Disclaimer: I am not Meyer, therefore I do not own Twilight or it's characters. I am merely borrowing them to have some fun. I DO own all OCs and my own ideas, though.

Legends

Leah appraised me, a curious look in her eyes as she scanned my appearance. I noticed two things about her as she did. Firstly, she had the same tattoo that Jacob had in the exact same place. Come to think of it, I'd seen that tattoo a lot today. Secondly, her nose crinkled slightly as she breathed in, clearly smelling something offensive. It must not have lasted long, though, because as her eyes met mine, her face returned to normal.

She prepared to say something when an irritated growl was heard from behind me.

"What the hell are you doing here, Leah?" Jacob demanded. She didn't respond to him. She didn't even acknowledge his existence. Jacob stormed over to us and stood behind me. I could feel the anger emanating from him as he glared her down. "I asked what you were doing here."

Leah's eyes narrowed as she finally looked at Jacob, glaring scathingly at him.

"I don't see how it's any of your damn business, Jacob, but if you must know…" She paused and looked back at me, her smirk returning. "I figured I'd just stop by to piss you off a bit is all. Oh, and I came here to say hello to Bella, too."

Jacob growled again. "There. You said hello. Now leave," he snapped.

I was taken aback by the amount of venom in his tone and idly stepped away from him. This didn't go unnoticed by either of them, Jacob grimacing at the move while Leah narrowed her eyes, returning her glare full force to him.

"Don't tell me what to do, Jacob Black. You are not my master," she seethed. Her tone softened as she took a step towards me. "Besides, you should know better than to be so rude around a woman. And would it kill you to put a damn shirt on? I'm sure Bella's sick of having to look at those disgusting washboard abs of yours. I know I am."

"You're just jealous," Jacob snorted.

Leah scoffed. "Please. Why should I be jealous of you when we both know that I'm much sexier in comparison? Besides, the only people who would possibly find you attractive are hormonally challenged pre-teens with nothing better to do with their time."

I tried hard not to laugh at the expressions on their faces as they talked. It was plain to see that both of them thought very highly of themselves, but in a different way. Jacob had sort of a conceited arrogance about him while Leah's was more of a…well, sexy arrogance, I guess. And while I did like Jacob and I could see him as being somewhat attractive, I was definitely on the same page as Leah when it came to which of them had the best looks.

Then again, neither of them held a candle to Alice. She was in a league all her own and no one, not Leah or Amara or Esme or Rosalie, could make me change my opinion.

"So Bella…" Leah's voice interrupted my train of thought. "Would you like to go for a walk?"

I was about to reply, but Jacob cut me off. "Bella and I were in the middle of a conversation, actually."

"Actually," I interjected, slightly perturbed by him cutting me off. "We just finished our conversation, Jacob." I had to emphasize each word just right so that he would catch my drift, which he thankfully did. I turned and smiled at Leah. "I'd love to go for a walk."

Leah beamed at that while Jacob scowled and looked at me like I'd just stabbed him in the back.

"But Bella, we've hardly caught up…" he whined.

I sighed. "Jacob, there are other days in the week for us to catch up. Besides, if you're not feeling well, then I don't want to bother you."

He looked at Leah, then back at me. Then his face contorted into one of rage as he clenched his fists at his side. I felt Leah tense up next to me as Jacob's whole body started to shake again, much like it had in his room.

"Fine! Go! Go and spend time with the soulless harpy. But don't come crying to me when you see what she's really like," he spat. Without another word, he spun around and stormed off into his house, slamming the door roughly behind him.

I stared after him, astonished. What the fuck was that all about?

"Asshole," Leah hissed under her breath. I felt her hand on my shoulder and turned to see her giving me an apologetic look. "Sorry about that."

I didn't know how to respond so I merely shrugged. Leah gestured for me to follow her as she started walking away, which I did. The two of us walked in silence for a few minutes, just listening to the sounds of the ocean and the wind blowing.

"So what brings you out here, Bella?" Leah asked after a moment of silence.

"I came here with a few of my friends from school, just to hang out," I replied.

Leah smirked. "And to visit me, right?"

I shrugged. "Well, I guess so. But I mean, we barely even know each other. All we did was bump into one another at the mall and exchange names."

"That's true. I wouldn't call us friends just yet, but that doesn't mean we couldn't be friends, does it? It's not every day you run into somebody and they don't try to bite your head off for it, which I guess is why I reacted the way I did. Plus, I thought you seemed like a nice girl and I was right. Then again, I tend to be right, so it wasn't that big of a surprise," she said.

I smiled. She definitely had a lot of confidence in both herself and her appearance. She reminded me of Alice, at least concerning self-confidence, and Rosalie, especially with her personality.

"What are you smiling at?" Leah asked curiously.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just thinking to myself is all." She frowned at my lack of a response, but shrugged it off. "So what's it like to live here?"

"Dull," Leah snorted. "Other than cliff diving, there's barely anything to do."

"Is that why you snuck off to go to the mall?" I inquired.

Leah rolled her eyes. "I didn't "sneak off", okay? I just left when no one else was around."

I stopped walking and she stopped to. "How come you aren't allowed to leave La Push?"

She ran her fingers through her hair as she stared out at the sea, hesitating to respond.

"It's complicated," she replied. I watched her as she spoke, listening intently. "It's not that we aren't allowed to leave, per say. The Council, though, they have these really stupid rules that we're supposed to obey. And one of those rules is not leaving the land without a reason to do so because of the, er, complications involved. We have to ask for their permission and all this shit if we want to go out, which I think is ridiculous. So I just do what I want when no one's looking."

"You like breaking the rules." She smirked and nodded. "What about the consequences?"

"Being yelled at gets old after a while, but truthfully, I've gotten good at not getting caught. And it's not like I do it all the time, despite what you might think," she explained.

"Why is it so important for you to stay here? I mean, is it some tribal tradition or what?"

Leah cocked her head to the side as she looked at me. "You're a very curious girl, aren't you?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I've been told that a lot. Sorry if it bothers you, I'll shut up."

"No, not at all. I like a girl who isn't afraid to speak her mind, even if she's a bit shy most of the time," Leah said, smiling. I felt my cheeks heat up with the way she was looking at me, her lips curled into a sultry smirk. "You know, that blush is pretty cute too."

I lowered my head. "Uh, thanks," I murmured. "I'm…taken, just so you know."

Leah didn't respond at first. I looked up to see that her face was unreadable. For a moment, I'd feared that I may have hurt her feelings, but then she shrugged and smiled at me.

"Well, then I'd say she's a lucky girl, whoever she is."

Internally, I sighed with relief. "Thank you." Then something hit me. "Wait, how did you know that I was…?"

"Gay?" Leah asked. I nodded sheepishly. She laughed. "For one thing, I could tell by the way you were gawking at me when I first came up to you. Then there was when we first met at the mall and the way you tried to hide your blush when I noticed you staring at me. It's pretty obvious, though. Don't sweat it, Bella. It doesn't really bother me anyways since I'm bisexual."

"Oh."

I fidgeted with my fingers, cursing myself for being so damn obvious. But then, it didn't matter because I already had someone I was deeply in love with. And no one could replace her. So why was I so worried?

"Mind if I ask you something?" I shrugged and nodded. "What's it like at that school you go to?"

"Not that great. When you're the new girl in a town as small as Forks, you get a lot of unnecessary attention. Plus, everyone kind of found out about me being a lesbian, which only caused more problems. I'm thankful that the Cullens were there to-"

Leah twitched. "Wait, you know the Cullens?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I know them, why?"

"They're dangerous," Leah replied. "You should stay away from them, Bella. They're not the kind of people you want to be around."

I gaped at her. She knew. She had to know, right? Why else would she think they were dangerous? Was this why everyone was wary of me being here? Did the Quileutes know? I had to find out, had to make sure for myself.

"They can't be that bad," I stated, running a hand through my hair. I tried to sound as nonchalant as I could in order to avoid any suspicions. Best not to tell her that I was in the Cullen family now, not until I'd heard what she'd said.

Leah's eyes narrowed as her face darkened. She didn't look at me, she looked around, eyes darting every which way before resting on me. I watched her lips twitch as she seemed to mentally fight herself over something, probably whether or not to answer me truthfully or to just let it go. Her eyes shut for a few seconds as she let out a quiet sigh. Then her eyes reopened and I could see that she had made her mind up.

"It's a long story, but I'll give you some of the details. Come with me, though. We can't talk here."

I nodded and followed her as she spun around and walked in the opposite direction. We walked past several buildings, including the souvenir shop. Outside of the shop was Eric, Angela, Katie and Ben, all chatting with one another. When they saw me I waved to them, silently motioning to Leah. I hoped that they would get that I was going to talk with her and that maybe they'd think that she was an old friend of mine like Jacob. They seemed to take the bait and smiled at me, mouthing things like "take your time" and "don't worry about us, we're good".

I really was starting to appreciate them. They were all really good friends.

I also noticed several of the other Quileutes as we walked together, most of them watching either Leah or myself. Some of the looks were humorous ones, some wary and a few seemed relatively nonchalant. I didn't fail to notice one of the boys walking towards us, a big grin on his face.

"Hey there lusty Leah, what's cracking?" he asked, flashing her a smile. Leah groaned loudly as he trudged over and stopped in front of us. I gave him a brief once over and, remembering Jacob's descriptions of the other boys, realized that this must be Colton Weaver.

"Beat it, Colton. Can't you see I'm with a friend right now?" she asked, clearly annoyed by his presence.

Colton pouted. "Aw, don't be that way, Lee-Lee."

Leah's hands balled into fists. "Do. Not. Call. Me. That." She annunciated each word with seething venom that made Colton step back warily. Her body was shaking, much like Jacob's had before, as she glared him down.

"Sorry," he muttered. That was when he noticed me. "And who might you be?"

Leah answered for me. "Not interested, Colton. She's already taken, anyways." Colton frowned momentarily, then looked at Leah curiously. Leah pursed her lips. "No, it's not me, you jackass, okay? It's someone else. Just leave it alone, okay? We're busy."

She gently grabbed my shoulder and pulled me along with her, brushing past Colton who muttered something under his breath before walking off dejectedly. We continued walking for a few minutes, past the beach until we were near a large forest. Once we were there, Leah turned left and walked over to a small shady area where there were two flat rocks in the ground. Leah sat on one of them and gestured for me to sit on the other.

I waited patiently for her to begin, which she did after taking another minute to think.

"My people, the Quileutes, have a lot of legends that they pass down from generation to generation. Some detail how we became who we are, some are how we came live here on this land. There's one that says that our people are the descendants of wolves, which dates back to when our tribe was first formed," Leah explained. Her voice took an odd tone as she finished, her eyes not meeting mine as she spoke.

"But the legend that you need to know about is the one regarding the cold ones," she growled.

"Cold ones?" I asked incredulously, pretending to have no possible clue of what she meant.

She nodded. "Yes. Cold ones. Blood-drinkers. Vampires." She hissed out the last word as a whisper, but I heard it nonetheless. "They are the natural enemy of our ancestors."

I stared at her with astonishment. They did know what the Cullens were. There was more, though, to her story. Much more. I could see it in her eyes, which flickered with a mixture of emotions. Hate, anger, pain and sorrow.

"I don't understand. Why are they your natural enemy?" I inquired.

She ground her teeth together. "They're everyone's enemies, Bella."

"Leah, I-"

"Look, I can't say a whole lot on it. Just know that the Cullens are a danger to anyone who gets close to them. That's why they aren't allowed on our land, because our people have forbidden it," Leah explained, eyes boring into the ground at her feet. There was a definite threat behind her words as she spoke them, enough to make me feel a little nervous.

I gulped.

"Um, Leah?"

She looked at me intently. "Yes?"

"Let's say figuratively speaking, one of the Cullens did come on your land. What would be the consequences of that?" I asked, trying to be placid about it.

Leah smiled ominously. "Then there'd be trouble."

Fuck. I really shouldn't have come here after all. But what if I get the same treatment since I was human? Well, I mean, I guess I won't be human for much longer, but still. That worried me. I was starting to think that leaving La Push would be a good idea. I couldn't ask Angela to take me, though, because that would be rude. Maybe I could walk?

"Are you okay, Bella?" Leah asked softly.

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah, I'm fine."

I smiled at her to try and convey my meaning, but I could tell she wasn't buying it.

"It's pretty obvious that you aren't, Bella. Anyone with a working pair of eyes could see that just by looking at you. So don't try that "oh, it's nothing" crap on me, okay? I'm not the kind of person to let that lame excuse slide. You seem troubled. What's up?"

This girl wasn't going to drop it, was she? Damn. Well, I wasn't sure if it would be safe for me to tell her that I was a Cullen, at least not now. Truthfully, I wanted to know more about these legends pertaining to my family. That and I wanted to know more about what she meant when she said that the Quileutes were descended for wolves. I could tell there much more to the stories then what she was telling me, but it seemed like she couldn't tell.

"I was just thinking about what you said is all. Tell me, what did you mean earlier when you said that your people descended from wolves? I don't really get what you mean by that."

Leah bit her lip. "There's a whole lot of mystical mumbo jumbo about how our ancestors bonded with wolves and all that crap. I honestly don't know much on it myself. I do know, however, that my people view wolves as sacred animals, so hunting them is off limits on our lands. Other than that, I have no idea what all that nonsense means," she replied.

"Oh."

"Yeah, sorry, if you really wanted to know, you'd have to ask someone on the Council. That's better said than done, though, since they're always busy. Plus, I don't think they would share information with an outsider, no offense. That's just their rules."

"So wait, you shouldn't even be telling me this?" I asked, surprised.

Leah shrugged. "Probably not, but it's not that big of a deal. I think that everyone should be warned about the Cullens."

I flinched at the way she'd said their name. She'd said it that way several times before and it was starting to get on my nerves now.

"Could you stop saying their name like that?" I requested, trying to keep my voice even.

"Why? It's not like they're here or-"

"Just stop!" I hissed. Leah looked taken aback by my tone. I grimaced when I realized that I was letting my anger get the better of me and bowed my head apologetically. "Sorry. Can we, you know, change topics? Like, um, your family or something."

She furrowed her brow and stared at me, obviously trying to assess the reason for my tone, but gave up after a few seconds and sighed.

"Then what do you want to talk about?" she inquired.

Something not relating to my family would be nice. Actually, it's best to avoid the subject of family altogether.

"Um, tell me a bit about your…family." Fuck! Stupid mouth!

"I live with my mom and my little brother Seth," she said. "My brother is a goofy kid who's as naïve as he is adventurous. He's always curious about learning new things, which is cute and all until he starts to pester you with twenty questions. But I love the little squirt to pieces and I'd do anything to protect him, which I seem to be doing a lot. He means well, though, so I guess I don't mind most of the time."

"And then there's my mom Sue. She took over my dad's position on the Council after he passed away from a heart attack a few years ago. She was always a strong woman, and now she gets to prove it to everyone else. We don't always so eye to eye on things, but she's my role model and I've always respected and admired her. I wish I could be normal like she is…" Leah trailed off as she stared downwards, eyes burning with sadness.

"Leah…"

She blinked and shook her head. "No, it's nothing. Sorry, I don't mean to get all sentimental on you. Sometimes my mouth just moves on its own and I can't stop it, which sucks because it happens so damn much."

I laughed. "I know the feeling."

"Yeah, I've noticed that," she agreed, smiling. "So tell me a bit about your family, Bella."

Er…

"My family? Well, uh, I was…recently adopted by a small family."

"Oh? That's good."

I nodded, trying to hide my nervousness. "Yup, it is. They're great, too, all of them."

Is it sad that even mentioning them made me miss them all so much? I'd only been here for what, a couple of hours, and I felt like I'd been gone for a couple of years? I didn't understand why I felt this way. Was this part of the whole mate experience? Or was it because of my slow transformation into a vampire? Ugh, I hated feeling like this.

As if on cue, my phone started ringing. I pulled it out from my shorts and glanced at it, unable to keep the smile from spreading across my lips. Once again, it was Alice.

"Hey Alice," I greeted into the phone. I noticed Leah stirring across from me, but I figured she was just getting comfortable. No reason to worry.

"Bella!" she shouted excitedly. "I miss you!"

"I miss you too, but it's only been a few hours, if even that!" I pointed out.

She sighed loudly. "I know, but it's painful to be away from you for too long. Do you feel that too?" she asked.

I ran my free hand through my hair. "Yeah, actually. I was just starting to wonder about that myself before you called."

"It's like I'm psychic or something," she giggled into the phone.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, you. Maybe you could ask Carli…" I stopped mid-sentence when I saw Leah's eyes bulge. Oh shit.

"Bella? What's wrong?" Alice asked.

"Um, it's…it's nothing, nothing at all. I dropped my phone is all," I lied.

Alice growled. "Bella, don't lie to me. Are they there with you? Have they touched you? Those stupid mongrels, they'd better not lay a fucking finger on you!"

"Everything's fine!" I squeaked, looking away from Leah. I was kicking myself over and over again on the inside, cursing my stupidity. Why was I always cursed with such bad luck? I grimaced, knowing I needed to be fast. "I love you, Alice. I'm fine, I swear. I'll see you in a little while, okay? Bye!" I hung up without giving her the chance to respond and turned my phone off as fast as I could while trying to stand up.

Bad move.

I ended up tripping over myself during the process and toppled to the ground, almost getting a mouthful of dirt. I didn't, thankfully. I felt a pair of warm hands grasp my shoulders and help lift me up second afterwards; already knowing that it was Leah's.

"T-t-thanks," I stammered. I tried to move, but the warm hands kept me firmly in place. I had no choice but to look at Leah, whose eyes were narrowed as she studied me concernedly.

"Bella," she said, her voice neutral. "What was that about?"

I blanched. "I, um, my g-girlfriend just wanted to see if I w-was okay?" I answered.

Leah's eyes narrowed even more as her brow creased into a frown.

"Your girlfriend?" I nodded. "Alice?" I nodded again. "Alice Cullen?" I hesitated, knowing she'd found out, but sighed and nodded a third time. Leah's hands were off of me in an instant and to her sides, balling into fists as her body quivered. "She is your girlfriend?"

"Y-yes," I replied quietly.

Leah twitched angrily and ground her teeth together. Without another word she stormed off in the direction we'd come from. She moved so fast I barely had a chance to register what I'd seen until she was already halfway back to the beach.

"Leah, wait!" I shouted.

I ran after her, even though it was a stupid thing to do and I had no idea why in God's name I was doing it. Leah vanished from my sights as she sharply turned left, the house blocking my line of view. Once I'd gotten there, I turned to see where she'd gone, but was surprised to see no trace of her whatsoever. Like, literally. It was as though she had just vanished into thin air.

I did, however, notice that foul smell again. Garbage and wet dog. Seriously, that shit was just plain gross. I covered my whole mouth with both hands, trying not to gag on the foul stench emanating in the air. God, what the hell was that? And why did I smell it so much when there wasn't a damn dog in sight? Come to think of it…

I thought about something. The others had made a variety of dog related jokes, like stuff about leashes and fleas. The scent I'd smelled, while incredibly rank, reminded me a lot of wet dog. And then there was what Leah had told me, how the Quileutes were supposedly the descendents of wolves. But what did all of that mean?

Could it be…?

No! No way in hell. Just no, that's insane. Then again, this is coming from the girl who is dating a vampire and becoming a vampire. So…

No, no, no. I'm losing it. Why am I focused on finding Leah? I should leave. Or at least get back to the others.

I blinked. Ah shit, the others. I'd completely forgotten! Damn it! One of the main reasons I'd come on this trip was so I could bond with other people and make friends with them, not abandon them outright. Shit. Now I see why I always had a hard time making friends, other than the obvious shit like my clumsiness and temper.

Seeing that Leah was a lost cause, I groaned inwardly and bolted back to where I'd last seen Angela and the others, praying that they would forgive me for totally ditching them for a hot girl I hardly even knew. Whoa, did I just think that? Well, she is pretty hot.

And besides, it's not a crime to find other people aside from girlfriend attractive, right? I'm not cheating on her or hitting on other girls, now am I? No, I'm not. No big deal, case closed.

I was happy to see that the others hadn't gone far from where they'd originally been when I'd last seen them. Eric and Katie were clutching their surfboards excitedly, probably about to go back out to surf again. Angela and Ben were both laughing along with them as I scurried over to the group, feeling abashed for leaving them.

"Ah, there's Bella!" Eric shouted as I neared them.

"Hey guys," I murmured embarrassedly.

"Hey yourself, sunshine. Been wondering when you'd rejoin us," Katie said playfully.

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm sorry about all that. I just got up with talking is all."

Katie patted my shoulder. "Don't sweat it, Bella. It's all good. We're just glad that you decided to come back to us, you know? We were starting to miss you."

"We thought you'd be flirting with that hot native chick all day," Eric teased, nudging me in the ribs slightly with a smirk on his face.

"Eric!" Angela shouted, hands on her hips. "Be nice, you know that wasn't what she was doing at all!"

Ben nodded in agreement. "Bella's not that kind of person, are you Bella?"

"Hell no!" I shouted, gritting my teeth. "I would never cheat on Alice. Never! She's mine!"

Eric held his hands up in surrender. "Whoa there, easy Bella. I was only joking, honest."

I bit my lip. "I…I know. Sorry, didn't mean to snap. It's just that I, uh, I don't like it when people question my commitment to Alice, you know? I love her and she loves me and we would never cheat on each other, no matter what."

"I believe you," Eric said, clearly impressed with me.

"Not that a three way wouldn't be hot," Ben snickered, covering his mouth afterwards.

Katie laughed. "Damn right it would be."

I blushed scarlet and stared down at my feet. The others, save for Angela, all laughed in agreement with each other. Angela came over and gently touched my shoulder, giving me a sympathetic smile. I smiled back appreciatively at her, though in truth I didn't mind the teasing too much, since it reminded me of my siblings, Emmett especially.

"So what was the deal with that girl?" Eric asked curiously. "She a friend of yours?"

Somehow, I didn't think she would be anymore. "Yeah, she's an old acquaintance like Jacob."

Katie chuckled. "Speaking of whom…"

I glanced in the direction she was looking in to see none other than Jacob, trotting towards our group with a goofy grin on his face. His eyes met mine and his grin widened, which actually irritated me. He had the audacity to smile at me after shouting at me like that? Who the fuck did he think he was? I glared at him in return, which caused him to stop in his tracks.

He looked rather startled at first, confused as to why I was glaring at him. Then it dawned on him and he hung his head sheepishly, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he slowly started walking towards us again. I decided to ignore him for the time being and returned my attention to the others, who had started talking once again.

"What's the water like?" I inquired, wanting to get involved with the conversation.

"Pretty cold, actually, but it's not too bad," Katie replied. "You should definitely go try it out, it's rather refreshing in my opinion."

"Are you kidding me? It's freezing out there!" Ben disagreed.

Angela nodded. "The weather wasn't as warm as it was supposed to be today."

"I don't think it's too bad," Katie said, shrugging. "Warmer then it was yesterday."

Eric sighed and shook his head. "Man, I was really hoping this would work out better. We really got to plan our trip out next time so that everything goes accordingly. Sorry guys, I guess this day was a dud."

A wave of relief washed over me. That meant we were going, right? I could see Alice and the others again and not have to stress out about Leah.

"Bella!" Jacob called. I frowned, realizing that I'd completely forgotten he was walking over to us. Well, he was actually a few feet away now, smiling again as he stopped near me. He nodded his head at the others. "Sup guys, how's it hanging?"

Eric chose to reply. "Pretty good. We're just chatting about making plans for doing something else, you know? The weather wasn't on our side today."

Jacob pouted. "Aw, don't say that. The weather's perfect! Well, it is for this time of year anyways. Say, if you guys aren't afraid of heights, I could show you our cliff diving location if you want. What do you guys say; you could definitely have some fun with that, huh?"

The others all seemed to consider that. Angela looked like she didn't like the idea in the least bit, while Ben, Eric and Katie all seemed mildly excited about the prospect. I, on the other hand, was not interested, nor was I interested in sticking around La Push for much longer. I couldn't help feeling paranoid about the Leah situation and feared there would be consequences.

What if she told the others that I was a Cullen?

Shit. Alice was right, I shouldn't have come here. This was a bad idea, plain and simple.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Jacob asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

"Nothing, nothing. I was just daydreaming is all," I lied.

"She misses her Alice," Katie teased. Damn right I did. "Don't worry, Bella, she'll still be there when we leave. It's not like she'll disappear or anything."

"Yeah, r-right," I chuckled uneasily. "Listen, I just remembered that I have some important stuff do to. And I hate doing this to you guys, but I think I should get going, you know? I've got homework, chores and a few other things to take care of."

I tried to sound legit, but failed horribly. At least, I thought I had. The others, however, actually seemed to buy my lame excuses. Even Jacob did, his head hanging sullenly at the news.

"What do you mean you have to leave?" Katie whined. "You just got here!"

"Come on, Bella, don't be like that. You can do your homework later," Ben stated.

"Seriously, girl! Besides, you live with a super smart family, so it's not like you'll have trouble with it," Eric added.

I ran a hand through my hair. "I know guys, I'm sorry. But it's important, you know?"

They all continued to groan and whine that I should stay, which flattered me, honestly. But I needed to get back and tell Carlisle and Esme about what had happened. I'd screwed up and I was afraid that doing so was going to make things end badly for my family. I didn't want that.

"Would you like me to drive you back?" Angela asked softly.

I was surprised at the offer, but quickly shook my head. "No thank you, Angela. Don't worry, I'll call ahead and get one of them pick me up. I appreciate the offer, though. Besides, I don't want to take up more of your time."

Angela waved it off. "I don't mind at all, really, and it would save your family the trouble of having to come and get you. I would just need directions, since I have no idea where you guys live at."

"Where does your family live, exactly?" Katie inquired.

"Um…"

"We shouldn't be poking around in their private business, guys," Ben stated.

Thank you Ben Cheney, you are a lifesaver.

As if he could read minds, he smiled at me. "If you really need to leave, Bella, then I guess that's okay. But we should definitely plan for something better next time and we should plan it so you could invite Alice along."

"I think you should try inviting your other siblings, too," Eric suggested.

I grimaced. Shit. No Eric, no!

"I think so too. No one ever invites the Cullens to anything," Angela added quietly.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!

Jacob frowned at me. "Cullens?"

Eric chuckled. "Yeah, man. Bella here is the newest addition to their family."

I froze. Inside, I was screaming obscenities at my friends for blabbing and revealing who I was to the whole damn world, at myself for ever coming here in the first place and at Jacob for being right fucking next to me.

Why did this have to happen? Why me? Why now? Why today? Damn it!

Jacob's face was unreadable as he stared at me. I turned away from him and started walking away from the group, not bothering to look at anyone or say anything. I was angry, annoyed and most of all, terrified. I needed to get out of here and now.

"Bella, wait!" Katie shouted. "Don't go!"

"Sorry, have to!" I ground out, not looking back.

"Bella." Jacob's voice was a nearly muted whisper that I did my best to ignore. I didn't have the time for him right now.

I was already halfway across the beach, nearing the cars. In my haste I had forgotten about my chronic clumsiness, but Mother Nature decided to help remind me. In seconds I tripped and fell face first into the sand. The impact was soft, but the sand in my mouth was not something I really needed at the moment. I stood up and spat the sound out, shaking my head furiously to get out the sand and rocks that tried to embed themselves in my thick locks.

Once I'd managed to do that, I dusted myself off and started to advance when I stopped abruptly.

"Ew, what he fuck is she doing here?"

Oh no...

"Oh great," hissed an all too familiar voice.

Lauren Mallory, Forks High's resident bitch and the one girl who hated me most in this entire town, was standing several feet in front of me, a disgusted and angry glare on her face. Worse, she wasn't alone, because standing with her was Jessica Stanley, Tyler Crowley and of course, Mike Newton. They all had a variety of different facial expressions, ranging from the appalled look on Jessica's face to that creepy-ass look on Newton's. Lauren slowly started advancing towards me, her eyes set to kill.

Fuck. My. Life.

A/N: Poor Bella. She just can't catch a break, it seems. I'm sure things will get better for her, though. Eventually.

Like I said, this isn't the end of Leah, not by a long shot. Just be patient.