At some point, Leah was going to have to insist that the werewolves – and the tribe in general – figure out something other than bonfires to celebrate people's birthday. She'd joined the supernatural world just over a year ago now and she'd probably been to three times more bonfires in that year than she ever had before. But for now, she'd have to learn to live with them, as there was another one planned for tonight, though she was already trying to scheme her way to get out of it. How could people be upset if she chose to study for finals and do homework instead of going to her ex-boyfriend's birthday celebration? Weren't the Elders always lecturing on and on about the importance of school and getting an education?
"What time are we supposed to be there again?" Seth asked. He stabbed a piece of chicken with his fork. There would be food at the bonfire, but the Clearwaters were also having a nice family dinner ahead of time. Leah was grateful. There was something so uncivilized about scarfing down burgers with all the other wolves. She much preferred scarfing down chicken teriyaki at the table with her family, where her only competition was Seth and she could at least pretend to be a normal twenty-year-old with manners.
"Seven," Sue said simply, "Do you want to drive over there?"
"Yes!" Seth exclaimed. Fifteen now, Seth had finally gotten his learner's permit and he was taking advantage of it, "Do you want a ride, too, Leah?"
"No. I have homework, so I'll be there late." It was a strategic move to save all of her homework till Friday night. Did it make Leah look like a loser? Yes. Did it save her from having to go to her ex-boyfriend's birthday bonfire? Also yes.
"As long as you come eventually," Sue shot Leah a knowing look as Sue served herself some more rice. Her voice was sympathetic, "It's not just Sam's birthday, you know. It's Brady's too."
"Because I'm so close to Brady. Best friends. We talk every day." Leah muttered under her breath.
Sue shot Leah another look, this time much more annoyed, but Sue ignored Leah's comments, "Pass the sauce, please, Seth."
"I wonder if Jake will bring Alyssa," Seth mused as he passed the sauce to Sue.
"Alyssa?" Leah asked, racking her brain for the only Alyssa she knew, "Alyssa Morgan?"
"Yeah, they're going to prom together. You didn't know that?"
"No…" Leah paused for a second. She'd patrolled exclusively with Embry recently and they'd spent most of their time working on keeping their thoughts hidden. Embry hadn't spilled any information on Jacob or Quil, other than the fact that they were still working on her car. And this news about Alyssa Morgan was, well, unexpected, to say the least, "I didn't know that. I just never thought he'd manage to get over Bella. He didn't imprint, did he?"
Someone would have told her if Jacob imprinted. They would absolutely not have kept that from her. Right?
"No, of course not," Seth stabbed another piece of chicken, and avoided making eye contact, "They're just dating."
An unexpected wave of relief washed over Leah. And a realization quickly followed, "Then why would Alyssa be there? She's not in the pack."
"Yeah but she's Quileute. She knows the story. And Jake's the Alpha, he could invite her if he wanted to." Seth shrugged before taking a large bite of chicken teriyaki.
"She might be Quileute but she doesn't know the truth behind the legends," Sue said, "And I'm sure that Jacob has a better head on his shoulders than to invite someone who doesn't know the truth and isn't an imprint."
Leah wasn't convinced that Jacob had enough sense not to invite someone who wasn't an imprint; after all, he'd invited Bella and she never even agreed to date him. But Leah didn't say that.
"Is Nessie coming, Seth?" Leah asked. It would influence her decision on whether or not to go. On the one hand, she was quite curious about seeing Jacob and finding out more information about his little girlfriend but on the other hand, it was also Sam's bonfire and, well, yeah. She didn't want to do anything that might celebrate Sam. But she also didn't want to seem like she was still stuck on him. But it was an open secret that she disdained Nessie, and maybe if Nessie went she could convince people (and by people, she really just meant Kim and Rachel – she cared little what the rest of the pack thought of her) that she didn't go because of that. For the first time, Leah wished that Danny were Quileute. Then she could drag him to one of these things.
Seth shook his head, "Bella and Edward took her to South America. They think they've found some other half vampires. They'll be gone for a few weeks."
This, too, was news to Leah. And judging by the surprised look on Sue's face, it was news to her too.
"When did they leave?" Sue placed her fork down on her plate and studied Seth.
"Tuesday," Seth answered with a mouthful of chicken.
It was now Saturday. Nessie had been gone for what? Four days? And Seth hadn't gone crazy?
"And you're okay with that? I thought you were supposed to go crazy if you went more than a day without seeing your imprint." If Seth had gone crazy, Leah had a right to know. Seeing as she was his sister and his craziness was likely to affect her.
Seth shrugged, "They're coming back. It's not like Nessie will forget me in three weeks. She's very smart, you know. She can remember all the way back to the day of her birth. And it's important that she finds people like her."
And to think Leah had dealt with the angst of all the imprinted wolves for so long when they couldn't see their imprints for a few hours or days, never mind a few weeks! And her own stupid brother could let his imprint leave the continent without losing his mind.
"Well, that's very mature, Seth," Sue remarked. She looked proudly at her son. Leah tried not to scoff. Being able to go a few weeks without seeing someone was the bare minimum, as far as Leah was concerned, "And it will give you time to focus on school for a little bit."
Seth groaned, "My grades are fine, Mom!"
"There's nothing wrong with Bs and Cs, but they could always be As and Bs. And Ds, now those are another story," Sue chirped. She stacked the empty serving bowl on top of her empty plate, "Now if we don't want to be late, we need to clean up."
With all three of the Clearwaters' help, clean up was surprisingly fast. Within fifteen minutes, Sue had gone upstairs to get ready, and Seth was playing keys to Sue's car, tossing them back and forth between his hands. Leah had opened her textbook and was sitting at the kitchen table, pretending to study.
"Do you actually have homework?" Seth asked.
Leah cocked her eyebrow at her brother, "Do you actually think that Cs are fine?"
"Shut up, Leah!" Seth groaned, "Not you, too!"
"All I'm saying is that it doesn't matter that the Cullens can pay for fancy schools if you can't get into them."
"Ugh! Tell mom I'm waiting outside for her!" Seth stomped out like the dramatic fifteen-year-old that he was, as Leah chuckled at his antics and got back to making notes in her textbook.
Leah had read all of two lines of her textbook when Sue came down the stairs, "Where's your brother?" she asked.
"He's outside. I annoyed him with my questions."
Sue shook her head and grabbed her purse, "I'll see you there, Leah." The look Sue gave her made it clear that Sue did, in fact, expect to see Leah there. Leah rolled her eyes and said nothing, looking back down at her book.
Leah spent all of twenty minutes scribbling notes down and drawing in the margins of her textbook, retaining next to nothing of the words she was reading. She considered calling Danny, but truthfully, she didn't want to speak with him. Amy was working and Kim would almost certainly be at the bonfire. Rachel may or may not be at the bonfire, but Leah couldn't exactly gossip with Rachel about Jacob's love life. Not that Rachel was likely to know anything anyway. Apparently, they'd all gotten into some type of big fight after Hawaii.
Once the margins of her notebook were completely filled with stupid doodles, and Leah's knowledge of marine biology hadn't increased at all, Leah gave up. The curiosity was nagging at her, making it impossible to focus on anything that wasn't the thought of Jacob with Alyssa Morgan at Sam's birthday bonfire. Leah wasn't sure why the idea of Alyssa Morgan at the bonfire bothered her so much, but it did. And she simply had to check it out.
As a wolf, it took Leah almost no time at all to make it to the bonfire site. But once she phased back to human and put her clothes back on, she found herself trying to make sure that she looked put together and not as if she had just stumbled out of the forest and thrown her clothes on. It was stupid, she thought to herself, who was she trying to impress? All of these people had seen her at much worse and they had already all judged her for it. But nonetheless, she tried to fix her hair and make sure her tank top wasn't too low cut before she ventured out to the bonfire.
But when Leah made her way at the cliffs, the only unexpected person in attendance was Charlie. He was standing as awkwardly as ever with the Elders, away from the food (which had already been picked over) but close enough to the fire to stay warm. In the background, there was yet another raucous game of Frisbee going between several members of the packs, including Seth and Embry. Sam and Paul had Emily and Rachel in their laps, respectively. They were deep in conversation about something and it looked serious. And Jacob was… wrestling. Either that or he was fighting with Jared, but based on Kim's unimpressed facial expression and the fact that nobody was bothering to try to break it up, Leah guessed that it was just a stupid wrestling match. Boys.
"Leah!" Kim's face lit up the second she made eye contact with Leah. Kim sounded relieved, and Kim hurried over to Leah, "I didn't think you would come. But thank God you're here."
"Hey, Kim." Leah glanced around the cliffs again, just to double-check. Alyssa Morgan was definitely not there, "That bad?"
Kim nodded grimly, "That bad. They're - " Kim pointed her head at Paul, Rachel, Sam, and Emily, "are talking about stupid grown-up stuff. Jobs and insurance and stuff. Stuff that I should care about but I just don't. And Jared and Jacob have been wrestling for the past ten minutes. Why? I don't know. It's stupid! I was watching Claire but then she started fussing and Quil came to play with her. So I had nobody to hang out with."
Leah looked around and saw everything that Kim had just described to her. Sure enough, Quil was playing hide-n-go seek with Claire, and when Leah strained to hear, she could hear Rachel and Emily debating the merits of FSAs and HSAs. And Jared and Jacob were still rolling around on the ground, just like Kim had said.
"These things kinda suck, don't they?"
Kim nodded, "I didn't think you would come. Since it was Sam's bonfire and all."
Leah glanced around again. Everyone was sufficiently busy, too caught up in their own conversations to care about what Leah and Kim were talking about. And they were far enough away from everyone that her fellow wolves would only hear if they were trying to.
"I almost didn't come," Leah admitted, "But I heard a rumor…"
"You heard a rumor? A rumor about what?"
"I heard that Jacob was going to bring Alyssa Morgan. And I wanted to check it out."
Kim cocked her head, "I didn't hear that. And I didn't think anyone who wasn't part of the pack was allowed to come."
"Well, we both know that Jacob doesn't like to follow the rules." Leah glanced over at Charlie. He was nursing a beer and looking nervously between Sue and Billy, as if Charlie still wasn't sure if that he should be here or not.
"Good point. But I don't think Jacob and Alyssa are that serious – they dated before, you know, and it didn't really go anywhere."
"They did?"
"Yeah," Kim looked at Leah funnily, "Before the whole Bella Swan disaster. It was just one of those awkward teenage things, I guess."
Before the Bella Swan thing. In other words, before Leah cared or knew anything about Jacob Black's life.
"Interesting." It was hard to picture Jacob into anyone who wasn't Bella, but it did make sense. Bella hadn't been in Forks for years before she moved here, so Jacob wasn't always pining after her. And even after Bella first moved, she didn't exactly spend a lot of time in La Push. So it followed that Jacob would have a history with other girls, even if Leah had always seen him as some annoying kid. Leah was learning so much about Jake tonight.
"I would have thought you knew all this." Kim said mildly, "Everyone in La Push knows everything about everyone."
"Not everything," Leah disagreed, watching as Embry chucked the Frisbee through the woods and Colin ran after it, "But most things. But I stopped listening to the gossip so much after, well, you know."
The gossip in La Push was bad enough when Sam disappeared. It was even worse when Sam broke up with her. And it was absolutely unbearable when Sam started dating Emily. So Leah tried to avoid it when she could. But apparently, it meant that she was missing out on things.
"That's fair," Kim allowed, "But you and Jacob never talk about these things?"
Leah couldn't help but laugh, "Oh my God, no!"
"But don't you, like, see it in his mind? Like I thought it was an open book type of situation?"
"No. You only see what they're thinking about at that moment. And there are ways to hide it, if you focus on other things enough."
Kim considered this for a second, "Does Jared know this?"
"Probably not."
"You should tell him! I think that all the boys in the Pack know a little too much if you know what I mean."
Unfortunately, Leah did know what Kim meant. And not for the first time, she genuinely pitied all the girls who had intimate details of their lives broadcast to a group of teenage boys. Leah knew it too, but at least she knew exactly what was being broadcast, and could fight with the boys if they did anything untoward with the information. Kim had no idea what was being broadcast and no recourse, even if she did.
"I'll talk to him," Leah promised.
"Thanks. I would really appreciate it," Kim said, "But Jacob has really managed to keep all thoughts of Alyssa out of his head while he's patrolling?"
"I haven't been patrolling with him lately," Leah admitted, "I've only been patrolling with Embry."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it just worked out like that."
"Don't you have a say in the patrol schedules since your Beta and all?" Kim pressed. Leah got the feeling that Kim knew that there was more to the story than Leah was letting on.
"I do," Leah admitted, "But Embry's easy to patrol with. And he's exceptionally good at concealing his thoughts."
"Huh." There was something in Kim's voice that lead Leah to believe that Kim didn't quite believe her, "You never fail to surprise me, Leah. That's for sure."
Leah didn't ask her to elaborate.
"Are you sure you don't want to spend the night?" As he spoke, Danny pushed one of Leah's short strands of hair behind her ear. They were lying in his bed, her head resting on his chest. He kissed her bare shoulder lightly.
"I really can't." It was a lie. She could. Maybe she even should. But for whatever reason, all she could think about was the warmth of her own bed. Danny may have a queen-size bed, and hers was only a twin, but somehow it was much comfier. And she was hungry. Danny had cooked for her – fajitas, no less – but she was still too timid around him to eat anything more than what a normal twenty-year-old would eat. She had half a pizza left at her house, provided Seth hadn't gotten to it already.
"Are you sure?" Danny teased. He pressed another kiss to her bare shoulder.
"Danny…" Leah sighed. She sat up and looked at him. Naked and with his blond hair wild, he wasn't hard to look at. Against her better judgment, she leaned over and gave him a kiss that went on for a second longer than she intended.
"You wanna shower first, at least?" He spoke the words against her jaw before kissing her again. Danny was a lot of things, but he wasn't a bad kisser.
Leah reached up and ran her hands through her short hair. It was greasy, unruly, and just generally disgusting. She hadn't washed it in several days, but the thought of using Danny's stupid two-in-one conditioner shampoo just made her decision easier: she absolutely had to go home. She might share her shower with her brother, but at least she had nice shampoo and conditioner there.
"I really need to get going."
"If you insist," Danny pouted, "But I'll miss you."
"I'll call you tomorrow," Leah promised. She got out of bed and started looking for her clothes, which were strewn across the room. Her tank top was on top of the dresser, her jeans on the floor. Her bra was the easiest to find, sitting on the nightstand. Panties? She had no idea. Going commando wouldn't be that big of a deal, though. It was just a quick run back to La Push and it wasn't like she needed clothes to phase anyway.
As Leah dressed, Danny finally got out of bed, as well. He reached for a pair of boxers from his dresser but didn't bother with a shirt.
"Want me to walk you to your car?"
Leah froze. They'd been dating for almost two months now and never once had Danny asked to walk her to her car. Which was convenient because her damn car was still sitting in Jacob's garage.
"No," she said quickly, "I'm fine. Thank you, though."
She glanced at him. He had a confused expression on his face. Leah smiled sweetly at Danny as if that would be enough to convince him not to question her. He stood still as Leah crossed the small studio, grabbing her bag as she did.
"I'll see you later," Leah promised him. With a quick parting kiss, she hurried out of the apartment before Danny could try to follow her. As she walked towards the parking lot, she kept glancing back up at the apartment window, but Danny never appeared. With a relieved sigh, she abandoned her path to the parking lot for the path to the forest. Within seconds, Leah was a wolf.
It was luck that there was no one else was phased when Leah joined the pack mind. So far, she had been fortunate, and she'd had these runs of shame alone. One day, she knew, that would end, but it didn't seem to be today. She had no doubt that the three morons and her brother could guess what she was doing with Danny, but Leah had no reason to give them confirmation. And while she was working on keeping her mind focused on the present whenever she was with Embry, she always worried that she would slip up.
Out of fear, Leah ran quickly to ensure that no one else phased while she was running home. Her only slow down was a quick splash in the river to hopefully dilute the smell of Danny that she was sure was permeating from her body. Stupid enhanced sense of smell. Stupid werewolf brother.
Leah made it home in near-record time, and although she could hear Seth in his room, she didn't greet him before grabbing clothes to change into and jumping in the shower. She was in the middle of washing her hair with her glorious, feminine shampoo that was completely separate from her glorious, feminine conditioner when she heard whoops and yells from inside her own house. Even over the sound of the water, she could make out the voices clear as day: the three morons.
"Leah! Seth! Come down here!"
It wasn't an emergency. That much was clear. Jacob wouldn't be screaming in her house if it were something to do with the supernatural. He'd be howling. And Leah may let teenage boys run parts of her life, but she wasn't going to let them interrupt her showers. So she stayed in the shower, humming cheerfully to herself.
The hollering did not stop. Instead, it got louder, but also more muddled. Leah couldn't make out a word that was being said, but it was clear that Seth had joined in with them. When Leah shut off the water, the sounds of laughter and cheerful yells filled the air. She threw on her clothes quickly, the sounds making her more curious by the second.
"What are you morons screaming about?" Leah peaked her head down the staircase. At the bottom, Jacob poked his head around, an exuberant expression gracing his face. He looked younger at that moment than he had in months.
"We passed the test!" Jacob's smile rivaled that of a child who had just been given free access to a toy store.
"All three of you?"
"All three of us!"
"Leah, come down here!" Quil yelled, appearing next to Jacob, "We're celebrating!"
"In a second," she promised. Leah hurried to her room and ran her hairbrush through her short hair. She didn't bother to put on makeup or do anything else with her appearance; the boys had seen her at worst, which was far, far worse than this. She was clothed and clean, and she was pretty sure she no longer smelled like Danny, so she was good.
She bounded down the stairs and into the living room and the kitchen, where she found a celebratory atmosphere that rivaled New Year's Eve.
"Can you believe it, Leah?" Embry asked as soon as she walked into the room. His grin was nearly as big as Jacob's. "We passed! All of us!"
"Even me!" Quil added gleefully.
"I always knew you could do it," Jacob announced.
Quil scoffed, "No, you didn't."
"No, I didn't," Jacob admitted, "But I couldn't be happier that you did!"
Seth seemed just as excited as his friends were; he was doing a type of jig in celebration with Embry.
"No more high school!" Embry cheered.
"Well, you still have to finish this semester," Leah pointed out. Someone had to be the voice of reason. No reason it couldn't be her.
Embry glared at her before repeating, "No more high school! No more high school!"
"Wow, Leah, can you believe you're going to have to deal with us in the same school as you next year?" Jacob asked, "We might even be in your classes!"
"Somehow, I doubt that," Leah said, although she had no reason to say it. She didn't know what classes the dual-enrollment program allowed. There was an especially scrawny looking kid in her marine biology class. Maybe he was a dual-enrollment high schooler.
Quil laughed, "She's already regretting telling us about the program. She's going to transfer before we can even get enrolled."
"You think Kim will let us in on the carpool?" Jacob asked teasingly.
"No."
"So what are we going to do to celebrate?" Seth asked. Quil, Embry, and Jacob just stared at him, "It's Friday night. The Elders are all at some meeting in Neah Bay. You guys just found out you don't have to go to high school anymore. Shouldn't we celebrate?"
"And this is why I let you into my pack," Jacob announced with a wide smile, "You, Seth, are full of good ideas. Let's go get wasted."
"You are not getting my fifteen-year-old brother wasted!" Leah protested.
"Leah!" Seth groaned. He looked at the other three morons desperately. They chuckled.
Quil laughed, "Have either of you tried to get drunk since becoming werewolves? It doesn't work. You can't do it."
Leah did know that, or at least she suspected it. When she and Sam used to steal wine from his mom, she'd get tipsy after they finished only half the bottle. But just a few nights ago, Danny had challenged her to a drinking contest and she had outdrank him easily and felt nothing.
"I'm never going to be able to get drunk? What a ripoff!" Seth complained.
"You're not missing out on much kid," Leah promised.
"You're really not," Quil agreed, while Embry and Jacob nodded in agreement.
"So we can't drink, but we gotta do something to celebrate. This is big. All three of us managed to scam our way out of high school." Embry leaned against the kitchen counter as they considered their options.
"We could go cliff diving," Jake suggested.
"Boring. We do that all the time. We need something more exciting." Quil stroked his chin, acting as if he was capable of deep thought.
"We could run to California." Embry crossed his arms as he said it.
"No," Jacob said a little too quickly. Leah studied Jake's face, trying to figure out why he shot it down so quickly. He made eye contact with her.
"Don't look at me. This is not my celebration," Leah said in response, "I have no idea how you guys should celebrate."
No one responded for a moment as everyone seemed to think about what they wanted to do. Leah had no idea how they should celebrate, but she did have to admit that this was cause for celebration. Secretly, she was proud of the three morons. She knew Embry would pass and thought Jacob would if studied enough, but she had her doubts about Quil. So to hear that they all had made it warmed her stone-cold heart. And their happiness was so contagious that she couldn't think of trying to sink their celebration, not really.
"We could rent some movies and get a fuckton of junk food. Like all the junk food in the store," Seth proposed.
All five of them looked at each other. Embry shrugged and Jake nodded.
"It's not a bad idea," Embry allowed after thinking about it for a second.
"Better than any other ideas," Jake agreed.
"Let's do it!" Quil exclaimed.
"Really?" The excitement in Seth's eyes reminded Leah of how he used to idolize Jacob and his friends. He had always been so pleased to be included in the big kid's stuff.
"Yeah, why not? Sounds like a fun enough idea."
"Especially if we really go get all the junk food we want…"
"Let's do it!" Embry jumped up, leading to all three of the others are doing the same.
"You coming, Leah?" Jake asked before Leah could get up.
"I guess so." It wasn't like she had anything else to do. She'd wanted to come home to shower and she'd done that. She hadn't planned anything else other than that. And she did want to celebrate their accomplishments. It was a big deal. Even she could admit that.
The five of them crammed themselves into Jacob's tiny Rabbit. Embry tried to protest and say that at least some of them should run and Leah pointed out that she didn't even really need to go to the store, she could just stay here, but Quil insisted that this was a night of "pack celebration" and that "everyone needed to go and get the full experience, which included driving in the tiny car." And since Quil insisted that they all take the car, and Jacob insisted on driving since it was his car, Leah insisted that she get the passenger seat since she was Beta.
"Where are you going?!" Seth demanded as Jacob turned down the road to the small store in La Push.
"The store?"
"They don't sell sour gummy worms at the store in La Push! We have to go to Forks."
"What?" Leah hadn't realized she'd be going all the way to Forks when she agreed to go with them.
"Jacob, Leah, it's a night of celebration. We need all the best junk food we can get. And they have a much better selection in Forks," Seth said earnestly.
"And if we go to Forks we can get beer from that one 7/11," Embry added.
"I thought we already established that we can't get drunk." Leah looked back at the boys in the backseat. They were far too large to be sitting together, but they somehow made it work.
"We did, but we can still get cheap beer and pretend," Quil gave her a pointed look.
"And Forks has sour gummy worms," Seth repeated.
"Forks is so far away though," Jacob complained.
"He's never going to be able to get drunk, you might as well let him get the gummy worms he wants," Embry said helpfully from the backseat. Seth nodded happily in agreement beside him.
"Besides, the store in Forks sells brownie mixes," Quil pointed out. Leah glanced back at them and glared at all three of them.
"What the hell do you need a brownie mix for?" Jacob demanded.
"For brownies! If we're celebrating with junk food and cheap beer then we might as well get a brownie mix and make brownies!" Quil sounded completely indignant at Jacob's frustration.
Jacob turned the car sharply into a u-turn, "Fine. We'll go to Forks."
It was a quick drive to Forks with Jacob behind the wheel. He pushed the speed limit and the boys' excited chatter provided the soundtrack for the drive, and in no time, Jacob was parking in the shopping center that housed Forks' only supermarket and Blockbuster.
After a quick stop in Blockbuster, where they all picked out at least two movies (Leah knew her picks of 50 First Dates and Something's Gotta Give were highly unlikely to be picked, but she chose them anyway, figuring that Sue or Kim might want to watch them with her later that week.), the three of them made their way to the grocery store that was the main store in the shopping center.
They fanned out throughout the store, and Leah found herself on the chip aisle with Jacob, who had argued that they couldn't just get sweet foods; they'd want something salty to balance the sugar, and chips still counted as junk food.
"Where did Embry go?" Leah asked as Seth and Quil broke off for the baking aisle, after requesting a bag of potato chips. It took her a second to realize someone was missing.
"To the 7/11 down the road to pick up some beers. Do you like salt and vinegar or barbeque better?" Jacob held up family-size bags of both.
"What the hell does Embry need beers for? We've already established we can't get drunk. And salt and vinegar."
Jacob tossed the family-sized bag into the basket, "We're celebrating, Leah. We can pretend. Besides, Seth deserves a chance to least try some beer and see that he's really not missing out on much."
"He's fifteen!"
"Yeah, he's fifteen, Leah, you gotta let him live some time," Jacob took the bag of pretzels from her hands and placed them into the basket, "Besides, I know for a fact you were drinking at fifteen."
"He's my baby brother," she grumbled. But Jacob was right. Leah had raided her parent's liquor cabinet at a slumber party shortly after her fifteenth birthday and ended up grounded for a month for it. It might have been the most upset she'd ever seen Harry (though he did tell her later that she'd get into less trouble next time if she saved for the good stuff for Sue and just took the cheap stuff).
"He can still be your baby brother – he'll just be your baby brother who drinks sometimes. Now c'mon, let's go find the others."
They located Quil and Seth in the candy aisle. Both of them had other treats in their hands, as well, a brownie mix for Quil and three bags of gummy worms for Seth. Jacob took both of their selections and placed them in his now overflowing basket.
"Are you getting anything?" Jacob asked Leah.
Leah scanned the candy displays. If they'd come all the way down to Forks, then she might as well get the good stuff that wasn't sold on the reservation. She reached for a bag of Lindt dark chocolates, "Just these."
"Fancy," Jake commented as he awkwardly tossed a pack of Skittles into the top of the basket. Embry rejoined them and picked out his own candy and grabbed some salsa to go along with everything else they bought.
The five of them were surely a sight to see. With the arms full of food – junk food, mostly – and paying with the spare cash they had and the coins they had found in the Rabbit, the people of Forks were treated what must have been a ridiculous sight. They all crammed their way back into the Rabbit, Leah once again insisting on shotgun, overriding the protests of the other three pack members.
Somehow, they managed to avoid digging into their feast in the car before they reached the Clearwater house, but as soon as they'd gotten everything inside, the game was over. Bags of chips and candy spilled into the counters of the kitchen as they opened all the food they'd gotten and began snacking. Quil stole the eggs and oil needed to make his boxed brownies. Embry and Seth fought over who would get to lick the bowl until Jacob swooped in and grabbed from under both of their noses.
Joyous laughter filled the Clearwater's house as the brownies baked. Goldfish crackers were tossed back and forth and the boys made quite a show of who could stuff the most Oreos in their mouth. Leah didn't even have it in herself to act annoyed, even if she knew they were being childish. The celebratory nature was contagious, and she found herself laughing at their antics, even if she didn't join in on them.
"Movie time!" Seth yelled as soon as Quil pulled his brownies out of the oven. The boys had selected some horror movie, which Leah had begrudgingly agreed to. It would just be too much to get them to agree to a romcom and - even if they did agree – she would have to deal with their stupid comments about it the whole time. Better to save the romcoms for girls' nights, Leah figured.
"These aren't half-bad, Quil," Leah said after taking her first bite of the still-warm brownies.
Quil rolled his eyes, "Leah, they're from a box. Anyone can make them."
"Still good though." Leah grabbed another one and put it on her plate that was overflowing with food. Enough so that she might even feel full, werewolf metabolism and all. She leaned back into the sofa, settling into her spot in the corner. Jacob sat next to her, with Embry on his other side, while Seth and Quil took the loveseat. On the coffee table, their wide spread of food covered the entire table.
Seth started the movie, and Leah leaned back in her seat, ready for a night of horror movies and as much food as she could possibly want. The movies were good, the food was good and even the company was good. She felt bad for thinking it, but there was no doubt in Leah's mind: this definitely beat a night at Danny's.
A/N: I just want to say thank you so much for all the kind comments! I really appreciate them and they really do make a difference to me! I hope everyone is doing well with the pandemic and the holidays - I know a lot of people are really struggling this year so if you need a listening ear, please feel free to reach out. We have about six chapters left and I'm really excited for what to come and I hope you are too. Thanks for reading!