Hello, friends! Long time, no post. As usual, I'm sorry for the delay. So much has happened since I last updated this story. I graduated college, got a full time job in my field, turned 24, and now the world is bizarre. But through everything, Anna Begins continues to stay on my mind, just as all my stories do, and now here I am finally updating it. I've given so much thought to the plot and think I may have it figured out? I have a plan, but goodness knows stories like to go off track sometimes. Either way, here is the long awaited ninth chapter to Anna Begins! I hope those of you who have stuck around enjoy it :)

Chapter Nine

Anna

After a little while of hanging out with Emily, Felicity took us to her apartment to wait the last little bit of time until school let out. "I have work tonight, so we might as well pass the time there since I'll need to get ready anyway."

I texted Alex to let him know I was getting a ride home with Felicity so he wouldn't wait for me at the end of the day. He was sure to find that suspicious, because I was definitely not one for unplanned things, but I'd have to deal with that later. For now, I was bunkered down on a couch in Felicity's living room.

"I know you probably think this is all strange," Felicity said, somewhat sheepishly.

I simply responded with a shrug. This was all very strange and made no sense, but everyone had been nice to me so far and I hadn't had a panic attack or anything, so I was just going along with it.

Felicity responded as if I'd given a resounding agreement. "I'm sorry I'm not explaining anything. It's not up to me. Which I know sounds terrible, but it's not. Terrible, I mean. It's just the way things are. You'll understand at some point. Hopefully soon." She gave a small laugh. "I'm rambling."

I bit my lip. "Yeah. Kind of." More than kind of, but I didn't want her to be self-conscious.

"So tell me about you," she said. "What was it like where you used to live? Colorado, right?"

Oh no. I hated this. Talking about myself was the worst. At least she'd asked a question to help me figure out what to say, but my palms started to sweat anyway. "Yes, I'm from Colorado. It was…okay…where I used to live. But I'm liking Forks better." I paused. "Well, I always liked Forks better—when I came to visit my grandparents, you know? So I'm glad to be here."

She nodded, smiling. "I'm glad you like it! Were you sad to leave your old school, though? It's so late in the year."

"Not sad at all. It's not like I had a whole bunch of friends or anything. The only thing that changed with the move was my schedule. There are four years of PE here, which I'm not a fan of. And I have to take art, which I'm not skilled at. But…yeah." I shrugged. I'd been about to say something mushy about having at least one friend here but my hands were already shaking at the thought. Too much.

"I will never understand how you had no friends there." Felicity frowned. "You're a little shy, but you're great! We've been bonding so well, and we haven't known each other long at all."

I shrugged again because apparently that was all I knew how to do. Shrug, shrug, shrug. The answer to life was a shrug. "I don't know."

"Well, you're my friend now, and I'm glad you're here," she said resolutely. "And Jacob's your friend. And Paul, too. And Emily thought you were sweet—and she's right—so I'm sure she wants to be your friend now. It's going to be so much better for you here, Anna, I just know it."

Wow. Felicity was being really kind. I stared at her a moment in awe, then said quietly, "Thank you."

She grinned, glancing at her phone. "Oh, it's time for me to start getting ready for work. You can hang around until I leave, if you'd like. Maybe Paul will be home soon? I'm not sure what his schedule is." She tilted her head in thought. "I can call him to find out, if you want? He'd love to hang out with you."

I stood up so fast my pants might as well have been on fire. "Oh, no. No, no. No, not necessary at all," I rushed to say. "I should head home. Make sure my brother doesn't rat me out for skipping." He wouldn't do that anyway, but it was as good an excuse as any.

"Okay," she said as we walked toward the door. "Then I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I said, forcing a smile in response. "Tomorrow."

She waved before closing the door behind me, and I walked down the hall to my apartment. The last thing I expected when I entered was for my brother to be on the other side, glaring.

"Where were you?" he asked before I'd even shut the door.

"What?" I said, confused at this situation. It wasn't late enough for him to be home from school yet. Why was he here?

"Where were you?" he asked again, beginning to pace. "I noticed you weren't in school after lunch. Normally I see you at least once, if not twice. The school may be split between buildings—which is ridiculous in a place with all this damn rain but whatever—but I always see you in passing, Anna. And you weren't there. Then I got your text that you would be getting a ride home with Felicity and knew you were full of shit. You weren't getting a ride at the end of the day. You left early. So now I want you to tell me where you were."

My eyes trailed him as he walked back and forth across the living room, his hands gesturing as he spoke. In hindsight, it was dumb of me to not realize he'd notice I was gone early. He was right. The school was small, and I usually saw him at least once during a passing period after lunch. There was no way to lie. "We left early."

He rolled his eyes. "No shit, sherlock. But where did you go?"

I narrowed my gaze on him. "Why do you want to know so bad?"

"Because I want to make sure you're okay," he answered immediately, his face falling as he ceased pacing. "In Colorado when you skipped school, it never turned out good."

Skipping school in Colorado was the last thing I wanted to think about. "We went to one of Felicity's friends houses. Her name is Emily. She made lunch, and Paul and Jacob were there too. And a couple of other friends of theirs. We just ate lunch and talked. That was all. Afterward, Felicity and I came back to her apartment. That's it. Nothing to worry about."

He watched me for a moment, then let out a long breath. "Okay. Good. I'm not some saint or anything, I'm not going to make a huge deal out of you having friends and doing things every once in a while. But when similar things have happened before…"

"I know." I did not need him to go into detail of what happened the few times I skipped school before. "This wasn't anything like that. I promise."

Alex nodded, taking me at my word. "Good." He smiled. "Actually, great. Look at you, getting out there and making friends that aren't assholes! Proud of you, Annie."

I couldn't hold back a slight smile. "Shut up."

"No, let me be happy and proud because otherwise I may get pissed you didn't invite me," he teased.

But after that he did drop it. And when our parents got home, he didn't say a word to them. I'd really gotten lucky to have Alex as a brother.

He did stroll up beside me the next day as I walked into the lunchroom with Felicity. "No way you're ditching without me today," he said with a smirk.

"Oh, so you heard about that?" Felicity asked, her pitch friendly but a little high. Was she nervous because he knew?

"Yeah, but no worries. I'm not going to rat you guys out or anything."

Felicity smiled. "Cool."

We sat at our table, this time with Alex beside me too, the whole time Felicity's gaze kept sweeping the room. I didn't ask and she didn't offer the information, but I knew it was because of the people from yesterday. The Cullens. They were nowhere to be seen, but if they showed up, would she leave again?

My question was answered a couple of minutes later when, as Alex rambled on about some kid in his gym class, the three teenagers from yesterday walked into the room and Felicity's face went white. Even Alex noticed her stiffness in her seat, pausing in his monologue to ask, "You okay?"

Felicity took a second, but then she shook it off. "Yeah. Fine." She took a sip of her water, her hand visibly shaking.

Alex didn't believe her anymore than I did and was about to continue his questioning, but then a girl stopped at our table.

"Hello, Felicity," she said, her chin tilted up the smallest bit to make it evident she didn't want to be here. The other two Cullens were seated at a table across the room, their eyes on the interaction happening over here.

"Bella," Felicity said, her voice tight. So this was the missing girl that the chief was looking for. Why was everyone freaking out that she was back? It was good her father didn't have to be out looking for her anymore.

"You need to talk to your…" Bella paused. "Pack of friends. Tell them to meet with us. Things aren't as clear cut as they seem."

Felicity's eyes narrowed. "I don't have to do anything."

Bella smiled, but it didn't seem very friendly. "Sure you don't. But we don't need the past repeating itself." She glanced at me. "Now do we?"

"I get it," Felicity snapped. "Now go away."

Bella didn't hesitate. "Great. Bye."

Alex barely waited for her to be out of hearing range to ask, "What was that about?"

Felicity shrugged. "My friends and I don't really get along with them. It's a whole mess that I don't really want to explain right now."

Apparently reading the exhaustion on her face, Alex took her at her word even though he clearly had more questions. Questions I'd surely be on the receiving end of later. Great. I wondered how I'd explain to him that yeah, things were odd with Felicity and her friends, but they were nice to me. So I wasn't pushing them for answers, I was simply observing and sticking around until they either got rid of me or thought we were close enough for answers.

Either way, I wasn't going to be asking them questions.

Every time I saw Felicity for the rest of the day, she looked drawn. Worried. Pale. I was concerned as we walked to the parking lot after school and was getting ready to offer to drive us home—when Paul came into view leaning against Felicity's car.

"Paul!" Felicity exclaimed, sounding more relieved than anything. When we got close enough, she gave him a hug. "What are you doing here?"

He gave her a quick squeeze before letting her go and winking at me with a smile. "I'm going to drive you ladies over to Sam and Emily's house. We need to have a chat."

"A chat." Felicity repeated.

"Right." They shared a look, and I felt like I was intruding on something I private. Something I wasn't supposed to know or witness.

I took a step back. "I'm sure I can catch a ride with my brother if you guys have something going on?" I said uncertainly.

Paul blinked at me, shaking his head. "No, no. Please come with us. I haven't seen you in ages!"

Felicity scoffed at him. "You're ridiculous."

"I'm honest. I'm greatly in need of some quality time, Anna. Ideally involving some of your undivided attention, but I'll take what I can get. Just come with us, please?" He opened the passenger door of Felicity's car, gesturing for me to get in.

I didn't move. "I just saw you yesterday."

"Right. Twenty-four whole hours ago." He tilted his head to the side in thought. "Actually, it has been more like twenty-six whole hours since I last saw you. I'm going through withdrawals, Anna."

My lips twitched. "Because that doesn't sound like something a stalker would say at all."

"You're going to scare her away, Paul," Felicity added, humor in her voice.

"I'm not trying to be creepy. I just…we all really, really need to have a chat," he said, his expression solemn. "Hopefully it can be very thorough. But we have to go to Sam and Emily's to figure some shit—I mean crap, sorry. Figure some crap out first."

Felicity nodded, on Paul's side this time. "Climb on in, Anna. I swear I won't let him kidnap you."

"Well, if you swear…" I said uncertainly, doing as they asked. They seemed to have a quiet argument outside of the car before Felicity rolled her eyes, handed over her keys, and took her place in the back seat of the car. Would she prefer the front? Maybe I should have passed up the offered passenger's seat. I didn't want Felicity to be mad.

We were pulling out of the school parking lot when Paul seemed to notice my worry. "You alright over there, Anna? Looking a little shaky."

Oh. Yeah. My hands were shaking, weren't they? Would it be weird to offer Felicity the front seat now? Of course it would. We were already driving. She was probably wishing I weren't here. And Paul probably was too, for that matter. He'd only offered me the seat to be polite. Now they were stuck with me. Would they start to hate me now?

"Hey," Paul said gently, laying a warm hand over my still trembling one. "Should we pull over? Do you need a minute?" The car slowed.

"No!" I said, pulling my hand out from under his and started wringing my hands instead. "We can go. I'm fine."

Felicity's voice was kind when she piped in from the back seat, "Are you sure? You can take a minute if you'd like. Or we can roll down a window?"

Hearing her being so kind gave me the barest thread of courage to glance back. She was leaned forward, concern in her features. Did that mean she didn't hate me now after all?

I latched onto that small bit of hope. "I'm sure. Please, keep going. I'm fine. I just…um…" I wracked my brain for an excuse for my behavior. I had nothing worthwhile. "I just need to let my brother know I won't be home right away. I don't want him to worry." Lame, but not entirely untrue.

"Him worrying made you that upset?" Paul asked, not buying my fib.

Instead of wasting what little breath I could pull in on trying to explain myself further, I simply shrugged. Apparently I was at least convincing enough that I was fine now because he kept driving and didn't push anymore. Paul and Felicity made a quiet chatter as I messaged my brother.

ME: Out with Felicity and Paul again. I'll be home before dinner.

ALEX: You good?

ME: Yeah. No worries.

ALEX: What a lie. You always worry.

ME: Shut up. I'm fine.

ALEX: Good. Stay that way.

I rolled my eyes as I tucked my phone away, not bothering to respond again. I'd given him no reason to be concerned. If he chose to anyway, that was on him and he'd be fine when I got home later, and he could see with his own eyes that I was okay.

We pulled up in front of the house we'd rushed to yesterday, and before we headed inside, Paul stopped us. "Hey. Can you two wait outside while I talk to Sam real quick?"

Felicity frowned. "What I need to talk to him about is kind of important, Paul. I get that you—"

"Felicity. Doll." Paul used his nickname for Felicity, but it sounded less friendly than normal—now it sounded kind of tense, like he was forcing niceties. "Let me go first. It's better for everyone."

"Everyone?" she questioned skeptically.

"Yeah, Felicity, everyone," Paul said.

Were they about to seriously argue? Was this because I'd created tension in the car? I needed to stop causing problems. "I can wait out here alone and you can both go in and talk to Sam," I offered.

Paul immediately shook his head. "No. Absolutely not."

I shrugged again. My answer for everything, yet again. I felt like I was growing pathetic at this point. "I don't mind. Obviously you guys don't want me to know things. And that's okay; it's none of my business. But don't fight over who's going to go in first when I'm the problem. I can wait out here."

Felicity's brow furrowed. "You're not a problem, Anna."

"I'm sorry we made you feel that way," Paul said, appearing sad now.

That was nice of them to say. "Okay. Either way, though, you both go in. I'll wait here." I leaned against the car, trying to appear nonchalant.

I knew I failed when Felicity and Paul shared a look. "I'll stay out here with you," she said, walking over to lean against the car next to me. "What I have can wait a few minutes."

Paul nodded before I could argue, because I hated that she made that concession for me. Because she'd only done it because I'd made her feel bad. "I'll be right back." He started to turn toward the house, then paused. "And we are so talking about how you think you're a problem and whatever other incorrect shit goes through your head, Anna. Not now, but we will definitely discuss it later because you are so wrong. You're not a problem. You're the furthest thing from a problem. But I need to go talk to Sam before I can even start having that conversation with you. I'm going to be nothing but honest with you, Anna."

His expression was solemn, and I wondered if he wasn't a person who tended to be honest to others. Or maybe as a whole he was trying to be more serious than he normally was right now, and honesty was the first step? I had no clue. I didn't know what exactly he meant, and I didn't know what to do with his words, and my brain was already trying to reject his well-intended words.

But he watched me, not going into Sam and Emily's house, waiting for a response. What was I supposed to say? I didn't even know what to think. So I tried to make a joke. "Paul, you just said shit."

He blinked, then his face broke into the most beautiful grin I'd ever seen in my life. Those cheekbones. Those teeth. Those sparkling, dark eyes. My breath stuttered. "A smartass. I like it." Then he turned around and went inside.

I was still watching where he'd disappeared when Felicity said, "You two are going to be so cute."

"What?" I sputtered, turning to face her.

She had a pleased little smile on her lips. "Paul's too cocky for his own good. You're going to knock him down a peg or ten. It's going to be great."

My palms grew clammy, but I wasn't sure if it was anxiety this time or just discomfort at her implication. "There's no way me and Paul are going to be together like that. Though it's flattering you think we could."

One of her brows lifted. "Why couldn't you?"

"Do you have eyes?" My question was a scoff. "He's out of my league times a million. He's being nice for your sake, but that's all."

"Maybe Paul should add your lack of self-esteem to that chat you two are going to have later."

"Felicity—"

"No." She held up her hand to stop me from speaking. "I get that you're shy and whatever. But trust me when I say I know Paul well and he definitely likes you, and it's not only because he wants to be nice for my sake."

Shy and whatever. That's what she thought my anxiety was? I wasn't sure if that was better or worse than the truth…but I was thinking worse because she thought I was putting up a fuss all the time because of shyness. That would get annoying. And then she really would hate me and we would lose the friendship I was growing to like. I wasn't sure it would last, but I couldn't refuse that I was enjoying having a friend. Someone to sit with at lunch and to talk to in classes. It was nice.

My thoughts spun as I contemplated telling her the truth. Explaining how my mind wasn't always rational. How my body had physical responses all the time to my mental discomfort—and that was why my hands shook so much, and I couldn't stomach much food around people I wasn't entirely comfortable with.

The way she was looking at me, like she could guess that I was contemplating something serious, nearly gave me the courage. Her face was relaxed, open to whatever I might say. Was I really going to do this? It was scary, but I thought so.

But then the door to Sam and Emily's house opened and Paul walked out, followed by Sam. Their faces were solemn, though I thought I saw some nervousness in Paul's eyes as he got closer.

"Anna, I need to tell you something," he said, his tone cautious.

The way they were all watching me now after that announcement had me wringing my hands again. "Okay?"

He took a deep breath, then apparently decided to cut no corners. "I can shapeshift into a werewolf."

I blinked. "What?" My mouth asked without my permission.

"I can, Sam can, Jacob can. We have a whole little pack of us that can, actually. We do it to protect the tribe from vampires. The Cullens are vampires, by the way. The ones at your school? Well, not Swan yet, but the other two are. And there's more of them in that family, living on the edge of Forks. So we can change into wolves to protect from them and any others of their kind who pass through. And I know it sounds crazy, but please believe me, okay? I would never make up something this insane. And I'd never lie to you." He stopped, breathing heavy after that dose of word vomit. "Anna? Please say something."

My brain was stuck, stalling. What he was saying was unbelievable. Shapeshifters weren't real. They were fiction. I loved a good shifter novel, but in real life? No way. It wasn't true. Though it had been clear Paul and Felicity were hiding some kind of secret that was big and important to them. I couldn't even remember anything I suspected it might have been now that this shifting thing had been brought to light. Now I tried to make sense of it. "I don't know what to say," I mumbled, too thrown to even try to speak with confidence.

"Maybe you should show her, Paul," Sam suggested, his expression sympathetic.

Paul looked uncomfortable. "Is that a good idea?"

Sam nodded. "I'm right here. Step back a bit and then do it. I won't let anything bad happen."

Appearing almost childlike in his trust of Sam, Paul nodded and took multiple steps back until he was standing closer to the house than to me. Then he started undressing. "You may want to look away," he warned, a nervous laugh lacing his words. "I don't want to ruin my clothes."

"I need to see it to believe it, I think," I said since I was honestly unable to look away. If I didn't see every step of the process, naked Paul and all, I didn't think my mind would ever be able to close the gap between processing and understanding. Besides, it wasn't like I'd never seen a naked male before. Paul was more attractive than anyone I'd ever met or imagined being intimate with, but a male body was a male body. I could handle it.

Paul accepted my answer at that and didn't say anything else. Once he was bare, he clenched his fists and I saw a shiver go through his body. Then a large tremble. Then he was fully shaking, his skin practically rippling until—

A large silver wolf exploded from his form, taking the place of where Paul had just been standing.

Thank you for reading! Fingers crossed I can get the next chapter written and posted in the very near future. In the meantime, please let me know your thoughts - and please, everyone, stay safe and healthy! :)