Disclaimer: Again, no I do not own the Twilight series. Blah Blah Blah. A/N at the end. Blah Blah Blah.

Friday, September 13 Forks, WA BPOV 2:21 AM

I opened my eyes in the dark, feeling around for my ringing alarm clock, cursing to myself about not changing the time on it since I had left Phoenix. It was two o'clock in the morning, Forks time. My searching hand finally met the buzzing, portable camping clock.

I hit the snooze button rather forcefully, and sat up, rubbing my eyes. A cool breeze floated in through my window and I paused. I didn't remember leaving it open. I stood, and began to walk towards it when my eyes landed on my rocking chair-and someone inside it.

I felt my eyes bug out, my heart sped up to unreal speeds, and I was so terrified I couldn't manage the screams that were held frozen in my throat. The man in the chair spoke quietly, in a musical voice. "Hello, there. Don't be frightened, I won't hurt you."

I managed a scoff and began to inch towards my bedroom door, hoping to get to Charlie. "Yeah right. You're in my room." My words were much louder than his. After all, I was hoping for him to get caught.

He shifted in my chair and a sliver of light fell across his face. I froze where I stood. Not because of his handsome features, or his bronze, windblown hair, or even the crooked smile lying on his face, no. I froze because his eyes were blacker than night, and as I looked down at his hands; I saw that they were covered in blood.

My heart beat even faster, and I began to wonder if Charlie and his gun could save me from this man, after all. I cleared my throat, trying not to let him know just how close I was to peeing myself from fright.

"Why are you here?" HE shook his head. "I was out, hunting, you know. I should have been sated. But one whiff of your lovely scent…" Here he paused and threw his head back, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled. His eyes locked onto mine. "And I'm thirsty again."

I shook my head slowly. Obviously this man was delusional, creepy, just plain old weird. What the hell was he talking about, hunting, and being thirsty, being sated, what the hell is wrong with him. My feet slowly shuffled me back further, and he rose from the chair, and my heart sank. He was just too big. I'd never be able to escape.

He opened his mouth to say something, but a wolf's howl filled the night. I didn't remember ever hearing wolves howling before in all my time at Forks, but this one sounded very close. The man in front of me whipped towards me and reached out a finger and scraped it along my forearm. His finger was very cold and very hard, like marble. His nail was so sharp it drew blood on my skin.

I didn't know what to do, so I simply stood stock still with fear as his lowered his head and licked the blood from my arm. Licked it. I couldn't contain my disgust, but that disgust turned to pure, unadulterated fear as he raised his head, with an open mouthed smile. The man smiled, showing off gleaming, white, even teeth interrupted by two long, sharp looking fangs. Actual fucking fangs.

Another howl sounded outside, much closer than the first and the man hissed, actually hissed. He spun towards me and said, "I'll see you again, love. Maybe not soon, but I will see you again. You taste better than you smell." And then, before I could blink, he was gone, the only proof he had been there was the brand new cut on my arm and the hysterical sobs welling in my throat.

I began screaming, long, loud screams as I fell to the floor of my bedroom, fear washing over every part of me. My door burst open, and I screamed louder, in fear that the man had returned. But Charlie's worried face stepped into my line of vision, and I immediately threw my arms around him, sobbing.

We probably sat on the floor for twenty minutes until I was calm enough to tell him something of what happened. "I woke up a few minutes ago…there was a man, Dad…he was sitting in my rocking chair...I was so scared…" Charlie patted my back rather awkwardly, and said, "There there, kiddo, it's ok. It was just a dream, sweetheart." I paused, and opened my mouth to tell him no, it wasn't a dream.

Another howl sounded outside, and instead I found myself asking, "Since when are there wolves in Forks?" Charlie helped me stand while saying, "Yeah, they've been pretty active the last year or so. Never heard 'em this close before." I nodded, smoothing down my pj's, breathing in the way Renee's yoga instructor, from one of her many health fanatic kicks, had taught us.

Charlie looked over and studied me. "Now are you ok, do you need anything?" I shook my head. He's gone for the night. I bid Charlie a goodnight, and clambered back into bed, managing to hit my newly injured arm on the headboard as I did so. I shut my eyes tight, willing myself to think of anything but the man who'd broken into my room.

I fell asleep to the sound of howling, and feeling immensely safer every time I heard them. I decided to reflect on that later.

When I woke up, at seven, this time, I was pleasantly surprised to see sunlight pouring in through the window. I walked over to said window and looked down at the ground below, hoping for some sort of footprints that the man had left last night. There wasn't a single print on the ground. I decided to act with Charlie and everyone else as if it had all been a dream. My arm throbbed.

Unless you see the man somewhere, just don't tell anyone, they'll think you're crazy. It was hard to disagree with that, so I forcefully shoved the issue out of mind and hopped into my closet, looking for my clothing. As I reached for a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I mentally ran through my classes. First is Spanish, then Biology II and English, then lunch, Trigonometry, and Gym. Yay, school.

I rolled my eyes at my poor attempt at sarcasm and yanked on the jeans, groaning when I realized I was still wearing my pajamas. In the resulting effort to take off both items of clothing I hit my elbow three times on the doorjamb to my closet because I was trying to rely on it for balance. Finally I simply laid down on the floor and managed to untangle jeans from cotton pants.

And proceeded to put the jeans on, inside out. I played with the idea of giving up for two seconds, before realizing I still had a good chance of making it to school early if I didn't eat breakfast. Eh, I'm not hungry anyway. I tugged my jeans off, turned them right side out and pulled them on again, tossing my tank to that I'd worn to bed over my shoulder and my t-shirt onto myself, a little proud that I'd managed to do that much. I quickly brushed my hair and teeth, rolling an elastic onto my wrist just in case. I made my way down the stairs, and said, "Morning Dad, are you ready?" He looked up from his morning paper and grinned, then tossed me a set of keys.

"Billy Black drove a red pickup up here last night that his son Jacob rebuilt. It's kind of your welcome home present." I stared down at the set of truck keys in my hands. "Really? I have an actual car?"

Charlie chuckled. "Go on, you're going to be late if you wait any longer. Have a good day, kiddo." I walked over to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "You have a good day too dad. I'll be home in time to make you supper, I hope!" He waved me on out the door, smiling.

I looked at the monster sized pick-up in front of me and smiled. That's right; Bella's got a car, now. I hopped into the driver's seat and started her up, the engine happily roaring to life. I backed out of the driveway, and noticed when I looked at the passenger seat, panicked, that Charlie had already put my book bag in it. I grinned and headed towards the school.

When I parked next to a black SUV and wrestled my backpack out of the truck, a girl around my age peeked her head out of the SUV next to me and waved, excitedly. Her curly brown hair bobbed in the wind as she began talking, and her brown eyes began to glow with excitement. "Hi! I'm Jessica Stanley, and I know like, everyone here, but I don't know you so that means that you're either new here or I'm going crazy and forgetting people, I think the more likely answer is that you're a newbie, but you look like you know what you're doing so-"

Two other girls joined the first, one being a tall, gorgeous blonde with corn silk hair, and the other a shorter brunette who placed a restraining hand on Jessica, who was so worked up by now that every time she moved a hand in a descriptive movement, she nearly hit the pretty blonde girl in the face.

"Jess, calm down, ok? Don't scare her off." The other brunette turned to me and smiled. "I'm Angela Lee, that's Lauren Carter, and I think you've met Jess." I smiled and pushed my hair behind my ears. "I'm Bella, Bella Swan." Lauren's eyes widened in recognition. "You're the Chief's daughter, right?"

I nodded and Jessica hooked her arm through mine, startling me a little. "Well, in that case, we're friends already. I need a friend on the inside of the law." I couldn't help but laugh at Jessica's unrestrained behavior. Jessica began walking us all towards the school, still talking a million miles an hour about God knows what. I asked Lauren, who was standing beside me, "Is she always like this, or is it just me?" Lauren rolled her eyes. "She's always like this, but this is her being restrained." I nodded and smiled.

Angela leaned over an excited Jessica to ask, "What class do you have first?" I frowned and looked around the hallway in front of where we were standing. "I have Spanish but I have no idea where that is." Angela nodded in understanding. "I have Senor Gomez first hour too. Come on, it's better to be early with Gomez." We both waved good bye to Lauren and Jessica, and departed for Spanish.

I felt my head still reeling from the encounter. It had never been that easy to meet people in Phoenix. Had it? I decided I didn't care and settled down in a seat between Angela and the wall. Angela leaned over to me and began pointing out who other people were. "That's Mike Newton, Eric Farth, Tyler Smith, Ben Richardson, Alexis Knight…" And so on and so forth until I noticed she kept stealing glances towards the direction of Ben Richardson.

I grinned and asked, very quietly, "Ben keeps looking over here at us, are you guys' friends?" Angela's eyes widened and without looking at the boy in question, she asked, "Don't play with me Bella. Is he really looking over here?" I nodded casually, sneaking a glance over my shoulder, pretending to look at the clock and had to hide a grin when I noticed Ben staring at the back of Angela's rather pretty head, with dreamy smile on his face.

Angela smiled so broadly I thought her face would crack. When she spoke, her voice was soft but high in pitch with excitement. "Are you serious? I've only had a crush on him since fifth grade!"

I cocked an eyebrow playfully at her. "Six years, Angela?" She nodded, a sad look penetrating her sunny smile and I grinned. "Well, go over there and say hi, or something." I really had no idea what to do about boys, later confirmed when Angela gave me a strange look and smiled. I could see a little more than a hint of relief in her smile when she said, "You really have no idea how to flirt. Or at least not with Ben. He likes to go to the girl." I nodded, but I was still confused. Why does it matter who goes to who, as long as someone's going?

My thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the bell, and Senor Gomez made his way in. "Ok, ok Chico's and Chicas, I have received word that we have a new student, would Bella Swan stand up, por favor?" I winced, both at his poor Hispanic accent and the fact that I basically had to introduce myself.

I had a feeling this wasn't going to be as easy as getting to know Jessica, Angela, and Lauren. While surprised by the fact that they were actually taking to me, and an initial discomfort with Jessica's familiarity, and Lauren's snobbishness, I decided that out here, that's probably as good as it would get.

After Senor Gomez made me stand up and turn around and say, "Hola, amigos!" to the rest of the class, I sat back down, my face burning. I blushed altogether too often. I noticed a piece of folded white notebook paper resting on my Spanish book, and I opened it while Senor Gomez was engaged in a heated debate with a male student about whether or not he had been texting. He really wasn't very good at hiding it.

Someone, I'm guessing Angela, had written, 'He's a bit…eccentric but you learn to live with him. He's the easiest teacher in the whole school.' I glanced over at Senor Gomez. Who was awarding the male student with the coveted prize of copying three pages out of the book. And I smiled to myself. I wrote back, 'Then this should prove very interesting.' and then carefully tucked it under the edge of her notebook when Senor Gomez turned his back to the class.

Spanish went well, I guess. Boring, except for a few times when I would glance at Angela and notice that her eyes had glazed over and she wore a ridiculously dreamy smile.

I caught Ben staring at Angela's butt when we stood up to leave and I smiled to myself. That is just beyond adorable. My next two classes, Bio and English, went off without a hitch. They were immensely boring as well, and I knew no one in either of them. By the time lunch came around, I was dying for some company. Company that wouldn't stare awkwardly at me the way everyone had taken to. At least, it seemed like everyone.

I entered the lunch room, and looked around for a familiar face. I felt a hand wrap around my elbow and yank me towards a table in which sat Lauren and Angela. Looking over in alarm, I saw Jessica with an enthused smile on her face. "Bella! Hey! Ang says that you guys had a blast today in Spanish, apparently Tyler got his cell phone taken away and he had to copy pages out of the book! He is such a bad liar, I swear. Are you hungry, wanna go get some food? No? Ok, suit yourself. Oh, by the way, thank you." I looked quizzically at her as she directed me to a seat next to Lauren and across from her. "Thanks for what?" Lauren began to pick at a banana on her tray and answered me, an utterly bored tone in her voice, much to Angela's chagrin. "For trying to convince Angela that Ben checking her out is not a figment of our imagination."

Jessica nodded, then launched off into a speech about Ben and Angela, and love at first sight, and as she prattled on, I was only half-listening to her. For a moment, it struck me what a completely normal conversation it was, and very often, the only person I'd talked to on a regular basis was Renee, and she was so wild and crazy it was hard to have a normal conversation with her sometimes. Ok, all the time.

Still. It was nice to be able to have a normal conversation. I was suddenly thrown a loop when instead of just asking lots of questions, Jessica asked one it sounded like she expected an answer to. "So can you come over today after school? I totally need help in Spanish, I hate it, and Ang says that you're a natural." I frowned. "Sorry, Jessica, but I have to go down to La Push today after school, and talk to an old friend's brother." I blushed when I thought of how old I sounded when I said stuff like that. How old was I, seventeen or seventy?

Jessica's pretty eyes widened. "Oh my god you are such a genius, I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" I leaned back away from Jessica a little, the look in her eyes was kind of scary. Lauren glanced up at her and made a face, then asked me quietly, "Do you think we have to reboot her?" I gave her a helpless look, and Jessica snapped her fingers at both of us in an obvious attempt to grab our attention.

"No! Don't you see? First day of school Bonfire, the one we always have down at La Push! Let's invite some of the rez kids, make a real party out of it, and hook Ang up Ben! It's a win-win! I get to stare at the hot, sexy bodies of the natives, while Bella gets to meet people, you get to hang out with that Paul sex-god, and Ang gets Ben! God, I love myself!" She sat back, obviously pleased. I turned the idea over in my head. I wouldn't mind going to a party, at least for a little while. As in, thirty minutes or until I got so bored I considered taking out one of my textbooks to read. I'd only been to one party before, and it hadn't been impressive.

I shrugged. "I don't know if the rez kids will be up to a party, Leah tells me they all had some big hoo-ha down there last night. Also, why do you call them sex-gods?" Jessica gave me a speculative look. "You know kids from the rez? How well? Doesn't matter, we'll talk about it later. Anyway, Bella, you should see the guys that I've down there. They practically give you an orgasm by just letting you look at them." I blushed. What? I'm just bad at handling everything when it comes to talking about sex, no matter how many times my mother has forced me to talk about it.

Lauren nodded. "It's true. And Paul is so good in bed." Her eyes glazed over for a second, and I immediately began wondering how on earth I'd managed to somehow get in with these girls. Jessica glanced over at me and sighed. "Ok, Bella. I can see that you're having a bit of a culture shock type moment here, so let me clue you in. The basis of our friendship," she gestured to Lauren, Angela, and herself. "has always been to make each other and ourselves, awesome. It sounds stupid, I know, but look at it this way. Angela is amazing with clothes, like she could take anyone's old ratty wardrobe, spin it around and make them look like a movie star. Lauren has seriously spectacular skills with hair. Nothing else to say, there are no words."

I tried to ignore the boredom I began to feel setting in as she continued. I'd never really been one for girl talk, but Jessica seemed to think that this was important. "And I, am the master of makeup. But there's one thing that we've been missing that'll allow us to get boys so easy it'll be funny. And that's the virgin look. That's where you come in." I froze, and looked around at the other girls. Angela took pity on me and said, "Basically, Jess wants to know how to act like one. Or at least, act like you. So tonight she's gonna be practically glued to your hip. If you want to go, that is." I sighed. It was boring conversation, sure, but at least I'd have friends at school. If I didn't die of old age before anything every happened, anyway. "Yeah, that's cool."

Jessica clapped her hands in excitement. "Ok, but here's a warning as you have gym later today, and the bell's about to ring. Mike Newton is bad news, ok? He's just really, really bad in the sack and his dick's shaped like a shepard's crook." I choked a little while taking a drink of water from the bottle I had in my backpack. "What?" She flapped a hand as if she could wave away my words. "Mike's gonna try and get in your pants because you're new here and you don't know his tricks. Unfortunately, he's always been the designated driver to La Push stuff because he's got the biggest car. So be nice, but don't be too nice, he's driving us to the bonfire tonight. Do you want to come over after school so I can get a little something done with that face of yours? Make it irresistible?"

I really had no idea what to say. Jessica did everything at a nonhuman speed, and I was finding it impossible to keep up with her. "Uh…" "Great! See you in the parking lot after school, ok?" And then she was gone. Lauren snorted next to me. "Oh yeah, you're in for it. She's so goddamn excitable." And then I decided it was high time to head down to the gym and try to sort out what had just happened.

Ok. Number one, going to Jessica's house after school. Don't even want to know what she's going to make my face look like. Number two, going to a party, at La Push. Better call the Clearwater's and hope Leah will be there if I need saving from Jessica. And number three, avoid Mike Newton. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Today was a long day, and it wasn't even half over.

Avoiding Mike Newton was successful, and I was paired with Ben Richardson for gym, to Mike's obvious disappointment. Strange, he already had a partner. I took the opportunity to talk to Ben about Angela, when he had excitedly asked me how close we were.

"Why?" He ducked his head a little. "She's...yeah. I've kinda wanted to be her boyfriend for the last three years." I found myself a little shocked that any teenage boy would admit that in a gym full of his peers. Ben must want Angela bad. Again, too adorable for words. "I think you might have a shot." After that, Ben didn't talk too much because he was busy smiling really, really widely.

And an hour after school was out, I found myself in Jessica's house, in Jessica's room, sitting in Jessica's vanity chair, while Jessica herself applied makeup to my face. I was terrified of how this would turn out. I didn't think Leah would be very nice in her reception of me if I looked like a clown. Knowing Leah, she'd just laugh. I sighed inwardly. There was way too much estrogen floating around me right now for my comfort.

Lauren began tapping her feet at Jessica, and huffed a sigh of disappointment. "Jess, we have to be outside in five minutes, hurry the fuck up!" It struck me then and there that although similar in personality with Leah, Lauren and Leah would absolutely hate each other if they ever met. The thought made me smile, because I found myself becoming less fond of the blonde the more time I spent in her company.

Jessica finally put down the mascara wand. "Ok, Bella, time to look." I turned to the mirror, grimacing…and my mouth fell open. Jessica was right, she was an absolute artist. I didn't even look like me. Well, actually I did, but just so much better than normally.

Due to a light layer of concealer under my eyes and some blush applied softly to my cheekbones, my face looked like it was glowing. Jess had a surprisingly light touch with eye shadow and eyeliner, both of which had been a nightmare to endure as I had no idea what she was doing. But it looked awesome. My eyes looked large and shining, my lips full and pouty with a shine of peach lip gloss. Lauren smiled at me in the mirror, it was the first time I'd seen her do anything of the sort.

"Bella, come on, let's go. By the way, Jess has a swimsuit you can use if you want to go in the water." She leaned over as Jessica began doing touch ups on her own make up, (like she needed it I mean come on who uses that much mascara?)and she said, "Basically, that's Jess translation for; 'Bella, you are going to wear a swimsuit and like it.'"

I frowned heavily. Long day, meet long night. God, I was so looking forward to having some testosterone around, just to break up the tension and the utter bitchiness of Lauren and even Jessica sometimes.

I was so eager to talk to Sam. As we piled into Mike's truck, he pulled a face when Jessica got into the front seat instead of Lauren, I tried to conjure up an image of Sam from five years ago. I remembered him having black hair and black eyes, and prominent cheekbones. Other than that I couldn't really remember much.

I remembered his sister though. She was pale, like me, which was abnormal for a Quileute, but she had the customary dark brown hair, hers fell in straight sheets down to the small of her back, and that was when we were kids. I also remembered her having a very sarcastic approach to life, being very into books, and could probably quote every single movie on the planet. She had pretty blue eyes and a pretty smile. The only resemblance she claimed with her brother was personality wise.

My thoughts were torn from my forgotten friend when Jessica turned around in her seat and began launching questions at me concerning Phoenix. Later, Angela leaned over to me, while Jessica was preoccupied with flirting with Mike, and told me Jessica was thinking about going to college down in Arizona. To become what, a housewife? I mentally scolded myself, but I honestly couldn't see Jessica want to become or actually becoming anything else. She was content with life like the one she lived right now. I realized that I didn't think she wanted it, or was ready for it to change.

When we finally arrived at La Push, and after Jessica manhandled-woman handled?-me into a bathroom and practically forced the swimsuit on me, a one piece thank God, I was marched down to Second Beach by Jessica and Angela.

"Where's Lauren?" I was desperate for someone who wasn't going to be touching me and talking to me all the time, after spending so much time with a chatterbox like Jessica, it was hard not to get annoyed. I was trying valiantly. Jessica flapped her hand in my direction, a habit I'd noticed. "Oh, she called the Paul person and she's probably off at his place having…fun." She said the last part while looking at me suggestively from under her eyelashes. I unconsciously backed away and Jessica laughed.

"Oh please, Bella, you do look pretty hot right now if I do say so myself, but I don't swing that way. Unless I am super-duper drunk, in which case, I apologize. No, not really I just like to have fun." I shook my head and let my mouth twist into a smile. Jessica was something, that was for sure.

We stepped onto the sand, and I looked around at the gathering of people next to a huge bonfire, searching for and finding Ben. I grabbed Angela's elbow and pulled the taller girl down to whisper, "Ben's over there, seriously go say hi!" She looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears, but before she could open her mouth to decline, a masculine voice said, "Hey, Ang."

Ben was standing next to us, two red plastic cups in his hands. He offered them to us and I declined, then turned away saying, "Jessica looks like she needs rescuing over there, see you later Angela." Angela didn't look like she heard me.

Jessica, in actuality, was nowhere to be seen, I was grateful for the silence. Since I didn't know anyone else there and I was reluctant to meet anyone else, I drifted away from the group and headed towards the water, dipping my toe in. The water was cool, but not as cold as I'd thought it would be.

"You planning on swimming or what?"

The very deep, very male voice terrified me, and true to form, as I yelped and jerked around to face whoever had spoken, I began to fall in an ungraceful heap. But he, whoever he was, grabbed my wrists and yanked me up at the last minute. I noticed, almost as an afterthought, that this boy's hands were burning hot. I looked up, and saw a very muscular chest standing an arms length away from me. I craned my neck, gasping at this man's sheer size.

He had to be 6'7", and over 250 of pure muscle, with eight pack abs, amazing pecs, and the most spectacular arms I'd ever seen. Even his shoulders had muscles. Who has muscles on their freaking shoulders?

I looked further up into the boy's face. My eyes widened further. This was no boy, but a man. He had short, cropped, silky looking black hair, a strong jaw, roman nose, and sharp cheekbones slashing across his face. His mouth was twisted into a grin, but it was his eyes that captured me. Black, deep, fathomless. I felt like I was getting lost in his eyes. I dropped my own from his and said nervously, "I'm Bella, Bella Swan."

He cocked his head to the side. "Chief Swan's daughter." It was phrased kind of like a question, but something in his voice, his wonderfully deep voice, made it sound like a statement. He took my hand in his, the much larger digits engulfing and swallowing my own. "I'm Sam Uley."

My mouth dropped open in shock. This was my childhood best friend's brother? "You're Ava's brother?" His face broke out into a full fledged, sunny grin. "You remember little Ava?" I nodded. "Well, yeah, we hung out all the time whenever I came down here." He let go of my hands and I almost immediately missed their warmth. "Well, my sister's up in Kalispell Montana with my mom right now," an imperceptible, indecipherable emotion crossed his black eyes, "but Ava's coming home to live with me soon." I immediately remembered that Sam was older that Ava and I.

"Right, you've got to be twenty, right?" His smile turned into a cocky grin. "You flatter me, Bella, but I'm the ripe old age of twenty two." He looked me up and down, his smile still in place. "You sure don't match my memory." The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I blushed furiously. Before I could apologize, he let out a bark of laughter, and replied, "Yeah, I imagine so. You don't look much like you used to either, kid."

I rolled my eyes and pushed at his chest. "Please, I'm seventeen I'm almost an adult." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Still a kid to me. But probably not to that guy over there who's been watching our entire interaction. His face is really red, I wonder if he's breathing." I looked over, ok around, one of Sam's shoulders to see Mike Newton glaring at Sam's back. His face was indeed, very red.

I giggled at the sight. "He's been staring at me ever since I arrived." A mischievous smile came over Sam's face. "Should we continue to make him jealous?" He raised his eyebrows and I found myself nodding and agreeing. "Hell yeah."

Sam did something then that made me immediately regret that decision, though. Before I could even process what had happened, he had scooped me up easily in his huge arms and ran into the surf. I screamed as the now icy surf splashed up against me. I clutched at Sam's body, one arm locking around his neck while the other hand was braced against his chest. His skin was really hot, like he had a fever. Before I could ask him about it, though, he dunked us both unceremoniously into the water. My hands clutched at him so he couldn't get away.

We broke the surface of the water, me still being held in his arms like I weighed nothing. His grinned down at me, and I glared at him. "That was not part of my plan!" He threw his proud head back and laughed, I could feel the rumbling beneath my fingers from where they rested on his chest. I blushed suddenly, taking in the position of our bodies. No one had ever held me like this in my memory.

Sam's laughter proved infectious, as I soon joined in, if only to cover up the fact that I had fallen silent. He turned in the waves, which were up to stomach height on him. I saw two more hulking giants approaching us through the waves. I felt my mouth drop. I asked quietly, probably too quiet for Sam to hear over the waves, "Jesus, what the hell do they put in this water up here?" Sam laughed again, the sound making me smile.

The other two boys, more like men, finally came to a stop infront of us. Both sported the same amazing muscles, well not quite the same, as Sam, but the one on the left seemed to sport a lot more definition than the one on the right. Sam jerked his chin towards the man on the left. "Bella, meet Paul LaHote, and Jared Cameron." I waved at both of them and Paul said, "Come on, man its getting dark, let's go back to the house and get some real food. All these guys have up here is hotdogs." The disgusted look on Paul's face was kind of adorable looking.

I bit my lower lip, trying to hide a smile. Sam turned to me and asked quizzically, "You wanna come back to my place for a while?" I froze a little, and he shook his head, laughter visible in his eyes. "Come on, Bella, my sister's supposed to call tonight, I thought you might want to talk to her." I blushed and nodded, not trusting my tongue. My tongue rebelled and spoke anyway. "Yeah, sorry. But some guy broke into my room last night so I'm a little reluctant to spend time with anyone of the male gender."

Sam's face showed surprise, but he covered it when he said, "Yeah, there's been a lot of break in's here at La Push, too. Crazy people, right?" I laughed in relief and nodded. When we got to shore, I moved to get down from Sam's arms, I blamed his amazing body and handsome features for my lack of social skills. What little I had, I seemed to lose when it came to him. I put that on my to do list to think about.

Sam's arms tightened around me. "Where do you think you're going?" I blushed. "Well, um…I thought that…You know, I don't usually…I don't …Um…" He laughed at my predicament but waited for me to spit it out. "I thought you wanted me to get down. I'm altogether too talkative when it comes to you." He grinned. "Nah. I think I like you just where you are."

I rolled my eyes, and he chuckled. We passed by a stunned Lauren and Jessica, at whom I shrugged helplessly then waved to. "I'll be back!" Lauren burst out laughing. It occurred to me that her hair had been down before, now it was up in an extremely messy ponytail, like someone had tangled it.

Sam approached a monstrously huge white truck, and I deemed it proportional to its massive owner. He popped open the passenger side door, and set me inside. I smirked at him. "I'm getting your leather all wet." A flash went off in his eyes, and whatever he was thinking brought a large, crooked smile to his face.

He shook his head, still smiling, and walked over to the other side of the car and swung himself in easily. I buckled up and watched him as he did so too. I asked curiously, "How do you know Paul and Jared?" It might have been the shadows the trees cast into the cab of the truck, but I thought I saw his shoulders tense, then relax.

"Been friends for ages. More like brothers, I guess you could say." He smiled to himself. "We certainly fight like brothers." I leaned forwards a bit, and then immediately sapped my forehead. "Shit!" At Sam's quizzical glance, I explained, "I left my clothes at the beach." Sam pulled out his phone and said, "I'll call Paul and get him to get them, if that's ok with you." He glanced at me and I nodded.

Like I'd said before, I was in desperate need of some testosterone, and Sam's particular brand of testosterone was proving addicting. For some strange, unknown reason, I felt…safe with him. Like I knew he'd protect me from anything. You're getting ahead of yourself, Bella, way ahead. I turned to look out the window, ignoring Sam's short conversation with Paul. Forks was actually a lot prettier than I remembered. The trees were really, really green.

I jerked out of my stupor when Sam asked me, "Do you know Lauren Carter well?" Without looking at him, I answered, "Not well, no. I'm kind of being forced to be her friend because if I'm not, I won't have any, and even I'm not that anti-social." I frowned at myself. Since when in hell did I talk so much, and so freaking honestly? I shook the thought from my head and asked Sam, "Why do you ask?"

He shook his head, smiling. "Paul's gotten wrangled up with her. I think he's finally found his match, she's just about as bitchy as he is." I laughed. "Yeah, I definitely got that vibe. From her at least. I'm not sure about Paul, he seemed nice." Sam shrugged. "Eh, he gets like that the first time he meets a really pretty girl." I blushed. We didn't speak again until Sam pulled into the driveway of a home. He turned to me, and asked with a smile on his face, "You ready?"

A/N: So hey, there, how's it going? I'd like to point out a few things, this was kind of a filler chapter, and Bella's really confused about stuff right now, that's going to be resolved in later chapters. Next chapter we see Sam getting a little…worked up over Paul's antics. It's way late at night right now though and I have to go to bed. Thanks to the one person who has reviewed so far. I am so, so, so, SO, sorry for that really boring part in the middle when Jessica is just freaking talking but I think that that's how a normal day for Bella at school is going to like. She's going to be a little bored around the girls, but she still likes them. Another thing, Emily is NOT Sam's imprint in this story. NOT. She does make an appearance later. Leah and Sam are still civil towards each other. Jared has NOT imprinted on Kim yet. Paul's a little OOC, if you're following that monstrosity that SM created from NM to BD. Jesus, I have nightmares about that shit. And, yes, the encounter with Edward. Being explained later on. Bella's head's spinning a bit from the fact that everything is moving so quickly, but things'll slow down a bit next chapter. Hopefully the next few chapters will be longer. Again, Read 'N Review, ok? Please? Shit, I broke my promise and asked. Oh well, whatevs! God, I'm an idiot. No promises about the next chapter's up date. I have a shitload of schoolwork. Damn teachers.