I don't own anything.

I wasn't going to start working before Monday, so the first morning I slept in. When I got up, I realized that I was alone in the house. I found a note on the kitchen table saying that Horton was out fishing.

Paul didn't live here (sigh) and Melissa… well, I didn't expect her to care enough to tell anyone where she was. I hadn't even seen her face, and she was obviously determined to hate me already. This would be a great eight weeks.

After a brief breakfast I went out. I brought my phone and some money, in case I would need it. It wasn't raining as much today, so I left my rain jacket at home, taking my demine-jacket instead.

I still had no idea what was uncle Horton's store, but I had a feeling it wasn't very big. I decided not to go look for it, seeing that it wouldn't be open anyway. It was Sunday, and the only open shop I found was a tiny kiosk, so I bought one of those little juice-boxes just to buy something.

I sat down on a bench, deciding to call Lena, since I had nothing better to do. She answered on the second ring.

"Maia?" she asked immediately.

"Still alive," I answered.

"Mazie! I was so worried! You didn't call me!"

"Busy," I replied.

"With your job?"

"Don't start till tomorrow. No, I was just busy."

"How's the family?" Lena asked, calming down a bit.

"Weird. I swear, they're totally strange."

"Why? Do they drink blood for breakfast? Or eat dead bodies? I know! They feed on bogeys!"

"They… wait. What?" I asked, holding back a laugh.

"I mean, if they do, then you should get away from there," Lena said seriously.

"You're weird."

"It runs in the family. Now, tell me about Horton and the who's," she demanded.

"Horton is nice, but totally weird. He was like nice first, but then he was on the phone and he was suddenly dismissing and rude. I swear, it was so strange. And then there's Melissa, and she's a bitch. I haven't even seen her yet. Even on the phone she sounded like she hated me like poison. And Paul, he's the oldest, he's gorgeous!"

"Like hot-gorgeous?" Lena asked excitedly.

"You should have seen him," I assured her.

"Is he –"

"He's married," I said in a sad voice.

"Well, darn," Lena groaned disappointedly.

"Your turn," I told her.

"My turn what?"

"Tony?"

"Oh," she said, sounding like she smiled sheepishly. "Nothing, yet. But I'm working on it. Give me time."

"Oh. Sure. Didn't you say that about your last three crushes? And then they –"

"Started dating someone else, yeah, yeah, heard it before," she cut me off. "But this time I'm serious. I heard he was going to the mall tomorrow with Marlie, and so I figured if I bring my –"

"Marlie? Lena, it's already too late!" I exclaimed.

"No, it's not, listen," Lena insisted. "See, I have my cousin come over, you know the hot one? If we weren't related I wouldn't have wasted my time on Tony. But, anyway, when Tony sees me with Will, he'll be so jealous that he'll dump Marlie on the spot and choose me instead! And Marlie can have Will, I don't care."

"You know that's not going to work, right?" I asked, laughing slightly at her stupid plans. Tony probably didn't even know Lena's name. In her head he did, of course, and he also had a major crush on her. No, he loved her unconditionally, I guess it was.

"It will," she assured me. "You'll see."

"I will. I'm right, you know," I snickered. "But I'll still let you cry on my shoulder when Tony completely ignores you tomorrow. That's what I'm here for."

"That's what you're in Washington for?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure."

"Gotta go. Talk to you later, Crazy-Mazie." I didn't choose that name.

"Yup. Love you," I told her before I hung up.

It took me one sip of juice and thirteen boring seconds to find something to do next. I dialed mum's number automatically. It rang four times before she answered.

"Hello?" she asked in a stressed voice.

"Hi, it's me," I said. Yeah, yeah, I know, "me" can be anyone, but in this case it was me.

"Madeline," mum breathed.

"Are you busy?"

"Sort of," she said in an distant voice.

"Oh. I just wanted to say that I've arrived safely," I said. No need to mention her poor skills in planning. "And that you forgot to mention my cousins."

"That's great, Maia," mum mumbled, distracted. "I guess I forgot."

Guess so.

"I'll call you later, then," I told her, sadly. She told me goodbye, and hung up.

This was going to be a very long eight weeks.

A job?

Seriously?

I guess I never thought this through good enough, how staying all summer in Washington would become a problem. And on an Indian reservation. At home I stood out with my tanned skin, but her I just fit right into the crowd.

I started walking home. I could pass my time reading or something. It was getting cold here anyway.

Suddenly I heard barking from behind me. I tensed at once, and started walking faster. I didn't dare turn around, and waited for some sort of miracle that would make the nasty little creature go somewhere else, away from me.

Something sandy-colored leaped up around and in front of me, and I froze in my pace. The dog watched me with huge, dark eyes and a pinkish tongue hanging out of its mouth. I gulped, taking one step back.

Then it jumped closer to me, putting its paws on my thighs. I only avoided screaming because I couldn't breathe, and I felt myself make a startled little gag as I made my legs move another step backwards.

"Boomer!" called a voice from behind me. Someone was coming for my rescue! The dog reacted to the call, but didn't step down. I stumbled another step backwards as someone hurried past me, grabbing the dog by the band around its neck, fastening a leash to it. "Sorry about that. He's actually really nice," said the person. I quickly moved my eyes from the dog to my savior. It was a boy who looked like he was my age. He was taller than me and had a pretty impressive bunch of muscles that made him look sturdy, but at the same time lean. But what really caught my attention was his bright, blue eyes, looking sort of misplaced in his tanned face.

"Oh," I said stupidly.

"I usually don't let him loose. He's not used to it, so I guess he got a little overexcited," he continued explaining, and I stared dumbly at him while my mind mused over why La Push was filled with all these gorgeous guys.

"Oh," I repeated. The guy smiled at me, then he narrowed his eyes a little.

"You're not related to Melissa and Paul James, are you?" he asked me with a crooked smile, like he had just figured out a secret on his own.

"Uh, yeah. I'm their cousin. I'm Maia," I said, stuttering a little. Great, he must think I was completely retarded. But he grinned wider now that I proved him right, and held out his hand.

"I'm Gabe," he told me. I took his hand hesitantly. He had a strong hold on mine. Lena's father would approve of him, I realized. He always liked the ones with a sturdy hand-shake.

"You look a lot like Melissa," he noted. I couldn't agree, because I still hadn't seen her. That's kind of miserable, never having seen your own cousin. But I couldn't be blamed. "Only your hair is different. But hers is dyed, I think."

I nodded, because I thought so too. That read color didn't look natural.

"Gabriel!" called a hysterical voice. I spun around to see a girl come running towards us. She looked tired , desperately swinging her arms around like a maniac, and she wasn't a very fast runner.

When she came closer I saw that she was quite pretty. She had almond-shaped eyes that was just the right size, full lips and long, curly black hair. I cursed for myself. Was there something in the water here? Why was everyone so damn pretty?

"Who the fuck is she?" the girl asked as she approached us, panting. Again with the warm welcoming. I ignored it, and said with a shy smile;

"I'm Maia," I said.

"She's Melissa and Paul's cousin," Gabe explained. The girl frowned.

"Great. Because we so love them."

Gabe rolled his eyes. "This is Caroline," he told me.

"Just Cara," she corrected, grabbing my hand roughly and shaking it a couple of times. "So. What are you doing here?" she asked rudely.

"I'm… working," I said honestly.

"What, are you crazy?" Carol… Cara asked me, frowning deeper.

Gabe rolled his eyes again, leaning closer.

"Don't mind her," he told me, smiling. I smiled back, almost breathless by the closeness.

Amazing.

I just killed three hundred brain cells in about half a second.

"She is really very nice," Gabe added. I smiled, pretending that I believed him.

"You're working?" Cara asked me skeptically.

"Yeah. At my uncle's shop."

"The one where they sell those creepy little souvenirs?" she asked with a wrinkled nose.

"I… guess?"

Gabe laughed.

I liked his laugh.

"You're weird," Cara told me matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," I mumbled at the same time as Gabe ruffled her hair playfully.

"And you're one to talk?"

Great.

They're together.

Are there any single guys in this town… reservation?

"So," said Gabe, trying to start a conversation again. "You don't like dogs?" Well, that was one way of doing it.

"Not really," I said, shooting 'Boomer' a wary glance. He was breathing fast and eagerly with his icky tongue hanging out. I could see that he was just dying to let his sharp teeth sink into my skin.

Monster.

"Why is that?"

"Because I just don't."

"Dogs aren't dangerous," Cara said with a snort.

"You're afraid of heights, you still shouldn't be talking," Gabe reminded her. She shot him an annoyed look. I smiled weakly. What a weird couple.

"Whatever. I'm leaving."

And with that she stalked off. Gabe started following her, and I watched him sadly. I was alone again. Still no social life in this godforsaken place. I was actually a social flop, I realized. Not even these weirdos wanted my company –

"Are you coming?" Gabe asked, cutting off my thought process for a second. I suddenly grinned widely.

"Sure," I said cheerfully.

And... enter weird friends.

I always like reviews!

Oh, do you know what I realized last night?

That I missed a good chance to rub this in someone's faces:

NORWAY WON EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!! HA HA!

Okay, I'm done.

Though, seriously, I hate the song we won with. I liked it in the beginning, but they've been playing it non-stop on the radio for months now. Ugh.