin smile, "Thanks." This seemed to please Rick, which was enough to keep her mother happy for a while. "I'm just going to walk to school, get to know the place." Hayden threw open the door and began outwards. Before the door could close, her mother was calling out a "Good luck!" and Rick contributed a "Have fun." Hayden rolled her eyes behind the closed door and set off down the puddle covered road.
The walk to La Push High was no trouble and soon enough Hayden stood before the strange school as Natives pushed by her. She received multiple stares from strangers and she walked inside and made her way to the office. For the brief moment that her back was turned, she could feel the eyes boring into the back of her head. Staring at the schedule before her, Hayden made her way to her assigned locker and twisted in the combination. This routine was nothing new for her, only the staring made her feel out of sorts. It was only when Hayden spotted a semi- familiar face that she felt any amount of closure. Not far down the hall stood one of the three that she had met the prior day, Jacob Black. Him being the only person that even looked remotely friendly, she quickly hurried down the hall to where he stood. With the assistance of her new found friend, Hayden went through the day with no problem- excluding the increasing stares she was receiving for being seen with one of the "hall monitors on steroids" as she had learned Jacob and his friends were called.
The final bell of the day rang and the parking lot became flooded with teenagers, making it nearly impossible to even get out of the building. To her rescue, Jacob greeted Hayden at her locker with her regular smile. "How was your first day?" she shrugged, smiling softly, "It wasn't half as bad as I thought it'd be."
As the duo made it outside, Jacob led Hayden to where his friends had gathered around three pickup trucks. Hayden recognized Paul in the group, with his arm firmly wrapped around a small girl's waist. With the exception of Paul and Jacob, Hayden knew absolutely nobody in the large group. She slowed her pace as Jacob led her closer to them all, suddenly becoming self concious and feeling the need to run home. "Hayden, come on, I want you to meet my friends." Jacob turned to her and smiled, pulling her with him.
His group of friends consisted of five boys who resembled him greatly, as well as two other girls. "Jake! Who's your friend?" one of the boys bounded towards them, his entire face lit up with a bright smile. Without the slightest showing of shyness, the boy threw his hand into Hayden's and shook it, "Hey, I'm Quil Ateara." He smiled once more and waited for Hayden to introduce herself as well. "I'm Hayden Taylor." she returned the smile and all attention of the group suddenly turned to her. Hayden could feel her cheeks grow hot from all attention being on her, her heart rate increasing.
Jacob jumped on the moment of silence as he had the night before and began introducing everyone to Hayden. "This is Embry Call, and his imp- girlfriend Selene Spears, Jared Cameron, you already know Paul, his girlfriend Katherine Hale, Quil Ateara, and Seth Clearwater." She offered a small smile to each of them as their name was called and they were pointed out, her blush creeping up on her once more due to the amount of attention that was on her. Beginning to feel clausterphobic, Hayden began to back up, "Well, I'm walking so I better start off. It was very nice meeting all of you!" Before she could continue any further though, Jacob reached out his arm, stopping her. "You don't need to walk home. One of us can drive you!" he glanced back towards the boy who he had introduced as Seth and smirked, "Seth can bring you, his truck is empty." Jared's eyes shot up in protest, Jacob waving his hand at him.
Hayden contemplated whether or not to go with Seth, considering the fact that she had just met him, but if he was friends with Jacob he couldn't be so bad. She pursed her lips and shrugged, silently agreeing. Seth's face lit up as he fumbled over his own feet to race towards the passenger side door. He smiled at Hayden as he gestured to the now open car door, waiting for her to walk over. She took a deep breath before hopping into the truck, never expecting what the ride home would ensue.