Hey! I hope you all had a great Christmas, and a happy new year to everyone!

I'm sorry for not having updated in more than a month, Christmas is always a time of stress for me. Plus, I've outlined the rest of the story, which has taken some time, too. So now I know how The Most Awesome Life Of Leah Clearwater is going to end – and you don't :) It's going to be a lot more chapters until the end, though, that much I can tell you.

That reminds me – is there anyone who'd like to do a beta's job? Not so much for the writing style, grammar and spelling, but more for the content of the story. I'd like to have someone who tells me what I have already written, what might be too stupid or too romantic or too violent – someone like that. Anyone interested?

Also, I now have a Twitter account using the same pseudonym as on this site.

Lita of Jupiter: Great idea about Alice's spam list... this just might make it into the story :)

MeFromMars: Thank you so much! Your reviews really made my day... I feel so motivated!

LoverGurrl411: Thanks for the compliment :) It's nice to hear that my writing style and all that has improved over the last year – and I'm really flattered that you've read through the whole story in just one day :)

Thanks a million times to everyone who has reviewed, favorited or alerted my story – not only the more recent of you, but really everyone :*

A Nerve-Wracking Song, A Corpse, And A "Surprise"

It was Friday morning, quarter past five, and I stood with my suitcase in front of my school alongside the rest of the senior high students. Two buses stood there, and it was freezing. The reason why we were still waiting and NOT sitting inside the warmth of the buses was that one person hadn't arrived yet.

Kayla.

As soon as Mr Cauldwell had realized that one student had failed to arrive at the school at 5 a.m., he had announced that no student would be allowed to enter the bus.

Seth yawned loudly and laid an arm around Abby, who was freezing.

Kim, who stood next to me, cleared her throat and rolled her eyes. "That was so obvious", she said in an annoyed tone. I nodded in agreement. Around us, all students were looking around and whispered in angry voices. I could see Jacob, who was standing there with Quil and Embry. Jared was talking quietly to Paul, who nodded every now and then. Jessica sat on her suitcase and was reading in a magazine. Mr Cauldwell seemed extremely angry. I hoped he would show that to Kayla when she arrived.

It was twety-five minutes past five when Kayla's car turned up. She was the only one who looked completely awake and fully overdressed. Her face was covered in make-up, and I wasn't the only one who found her ugly: many people rolled their eyes. Mr Cauldwell was fuming, but Kayla didn't seem to notice that. I was sure that in her opinion, she hadn't done anything wrong.

Now we were finally allowed to enter the buses. I looked around and wondered if I would be able to sit next to someone I liked. That wasn't easy, because there were only three people I really wanted to sit next to: my brother (who would probably sit next to Abby), Kim (who would certainly sit next to Jared), and Jacob. And I didn't know if Jacob wanted to sit next to me.

Of course, my worries were unnecessary. Jacob grabbed my hand and drew me to a seat in front of Quil's and Embry's and behind Seth's and Abby's. I was now pretty convinced that my journey wouldn't be as calm and quiet as I had hoped. Although... they seemed tired. Maybe they wouldn't be so loud, and I would be able to get some of that sleep that I had missed tonight.

"Window?", Jacob asked, and it took me a while to understand what he meant.

"Yes, please", I answered and sat down on the window place. I closed my eyes. Seth had kept me awake for almost all the night. He had started packing only a few hours before our departure, and of course he had panicked. Because Mom was almost having a breakdown, I had helped my brother, and that had cost me a good amount of sleep.

I yawned. Jacob grinned. "Are you tired?" I nodded and yawned again. "Then sleep, I won't wake you up." He winked at me, laid an arm around me, and although it was hard to believe him, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

I woke up two hours later from singing voices. The whole bus – I realized in seconds that my bus was full of freshmen and sophomores, and that only Jessica, Kim, Jared and I were seniors – was singing:"We know a song that is a pain for everyone, a pain for everyone, a pain for everyone! We know a song that is a pain for everyone, and it goes like this: We know a song..." The only ones who weren't singing were me, Jessica, Kim and Jared. And Jacob, which was a surprise. Or not, because he was sleeping. I climbed across Jacob and walked to Jessica, who sat alone behind the sleeping Kim and Jared. I didn't know how they were able to sleep with that noise.

Jessica was still – or again? - reading in her magazine, and first she didn't realize I was sitting next to her. I asked:"What are you reading?", and she jumped.

"Gosh, Leah, you scared me!" She smiled, and I smiled back. We had never been good friends – although I had once called her and Kayla my best friends, but when no one else wanted to be your friend, you didn't have a choice. Kayla had been my friend for almost half a year – ever since it had become more difficult with Sam. But Jessica and Kayla had always been friends, ever since preschool, as far as I could remember. Ever since they had stopped being friends, I had been pretty curious as to why. Rumors about a boy had spread through the school – but hey! They were rumors, and it was better to be careful with those. They could be true – but they could also be the desperate try of a classmate to send somebody down the school's hierarchy.

"Sorry", I grinned, "Now what are you reading?"

She held up the magazine so I could see it. It was something about nature and wildlife, and I remembered that Jessica was really into this kind of stuff. "It's an article about Orca whales. It's very interesting, especially since the Nootkas have always been famous whalers."

"Ah."

Jessica grinned at me. "You don't seem interested. Anyway, was there something that you wanted from me?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, there's something I wanted to ask you. About Kayla. What happened that you don't like her anymore?"

Jessica grinned again. "Haven't you heard the rumors?"

"I don't trust rumors ever since someone thought I had destroyed Sam's stuff."

Jessica looked away. "Leah... can you forgive me for thinking that? I really like you, but back then, I ws just so confused. Can you forgive me?"

I smiled. "Forgive you? Sure! Forgive Kayla? Never. So, now tell me what happened."

Jessica took a deep breath. "Well, I had a boyfriend, and Kayla made him break up with me. You could argue that he wasn't the right one then. Still. And it serves him right that she didn't want to be his girlfriend and that she's after Paul now. Guess she just wanted me to be alone. Fortunately Paul doesn't like her at all."

I grinned. "Paul doesn't like anyone."

We both laughed. Then Jessica said:"Did you know that when you and Kayla were friends, she only wanted to get Sam to break up with you? She was head over heels for him, and couldn't understand why he loved you. I think it's pretty obvious, but she was just... you know her."

"I had already thought so", I said in a bitter tone. Kayla had always tried to flirt with Sam, but Sam had mostly laughed about that – and about me being jealous. "You're mine, and I'm yours. Forget everything else", he had always said.

"Leah", Jessica began after a while, "Why exactly did Sam break up with you?"

"He im-", I stopped before I could continue and thus reveal the tribe's best-kept secret, "I mean, he fell in love with my cousin."

Jessica didn't look convinced. "Just like that? There must have been something else... something that didn't work between you two... something that got on his nerves... you know what I mean?"

I knew exactly what she meant. I had analyzed every single one of my character traits to find out what it could have been that had Sam made breaking up with me. And I had come to the conclusion – after my assumption had been proved by the fact that Sam had imprinted on Emily – that I was perfect. I hadn't done anything wrong. I just hadn't been the right person on the whole. That was even worse, but also better.

Only that I couldn't tell that Jessica.

"Oh... maybe I was just too dominant... I think that bothered him, since he always- always acts like an Alpha." Good lie, Leah, I told myself. Hopefully Jessica thought so, too.

She did. "That makes sense", she said and smiled at me.

"Yeah, it does", I grinned. It so didn't. We fell silent, and Jessica continued reading her magazine.

"Hey, Jess", I said after a while, "I'm glad we can talk again."

She looked at me for a few seconds. Then she said:"Yeah, me too." She smiled.

"I should return to my seat now, I think", I finally said, "There's something I want to read, too."

"Do that. See you later." She winked at me, and I climbed back onto my seat.

I ate one of my sandwiches and then unpacked the newspaper articles Shaun had sent me. The kids had gotten quieter, fortunately. It was quiet enough to be able to concentrate on the reports, and so I also took my journal out of my bag. I had started to write down everything that I had found out, which also meant that there wasn't much free space left.

I had written down how I had found out about the wolf pack and about imprinting, and how I had found out about the Cullens being vampires. The Carrizo Springs murders had their own pages, and I hadn't only collected the information from the newspaper articles, but had also written down my theory of the death having been caused by a group of vampires and of Jasper knowing something about that. But as long as he didn't say anything about that, I could only assume.

Now it was time to collect information on the wolf that had been held responsible. I took out a highlighter and marked everything in the articles that seemed important to me. The first sighting of a 'monster' in the woods, then the realization that the 'monster' was a 'gigantic wolf', and then finally the theory that this wolf had killed all those people. The article that stated that the wolf had been shot dead had probably on the newspaper's front page, and there was also a picture. One couldn't see the wolf's fur color, but since it looked white on the photo, it probably had been white or some color similar to white.

A close-up showed the face of the wolf. People had forced the eye-lids open, so that it seemed as if the wolf was looking at the reader.

It was creepy to look at the dead animal. Something inside of me wanted to cry. But I was only shocked. The wolf looked similar to the one that had chased me in my dreams for a long time. And it scared me to see it on a photo. Could it be that everything was connected?

Could it really have something to do with Leah Clearwater the Older?

I dialed Jacob's home phone number. Billy answered after just a minute.

"Billy Black here."

"Hi, Billy, this is Leah, I-"

"Hello, Leah, dear, Jacob's not here, he's on a study trip to Canada."

I rolled my eyes. "I know, Billy, I'm sitting next to him."

"Oh. What do you want, then?"

I took a deep breath. "Leah Clearwater the Older. When did she disappear?"

"In the beginning of the 1920ies. You still want to know everything about her, don't you?"

I ignored the last part. "I need the exact date, Billy."

"Well...", he thought for a moment, "I'm pretty sure it was in December 1920. Yes, that's the month. You don't need the day, do you?"

"No, no. December 1920. Thank you."

"But you know that she just looked for a lonely place to die, right? You don't need to go looking for her body or even assume that she might have lived longer."

I took another deep breath. "But I do, Billy. I think she went to seek her loved one, just like the moon wolf." I didn't know who this loved one might have been. But I was sure that I knew where she had gone looking for him.

It was already dark when we arrived at the Nootka camp. I had written down everything important about the wolf and had glued its picture next to my words. I so needed this phone call from this woman.

Jacob yawned at me. "I hope the beds are comfortable, these bus seats are killing me!" He winked at me. I nodded, and we got out of the bus. Kim was leaning against Jared, who was calling someone (probably Sam, the big annoying babysitter).

"Find your group, get your trunks, and then we'll lead you to your wooden cabin", Mr Cauldwell said loudly, "We're the first to arrive. The Makahs will come tomorrow, and you have to get up at eight a.m., understood?" Everyone nodded, and I looked around for Jessica, Kim and Abby. Kim was still with Jared, and I walked towards her. She smiled at me and yawned:"Gosh, I'm so tired. Where's Jessica? And have you seen Abby?"

We found Jessica trying to get her trunk, and Abby was kissing my brother. I drew her away. "Come with me, honey, he won't let you sleep."

She grinned. "I know. He really snores loudly! Does your dad do that, too?"

I nodded and rolled my eyes. "Mom hates that."

"I do, too."

I went back to Jacob to say good night. He looked very tired, but smiled at me and gave me a big hug. "Night, beautiful. Good dreams."

I smiled and kissed his cheek. "Sleep well, Jakey."

Jess, Abby, Kim and I followed Mr Cauldwell to a small wooden cabin that was surrounded by tall trees. "That's yours", he said, "Leah, I give you the key, you are the oldest." He handed me the key. "Good night, girls. Tomorrow we'll meet at nine o'clock in the main house." With that, he left us.

"Yeah, right, because we've been here before and know exactly where the main house or the washing facilities are", I growled and opened the door to our little cottage.

Inside it looked like what one would call a typical Canadian wooden cabin. There were four beds, each looking inviting and warm with their plaid blankets. In one corner stood a small stove, and there was a door that led to the toilet.

I closed the door behind Abby and exhaled. "Okay, I don't want to sleep close to the door", I announced and put my bag onto the bed that was close to the stove.

Jessica shrugged. "I don't care."

"Me neither", Abby said.

"I do", Kim said, "I want the other one away from the door."

And so it was set. It didn't take long until we all fell asleep.

I woke up when it was still dark outside. A look at my cell phone told me it was five in the morning, and I could hear that it was raining outside. Great. I hated waking up much earlier than I would have to get up. I yawned and looked around the room to see my three friends still sleeping. Awesome, so they were able to sleep. While I wasn't. Why had I woken up? At least it were three more hours to sleep. I turned round in my bed and closed my eyes.

"Leah, are you coming with us? Showering?", a voice woke me. Light flooded through the windows, and I looked directly into Jessica's eyes.

"Oi!" I almost flew out of my bed. "What time is it?"

"Eight-fifteen, we have plenty of time left."

I exhaled relieved. "Thank God. Yeah, sure I'm coming with you. I gotta find my stuff, though."

We found the washing facilities pretty fast, and soon were able to dive into the streams of hot water. It felt awesome. They didn't have one big room with showers, but many little cabins.

"Hey, girls", Kim said from one of the cabins, "Does one of you have a hairdryer? Because I don't."

"Me neither", Jessica and Abby said simultaneously.

"Leah?", Kim asked, "What about you?"

"Nope. Sorry, girls."

"Well", Kim said after a second, "I don't care. I'll just braid my hair. Native American style!"

"Can someone braid my hair?", Jessica asked.

"Me!", Abby answered, and all of the sudden, I was really gald that I was sharing a cottage with these three girls.

"Come on, Lee! It's almost breakfast time!", Kim called, because I had taken too much time braiding my hair. She grabbed my arm and drew me to the main house, where we arrived at exactly nine o'clock. The main house was a big wooden building with huge glass windows and lots of tables and chairs. I could see Jacob waving at me and shouting:"Hey, Lee! Come sit with me!" He and his friends had reserved a table for eight and sat there as if they hadn't slept all night. Well, it was Jacob's gang. They probably hadn't slept all night. Abby ran to Seth and hugged him as if she hadn't seen him in ages. Kim and Jessica stared at each other and rolled their eyes, but then Kim saw Jared, and she was almost as fast as Abby. Jessica and I looked at each other and grinned. "Honestly, seeing this makes me not even wanting to fall in love again", Jessica said, and I had to agree.

Finally we were all sitting at a table. We 'all', that meant Jacob, Quil, Embry, Seth, Abby, Jessica, Kim, Jared, Paul and me. Because no one had dared to sit next to the two lonely wolves (great joke, har har), Kim had just put two more chairs to our table, which meant that now I had to sit next to cranky Paul.

Fortunately, before our teachers started jabbering, we could eat breakfast. While everyone rushed up and stormed to the buffet, Paul and I stayed seated. Paul looked pissed, pissed enough to keep everyone from talking to him – but not me. I had a pretty good idea of how to talk to Paul, wolf or not.

"Why aren't you going?"

Paul didn't look at me. He didn't answer me, too.

"Aren't you hungry?", I continued.

Now he shot me a deadly look.

"Well, if looks could kill, I would still be alive, like I am now." I bent towards him. "You don't scare me, big wolf. Not a bit."

His smile was very fake. "Awesome, Clearwater. Now could you just shut up?"

"Moah, Paulie, haven't you slept last night?"

He smiled. "As a matter of fact, I haven't."

I tried not to sound too serious, although I was alarmed. "Oh, Paulie, are there vampires nearby, yes?"

He shot me a very evil glance. "It's none of your business", he snarled, "Why aren't you getting breakfast, Clearwater?"

I pointed at the line that had formed at the buffet. "I'm waiting for the right time, Paulie." I winked at him, and he rolled his eyes.

When the line was a lot shorter, I stood up. "Do you want anything?"

He stared at me. "Are you serious?"

I nodded. "Sure. I don't know where you got your information from, but I'm not as bitchy as you think."

Paul half-smiled and then thought for a moment. "Just some cornflakes with milk, please."

I nodded. "Cornflakes are coming, sir."

I quickly returned with a sandwich, a cup of tea and Paul's bowl with cornflakes. Paul smiled. "Thank you, Clearwater."

"No problem, Paulie."

As breakfast came to an end, Mr Cauldwell stood up and said:"So, as we are waiting for our Makah friends, let me explain something to you. You all know this is a study trip, which means you are here to learn something. In order to prove you have actually listened, every one of you will receive one of these green journals", he held up an ugly bright green journal, "in which you are going to write down what you have learned. I want at least one page per day, and I'll have your homeroom teachers read through them. Understood?"

Most of us moaned. Keeping a diary was hard, and it was especially uncool to write one for school. Because it meant one had to pay attention.

"You have one hour of free time now. Explore where you are, but be back here at eleven o'clock, and bring something to write. Also, please don't forget to take one of these journals when you leave this hall. See you in an hour."

As I walked out of the door I grabbed one of the ugly bright green journals that already said:"My study trip to Canada". I could see that Jacob was eyeing suspiciously. He showed it to me. "That is complete bullshit. I mean, our teachers already know everything about the study trip. I don't want to write that down. You know why? Because it means I actually have to pay attention."

I grinned. "I won't let you fall", I winked at him.

Jake threw me a thankful smile and then pointed at the forest. "Would you like to take a walk with me?"

I smiled. "Sure! Like, alone, or...?"

Jacob looked at our group. "Well, I'm not particularly fond of walking around with those lovey-dovey smoochy couples... Let's walk alone."

We were on our way to the forest when Seth came running towards us. "Where are you going to?"

"Taking a walk", Jacob said.

"Great!", Seth exclaimed, "We were just about to do the same. ABBY! QUIL! EMBRY! LEAH AND JAKE ARE COMING WITH US!"

Jacob and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. And another opportunity to talk alone – gone. But it was great to know that he wanted to be alone with me, too.

A few minutes later our breakfast table group walked past the main hut into the forest. Originally Paul hadn't wanted to join us, but then Jared had come because of Kim, and Paul didn't want to stay alone behind because of Kayla. She probably would try to flirt with him again, which was pretty useless for her, since he was a wolf and would probably imprint sooner or later on some chick. Although I sometimes wondered why Paul hadn't imprinted on Kayla. Both were arrogant, and both were very annoying.

After we had walked through the forest for ten minutes, Jessica suddenly said:"Guys, I just realized something."

We looked at her. "What?", Kim asked after a minute of silence. "Well... it doesn't rain!"

I looked up into the sky. She was right. It wasn't raining. It was rather funny to realize that for once, we had warm nice weather.

"Hey, look, there's a small river!", Seth exclaimed, and really, there was a small stream with crystal clear water.

"Is this something we have to write down, too? Like, 'Dear Diary, today we saw a small creek in the forest. It was very boring.'", Kim asked and stepped forward.

"Seems like we have to cross it to go further", Jacob said.

"I don't want to go back", Abby moaned, "We still have more than thirty minutes left."

It was decided, and so we all crossed the little stream. The only one who got wet feet was Paul, but I kept myself from laughing at him.

We walked in little groups further into the wood. I was up front, together with Kim and Jessica. Suddenly I smelled faint traces of vampire scent. I knew that smell well enough by now, having a vampire as a friend and all that.

"Hey, Kim", I said, "I'll just go to talk to Paul for a sec."

"Why?"

"I'm... I'm gonna tell him how to get rid off Kayla."

Kim grinned. "He definitely needs that."

I winked at her, and then let myself fall back. "Hey Paulie."

He shot me an evil glance. "What do you want?"

"Right up front I smelled vampire."

He raised an eyebrow. "Right, because you know so much about vampires."

I rolled my eyes. "No, I mean it. It's very faint, but I thought maybe you should know about it."

Paul looked at me for a little longer before he nodded. "Alright. Where?"

"We're walking right towards – here."

Paul sniffed. "Uh. You're right. But it's very faint."

I looked at him. "And that means what now?"

"Jared and I will run patrol tonight. But I think it's gone already."

I wanted to object to him calling a vampire an 'it', but I stopped myself. Paul wasn't supposed to know that I as friends with a vampire. So I just nodded.

We returned to the main hall, and I saw that the Makahs had arrived.

And then I got the shock of my life. I heard a very familiar voice calling:"Hey Jake! Nice to see you again!"

Alex, my car-freak-date, came walking towards us.

"Oh no", I moaned.

Jacob looked at me with an apologetic look in his eyes. "I'm sorry", he mouthed, "Should have told you."

"You knew?", I mouthed back.

He shrugged and then shook hands with Alex. I turned round to Jessica to talk to her, but then I heard Alex's voice:"Leah? Is that you?"

I turned back to him and tried to smile. "Hey, Alex! How nice to see you!" He hugged me, and I made faces.

Sure, the date with him hadn't been soooo bad. I was sure there had been dates worse than ours, but he hadn't been my type at all. Compared to Liev, he just wasn't what I wanted for a boyfriend.

"Why didn't you call me back?", Alex asked, and he sounded a little disappointed.

"Well...", damn, why did he have to ask that? "I just didn't have enough time, and to be honest, I wasn't convinced that it would work between us two."

Alex looked at me. "You could have said that much earlier, you know."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, obviously you think you're the greatest guy on Earth. You didn't seem to realize that a girl does not like to hear about cars all the time."

Alex wanted to say something, but Jacob laid an arm on his shoulder. "Don't go there, buddy. You're talking to Leah Clearwater here, and you don't want to fight with her."

Alex stared at him. "Are you serious? You are afraid of fighting with her?"

Jake shook his head. "No, no, I'm not. But see, I'm Quileute, and she's one hell of a Quileute, and we can stand our women."

Alex started laughing. "Okay, Jake, I forgive you because that really sounded hilarious. And Leah, maybe we can just talk one of these days."

I smiled another fake smile, and then we were fortunately reminded by Mr Cauldwell that we had to return to the main hut now because the Nootka elders awaited us. I was glad about that. I would make sure to sit with the people from my breakfast table, which meant I would be able to stay away from Alex.

Ten minutes later, we sat down at the tables, with pens and paper in front of us, waiting for the Nootka elders.

They came. Three men, one woman.

"They haven't heard of equality yet, it appears", Kim said.

I nodded. "Neither have we. Our elders are three men and zero women. I will note that down."

She looked at me. "Not it down? Why?"

"For the journal", I explained.

If Kim wanted to say something more, she had to stop now, because one of the elders had stood up and started talking into a microphone.

"Hello, dear young members of the Quileute and the Makah tribes, we welcome you to our beautiful reservation. My name is Jack Whalehunter, and these are Bob Blackfeather, Leon Fisher and Julia Crowtamer. We are here today to tell you of the Nootka culture, or, to use the more appropriate name of our nation, the culture of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. As you can already assume from my surname, the Nuu-chah-nulth have always been, like our Makah brothers and sisters, great whalers..."

As he continued, I scribbled down everything he said. He told us that the Nuu-chah-nulth were separated into fifteen smaller nations, but that there had been many more before the pale-faces had brought smallpox and other diseases with them. They were related to the Makah nation. The Nuu-chah-nulth had been among the first tribes north of California to come into contact with the Europeans. They once had been great whalers, the whale being "essential to the Nuu-chah-nulth culture and spirituality", and like that Mr Whalehunter continued until it was time for lunch.

Jake looked at my notes. "What is that? Can I copy it?"

I stared at him. "Jacob, what exactly have you done the whole time that guy was talking?"

Jacob grinned and showed me a piece of paper that was covered in x-o games. "I've won most of them."

I rolled my eyes. "No, you can't copy it. But I'll give you a list of what you need to write down into your journal, alright?"

The rest of the day continued in TMI-alert, because the elders talked non-stop about their culture, its differences to Quileute and its similarities to Makah culture. And although I really liked to learn new things, this was becoming rather boring. When my hand was exhausted from writing everything down, I began playing an x-o game with Jacob, which he won.

At the end of the day, none of us felt like talking anymore. Jacob yawned a "Good night, love you" at me and was gone, and Kim, Jess, Abby and I fell into our comfortable beds and were out immediately.

The next day Mr Cauldwell and the Makah teacher led us to the nearby town, where we made groups of four and went on a quiz to explore the town. We had a three-page-questionnaire and tried to answer all of the questions in two hours. It was exhausting and not very fun. I didn't know where they had gotten the idea from – it was dreadfully boring, and we didn't learn anything important or new. Besides, it was raining.

I was walking ahead of my group around a corner into a deserted courtyard to see whether there was anything useful when I froze.

On the ground was a body.

The body of a man.

The man was dead.

Thing was, he wasn't only dead, he was white and looked cold and his throat seemed to have been ripped.

I swallowed a scream and backed away. This wasn't happening. I closed my eyes, but when I opened them again, the body was still there. I closed and opened them again, but it was still there. I pinched my own arm, but I didn't wake up. An uncomfortable feeling was creeping up my back, something that told me this was wrong, unnatural – even for a dead man.

I took a deep breath that didn't calm me at all. Not helpful! What was I going to do now? I walked a little closer to the body, only to jump back immediately. The body looked familiar – or rather, the way the person had died looked familiar. Way too familiar and creepy.

I ran back to my group. "Kim... call an ambulance. Now."

Kim stared at me. "What..."

"Just... call an ambulance. There is a dead man around that corner."

Jessica shrieked. Abby looked at me with huge eyes. Kim just stood there, frozen.

"For God's sake, KIM!"

She jumped. "Oh Gosh! Sorry. Yes. Calling an ambulance." While she was dialing the number, I saw Paul and Jared walking casually towards us. Sure, they hadn't seen the body. Before Jared could rush to Kim, I stopped them.

"There's a dead person behind that house there. And I know you think I know nothing about vampires, but this man looks like a vampire's victim." I had whispered so that at least Abby and Jessica weren't hearing what I said.

Paul and Jared stared at me. "Are you sure, Clearwater?", Paul asked, but he sounded as if he already believed me.

"Yeah, Meraz, and you two should hurry to take a look at the body before ambulance and police turn up! And don't touch anything!" Because it would be rather hard to explain how their fingerprints had gotten there.

Of course the quiz was stopped immediately. Mr Cauldwell kept asking me whether I was okay and that of course I could take the day off or even go home, if I wanted to. I told him I was fine and that I just wanted to rest. "Of course, dear", Mr Cauldwell had said, and before he could ask one of the girls to bring me to the cabin, Jake volunteered, took my hand and drew me away from the crowd.

"You really are okay?", he asked with a concerned voice.

I nodded. Then I shook my head. "Yes. I mean, no. I mean, it's okay, but today wasn't my favorite day."

Jake laid an arm around me. "They'll find the murderer."

I doubted that. "Maybe it was an animal."

"A wolf!", Jacob exclaimed, "Just like the big ones at home. You have heard the rumours about these bear-sized monstrosities, haven't you?"

Of course I had. "I wouldn't call them monstrosities", I said.

Jake grinned. "What would you name them?"

"Mutated morons." Which they were.

Jake laughed. "Anyway, maybe it's something similar. Can I do anything for you? Get you something to drink, to eat...?"

"You could give me a hug", I proposed, suddenly feeling at the edge of crying.

Fortunately Jake knew me pretty well, and so I was drawn into a long hug.

"I love you, Lee. It's gonna be alright", Jake comforted me. I kept myself from crying, though. I didn't want to look weak or anything, and crying was so... girly.

Jacob quickly kissed my cheek and then returned to the main hut, while I went straight into bed. The image of the dead man haunted me until I fell asleep.

I jerked up, looking directly into the shocked eyes of Abby.

"Sorry!", the younger girl whispered, "We didn't want to wake you up."

I rubbed my eyes. "What time is it?"

"Ten o'clock p.m. Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, totally fine." I stood up to drink a glass of water. "I'm gonna go outside for a bit", I announced and left the hut. After I had walked a little further away from the light of the windows, I took out my cell phone and called Jasper.

"Hello, Leah! How nice of you to call me! How are you?"

"I'm fine, Jazz. I'm in Canada. Study trip. How are you?"

"Well, you're quite lucky, darlin'. I was hunting and now I'm on my way back. Usually I don't take my cell phone with me."

I snickered. "Ah. It was Fate then, I guess. Although Fate not kicking my ass is a premiere."

"When has Fate – forgive me – kicked your ass the last time?", he asked, close to laughing.

"Do you remember the day in Port Angeles I ran into you? After my bad date?"

Jasper chuckled. "Of course I do."

"See, my date back then is with me here in Canada."

"That is bad", Jasper said.

I nodded, although he couldn't see me.

"So, darlin', is there a reason for your call?"

"I wish I could say no, but I've found a... a corpse today." Before Jasper could say anything, I continued:"And I think the man has been a victim to a vampire attack. Jasper, I think we have a real blood-sucking vampire here!" I almost panicked saying that out loud.

Jasper was silent for a while, then he asked:"Are you scared?"

I took a deep breath. "A little, I must confess."

Jasper exhaled. "Are the wolves with you?"

"Yes."

"Then don't be scared. They know how to defeat one of us. Are you listenling to me? Don't be scared, they'll know what to do."

"Okay", I shrieked, my voice much higher than usual.

"And I'll give you a useful piece of information. Listen closely." He paused. "Are you listening?", he then asked sharply.

"Yes! Yessir!", I answered quickly.

"Never, ever run away from a vampire."

That made me curious. "Why not?"

"Because we start seeing you as prey the minute you start running. Even if we're not even focused on you, when you run, you are food. Move slowly backwards. If a hungry vampire focuses on you, though, you can run away, no matter what. He'll catch you, anyway. So please remember: Never run away from a vampire. Never run away-"

"-from a vampire, got it." I tried to smile, but the whole situation seemed less and less funny now. This was really dangerous.

"Alright, darlin', have to hang up now. Call me soon, I miss you."

"Miss you, too, Jazz", I said, but he had already hung up.

Warily I walked back to the hut. This time, I would try to listen to Jasper's advice. Not like last time, when he had told me to stay out of the woods and I had walked through the forest with Stella anyway. Now I realized how stupid that had been. After all, a real vampire who just drank human blood was nothing to joke about. Suddenly I felt really frightened. Why couldn't my world be normal? If my world would have been normal, I might have found the corpse, but I would have thought it to be a normal homicide. Which would have been much better for me.

"Leah", Kim asked, "Are you alright? You seem worried."

I smiled. "No, I'm fine. I'm just thinking that this poor man had a family, you know. Kids, maybe. And now he's gone. I hope they find the murderer."

Kim nodded. "Me too. Good night, Lee."

I turned round in my bed, quickly falling asleep.

The next morning we had to get up very early. We were supposed to go to the Nuu-chah-nulth tribal school – one of many – that was in the nearby town, to attend the classes. Seniors to seniors, just like that. When we had lunch, the cafeteria was overcrowded. Which was good, because I needed to talk to Paul or Jared about the vampire threat. But Jared was nowhere to be seen, and I saw that Paul was talking to Kayla. Or was Kayla talking to Paul?

I walked up to the two of them. "Hi, Kayla. Leave Paul alone now."

Kayla raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I didn't know he was your boyfriend now", she said.

I gave her a pitying look. "Well, I didn't know he was yours."

"Yeah, because I'm not", Paul said and shot Kayla an evil glance. Apparently he didn't like Kayla at all.

I smiled wickedly. "See, since he's not your boyfriend, you can just back off now. Bye bye."

Kayla did not smie back and tried to kill me with her gaze. "Since he's not your boyfriend, either, Leah, I think I'm gonna stay, thank you." She stemmed her hands against her hips and gave me a challenging look.

I laughed. "Seriously, Kayla, you want that fight? Because you really had it coming ever since you thought I had destroyed Sam's things."

"I apologied", she hissed.

That made me laugh even harder. "No, you didn't! You tried to walk around an apology, but see, that's not so easy." I stopped laughing. "You were my friend, Kayla. At least I had thought so. You can look at it any way you want now, but I'll always be right. You're the jerk here. And if I were you, I'd do what I say, because you've already made me angry enough."

Her eyes narrowed. "It's not over, Clearwater", she hissed before she stormed away.

I grinned at Paul. He looked relieved. "You've saved me", he said and even smiled a little.

"You're welcome." I looked around. No one was near enough to listen. "Have you run patrol last night?", I then asked.

Paul took a deep breath. "So that's why you've chased Kayla away. And I thought you had humanitarian reasons. But yes, we've run patrol. We've also found a fresh trail of the leech, but Sam told us not to follow it."

"You've called Sam?"

"Sort of", Paul grinned.

"How can you 'sort of' call someone?", I asked confused.

Paul chuckled. "I thought you knew the legends", he mocked, but then he answered:"We can hear each other's thoughts when we're wolves. It's pretty useful, but it can also get annoying, because you can't hide anything."

"Yeah, I can imagine that that gets annoying. Do you know whether the vampire is male or female?"

Paul shook his head. "We haven't seen it, but Sam thinks we scared it away. No more dead people in this town."

"Except for Kayla, maybe", I said, and we both laughed.

Truth was, we all died out of boredom on Tuesday in the Nuu-chah-nulth museum. The artefacts were very interesting, and many of us had hoped to learn more about the tribe's culture, but the guide, an old lady, had such a sleepy, dull voice that everyone lost focus and started yawning. I had taken paper with me to take notes, but soon I stopped trying to make sense out of the lady's words and just copied the information from the many tabloids of the museum. I hated Mr Cauldwell's idea of a journal. How did one write down that one had found a corpse? It all was a waste of time.

"This is sooooo boring", Jake yawned next to me, "I'd rather do something fun now."

"What would be fun?", I whispered.

"Going to the movies with you. We should do that again, you know."

I shot him a smile and quickly kissed his cheek before I started copying again.

At dinner we all sat quietly at the tables and ate. For some reason, we were all exhausted by the museum's tour. Only Quil and Embry were whispering, but I didn't really want to know what they were plotting.

Suddenly Mr Cauldwell stood up. "So, dear students, as you all know, tomorrow we have a surprise for you. And this surprise is-", he made a pause, trying to make it more exciting, "- that we are going canyoning! That's why I told you to bring your swimsuits."

Many of us cheered, along them Jake, Quil and Embry. I just stared at my teacher. Canyoning. As far as I remembered, that was a tour through a creek, with lots of climbing, abseiling and cold water.

But climbing and abseiling meant that some sort of height was included.

And I was completely frightened of heights. So frightened that I'd switch immediately with someone running from a vampire.

I would die in both cases.