Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Stephanie Meyers' work. She created the characters. I may have come up with the originals, but they were intertwined with Meyers' magnificent genius. The story points of view are broken up into different books, like in Breaking Dawn. I do give credit to Stephanie Meyer for that style of writing as well!

A note: Sorry, this chapter is a little longer, but it sets the stage for your friendly neighborhood vampires' entrances!

3. Forks

It turned out that Jessica and her group of "friends", more like three really anxious college boys that wanted to hook-up with her & their not-as-anxious friend, had asked me to help them because they were so lost. At least it wasn't because I was really a Preston. They had only briefly studied Dr. Preston's stuff along with his wife's, but they said, and I quote, "it was too dense to understand". I liked that little bit of power.

We worked well, the six of us. I didn't mind sharing my study guides so much because these people were genuinely interested in learning, they just had no idea how to break down all the ideas in the class. After a few weeks of working with them, they started to get the idea, and soon we were breaking up study guide parts and exchanging pieces between the six of us. It made the workload much lighter, and I had a group of people to hang out with. I was headed on the right path. Well at least I thought I was.

It was the first week in November and we had just suffered through mid terms when our professor, Dr. Emerling, decided that we were ready to apply some of our knowledge to a real hands-on field site. The whole project sounded like a good idea until he posted the possible dig sites. We were to choose a group of four to six people, and then sign up for a site. Some were close, and some were farther away. Of course me, Jessica, and the four boys, Gary, Derrick, Kevin, and Carter, banded together at once.

"Oh, look, let's do this one!" Jessica squealed as she pointed to a dig site that looked pretty uninteresting at first glance. The picture was dull and not that exciting. "It's right by my house and we could stay over for the weekend, get all our research done, and have a party at the same time! My mom would love it!"

I read the description and almost had a heart attack.

"Jess, do you know what this site is?" I squeaked.

"Yeah, it's by Forks, where I live," she shrugged.

"No, that's where my –" I cut myself off. "That's where, um, Dr. Preston and his wife used to work." Panic started to fill my insides. It was going to bust one of my ribs. But I couldn't let it through my voice. "We should choose somewhere else. You said you don't like their stuff, and we have to read at least three journal submissions by the anthropologists that worked at these sites –"

"But you know their papers," she accused, and the boys nodded approval.

"Yeah, but," I sighed and looked at the picture. What was I going to say? "But everyone has to be able to read them, not just me. And I have a lot of work for my language classes, so I'll never be able to decipher all of them in time for this deadline. Maybe we should just go with the one just outside of Seattle –"

"C'mon, Corey," Jessica pouted her lower lip. And if Jessica did this, then all the boys would agree with her. It was either work with them at this horrid place, try to find another group (unlikely), or work by myself. I didn't have enough time to work on my own project unfortunately.

I sighed. "Okay," I muttered under my breath.

"Yes! This is going to be great! I can show you around Port Angeles and –"

"Jess, we have an assignment," I narrowed my eyes.

"Yes, yes, I know, but we'll have to go back a few times. We can work and have fun," she practically sang the sentences.

[insert exacerbated sigh here]

"As long as we get the assignment done," I grumbled, and then added before I left for my Russian class, "you guys better print out the articles and read them over. I don't have time to dictate them to you also."

"We will, we will," Carter rolled his eyes and flicked his long, straight hair out of his green eyes.

I didn't respond, just turned and went to my parents' wing of the University. All their publications with commentary, criticisms, and response papers, were archived in the anthropology department. I had been avoiding full contact with the secretaries that had been there since the beginning of time and would certainly know who I was, but it was inevitable. I needed their clearance to access the archives. I gritted my teeth and walked with determination to the main office of the anthro department.

- - - - -

Two weeks later.

"…and then we can do a little research, break down the information, and enjoy hot chocolate by the fireplace in my den," Jessica babbled endlessly from the front passenger's seat about how much fun the project was going to be. Derrick, her current favorite of the four boys (it changed daily, but they didn't seem to care), had offered to drive since he was the one with the "sick" Escalade. But she did leave a surprising amount of time for actual work.

I came up with ways to kill myself that would not implicate her, her family or any of the boys. I was ready to jump ship if it just became too much to bear. Luckily carsickness wasn't really my thing, so I continued to read and highlight the papers we had chosen related to the dig site. My parents were very prolific writers, so it wasn't hard to find a paper; it was just hard to narrow down the choices.

There were a few papers that even I had never heard of. I did the grunt work, scanning through old copies, double checking references, and making sure that the papers we were interested in had good commentary and criticism to offer us a fair debate. I had dug up three papers that seemed most relevant to the dig site: Ancient peoples of Washington – a closer look at their rituals; Sacrifices of the dead and the afterlife; Blood letting and its role in ancient sacrifices.

"Morbid papers, Corey," Jessica wrinkled her nose when she turned and looked at me engrossed in the assignment and my HP Notebook laptop set up. I was furiously writing notes, the plastic stylus hitting the screen of the computer in a rhythmic pace.

"Might I remind you that it was all of your guys' idea to choose this dig site?" I shot a dark look in her direction. It wasn't that I was mad … yet. But if they suddenly decided that this isn't what they wanted to study, and that site outside of Seattle would have been fine, then I was going to kill someone.

"Well we read their other papers," she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah the ones that were published before they became famous," I replied curtly.

"I think it's cool," Gary shrugged. Gary was tall, well compared to me at least, and usually optimistic. He was my favorite of the four guys. He was never obsessing over his looks in the mirror, even though he had a pretty well toned body, or fixing his blonde hair, which stood out in odd directions sometimes. He flashed a grin in my direction.

"Thanks," I muttered out the side of my mouth, a smile clearly spreading across my thin lips.

- - - - -

After three and a half long hours in the car, stuck listening to rap music, which caused me to eventually rudely insert my own iPod earplugs and tune out the noise, we arrived in Forks. It was a little town covered in clouds. At first the five of us said nothing as we piled out of the Escalade and looked around Jessica's property. Her house was a decent size, but I think it was the amount of land she had that shocked us. I came from Manhattan, Gary and Derrick grew up in Seattle together, Kevin lived in apartment buildings all his life, and Carter lived in a comfortable suburb in California.

We had never seen such a desolate looking place. Jessica of course didn't realize we were all amazingly of the same mindset: this was a weird place. A cold wind gust got caught inside the car and caused one of the doors to shut. Completely startled, I jumped and nearly dropped my precious computer.

"Whoa, you okay there?" Gary caught me and I thought for a moment, as I stared into his bright blue eyes, there was a little sparkle. Nope, definitely the light – what light? A trick then.

"Thanks," I said quietly, yet sincerely and straightened up.

"Well, are you just gonna stand there and freeze?" Jessica chirped in her peppy voice. "Come on inside!"

Once settled, we got out some snacks, waiting for Jessica's parents to return from work, and started organizing our notes. Again, my team surprised me by their fascination in the chosen topic. I figured they had just picked the first three papers that had popped up on the Google Scholar search, but they had done their research. It was my turn to hold up my end of the bargain and decipher my parents' cryptic text.

"I swear this was translated from Greek," I muttered, frustrated with the wording and terminology used in the paper about sacrifices and the afterlife of the ancient people.

"We've been working a long time," Carter shrugged his round, former-linebacker shoulders and slouched in a chair. "Let's take a break, let Jess really show us this town of hers." He gave her a wink, which none of the other guys saw, but I did and it made my blood boil how she could allow herself to be passed around like a piece of paper. That's all she was to them sometimes – a piece of paper they marked up and wrote their dirty little fantasies on.

"Yeah, let's go in to town. I think some of my friends from school are home. Let me make a few phone calls."

Jessica bounced out of the room and that left the five of us to sit and stare at each other. Like I said before, social grace wasn't really my thing, so if there was a way to make an already awkward situation even more awkward, I found it. A few throats cleared, but nothing else happened. Despite being a little mindless and not the sharpest knife in the drawer, Jessica was what bound us together. She was the glue to our little group, and somehow it worked. When she was there, we were a coherent bunch, but as soon as she left, it was like someone pulled the pins and the doorframe just came unhinged.

"So," I tried to think of something half intelligent to say. Correction: I tried to find something that would interest them – a much harder feat. "So, um, have any of you guys ever hear of this place before?"

"No," was the general consensus muttered by the boys.

"Well then why pick this dig site?" I frowned. Of course I knew the answer to that question – because Jessica had wanted to work here.

"I dunno, whatever," Kevin, not the brightest bulb, but generally good hearted, replied stupidly. "Jess seemed to like it so why not? Besides, you know the files on these two archeologists, so it was like a win-win deal." Not that dumb I suppose.

"Yeah, how is it you know all about Dr. Preston and his wife's work?" Derrick suddenly became inquisitive and decided to turn on his brainpower full steam ahead.

"Um, I just do," I lowered my eyes. I wasn't the best liar in the world. I didn't have to be when I grew up with an aunt that didn't care if I was having sex by the age of 15. As long as I told her everything, and used a condom, she wouldn't have cared. "Their work is fascinating."

"Yeah, fascinating and weird," Derrick wrinkled his nose.

"Yet you sit here studying it how many years after they died?" I shot, offended by his comment.

"Whoa, calm down, I was just saying," Derrick put his hands up and suddenly I felt something on mine.

I didn't even realize that my hands were balled into fists, resting on my thighs. Gary's hand had subtly inched its way to mine and gave a gentle, comforting squeeze. I looked at him, shocked, but he just continued to stare at Derrick and talked as if he wasn't making my heart race.

"Just drop it Derrick," Gary shrugged nonchalantly, his deep voice suddenly sending chills down my spine. "She likes what the Doc does, so who cares. She's probably going to be the one that saves our asses in the end …" he looked over at me with a smile, "as always."

I couldn't even fake a half grin. I was floored. Luckily my stupor didn't last long as Jessica bounded and leaped back into the dining room where we sat announcing that we were going to meet up with a few of her high school friends for dinner. Her parents were going to be late.