Every morning, I meet Seth at his house so we can walk to school together. Some days, he surprises me and appears at my house, but his is closer to school so I normally meet him there. Neither of us drive, and although Jacob just got his license, I would rather walk than take a car. Seth understands this part of me.
Noting the cold, rainy weather out, I dress fairly warmly in black skinny jeans with holes in the knees, and a thick tie dye sweatshirt covering my white tank top. As I walk to the door, I grab an apple and tug on my black boots, slugging my backpack over my shoulder.
Jacob has already left to pick up Quil and Embry, so I lock the door behind me and trudge through the light rain to Seth's house. My thick boots protect my feet from the puddles I splash in on my way, and when I get to Seth's house, I see Leah outside arguing with Sam Uley, her longtime boyfriend now turned fiance. Once they notice me, they stop talking.
Neither of them acknowledge me, and I don't say anything to them either. I pretend I don't notice Sam's angry stance or Leah's defensive pose with tears in her eyes.
"Hey Ray!" Seth yells as he comes out of the house, not noticing his sister. I don't point her out either, because I can tell no one was supposed to see her and Sam.
"Morning," I respond, falling into step next to him as we walk. "How much of your biology do you need me to do?"
Seth gives me a sheepish smile. "I got the first problem done."
"The first problem, or you wrote down the first problem?" I ask, and he quietly mumbles that he wrote it down. "What would you ever do without me?"
"Fail." He says simply, and I nod.
The rest of the way to school, our walk is a comfortable silence, with the occasional comment on the weather. Even with my thick boots and thick socks, my toes are starting to go numb, and my hands are ice cold.
We walk into school and get blasted by heat, my toes rejoice in satisfaction. Seth smiles when he sees the look on my face.
"Cold, are you?" He teases, and I shove him playfully.
"Don't act like I didn't see you shove your hands in your pocket the minute you stepped outside, Clearwater." I smirk, and we stop at our lockers.
We open our lockers, and once Seth has his head inside his, I yank off my jacket and slip on my green and black plaid flannel, hiding the gashes in my arms as best as I can. That is the one part of me that Seth would never know about.
I shove my sweatshirt in my locker, and take out my biology book. Thanks to my past life, I am above average in all my subjects. Biology is tough for Seth, but a breeze for me.
Seth sheepishly holds out his biology homework, and with a sigh I take it and we walk to 'our corner'. It is a bit out of the way of everyone else, and in front of one of the few windows in our school. While I do his biology, he chatters on about his plans for the weekend, and about his sisters love life. Apparently, Sam had broken up with Leah and called off their engagement, and refused to talk to her. Worst of all, he had started pursuing their cousin Emily. Billy spoke highly of Sam, so it was shocking to say the least to hear he was doing something so sleazy.
I finish Seth's homework and hand it to him, setting my pencil back in my bag.
"You're the best, Rayna." Seth sighs gratefully, and shoves the homework in his backpack.
"I know." I say, flipping my hair over my shoulder, a grin on my face.
The bell rings, and we go our separate ways. Seth to English, me to biology. I pass Quil on my way, and we nod at each other. I see him and Embry at my house pretty much every day, since they're both basically joined together at Jacob's hip.
Biology passes by rather quickly, as does my second hour (history), and my third hour (English). By the time lunch rolls around, I'm ready to bang my head against the lockers. Just because school is easy for me, doesn't mean I love going through it all over again.
I get a tray, and place an apple, water, and salad on my plate. I know the only thing I'll probably eat is the apple, because school lunches are very unappealing to everyone. Seth usually brings a lunch from home, so I'll end up stealing some of his as usual.
I sit down at our table, which includes Seth, Brady Fuller, Collin Littlesea, and Nikkita Minko. Seth and I became friends with them last year.
"Are you guys going to the bonfire tonight?" Brady asks, shoving a slice of pizza in his mouth.
"What bonfire?" I inquire, twisting the top off my water and taking a sip.
"The one Paul Lahote and his friends are throwing," Nikkita supplies. "It'll be at First Beach, of course."
"It'll also be freezing, as usual." Seth comments, pulling out his lunch from inside his backpack. He looks at my tray, and then at me, before throwing a wrapped sandwich at me. I catch it, and grin my thanks.
"It won't be too bad. It's already starting to get nicer out." Collin points out, and we all turn to look at the one window in the lunchroom.
Sure enough, the sun is slowly but surely peeking out from the clouds, and it looks as though it hasn't been raining for a few hours.
"As if my dad would let me go." I laugh, unwrapping the sandwich Seth gave me. Its banana and peanut butter, my favorite. Sue must have made it for me.
"Do you want to go?" Seth asks me, and I shake my head. Too many people. I have been to one of Paul's parties, about a month ago. It was one of his more lowkey ones, so there was only a handful of people, but still enough for people not to notice Paul and I sneak off away from the general crowd to... get to know each other.
As though he knows we were talking about him, Paul Lahote strolls over to us as though he is a god, his defined muscles straining against his too tight tee shirt. He looks directly at me, and winks, and from the way he is presenting himself it's easy to see that he purposely buys one size too small in tee shirts.
"Rayna, you coming to the party tonight?" Paul crosses his arms and stares down at me, his devilish half grin plastered on his face.
I shake my head, and unscrew the cap off of my water bottle. "Not tonight, Paul."
"We had so much fun last time, though." He grins even wider, and my cheeks heat up.
Almost everyone at the table looks at me, and then at Paul, and then back at me. It's comical in a way, but I'm too flustered to even think of laughing. Next to me, Seth tenses and I notice he's clutching the edge of the table hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
I raise an eyebrow at him, doing my best to stay calm. "Perhaps it wasn't as fun as you remember." I grab my bag, stand up, and hurry out of the lunch room. I didn't want to deal with the questions everyone was bound to ask, and if I stayed there any longer I would have punched Paul in his smug face.
Of course, as if I aren't already having enough problems, I feel my palms tingle, a rush that goes through my hands and up my arms, and I rush to find a place, anywhere that's empty of people. To my luck, I near an empty stairwell and let my bag flop onto the floor as I sink down to the floor, wrap my knees to my chest and curl into myself as much as possible.
"Magdalena, you're a disgrace."
"What a shame, the girl is so plain."
I bow my head and look down at my swollen womb, my limp blonde hair falling over my face. I can't even bring myself to wrap my arms around myself, and I should, for it's my fault there is a child growing in my body.
"You are truly a demon child." My mother says, and my head snaps back as she slaps me across the face.
I blubber out imsorryimsorryimsorry but she doesn't listen. I don't know how to make her listen.
Stop, stop, stop. I am not Magdalena. I am not in that situation. I dig my nails into my scalp as I repeat that mantra over and over, the pain bringing me back to the present.
"Rey? Rayna, are you okay?"
I look up to see Seth walking over to me, and once he takes in my appearance he hurries over to me. He knows all too well what is happening to me, as he has seen me like this more often than not.
The first thing he does is take my fists away from my scalp and uncurl my fingers one by one, ever so gently. He then reminds me to take even breaths, not too deep, not too shallow, and his voice leads me back to earth.
He notices that I'm back, and pulls me in a hug. I don't resist, and hug him back, breathing in his scent. This is Seth, this is my home. He makes me feel safe. We stay like that until the bell rings, and then reluctantly, we go to class.
The rest of the day I am quiet and withdrawn, and more than happy to leave the throngs of people eager to start the weekend. I meet Seth at our tree outside the school, and we walk home. It is silent, until he speaks up.
"So, you and Paul.." Seth trails off, and I notice he doesn't look at me. In fact, he looks everywhere but at me.
"It was nothing, really," I say. "I went to one of the bonfires they threw, and we made out. That's it."
"He's not good enough for you," Seth blurts out suddenly. "He's not good enough for anyone really, but you? Especially not you."
I look over at Seth, and he still doesn't want to look at me. I take his hand in mine, and squeeze gently.
"He's not my type," I lie. "I don't like him that way, he's not someone I would date."
"But you made out with him." Seth declares, finally looking at me. I can't identify the look in his eyes, but it makes my stomach lurch.
"It was a stupid mistake and it won't happen again." I say, and although I don't voice it, I know that I would like for it to happen again.
Seth doesn't respond, and we walk to his house in silence. When we stop at his door, he finally breaks the silence.
"Look, I just don't want you to get hurt. And, Paul isn't a good guy. Everyone knows that." Seth sighs, and runs a hand through his hair.
I nod. "I know, Seth. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
He hugs me, and then goes inside his house while I leave for mine.
As usual, when I get home, I can hear the sounds of Jacob, Embry, and Quil from the garage. There's a loud crash, and then an explosion of laughter. I roll my eyes, and enter the woods. Now that it's nicer out than this morning, I can go to my 'sanctuary'. As in, the one place in the woods that I claimed as mine.
It's somewhat near the water, so I'm able to hear the sounds of the waves crashing ever so slightly, but far enough away that I don't feel the bone chilling cold radiate off of it. I climb one of the trees, and sit with my back against the bark, one leg dangling down and the other propped up against the branch I'm sitting on. I have no homework, so I practice meditation, something I started recently to try and ward off my moments of dissociation. Hopefully, it will work.
Out here, I feel peaceful. I am not merely a reincarnated soul here, but Rayna Black, a member of the Quiluete tribe. Something about the woods feels right, and I wonder if that is because I'm more accepting of the legends than my brother. Jacob doesn't believe dad when he says we are descended from wolves, made to protect the tribe and fight the cold ones, but I can't help but wonder if it's true. The fact that I'm here is an oddity itself, so the fact that there once were men that could shapeshift into giant wolves and rip apart vampires doesn't seem to be too much of an impossibility.
Dad says that the Cullens are vampires, and not just any vampires, but the ones our great grandfather Ephraim encountered years ago. They supposedly don't drink human blood, and instead feed from animals, but even then, they probably mess up a lot.
Do I believe they're the same? It's possible. Either way, no one in the tribe goes to Forks hospital anymore, and I wouldn't want to anyways. Just in case.
Of course, that brings the question of 'am I going to turn into a giant wolf soon' to the table, but girls don't shirt. Only guys, and my brother won't be one of them. Call it sibling intuition, but he doesn't really care about our legends or culture all that much to be able to turn into a wolf. Not that he's disrespectful, he just doesn't believe at all and thinks I'm stupid for believing our dad.
Well, I guess we'll see who the stupid one is when vampires try to attack us and I'm the only one prepared between the two of us since I believe the legends. Jacob will cry for my help, and I'll refuse him. Score one for the incarnated freak.
My phone buzzes, breaking my train of thought, and I flip it open in annoyance to see that Bella has texted me.
Hey Rayna, it's Bella. If you aren't busy this weekend, do you want to hang out? Maybe tomorrow?
At first, I type out a solid 'No.', but then erase it and decide not to answer at all. If I say no, she'll probably mention it to Charlie, and then he'll mention it to Billy, and then both dad and Jacob will be all over my case. This way, I can say I didn't see the message.
I notice it's getting a bit dark, so I jump down from my perch and sling my backpack over my shoulder, and make my way back home. It's starting to get cold again, and I can almost smell the smoke from the bonfire Paul and his idiot friends are throwing.
Once I get home, my dad rolls over with a smile on his face.
"Bella called, asked if you were around tomorrow so you guys could hang out. I told you'd love to, so be ready for her around eleven." He smiles widely.
I force a smile that I know he can see through. "Great, can't wait." I say, and then go to my room.
Lovely.
hope you guys like this, sorry its late but ive been really busy. next chapter will be longer i promise, and thank you for the reviews!