"How could you know that behind my eyes a sad girl cried? And how could you know that I hurt so much inside? And how could you know that I'm not the average girl? I'm carrying the weight of the world." --from Anneliese Van Der Pol 'Over It'

Erin's POV

I knew I was late. My curfew is at ten and it was a little after midnight. I might have been able to get home faster if I had taken Seth up on his offer to drive me home. However, I had decided to run home. I may have overestimated my werewolf speed just a little. Did I actually expect to be anywhere nears as fast as the other wolves? I knew the only reason I beat Seth in that race was because he had slowed down for my sake. I barely had any wolf blood at all. But, it was too late now. The damage was done and I would have to face the consequences.

I slowly pulled open the door. I heard nothing. No Brian screaming, no TV blaring, no Brian snoring. I cautiously peeked into the living room. He wasn't there. I peeked out the window. Brian's car was missing from the driveway. How didn't I notice that? Where was he? Did I really care? As long as he wasn't yelling at me, forcing me to clean something, grounding me, or hitting me I was happy.

I thundered up the stairs to my room. I slowly pulled open the door and found Seth, sitting on my bed grinning at me hugely. I couldn't help but smile back. That smile always made my day.

"What're you doing in here?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my shoulder. "I followed you home to make sure you were safe." His warm breath tickled my face. "Then I noticed your uncle was gone and I thought you might like some company."

"How thoughtful." I told him, smiling.

He kissed me on the cheek. "That's the kinda guy I am."

"Tell your mom I said thanks." I told him.

"For what?" he asked curiously.

I chuckled. "For making you the way you are." I answered. "She did a great job with you."

He chuckled too. "Ok, I'll tell her." We sat in silence for a while before my cell phone rang.

Seth let go of me and I took the phone out of my pocket. Why was Kendra calling me at almost one in the morning? I put my finger to my mouth, signaling Seth to be quiet, and then answered the phone.

"Kendra?" I asked, faking a yawn. "Why are you calling so early?"

"Sorry to wake you." my best friend said in her Montana accent. "It's just that I'm at the barn right now." Kendra's dad kept a stable with some horses on his property.

"Why are you at the barn this early?" I asked, yawning again. This sounded important.

"Well, Sassy foaled!" she shouted excitedly.

I jumped out of my bed, giving Seth quite a fright. "Are you serious?!" Sassy was my horse. Kendra had given her to me to ride when we were in the fourth grade. I was the one who got to take of her and everything. Everyone, including Kendra's parents, called her my horse even though I didn't legally own her. "I didn't even know she was pregnant!"

Kendra laughed. "I know. I purposely didn't tell you. She just had the baby an hour ago."

"Boy or girl?" I asked, excitedly.

"Boy." she answered automatically. "So, do you want to pick out the name? Dad said he's technically your horse too."

"Are you kidding?" I squealed. "Tell your dad thank you so freakin' much." I turned to Seth and smiled hugely. He just shrugged and grinned. I'd have to explain later. "What's he look like?" Sassy was a grey Appaloosa, but I didn't know what the dad looked like.

"Dark brown Appaloosa." she told me.

Hmm. I had a name, but I wanted to ask Seth. "Hold on a sec Kendra." I told her. I put the receiver to my chest.

"Hey Seth." I whispered. "My horse, Sassy, just had a baby."

He smiled. "Cool. I didn't even know you had a horse."

I chuckled. "Well, she's not legally mine." I sighed. "Anyway, the foal's a boy and he's dark brown and spotted."

"Okay." Seth said, wondering where I was getting at.

"Well, since he kind of looks like Quil as a wolf I was wondering if it would be okay to name the baby after him." I felt that I had to ask someone's permission and since Seth was standing there I felt that he was the perfect candidate.

He shrugged. "Should be okay. S'long as you don't tell her exactly why."

I nodded. "Of course." I got back on the phone. "Hey, Kendra. What about 'Quil' for the name?"

"Q-U-I-L?" she asked.

"Yeah. Short for Quileute. Also the name of a friend of mine. You know I hang down at La Push all the time." I told her.

"Hold on. Let me ask Dad." I waited a second and heard Kendra and her dad have a whispered conversation. A minute later Kendra got back on the phone. "He said that's fine."

"Great." I said, sighing. "Wish I could come up and see him. Sassy too."

"Why can't you?" Kendra asked, surprised.

"Brian would never let me go up there." I explained. "He's kind of strict."

"He can't be any worse than my dad." Kendra said. Mr. Taylor was very old fashioned.

"Trust me. Brian just won't listen to anything." I told her. "Your dad can be reasoned with."

"Want him to talk to your uncle? Maybe he could work something out."

"No." I told her automatically. Why did everyone want to try and negotiate with Brian? "It'd just make things worse."

"Okay." Kendra said as though she wasn't completely convinced. "Well, I have good news."

"What?" I asked.

"My dad's got business in Seattle. He's letting me come with him. He'll drive my truck down there and then he'll be taking a taxi wherever he's got to go and I can drive up to Forks and visit with you."

I squealed as loudly as I could and Seth put his hands over his ears and cringed jokingly. "That's awesome! When? Where are you staying? How long will you be here?" I missed my best friend so much.

Kendra laughed. "Calm down Erin." she told me. "It'll be around the end of September on a weekend. Me and Dad will be leaving that Friday after school. Then I'm coming up to Forks on Saturday. I get to spend the whole day with you. Then we're leaving Sunday. We're staying at some hotel in Seattle."

"That's a month away!" I shouted. "You have to bring pictures of Quil. I can't wait to see you."

"I can't wait to see you either. You have to introduce me to everyone. Especially that boyfriend of yours." I could tell she was grinning mischievously. "Jamie's proud of you. She said your finally getting girly. I'm just happy that you're happy. He sounds awesome."

I giggled. "Of course you get to meet him. Ooh. I can't wait. We can hang out with the guys for awhile and then maybe Alice, Nessie, Scout, and Bella can come shopping with us or something. You have to meet the Cullens too."

"Sounds great." she told me. "Well, I have to go. School in the morning and all of that. See you Erin."

"Bye Kendra." I hung up the phone.

"You know a person is loud when you can hear everything they say on a phone conversation." Seth said, chuckling.

"Yeah, well, you have that super werewolf hearing." I reminded him.

"True." he laughed. "But she seemed excited."

I nodded. "She's heard so much about you guys. I'm telling you, when she gets here she'll be able to tell who is who without having ever seen so much as a picture of them before."

"Well, she got one thing absolutely right." Seth said. "It's late and you need to get to sleep. We got school."

I frowned. "What about you?"

He chuckled. "I'm used to not getting enough sleep. Patrol and all that."

"I'm used to no sleep too." I reminded him. "Hanging around werewolves and vampires all day and then having to do my homework at night."

Seth shook his head. "School's only been in session for a day. You haven't gotten any homework."

I punched him lightly on the arm. "I guess you're right."

"As always." he said, kissing the top of my head. "Your uncle's back." he informed me. "I hear him pulling up."

I sighed, hearing him too. "You better get out of here."

"Wait for him to get in the house." he told me. "If I left now he'd see me."

I nodded and we stood in silence, waiting for the front door to shut. When we heard it, Seth climbed out the window. "See you in the morning love."

Love? He'd never called me that before. I thought I told him no frilly nicknames. Oh well, I kinda liked it. I had a hunch that he picked it up from Edward. I might have to thank him for that later.

"Bye." I whispered. He jumped out of the tree and I added, "Sethie."

Sweet huh? So, in a few chapters you get to meet Kendra Taylor. I have no idea when I'm going to be updating again. I hope it'll be soon. If you guys have any ideas for a new chapter, let me know. Well, review. See you later.