I should have considered this before, but the timing…about a year after the ending of Eclipse. ((I fixed the timing in the previous chapter.)) We can safely assume that Bella is off roaming the world with Edward by now.

Oh, and I'm updating Kind Of Since Forever in a bit. No worries. :)

PS. I do not condone smoking, drinking (underage), or drugs of any manor. It just seemed to fit in with the story.

-Kiddo

I adjusted the headphones over my ears and closed me eyes, cutting out the noises that filled the tiny house. The other purpose of the music was to muffle the sound of the rain coming down outside. I couldn't believe that anyone would truly want to live here.

"Shannon? Are you awake?" Kim's head popped through the doorway, her wide face showed no emotion when she walked towards my bed and stood over me. "Can you even hear me?"

"Yes?" I took off one of my headphones and raised an eyebrow. The heavy metal was still screeching through the small bud of plastic loud enough for both of us to hear clearly. "Was there something you needed?"

"Mom says dinners ready." She gave me another fleeting glance before walking back out of the room.

"Dinner?" I sat up, pressing a hand over my stomach. I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning when Dad and I left LA to drive here. None the less, I didn't want to face the happy family. On one hand I would starve to death, but on the other I would be subjected to eating my mother's cooking and being drilled with questions about things I would rather not talk about.

My stomach won out in the end.

"Good. We're all here now." My mother shot me a smile from across the table. I gave her a weak grin in reply. I hated family dinners.

"Shannon? Would you like to say grace?" Scott's voice startled me.

"Grace? As in…prayer." I stared at him in disbelief. Surely he was joking.

"Is there any other kind?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"Shannon!" My mother hissed at me, shooting Jared and Scott apologetic looks.

"What?" I hissed back, my hands gripping the seat of my chair. I told my dad this wouldn't work. I felt like an outsider infringing on the perfect family my mother had worked so hard to create.

"Would you please apologize to Scott and say grace so we can get on with the meal." She regained her posture.

"I don't know how." I admitted, glancing across the table. Kim looked disappointed, but Jared looked as if he was trying to suppress a laugh.

"How to pray or how to say you're sorry?" She pursed her lips, making me feel like a child.

"Both?" I dared, walking on thin ice.

"You're grounded."

"Already? I only just got here." I challenged before I could stop myself. I didn't understand why I always had to argue with my mother, it was just written into my blood. I was too much like my dad.

"Cheryl," Scott stepped in before we got to throwing fists. Not that we ever had, but it was quickly becoming an option.

I might have been shorter and quicker than she was, but since I hadn't inherited her curves like Kim had, I knew I was lighter.

"What?" She looked away from me, tears in her eyes.

I wanted to slap myself. Fighting my mother? Was I really that far gone? And now I had made her cry. I hadn't even been here an entire day.

"I think we should go easy on her. She just moved into a new place with people she hasn't been around in a very long time. Let's give it a little bit longer until we get out the whip and shackles." He smiled at her and I wanted to gag. He was trying to weasel his way onto my good side.

Cheryl bought it. "Fine," She cleared her throat as if nothing had happened. "Kim? Would you do us the honors?"

"Of course." She bowed her head, followed by Jared and Scott. My mother gave me a look before joining them.

This was going to be the longest two years of my life.

"What is wrongwith you?" Kim demanded once she had seen Jared home and we were getting ready for bed. "Mom was so excited that you were coming to live with us and then you had to go and ruin it. Why, Shan?" She put her hands over her eyes as if she couldn't bear to relive the evening. "And Jared was there." She moaned. "Now everyone's going to know."

"Pardon? What the hell are you going on about?" I pulled my shirt over my head, not caring if Kim was in the room or not.

"Don't worry about it." She sighed and gathered up her night clothes, heading towards the bathroom to change. She had always been the more modest of the two of us. It was hard for me to believe we were even sisters, considering how contradictory we were to each other.

"I won't." I assured the empty room, rubbing my hands over my face. I needed to learn how to control my temper. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I groaned and flopped down on the bed.I had never heeded the advice of Disney movies, anyways.

Kim reappeared back at the doorway, her face drawn into a scowl. "Don't you have anything to wear to bed?" She looked pointedly down at my tee-shirt and underwear.

"Nope." I rolled over so I couldn't see her reaction. Be nice. I reminded myself, counting to ten before I spoke. "I get too hot at night to wear anything else."

"Oh," She seemed surprise by my answer. "Apparently you don't remember nights in La Push, then."

I turned and looked at what she was wearing- long flannel pants and a long-sleeved shirt. "I think I remember just fine. Maybe you're just used to being around Jared too much."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, her facing paling considerably under her dark skin.

"I just meant that the boy is a human radiator." I looked at my sister's face, mentally comparing it to mine. Hers was much rounder, and her lips were bigger than mine. She had inherited Cheryl's small, dark eyes, surrounded by a thick frame of black lashes. We had the same wispy black hair and tiny, straight noses, though.

"Oh," She said again, turning down her comforter and sliding between the sheets.

"I don't mean everything as literally as you guys take it, you know." I pulled my comforter around me, preferring it to the scratchy sheets.

"Then you could try not being so crass all the time." She suggested, switching off the lap, but not before- much to my amusement- she picked up the framed picture on her bedside table and kissed it goodnight when she though I wasn't looking.

"Goodnight, Shannon. I'm glad you're here." She whispered into the darkness.

"Night, Kim." I couldn't repeat her second statement. "Hey Kim?"

"What?" She asked groggily, already half-asleep.

"Since when do we say Grace?"

"Since Mom remarried. Can I go to sleep now?"

"Do we go to church?" I whispered.

"No."

"Do we-"

"Go to sleep, Shannon!" She growled.

"Fine, fine. No need to be so crass." I smiled up at the ceiling. I would get my kicks where I could. La Push was turning out to be a very depressing place.

"School! Shannon, get your lazy butt out of bed or you're going to make us late!" Kim shoved one of my arms, possibly leaving bruises.

"I'm not going." I grumbled, not yet completely awake. I skipped school all the time back in LA; I could afford to miss my first day here.

"Oh yes, you are. This isn't the city, Shan. The school here actually keeps track of us and calls when we don't show up." Kim explained, shaking my shoulder again.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking with me." I swatted a hand in her direction. "Let them call."

"Y-you can't…Mom and Dad are already at work. That means I'm in charge. Now, get up!"

"What do you mean Mom and Dad? Scott isn't your dad." I rolled up, completely awake now.

"I call him 'Dad'. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that he isn't." I hissed, getting defensive.

"Listen Shannon," She said slowly, as if she were speaking to a child. "Scott is here. He has a steady job, he loves Mom. Aaron lives in an apartment in California. He left Mom when you were five, spends all his time at a beach and who knows what he does for a living? Face it, Shan. He never really was the world's greatest dad." She threw a pair of jeans at me. "Get dressed. Jared will be here in a few minutes. He was nice enough to call and offer us a ride today." She tossed her thin hair, trying to create a dramatic exit.

"He has a job." I told the jeans in my lap. "And he's a wonderful dad." I tugged them on and rummaged through my closet for a sweatshirt. Kim was just mad that I had kept her up late last night with my questions.

"Shan? Come on! I made you breakfast."

"Coming, coming!" I swayed out into the kitchen, finger-combing my hair until it felt like it should look semi-decent.

"I'm going to go fix my hair. If Jared gets here, please, please try to be nice to him." She rushed off,

I sat down at the table, staring at the plate in front of me with a sort of grim satisfaction.

As much as my sister claimed to dislike our father, she sure had inherited his talent for cooking. Or better yet, his lack of talent. We didn't eat Chinese Cuisine three days a week for no reason.

I picked op one of the pastries, turning it over in my fingers warily.

"Kim?" I could hear the front door being opened and then shut just before Jared stepped cautiously into the room, ducking under the archway.

"She's uh…freshening up." I nodded at him then back down to my plate, examining the pop tarts. The attraction I had felt towards him yesterday had diminished. He was with Kim.

Not only was he taken, but he clearly had poor taste.

"Oh," He cleared his throat. "Is it okay if I sit down, then?"

"Be my guest. This is more your house than it is mine." I broke one of the pastries in half and took a bite, immediately wishing I hadn't.

"What's wrong with your food?" He asked.

"I sincerely hope that you are not dating my sister with the expectation that one day she will be able to cook." Only Kim could mess up something that you put into a toaster. Was it even possible to burn the outside of the pop tart and leave the middle frozen?

He laughed. "I'll make sure to remember that."

"All ready to go?" Kim asked, suddenly bounding out of the hallway and into Jared's awaiting arms. I watched them kiss for a few seconds before I had to turn away.

It was the kind of thing you saw in those non-cheesy, romantic movies, not in real life. Jared had looked at Kim with such pure admiration in his eyes…I shook my head.

Small-town love. It wouldn't last past high school. No one was that lucky.

"Shannon! Where are your shoes? Come on, now!" She sighed in a motherly fashion and pulled my green sneakers out of the closet and handing them to me. "What did you do before you came to live here?"

"I skipped school a lot, slept in, went to wild parties every weekend, hung out in tattoo parlors, smoked weed, got matching piercings with boyfriends…you know, normal kid stuff." I bobbed my head and stuffed my feet into the shoes she had handed me, trying to hide my smile.

"Are you being serious?" Kim pulled away from her boyfriend to look at me.

"No," I shook my head. Only about half.

"Alright, you ready? Let's go." Kim led the way out the door, obviously fed up with my sense of humor already.

"Please, school," I whispered to myself as I made my way towards Jared's car. "Please don't suck."

It did. It was unbelievable how much it sucked.

My math class was first, and I had been placed in Advanced Trig. Not only was the work unfamiliar, but I sat next to some peevishly annoying boy who wouldn't stop staring at me. Nobody would stop staring at me. I had gone through English, Biology, Art appreciation, Spanish II and double study hall feeling like a prisoner on death row.

The ride home after school didn't help, either. Since Jared worked right after class got out, Scott picked us up.

"Hey girls," He smiled at us through the window of his BMW. I shook my head and climbed into the back seat when Kim called the front.

Who the hell lived on an Indian reservation and drove a BMW?

"Thanks for picking us up, Dad." Kim shrugged out of her raincoat.

"Not a problem." He glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "You know, when it's nice out, I'll let you two walk home."

"Fantastic." I glanced back at the mirror.

"So, how was your first day at La Push High? Meet anybody interesting? Is it different than the school you went to in Los Angeles?" Scott asked me, pulling out of the parking lot. The sound of the rain hitting the roof and windshield of the car hurt my ears enough without his talking added to it.

"You could easily compare it to limbo." I said smugly.

"That's nice, isn't it? Who did you eat lunch with?"

"I err…skipped lunch."

"That's right. I looked for you and couldn't find you anywhere. I wanted to introduce you to the P- to Jared's friends." Kim beamed at my over the seat.

"So where did you go?" Scott shot me a suspicious look in the mirror again.

"I was talking to the biddy who teaches Spanish about her class." I lied. I had holed up in the girl's bathroom and taken a cigarette break. I didn't usually smoke, but all the stress had finally gotten to me.

"Please refrain from calling Ms. Partridge a 'biddy', Shannon. She's actually a very nice lady once you get to know her." Kim put in, her tone slightly defensive. "Just because you can't speak Spanish doesn't mean you have to act superior to her."

"She's insane." I stared at the back of Kim's head. "She belongs in the loony bin, for Christ's sake."

"She does not! You could learn a lot from her and the rest of the teachers if you decided to pay attention, you know. You aren't as stupid as you pretend to be."

"I do not pretend to be stupid and I do not have a problem learning Spanish." I grumbled, already antsy to escape from the car.

"Then why did you purposely fail last year? We did get a copy of your transcripts."

"It was the point of it all." I leaned forward curiously. "You read my high school transcripts? When?"

"I work in the office my last period. Since I'm a Junior now, I can trade in a class for extra credit helping out."

"That's ridiculous." I sat back, eying the car's interior.

Kim spoke up a second later, eager to talk to Scott. "Guess what Quil said today?"

"What did Quil say?" Scott seemed genuinely curious as we made the turn into our driveway.

"He said that Sam said that Jacob is back." She seemed enthralled. "Can you believe it? He's been gone for almost a year, you know Ever since Isabel left with Edward." She pulled her coat back on for the walk to the house. "It's good, though. Billy and the rest of the boys missed him. Maybe Jared can stop working as much now."

"Thanks for the ride, Scottie" I wanted to make sure he understood where he stood in my life.

"Not an issue, honey." I practically threw myself out of the car before it stopped. I was horrified he had called me 'honey' and couldn't stand listening to another word about Jared. "I won't be able to pick you up tomorrow, though. You'll have to walk home with your sister and her boyfriend."

"Dad! Not so loud." Kim whispered, blushing.

"Hey, I can be proud of my girl, can't I?" He chuckled.

It was the second time that day I had to keep control over my gag reflex. Tomorrow I was definitely skipping school, phone calls and Spanish teachers be damned.

AN: Ideas? Suggestions? PM me a message. Thanks for reading!