During this chapter, I'm going to use many passages from the original chapter of Twilight, along with my own added subscript to it to talk more in detail about Bella's succubus life. All rights to these characters and the Twilight Saga go to Stephenie Meyer. Enjoy!(:

Chapter 1: Changes

It was the beginning of January when most students are off for winter break. My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down where the weather was 70° F. It felt perfect. Not too hot though not too chilly either. Was just a nice breeze in the winter weather. The sky a perfect, cloudless blue.

It was to Forks that I now exiled myself— an action that I took with great horror when I decided I no longer was able to continue my voyage in Phoenix. I couldn't hide anymore. The ordering and manipulation to cover my tracks would only work for so long before I was noticed. The population and size of Phoenix only tested me more. Tested my hunger. Tested me while I starved myself for months. While I detested Forks and loved my human life in Phoenix, I knew that I was no longer human. I couldn't continue my time there after the mistakes I made. The mistakes I could no longer fix. It was time to take a turn in my life and live with my father in hopes that the smaller population of the town would lessen the desire and urge to be a monster. In hopes, really. Less people to look at me, less people to tempt me.

"Bella," my mom informed me frequently, "you don't have to do this."

"I want to go," I lied. I'd always been a bad liar, but I'd been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now. It had to be convincing, though. I had to leave. My time in Phoenix was only becoming more of a disaster by each day. Each day that I continued to make mistakes. Continued to exposing myself on accident.

"Tell Charlie I said hi," she gleamed at me, but it was obvious with her eyebrow furrowed that she was worried that she was the reason I wanted to move away. My mother always despised Forks, and she knew how much I enjoyed the sunny weather that never showed there.

"I will"

"I'll see you soon," she reluctantly insisted. "You can come home whenever you want. I'll come right back as soon as you need me." But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.

"Don't worry about me," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom."

She hugged me tightly for a minute while my hug to her was more relaxed and limp. I could easily have crushed her in my arms if I was no longer careful. I got on the plane, and she was gone.

I had about another six hours before I would be able to make it to Forks. Four of those hours were from the Phoenix airport to Seattle, another hour to get to Port Angeles, and then an hour car ride with Charlie to Forks.

Charlie was a very aloof man, but it was adamantly clear that he was glad to have me staying with him. Renee reminded me to make sure I smiled at him when I saw him. She noticed that his tone on the phone call of hearing me move in with him made him sound happier than he had been in a long time. I knew he was likely confused as to why I was moving in with him. My same excuse that I used was that I wanted to give Renee and Phil their space as the married couple they should be where they could travel for his baseball games without them being worried about leaving me at home. It was better this way, but that wasn't the real reason I was leaving.

I was new to the succubus side of myself. I hadn't completely learned the warning signs other than what Vilinsea, the woman who turned me into what I am now, told me. There were not many rules when it came to be a succubus. First rule, as of course, was not getting noticed. If you were to tell any human what you were, you must automatically kill them afterwards, unless you both had a mutual agreement to allow the succubus to feed off the human in small amounts at a time. I had not learned that control, yet. I hadn't learned how to stop when I got started.

As succubus, we most of the time kill our prey, not that I had done that often in the sense. I haven't fed for the past three months. It was my second kill of my new life as a succubus. I couldn't fairly handle the idea of it. It just seemed like murder. Vilinsea tried to remind me that it was the same as herding cattle like humans do. Humans were our prey; we were the predators. No longer the same species.

Vilinsea tried to remind me that it was a lot like population control. Something needed to be higher on the food chain over humans who were damaging the planet and overly producing new ones. Her reasoning didn't help, though. It was wrong.

Rules that were taught to me also were to not look into other eyes. She called this our Lure. It was a technique that our species used to draw in our prey. Not saying that we couldn't necessarily look people in the face, it had to be direct eye contact for the lure to work, but it was safer to not look very often in the face at all to avoid possible eye contact.

We all had our own knacks. Vilinsea liked to call them our little gifts. Hers was tasting emotions. She said each emotion that radiated off of other humans had different flavors, but we never really got into what those were. I wasn't too interested. My gift though, on the other hand, was mind manipulation. It wasn't the most effective. It just increased the sensitivity I had to lure in humans as my prey. It also had the effect of being able to rid someone away from me. Like a command. I had several commands I could use, but I didn't use them often. It didn't sit right with me to take away someone's freedoms to their own opinions and actions.

Fall semester of my junior year was rough. I had struggled with this from time to time with not making eye contact with students at school. This caused them to automatically come over towards me. We didn't necessarily have the sexual desire for our prey, but our prey did expect it from us when they were drawn to us. But once they did find our eyes, they would immediately come towards us and envelope our kind into a kiss, mouths parted so that we could suck their energy from them until there was no life force left. It was all we needed; no sexual contact had to be induced unless we allowed it.

When these complications started during my junior year of high school, I always ended up having a swarm of humans around me. Its interrupted classes, lunch, and my daily life. So, I had to move. Start fresh.

When I landed in Port Angeles it was already raining. I had already said my goodbyes to the sun, but I knew I already felt nostalgia for it. Charlie was already waiting for me in the pick-up lane of the airport in his police cruiser. Great, if there was anything to draw attention towards me, it would be that.

Charlie was also another reason for my morals of not wanting to succumb to the monster that lived in my subconscious. Charlie was a cop who upheld the law. I always followed him on his moral dilemma; never breaking the speed limit when I drove, always making sure to come to a complete stop— those sorts of things. I'm sure murdering innocent people was not a part of the legal activities you could do in the United States.

Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I intentionally stumbled my way off the plane.

"It's good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied me. "You haven't changed much. How's Renée?"

Haven't changed much except for my new amethyst purple hued eyes. I had to wear contacts now. Not the prescription kind. Just cheap dark brown ones that you could easily pick up from online or from any kind of grunge store at the mall. I went through each lenses fairly quickly. The energy that continued to radiate through my body, always begging for more would quickly eat away at the contacts in my eyes, so buying anything prescription or anything over fifteen dollars would cut my budget to oblivion. Though, It was cheaper to buy them in bulk.

The contacts didn't give me the same chocolate brown eyes that I usually would have, but the darker the contacts I had the better. The warmer brown contacts offset my eyes into a more sangria purple hue. But the darker ones helped cancel out the purple into a more aubergine or eggplant hue. It was hard to find cheap contacts that completely enveloped the amethyst purple color, but I worked with what I had.

"Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face.

I had only a few bags. Most of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington. My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, not that the cold had completely bothered me much anymore, but it was still scanty. It all fit easily into the trunk of the cruiser.

Charlie and I playfully talked about the weather, exaggerating a conversation that neither of us put effort to keep, though that is how we always were that I had remembered. We both were not the most sociable people and nothing would really change that dynamic between us.

I couldn't disagree that Forks was beautiful. Everything was green here. The trees, the moss that covered the trunks of them, their branches hanging with canopy of it, the ground covered in ferns, even the air filtered down greenly through the trees.

It was too green — an alien planet. But it was an alien planet that I would call home, though it would be an argument I could use to say that I shouldn't be here on Earth either. Maybe I was the alien.

Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he'd bought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the only kind of days their marriage had — the early ones.

It only took one trip to get all my stuff upstairs. With my newfound life, I had now more strength, and I could run at very fast speeds, and we also had a gift of evasion. My clumsiness succumbed after my change. Sometimes I would even pretend to be clumsy around Renee just to keep up appearances. My lack of grace was one of my main qualities that would have been noticed easily if I had lost it. Another one of my new qualities was that I would stay sixteen forever. Now, though if I hadn't died and become what I am, I would be seventeen years old. One day I would have to leave right after I graduated from high school and go to college so that my parents wouldn't notice my lack of aging. Maybe poor connection video calls or phone calls would be the way to contact them in the future after I was gone.

My skin as well was another aspect to my new life. It wasn't indestructible, but I definitely no longer had to worry about getting paper cuts or accidently cutting myself with a knife when I would cook in the kitchen.

I still had my normal bodily habits. Blood still ran in my veins, I continued to have organ function, I could eat normal foods to help curve my appetite, and I still had regular bathroom breaks. I had all the workings and appearances of being a human. I was just immortal, stronger, faster, and tougher now, along with being a murderer.

My bedroom was a part of the west bedroom upstairs that faced out over the front yard. It had belonged to me since I was born, with the same wooden floor, light blue walls, peaked ceiling and the yellowed lace curtains around the window. Charlie had conveniently left me alone to unpack and get settled, which was something that would be impossible for my mother. I never minded being alone. I didn't care to need the company of others around me. I was perfectly content entertaining myself. Not having to smile and look pleased which would have been impossible to show with my detest for rain.

When I finished putting my clothes in my pine dresser, I took my bag of bathroom essentials and went to the bathroom that Charlie and I would have to share with each other. He mentioned how we would easily work around with whatever my usual bathroom breaks and shower times were. He was easy to get along with.

After my shower, I faced my pallid reflection in the mirror. I had to admit that I was lying to myself about being able to physically fit in. My eyes were something that stood out. Not entirely if I kept my face down like I should be doing, no one would notice the aubergine hue that reflected through the dark contacts. Purple of any sorts wasn't a normally natural eye color.

My mother always said that I don't relate well to people my age. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain that caused me to simply not get along with them, or relate to them in any way, especially at this point now. I definitely would have to at least try to avoid any contact with other people. I didn't want to ruin my fresh start at a new school. New faces that weren't allured to me, yet.

Since I decided to come down to Forks towards the end of winter break, school wasn't going to start until after the weekend. I had a couple of days to wind down, get settled, and get to know Charlie more, again.

I didn't sleep well that night. I reserved my anxiety and panic state to fall over me when I decided to go to bed. I had waited throughout my travels and unpacking before I would crash into the sadness, I was feeling about leaving Phoenix. Even after I was done crying, the constant whooshing of the rain and wind across the roof wouldn't fade into the background. I had hid myself under my comforter in any hope to muffle the sound, but the rain wasn't that sort of rain that was calming and repetitive. The rain here moved in different directions and was constantly off rhythm. It was hard to keep it blocked from my ears. I had even added a pillow over my face underneath the comforter. When the rain finally settled into a quieter drizzle after midnight, I finally was able to fall asleep.

Thick fog was all I could see out my window that morning. The claustrophobia of it continued to creep up on me. Strange that this effect still existed after my human life had ended.

Breakfast with Charlie was a quiet event, but the food did help suppress the hot white branding iron that was continuously burning in my throat. I didn't plan on feeding anywhere in Forks. But I also hadn't fed in a long while, so the flames were more irritating now. The soft yolk of the runny egg had caused a sticky film to glaze over the flames. It would have to do for now. He invited me to go down to La Push with him to see Billy Black and Harry Clearwater. These two were his normal friends that he enjoyed spending his weekends with. They usually would plan fishing trips together, but they had made an exception this weekend for my arrival. He also was keen to remind me that there was a boy down in La Push, Billy's son, who was named Jacob. Billy's wife, Sarah, had died many years ago when Jacob was younger, and with Billy's lack of mobility in his lower half, and two sisters to look after, Jacob quickly had to learn the meaning of becoming the man of the house.

When we finished breakfast, I embarrassingly climbed into Charlie's police cruiser and we headed down to the reservation. La Push is a Native American reservation which houses the Quileute tribe. The beaches were normally cold, and the sand was filled with numerous pebbles, shells and ocean debris. It was a nice area though, filled with good people, Charlie says. I don't remember a lot from coming down here during my childhood.

I made sure to remind myself to wear sunglasses when I was outside. I always held a pair of ray bans dangling from the neckline of whatever shirt I wore. Not that there was much sun shining down past the fog, but the light did cause the purple of my eyes to become more prominent through the dark contacts when light shined down on them. Another reason I preferred to wear them was because while my contacts were not prescription, these were instead. I didn't have to run out of sunglasses, so this was something to invest in. The prescription of the sunglasses was irritating towards my sight, but they did help distort the images of people's faces much easier for me. Allowing me to not have to constantly worry about making direct eye contact.

"Hey Billy, Harry, you guys remember Isabella." Charlie held his arm around my shoulder, pulling me into a light hug against him.

"Bella," I said, holding my hand out to them both, smiling. "You can call me Bella." Charlie snorted at my reminder.

"No need to be so formal with a handshake, kid. I remember you, come here." Billy held his arms out in a hug for me. I leaned down to give him a hug and Harry reached over towards me, as well. His hug was more burley as he pulled me in close to him. Harry and Billy's energy scents were both discernibly different. Billy's had been more huskier with the honey scent that all energies had, but Harry's held something odd. Something irritable like it wasn't healthy. "Jacob is down at the beach with a few of his friends if you want to join them. I know teenagers don't want to hang out with old men like us."

I lightly chuckled at his comment, nodding. "Thanks. I'll see you guys soon." I headed down to the beach, trying to pretend to trip lightly over the terrain on the way down there.

"Girl is still clumsy as ever, Charlie," Billy teased.

Jacob and a few of his friends were wrestling each other on the beach near the water. They were continuously digging their hands in the sand, pulling it up and catapulting it at one another as a distraction before they continued to lunge at each other.

One of the boys seemed to be a little less than six-feet tall, and shorter than the others. He was more muscular though, in fact with dark brown hair, russet skin, an impish grin, and small curls in his hair. The other boy was slender, almost as tall as the third boy who I think I recognized as Jacob. His black hair was chin-length and parted down the middle.

Jacob, who I believed was to be the third boy, had long glossy black hair pulled back with a rubber band at the nape of his neck. His skin was beautiful, silky and russet-colored; and his eyes were dark, deep set above the high planes of his cheek bones. He had a childish roundness left around his chin.

All three of them were filthy as sand covered their clothes and skin, causing their hair to be in tangles while the sand grains clung to it. I stood back a little way away keeping my distance from them as they continued to fling the grainy substance at one another. Pebbles and shells were also flying in the air as they continued to chuck them at each other.

The first boy had caught my gaze upon them and quickly ran in to tackle Jacob to the ground, sitting on top of Jacob's torso and digging the back of his head into the pebbled sand.

"Dude, Quil! Stop!" Jacob shouted at him, continuing to laugh as the other boy launched at Quil, knocking him off of Jacob.

Quil turned his head in my direction, pointing towards me. "Dude, there's a whole white chick over there watching us." The other two turned their hands directly to where Quil was pointing at, towards me. Jacob and the other boy quickly got up off the ground, dusting the sand off of their clothes, looking over at me. The other boy appeared to have a sideways grin across his face, while Jacob's grin lighted up, exposing his top row of teeth as soon as he noticed me.

"Bella!" Jacob said, jogging over towards me. Quil and the other kid were still shoving each other as soon as they started following closely behind Jacob. Seeing Jacob grin was actually kind of thrilling. I don't remember much about him and our days here together when we were younger, but he kind of radiated the feeling of home.

I immediately backed away from Jacob, extending my arms away from him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You guys are filthy," I laughed. "Billy told me the cool kids hang around down here, but I must have missed them."

Jacob snorted. "Oh, yeah? I'm not sure they'd let any ole pale face as in the likes of you join them anyways." He immediately swooped his arms around my torso embracing me in a hug and lifted me up in the air, turning himself with me around before he dropped me back on my feet. I laughed at him but furrowed my eyebrows towards the underlying stress when I realized that I had sand all over my clothes. "Should've kept your mouth shut, Bella," he chuckled.

"I really hate to break it to you, but I'm going to need a memory refresher on how well we know each other before you can talk to me that way." I lifted my eyebrow up at him with a small to hint my sarcastic indication.

"Well, I'm Jacob, but how could you forget. This is Embry, and that's Quil." They both waved at me in respective order at each when they were introduced. "And this is Bella Swan," he grinned.

"Whoa, the Bella Swan? The Chief's daughter? I heard you were coming back to town. It's actually the biggest news going on around here." Embry said, grinning at me with his arms crossed and leaned back posture.

"Great, just what I need." I said sarcastically, raising my eyebrows and furrowing my lips together.

"Awh, don't be like that. Charlie's just glad to have you back," Jacob said. I forced a smile at him, looking down at the ground, running my shoe over the sand.

"So, Bella. What are you doing this weekend?" Quil asked pushing Jacob out of the way to get closer to me. Jacob lunged his hand over Quil's shoulder pulling him back. They bother started playfully shoving each other.

I rolled my eyes, not that they would see under my sunglasses, hinting a slight grin at their interaction. "Not much, really. I just actually got here yesterday, so… might just hangout. Get settled."

"Well we are having dinner at my place tonight. You and Charlie staying?" Jacob asked, looking more than hopeful.

"I guess if he wants to. I won't have any other ride home if not."

"My mom's bringing over meat lasagna," Quil interjected.

"Yeah, that sounds great, actually. I haven't gone grocery shopping for Charlie, yet."

"It's just lasagna, dude. There's always meat in lasagna," Embry joked.

"Shut up, dude," Quil said harshly over his shoulder. I smiled at their interactions. They were all fairly young from what I could tell. Jake looked like he was almost going to be fifteen soon while the rest of them still looked around fourteen years old.

"Charlie won't say no. We were actually about to go for a hike if you wanted to come," Jacob mentioned.

I hesitated for only a brief moment. I would have to act clumsy around them, falling over roots and bushes constantly. Then again, maybe Jacob hadn't remembered my clumsy human side.

"C'mon, Bella. I promise I won't let you get lost," Quil said, Jacob shoved his shoulder against him, continuing to grin at me.

"Yeah, sure. Why not." All three of them wrapped their arms around me, lifting me up, which I faintly blushed at from embarrassment at this response from them. I slumped my body, waiting for them to put me back down.

"Well, let's get to the house and tell Charlie you're coming with us." I nodded and we all grouped together back to Billy's house.

"Bella? Hiking?" Charlie asked with a confused expression on his face.

"Don't worry, Chief. She's in good hands," Jacob lightly slapped Charlie on the back of the shoulder. I widened my glance at him, not knowing if that was an appropriate thing to do to him or not.

"Well, alright then. Just make sure you guys are all back before dinner. Quil, your mom won't be too happy if she brings that lasagna all the way over here and you guys aren't here."

"I know, Chief. Sheesh," Quil turned around and connected are arms together in a link. "Let's take the new girl for a walk." I slightly giggled at his confidence. I could almost hear Jacob's jaw tightening behind us.

We headed up the road towards the rockier side of the hills and up the incline. There was a small trail that would fall into a circular path around the top and back down the other way to meet back at this same check point. I did fine walking up the hills on my own. I had unlinked my arms from Quil's earlier and ventured out. I climbed over a few boulders, jumping down from them and continued forward. I was easily able to keep up the pace with them, which sometimes I found myself in front of the rest.

"Damn, Jacob. She's a better hiker than you," Embry said laughing as he passed by a tree, using it as leverage to push him further up the incline.

"Should have seen her when we were younger. We would make these mud pies, and she wouldn't notice where she would place them down and would eventually trip on them and land flat on her face," Jacob chuckled looking ahead towards me with an amused expression.

"Looks like she's got more coordinated now," Quil huffed, exhaling air from his lungs to push himself forward. "So, got a boyfriend back home, Bella?"

I raised my eyebrow at his question, not looking behind me. "No. Never had one." I immediately noticed they all stopped walking when I replied to their response.

"You've never had a boyfriend?" Jacob asked.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend?" I turned around, crossing my arms at him.

"No. But I'd probably already have one before I'm seventeen," he said teasing me.

"Well, as we all know here. I've had plenty," Quil said confidently pointing his thumbs at himself and then posing with his biceps. "Girls dig me."

"Yeah, dig your grave, dude," Embry swatted at his arms.

"None of them stuck?" I asked, curious.

"Nah, I like to explore my options. Really experience the different fish of the sea."

"Do any of you go to Fork's High School?"

"We kind of prefer our school on the reservation. Keeps us pure," Jacob laughed.

I frowned at his response, "Damn. Would have been good to at least know someone there."

Jacob walked up, placing his arm around each other and pulled me against his chest. "Don't worry, Bells. They aren't all a bunch of peppy jocks." I pursed my lips together at the unfortunate thought that I would become a major outsider in this new school. Not that I completely should make friends. It would be best to stay away from people entirely. The monster in my subconscious is always talking to me—trying to lure me to take my next victim. But this felt nice. Having a few friends that I can easily get along with. I don't want to completely be alone, not that it was a problem before. I'm used to it. I'm not normally those people who get bored being by themselves. It keeps me at ease, being with my own thoughts, not having to commit to plans. But again, this felt nice.

Having Jacob this much closer to me had caused my throat to start tearing away at my esophagus uncomfortably. I breathed in a heavy breath of the cold air trying to cool it down.

Take those glasses off, cara. I scrunched up my face at the 'monster' trying to take over my will. I wouldn't let it, of course. I knew that once I was able to get down to La Push and eat some food, it would help ease the lure.

Why force starvation on yourself, juvenalis? You could easily persuade them all to stand still—all you have to do is take those glasses off. I shook my head, looking down at the ground.

Ah, well, Parvulus, the sun will be setting soon. They will have to come off eventually.

We ended up getting to the end of the trail before it completely loops us back down towards the original one. There were a few signs posted along it to beware of wildlife, and others saying beware of bears in this part of the region. I wasn't nervous at the thought. I knew that I could possibly take down a bear if I wanted to. If I couldn't I knew I could easily run from one. But, if it somehow unfortunately came while I was with this group of guys, I would be out of luck on being able to do those things.

I walked over towards the edge that led a nice view over the mountain ranges. I held onto a tree next to me as I noticed the heart beats near me started to increase when I got too close.

"Wow, this is…"

"Amazing, right?" Jacob walked over next to me, crossing his arms. I nodded at him, smiling. The sun was beginning to start setting towards the western side of the ranges. The clouds and fog from this view danced with red and orange hues. I knew that I had my hunger under control enough at this point. The distraction had helped. I took my glasses off my face and folded them and tucked them back on the neckline of my sweater. My eyes were trying to dilate to the clearer picture now that the obscure view that the prescription sunglasses had were now gone from my face. I knew not to look over at Jacob's face or at the other guys. I could only peer close to their eyes, such as their cheeks, their smiles, their noses. Out of safe measures though, I held my eyes only towards their chins and necks.

"I'll definitely have to come back here and see this, soon." My jaw went slack at the sight of the colors curling over each other with the fog that rested in the air. I saw Jacob looking at me in my peripheral view. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, until he changed his glance back at the view.

"C'mon, you guys," Embry said, exhaling a heavy breath. "We gotta get before dinner."

"I think we are going to be late," I muttered, a little disappointed to have let Charlie down.

"Nah, going up the trail is the hard part. Going down it takes no time at all," Quil replied, turning to start walking back down the trail.

It wasn't hard for me either way, but it definitely seemed that they were picking up the pace now that we were heading back down the mountain.

I was surprised that they were right about the timing of getting off the mountain. It seemed like we were traveling up the trail for hours but going back down the trail took only a little over an hour to get back to La Push.

We were almost right on time when we got there. Quil's mom, Joy, was already laying out plates across the dining room table and sets of chairs. The small house had felt overly cramped that there didn't even seem to be enough room for all of us to sit down. I was wrong though; we had managed to figure it out.

"So, Bella. Have you been driving anything lately?" Billy asked, stabbing his fork into the lasagne with an amused smile on his face.

"No, not really. I used to drive my mom's car when her and Phil would take his to the batting cages."

"But you have a license, right?" Billy questioned.

"Yeah, of course. I'm seventeen."

"Well, Charlie over here is thinking about taking my old truck off my hands for you. Sound like something you would like?"

I looked over at Charlie's expression, where his eyes were down at the food, smiling a little bit with every bite he took.

"What kind of truck?" I asked. I didn't want to seem ungrateful, but I really haven't a clue about how to fix cars if it is an old thing.

"It's a Chevy. I've done a lot of work on the engine, so it runs great."

"How old is it?" I asked with more of an enthusiastic step in my response. I hated being the one to turn down a car that Charlie was giving me, but the information was important.

Jacob, Embry and Quil all chuckled at my ill attempt.

"The model is about in its late fifties. You should ask Jacob to show you it."

"That's really kind of you, but I did plan on going to a used car lot to check out some of the cars there. I was planning on buying one of my own."

"Nonsense. Jake why don't you and the guys show Bella the truck outside," Billy motioned his hand towards the door. The guys rolled their eyes letting out more soft chuckles as they stood up. I sighed, looking over at Charlie who was still engorging on his meal. I followed them outside, walking around the house towards their garage.

"Really, Bella. It runs fine," Jacob insisted, pulling the garage door open by the latch.

"Define 'fine,'" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Just don't go over sixty and you'll be good," Embry said, answering my question with a laugh.

"I really don't know much about cars. I wouldn't know how to fix it," I replied sheepishly.

"That's what I'm for. I'm a part-time mechanic," Jacob said, flashing a smile at me.

"You're fourteen, how do you have a job?"

"Not necessarily a job. Just more of a hobby. C'mon, take a nice look." Jacob grabbed the tarp over it, ripping it off and flinging it on the floor.

It was a faded red color, with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. To my intense surprise, I loved it. I didn't know if it would run, but I could see myself in it. Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged — the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed.

Jacob noticed my expression on my face as I was assessing the truck, running my hand over the hood of it.

"So, you like it?"

"I actually kind of love it."

"That's great news then," Jake laughed. "I was hoping you'd take it off my hands. Dad won't let me work on building my own car unless this was gotten rid of. I was worried that I was going to have to keep it."

"Wow, you're really good at making a sales pitch, aren't you?" I snickered sarcastically.

"My dad was going to give it to you free anyways." Free? Wow.

"Guess I can't say no to that. Yeah, I wouldn't mind having it. Would make tomorrow less horrific now." Tomorrow would be just that much less dreadful. I wouldn't be faced with the choice of either walking two miles in the rain to school or accepting a ride in the Chief's cruiser.

Jacob climbed into the truck, turning the ignition. At first it sputtered a few times, but then the engine roared to life. I could feel the crimson boiling in my cheeks at the rattling sound it was making. Maybe it would be as dreadful as I expected.

Jacob put the truck in drive and pulled it out of the garage. He turned the truck around as much as it could and parked it on the side of the road. He turned the engine off and hopped out.

"Well, now it's ready for whenever you decide to go home," he grinned at me. I looked away from him before I caught his view. We headed back inside and sat down to finish the salad that Joy had also decided to put together.

"I'll take it," I said to Charlie and Billy.

"Really? That's great."

"She actually said she loved it," Jacob smirked. Billy raised his eyebrow towards Charlie's direction with the corners of his mouth turned up.

"Well, Charlie. How about you get it out of my garage, and I'll give it to you for free."

"Already handled, dad."

"Sounds great, Billy. Thank you." Charlie placed his hand flat on my back, rubbing it in a circle looking over at me. "She'll take good care of it."

I nodded at him with a pursed grin on my face.

"Now, Bella. I just wanted to tell you 'bout something that I know your father will curse me for later," Billy said, looking at me. I had to look away, keeping my eye contact on the collar of his shirt. "You're starting at Forks on Monday, aren't you?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"Billy, c'mon. They are good kids," Charlie groaned. I looked over at Charlie suspiciously and changed my glance back to the collar of Billy's shirt.

"No, no. Charlie, she needs to know." Billy said, hushing Charlie. "There is going to be a group of kids there named the Cullens. They don't fit in, and they don't belong here in Forks. You stay away from them."

"Well, how can I say no to the man offering me a free truck?" I replied. Quil, Jake, and Embry started to laugh, and Charlie grumbled but suppressed it to a laugh, joining the others.

"It's good to have you back, Bells," Charlie said.

A/N

I will give shout outs to anyone who reviews the chapters! I'm very excited about this story… (: