Mia spent most of the night filling out the application, luckily she already started writing essays a while ago for the most common questions on applications. Mia slowly fixed it and updated it to fit this particular application, she needed it to be perfect being as it was already too later than she normally would have sent it in. She knew Callie would pull some strings if she needed to but she wanted to do things by herself and know that she could do it by herself. She did already send in the applications to the New York colleges so it wasn't like this was her only option. Yet after talking to Callie, she was hoping that maybe she could stay in Washington, Paul was here, it was a new area and Callie could actually come to live here once she was done doing whatever she was currently doing. It let off a lot of stress but that didn't mean she wanted everything to be perfect and to go her way. She wanted this college. So Mia spent the night fixing up the perfect essay and submitting it before throwing her laptop on the nightstand, she flung herself back and before long she was asleep.

It didn't feel like long for Mia to wake up with the sun shining across her motel room. Slowly she searched her phone finding it wrapped up in her blankets she had a couple of messages from her mother, Callie, and a photo from her friend Alica. Quickly she replied back to Callie and Alica, unsure how she would even reply to her mother who was asking her when she was coming back home. She didn't know how she was going to tell her that she wasn't going to be coming back for a while and she's not sure she wanted to have that fight right now. Sighing Mia left the message and decided that she would come back to it tomorrow or something, she honestly just couldn't be bothered today. She sent Paul a message asking what time should she plan to met up with him and went to get in the shower in the meantime. Mia didn't have much to do honestly, when she took this trip she didn't think she would have been gone this long so everything was back at home.

Paul didn't take long to reply telling her that it would be around four that it started. Looking at the clock it was just past twelve o'clock, sighing she figured she might as well take a shower now then at least her hair would be dry by then at least. Sadly taking a shower didn't take four hours so Mia found herself sitting on her bed flipping through the limited channels on the tv. Since this morning she received three more messages from her mother, Mia sat there debating to tell her mother that she wasn't going back or just wait a little longer to see if she even got accepted school before cutting off the possibility of returning completely. Sighing she decided to tell her that it was going to be another week before she would come home.

The day from there went pretty slow, Mia went out and found the library in town and looked through the books they had. Sadly she couldn't actually take them back to the hotel being that her address was over two thousand miles away but at least being here she was actually around people. So she spent the early afternoon hiding out in a beanbag chair in the corner of the library, only quickly stopping at the store and the motel quickly, she finally headed out to the directions that Paul gave her.

Originally she was supposed to meet up with him out here but his job ran later than planned so she had to find Paul's friends house alone. And she soon found out was not an easy task, many roads didn't seem to have signs at all. Many of these families have been living here so long that they didn't need to. Luckily though she seemed to find the right way but only because Mia passed a truck that had Colin and Jared in the back of it, they waved as they passed and waited for her to turn around and followed them.

"Thanks so much, I was completely lost." Mia told Colin when she got out of her car, grinning at the group.

"We figured as much but you were pretty close." Colin smiled at her. "Are those cookies?" He said eyeing the box Mia pulled out the car. She couldn't come empty-handed and since she couldn't use an oven to save her life she stopped at the store and bought a couple of dozen cookies for them.

"That they are. I didn't know what to good so I kinda just bought one of each."

"Don't worry they will be gone by the end of the night, I'll even help you carry them in." Colin said as he opened one up and ate it before grabbing most of the boxes from Mia.

"I don't think they will even make it to the door." A voice said from over her car, turning around Mia couldn't help but smile at the sight of Paul. A rag in his hand wiping off some of the grease he seemed to have on his hands.

"I doubt it." Mia replied.

"Sorry I couldn't meet up with you, a car I was working on was being an ass but I'm glad you made it here alright." Paul said leaning over to give her a kiss.

"Luckily I ran into Colin and got to follow them, I would have found it eventually but I'm just not very good with directions." Mia shrugged.

"Now you know where it is and never can get lost again. Here let me grab those. I'll bring you in to meet Emily and everyone else." Paul told her grabbing Mia's hand and bringing her up to the house. The house was cute, it looked liked it just got painted a deep shade of blue with this bright colorful flower garden seemingly wrapping around the house. Mia could hear laughter and yelling coming from somewhere behind the house. The house was welcoming but Mia couldn't help but feel nervous, this was all of Paul's family basically and from what he had said, there were a lot of them. And she was not very good with a bunch of new people but eventually, she would have to meet them so at least it be a quick all at once type of thing. Taking a deep breath she followed Paul into the house.

The house opened into the kitchen, it seemed that they brought the outside indoors, the flowers that were outside were bought inside sitting on the table in a bright bouquet, the table itself you could barely see under the piles of food on it, including the cookies Colin and Paul just bought in. Colin and Jared were both in the kitchen, Jared was talking to two girls in the room, one girl was leaning against him as she laughed at something they said. Her smile was bright when she looked up at Jared and gently pushed him away from her. The other girl just made a shocked expression at him before also before bursting out laughing, her face scarred from the top to the bottom. Mia knew that was at least Emily, Paul informed Mia of her accident before she got her so she wouldn't act shocked when she met her. Colin was talking to some guy, similar to the other boys he has the same russet-brown skin and dark hair but his was much longer than the others, He stood much taller than Colin which was shocking as Colin was already pretty tall.

"Hey everyone." Paul spoke getting all of their attention, everyone stopped and looked over then looked at her.

"Oh, you brought her! Hi I'm Emily. I'm so glad to meet you. This is Kim and Jared, and over there is Colin and Tyler. Everyone else is currently outside." Emily spoke up making Mia feel more at ease. "Thank you for bringing the cookies, no matter how much we make, we still run out."

"Hello, I'm Mia. And no problem, Paul said something about that, the cashier looked at me like I was crazy when I come up with all of them." Mia said trying to make conversation, Emily seemed nice she wasn't so sure why she was nervous in the first place.

"I get that, Imagine trying to go grocery shopping for everyone, they now have me coming on set days so they can stock the shelves afterward."

"We don't eat that much.." Colin said as he put another cookie in his mouth, grinning at Emily.

"Sure you don't. But I think everything inside is done so let's go outside and Mia can meet everyone." Emily said leading the way through a living room and outside the back door. Everyone followed her but Paul hung back a bit.

"You okay?" Paul asked Mia, his brown eyes looking down at her she slightly nodded her head. She could do this. It was only a couple of people, or forty. "I'm right here, and I won't leave you at all. But they are all good people."

Paul gently squeezed her hand as they made their way outside, sucking in a deep breath Mia squeezed her hand when she looked around. Most people were sitting down at the many pop-up tables that were scattered around, laughing and talking. Quil was running around and chasing Claire around the yard. Emily and Kim were pulling some chairs into the shade of a tree. And a lot of people Mia had no clue who they were.

"Hey hey!" Paul yelled at everyone, causing everyone to stop at look at them, Mia's face turning a shade of pink. "This is Mia everyone." Paul said to the crowd of people before turning to her. " I'm not going to tell you everyone names because it's impossible to remember all at once but this is everyone." Paul gestured to everyone, some smiled, some waved, some said hi. It wasn't so terrible Mia was used to be near the center of attention but she was never the one everyone looked towards, she was usually the one next to the person she where this was okay she felt greatly out of place without her best friend here. "Carry on!" Paul told them before heading over to where Emily and Kim went, they were joined by Jared and two other men. Pulling up chairs MIa sat beside him.

"So Emily, Kim, Jared from all inside. This one is Sam and the lovely baby he is holding is our newest member, with the exception of you of course, is and Emily's daughter. " Mia didn't even realize he was holding a baby at first, she seemed so tiny that Sam just seemed to engulf her. But you could just barely see little tiny hands peeping out of the light green blanket. "And this annoying person next to you is Seth, he's alright." Paul teased. Seth glared at Paul but reached over to shake Mia's hand giving her a warm smile, making her instantly like him.

"I'm the best one here honestly, he's just jealous because he knows it." Seth told her giving her a wink.

"I could see it." Mia said laughing at the look on Paul's face.

"Here five minutes and you have already betrayed me. I'm hurt sunshine." Paul joked but his face was set in a serious tone, but his eyes sparked with mischievous. In a short amount of time Mia learned that Paul was actually pretty readable once you looked into his eyes, he showed everything. You just had to give Paul a bit of effort and time and you could easily figure him out

"Well we can't have that. You'll have to prove you're the best then."

"I could take down Seth any day, I could take down all of them, any day." Paul bragged.

"Is that so? Well, how about we prove that. Let's play a game." Jared joined in the conversation, smirking at Paul and Seth.

"Soccer? Let's get the teams." Seth said jumping up from his spot and heading over to the others.

"I don't have to play, I said I wouldn't leave you." Paul told her but Mia could tell that he wanted to play and if gave her something to distract herself if she couldn't make conversation with the others.

"It's fine really. Go!" Mia smiled at him, he quickly gave her a kiss before running over to the group of boys that were forming teams.

"Paul's so sweet around you. It's great." The girl named Kim said. "And yet it's so odd. Grumpy Paul is all smiles now."

"It's adorable actually." Emily added in, adjusting the baby in her lap who seemed to be just waking up.

"I can't see him as grumpy at all." Mia told him, sure he told her some stories but honestly it didn't really seem like Paul at all. He was nothing but smiles since she met him. Her heart jumped at the thought that maybe she was special to him. Maybe staying here would turn out to be a great decision. But she needed to not get ahead of herself here.

"I don't think you ever will. He said something about you living in New York? What's that like? I always wanted to go." Kim excitedly asked.

"Well I don't really live in the fun part of New York, I live more in the cornfields and bad weather part. So it's not very exciting. I do end up going to New York City often though, my mom loves shopping there so I spend a good amount of time in the city. It's amazing, especially during winter when everything is all lit up with Christmas lights. And you just feel so small standing next to everything. I would move there if I could if it wasn't so packed with people. The only downside really." Mia explained to them. It really was the best place she have ever gone to, and she didn't know if it was because she had to go there at least four times a year so she was forced to like it or she actually loved it.

"So small towns aren't for you then?" Emily questioned her.

"I live in a small town now, I don't mind them. I just want to be somewhere that is busy and crazy for a bit. It may just be because I never lived in an area like that before I may hate it but I wanna at least try it. If I get accepted to the college I want, I might be in a busier town that's bigger and that may be good enough." Mia told them shrugging as she gave them a small smile. "What about you guys? La Push is pretty small too. Have you guys ever wanted to go to someplace bigger?" Mia asked them, Kim looked like she was honestly thinking it over when Emily shook her head no.

"I like the calm, I don't think I would fit well in a big city." Emily told her. "I have her here and this is where I met Sam, I don't think I could leave."

"Same, I would love to go and see the world and all these places but I would wanna come back when I'm done. Guess we're not very exciting people." Kim chuckled.

"Cities definitely aren't for everyone. I'd probably move and just never talk to anyone ever again." Mia joked. "Would get real lonely, real fast."

"You could be a little hermit!"

"Hey as long as I got books and Disney Ill be set!"

"Jared tells me that all the time! I may get slightly to into books." Kim said laughing. Mia was enjoying herself, Emily and Kim were pretty easy people to get along with and keep up a conversation with. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous before.

Paul came back once the game was finished and his team won, shortly after that it was time to eat. So Paul dragged her around having conversations where Mia got to mostly listen and let Paul carry the conversations. It seemed to work out nicely giving her a way into talking but making sure she wasn't the main person. Paul seemed to understand exactly what she needed and gladly took control which he only ever let go of her hand when he was eating. It was a calming presence in all the people, helping keep her grounded. She also got to know a lot of the people there this way, even if she wasn't going to remember all of their names she got a lot of them down. Mia learned Seth was a happy-go-lucky one, the twins Josh and Johnny, who were Jared's cousins, loved to get others in trouble, which she found out by them throwing noodles at Leah and then blaming it on her husband. Which caused a small food fight until Sam yelled at them, then threw some at one of the other boys Mia couldn't remember the name of. And that quite of few people here were actually the tribal council members, though she didn't know much of what that exactly meant she figured out it was a big deal. So she learned a lot in a short amount of time and more time she spent with them she realized she was nervous over nothing. They were friendly and for some reason, they felt like home. It put her at ease and yet scared her how easy she seemed to fit in and be accepted into all of them.

"Ready for the bonfire? We're heading down to the beach for the bonfire and stories of the legends." Paul explained as they were helping put everything away. Mia could see that it was close to sunset, everything started to get a bit chilly but she was always cold so that really didn't mean much.

"Legends?" Mia questioned Paul, folding up the last of the chairs and putting them into the shed.

"Where QuileuteTribe comes from, our history."

"Oh, are they interesting?" Mia asked him, wrapping her arms around him, her head tilted up so she could actually look at him.

"From what books you seem to like, I think you'll love them." Paul said resting his hand on her cheek, he leaned down to give her a kiss. It had been all day that they had a moment alone with everyone here today. And it was nice but cut short when someone threw a ball at Paul's head.

"Damn children. I will get you back Alex." Paul said looking over at the younger boy, Alex wasn't young by any means, he actually looked a lot older than he should be at fifteen but he was one of the youngest ones here today. It was really confusing trying to figure out how old everyone was, Paul tried to explain as much as her could but it was definitely information overload today.

"My young eyes shouldn't see such blasphemy Paul. I'm young and impressionable at this age. Kissing should be between a man and his wife only!" Alex yelled at the couple barely able to keep a serious face as he placed his hands on his hips like a scolding mom.

"You're a little shit, you know that right? And besides, if I remember correctly I caught you and your little girlfriend in less than innocent ways. Would be a shame if your mother found out." Paul blackmailed, Alex was speechless for a minute when he looked at Paul, where Paul just grinned at the boy.

"You know what, you two can carry on. Make all the babies!" Alex said as he walked away from the two.

Mia laughed as she looked up at Paul, her cheeks flushed pink at the last comment Alex made. "You really wouldn't tell his mom." Mia pointed out, she didn't know Paul completely but she was pretty sure he would never do that.

"Of course not, he knows that. He just likes being a shithead any chance he can get. Welcome to the club snookums." Paul laughed at the disgust on Mia face at the last nickname. "Let's go down to the bonfire." He said grinning.

"If you don't use snookums again. That is terrible."

The much smaller group made their way down through the woods, a small path already formed that led to the beach. Mia followed Paul carefully watching where she stepped knowing her luck when it come to embarrassing herself, she would end up on her face.

"Are you excited?" Claire asked as she ran up to Mia, her pigtails swinging wildly as she looked up at her.

"I am. Paul says the stories are really good." Mia smiled at the little girl.

"This is the first time I get to hear them too, Auntie Emily says I'm old enough now. I'm super excited. Every one else has heard the legends a bunch of times and I never get to, I always have to go to bed. Just not fair but now I get to!" Claire rambled on. All Mia had to do was smile and nod when she was talking to the child. Claire could have a full conversation all by herself, she was adorable. But Mia just listened to her go on about everything, she always loved kids it's why she wanted to be a teacher in the first place. Mia couldn't wait through school so she could actually start her career. Claire rambled on until the woods opened up to the beach Mia found herself the first night she was here. Where she met Paul.

A couple of the group from the house were already here starting up the fire, having took one of the cars down here already. Claire ran forward to where Billy was sitting and jumped on his lap. And started a full conversation with him right away, Mia giggled to herself, it was Billy turn though he didn't seem to mind much. It was hard not to love the small child.

"I get my girl back." Paul said grinning, slipping his warm hand into Mia's pulling her towards the bonfire.

"Yes I was taken over."

"You made a new best friend, she'll never leave you alone now." Quil said laughing sitting done on the long once he got the fire going.

"I think I'm okay with that." Mia said grinning at him, sitting next to him with Paul on the otherside of her. Jared and Kim who followed them down sat on the other side of them. People slowly found places around the fire and were getting settled.

Billy let out a small cough and almost everyone went silent immanently and turned to him. And Mia listened to him tell the stories of his people, they were fascinating to her and Mia could clearly imagine the stories. I mean who wouldn't love magic and shapeshifters. Mia long believed in the magic of the world, believing the impossible is something Mia had to comes with term with a while ago. So she listened, curled up to Paul side watching the Elders tell the stories until late in the night.