Chapter 4Racing up to her bedroom, Claire could not help but throw out a cheer. Why should she bother to keep down her excitement? She was in a damn good mood, despite it being the last day of summer vacation. No one was home anyway, what was she risking? Claire started jumping on her bed in pure happiness, ecstatic that her Quil, was back in her life. Her bedroom was now a spinning world of blue, purple, and Hellsing artwork. Round and round she jumped on her bed lost in a whirl of joy. It was when she caught sight of a picture of her mother Elizabeth that Claire stopped jumping. While she might be over the moon about Quil's return, her mom would be less than overjoyed. For some reason her mom hated Quil, with a passion. She always watched over Claire and Quil whenever they played together, as if Quil was about to run away with her daughter. She never allowed Quil to come over to Claire's house, and restricted her visits to LaPush. Claire hated her mother for awhile because of that. Whenever she so much as looked at her mother, Claire felt nothing but resentment and anger. It was only after Quil left that Claire was able to become closer to her mother. Their relationship was still rather strained, but still better than before. Her father, whom everyone called "Drex" (which was easier than calling him by his last name), was always willing to drive Claire over to LaPush. If anything, her dad encouraged the relationship between Claire and Quil. Drex and Claire got along a lot better than her mother, and while this one of the many reasons, his support of the relationship was a main one.

Claire's happiness severely deflated, she landed with a resounding thud on her bed. Panting slightly, she could imagine the reactions to Quil's return now. Drex would be overjoyed and ready to invite Quil to his favorite restaurant to talk man to man, while her mother would lash out at everyone in frustration (at least from Claire's perspective) and keep an extra intense watch over her daughter. Tomorrow could either go really well, or go completely wrong. And Claire was going to be at the center of it all, whether she wanted to be or not.

Still sitting on the edge of her bed, Claire realized she never really thought about why her mom hated Quil. She had thought about it from time to time, but never too in depth. Why did her mother feel such resentment and bitterness at Quil? What reason could she possibly have? Quil was nothing but nice, caring, and affectionate. Which was more than most of her guy friends, who all loved to tease and pick on Claire at just about every opportunity. Claire lost count of how many times she returned crying from grade school because of what some jerk said to her, but she knew whenever she returned home from Quil, she was happy and content. What was with her mom?

Shaking her head, knowing she would not receive any answers tonight, Claire went on preparing for school the next morning. Notebooks, folders, and writing tools went into her backpack. Her clothes were laid out for the next morning, and her computer was turned off. Lunch was already packed downstairs. Her alarm was set. The room was spotless, everything put in its proper place.

"Well now what?" Claire asked herself.