Hours later the final bell rang signaling the end of my first day of public school. Though it could've gone a whole lot better, I was glad that I had made some friends (a.k.a Jake and Kim). I stood outside the entrance and inhaled deeply. Never have I been so thankful for fresh air till just then. Or even sunshine... not that their was much to begin with but there was just enough to feel a bit of warmth on my cheeks which was better than normal. Lovely La Push weather I suppose.

"Ready?" Kim asked as she exited the doors a moment later. Her locker was a hallway farther than mine. She had hers moved at the beginning of the year because of locker issues, she explained after theater.

I gave a small smile. "Yeah, lead the way." I decided in Trig that it really wasn't necessary for me to go home. I mean...it wasn't like I had anybody to go home to and I found I really enjoyed being around Kim. So we decided I'd spend a few hours at her place tonight. Both of us headed down the small flight of stairs into the parking lot. There were the same two buses from this morning lined up, but not a lot of kids got on. I figured out that most kids drove, whether it was legal for them to or not. Kim already explained to me that she didn't ride the bus, simply because there wasn't much of a point and people were down right ignorant to her. She could drive if she wanted, but her parents couldn't get another car and she honestly didn't feel safe driving with the rest of the kids. There was already five accidents in the parking lot alone this month, so I can see her point. We made our way through that said parking lot pretty quickly too and onto the sidewalk so we (hopefully) wouldn't get run over.

"So Juliet, what are we gonna do today?" Kim teased, pulling her hood down the farther away from school we were.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You're not going to let me live that down are you?"

She let out a big smile. "Ha! No. It's just too good, and I totally called it too." I gave her a blank look. "Oh come on, new student, doesn't know the ropes, course she's going to get the lead role. This is your ice breaker for Miss Ryans. It'll show her what you can do. Totally rigged."

I sighed, knowing she was right. "But why did Paul get Romeo? It's like the gods hate me or something."

Kim frowned. "What's your beef with him anyways? I mean besides what happened in Theater. You can't hate the guy for just that reason."

"I mean I could..." Kim glared at me. "What? That is not how you treat a person!"

She sighed. "I know it isn't Red. I know. But I just don't think you should miss out on something you may find you like, just because of me you know? I'm not that important." She cleared her throat. "Anyways, you seemed like you knew him and he knew you. So what happened that I missed?"

I sighed. "I became friends with Jake today and he invivted me to sit with him at lunch. Paul and his bodies were horsing aroung and I got knocked into. I almost fell. He caught me though," I rubbed my wrist. "Though not so gently. Called me a bitch, which I honestly can live with that." I shrugged to show my indifference. "I just.. I don't really know. Part of me is heavily attracted to him but then part of me is screaming to stay away. I've never been so confused about a person in my life. So I think I'm going to stick with the side that's screaming to stay away." I peered over at her. "Besides, after what he did to you today, I'm not so sure I want to be caught up with a guy like that. Who knows what he'll do to me."

Kim rolled her eyes as we stopped at a street corner, waiting to cross the main road into town. "If there is one thing that's good about being non-existent, it's the fact that you can literally listen in on every conversation in the school, know the scoop about everything, and no one would care or even notice. If there is one thing I know about Paul Lahote, among other things," she rolled her eyes again, "it's that he doesn't ever beat on a woman. I also remember back in middle school there was a girl he adored. She moved away but I remember that he always gave her flowers and little gifts of affection... so he treats his women right as far as I know. Well, at least the ones that aren't there for sex. I mean he treats them well but holds those ones at arms length you know? Very indifferent about them. Which makes it even better for those gals I guess."

I gave her an 'are you crazy' look. "Are you trying to hook us up or something?" I said, cringing at how high pitched my voice sounded.

Kim peered over at me as the signal told us to go ahead and walk. She pursed her lips for a moment. "I could see it. Could very well ship it too."

"Kim!"

"Red!" She grinned. "Look I just don't think you should miss an opportunity on a kind of attractive guy just because he came off as an asshole today."

"You said he does that to you often!" I exclaimed.

"No I didn't." She corrected. "It has happened before, but it's not as often as you think. And he's never directly hit me, normally I just fall or trip on stage and it happens from there-"

I was listening but then we passed a store that I couldn't help but look in on. The book store.

Kim had kept walking, still talking, however when she noticed I wasn't there a few steps later she turned around very confused. "Do..you..want to go inside?" She asked.

I licked my lips and shook my head. "Nah I'm good, maybe some other time." Or not, I thought, preferring that option too. Even if I loved books I wasn't sure I wanted to go in. Not just yet at least.

"An elderly lady died in there a couple of months back you know." She peered over at the store. "Mom said it was a woman named Jean." I know. I know all too well. Kim peered over at me. "Did you sense her spirit or something?"

I gave her an odd look. "What?" I asked, confused. I shoved my hands into my pockets as I eyed her funny before looking back into the store.

She gave a shake of her head with a small smile. "Quileute thing. You know, old stories, powers being passed down from the original tribe. Some can sense spirits, you stopping there kind of reminded me of that."

I let out an exhale. "Nah...not at all."

Kim hummed and shrugged her shoulders. "But as I was saying. Yea he does but...he always looks like he feels bad afterwards. Sometimes he's even apologized. Not on many accounts but he has."

I frowned as we began a small ascent towards her road. "So what exactly are you saying?" I asked, very confused.

Kim gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm saying, things aren't what they appear. And to be honest, I forgive him. I don't really hold it against him, and after today I don't think he'll do it anymore. But I never really saw a point in holding grudges. Things like that tend to destroy you, and kindness is often the best weapon someone can be equipped with."

We made a left to another street where five or six houses lined most of both sides. It was a long street with a dead end which allowed for each house to have a good amount of space. It wasn't a big town so people could have a good portion of land. It was a reservation anyways so you really could have a lot of land if you really wanted it, like my grandmother did I suppose. She...now I ...own a whole entire hill and cliff side. "You know," I began. "You're a lot wiser than I gave you credit for. I'm probably going to have to learn from you. I have a thing called a temper. It doesn't really help much, not to mention the fact that I don't really think before I act. I just..do."

Kim chuckled. "Yea it happens to all of us. Including Paul. Which is why I think you could balance each other out."

I groaned. "Are we really on this subject again? I'm not going out with Paul. No way, no how."

"Ugh!" She said and threw her hands up in the air as we walked towards the last house on the street. It was separated from the others, had a bit more land than the others and didn't have a house facing it on the other side of the road. "I just disproved all of your reasons to not to go out with him and you still won't consider it? All cause of a feeling you have?"

"Hey I listen to my instincts."

"I'm sure they've been wrong before."

"Nope." I said with a pop to the 'p'. Kim just rolled her eyes, which I noticed she kind of does a lot around me, and opened her front door.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Calling that out, She closed the door behind us and placed her jacket on the coat rack near the door. "You can put your hoodie there if you'd like." With that she slid off her tennis shoes and I took that as the que to take off my boots too.

"Kimmy!" A small woman came around the corner in front of us, which I safely assumed led to the kitchen by the glimpse of a stove and pots on top of it. She was a cute little woman, with large framed glasses and dark, frayed hair. She had a red splattered apron on and slippers which I found quite comical. Her dark eyes were large as they peered at me. "Who's this?" Her mom eyed me up as she held a spoon up to her lips with what looked like a cream sauce, tasting it. She looked down at it in disdain. "Needs a bit more..." She mumbled.

Kim just chuckled. "Mom this is my new friend Red."

Kim's mom eyed me curiously. "Why Red?" She asked, and she was the first to ask.

"Uh.." I scratched the back oh my head sheepishly. "It's a nickname I've had since I was little. My real name Is Raylina Dawson."

"Dawson..." Kim's mom looked away. "Dawson.. Why do I know that name..." She was silent for a moment. "Oh! Are you related to a Jonathan Dawson?"

I cleared my throat nervously. Should I lie and say no? I didn't want the pity that would come with saying yes but...I wasn't a fan of lying either.

"Yes ma'am, he was my father."

Immediately her jaw popped open. "I see, so your the girl she left behind. Jean was your grandmother."

"Yes ma'am." I admitted a bit hesitantly, and that pity I was afraid of entered her eyes and I fought back the urge to move away from Kim when her gaze quickly snapped over to me.

"You poor thing. I'm sorry about your loss darling." She said with compassion and warmth. "Well, any friend of Kims' is welcomed here so make yourself at home Raylina. Will you be staying for dinner? I'm making a favored soup of mine I'm sure you'll like."

I gave her a polite smile, not wishing to be rude on her hospitality. "That sounds lovely Ma'am."

Kim's mom tsked. "Please, call me Emma. Dinner will be ready soon, I'll call you girls down." With that small smile she went back into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry..." Kim murmured, "I didn't know-"

"Kim," I stated calmly. "It's okay, really." I tried to lighten the mood with a smile. "So what's on the to-do list?"

Kim gave me a sad look before nodding. "We do have some Trig homework and we can begin rehearsing for your lines if you'd like?"

"Let's get the Trig out of the way, the lines I'm not too worried about since the play is in April. It's only January."

Kim pondered this. "True but it's a lot of lines. Do you have any other homework to get to?" She asked and began climbing the small stairs to the left of the door. I followed behind her.

"It is a lot but I'm not worried. I don't have any other homework. " She opened her white bedroom door. I was surprised by how large the room actually was. By first glance at the rest of the house I would've though it was smaller. I was even more impressed by the window straight ahead, which led straight to the roof.

"Do you ever use that?" I asked her with a small grin, walking farther in as she glomped her bed to my left.

"Use what?" She frowned into her blue pillow. I nudged my head to the window as I grabbed my trig homework from my folder. "Ha!" She said. "Yea totally. I sneak out every Saturday to see my boyfriend." She explained sarcastically. "We get it on in the back of his pick up truck all the time."

"Well excuuuse me." I said with a grin. "Don't be surprised if you learn how to sneak out of it though. I'm a master at that." Kim pulled a blanket over herself. Suddenly she let out a very girly sneeze, to which we both laughed at. "So how far in your homework did you get?" I asked, waving my paper around.

Kim groaned moving about in her nest of blankets. "Not very far," was the small, almost unintelligible response. "I kept getting distracted."

I frowned, sitting on the far corner of her bed. "By what..." I trailed off as I placed a binder beneath the worksheet. My mind wandered back to the classroom. What in the world could have possibly- "Oh don't tell me you were looking at him the whole time." I pleaded, remembering that Jared sat on the other side of the room to our right. Perfect view.

"I may have sort of been?" She said, one brown eye peeking out from her fuzzy purple blanket. "I couldn't help it today. Most days I can but...he talked to me today Red!" She whisper exclaimed. More of her tanned face came out of the blanket. "That's exciting."

I tossed my head back and peered at her ceiling. "But Kim...he has a really big nose." I stated, smiling and I felt a pillow come in contact with my face.

"He does not!" She said as I toppled to my side onto her legs, laughter bubbling from my chest and reverberating into my throat and nose. I couldn't help it.

"Does too!" I exclaimed through my hysterics.

I watched Kim bite her lip as it became obvious she was trying to keep from laughing too. "Okay...maybe he does."She chuckled before oddly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Most guys here do, on him though? It's adorably attractive."

"To you."

"Yes, to me." She paused, frowning as she grabbed her homework from inside her book bag. "Is it that obvious?"

I hummed a bit, finishing the problem I nearly finished in class but didn't get a chance to. "No not really, I wouldn't have known unless you told me."

She exhaled through her nose as her pencil whizzed across the page. For a few moments she didn't speak as she solved some problems. "I feel like it is obvious. Like everyone knows. I wouldn't be too surprised if they did, somehow someone always knows. I just don't know what to do with myself. We don't talk you know? And he runs with Sam, that's call for trouble I think. And I don't think we'd have much in common, but I'd like for him to notice me." She rambled as she moved farther down the page with me.

"Who's Sam?" I asked as I finished problem six of twelve. It wasn't a lot of homework so it wouldn't take too terribly long.

I could feel her eyes on me as I continued my work. "That's right, home school." She murmured. "Still I'm surprised you don't know who he is. Everyone on the reservation knows him." She sighed. "He's never done anything bad that I know of, but him and a group of guys are always seen together. Jared, Jake, Seth, Quil, Paul, Embry and a few others, they're always together. Some joke that they're a cult." She smirked. "Highly doubt it though. And Sam's their leader. What he says goes... and ...well they're just weird. One summer they were all scrawny teenagers, some were friends even then and some weren't, nothing in common. After summer they all came back buff, tattooed, closer than friends could be, and just...off. No one really knows why. That's all."

I hummed a bit, frowning. "What do you mean by off?" I questioned as I finished problem nine.

She tapped a pencil to her mouth, thinking. "It was almost like they carried the weight of the world on their shoulders and no one knew. They move as a collective group, not as each a singular person but a pack. It's just strange."

"Well...perhaps they bonded over something they all had in common?" I said, pausing to look at her.

"But what about the tattoos and going from pups to...well...men?"

"Puberty?" I suggested with a grin. She groaned and rolled her eyes, placing her paper back into her book bag as I finished up my last two problems.

"I've never known puberty to do that much." Kim then grabbed her bag and placed it on a hook beside her door. I shrugged and grinned when I finished up. Thank heavens.

"Red, Kim!" A voice called from downstairs. "Dinner's ready!"

Kim then smiled at me. "Not a moment too soon either." We both walked through her bedroom door and down her hallway. "I don't think you'll be meeting my father tonight though, if he isn't home already he's probably still at the office. Sometimes he works late."

We quickly moved down her stairs to the aroma of dinner, which smelt honestly like heaven. "That's okay," I murmured. "There's always other days and sleep overs." I suggested as her and I headed into the kitchen. She walked ahead and reached into a cabinet and grabbed out three bowls, handing one to her mom and I before grabbing some spoons.

"I really hope you like it," Emma said as she spooned some of the, what looked like, potato soup into our bowls giving us both a very gracious amount before we sat down at the small table. "It takes a small amount of time to prepare," Emma explained as she gave herself some and sat down beside Kim. "But Will, Kim, and I enjoy it very much." Will must be Kim's father, I thought vaguely as I hesitantly took a bite of the soup. Though it was a bit hot and burned parts of my tongue, I found that I greatly enjoyed the variety of flavors hidden within. I sent Kim's mom a smile who watched me with worry.

"It's excellent." I stated before taking another bite.

Emma gave a sigh of relief. "For a moment I thought you didn't like it. I'm glad you do." She said before digging into her own bowl.

Kim swallowed a bite too before she spoke. "So mom, how would you feel if Red stayed the night?"

Emma paused in blowing on her hot spoon. "Tonight?" She asked, worry in her tone.

Kim and I let a small laugh. "No Mom," she said. "Perhaps this weekend?" Kim looked over at me, her features puzzled. We didn't really discuss it so this was a bit awkward.

I shook my head. "I can't this weekend. I've got a thing planned with Jake Saturday, and I'm hoping to go grocery shopping Sunday." I paused, inhaling. "I'm hardly ever busy or even have anything to do all alone up there. So after Sunday, whenever you want."

Mrs. Connweller scooped up another bite. "But on school nights? Is that wise? I remember when I had friends over on school nights...let's just say we never made it to school the next morning."

I smiled at Emma and Kim chuckled. "Mom we aren't as wild as you, and besides, I think we'd both be able to make it to school even if we stayed up late, especially since I have you as my mother." Kim turns to me. "She wakes up at five thirty every morning without fail. Even when she's sick she's up at that time."

I raised my eyebrows as I finished another spoonful, surprised at how filling this dish was, even if it looked so meager to the eye.

"True enough," Emma agreed before looking at me. "You're welcome here anytime. I don't think Will would mind either, Kim hardly ever...correction...never," she sent a look to her daughter. "Has friends over so it'd be a nice change. If a sleep over on school nights is required, then by all means, come when you please. I definitely wouldn't want you always alone up on that hill. The woods are very dangerous in general, even worse at night."

I laughed as I finished my helping of soup. "I grew up there Mrs. Connweller, the scariest thing up there is me."

She gave me a grim look. "I wouldn't be so sure Red. There are rumors of large creatures, bigger than bears, stalking the woods. Mostly seen at night or in the early morning. Just be careful out there okay dear?"

I gave a sigh. I hadn't heard of creatures that big, but neither did it strike fear into me like it should've. The idea almost felt...natural. But still, I didn't want to worry the kind woman. "Okay," I nodded in agreement, looking out the kitchen window. Speaking of nightfall, the sun was setting. Emma made note of that too.

"Oh! Speaking of night, you'd better get going if you're going home. I'm sorry I can't drive you, Will has the car. I don't want you caught out there in the dark."

"Yea, I'll be going home shortly, but don't worry about me Mrs. Connweller, like I said, I grew up in those woods and often played in the woods. If there is anything out there, I'm sure I'll be able to handle myself. But thank you so much for your concern. And thank you for dinner! It was exquisite." I stood from the table and moved to rinse out my bowl in the sink, feeling bad for not staying longer and help her clean up. Emma was right behind me when I turned around and she gave me a tight hug.

"It was wonderful to meet you Red, I hope to see you again soon." She said as she pulled away.

"You too Emma, thank you again." I said politely and moved to go grab my book bag, which Kim had grabbed from her room and was handing to me in front of her door.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Kim grinned to me. "Library?"

"Library." I agreed. Kim politely opened the door for me and I stepped out, turning back to give her a smile before beginning the journey back home.

Though, as I walked down her street I turned towards the empty patch before the woods not too far from her house. I couldn't, for the life of me, shake the feeling that I was being watched.

And even further down the road, pursued.