Chapter 4 – Adrienne
January 2010

"Hey, guys," Jacob looked irritated. More than irritated actually, but he put on a fake smile for the girl that was sitting next to him on the bench. Bella Swan. She was the daughter of Chief Swan who also happened to be one of Billy's best friends. Jacob had been ditching us a little too often lately to spend time with Bella. I didn't mind, honestly, but I wasn't around as often as Quil and Embry were and they were more than a little peeved about it.

I'd seen her around school briefly but she mostly stuck to herself, at least she had ever since Edward Cullen had moved away. According to Ella from school, they had been dating around six months and they were together every second of the day and then all of the sudden, without so much as a warning, his whole family just picked up and moved to California and Bella was heartbroken.

I stood in the middle of the garage, Embry and Quil on either side of me, and examined her. She had auburn colored hair and chocolate brown eyes. Her skin was pale and she almost looked sickly. She held her arm around her chest like she was in pain. I wasn't sure what to make of her, but I figured that if she made Jacob happy I could do my best.

"Hey, Jake," Quil replied. He was blatantly staring at Bella. She smiled lightly at him and he winked at her. "Hi, there."

I rolled my eyes at Quil as Jacob introduced us. "This is Embry, Adrienne, and Quil," Jacob was talking only to Bella and then his eyes moved to us. "Guys, this is my friend, Bella."

I caught Quil and Embry give each other a puzzled look from the corner of my eye and I knew exactly what they were thinking. Jacob had, not purposely, given them the impression that Bella was more than just a friend. I jumped in before either of them had the chance to say anything, for Jacob's sake.

"You're Charlie's daughter, right?" I asked her with a small smile.

"That's right," she replied with a nod.

Quil was at her side in an instant, holding his hand out to her. She took it and I could tell she was slightly confused. "I'm Quil Ateara," his cocky smile never faltered and I fought the urge to roll my eyes again.

"Nice to meet you, Quil," she said.

Embry spoke up then, probably feeling left out. "Hey, Bella. I'm Embry, Embry Call – you probably already figured that out, though." He waved shyly at her and I felt myself blush. He was always so shy, but for me that was part of the reason I liked him so much.

"Nice to meet you, too."

I made myself comfortable next to Bella. "I'm Adrienne," I said quietly, enveloping her into a small hug. She tensed and I pulled away quickly. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, I'm a hugger."

She blushed a deep crimson and shook her head. "No its okay, I'm just not used to it is all."

"Oh well you will be, with time," I assured her and she smiled at my words.

"So what are you guys doing?" Quil asked, still staring at Bella. I wanted to smack him for being so outwardly obvious. Especially since she was sort of labeled as Jacob's girl, but I refrained at least until after she left.

"Bella and I are going to fix up these bikes," Jacob announced. This bit of news surprised me and I raised my eyebrows, eyeing Bella carefully. She didn't look like the type of girl who would know anything about fixing up motorcycles but I didn't press it. I guess you can't always judge a book by its cover, I thought.

The boys immersed themselves in conversation about the bikes, leaving Bella and I with silence.

"So," I began, not really sure what to say to her. "You're a senior, right? You go to school in Forks?" She nodded uncomfortably but I kept going. "I'm a sophomore there this year, but I'm doing online classes at Olympic College part-time so I don't have a whole lot of classes there."

Her eyebrows knitted together. "I didn't know that they offered that there," she said quietly and I shrugged.

"My mom sort of set it all up. I take my high school classes in the morning, go to lunch, and then I have study hall for the rest of the day where I basically just get online and do what I need to. I just started last week though, so we'll see how it goes."

She seemed to loosen up the more that I talked, so I began babbling about random things that I'd heard from school and how much fun La Push was in the summer. She commented lightly on some things but for the most part I wasn't even sure if she was listening and I idly wondered what it was that Jacob saw in her. I mean, she was pretty enough if you could get passed the fact that she looked ill, but it just seemed like she was half a world away. Like she was focusing on something totally different, her mind just wasn't all there.

During one of my pauses in between stories, she sighed and stood up. I watched as Jacob's face fell. "I should probably head home and get dinner ready for Charlie," she explained to him.

"Oh… well, I'll finish taking these apart tonight and figure out what more we'll need to get started rebuilding them. When do you want to work on them again?"

Jacob and Bella began planning out their schedule for the rebuilding of the bikes and I let my eyes fall on Embry who was leaning down in front of one of them, examining the parts.

It was almost as if the almost-kiss had never happened at the homecoming dance. We never talked about it and we sure as hell never got that close to each other again. After a month of me waiting to see if he'd make another move, I'd decided to move on with my life and I was now dating a junior boy named Peter that I met in my gym class.

I'd thought that it would be hard to find someone who would be alright with my three best friends being boys, but Peter never seemed to have a problem. He usually came to La Push with me once a week and the guys were starting to like him, or at least Jacob was.

I was broken from my train of thought when I watched Jacob smack Quil on the back of the head. I stifled a laugh as his voice filled with as much venom as was possible for Jacob to have. "That's it, get out," his face twisted into a not-so-menacing glower.

"No, really, I have to go," Bella was already making her way to the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jacob."

She disappeared through the branches and Quil and Embry both glanced at each other and then back at Jacob. "Woooooo," their voices more high pitched than I'd ever witnessed. Jacob smacked both of them in the back of the head this time and I rolled my eyes.

"If either of you set so much as one toe on my land tomorrow, I'll make sure that you regret it," his voice was mildly threatening and both of the boys rolled their eyes.

"You got it, Jake," Embry confirmed as Jacob sat down on the bench.

Quil snorted. "Speak for yourself."

Jacob ignored him and turned to me. "Thanks for that, by the way," his eyes softened as he spoke. "She's not good with the whole talking thing."

I smiled in return. "Anytime, Jake."

I glanced at the clock and noticed that it was close to five o'clock and I sighed. "I've actually got to head out guys," I announced. "I'm meeting Peter at the beach soon."

Quil and Embry groaned in unison. "Yeah, yeah," I felt my eyes roll again. "I'll see you guys later this week."

I gave each of them a peck on the cheek, trying not to accidentally linger too long at Embry, before stalking out the door and heading toward the water.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Yes, part of this chapter was taken directly from New Moon but rephrased to be in Adrienne's point of view.

AN: I've noticed that most of the time, when people make stories of another friend of the boys being in the picture, everybody always hates Bella. Although I think that Bella was a little selfish in New Moon and with her time spent with Jacob, she was a teenage girl who was in high school. Everybody is allowed to be a little selfish, and she would have gladly taken a bullet for Jacob any day. She loved him, if even in a tormented way, and I don't think she's bad. She was just confused.

I just wanted to give you my take on that situation. Thanks. –J.