Chapter Five
It was a quiet, lazy Sunday. I was sitting cross legged on the carpeted floor at the living room table, highlighters, pens and geometry equipment sprawled over the surface as I made my way through my math homework. Lily was sitting crouched over on the sofa, painting her toenails a vibrant shade of fuchsia polish whilst the television was on, unwatched in the background. Mom was busy in the kitchen, simultaneously preparing dinner and filling out forms for work. She owned her own business in Port Angeles, which made her presence at home somewhat scarce at times. Not only was Port Angeles about an hour and a half away, she worked long hours during the week and was always being inundated with paperwork. Nevertheless, even with her busy schedule, she always seemed to make time for Lily and I.
I looked over at my sister, painstakingly perfecting each brush stroke over her nail beds. "I don't even know why you're painting your toes Lily, it's always cold in La Push, no one's even going to look at your feet," I commented as I was putting the finish touches on a particularly difficult problem.
"But I have to look at my feet Claire," she responded tiredly, as if we had gone over this a million times before, which we had. I rolled my eyes and started the next question as we settled into relative silence again.
"Claire!" Mom called from the kitchen.
"Yeah," I replied distractedly, with my head still scanning the textbook for the numbers, and my left hand punching them into my calculator.
"Is Quil coming over for dinner?" she replied.
"Um, yeah I guess so," I called back.
"Why are you even asking, Mom? Quil's pretty much always over for dinner," Lily interjected with a pointed look on her face.
I glanced over at Lily, a confused look etched into my expression. She gave a non-committal shrug as she focussed back on her nails and Mom walked into the room. Her dark, shoulder length hair was tied back and the green apron she had tied around her waist made her hazel eyes stand out even more. "I was just wondering because you said Quil was taking you to the party down at the beach tonight, you know they always have food," she said casually, leaning against the door frame.
"Mom, you of all people know how much those guys eat, I'm sure the bonfire will just be like a post-dinner snack to them," I said.
An amused grin spread over my mother's face as she simply exited the room to finish her cooking.
**********
Quil arrived at 6pm exactly, wearing his usual uniform of cut-offs and a t-shirt. For some reason, his body temperature was way above that of a normal human, rendering the looming winter chill completely useless against him. Quil was not one to get dressed up, but even with his effortless style, I had to admit that he still managed to look completely sexy. There was something in the Quileute boys' genes that must have made them look as though they worked out, because all of Quil's friends had a muscular physique to rival that of a body builder's. The only difference was that they were tall and sinewy at the same time.
"Hey Claire," he said, smiling that genuine "Quil-smile," as I called it, that the uninitiated were not privy too. We all took our seats at the table as my mom started serving the pasta.
"Hey Quil," I replied, "we're leaving for the bonfire straight after this right?"
"Mhmm," he responded, already wolfing down the pasta. In the time it took me to finish my single plate, Quil had downed four large servings of my mom's ravioli.
After dinner was over, I grabbed a black hoodie and my video camera and we were out the door. Darkness had already fallen over La Push, but I could see from my house the lit bonfire casting its orange glow over the beach. It was too cold to walk, so Quil drove us in his truck. I had only been invited to one of these bonfires once before, but that same day I had come down with a flu that had left me bedridden for a week. Quil of course, being the sweet man that he his, was pretty much glued to my bedroom for the entire week, almost as if he was afraid I would die. He took hourly temperature readings, and cooked me so much soup I thought he was attempting to feed an army. But that was over a year ago, and I hadn't been invited since, which annoyed me because I thought I was finally being accepted. I thought I was one step closer to finding out about Quil's secrets. But then yesterday night, completely out of the blue, Quil asked me if I would like to come to the bonfire tonight. I could barely contain my excitement. He told me that I could record the old stories that Billy Black told, so that the future generations of La Push could witness them in their original form. I agreed completely. From what I had heard of these legends, they were completely enthralling to listen to. And whilst people in the past had taken notes of them to prevent them disappearing, I knew that this oral tradition could only be truly preserved in its original form.
We rounded the corner towards the beach. I was nervous, but at the same time utterly excited for tonight's action. Quil greeted his friends warmly. I loved seeing him in what I called his "natural habitat." When we hung out together, it was usually just us two, but every so often, I'd get to see him interact with his brothers, with Jacob and Embry and all the other guys.
"Hi there Claire," Jacob said, greeting me with a cheeky smile and a hug, "I don't see you around these events often," he continued, looking back to Quil standing next to me, who had for some reason or another, dropped his relaxed smile and tightened his jaw defensively.
"She was too young before," Quil said seriously.
"Hrmm, yeah Quil..." Jacob said sarcastically, flashing me his toothy smile.
"Whatever Jake," he said, running his fingers through his short hair, "she's here now. You should go say hello to your Aunt and Uncle, Claire," he resolved, his face relaxing from his previous tension as he looked down to my face. Quil took my hand into his rather possessively and led me over to the rest of the group, sitting casually on logs near the fire.
"Claire!" my Aunt Emily called as she hurried towards me and gave me a hug. "How have you been dear?"
"I'm good Aunt Emily. Yesterday I got a job at the Forks Diner," I told her happily.
"Congratulations!" she said, giving me yet another hug. "When do you start?"
"Um, next week sometime I think. I have to call up tomorrow and ask when exactly my first shift is. Quil is, as per usual, a little against the idea," I said, a smirk unwillingly spreading across my face as I attempted to look at Quil innocently.
"And as per usual, Claire fails to take my advice," he countered with a sigh.
"Aww Quil, lighten up," said Aunt Emily. "Anyway, could you two help me bring the food out to this lot, I don't know how much longer they can wait," she said grinning.
**********
After everyone was well fed, Billy Black was wheeled into a more visible spot at the head of the group. Quil told me that his grandfather usually tells the traditional stories as well, but that he wasn't feeling so well tonight. I set up my camera near Billy, and he began, his voice deep and warm as he told the Quileute legends the way he had been told by his ancestors. I moved quietly around the group, recording the spectators as well as Billy. It was amazing to watch and listen to, knowing that these stories were ingrained in the history and the very lives of my friends, and in some ways even I had become apart of the story through them. About half an hour later, the stories had finished and the group had relaxed back into the party. I finished packing up my equipment and walked over to where Quil was throwing a football around with Embry. "Hey guys," I said, walking down the slight slope of the sand nearer to them. Embry passed the football to me and I caught it surprisingly easily.
"Haha, you should be a pro footballer Claire," Embry said jokingly, now standing next to me and messing up my hair.
"Yeah right Call, thanks for noticing my skill at sports," I said sarcastically, trying to move his hands away from my head. "Quil, I'm just going back to Aunt Emily's to help her clean some of this stuff from the party, so I'll probably be back in half an hour or so," I said. Knowing Quil's propensity to overreact, it was simply easier to tell him beforehand where I was going.
"Okay Claire," he replied, returning back to his game with Embry.
My aunt and uncles house was not too far from the beach, so it was easy to carry all the food containers up to the kitchen. Jared's wife Kim and Jacob's girlfriend Renesme helped us too, which made light work of it. As they scrubbed, I dried and stacked everything back into its place. Kim was rather quiet, but Renesme chatted comfortably as we worked. As I pushed one wooden drawer closed, the frantic slam of the front door reverberated throughout the kitchen. Emily, unperturbed, simply took off her apron and went to see what was going on. I could hear murmurings through the thin walls, increasing in volume as more people seemed to enter the living room. I leaned closer to the wall, momentarily leaving my post. All I heard was Uncle Sam's deep voice growl, "the leeches are closing in on us," when the kitchen door opened and it was Aunt Emily looking sympathetically at me.
"Claire, I think it's best if we take you home now dear," she said, placing her hand on my shoulder and guiding me to the living room, where I noticed, the entire party had gathered. Their enormous figures engulfed the entire room as some looked at me rather awkwardly.
"What?!" I asked to no-one in particular. "Will someone please tell me what is going on?!" I demanded, hands on my hips and unwilling to back down.
"Quil," my uncle began, "you need to take her home now."
Before I knew it, Quil was carrying me in his arms and we were out the door. "Quil! What are you doing? Let me down!" I protested. He didn't budge, maintaining his iron grip on my body. I resigned quickly to just let him take me home, as his face remained still and completely determined. He started in the direction of my house at the speed of a run. Within a couple minutes, we were at my front door. He set me down gently, allowing me to get my house keys out of my pocket. I unlocked the front door and said, "Quil Ateara, I do not know what is going on right now, but you are going to tell me, or you my friend, are banished from my house!" attempting to be stern, but still not wake up my family at the same time. A look of mortification spread over Quil's face which seemed to stab me in the chest. I took a different route. "Gah, it's fine, you won't be banished, just tell me what's going on," I said quickly. "I'm scared Quil," I added softly.
"Look Claire, I know I told you I wouldn't leave you like I did last week, but I have to go again," he said, looking frustrated. "And it's not really like last time, this time I'm letting you know that I will be back, okay? Definitely. I'll probably be here tomorrow or something. I'm sure it won't take as long as last time, but it's really important that I go now, for your safety, for everyone's safety," he said. I gave him a tired look. "Whatever, Quil," I replied. I didn't want to fight him. I knew he had to protect the reservation, but the secrets just made me sick. I didn't want to be constantly reminded of this anymore.
"Just promise me that you'll stay inside, okay? Promise," he said intensely.
"Well I have to go to school tomorrow and - "
"Please, just don't go anywhere alone if you have to go somewhere. And please, don't go through the forest at all."
"Fine, Quil," I said, fighting back a yawn. I had been hit with a wave of exhaustion. "This is simply too much stress to take in every week," I thought to myself.
He took me in his arms and held me close. "I'll be back, okay. Please keep out of trouble Claire. I'm sorry," he murmured into my hair, and once again left me to conduct his dangerous, secret business.
Author's Note – I'm trying quite hard to somewhat regularly update this story =]. Whilst I'm getting way more hits than before, it seems I'm getting virtually no reviews. I want to thank the one person who did, CindyCinlou555 for the review! I really do appreciate feedback – positive and negative, so please, to all those people out there who I know are reading, just a few words are really helpful.