The tide was low, and there were a variety of scattered pools. I was infinitely glad I brought my thick jeans, as they protected my legs as I scraped my way up and down, scrambling over the rocks to find the best pools. I caught my wrist as I lowered myself to a ledge over a particularly large and shallow pool containing a myriad of anemones, sea stars, snails, hermit crabs, some seaweeds, and a few striped fish. A small part of my mind tried to imagine what Edward would be saying if he were here. I cleared it from my mind and focused on the pool and its colours. There was a large rock crab, which Jacob grabbed expertly, holding onto the carapace in such a way that it's claws couldn't get to him. The crab settled relatively quickly in his hands.
"They're pretty chill little guys. I wouldn't pick up the baby ones though, they can be vicious. It's like the older ones don't care anymore."
"Story of my life man." I laughed. Jake dropped the crab back into the pool with a grin. We watched the striped fish weave in and out of the sea weeds, and I didn't notice the time flying by. Jacob seemed content to be quiet and hang with me, which I appreciated. A small splash in front of me, caused by a rock thrown my way caught my attention. I looked up at him.
"The others are heading back, you want to go?" he asked. I looked around at the rocks and all of my friends had indeed left. I could see Angela and Ben disappear into the forest in front of us.
"Sure! Sorry I blanked out there. I didn't mean to ignore you or anything." I didn't want to alienate one of the only friends I truly wanted to be around.
"Can't hear me if I've said nothing. It's relaxing to be here, you know? Nice to be quiet." We scrambled back to the forest and I earned myself another scratch, on the same wrist as last time. Jacob kept pace with me again, quiet, or occasionally piping up with some clarification questions.
"Can I ask something?"
"You can ask." I mirrored Edward's words from our conversation a few days ago.
"What would my name be, in sign language?" he asked, quieter than before. I still heard him, but I realised he'd probably kept it quieter because of my earlier apprehensions. I spelled Jake to him slowly, and he repeated it.
"There's an app you could look up if you want to learn the alphabet, and some basic signs." I offered. Jacob laughed heartily.
"Dude, I'm a broke sixteen year old who gets paid for car work in cookies. I don't have a cell phone that can do app stuff. I wish."
"Well I could find you a book or something I guess." I mused.
"Or we could just hang out again sometime and you can drill me," he shot back quickly.
"Sounds like a plan. Maybe next time Charlie comes down." I said, unthinkingly.
"So every day?" Jacob chuckled. I laughed too.
"Right… We'll figure out a day." I promised. A thought popped into my head. "What about Rachel and Rebecca? I didn't think to ask before."
"Rachel got a scholarship, and Rebecca married a Samoan surfer, lives in Hawaii now. They both high-tailed it out of the res as soon as they could. Something about world travels." Jacob shrugged.
"Well I'm fine coming down to hang with you, I'm not really the most social of people." It would be nice to hang out with him again. He was like Angela, very easy and no pressure. He also knew my little secret without me even trying, and seemed to not care in the slightest. I guess I was 200% success rate on that count. Wayyyy better than Phoenix. Jacob seemed happy with my statement, and we continued in silence.
When we got back to the beach group, we saw that our group had doubled in size. From afar, it looked as though Jacob had multiplied himself. They were mostly copper-skinned, dark-haired, teenagers, hanging around the fire, looking very at ease on the beach, socialising. Food was being passed around, and Eric introduced all of us as we came in. Jacob needed no introduction, merely nodding to his friends.
I sat down between Angela and Jacob again, and the three of us ate in relative quiet compared to the laughing and jostling around me. The clouds had begun to close in, and scattered across the sky in a threatening manner. I stared up at them, wishing them away for a little while longer. Suddenly Angela nudged me and pointed towards Jessica and Lauren.
"How do you know Bella, Jacob?" Lauren was asking, in what I imagined was an insolent tone.
"We've sort of known each other since I was born. Our dads are friends." He supplied.
"How nice." Her face completely disagreed with her words. I bit my tongue unappreciatively. I wasn't sure I liked her sudden interest in my affairs, especially not since she seemed to be attacking my new/old friend. I missed a part of her speech as she turned her head to gesture towards Tyler "-bad none of the Cullens could come out today." Her abrupt change in topic had me confused, and even more annoyed than before. Was she going to attack all of my friends in one conversation? My thoughts were cut off when the oldest of the native boys stepped forward. He was much older than the rest, probably a year older than me, and his voice boomed like Jacob's did. It was rougher and deeper sounding though.
"You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen's family?" I looked quickly back to Lauren.
"- do you know them?" she was saying with disinterest. I snapped my eyes back to the man.
"The Cullens don't come here," he said, in a way that closed the subject and offered no chance to revive it. It may have been my imagination, but the way he said it made it sound as though they weren't allowed to come here at all. Why could that be? Surely the Quileute tribe didn't know about Edward's – and possibly all of his siblings' – super speed and strength. Or did they? Was that the reason? Or was there something else. My mind was teeming with questions when Jacob interrupted my ponderings.
"You moved from Phoenix right, is Forks driving you insane yet?"
"Oh I'd say that's an understatement." I laughed. I suddenly had a bolt of inspiration. Jacob seemed to look at me in the same way that Mike, and sometimes Eric and Tyler, had. The teenage boy attracted to teenage girl kind of way. Normally I tried to ignore it and continue on, but maybe today – if I was right, I could use it to my advantage.
"Want to walk down the beach to the fallen sequoia tree? I asked. Jake nodded enthusiastically, and we began to move away, as the others had done. I began to try and think my way through the line of questioning I was about to bring up. We walked north, and the sky darkened slightly, as the clouds finally closed over the sun. I pulled the jacket I had tied around my waist when we hit the tide pools, onto my frame.
"So you said you're what, seventeen now?" I asked, being a little generous with my guess.
"I just turned sixteen actually," he confessed, flattered.
"Really?" I tried to look shocked. "I definitely don't recall you being that much younger than me. You certainly don't look it." Maybe I was pushing a little too hard. Reign in the flattery Bella.
"I'm tall for my age," he shrugged in a proud way.
"Who was that other boy Lauren was talking to? He looked older than even me, the secret ancient one." I smiled, trying to look at Jacob the way I'd seen Jessica look through her eyelashes at Mike.
"Oh that's Sam. He's also nineteen, oh so ancient one." He bowed mockingly. I nudged him gently, scrunching my nose up.
"Yeah well he acts old. I'm not like him. I always feel like I'm the same age as my friends." I tried to reassure him that I was more with him than with Sam. "Besides, he seemed grumpy. What was that he said about the doctor's family? I'm not sure I caught it all."
"He said the Cullens don't come to La Push." Jacob filled in helpfully, and awkwardly. He looked like he didn't like where this was headed. "They aren't supposed to come on the reservation."
"Why not?" I tried to ask nonchalantly, but I wasn't sure if my tone sounded as desperate as I felt.
"I'm really not supposed to say." Jacob hesitated.
"I won't tell anyone, besides I was just curious." I paused. "As I said, Sam was grumpy, and I just wanted to know what was messing with his cornflakes." I smiled, trying to make it alluring, and started to climb up onto the huge driftwood tree we had gotten to. Jake climbed with me, and sat facing me. He looked allured, and speculative.
"Do you like scary stories?" he asked, looking more confident, and just a little bit defiant. Teenage boys were definitely universal rebels.