AN: In the last chapter, I said they were on winter break but I meant Spring Break, sorry about that! xD and their spring break is longer than usual.


Chapter 7: Jacob Black

-Emma-

I picked up my notebooks and school bag and set it down on my desk. Even though school wasn't going to start for another five days, Bella had helped me get my stuff all sorted out and ready a few days early with a lot of time left to spare and do as we pleased.

Right now, the girl was sitting on my bed with her legs beneath her, and crossed in an awkward fashion. The girl's ripped blue skinny jeans and orange sweatshirt were a bit dirtied from helping unpack some of the things that I forgot to do on my first day here. But, she was wearing a friendly smile none the less.

"So, do I get to meet your friends?" she asked, curiously as she eyed my necklace that was worn around my neck… the necklace that Rikki and Cleo also had… I never told her about it, but I'm guessing she's jumped to the conclusion that my friends have them too. It does resemble a regular friendship locket, which it kind of is, minus our mermaid secret. So of course she wanted to know about it… I just won't tell her, yet.

"You will," I answered with a small smile, turning around to go through the clothes that I already had hung up in my closet to pick out a pair of form-fitting white washed straight-legged jeans and then I grabbed an icy blue over-the-shoulder long-sleeved shirt with large loose ruffles in the chest area. "I'll be right back," I told her sternly walking off to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Though, this might take longer than it would a regular girl…

While I was showering, a subtle thought crossed my mind. I was planning on video chatting with the girls, but an even better idea came up as the water hit my tail and body, giving me a warm feeling. Instead of video chatting, why don't Bella and I just swim out there? We could get back by tomorrow—we do swim extraordinarily fast for water and land creatures, why don't we try it?

If only I can somehow run it by my mother without telling her anything that may alarm her, then Bella can think of something to tell her dad, and we could be on our way. It was perfect!

Looking up as I finished my shower, I realized that this shower was nothing like my old shower. It was wider, and with me sprawled out on the tub's floor like this, there was no way I was going to be able to reach the knob. I sighed in frustration; luckily I was already used to this, and I've done this plenty of times before.

I lifted my hand toward the showerhead and concentrated on making the water inside of the pipe freeze itself solid, into an invisible ice-plug that kept the water from shooting out of the showerhead. Once the water was fully stopped and no water leaked from above me, I flopped heavily and ungracefully out of the shower and onto my bathroom floor. I was lucky that I remembered well enough to keep my towel on the floor and in my reach, but then again, I do this every day and luckily my parents and brother aren't ever around when I do.

I took the towel and stealthily, but quickly wiped off any, and every water drop that I could see on my body, then I began scrubbing vigorously at my hair, before I felt my legs become two again, my hair dry completely, and my body wrapped in the extra towel that I brought with me, just like I did every day.

I slid into the clothes that I'd picked out over a clean pair of lingerie set, black bra and panties, nothing too fancy. And I brushed my hair back pulling my blonde hair back into a low, side braid before walking off to my room again.

Bella was still in the position I left her in, except now she was playing with the air molecules that she's turned into water. As I took a full step into my room, I watched as the water droplets that she created started to fall to my floor, but not before she turned them back into air again.

"I see you're getting a hang of your power," I smirked at her discreetly.

"Yeah; Hey… Em, I was thinking," She turned toward me finally, her hopeful brown eyes meeting my curious blues as I raised an eyebrow.

"A dangerous pastime…"

She scowled in response before finishing the tiny excerpt from The Beauty and the Beast.

"I know," she pouted. "But, anyways, so… there's this guy… and he's my best friend."

Déjà vu moment…? I frowned mentally. Where have I heard this all before?

"And, well… he trusts me with things that he doesn't trust anyone else with, and he tells me basically everything… I was going to tell him before I met you, but now I have to consider the fact that it's your secret too, and if you don't want him to know then I won't tell him,"

"You want to tell him we're mermaids," my voice lacked any surprise that I was feeling, because well, I have heard this all before, whenever Cleo wanted to tell Lewis that we were mermaids.

"Yes, but I know he won't tell," Bella nodded quickly at me. I wasn't angry, but she looked like she was on the verge of panicking with how quickly she responded.

"How do you know that?" I queried, my voice was blank. Whoever 'he' is, he probably wouldn't tell. Lewis didn't tell, and as far as I know, he's kept our secret as well. Maybe this guy Bella wants to tell won't tell either. We are friends and I should trust her judgment , but it was a good question to ask.

"Because the secrets he trusted me with are nowhere near human; he's like us…" she frowned, she was giving his secret away, but before she could tell me what his secret was, I cut her off.

"Okay, I guess you can tell him…"

"Thank you, thank you; thank you!" Bella squealed at me, relieved that she didn't need to elaborate, I guessed, and she jumped up to embrace me in a large bear hug that had me practically wheezing for my breath. Even though I could breathe just fine, I decided to exaggerate to get the girl to let go of me.

"B-Bella-a… Need oxygen—!" I gasped, that caused her to let go immediately and sidestep away from me with an impressive blush covering her face in embarrassment, which caused me to roll my eyes at her behavior.

"I'm sorry," then under her breath she muttered something along the lines of "Damn blush…"

I just snickered and looked out the window, noticing the dark greens and browns of the forest that was shrouding anything hidden in there from view behind Bella's yard, and then the rest of the view which showed much of an oddity for a spring in Forks. It was only an oddity because, like it was earlier mentioned, it usually rained 90 percent of the time; but I guess today was part of the other ten percent, because it was sunny out, and quite humid outside. Even the sun shined brightly, and there weren't many clouds in sight besides the few fluffy white ones that floated by, going eastward.

"Maybe I can tell him today, we can go to La Push Beach again to hang out… Emily is probably barbequing again since it isn't going to rain tonight," Bella started rambling out plans, and I grabbed my cell phone off of my bedside table before tossing it to her.

"Call your friend, and tell him that we're on our way over. It'd be best to show him our secret than tell him, anyways." I winked.

Bella blinked as she shockingly caught the cell phone awkwardly, but she immediately began dialing her friend's number.

Though, we're mermaids and hearing wasn't much of a power, for us underwater creatures, I could hear the conversation clearly… well, thanks to the speakerphone that Bella had put it on. But she cupped the mouth piece so that her friend wouldn't know he was on speakerphone, if that would work. If it doesn't, then oh well.

The speakerphone wasn't that loud, anyways, but I was close enough to hear the conversation, though. We both took a seat on my bed, side by side with me being extremely quiet so that they could talk in at least some peace. And after about two or three rings, a husky voice answered with clarity.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jake… It's me, Bella." Bella smiled into the phone.

"Oh hey, Bells. I haven't talked to you in weeks," the voice sounded a bit sad, but he continued to speak despite whatever he was feeling, "Anyway, how have you been? And whose phone is this?"

"I've been great," she ignored his second question. "Jake, do you think you can meet me and my friend down by La Push?"

There was a long pause and a quiet ruffling of some material that sounded like clothing and then there was a long sigh.

"Bella, you know that those leeches aren't allowed on our land, that's part of our treaty." he sounded irritated now. What 'leeches' are he talking about? And what does that even mean? Does he have some restraining order against someone?

"No, not them. They've been gone for the longest and you know that," she frowned. "And, no, her name is Emma and she is not a 'leech'. She's my new neighbor." There was another silence.

"I guess… I'll meet you down the by the beach," I could practically hear this guy's sarcasm and I tried to picture this faceless guy rolling his eyes.

"Alright, see ya," Bella smiled again, getting up from the bed and dragging me with her.

"See you," Jacob chuckled before I heard the line cut, and Bella pulled the phone from her ears, adding his number to my phone before she closed it and handed it back to me with a grin.

"Let's head over," she practically skipped out of my room with me in tow.

"This should be fun," I muttered, this wouldn't be the first time that I exposed myself purposely, though.


-Bella-

Emma and I were on the beach, sitting down on one of the long log-seats that was placed at the beach around a place where I fire had been repeatedly made, which earned itself a black circle lining from all the fires that were made there. We sat patiently and waited for Jacob to arrive calmly. Well, I was waiting calmly while Emma seemed to be fidgeting out of nervousness. But I don't blame her, she is meeting someone she doesn't really know, and she's going to be exposing her secret to said stranger. Though, why she agreed to tell him so easily was beyond me, unless she was used to it?

It was uncannily warm out, and I had started to roll up the anklets of my jeans so that they resembled Capri's, and off to the side of me, I noticed Emma was doing the same, and she was also rolling up her sleeves as well. A few more moments passed by and I heard a voice call out to us, as I heard loud footsteps walking toward the beach from the forest that surrounded the beach's side; courtesy of Jake, because I knew that he could walk quietly and gracefully, and he was just making noise just for our sake—to alert us that he was there.

"Bella!" he called a bit softly.

"Over here!" I shouted back at him, gripping Emma's wrist to calm her fidgeting that she'd started back up again after hearing Jake's voice. He suddenly walked into view, his eyes staying on me, not even looking over to the girl that was on my right side, but luckily Emma had stopped fidgeting.

"Emma, this is Jacob Black; Jacob, this is Emma Gilbert," I nodded in their directions when Jacob stood a few feet in front of our small huddle of two people. Jacob, when I addressed him, let his eyes travel to Emma and his eyes darkened a bit as I saw a flash of recognition, and realization dawn in his already dark eyes as he locked gazes with her, and I couldn't help but think; Does he already know her? Is that why Emma was fidgety ever since we arrived and waited for Jake to arrive?

But, then it suddenly hit me as a realization of my own came to me. Jacob had told me stories during that bonfire whenever I was looking for information on the Cullens. He mentioned something about an imprint that the Quileute wolves go through; actually he told me in great detail what happens. He'd said that whenever the wolves meet their 'mate' they'd know because it will seem like that's the only thing that mattered to them.

Of course, Jake hadn't exhibited that evidence of imprinting yet, but I couldn't help but think, maybe he's imprinted on my new friend? And my feelings dimmed as it was almost like I wasn't even here anymore. I was just a shell of a person as I noticed that Emma was caught in his gaze as well.

And here, I thought I was going to just tell him my secret. Well, we're definitely going to have to tell him our secret now.

Might as well have called it love at first sight, I mentally sighed in awe staring at the two. Almost like me and Ed—I cut myself off, and just smiled sadly at the two before averting my gaze to the direction of the woods as I stared into space feeling my chest heave and get heavier. I can still do something to bring him back to my mind, my imagination...


AN: And that's a chapter! :D I know Bella didn't technically learn of imprinting until Jacob told her in Eclipse, but I'm pretending that he told her the gist of it whenever she flirted with him in Twilight for information on the Cullens. (:

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