I opened the door, and was shocked to see an extremely tall boy with blonde-ish hair. He looked up at me kind of surprised, as if he really hadn't been expecting anyone to answer the door—or at least, no one that looked like me—and then grinned.
"Hi, my name's Seth Clearwater, my mom kind of, um, told me to bring this to you, since you're new in town and everything… Juliet, right?" he asked, holding a casserole dish covered in tin foil.
I nodded slowly, trying to figure out basically what was happening. No one had come to our new house in Sydney when we first moved in, and they certainly didn't bring a casserole. Plus, I was the only new person in the house—as far as I knew!—and no one had ever brought me a casserole. The whole gesture was a little hard for me to understand, for some reason. Because I was the only new person in the house, was I supposed to eat the whole casserole? Would he be offended if I didn't?
I guess I'd been standing there with my best goldfish expression—eyes wide and mouth open—for a little while, because he asked, "Are you okay?"
I nodded, blushing feverishly. "Um, do you want to, uh, come in?" I asked. That was what you said when someone came to your house, bearing food, wasn't it?
I was pretty sure—hoping, even—that 'Seth' would just decline and walk away, but instead he grinned and said, "Sure."
Awkwardly as ever, I stepped aside and let him in. At least the house was clean, thanks to Aunt Joan, I'm sure. I sat down on the couch in the living room, gesturing for him to sit too, not really having any idea what to say, or do. "Uhhh, so, how old are you?" I asked, and automatically regretted it. Great, now I sounded either like a really old lady who couldn't tell the different between a thirteen year old and a twenty year old, or a stalker.
Luckily Seth actually answered, rather than saying something like, "What the heck? Crazy stalker girl!" and stormed out like I somewhat expected him to. Instead, he calmly said, "I'm sixteen, how about you?"
"I'm sixteen too!" I said, smiling slightly. "So, will I be going to the same school as you?" Yeah, smart Juliet. Because he so knows everything about the school system. Definitely the right thing, and person, to ask.
"I go to the school on the rez," he said, shaking his head.
"The rez?" I asked, and it probably sounded like I was entirely disgusted by what he just said, when in reality, I just had no idea what it stood for.
"Reservation," he said, raising his eyebrows a bit.
"Ooooh," I said, before adding, "Sorry, I'm horrible with abbreviations."
He grinned a little, and I felt like kicking myself. If I could've, believe me, I would've, but I didn't, because breaking my left in front of Seth would've just heightened him thinking of me as an idiot.
"Uh, um, can I get you some tea, or something?" I asked, glancing outside to where it was pouring rain once again.
"No thanks, I'm good." He said, before explaining, "It's always like this here."
"Oh, okay. I should really get a car," I said, realizing that my aunt and uncle only had one vehicle, and I definitely didn't want to walk to school in the rain.
"You should talk to my friend Jake," Seth said, his eyes lighting up for a second with an expression that I couldn't name. "He knows cars."
I nodded as if I had any idea what this was supposed to mean. He knows cars. Like, he was a mechanic?
"I'd better go," Seth said suddenly. "It's my turn to go on patr—uh, work. My shift starts soon…" he said, cutting himself off before he could finish saying whatever he had meant to.
I nodded again and stood up, before following him to the door. While he put on the shoes that I hadn't realized he'd actually been wearing, or he'd taken off. Actually, looking at his clothes, I was shocked. He was wearing a plain t-shirt and jean shorts. "Aren't you cold?" I asked, shocked.
"No, not really," he said, laughing a little like it was a joke.
I nodded—that was about all I seemed to be able to do—still shocked, and moved to open the door at the same time that Seth stood up. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed as he hit his head on my arm.
"It's fine," he said, standing up and laughing a little. My hand touched his arm by accident, and I gasped. His skin was incredibly hot.
"Are you okay? Do you have a fever? Um, do you want to sit down?" I asked him, panicking. Great, I'd probably brought back some kind of foreign, infectious disease with me from Australia, and given it to Seth. The first person, not related to me, that I'd met in Forks, and now he'd hate me forever!
"I'm fine; I tend to have a bit of a high temperature. It's totally normal," he said, laughing a little at my reaction.
"Oh, ok," I said. Great, now I'd made a complete fool of myself. "Well, I'll, um, see you around."
"Yup, bye!" he said, grinning again before walking out the door into the pouring rain.
I sighed, and shut the door behind him. "Ugh, I wish I could just be normal," I mumbled to myself and walked back into the living room where I collapsed onto the couch.
I glanced out one of the windows and saw a streak of light brown hair in the woods. It looked almost like Seth, but of course, it couldn't be him, could it? No, he was already gone from the driveway; he had probably started walking back to the "rez". The streak of fur was back, but now it had more of a shape… my mouth dropped open as my own wide green eyes met its brown eyes.
Standing only maybe ten feet from the house, from the window, from me, was a wolf. I looked away, breaking the trance like state that I'd been in, and quickly ran to the coffee table where there was a picture of my parents and me from when I was only five or six years old. It was facing the window, so I turned it down. After all that they'd been through, my parents shouldn't have to see another wolf.
I looked up at the window, and it was gone. Before I could say or do anything, the front door was slammed open. I instinctively pulled a blanket over my face. Yeah, it was a pretty crappy hiding place, but the wolf already had me freaked out.
"Hel-loooooo," Aunt Joan called in a sing song voice, before she walked into the living room, dressed in a snappy suit and laden with bags. "Juliet? What are you doing?" she asked, lifting the blanket up off of my face.
"Uhhh, watching TV?" I said, phrasing it as more of a question than a statement.
"Alright, well, do you want to come with me to go get some dinner? Oh, and we should probably go shopping for school supplies too," she said, grinning.
Was it dinner time already? Wow. "Um, what's this?" she asked, putting her bags down in the kitchen and coming back holding the casserole.
"Oh, some kid named Seth came and brought that by. He said his mom made it for him. Do you know him? Seth Clearwater, I think." I explained.
She nodded and said, "Oh, yes, I work with his mom some times."
Before I could say or ask anything else, Aunt Joan was already up the stairs, calling something about getting changed. I sighed. Well, now I was about to see Forks firsthand, and find out whether or not there was more to it than just rain. As I walked out the door to meet Aunt Joan in her small car after having changed, I shivered a little, despite my warm coat (that she lent me), remembering the wolf. Its eyes had looked at me in a way that made me almost feel as if I knew it. But that couldn't be true, right?
We turned out of the driveway, and started in to town when I saw a sign pointing the direction of the 'La Push Reservation', and wondered how Seth could've possibly gotten home as fast as he did, or, if not, just where he was.