Oh wow, I'm a jerk. I'm very, very sorry for my overwhelming jerk-y ways. Shall I list all the ways in which I am a complete and total jerk? OK, here goes. Number one: this is the first chapter I've posted in OVER a week. Number two: it's an INCREDIBLY sucky chapter, basically because while writing it I had basically no idea what it was going to end up like. Number three: I had all of this time (OVER A FREAKING WEEK) to write this chapter, and yet still let it suck. Number four: I could've gotten this out much sooner, and made it into not one but several chapters, which would've probably been better quality, and less confusing. Of course, if you try, you can probably come up with an infinite amount of ways in which I'm a total jerk, but I'd personally prefer if we just left it at that =P

Disclaimer: Twilight is (c) Stephenie Meyer. See that? I don't DESERVE a mildly witty disclaimer. The only thing I do deserve is a giant tattoo across my forehead saying "JERK"--but cheap ink, because I'm not worth the good stuff. SORRY!


"Here, is this good?" I asked Seth, irritation evident in my voice. I'd spent the last ten minutes making hot chocolate for him and the two others boys and he'd spent nearly the whole time hovering over my shoulder in the kitchen while the others sat in the living room, covered in blankets and towels that I'd forced on them. For some reason, I basically automatically assumed that he was inspecting my marshmallow-placing skills. He just sort of seemed like that kind of person.

"Yes, I mean, no, I mean…" he said, shaking his head a little. "I mean, yes, thank you. This looks very good, but it's not like I was watching you or anything."

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, sure. "So, not that I don't like having three guys randomly show up at my house—" suddenly I found myself sounding slightly perverted "—but what are you doing here?"

I had loaded their hot chocolate onto a tray, and way carrying it into the living room as I spoke. "Uh, well, you see…" Seth began.

"That smells good," said one of the two guys sitting on the couch. He reached forward and grabbed a cup as I set the tray down on the coffee table, next to the picture of my aunt and my mom—which I now noticed was still turned, away from the window. The other one just sort of sat there, not really acknowledging my presence.

"I'm Embry, by the way," said the boy who had taken a cup. "And that's Jake."

"Hi," I said, quietly. "I'm Juliet."

Embry grinned, and asked, "As in Romeo and?"

I nodded, and smiled a little. I'd always liked my name. Then I realized that neither of them was wet, but none of the towels or blankets looked like they'd been used in the least.

"How did you dry so fast? It's so cold and wet out; you'll probably get a cold!" I exclaimed suddenly. I rushed over to pick up one of the blankets—a quilt with patches displaying different cartoon characters which I distinctly remembered Aunt Joan making for me when I was younger; maybe not the best choice now—and pushed it at the two.

They were clearly a little taken aback by my sudden actions. Even I was, a little. I didn't think that I really could've helped it though; sick people really freaked me out. It was just enough of a shock that the guy—Jake—who had been either zoning out or just plain ignoring me, looked at me.

…And as soon as our eyes met, as corny as it sounds, it was like we were the only ones in the room.

His skin was dark, and so was his hair, which he had cut rather short. His eyes were a deep brown. I continued staring at him, trying to memorize his features, but at the same time finding it nearly impossible to pull my eyes away from his. Then I didn't have to, because he's jerked his head away, and I realized that my hand was resting against his arm, shooting sparks through my body.

"I, uh…" I began, not really sure what to say. Embry and Seth were exchanging looks that made me think that everyone but me knew what was going on.

Oh crap, this isn't good, he's going to be pissed, how the h—

IMPRINT! I had to go and freaking imprint!? I'm such an idiot, I can't b—

What the hell? What's up with Jake? And why is Embry looking at me like… Oh, no. Oh, crap. Oh, hell. Oh man, he's so beating me up on the way back to the rez. Oh, crap.

Their thoughts were flooding into my head so fast that I couldn't really tell what was coming from whom. It was almost like they had too many thoughts. Too many memories for just one person each…

"Uh…." I continued, realizing I had been talking. Then I awkwardly pulled my hand back to my side. "Your arm is so hot, are you ok?" I had just stopped myself from saying 'you're so hot', but I was pretty sure that the point had come across anyway.

"I'm fine." He grunted.

Embry sighed, looked from Jake to myself, and then sighed again. "Well, I guess I should start. We basically came to ask you about the Cullens. And, um, to save time… are you like them?"

I almost laughed. Was I like them? Did he mean was I beautiful? Was I mysterious? Was I… a vampire? That's what he meant, duh. I almost kicked myself in the head—he'd been pretty blunt about it, too. And now that I'd been pretty much silent for about a minute, he probably thought that I was.

"No, no, I'm not a… a v—" I began, hesitant to say the word.

Before I could finish, Embry cut me off with a quick nod. Then I had to wonder, how did they know? Could they be…? "What about you, are you guys… you know, like them?"

They all gave somewhat wry smiles, and Jake actually coughed out a sort of bark/laugh (and, now that I know better, the whole bark quality to it really should've meant more to me than it did). "No," Embry said as Seth sat down on the chair next to me and took a sip of his hot chocolate. They exchanged glances—Jake was still stubbornly looking the other way—before he continued.

"We're not leeches like the Cullens—" hearing that word used to describe the people that I'd really only just met, but had already begun to feel about as friends, hurt. "—in fact, you could almost say that we're the complete opposite."

There was something in his tone that made me feel like this particular conversation was over, and that I should just drop it, but for some reason I couldn't help but say the first think that popped into my head, which was; "So does that mean that you guys are like, werewolves or something?"

I laughed nervously when they exchanged more glances, and then just shut up when even Jake was included in these weird looks. Finally Embry, the first to react, cleared his throat. "Well, obviously we've got a lot to explain, so…"

The Seth cut in, grinning, "Do you want to come to a beach party, by any chance?"

***

"How do I look?" I asked for the second time in two days, although this time it wasn't my aunt that I was asking.

"You look amazing! I think I may have outdone myself, if I do say so myself… which I do," Alice said, rather confusingly, beaming up from the magazine she'd been reading while she was sitting on my bed.

The rest of the school week had gone by fairly smoothly, and at least with some of the Advanced classes I'd been put in I had the Cullens there to help me out. They hadn't been placed in Advanced classes, even though they easily could've, because they didn't want to stand out anymore than necessary in case anyone were to get even the tiniest idea of what they were. I wasn't quite so lucky.

I had told them all about the w—guys coming to my house that night. Well, not quite all of it. I hadn't told any of them what had happened when Jacob and I had made eye contact—well, I'd told Alice that I had 'had a weird feeling', but that was it—because even I really didn't know what it meant.

'Imprint'. That's what he had been thinking about—at least I presumed that it was him, although I couldn't totally tell, because of all the thoughts that the three had had. I didn't know what that meant, but for some reason it made me think of a photograph. That was kind of how I was now thinking of him. I didn't have a photographic memory, although I'd always kind of wondered what it would be like to have one. And now maybe I knew.

It was like, to me, one photograph in a pile of papers. All of the papers—in this pile that stood metaphorically (because I was so lame) for my mind—were like the normal things I did in my day. Homework, the Cullens, my aunt, stuff like that that was important to me, in different ways. Then there was the photograph, a photo of Jacob, which stood out glossy and colourful, and just begged to be looked at. It was like now that I'd met him, I could get the image of Jake out of my head. I couldn't stop thinking about him. And this is me, who'd hardly even watched a romantic movie.

I could practically feel a sense of corniness radiating off of me, and I was surprised that Alice didn't just crinkle her nose at me and walk away. Instead, though, she had come to my house Friday after school to help me pick out some clothes.

OK, let me rephrase that. She didn't help me pick out some clothes. It was more like she—after a quick glance through my closet—had driven me over to her house at near death speeds and had forced me into multiple different trial run outfits until she found one she liked. Yeah, that was much more accurate. Then she'd driven me back to my house to do the finishing touches, at the same crazy speed. There was just something about the whole fast-driving thing that didn't sit well with me.

Now I looked at myself in the full length mirror that I was standing in front of while Alice got up to fix my hair.

I was wearing a pair of skinny jeans and black boots with a dangerously high (okay, so only two inches, but still) heel that Alice claimed were 'functional and fashionable'. I was also wearing a light blue long sleeve shirt, with a red vest over top. I personally thought that this, along with all of the makeup and my 'expertly curled' hair, might be a little extensive for a campfire at the beach, but Alice didn't seem to agree, and I found that I couldn't really change her mind.

Instead I just found myself going along with it, and actually kind of enjoying getting all dressed up. Well, enjoying it until seven o'clock—the time that Seth had said he'd come and pick me up—drew nearer.

"You look great, and you'll have a fabulous time," Alice said, as if she'd sensed my apprehension, and then she muttered something under her breath about stupid, mangy dogs, but I didn't ask her to repeat it. "By the way, I'd better go."

I didn't try to talk her into staying because I'd already gotten a rough idea of how little her and the other Cullens liked Seth, Jacob, and the others, although I wasn't totally sure why. I guess if I had tried to find out, or even look into it just a tiny bit more, I probably would've been able to tell, but I guess I more didn't want to.

A few minutes after she had left, there was a knock at the door. I answered it to see Seth standing there, grinning. It wasn't raining for once. I smiled back, and called, "Aunt Joan, Seth's here, I'm going, bye!"

When I'd told her that I had been invited to a campfire out at La Push she automatically filled the role of annoyingly interested, slightly over protective mother-like-figure, and had demanded to know who would be there. Because I didn't actually know for sure—although I knew that she wouldn't want to hear this—I had maybe lied a tiny bit about just how well Seth and I knew each other.

I told her that he went to my school, was in all of my classes, and had helped me out a little bit with some of my Advanced Classes homework. Now she basically thought of Seth as an incredibly kind, nice guy who was looking out for her poor little niece and even liked to throw together the occasional witty remark.

"Alright sweetie, be back before eleven. And Seth, it's nice to see you." She had gotten up so that she was hovering behind me in the hall and shot him a winning smile. I suppose were someone's mom to do something like this, it might come across fairly creepy, but to me it was just a nice, caring gesture, so I turned and smiled back.

Seth waved a little, and then gave me a confused look before leading me out the door and to his car. "What was that about?" he asked once we'd both gotten into the vehicle.

"Uh… she just really likes… people?" I said, having no idea what to say.

He smirked, and said, "Wow, and that's so rare nowadays."

We were silent for quite a while after this. He tried to turn on the radio, but all that came through was static, so he shut it off a short while afterwards.

"So…" he finally began.

"So." I repeated.

"Have you seen any wildlife around your aunt's house recently? Um… usually there's like, wolves and deer and stuff, but I haven't seen any in a while. So have you?" he asked, and it seemed like there was a lot to his question that he wasn't asking me out right.

"I saw a few…" I paused, finding it just a little difficult to get my mouth around the word, "wolves… a few days ago… not that I wanted to."

"Why's that?" he asked, glancing away from the road for a second to look at me.

"I hate wolves," I said flatly.

He flinched a little, and I wondered if I'd said something wrong. Well, obviously I'd said something wrong or he wouldn't have flinched. Maybe wolves were his favourite animals…? What if wolves were like, sacred animals here? Crap! I always did say the wrong thing.

"Why's that?" he asked, repeating his previous question.

"Uh…" I began. I hadn't really expected to have to tell the story tonight, but I also knew that it was entirely my fault that it had come up at all. "They, um… kind of killed my parents."

The car was silent again. Wow, nice going Juliet. Props, as always, for ruining the conversation. I really should've dressed more comfortably if I'd known what an awkward evening this was going to turn out to be.

Then, finally, Seth spoke. "I'm really, really sorry." He said.

"It's not your fault," I said, shrugging, trying to seem casual. Deep down though, I was completely filled with elation that someone here actually cared enough about me to say something like that.

"You know, not all wolves are that bad," he said after a short pause.

I shrugged again, "I don't know."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. This whole ride had been weird. Seth wasn't acting like his usual self—or, at least, what I thought was his usual self as I'd only known him for about a week—and neither was I. Then he said, "you don't have to come to the campfire tonight… they're going to be telling these legends about the tribes here, and stuff, and I'm not sure you'll really want to here it."

"I might as well go; after all, I've just had the most awkward drive of all time, so I want to make it worth something." I said, laughing a little.

"The most awkward?" he asked, slowing down now as we approached a beach—our destination, I guessed. "Oh please."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, I can think of at least ten things right away that'd make the whole thing much more awkward," he said, grinning as he parked the car.

"Like?" I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to know.

"Like, for example, if I wasn't wearing any pants."

"Do you often drive around without any pants on?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

I laughed. It was nice to be able to talk to someone like this. By this time we both had our seatbelts off, and we were both out of the car. I shut the door behind me a little hard, and Seth winced and said, "Careful, this is my mom's car."

I looked at him, grinning a little, before he grinned and added in a low, macho voice, "Y'know, 'cause my car's in the shop right now. After I totalled the engine. Six times."

I snorted at his comment, and started walking beside him towards what looked like a campfire—although we were pretty far away from it, so it was kind of hard to tell.

"Why are you dressed like that anyway?" he asked, looking me quickly up and down. If he was almost any other guy, I probably would've blushed, or felt that he was checking me out, but for some reason with Seth it was like he was just looking at me. That was all.

"What, you don't like it?" I said in a mock hurt voice.

"Uh, well, uh, I didn't say…" he began before trailing off, clearly afraid that he'd upset me after my confessional back in the car.

"You know the Cullens, right?" I asked, and he looked up a little surprised that my voice was perfectly back to normal again.

"Yeah, I guess," he said.

"Well, this was basically Alice," I gestured at my outfit and grimaced a little.

"HEY SETH! IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE ALL THE HOT DOGS ARE GONNA BE GONE!" called someone from ahead of us where the campfire was.

It was about 1500 meters (I would guess, although I've always been horrible at judging distances) ahead of us, but the voice was still perfectly clear. "That would be my sister, Leah." Seth said. "Basically, when you're around her, remember to keep everything she says as more like… a rough idea of what she's actually saying. She can be a little harsh sometimes. Do you mind?"

It took me a little while to realize what he was asking. When I figured it out, I replied, "Sure, no problem, go ahead."

He grinned, and sprinted ahead of me towards the campfire possibly faster than I'd ever seen anyone run—in real life at least, so the Olympics on TV don't count—and was already stuffing multiple hotdogs into his mouth by the time I arrived.

"You can sit here, Juliet," I recognized that voice as Embry. He was sitting next to Seth, and it looked like he was done eating. Actually, it looked like only Seth was still eating, and judging by all of the empty food wrappers, the rest of them had eaten a lot too.

I smiled and sat down next to him. Jacob had been sitting on the other side of Embry, but once I got there he'd stood up and moved away—gee, I wonder why? So kind. There were four other boys, and sitting next to all but one of them were girls that looked about the same ages. They were all cuddling together, obviously 'together' together, which made me feel oddly self conscious.

There were also two other girls; Leah, who for some reason I could just tell was here by herself, and a little girl who was sitting on one of the guys' laps. She was cute, but there was something a little odd about her—and in fact about all of the other people. Something about the way that they looked at each other…

It took me a few moments to figure it out. They were all looking at each other with eyes that were completely brimming with love. It was kind of unnerving—and for some reason I felt the overwhelming need to laugh. Instead I covered it up by making a weird coughing noise. Embry raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. My face turned a deep red, and I tried to spend the rest of my time focussing on making as little noise as I possibly could.

It wasn't until now that I realized that not everyone sitting around the campfire was actually roughly my age (give or take a few years). There were a few men sitting at one end of the fire, and one of them was sitting in a wheelchair. Once Seth had finally stopped eating, he began to speak.

At first I thought that he was just going to tell a ghost story, or something silly like that, so I was all ready to zone out. Then I saw the intent looks on everyone else's faces as they were clearly hanging on to his every word.

"You should listen," Seth whispered, suddenly appearing closer to my side.

"You should too!" I protested as quietly as I could.

"Yeah, well, you should really listen," he replied, a weird glint in his eyes.

I nodded a little, perplexed, but turned my head to the man and tried to pick up on what he was saying.

When he mentioned the word 'imprint' I straightened my back a little and leaned closer. Finally a word that I recognized. I saw Embry roll my eyes, and heard Seth snort at my actions, and I just hoped that it wasn't totally obvious that I had suddenly started paying attention.

***

I stayed quiet through all of the legends, and then whispered to Seth that I should probably be going home. He just nodded, glancing around quickly before he agreed to take me back.

I waited until we were both in his mom's car with the doors closed and the radio—he'd finally found a signal and some 80's station was playing Def Leopard—until I finally spoke the one word that had been on the tip of my tongue ever since I'd heard the legends that Billy Black (Jacob's dad, I learned) had been telling. It reminded me a lot of my out burst at the Cullens—it was like déjà vu, but not really. Seth looked at me a little oddly as I practically screamed at him;

"Werewolves?!"