A/N: Another update! I couldn't help myself. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, I own only Kayla and her parents.

Chapter 9: Parents and Bella Swan

The first thing Kayla dealt with upon waking up on her Aunt's couch was her phone ringing off the hook. She screwed her eyes shut before answering it and dealing with her screaming mother. Words were thrown around; words that made Kayla wish to sink into the damned couch. Her mother was beyond angry, and disappointed in Kayla's actions. Her parents were worried when they had gotten home that morning to see her car in the driveway but her nowhere to be found.

It took the girl half an hour to calm her mother down enough to explain where she was. This time however she didn't lie to her mother, she didn't beat around the bush. She used whatever courage the smile her Aunt was giving her from across the room gave her, and she told the truth. She told her mother where she was, and what she was doing. Kayla expected another fight, but something worse came from the other end of the line. Silence. Kayla was greeted by nothing but silence when her words came out.

"Mom?" She questioned her face contorted in confusion. "Mom, please, just say something. You can yell at me, or can ground me, just say something."

A lump formed in her throat as tears threatened to fall. She knew telling the truth was a bad idea.

"We'll talk when you get come, Kayla Jensen," her father's voice came in the place of her mother. "We are sending someone to get you by tonight, and when you return home we'll discuss what you have done."

The phone clicked off after that and Kayla just sat there, her body completely frozen. She wished she could take it back, that she could make up some kind of lie to cover her tracks but she knew it was too late. She looked to her Aunt who gave her a weak smile.

"I'm sorry, Kay," her Aunt Joy came over to hug her, wrapping the younger girl in her arms. "I'm sorry."

Kayla tried to smile and assure her Aunt that everything was fine but she couldn't. Instead she asked her aunt not to tell Quil about the phone call, promising that she would tell him before she left. She just did not want to ruin his birthday. Her Aunt agreed before going off into the kitchen to make something for Quil who had already left the house to gather some people.

It was a few hours later when Quil return to the house with Jacob, Embry and a strange girl in tow. Jacob smiled at Kayla while Embry couldn't seem to make eye contact with the girl he had driven all the way to Seattle for. But Kayla wasn't really too focused on Embry, not after the phone call and Quil's words the night before. Instead she focused on the girl that came with them, a girl who oozed awkward behavior. She was Kayla's kind of person.

"Kay," Quil drew her attention, "this is Jake's friend, Bella Swan."

Jake hit Quil on the back of the head while Bella looked like she wanted to be swallowed up by the floor. So Kayla did something that shocked her, she stood up from the couch to greet Bella.

"Don't mind Quil," she said, "he can't get a girl to even be his friend so he likes to pick on everyone else."

"Hey," he retorted offended, "I haven't even started on you and Embry."

Both Kayla and Embry turned bright red. Kayla shot a glare at her cousin before looking back to Bella with a small smile.

"I'm Kayla," she stuck out her hand, "Quil's newly found cousin."

Bella smiled back, "yeah, Jake was telling me about that."

"Oh," suddenly the thought of Jacob Black talking about her made Kayla uneasy. She didn't like people talking about her.

But soon it didn't matter as the five teenagers began to relax and talk among each other. It was evident to anyone in the room that Kayla and Embry were avoiding each other. Whenever the chance arose for them to speak to one another Embry would quickly move on to talk to someone else, and it wasn't like Kayla minded. It simply proved her point that Quil was wrong about the two of them; there were no feelings on either of their parts.

So instead of focusing on Embry, or her parents, Kayla got to know Bella. The boys had eventually settled into playing some video game while the two girls sat on the couch talking. It wasn't long before Kayla learned they were both graduating that year, and both suffered from horrible shyness. Though Kayla wouldn't call herself shy, more anxious than shy but she could understand Bella in some sense. She also could understand the break up Bella was going through, and it bothered Kayla.

She had some shitty boyfriends in the past, guys who were just downright horrible to her. But what Bella's boyfriend did, leaving her in the woods, which was a level Kayla couldn't understand. The whole thing made her sad, and also made her wish to befriend the girl. It wasn't like Kayla had many friends home to speak of but she knew it wouldn't matter once her parents got her back home. She'd never be back to La Push again.

"What's going on with you?" QUil finally asks her as they sit down for the dinner his mother made them. "You've been acting strange all day. Is this because of what I said last night? I'm sorry that Embry has a crush on you, but," thankfully Quil didn't get to finish.

"I don't have a crush on her," Embry defended himself, but his face was bright red.

"Yes, you do," Jacob decided to add his two cents in as he took some food for his plate.

"Oh, just like how you like Bella?" Embry shot back, shooting his friend a wicked grin.

Kayla turned red and she noticed Bella too had taken on a subtle shade of pink at the accusation that was thrown across the table. Both girls decided to focus on their food instead of on the boys who were arguing over feelings. It all seemed ridiculous to Kayla, she couldn't understand why her cousin even cared. If there were feelings from Embry to Kayla they were strictly one sided.

"You didn't answer me," Quil spoke again when the arguing died down amongst the boys. Jake and Embry settling on their food instead of talking about the girls. "Tell me what's going on, Kay-Kay."

She couldn't help but smile at the somewhat affection nickname Quil had gifted her in one of their many phone calls. But it only made it that much harder to tell him what had been eating her up all day. She didn't want to ruin his day, and keeping it from him during the hours of talking and video games had been hard. But as they all sat around the table, laughing and picking on each other she found it even harder. Her Aunt looked to her as if to give her some encouragement as she had earlier but it didn't help.

"My parents called me this morning," she couldn't look at him as she spoke but she felt everyone's eyes fall on her. "They are sending someone to pick me up."

"You told them the truth?" It was Embry who interjected into the conversation, but even still Kayla didn't look up from her plate.

"So what's going to happen?" Quil asked.

She looked over at him and bit her lip. She didn't have a real answer for him, only speculation. And her speculations were not things she wanted to share with him at the moment. But she knew she couldn't leave him without some kind of answer.

"I don't know," she admitted, "look I don't want to worry about it." She tried to force a smile onto her face, "I just want to celebrate my cousin's birthday."

And so that was what they did. They moved on from her parents and on to normal conversation. But even as they transitioned to talks of motorcycles, Bella's dad and Quil's birthday wishes, she could feel the eyes of a few of them lingering on her. She knew it weighed heavy on her Aunt's mind and Quil's as well but she knew they couldn't focus on that. Because just like her first trip to La Push, if this was the last visit her parents allowed she wanted it to be good.