A/N: Part one of the Barbecue, Akeala's perspective and the antics the kids get into is in chapter 4.

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Chapter 3

"I am pretty sure Olivia Uley is coming to this, she's about your age," I said as Omar and I walked over to Seth's barbecue, Akeala a little bit ahead of us on her skateboard. "You guys have definitely met her at that extended family Christmas thing Grandma took us to, maybe two years ago. Remember? She is my cousin Emily's daughter."

"She has really big boobs, right?" Omar said conversationally. I feigned shock as I looked at him. "Really, Omar. You are related to her."

He put his hands up in the air, as if to show he's innocent. "I'm not interested, mom, jeez, I mean you could't not see them… if it's who I am thinking about." Akeala looked back at him, a fresh shirt with Avril Lavigne on it, in full view. Of course she is wearing that, I thought. Akeala shook her head at him, pressing one Doc Martin into the ground to speed faster ahead.

"There are some boys your age coming, Omar…" I said, deciding not to engage further on his memory of Olivia Uley. "Theo Uley, Leo and Will Camron. Theo was also at that party and you really liked wrestling with the Camron boys when you were little…" He nodded, seeming to remember.

By the time we got to Seth's house it was nearly 6pm and his yard was flooded with people and kids.

"Finally!" Seth yelled out as we made our way back toward the grill where he was stationed. One of the bigger guys in the pack now, he nearly towered over us as he drew the three of us in for a hug.

"Babe! She showed up!" he yelled to Alex, who had baby Henry strapped in a carrier to her chest. She was chatting with a group of women on the deck. Was that Embry's wife? What was her name? Samantha? Or was that Claire Atera? I thought. I couldn't really tell. Alex turned around excitedly and then made her way down the back steps so fast, I thought she might have supernatural powers herself.

I nudged Seth on the shoulder. "You didn't think I'd come to this?"

"I thought there was a 20% chance…" he said, flashing me one of his boyish smiles. "I mean you just visited a few months back Lee, but I think it's been a decade since you came to one of these…" I scowled at his words.

"It most certainly has not been a decade…" I spat, and rolled my eyes and folded my arms. I nodded and smiled at some old familiar faces as I did this, painfully aware that many of them could hear everything I was saying.

"You're here!" Alex yelled and we all went in for another group hug. "Ahh! This is so great. Come here," she said to Omar and Akeala " I'll show you where the other kids are," and she pulled them away just like that.

I took a lay of the land. "Well isn't this a blast from the past," I muttered to Seth. Embry and Quil were off in a corner, presumably talking shit. It was as if a day had hardly passed since I saw them last. Must still be in the pack, I thought. Jared looked smaller and older now that he had retired. He and Kim were monitoring a bounce house for a bunch of smaller kids. I could see my nieces bounce around gleefully through the netting. Colin and Brady, large as ever, had their arms around two very attractive girls in their 20s, and a lot of other people milled about.

"Maybe for you," he said. This is still pretty much our normal." I gulped and then grabbed a beer.

As soon as I joined his pack all those years ago I told Jacob I wanted to leave as soon as I could, and he agreed. He, and of course Seth, were the only ones I was really close to. The rest of them knew me at one of the worst possible times in my life. They thought of me as a one dimensional bitch and resented me. And probably still did. I got very polite smiles, but none of them were coming over to say warm hellos and give big hugs to the long lost bitch of the pack. Seeing them, doing this routine of the pack get-togethers just dragged me down. And I knew it would. So as soon as I could I got a one way ticket to Chicago to escape years of tourture for myself. Best thing I ever did.

"Hey look, it's Old She-Wolf," barked a coarse voice from across the yard that snapped me back to reality. I turned around to see Paul Lehote. He looked more like 30 than 20, despite being closer to 40. He was bigger than ever, like a Native magic mike, sporting a buzz cut, a snug black t-shirt and some jeans that had seen better days. He confidently walked over to Seth and I, like he owned the place.

I made a conscientious effort to not pay attention to his appearance. I rolled my eyes as he walked up to us and in a knee-jerk reaction to the insult, I gave him the bird.

"Nice to see you too, baby," he said with a large grin, clearly pleased he got under my skin. My face scowled and I wanted to call him a fuck-face. What am I doing? I thought to myself. What are you 12? Don't say fuck-face. This place really does bring out the worst in me, I thought. I smoothed the bottom half of my shift dress and relaxed my hands and face, and regained my composure.

"Paul," I said whispering lightly like the adult that I am, "my kids don't know… about the whole she-wolf thing, so if we could just keep it on the down low… and hi, and fuck you. I like looking my age," just couldn't resist one obligatory fuck you to Paul, I thought.

He chuckled. "Right. That's a bold move, Clearwater… or what's your last name now?"

"Jackson."

"Bold move, Jackson. I heard your boy has been getting pretty big. A little bit of a temper? Could phase soon."

I shot Seth a glace, before returning my eyes to Paul. "It just hasn't come up. I don't talk much about my time...doing this stuff."

"And your girl." He said as if I said nothing to him, "She could be an imprint. We got some young new wolves."

That was the last thought from my mind, and I immediately became tense at the idea. "It's supposed to be rare, remember? I never did, you never did, Seth, Embry, Collin, Brady. Why do you think they will?"

He shrugged and drank more beer, boring holes into my eyes and not answering my question. Awkward silence ensued.

"...well, this has been a fun chat," Seth cut in. "Leah, help me take these hot dogs over to the table." I took a deep sigh as we moved away from Paul, still feeling his gaze upon me, specifically on my back end. It reminded me of all those quick glances and sneak peaks he and others would take of me in the woods after phasing and it immediately made me want to kick him in the nuts for it. You are not a teenager, I told myself as we moved through the party with the food. You are fucking upper management, A fucking CEO, act like it.

I set the food down in front of a pretty woman with wavy black hair with silver streaks, wearing red lipstick. I gave her a second glance before realizing who she was.

"Rachel?" I said, as Seth went back to the grill. A small smile bent onto my face. I hadn't seen Rachel Black years, who I mostly knew through Jacob.

"How are you? How's Jacob?" I said eagerly, not getting an update on him in quite some time.

"Hey Leah!" She got up to give me a warm hug. "We're good. Jacob's good. He still really likes Alaska. He came down with Ness last Easter." I nodded.

"How are you?" She asked, "I heard you have a fancy job in Chicago."

I smiled, very proud of my work accomplishments, using it just seconds ago to bolster me out of going teenage apeshit on Paul for checking out my ass. "I am the Chief Executive Officer of Human Resources for a pretty large non-profit."

"Whoa. Sounds big time," she said politely.

"I have a great team under me, and since covid I've worked from home. It makes the single mom life easier and makes it easier for me to take longer visits here," I said with a smile.

She nodded. "How is your mom?"

"I think she is going through a rough patch, but I think she'll pull through. I think it's good for her to be around the kids."

"Totally. So nice for her. Where are they, are they here?" She asked, sitting down. I took a seat next to her.

"Yeah, I am not sure where they are, Alex took them to see the other kids, I think."

"Oh, they were really looking forward to that," she smiled.

"You have two, right?" I asked.

She smiled, "Yep, Ava and Adam, twins." She twisted her longer hair into a tight low bun and smoothed flyaways down. She had some wrinkles, a few crows feet and laugh lines, but overall she looked good, and more importantly she looked happy. How can Rachel Black be happy in La Push? I thought.

We talk for a while and she catches me up on her husband who works in logging and her job as Vice Principal at the Tribal School. She tells me about the kids who are in the pack, how her daughter is dating Jared and Kim's oldest son who phased last year. We commiserate about raising teens and she asks me about raising kids alone. Like most people, she doesn't directly bring up that Antwan died, and that I am a widow, even though I know that she knows.

"I'm surprised to see you back here, Rachel. I thought Once you left for college, that would be it," I said to her after a few rounds.

"When I came back after college...I just thought it might be best for me to be here."

"Oh?" I said. She smiled coyly and tilted inward to me, signaling the small talk was over and she was about to tell me something real.

"I wasn't even supposed to know any of this. I'm not an imprint or a shifter… but being with my dad and Jacob, I just figured it out. And when I heard about you, I thought…"

I gave her a look, signaling her to go on.

"Well, I actually thought that I might shift too."

My eyes widened.

I kinda felt this twang inside of me, like I might. But then after the Volturi left - I didn't and that twang… I don't know. It just went away."

"Well thank god you didn't," I said, opening another can of beer.

"That bad," she said.

"Well, it might have been my perspective at the time, but it certainly wasn't the girl scouts."

She laughed.

"Although," I said, entertaining the thought, " if you did, I wouldn't have been the lone female," I felt the cold can in my hand and took a swig, "and that was half the battle." I chuckled, but then a solemn expression appeared on my face as I looked at two old familiar faces.

"Hi Sam, Hi Emily," I said, exhaling.