A/N: It's a shorter chapter, but it sort of sets up what's going to happen in the next chapter. Kerri is not the OC I talked about in the last chapter, she's kind of minor but it makes the next chapter more plausible. I had debated adding this to the last chapter, but I felt the need to update something. So this was half-done, and since I'm sick you got two updates in two days.

Please review. It makes colds go away quicker, and when colds go away quicker so does my writer's block. Stupid stuffed-up sinuses.

Enjoy.

"I'm not going!" Seth shouted the next morning.

"I can't force Jacob to, but I can force you. Mom's not around, I'm in charge of you," Leah said back.

Hermione opened the back door, coming in from a night hunting and scouting terrain. Much to her delight thirty miles north, deep in a forest reserve nestled between two mountains, was an Acromantula nest. Not nearly as big as the one near Hogwarts, but enough for her for a while. She bagged one and ran happily home, arriving just in time to hear Seth and Leah start to argue.

"What can't you force him to do?" Hermione asked, pulling off the jacket she had been wearing which was stained with mud and a few bits of black blood.

"She thinks I should enroll in the school here," he said, as if the suggestion of him going back to school was offensive.

"And why shouldn't you?" she asked, looking confused.

"Not you, too!" Seth shouted in frustration.

"Hermione is a bookworm who would be in school until she knew everything in the world," Jacob said, coming downstairs wearing only a pair of pajama pants and socks.

"Oh, God, I didn't need to see that this early in the morning," Leah muttered, throwing Jacob a blanket.

"Mom's not here. How can I register?" Seth said, sounding triumphant.

"Got it covered," Hermione said, going to the safe with all their important information including their fake documents. She had spent less than twenty minutes modifying their identification to read their new address using her wand, and apparently her false identification had been good enough to fool the banks, the people they bought the house from, not to mention the liquor store. This had surprised no one, the Cullens were experts at finding people to make them look legit no matter where they went.

"I've got the paperwork filled out," Hermione said, pulling out a few sheets of paper. "The realtor gave me the correct packet when I decided on the house and mentioned I had a high-schooler living here."

"Two high-schoolers," Leah corrected. "Jacob, too."

"Not Jacob," Jacob interrupted. "I had Hermione up my age a little bit, get me a fake transcript. I'm enrolling in automotive classes. I love working on cars, but they don't let you do it nowadays without a little piece of paper saying you know what you're doing."

"I could do that, too," Seth muttered.

"No, you couldn't," Jacob laughed. "You don't know the difference between a wrench and a socket."

"But I could go study something else."

"You're finishing high school," Leah said with such finality that the conversation ended right there.

"I called the high school while the Realtor was making some phone calls, told them about my, er, your mother's condition, that precludes her from going out in the sun. With the Realtor vouching for me they were happy to accept your registration by fax..." Hermione explained.

"The Realtor vouched that an eighteen year girl gave birth to a fifteen year old?" Jacob raised an eyebrow.

She let out a cough that sounded an awful lot like 'Confundus!' "All you have to do is bring your identification with you this morning and you're set."

"This morning?" Seth sputtered out the orange juice he was drinking.

"No point in wasting another day sitting around. You need to get in the swing of things."

He started muttering under his breath, then purposefully bumped into Hermione as he walked towards the stairs, mumbling about 'getting ready'.

"We leave in half an hour. I'll drive you, honey!" Hermione called up the stairs after him. "And don't worry about a book-bag and all that, I stopped at the store to buy you one."

Leah was chuckling. "You want me to run patrols today, Jake?" she asked.

"Why are you asking me?" he asked, milk poised over his cereal.

"You're the Alpha of our new little pack. You make the decisions."

"Alpha?"

"You made the decision to leave. You fought Sam. We followed you. You're the leader."

"Can't Hermione be our leader?"

"No offense, Hermione, but I don't take orders from vampires."

"None taken," Hermione waved her off like it was no big deal.

"Fine," Jacob grumbled, carrying an armload of food towards the table. "Hermione, do you think we should be running patrols?"

"I think that if anyone comes on the property we'll know. I set up an anti-intrusion jinx. We'll know if someone does so much as a u-turn in the drive."

"Good. No patrols, then. So, Leah, what were you planning on doing with your time up here?"

"I was thinking of getting a job, actually," Leah shrugged. "Nothing too much, but I feel really bad living here without helping out with expenses. Don't argue, Hermione, you and I are going to discuss rent for Seth and I."

"If you insist, but I'm not going to discuss it with you until you have your job," Hermione responded with a shrug.

"Fair deal," she nodded.

"I'm ready," Seth mumbled, walking down the stairs.

"Aren't those the same clothes you wore the other day?" his sister asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I only brought so many," he pointed out.

"What was in that suitcase of yours?"

"DVDs, my game system, some CDs..."

"You're such a male," she growled.

"I'll take you shopping after school," Hermione offered

"Don't spoil him," Leah snapped. "Don't go all out. Buy him a couple pairs of pants, a couple shirts, some socks and underwear, and he'll do housework to pay you back."

"Okay, but I'm going to buy us all coats," Hermione announced. "It's going to look really weird if none of us walk around in them."

"Deal," Jacob said, pulling her to him to give her a good-bye kiss, but he stopped before his lips met hers.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking into his worried face.

"Your eyes," he muttered. Immediately Leah and Seth craned their necks to see what he was talking about. She turned her head to the mirror by the back door, and immediately could see what he was talking about. Her eyes were golden from her recent hunt, but they had small shoots of red through them.

"It must be from..." she trailed off with a pointed look at his shoulder.

"They aren't that noticeable, I only just saw them because I was looking," he said lightly, but was still shocked that such as small amount of blood had caused such a noticeable reaction. She had left their bed quickly last night, claiming she needed to hunt after the chaos, but was it the long day or did she realize her blood lust was getting out of control?

"I'll probably be gone when you get back," he continued. "I'm going to go see if I can enroll. Classes start today, and if there are any openings I want to get started."

She pulled out her wallet and slipped him a few bills. "In case you get into the classes, it's just some money for books. I un-shrunk your car, it's in the garage."

"You're the best," he bent down to kiss her. "I promise I'll pay you back."

"Don't worry about it," she shook her head. "I just want to make sure you're enjoying living here, you know, making the best of a bad situation."

"That's assuming that I'd consider this a bad situation," he said as she walked to the back door, Seth behind her.

"Jeez, Jake, why don't you just pop the question and get it over with?" Leah rolled her eyes as the back door slammed shut.

"I would if I thought she'd say yes. But she's not ready," he replied.

"How do you know?"

"She's not in love with me yet."

"Bullshit."

"She hasn't told me that. She doesn't flinch or anything when I say it, but she hasn't returned it yet. I can't blame her, after everything that's happened."

"But she does love you, Jake. She didn't object to this insane flight, she left her family and her friends to follow you. You two might bicker back and forth like you hate each other, but you can tell she likes to be around you as much you like being around her."

"Until she uses the word, I'm going to be content with what I have. You know as well as I do imprinting is not a two-way street. She could run off with someone else at any moment, and it won't cause her any heartbreak."

"She wouldn't do that to you," Leah looked at him seriously.

"I don't want her to be with me because she feels obligated. When she's ready to call it love, she will." He busied himself buttering his toast before asking, "Any word from Charlie?"

"He's doing well. He's going to try to come by on weekends. I guess I'm going to have to ask Hermione how to send him a note to tell him about our sudden move. Best he doesn't figure it out from Sam."

"Probably a good idea. She might want to tell Harry and Ron, too."

Leah flipped through a few television stations. "Are you going to move to England?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"If she asks," he replied. "Would you move to Romania?"

"I think it's going to be quite a while before Charlie is ready for something like that, if he ever is at all. I bet Hermione will want to move back to England as soon as she's done with her antivenin."

"What about Seth?"

"Mom wants him back. We'd have to see if Sam would allow him back. If so, he'll go home. If not, well, he's my responsibility. I'd probably take him to Romania, or maybe try to convince Charlie to come over here. There's bound to be dragons closer than Romania, right?"

"Hermione would be the girl to talk to about that."

"Oh."

"Do you want to go back?" he asked.

"No," she shook her head firmly. "Without you as a punching bag Sam would turn on me next. All the stories... we both stepped in it deep with our imprints. And I care much more about Charlie than what Sam Uley thinks."

"Well, you did make me Alpha. What if I order you not to see Charlie?" he smirked.

"Then I'll tell Hermione on you," she rolled her eyes.

He chuckled and returned to his breakfast. After a few minutes silence he said, without looking up from his bowl. "Hey, Leah?"

"Yeah?" she replied, eyes still glued to the telvision.

"Thanks."

"You, too."

Looking to be in ones mid-twenties while only fifteen would earn anyone stares. Seth was somewhat used to it, so the curious looks and whispers that followed him around the school the whole day didn't really bother him. His teachers, while giving suspicious glances, were all friendly and acted as if the stranger in the school wasn't so... well, strange. He was relieved when it came time for his last class of the day, Biology. The teacher directed him to a spot at a two-person lab table saying his partner would be along in a minute.

"Hey, Stretch," a pretty girl wearing a black cardigan, red plaid skirt, knee-high boots, with chain and spike jewelry said, looking at him as she slid into the seat next to him.

"Oh, hello," he said, giving her an awkward smile.

"I'm Kerri. Do you have a name, or should I just keep calling you 'Stretch'?"

"Seth Clearwater."

"Nice to meet you, Seth Clearwater," she said, reaching her hand out. He shook it, and she looked at his hand in surprise.

"You sick or something, Stretch? Your hand is burning up!"

"I have a naturally higher body temperature than your average person," he informed her with a chuckle.

"How much higher is 'natural'?" she asked, looking skeptical.

"I dunno," he shrugged. "I never really bothered to get an average."

"I see. So, where you from? Are you a member of one of the tribes around here?"

"No, I'm a Quileute, from La Push in Washington."

"Never heard of them."

"Most people haven't," he shrugged again. "It's not like it's a prominent tribe or anything."

"Hey, Kerri," another girl and a boy slipped into the lab table in front of them. "Who's the new guy?"

"Seth Clearwater," Kerri informed them with a nod of her head. "Seth, this is Megan and Christian. My good friends, and occasional bumbling idiots. I hope you don't mind if they're constantly squabbling between each other. We've tried to get them to stop, with no success."

"I'm used to it," Seth chuckled.

Kerri, Megan and Christian stared at him, waiting for the rest of the story.

"I, um, live with my sister Leah, a friend and my friend's girlfriend. Jacob and 'Mione squabble all the time."

"So, wait, you don't live with your mother or anything?" Megan asked, sounding confused.

"Oh, she's, um, there. She's just sick and can't really go anywhere. So Leah, Jacob, and 'Mione take care of me."

"I see..." she said, scrutinizing him as if she wasn't sure if she believed his story.

"What brings you up here?" Christian asked as the rest of the class started to settle in.

"Just needed to get away," he said in a hushed voice as the teacher called for quiet.

After class he dropped the books he didn't need for homework in his locker, stuffed the ones he did need into his backpack, and started towards the front to meet Hermione. He passed Kerri, Megan, and Christian in the hall. Christian nudged Kerri, who caught up with Seth.

"Hey, how was your first day, Stretch?" she asked as he slowed his paces so she didn't have to jog to keep up.

"It was high school," he responded.

"So, um, where are you going now?" she sounded nervous.

"I'm going to go clothes shopping with 'Mione. She thinks my wardrobe is looking a little shabby," he replied, feeling equally nervous.

"That's, um, cool," she replied, glancing behind her. Out of his peripheral vision he saw Christian giving her a visual cue to keep going. He couldn't help but smile. They walked out the front door, and he could easily spot the shiny black Mustang in the sea of SUVs. Hermione was perched on the hood, oblivious to the men nearby leering at her, and he knew his conversation was no longer private.

"So, I was thinking, have you heard of the band The Vampires Next Door?" she asked, biting her lip as soon as she said it.

"No," he chuckled with a glance at Hermione, whose mouth had upturned slightly.

"They're this group that claims to be vampires, kind of stupid, I know, but their music is pretty good. My dad owns the club they're playing at, and he says he'll give me and my friends tickets. We'll sit in a private section, so we won't be by the drinkers, but I thought if you're not doing anything Saturday night..." she trailed off, playing with a bit of her hair. They came to a stop next to the Mustang, and Hermione pretended to be interested in her cell phone.

"Sounds like fun," he said. "I'm in."

"Really?" she breathed in relief. "I mean, cool. It'll be, you know, fun."

"Sounds great," he smiled.

Hermione shut her phone loudly as someone wolf-whistled at her. "Ready to go?" she asked.

"Oh," Kerri said, studying Hermione quickly. "Is this your sister?"

"Oh, no. This is 'Mione, my friend's girlfriend. She just likes to drive," he said. "'Mione, this is Kerri, my, um, friend."

"Nice to meet you," Hermione said with a nod as she backed towards the drivers side door.

"Yeah, nice to meet you," Kerri mumbled. "So, see you tomorrow, Seth?"

"And every day in Biology," he smiled, opening the car door. She gave an awkward little wave and rushed back towards Christian, Megan and two other people, who immediately started grilling her.

"So, good first day?" Hermione smirked, pulling into traffic.

"Yeah, pretty good," he smiled.

"She's pretty."

"Yeah."

"So, what's this band you're going to?"

"The Vampires Next Door? I've never heard of them, but I'm sure you'd get a kick out of them."

"I may just have to check them out," she nodded. She was sure that Kerri's suspicions were correct, it was no more than another band with a gimmick, but just in case she had to make sure she knew who was around. She could never be too careful, their list of friends was short at the moment.