Please leave reviews! Without them…I cry. L Thanks! J

Chapter Two

"He's more myself than I am."

-Wuthering Heights

Forks, Washington

Two Years Earlier

I remember when I first saw Jacob Black. He was covered in mud.

I was seven years old, visiting my dad during a misty, dreary Washington summer. I had been bored out of my mind and depressed about the gloom for three days before Charlie finally took me to La Push to visit his friend Billy. Charlie said Billy had a kid about my age for me to hang out with—I assumed it was a girl. Then, when Charlie let me out of the car and instructed me to go around the back of Billy's house to play, I ran into four little boys sitting on the ground near a pit, bare-chested and up to their elbows in mud.

The littlest one, the one about my age, hopped to his feet when he saw me. He was skinny, had coppery skin—from what I could tell, since he was so dirty—and long black hair. But what caught me were his eyes. They looked almost black in this light, but brilliant. He grinned at me, and his teeth were perfectly white.

"It's Bells," he declared.

I was surprised. Usually, only my dad called me that.

"Um…" I blushed.

"Dad told me you were coming," the boy kept smiling. "I'm Jacob."

He introduced me to the other copper-skinned boys, but to this day I don't remember their names. I was too curious about this bright-eyed Jacob. Hesitantly, I stepped closer to the group.

"What are you doing?"

Jacob shrugged with one shoulder.

"Making mud pies and mud piles and mud castles."

I looked at him.

"Your dad lets you do that?"

One of the boys snorted. Jacob shifted.

"Well…yeah, but not…when we have people over."

Another boy started to laugh and another boy clamped a hand over his mouth, giving him a muddy beard.

"So…we're going to get in trouble?" I ventured, not liking the sound of that.

"No," Jacob said easily. "You won't, if you just sit on that rock and don't get really dirty." His eyes twinkled then, as if he was almost challenging me. Slightly unsure, but letting myself smile a little, I stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets and sat down on the rock. Jacob plopped down next to me on the ground, scooped up two handfuls of mud and piled them on top of each other. I watched the other boys do similar things, building towers and walls and such. They also occasionally flicked mud at each other, or knocked each others' creations down. Jacob, however, seemed very devoted to his work. I observed him carefully, wondering about him.

That is, until I heard a soft plop.

I blinked. I glanced down. A big dollop of mud had landed right on my white shoe. I jerked my head up. None of the other boys were close enough to do that. Then who…?

I saw Jacob working efficiently on his tower—and trying not to smile.

"Jacob!" I gasped, my eyes widening. "These are my brand-new shoes!"

He didn't even look at me.

"I didn't do anything."

"You did too!" I insisted, my face growing hot. "You threw mud on my shoe."

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not."

"Did too!" I shouted, my restraint finally breaking as I took a fistful of mud and squashed it into the side of his face. It was his turn to gasp, and the other boys burst out laughing.

"Did not!" he countered, taking a handful of mud that he already had and rubbing it all over my face.

"Ja-cob!" I shrieked. I stood up and shoved him. But it threw me off balance and I slipped. I fell on him. We both toppled face-first into the mud pit. The other boys launched into hysterics of giggling. I was getting really mad—until Jacob started tickling me.

He somehow knew right where I was ticklish—my ribs right above my waist—and all of a sudden I was thrashing in the mud, squealing with laughter and grabbing at him, but I couldn't get him off me because he was slippery with mud!

"No fair! No fair, no fair, get off! Get off, get off!" I screamed, laughing so hard I could barely breathe. Finally, I flung myself sideways and threw my weight against him. He slid, and I knocked his hands away and started tickling him.

I think he was more ticklish than I was. He could barely stand it. He kicked mud all over the place and got the whole front of my jacket, shirt and jeans completely soaked. He grabbed me and tried to get me off, but I was too stubborn, and I was slippery, too.

"Okay, okay!" he finally gasped. "Uncle, uncle!"

I paused, clamping my hands on his shoulders.

"Promise not to get my shoes muddy anymore?"

Jacob, hardly recognizable as a human anymore, stared at me. Then he exploded into real laughter, and gave me a monster bear hug, slapping his hands onto the back of my jacket, the only clean place I had left.

"Hey! What's going on?"

We jerked into sitting positions, dirty water dripping down my hair and into my face. Charlie and Billy had hurried out into the backyard and were now staring at us, agape. Neither Jacob nor I moved, except I swallowed hard. The other boys had leaped to their feet and backed hurriedly away, pretending as if they had not been cheering and throwing mud on us the whole time.

In the silence, Charlie tilted his head toward Billy, still studying us.

"Which kid is yours?"

Billy squinted.

"I really can't tell. I just see two long-haired mud monsters."

Uncertain whether or not our dads were really mad at us, I glanced at Jacob. Jacob, every inch of his skin positively draped in mud, looked back at me and gave me a brilliantly white grin.

VVV

The next time I really saw Jacob Black, I was in high school. I moved from Phoenix, Arizona to live permanently with my dad. The original plan was for me to move second semester, in January, but by the middle of the summer I already felt like I was intruding upon my mom and her new husband. So, I stated that I would like to move early—and to my fairly well-hidden but penetrating disappointment, my mother did not put up much of a fight.

It was weird, coming to Forks to stay. The weather would take some getting used to. It seemed glum and heavy, even in September, like the sky was closed, forcing you to stay indoors. Besides which, my dad Charlie—like me—wasn't an avid conversationalist. That was okay, under normal circumstances. But my mom talks a lot, often times about nothing, but it filled the kitchen with a pleasant sound. Now, knowing I would be without it for a long time, the quiet was lonesome. I was just in the frame of mind to brood, ready to adopt the mood of these dreary, quiet mountains as my own, if that's what it took to be content here.

Then, unexpectedly, a little sunshine cut through the clouds.

He came over. Jacob. With his dad, Billy, who was in a wheel chair. Out in the driveway next to an old pickup, Jacob stood next to his dad like a young oak tree: tall, well-built and dark, with coarse black hair that was as long as mine. He was handsome and striking, and I might not have recognized him except for his same glittering eyes, and that flashing smile. It lit up his face as soon as I walked out the front door.

I was re-introduced to Billy, and I glanced at Jacob once or twice. He was still smiling, but appeared as shy as I felt. I wanted to make a remark about how clean he looked this time around, then nervously decided that would be lame. However, the old messy incident seemed to be on everybody's mind, because after Billy teased Charlie about how much he talked about me, Dad threatened to roll Billy into the mud. Billy then chased Charlie and good-naturedly picked on him.

Finally, Jacob approached me.

"Hi, I'm Jacob. We uh…used to make mud pies when we were little."

"Right, I remember," I told him, smirking a little. So, we were calling it "making mud pies" now? The dads came back, interrupting, and Charlie announced that he had bought this old pickup truck for me—and Jacob proudly told me he had rebuilt the engine.

I was impressed. And floored. It was exactly the vehicle I would have picked out if I'd thought about it. I hurried over to get inside and see what it was like, and just as quickly, Jacob hopped into the passenger side. I loved the feel of the interior; it was all broken in and comfortable already, and it smelled good, like pine and campfire coals and a little cinnamon. Jacob explained to me a little about the clutch, and that preoccupied me—until I realized how cool having my own transportation was actually going to be.

"So do you want a ride to school or something?" I offered.

He stopped, and his mouth worked for a moment as he looked at me.

"Oh, I go to school on the reservation," he decided to say.

"Oh, right," I said, feeling dumb. "That's too bad. It would have been nice to know one person."

I almost winced. I hadn't wanted to sound pitiful, but it came out like that. Jacob had just built me a truck! He shouldn't feel sorry for me.

"Hey, you know what?" Jacob shifted a bit closer to me, dipping his head so he could see my face. "What if…I come to school with you tomorrow?"

I glanced at him sideways.

"Are you allowed to do that?"

He shrugged, and I could tell he was going to have to argue with his dad about it.

"Sure," he said, just a little tightly. "Sure, Dad will understand. Our dads are old friends…we're old friends…" He glanced at me, but I didn't contradict him, so he went on. "Besides, I've…I've been thinking of switching schools anyway."

I stared at him.

"You have? How come?"

He sat back in the seat.

"Well," he grunted. "Some of the other guys are kinda…" He suddenly smiled at me. "Pushy." He shrugged again, and I began to recognize this as his gesture of discomfort. "But really, I think it would be fun to go with you. On your first day, and all. And I can check the place out. See if it's safe."

That sounded ominous, until I met his eyes and saw he was teasing. I smiled back at him, a wave of unexpected relief washing through me. It would be nice to know one person.

VVV

"Okay…where's science class?" Jacob wondered, glancing cock-eyed over my shoulder at the campus map we had grabbed from the office. It was cloudy again today, but not too chilly, and the two of us stood out in the yard of the school, the bustle of passing period all around us.

Billy, albeit reluctantly, had dropped Jacob off at my house early that morning and then we had driven together to my new school. It wasn't large—Forks was a small town—and everybody seemed to know each other. Jacob always stayed by my side, striding easily, smiling back at other students when a smile was offered. I could tell he was uneasy, though, just as I was, by the way he carried his shoulders. But we stayed close together, and I was actually really glad to have him there. As I noticed the eager way he had looked around when we arrived, I wondered if he had been looking for an excuse to come check this out, and had only found the courage since I was coming, too. The idea made me kind of happy, though I wasn't sure why.

"There," Jacob poked the map. I frowned at it.

"Where's that? That building is shaped like a square. The one right over there is triangle shaped. The square shaped one should be—"

"Behind the triangle one," Jacob finished.

"Nooo," I shook my head. "We walked past there. There's no building back there."

"Follow me," Jacob said, and began walking that way. Still frowning, I trotted and caught up with him, my bag bouncing on my back. As we wove through the people, I caught several of them looking over at us, especially guys. I noticed one particular guy, a sort of good looking one with blonde hair, persistently staring at me from his circle of friends. I glanced at him as we passed.

"Who is that guy?"

"What guy?" Jacob wondered.

"That blonde guy with the blue shirt."

"I think I know him. His name is…um, Mike Something. Why?"

"He's staring at me."

Jacob turned his maned head and met Mike's eyes. Mike looked away.

"What was that?" I demanded, rounding the corner of the square building.

"What?" Jacob raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean, what?" I persisted, laughing. "Come on, you looked at him like—"

"Like what?" he laughed too, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Like…What do you mean?"

"Like the Dog Whisperer when he's being the pack leader to some little terrier or something."

This really made him laugh, and I was about to press him further when I realized that we'd found the building. I stopped.

"Whoa."

"What?"

"I got totally turned around," I confessed. I threw him a smile. "Okay…you were right. You're officially my navigator."

"Fine with me," Jacob grinned. "Shall we?"

VVV

For the rest of the day, Jacob and I bumbled from class to class, winding around and getting lost, then unexpectedly finding our way again. He sat next to me every time. We rolled our eyes at the math syllabus, bent over the English syllabus and stared at the heady titles such as Huckleberry Finn , The Prince and the Pauper , The Scarlet Letter , and A Tale of Two Cities; and nearly gagged on our laughter when we flipped open the human biology book. Altogether, Jacob knocked a stack of books onto the floor, I broke a beaker, Jacob tripped a girl in the hall and I got called on and had no idea what the question was.

It was the most enjoyable first day of school that I could remember. I brought a sanctuary with me into each strange room, and his presence eased the awkwardness of unfamiliar gazes, cold chairs and desks, and unknown teachers. Jacob was so easy to be with, like breathing. If anything, toward the end of the day, we were in danger of getting in trouble for having too much fun.

When the last class let out, we walked out to the truck and Jacob held his head high.

"Well, we dominated that place, huh?"

"I doubt we could do any more damage," I agreed, glancing back at the school.

He considered for a moment.

"No, I think we could," he decided, his eyes twinkling again. "I think we'll do more tomorrow."

My hand stopped as it reached out for the handle of the truck. I faced him.

"What do you mean?" I wanted to know. He grinned. My heart leaped.

"You're coming back? You're really going to talk Billy into letting you come?" I watched him as his jaw tightened. I winced. "Is he really going to fight you hard about it?"

Jacob ducked his head, but his smile returned.

"Oh, I think it's worth it." He met my eyes for a moment, and his gaze softened. Then he swung around and hopped in the passenger seat, and I climbed in too, another intense wave of relief washing through me. One of my biggest fears in coming here was being all alone except for my dad, fishing around for a friend in the midst of trying to make it from class to class. Now it was looking like that fear was groundless.

TBC