DISCLAIMER: I am the complete and total owner of Raeanne and Benjamin the rest of the characters, however are magnificent creations of Stephanie Meyer. Hope you enjoy!

I woke up trying to remember where I was and how I got there. I was lying in a small room, across from me was Benj who was stretched out across another twin sized bed, which was a little too small for him. I listened to his snores as he lay peacefully, trying to figure out what was going on. Then the events of the last two days struck me like a ton of bricks, it was something that was much better left forgotten. I could feel all the emotions come streaming back to me, I wished then that I could just stay in the oblivion of waking up and not knowing. I sat up and stretched, shivering a little and reached for the sweater at the end of my bed.

Last night Billy had made us his famous spaghetti, he claimed the recipe had been passed down generations. I laughed when I saw that it was really just noodles with a jar of Ragu sauce poured on it. Embry stayed for dinner and I'm not sure who ate more, him or my cousin. Billy said he expected Embry to engulf the table, I think he was surprised that my cousin ate just as much. He said it was a good thing I didn't eat as much or there wouldn't have been any left for him. All through dinner Embry cracked jokes, and Billy made fun of him. If I was honest with myself it was the most fun I had since Benj's parents died.

I snuck out of the room, trying to be quiet not to wake Benj, I was pretty sure though that he was so out he wouldn't wake up if someone beat him with a chair. Lucky boy. I walked into the kitchen stretching my body, my hands grazing the doorframe, Billy looked up from the newspaper he read at the table.

"Good morning Rae."

"Morning Billy." A yawn consumed me as I spoke so it sounded really strange, Billy laughed and I smiled widely. "Seeing as you made that lovely dinner for us last night can I make you some pancakes for breakfast?" Billy grinned.

"I knew I would win you over with that secret recipe of mine. I would love some pancakes for breakfast, make yourself at home, if you need help finding something let me know." I grinned as he went back to his newspaper then searched through the kitchen till I had all the ingredients to pull together some pancakes. I quickly mixed the ingredients in a large bowl and started cooking them one by one on the stove. They were about the size of my head but I was sure that as soon as Benji woke up he would smell them and devour most of the stack by himself. Just as I predicted the second I placed the stack of pancakes on the table, he was in the kitchen. It didn't take long before he had greatly reduced it in size.

"Raeanne these are delicious, you are an amazing cook." I grinned sheepishly at Billy's compliment.

"Thanks! Sadly though, pancakes are the extent of my cooking skills. I really can't cook much else, well nothing honestly, that was Benji's job." It felt weird telling someone else the truth about things, especially seeing as this man was almost a total stranger. But even though it was weird I still felt comfortable, that's why I had agreed to stay the night. It hadn't even taken me long to get used to Embry either, even though at first I was terrified by him. It was hard not to like his goofy personality even if he was a giant. Billy chuckled,

"Well between the two of us we can make breakfast and dinner, as long as this cousin of yours can cook lunch we can actually make meals for a whole day." Benji and I laughed at the comment. I heard the front door open and it didn't take long before 2 people appeared in the kitchen. One I immediately recognized as Embry, the other was unfamiliar although he looked like could be his brother.

"Is that pancakes I smell?" The boys voice questioned as he entered the kitchen, a huge hand slapped the back of his head.

"You are supposed to introduce yourself first Quilly." The boy chuckled. Then held out his hand to me. After a night of hanging out with Embry and living with Benji most my life I was getting used to huge guys. I grabbed his hand and shook it roughly.

"Quil Aterea." I smiled.

"Raeanne Alydwin." I said pointedly looking at Embry who looked around the room guiltily. I looked back at him, "Did you get that or do you need me to go as slow as I did for Embry?" He burst out laughing.

"Serious dude, how do you mess that up?" His voice came in between his loud laughter.

"Yeah Embry! And right after threatening me about making fun of your name to, tsk, tsk!" This made Quil laugh harder. I looked at Embry, "Honestly, Rain Adian, what kind of name is that anyways?" Quil was practically rolling on the floor laughing now and Embry looked very embarrassed. I thought I heard him say something like "At least I'm not a pedophile." Quil sat up pretty fast after that. He looked at me,

"May I." He was now looking down lovingly at the pancakes. I snorted.

"Go for it!" He grabbed 3 pancakes off the pile that was now getting very small. "I'm not making more though so you boys better share nicely." Quil and Embry looked at each other and almost dove on the table to grab the pancakes.

"Boys if you wreck my table, I will kill you!" They laughed and argued over who should have the last pancake, it was pretty entertaining. I couldn't believe how well we seemed to fit in with these people, they accepted us so quickly.

"Mind if I use the shower?"

"Not at all, towels are in the closet in the hall." I nodded and exited the kitchen; I could still here the bickering down the hall. I grabbed one of the dark blue towels out of the closet and my bathroom bag from my stuff in the girl's room and headed to the shower. I finished and quickly changed into a pair of white capri's and a black tank top. It was summertime and we had no school, I didn't want to think about what our future held. It was just so unclear.

I dried my hair as fast as I could, preparing myself for the long day ahead of me. I looked at my reflection in the mirror, sighing as my eyes crossed the huge bruise on my face. I pulled out numbers of different cover up and foundation products and began the process of hiding it. When I finished my face looked an even colour and you couldn't tell that I had a huge blue-black mark consuming my left cheek. Satisfied with my work, I walked out of the bathroom, stowing my stuff in my duffle bag, which I carried downstairs. All the boys were in the living room when I walked in and they looked up at my entrance.

"Wow, where are you off to in such a hurry? We just met after all!" Quil seemed shocked at our departure.

"We have yet to decide. Come on Benji, we better get going if we want to get anything done today." He looked up at me; his eyes filled with so many emotions, then stood up and headed to grab his stuff.

"Rae dear, I meant it when I said you could stay here as long as you like." I looked at Billy, how could someone possibly be so kind. He owed us nothing, in fact now we owed him, and still he was trying to give us more.

"Billy, you are far to kind, but I really don't want to impose. In fact I believe I owe you for letting us stay here and feeding my bottomless pit of a cousin." No one laughed at my joke instead they stared at me.

"Raeanne I can't say I know why you're here, or what drove you to come. But I'm sure there was a fairly good reason for you and Benjamin to just pack up and leave. Benjamin told me he was 16 and I don't expect you are much older. Are you even legal yet?" I didn't know how I should answer that question. Or how I should respond to him reading so much into me, it was strange. I didn't want him to tell me to go home though, or worse call the cops on me and send me. I knew there would be hell to pay. You don't leave like we did and just happily skip back, knowing my parents I would probably need a trip to the hospital. "Raeanne?" I looked up at him.

"No." my voice was quiet. I could feel the fear filling me; I was hoping he wouldn't send me home, my body stiffened in anticipation of his response.

"I'm not going to ask any questions, it's really none of my business. I'm just telling you I would be happy to have you stay here, I know it's going to be hard for two teenagers to find somewhere to live. On top of that you both need to go back to school and eat, I doubt you would be able to handle that on your own." I wasn't sure if the tears were going to spill over or not, I fought them as hard as I could. People kept giving to us; I couldn't help but feel guilty for taking so much from so many people.

"Billy I don't know how I could accept, you don't need two kids on your hands." I kept my head down, fearful to look at anyone, to show what I was really feeling. I fought to keep my voice steady and even, it was difficult.

"Raeanne I would rather have you here then off somewhere else, who knows what's out there." His voice broke then, it was obvious this was a touchy subject for him, "My son left a year ago, a whole year ago. He was only 17 and I don't even know if he's alive. Don't tell me you expect me to sit here while two kids run off like that again." I looked up quickly to see that Quil and Embry were gone and it was only Billy and I in the living room. "Please just take advantage of my hospitality, at least until you are eighteen."

"Billy how can I ever, ever repay you?"

"By staying." I broke down then, I couldn't take it. Benji walked in at that point with his bag looking grim. Knowing it took a lot for me to cry he quickly panicked, assuming the worst. He rushed over drawing me into a tight hug.

"Rae, what's going on? Did your parents find us?" I sobbed; trying to gain composure I took a deep breath. This only lead to me choking on the air, he patted my back, while looking up at Billy. "Billy why is she crying?"

"Well if it has anything to do with the conversation we just had it's because she agreed to stay here for awhile."

"What? We're staying?" He looked down at me when he said this; I nodded my head trying to avoid choking again. He laughed, "So I guess I can just go put these back in the room." He grabbed the duffle bags and headed off to put them back where they came from.

"Billy, I'm going to get a job though so I can pay for food and anything else Benj and I might need." He nodded his head.

"I don't mind paying for food though, I'm used to feeding teenage boys, they eat a lot." I laughed weakly.

"Billy if you are going to house us, I can't let you feed us too."

"Sure, sure. If it makes you feel better."

"It does."

"Then it's settled, I will talk to Sam about getting you two registered in the high school."

"Billy?"

"Yeah hun?"

"Thank you so much." He smiled at me, and I returned it with the biggest smile I could muster. Suddenly I could not longer feel the floor, my head however, came pretty close. "BENJAMIN MORRISON!" I heard laughter as he spun me around in sickening circles. "Put me down. Now." I felt my feet touch the ground but it wasn't for long, I was so dizzy that I collapsed. "Look what you've done. You spin me around till I can't stand straight then you don't even bother stopping me from falling. Some cousin you are." He chuckled as Quil and Embry walked through the door.

"What's all the racket?" I looked up at Embry from the floor; from down here he looked even huger than usual.

"Benjamin was just in the process of injuring me." Everyone in the room started laughing. I quickly tried to think of a way to get them all back, a difficult task for one person to take down 3 overgrown boys and a full-grown man. I would leave Billy out, it was the least I could do. That's 3 now. I couldn't come up with anything, yet at least. I kept in mind they all deserved pay back and settled for frowning as I stood up. I tried to look menacing and started tapping my foot on the ground, hands on my hips.

"Benjamin Morrison." He froze, his laughter cut short, and he looked at me terrified. This made Quil and Embry laugh even harder. I glared at them and they both immediately stopped laughing, and stepped back a little. This made Billy laugh, I wanted to laugh with him but I had to keep up my tough guy appearance.

"Shit, we're in for it now." I looked at him in disgust, and he took off out the door, Quil and Embry following quickly. I hated when he swore.

"BENJAMIN IF I EVER HEAR YOU SWEAR AGAIN, YOU WILL WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN!" I yelled out the door, watching them all clumsily run down the driveway, and off into the distance. I slammed the door shut and locked it tightly. I turned around to see Billy laughing in his chair, I let it all out then I started laughing fairly hard.

"Just when I thought I had met the biggest pranksters ever." I chuckled.

"Whom am I competing against?" I was determined to out joke the competition.

"Well it used to be Quil but ever since he met Claire he has been spending a lot of time taking care of her, a babysitter of sorts. So Embry took his place, I guess they worked together more than anything, but as I said Quil is pre-occupied." I chuckled, Embry did seem like a goofball.

"How old is Claire?" I questioned, I wondered about the little girl who stole his attention.

"She just recently turned three." I guess my expression was funny because Billy chuckled.

"That's adorable! I can't believe he is so willing to watch her, most guys are afraid of little kids!"

"He's one of a kind." I laughed at his words, and almost jumped out of my skin when someone started pounding on the door.

"Billy, Rain we know you're in there." It was definitely Embry.

"Yeah come on Rae, we didn't mean it! Right guys?" I heard two voices agreeing with my cousin. Billy and I laughed.

"You're going to have to beg, on hands and knees." I looked at Billy he nodded with a huge grin. And for no reason whatsoever I added, "And make us cookies." Billy looked at me like I was crazy and then chuckled. There was no response so I said, "Fine, have fun sleeping outside. You will have to let me know what it feels like to be hobo's." Billy was still smiling as three defeated groans came through the door.

"Deal." It was my cousin's voice, I opened the door and let in the three huge boys, they were all crawling on their knees, hands together.

"Get working, I want those cookies right away." I laughed as I looked at them. It was a hilarious sight, they stood up then.

"Are you serious?" Embry seemed amused by the whole thing; he honestly thought I was joking. I looked at him with the cruellest expression I could muster.

"Deadly." He shuddered and headed to the kitchen, Quil trailing behind, I assumed Benjamin was already started, he knew to take me seriously. Embry and Quil emerged from the kitchen grinning widely. "What are you two slaves doing?" Embry looked at me.

"Benjamin says there isn't the right stuff to make cookies." I looked at him rolling my eyes.

"Well let me tell you a story, there is this little place called a store. People go there and buy things, like the ingredients for cookies. Which if they want to see the end of the day, they will be making without complaining, for torturing Rae." I finished settling on the couch, knowing there would be no argument. When Benjamin walked out of the kitchen I tossed him my keys and wallet, he caught them easily and the other two boys followed him out of the house. I flicked on the TV switching through the channels not finding anything good to watch I continued flicking through. I caught a few clips of funny commercials and humorous lines in shows, but other than that it proved to not be very entertaining. Billy had gone off somewhere in the house leaving me alone. So when the boys came back I was more than happy to assist them, trying to save myself from the boredom that consumed me.

"You bought lots of chocolate chips right?" I loved cookies, especially the chewy ones with lots of chocolate.

"Yes Rae." I laughed at Benji's tone.

"I've decided to help you all out, there's no way I'm leaving the fate of my cookies in the hands of three incapable teenage boys." I laughed again.

"Hey! That's not fair, I've made lots of things before." I looked at Embry raising and eyebrow.

"Is that so? And these things that you made, were they edible?" He grinned sheepishly, giving me no response.

"No. Actually they were as far from edible as you can possibly imagine." Embry playfully punched Quil's arm when he responded to my question. I walked towards the kitchen, leaving the boys to grab all the bags, and pulled out the same bowl I had used for pancakes that morning.

By the time we were finished everyone was covered from head to toe in ingredients, and we were all laughing hysterically. I looked over at the three boys from were I stood at the counter, they were now arguing who had won the flour fight. I grabbed a cloth and started wiping down the counter till there was no sign of the previous condition. I found a broom tucked away in the hall closet and swept the floor so it to was clean and then headed to my room were I changed into a pair of baggy pyjama pants and a t-shirt, I pulled my sweater over my head. When I walked into the living room the three boys were crowded on the couch, emerged in whatever was on TV. They almost jumped when I spoke.

"You guys are getting crap all over the couch!" They all jumped up, Benjamin rushed upstairs to change and Quil quickly followed. They both came down wearing different shirts; Quil's was not one of Benjamin's so I assumed he had probably taken it from Jacobs's room. Embry however, was still standing covered in flour. "Don't even think about sitting down on the couch again, unless you want to clean it up." He shrugged and pulled off his shirt, then threw himself back on the couch. I watched wide-eyed. He was so sexy. Wait what was I thinking? I had only met him last night. But look at those muscles! He is ripped, and god his abs, they're amazing. I heard myself release an embarrassing sigh, I quickly pulled myself together and I heard Embry laugh at me.

"Can resist me can you?" I glared at him; he was doing it on purpose the little stinker. Two can play at that game.

I went over and sat near them, acting like I was getting really warm, well not acting because they seemed to emanate heat, I pulled off my sweater. I knew my tank top was tight and revealing, I also knew that if I stretched I would expose my belly button piercing. Benjamin seemed to figure out what I was doing pretty fast, I saw him grin and return his attention to the TV. Quil didn't even notice I was practically stripping, but Embry sure did. I stood up, directly in his line of view and stretched out as far as I could. I watched his jaw drop to the floor, and then I walked over to him. Stood right in front of him, leaned in and looked into his eyes. He was not prepared for what came next.

"Nice try." I leaned back, and everyone started laughing. He looked extremely embarrassed; I smiled at him knowing I had won this round. But he was right he was hard to resist. I had to wonder how long I would be able to keep this act up.

A/N

Hey everyone, sorry it took me so long to update, I hopefully will do a better job of the next one. Now word of advice to you lazy readers out there, if you review my story it is incentive for me to get the next chapter up faster. To those of you who took the time to review, thanks I appreciate your time. I can pretty much guarantee the next chapter will be up no later than the end of next Sunday.

Anyways sorry for any mistakes, thanks for sticking with me!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX, Starshinesbrightly