Life of A Reluctant Mate
New Moon
Chapter Ten: Avery's Awesome Math Skills
Avery hummed an up beat tune as she and Bella made their way to the Reservation. Bella wanted Jake's help with the bikes since both of them were almost completely useless besides the basics, and in the shapes the bikes were in they were going to need a lot more than just a tire and oil change.
Bella backed up into the Black's yard and got out with ease. Avery however was still sore and tired from earlier that morning and wanted nothing to do but sleep and eat the new bag of potato chips she had stashed away from Bella and Charlie.
"Bella! Were the hell have you been, loca?"
"Aw, I missed you too Jake-y!" Avery put on the best sugary fake smile she could muster. Jacob gave a slightly embarrassed laugh before hugging her as well.
With a sigh Bella finally motioned to the green tarp in the truck bed. "I uh, I brought you something."
"Okay."
"It's a little crazy." A scoff and small laugh left Avery's mouth accidently at Bella's description. It was VERY crazy! And for some reason Bella had yet to see that. With a small grunt Bella threw off half of the tarp, revealing the old pieces of junk that still smelled lightly of left out fish.
"Wow." Jacob was obviously very impressed at the rubbish bikes. "Scrap metal. You shouldn't have."
"I saved it from the junkyard." When the three were left in silence Bella cleared her throat and looked towards the rustic metal. "I think they'll cost more to fix than they're worth, but then I thought that if I had a mechanic friend to help me out then…"
"Ah! Me, being the mechanic-type friend?"
"That's right!" Avery piped up.
"Since when are you into motorcycles?" Avery's mouth opened with a sarcastic smile ready to tell him about Bella's little biking adventure when Bella quickly answered.
"Since now." Bella shot Avery a look that clearly begged her not to say anything.
Jacob was obviously having difficulty deciding whether or not he should help her do this. "I get it if you think this is really stupid and reckless, you're not the only one." Bella nodded her head in the general vicinity of Avery.
"Yeah, I mean, it's completely stupid and reckless. When do we start?" Avery groaned knowing that it was inevitable now.
"Um. Now. Please?" With a chuckle Jacob smiled brightly at Bella.
"All right." He moved to the back and looked like he was about to take down the bikes.
"Oh, hey, be careful. Those things are actually really heavy, so…" Avery's mouth went slack as she watched Jake effortlessly grab the bike and put it down on the ground.
"Wow. Jake, you're, like, buff. How can that happen? You're, like, 16. I don't get it."
"Mmm-hmm. Age is just a number, baby. What are you, like, 40 now?" Jacob joked.
"It feels like that sometimes." Bella smiled sadly.
"Amen to that." Avery said as she stretched her sore muscels.
"You're just a weakling, what are you 120 pounds?" Jacob laughed.
"Har-har, asshole." Avery laughed it off but in truth she was calculating the number of pounds she had lost drastically these past few weeks. Chances were she was a lot more like 110.
Bella and Jacob continued to walked ahead while Avery suddenly stopped. There was a buzzing in her chest one that made her feel uncomfortable. Suddenly the vibration in her chest turned into a chill in her spine. She casually looked slightly over her shoulder and gulped at what she saw.
Three men that looked to be Jacobs size stood in the distance, each bare-chested. Two appeared to be looking in Bella's and Jacob's direction while the much larger one stood tall, staring directly at her.
After a moment she slowly began to catch up with the others hoping this sudden burst of anxiousness would go away.
The next day Avery found herself flipping through a book while sitting on an old tire in the Black's garage and workshop. She hummed gently along with the song playing on the radio until it was suddenly turned off. She looked up to find Bella walking away from the radio, a look of relief on her face.
"That's song's good. You don't like it?" Jacob asked from his position fixing the something suspension on one of the bike.
"I don't really like music anymore, kind of." Avery knew what Bella was talking about instantly. Bella couldn't listen to music, and Avery couldn't watch old western movies, not with out remembering the vampires they yearned for.
"Okay. No more music."
"So I was thinking, if we're gonna do this every day, and hopefully we will, we have to, like, fit some homework into here somewhere. I don't want Billy thinking that I'm a bad influence on you."
"Its fine, blame it on Avery, he'd let her murder me!" Jacob motioned to the glaring blonde.
"No he wouldn't."
"Yes he would, and we both know it." Avery opened her mouth to argue with Jake but found it was useless. Everyone who knew the Swans and Blacks new that Avery was the golden apple of Billy's eye. Maybe it was the fact he didn't have to feed her or give her money that made her his favorite.
"Besides, you influence me? Please." Jacob scoffed.
Bella actually looked a little insulted. "Are you…I'm older than you, both of you actually, so that makes me the influencer and you the influencee."
Avery laughed as Jacob shook a finger at her. "No, no, no. my size and knowledge base actually makes me older than you because of your general paleness and lack of know-how."
"I convinced you to build two-wheeled death machines with me. Don't you think that makes you kind of young and naïve?"
With a huff Jacob stopped working and looked at Bella. "Okay. So where do we stand?"
"I'm 35. And you might be, like, 32."
"Oh come on."
"Hey it's better than Avery. She's like…12."
"Bitch!" Avery threw her book at the brunet in disbelief.
"What's the square root of 169?"
"….14?" Avery squeaked out.
"No, 13."
"Son of a bitch!" Avery grabbed her book back before crossing her arms and pouting at a laughing Jacob and chuckling Bella.
"And that's why you're twelve." Bella laughed.
"Yo, Jake, you in there?" a voice called in.
"It's okay. It's just my boys."
"You have boys? He has boys!" Avery gave a sarcastic smirk to Bella pointing to Jake.
"Hey, Jake."
"Hey. Guys, this is Bella and Avery." Avery gave a smile and wave to the two cute boys. One had short curly hair and a twinkle in his eyes. The other had long hair and a sweet smile.
"Bella, Avery, that's Quil and Embry."
"Hi."
"Ello."
"I'm Quil Ateara." He gave Bella a look that made Avery start to giggle.
"Oh god." She muttered as the giggles subsided.
"So the bike building story is true."
"Oh, yeah, yeah, I thought him everything he knows."
"What about the part where you're his girlfriend?"
Avery suppressed her giggles with both hands, her body shaking with laughter as she stared at Jacob. She looked over at Embry catching his eye. The brown orbs widened before he looked away, a blush hinting at his cheeks.
"Uh, we're friends, you know."
"Oh, Burn!" Embry laughed.
"Actually, remember I said she's a girl and a friend." Jacob tried to cover.
"Embry, do you remember him making that distinction?" Quil stared at Jake with a smile while he asked his friend.
"Nope." Avery chuckled lightly seeing the events unfold although right now she was actually really feeling bad for Jake. It's tough being embarrassed by your friends in front of your crush.
"So you guys have girlfriends? That's awesome." This time Avery laughed unabashed with Jacob as Bella saved the day.
"Yeah right. Quil's actually taking his cousin to prom." Avery stared slacked jawed at Quil.
"I thought that only happened in movies, it seems to horrible for real life!"
"Yeah, that's still a riot." Quil looked around embarrassed. "You want funny, Black? I'll give you funny." Avery laughed as Quil and Jacob began to wrestle, Embry standing next to her.
"I got five bucks on Quil."
"You're on!"
Please Review :) and don't forget to add your Vote!(Paul or Embry) (Score so far: Paul-2, Embry-0)
