Chapter two

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. At first this sound startled me. I had never actually woken up from the alarm. Back in Florida something always had beat the clock to it, like the sun through the widow, birds chirping, or loveable dog that was now somewhere in a pound. For the first morning in years the widow was gray, the only noise was rain falling, and my face was, luckily, slobber free.

I got up and put on the pair of jeans and the tee shirt I picked out the previous night. I didn't bother the whole "first impression" look. This was what I normally wore. Why try to be something I'm not.

I grabbed my stuff, brushed my teeth, and went into the kitchen. On the table was a sticky note saying,

"Maggie,

Gone to work, won't be back till around dark. Lock the door on your way out. Here are the keys. Have I nice walk to school. You shouldn't get lost it's only a few blocks. Make friends, talk to strangers!

Love,

Grandma"

I grabbed the keys, locked the door, and headed for my first day at La Push High School.

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Grandma was right it wasn't a very long walk. It was only about ten minutes. The first thing I did was walk to the main office and got my class schedule. First period was English, then gym, study hall, math, lunch, history, biology. I hated having study hall and gym in the morning. Then again, having study hall in the morning would give me time to do unfinished homework. Though I didn't want to walk all day all sweaty from gym.

Most people just stared at me, not having the courage to come up and talk to me. The ones who did mostly said the same things. They said that they were sure I was going to like La Push and that they could just tell we were going to be friends. How could they just tell? They didn't even know me. It always pissed me off when people said that they loved some celebrity. How could you love someone you didn't know?

One girl complemented the Kermit on my "keep it green shirt". She seemed strange and hyper, probably didn't have many friends. I was never really popular. She might be a good friend to have.

I was in study hall working on the English homework I had been assigned. I was to read Go Ask Alice and write an essay by next Monday. I was about a quarter done with it when a sophomore boy almost six foot five sat across from me. You could tell he liked me. I wasn't normally good at reading people, but you could just tell by his eyes. Again, what was with people liking me before they even knew me?

"Hey,"

"Hi," I said trying not to let my irritation leak into my voice.

"I'm Seth. What's your name?"

"Maggie." I said looking back at my book.

"You got a last name?" he said determined to continue the conversation.

"Lee,"

"Lee? That sounds Chinese."

"Well, it's not." I snapped. He chuckled. He had such a contagious laugh, that I caught myself chuckling with him as well. "So what's your last name Mr. Native American boy?" I said sarcastically.

"Clearwater."

"That doesn't sound like your heritage either."

"At least it doesn't imply that I'm Chinese." we both laughed. "You wanna sit with me at lunch?" he asked.

"Um, sure," How could I say no when he stared at me like that? It wasn't like I had anywhere else to sit.

"What class do you have next?"

I had always been really good in math. I was in a sophomore class. "Math with Mr. Wilson."

"Mr. Wilson? He teaches a sophomore class next. I know, that's my next class."

"I skipped a grade in math." I said blushing. I hated telling people about my grades, I didn't want it to seem like I was bragging.

"Cool. I walk with you." he said just as the bell rang. How ironic?

We took two seats in the back. We received glances as we walked in together. Some of these looks weren't just because I was the new girl, you could tell people feared Seth because of his height and muscle.

In the middle of doing an equation, a little piece of paper floated onto my desk, You're new right? - Seth. I nodded and wrote What was your first clue? He laughed quietly and wrote Why'd you move to La Push? I swallowed. This wasn't something I was ready to talk about with somebody. Especially someone I just met. I came to live with my Grandma Becky. This startled him. Becky Lee? She work down at the hospital? I wrote back, Yup. She works with my mom. She's a nurse there too. I giggled and wrote Hey, we have something in common. Just then Mr. Wilson came by and told us to focus on our math. As soon he was out of sight we both broke into silent laughter.

After class we walked together to lunch. Well technically, I followed as I didn't know where the cafeteria was. After we got our food he walked up to a table with two junior guys, a junior girl, and two freshmen. "Hey guys," he said as he walked to the table next to it. Here sat three junior guys. He sat down and I followed.

One of the juniors looked up from his food and said "Hey Seth, whose this?" The others started to look at me too.

"This is Maggie. Maggie these are the guys." I looked at them. There were all the same height or taller than Seth. All had the same large muscles, and bronze colored skin. They even had the same short black hair, though the tallest guy's hair was about to his chin.

Then one who had asked the question said "Hi. I'm Quil. This is Jacob and Embry."

One of them, still not sure which one was Jacob and which was Embry, kept looking from Seth to me. All of a sudden he exclaimed "Oh, not you too," as if a light bulb had just gone on in his head. The others looked at me while he continued " Why am I the only one who hasn't imprinted yet?"

"Shut up Embry, and you know Leah hasn't." said the taller one who was obviously Jacob.

"So you guys going to Sam's after school?" Quil asked as if this was their normal lunch conversation.

"Um, what does imprint mean?" I asked not being able to understand a word they had said so far.

"You'll find out if you come to Sam's. Whatta ya say? You could ride with us in Jacob's car." Seth offered.

It was better than walking to an empty house. Plus, I wanted to know what 'imprint' mean. I had a feeling it was important, like life changing important. "Sure." I spent the rest of lunch quietly listening to their pointless bickering. They were like brothers.

The rest of school was boring. In biology we dissected worms. I almost puked. Blood and guts aren't my thing, I also wasn't very keen on working on a dead animal. After biology I met up with the guys in the parking lot. We walked over to a Volkswagen rabbit. I got in the back in the middle of Embry and Seth.

I was surprised we all fit. These guys were huge. I couldn't help but ask "Are you guys really in high school. You seem much older. Well, physically, it seems like Embry might be younger then 17 mentally." This cracked them all up, including Embry.

"Just you wait I'm gonna get you back short stuff." Seth put his arm around me protectively while Embry said this. "Yea, we're all in high school. We're kinda tall for our ages." I felt awkward under Seth's arm. His arm was comfortable and really warm, but I still didn't know him that well. I tried to think of a way to get out of his grip without seeming rude.

"Who is this Sam guy? Does he go to our school?" I asked. Why didn't I see him in school? Or was he sitting at the other table Seth greeted?

"No, he graduated a few years ago. He's a friend of ours, we're sorta like brothers all of us." Jacob answered my question.