The flight and drive didn't seem to take as long as Cassie thought it would, or maybe she was just imagining things. They pulled up in front of a two-story, pale blue house that seemed to be bustling with activity.

"Well, looks like everyone decided to come and help out."

Cassandra took a deep breath. "Everyone? Who is everyone, dad? There are at least seven cars sitting outside of this house – that is not a good sign."

"The whole gang: Sam, Seth, Collin, Brady, Quil, Jake, along with Paul, Jared, Kim, Emily, and Embry. They're really excited about meeting you, ya' know. Try to be social, okay? You would have ended up meeting all of them, anyway, so relax."

"Uh, okay." Cassandra felt fear strike her as she made her way up the front steps. She was never one to be afraid of meeting new people, but this time she felt different. Maybe it was the atmosphere, or the fact that she was in such a small town where everyone knew everyone – a town where she would be a newcomer, or maybe an outsider.

Her dad opened the door to the house, and inside she could hear a great amount of talking. To her, it sounded like giants conversing with fairies – great booming voices, followed by small, equally booming voices. Obviously there was an argument going on.

Cassandra followed her dad to what appeared to be the living room.

"Embry, you dumbass, you're not supposed to use furniture cleaner on electronics. They invented special wipes for that."

"Look, how was I supposed to know that? I barely do any cleaning. Get off my back."

"Boys, calm down and stop arguing. They'll be here soon."

Somehow, no one noticed that the two were standing in the doorway until Cassie's dad cleared his throat. All heads turned to look in their direction, and Cassie widened her eyes in amazement.

By damn – all of them are gorgeous and all the men look the same. How strange. She inspected every face, and took them all in. Yep, all the guys are super hot and the girls are models. She figured she missed something important, because one minute, everyone was staring at her, and then the biggest guy in the room was leading another guy out of the room, and out of the front door. She blinked in confusion.

"Hmm, anyway, guys this is Cassandra, my daughter." He looked around. "Leah didn't come?"

"You should know better than that, Aidan. Leah's not the social type, and I don't think she was interested in seeing another female who could possibly be an imprintee."

After everyone said their hellos, the two females rushed forward and crushed Cassie into a hug, one by one.

"Hi, I'm Emily. I'm so happy to finally meet you! Your dad is always talking about you."

I looked at my dad, smiled and then looked at the other girl.

"I'm Kim. Nice to meet you."

Well, they seem nice enough.

"Let's introduce you to everyone else, shall we?" Emily started off with the person standing to Cassie's right. "Okay, so that's Quil, Seth, Embry, Paul, Seth, Collin, and Brady. The very big guy who left the room is Sam, and the one he took with him is Jacob."

"Okay. Uhm, are all Quileute men supposed to be this big?" Everyone laughed, even though Cassie was one hundred percent serious in asking her question.

"I guess it's something in the water." Emily glanced around the room, and Cassie noticed that everyone wore the same smirk: they were hiding something.

"Well, Cassie, how about we head up to your new room?" Cassie's dad motioned for her to follow him up the stairs. He walked to the end of the hall, and stopped at a door on the right at the end of the hall.

"Dad, do I have to share a bathroom with you guys?" She sounded a bit snobby, but she shuddered at the idea of sharing a bathroom with four guys. Imagine if they found tampons or something. It would be really funny if they didn't know what they were. She snickered at the thought, which earned her a look from her father.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, I'm just thinking about what would happen if one of the guys stumbles upon a tampon - ya' know, like if they don't know what it is, and think it's something totally different from what it actually is." Cassie's dad's eyes widened and he looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that would be a bit funny, I guess." He laughed. "I could picture Paul stumbling upon it, actually. He's probably the one who wouldn't have a clue what it was."

The two snickered at the thought. Maybe living in a house full of guys wouldn't be so bad – there would be a lot of jokes, she mused.

Her dad opened the door, and her breath caught. The room was beautiful. It was a fair size, and painted an apple green, her favorite color. Sure, La Push had a lot of green, but apple green was completely different from the moss green that surrounded her. Yes, Cassie was particular when it came to colors. There were sky blue and cream accents – bedding, pillows, and curtains. The furniture and flooring were a dark cherry color – real wood – and it fit in with the colors perfectly.

"Do you like it?"

"Like it? I love it dad! It's perfect." Her dad smiled at her.

"Well, good. I told them to leave wall space for your pictures and of course, for your artwork that'll be arriving soon. I guess I'll leave you to get unpacked, then. Oh, and around seven we're heading over to Sam and Emily's for dinner, so be ready by then."

"Alright. Thanks, dad. Oh, and tell everyone else thanks, if they're still down there."

"Sure, kiddo."

With that, Cassie's father walked out of her room and closed the door. She surveyed the room and the great amount of boxes that were piled in various places on the floor. Well, might as well get started. I have about six hours to get most of this done.

After fishing out her iPod and its speakers, Cassie started with the most basic and possibly easiest items to organize – her clothes. One by one she unpacked each box labeled with 'clothing' and put them away in their respective places. She and her mother were pretty well off back in Colorado, so she had quite a few things. Next came her electronics; Cassie was a self-proclaimed Apple freak. She didn't care about what the great Microsoft users had to say – she loved her Mac, her iPod and every other great accessory that came with it. She set her MacBook on the desk, and proceeded to look for Internet cables. Apparently, there were none. I hope to God dad has wireless access, or else I'm in a jam.

Surprisingly, Cassie managed to unpack everything within a small amount of time; she estimated it was about three or four hours. With one look at all of the boxes in the room, someone would have thought it would take longer to unpack, but Cassie was a fast and effective worker. There were still a few boxes that were being shipped, such as her art supplies and books, but she would deal with those when they came.

Cassie decided that she would take a shower and start getting ready for dinner. She grabbed her matching bra and panties, locked her bedroom door and headed to her adjoining bathroom. The bathroom was also nicely decorated, matching her bedroom perfectly. The tiles were a cream color, and very stone-like. There was a dark cherry wood vanity, matching cabinet and a large mirror. There was no bathtub, but a walk-in shower, covered in the same tiles as on the floor. All in all, it was pretty nice. She turned the knob in the shower to somewhere between warm and hot, just how she liked it.

She stepped in and allowed the water to work its magic. She was a bit tired from the events of the day, but slowly the heat was bringing her back to life. While washing her hair, Cassie thought of how she came to be in this new place.

The days following her mother's death she went to see a psychiatrist, after much negotiating with her father. She didn't want to go to the 'shrink', as she called it, but her father thought that it would be a good idea. So, much to her father's pleasure, she went, and she was actually a bit happy that she did. She was never one to keep things bottled up, so she found herself conversing with the psychiatrist quite easily. The visits did help her, but she couldn't help feeling a bit sad when she thought of her mother – she was close to her, after all, and it was only the two together for ten years.

She knew most of the details of her mother's murder: body drained of blood, and two puncture wounds on the neck, synonymous with that of a vampire bite. Now, she didn't really have an exact opinion on the supernatural world; she was a bit in between: she never saw anything out of the ordinary, but she still felt that there were things out there that were unexplainable and unknown.

Her mother's murder did strike her as odd, and with the other murders occurring, she had to wonder the motive behind it all. None of the victims had anything in common, really: old women, children, young men, and teenagers; they all came from different backgrounds, social classes, religions and races. There was nothing that would suggest a link between the murders. This fact had her thinking really hard upon two options: one, the person behind the murders just felt like killing random people at random times, but with the same method (besides the burning) or two, which was probably a bit impossible, vampires were real and out hunting. She laughed a bit at the second option, feeling mental. Maybe her mother's murder was getting to her unlike she had originally thought.

She turned off the water and wrapped the towel around her petite body. She stood at 5 foot 4, and when in the room with the giants who were the Quileute men, she felt like a hobbit. She still pondered the reasons behind her mother's death while drying off and getting dressed. There was absolutely no reason for someone to kill her mother – none at all. She was at a standstill; the two options she had come up with were looking very likely, even the vampire theory.

After she had completed her normal hair and makeup routine, she made her way downstairs to where she heard the announcer for what she assumed was football. This sparked her interest: she was a football fan, and the playoffs were in session.

She entered the living room to find five men seated around the TV: Jared, Paul, Embry, Quil, and her dad. She plopped down on the couch in between Quil and her dad and focused on the TV. Her team, the New England Patriots, was playing against the New Orleans Saints, and they were up a good amount. When her team made a touchdown, she let out a loud "Yes!" and hopped up. One more and they would win the game. She kneeled down in front of the TV in anticipation and watched as Tom Brady and his teammates carried out their play, leading to the winning touchdown.

"Ha! I love you Reggie Bush, but you guys aren't doing so hot this season, huh?" She sat back in contentment, and only then did she notice the stares aimed in her direction.

"What? Aren't girls allowed to like football?" She questioned with raised eyebrows.

Quil spoke up. "Yeah, but we're not really used to it. Emily and Kim hardly ever watch football with us and enjoy it and Claire is too young to even know what football is. We're suffering from shock."

"Aw, how sad. Well, the question is: who's your team?" She glared at him.

"Patriots."

"Good choice, man." She gave him thumbs up.

"Cassie, when did you start watching football?" Her dad asked with genuine curiosity.

"Back in eighth grade when I had a crush on the quarterback of my high school team. I thought it would be good to know about football in the event he would notice me, and after watching it once, I was hooked. As for my choice, I thought Tom Brady was hot, but after watching for a while, the Patriots seemed like a pretty good team to root for."

They all looked at her like she had four heads. "What?"

"Nothing." Her dad looked at his watch and stood up. "Well, time to get going."

They all piled out the living room, and headed to the cars. Cassie, Quil, Embry and Cassie's dad all piled into one car, while Paul and Jared hopped into a separate car. Within seconds they were off to Emily's house.