Claire's POV

I really like my life. I am six, and I live in La Push with my Uncle Sam, my Aunt Emily, my sister Nora and my cousin Gabe. I have the bestest friend in the whole world. Quil. He has always been around, as long as I can remember. My Aunt Emily says that one day when I was visiting when I was three, that I met Quil and we started hanging out.

I don't remember all the details that she does, but I kinda remember playing with my sister, then coming into the living room and seeing a bunch of big people. Like really big people. Then tripping on some of the big legs and falling. Then I saw my favoritest brown eyes in the whole world. Then my Aunt talking, but I don't know what she said. And since then, Quil has just been with me.

And those big guys that were in my living room that day, slowly started to be my family. They were all so goofy, but I love them. Since they were always around my house, I got to know them pretty well. They say they work with my Uncle, but something seems fishy there. They are all super hot when I touch them, they are always hungry, and usually come out of the woods without tops.

Anyway, they are my family.

But, back to Quil. He always hung out with me, sorta like Cole hangs out with Nora. Nora was 10 and Cole was 14. He always sneaked me extra cookies at lunch, and made sure I got the best seat at the bonfires we always had. He was my best friend.

Today was Tuesday, and I was just got home from school, after my Aunt picked up me and my sister. When we got home, we started our homework at the table, so we could play right after.

"Claire are you finished with your homework?" My sister asked me.

"Almost, I just have to finish coloring in this wolf." I answered smiling, looking down at my brown crayon thinking how wolves were always my favorite.

"Okay, well I'm done so hurry up." She answered while looking out the window towards the woods.

A few minutes later, Quil and Cole came out of the woods, and were walking towards the house.

Their laughing gradually got louder, until they were coming in the door. Cole made his way over to Nora, and she started telling him about her day and asking about his.

"Hey Claire!" Quil said as he made his way over to me. "I really like your drawing, is it of a wolf?"

Yes of course it is a wolf. Honestly I love Quil, but sometimes people really think that kids have no clue what's going on. "Yes" I answered honestly. "I made him brown, like chocolate."

He smiled his smile that for some reason I see him give to only me. It makes me feel special.

"Are you excited about the barbeque tonight? I sure am." Oh right! I totally forgot. We were having a barbeque at our house for the pack and everyone.

"Yeah, I really wanna see everyone, it's been a few days!" I giggled and looked up at Quil.

"I'm sure everyone is excited to see you too. Now, do you wanna go for a walk outside?"

"Yes Quil, can we walk in the woods?" I asked him, slowly because I knew he would say no.

"Sure. But only because I am here, promise me to only go in the woods with someone from the pa-people that you see often!" He answered, like he was covering something up.

I looked at him straight in the eyes, blinking curiously and he looked like he was in pain. "Who do you mean by people that I see often? Like the mailman?"

He laughed at that and replied, "No, I mean like Embry, or Jake, or Paul, or Jared, or Sam, or Seth, or Le-" I cut him off.

"I get it. So any of the boys… and Leah." I smiled.

"Yes. Alright let's go."

We went for a walk for a while after that,

I loved the woods. Especially around where I lived. They felt to safe. The afternoon light was shining through the trees, lighting up the forest. There was something magical about these woods, but I didn't know what. We headed back to the house after a while, the barbeque was going to start.

As we were walking up the steps of the back porch, I saw that almost everyone was here already. Embry and Seth saw me, and started making their way out the door. I waved excitedly at them, I really missed everyone.

"Hey Claire!" Embry said happily, picking me up swiftly like a ragdoll and squeezing me until I couldn't breathe.

"Hi Embry, I missed you too but I can't breathe!" I said with a grin. I heard Quil laughing in the background. Embry passed me to Seth who gave me just as big of a hug and a kiss on my forehead. The Seth passed me to Leah who kissed both my cheeks and gave my a short hug. Then Leah passed me off to Jacob, who also gave me a hug and shook me around a little. This then continued with Colin, Brady, Jared, Cole and Paul. Finally I was set down after being almost squeezed to death, and I went back over to Quil, who had a small grin on his face.

"How you doing after all of that? I told you they missed you."

"I'm good. I love them and I love hugs."

"Good." He picked me up and twirled me around, carrying me over to the food, where dinner was just about to start. There was enough food for an army, and trust me, we ate like one. After a while of eating, everyone had finally finished all of Emily's food, we moved out onto the grass where a game of football was about to start.

I was sat on the grass with my coloring book on my lap.

Leah came over and sat down right next to me.

"How's it going Squirt?" She said as she pushed a piece of her dark hair out of her eyes and looked at me.

"Hey Leah, it's good." I looked up at her, she was so pretty. Her dark hair against her copper skin and her brown eyes. I wished I could look like her when I grow up. I sighed as I went back to coloring my wolves.

"What are you coloring? Wolves?" She laughing quietly and said something that sounded like 'ironic' but I don't know what that means. And also, I like this one the best." She pointed to the silver wolf, standing in the corner of the page. "Me too, but also this brown one might be my favorite." I pointed to the one to the left, that was watching over everybody. She smiled that same smile that I always see around here, like there is some big secret.

"Why are you coloring wolves?"

"I just like them, and we hear wolf sounds all the time here." I told her, I was so curious about them. I said quieter, "I don't really know."

"It's cool, I like them too." She said comfortingly, as she put her warm hand on my small one. I nodded, with a small smile. "Alright well, I'm going to go play with the guys, can't let them think that they're that good at football for too long." She said with a grin as she walked towards the game, and I laughed. I loved Leah, a lot.

After they finished with the game, (which Leah's team won by the way) some of the guys started up a fire, and we all sat around it. People started telling old stories, and singing songs. I looked over as I saw Cole sitting next to Nora, saying something quietly that made her laugh. I looked around the circle, and saw different couples with their arms around each other, looking so happy.

When I was younger, I wondered what made me so special. It didn't make sense that I would get to be with everyone, and always was included like I was part of some big secret that nobody else was allowed to know. That changed when Cole started hanging out with Nora. I just felt like part of our big family, and I was happy.

I looked up at Quil, who was sitting next to me, looking at the fire. His brown eyes moved around the fire, looking at everyone around us like I was minutes before. As his eyes slowly moved around the circle of people, they landed on me. He started to smile at me, which made me giggle softly.

He looked, sort of… pretty. Beautiful actually. I dunno if I can actually use that word to describe a boy, but if anyone was, he was. His dark hair looked magical against his copper skin, and the way he looked at me made me feel so protected. Like nothing could ever hurt me.

He reached out and grabbed me and pulled me onto his lap, wrapping me in a warm hug. I continued to giggle, which made him continue to smile.

Jake started to tell a story about when he, Quil and Embry went to school together. He told everyone about when they were trying out for the football team.

"So the coach took one look at us and nodded his head and pointed to the field. We were really excited, of course, but we were just doing this on a dare. We start tossing the ball back and forth, and Embry decides do a trick to show off to the coach. He waits just until the right moment when I'm throwing the ball to him, and attempts a backflip as he catches it. It would have been cool, except for the fact that Quil was standing real close to him, and Embry falls backwards, into Quil, who then proceeds to knock both of them over in front of the entire football team and the coach."

Laughter erupted from the fire circle, as Embry put his hands up and looked at Quil, who replied, "I still can't believe you did that! It was hilarious but everyone saw it and was talking about it for weeks" he finished with a chuckle and a sheepish look into the fire.

"Hey, we still made it on the team, however, we never played because of our 'anger issues' while playing contact sports…" He said as he looked at Sam with a small smile.

"Yeah, yeah… it does make a good story though" Quil said as he looked down at me. "I think someones getting tired, Claire do you want to go inside?"

Shoot! I had been trying to hide my droopy eyelids all night. "No, not really. I wanna stay and listen to more stories with everybody."

"Claire, it's getting pretty late." Emily said from across the fire, "You too, Nora, let's go in."

The girls slowly got up, sad to say goodbye to everyone. Nora got up and waved goodbye as she walked in with Emily, whereas Claire was still hugging everyone goodbye.

"G'night guys, love ya." Claire said to everyone as she pulled Quil's arm up.

"Goodnight Claire" Chorused from everybody, as Embry got up and pulled her into a tight hug. "Goodnight Embry! I still can't breathe!" He set her down and said "Nighty night Claire, don't let the bed bugs bite!" He said cheerfully as Quil grabbed Claire and picked her up, carrying her into the house.

He set her down in the kitchen and said, "G'night Claire, today was fun."

"It was, I loved it. You comin over tomorrow? It's supposed to rain so I thought we could watch some movies" She asked with suddenly bright eyes.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it."

He leaned down and gave her one last hug, as he walked back outside to the firepit and she stumbled up to her room to meet Emily.