Chapter 4

It was dark out. Not to dark. But dark, the sky had decided to clear up tonight giving me a nice view of the stars. I looked at the too empty wall in front of me. Besides the picture of Joshua and Little Sleepy, it was empty. I needed to add more to it. It hadn't been that long, but I felt that some of what had happened deserved to be up on the wall. I gazed up at the stars and wondered if my mom was looking down on me from up there.

"Are you proud of me mom? Did I turn out the way you wanted? I'm almost done with school. And I finally got out of the Parque. Me and Giggles have started a life for ourselves here. Is Sleepy up there with you? If so tell him, tell him we miss him. And not to be too mad at Giggles. She has it bad for Embry now. Real bad. I miss you mom. I'm sorry." I told the stars. Hoping that my message would somehow get where it needs to go.

I lifted up a can of spray paint and got to work on my latest idea. I was running. In the picture. The cliff was looming in front of me. There was a crowd of faceless people behind me. But some people actually had discernable features. Like Embry with his nonconforming buzz cut, and Giggles holding the baby, Paul was there to. But you couldn't really tell it was him. Well except for the interesting beaded necklace he had around his neck. Even though it was beaded it was still manly.

Another little snapshot was of Giggles, Embry, and the baby sitting at the counter in diner. They were all smiling, and generally just looking all happy. I even managed to capture the look Embry is always giving Giggles. Giggles had her 'Gigglesness' back. She was happy, smiling, and dare I even think it, in love. I do believe my friend was in love. The last and final snapshot of the night was me building my first snowman. Well me and Paul pimping out my snowman.

I glanced at my watch when I was finally finished. It had taken me a long time to do these, I'd even messed up a couple times, but I'd fixed it. Oh crap! I'm late for fourth period! But wait, I only have seven classes a day. So the day was mostly over. I don't really need to go to school today. Looks like today's a ditch day. Because every now and then, you just need to not do what you should do. That made sense right? Whatever. I'm starving. Time for breakfast, and lunch, and maybe an afternoon snack. I made my way through the diner and sat at the counter. Giggles was working behind the counter today.

"Hey, aren't you s'posed to be-" she stopped herself. "You know what, never mind."

"What? Every now and then you need a vacation." I reasoned. It was true. I guess. I laid my head out on the counter. "I stayed up all night adding more to the wall. I'm sleepy. Can I have some coffee? And a burger. A nice big one. I'm starved." I said. She rolled her eyes and gave my order to Jules, the cook. A nice man. He lost his arm in the war. Which war, I don't know. Nor do I really want to ask. But he has this nice hook as a replacement arm. It's pretty hard core. And he cooks a mean plate of eggs. Claudia set my food down in front of me.

"You know, since you're giving yourself a day off of school, why not take a shift here to pass the time you could've spent learning?" I groaned.

"Let me at least finish my food, please?" I begged. She nodded then went to take the give a check to someone off in the diner. I stared at the hamburger I front of me. Damn, did it look delicious. I grabbed it in my hands and rotated it around so I could find the perfect spot to take the first bite. I heard the bell and a gust of wind brought a familiar smell of wet dog and the forest. Paul. I smiled a little. Despite how we first met, I was actually starting to like him. I still didn't like Sam. He sat down next to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I whimpered and stared longingly at my burger. I set it down and swiveled in my seat to face him.

"How's you doing today?" I asked.

"Where were you today?" he asked.

"It's rude to answer a question with a question, y'know" I said and turned back to my burger, trying to hurry to take a bite before I could be bothered again.

"I'm fine. Now, where were you today?" he repeated. I groaned loudly. I gently placed my burger down again. At this rate I would never get to taste my delicious burger.

"Well, Mr. Nosy. I was adding more to the wall. And now I'm trying to eat my lunch. How come you ain't in school, huh?" screw it; I'm eating my burger while he answers. I opened my mouth preparing to take a bite.

"I was worried about you. Plus, Seth kept annoying me to find out where you were." He tacked that other sentence on hurriedly. Mh-hhhm. Sure, Seth was bothering him. But I like Seth, so I don't mind. He's a real sweet kid. And yes, I call him kid too. But he is a kid. He's only a sophomore. Just a kid. I stared chowing down on my burger. I glared at him when he looked like he would start to say something. When I was finished I started getting up. I reached for my cane, only to find it not there. I guess it was a habit. And being without it was, just weird. I walked around the counter and leaned down to grab my apron. It already had the little note pad and pen in one of the pockets. I leaned on the counter in front of Paul, who had watched me do all this.

"Now, what can I get for you today, handsome?" I asked him. Pen poised at the ready.

"Uh, I'll have a burger with all the fixings, and a plate of Jules' famous scrambled eggs."

"Sure thing, Mr. Bottomless-Pit"

"What? I go from Handsome to Bottomless-Pit in less than a minute? What's that about?"

"Okay then, Sure thing Mr. Handsome Bottomless-pit. Good enough for yah?" I joked. I gave his order to Jules and leaned against the counter. I saw Paul staring at something. I followed his eyes and noticed he had been staring at the cleavage I had been unknowingly showing off. I blushed and then hurried to give him his food, tempted to yell at him to take a picture but that would probably just cause some perverted problems. The bell rang again and I went to take the new customers orders. I walked over to the booth they had just sat in. It was another of the giants. Jake, I think. And he was with a girl. She had reddish hair and these weirdly colored eyes, and generally looked adorable. She was very pale, even for a gringa. I took their order, and of course the giant ordered enough food for three people. I think it's something in the water here. I made sure to smile at the girl, that niceness crap always gets me better tips.

I walked back to the counter and made sure I sat so that I didn't unknowingly show off any assets. The bell rang again, I looked up and saw that Seth had burst through the door and was talking quickly to Jacob. The poor girl that was with him looked very surprised. Jacob stood up, I couldn't really hear what they were saying and he told the girl he'd be back. He yelled for Paul to come quickly. He looked panicky. Paul looked very conflicted about having to leave. I wonder why they had to leave so quickly so often. I dunno, maybe an emergency or something. Go I gestured with a hand. And he shot off. The girl looked so lonely. I yelled for Jules to cancel most of the food, except for the food the girl ordered. When her order came up I placed it on her table then joined her.

"Hey, I'm Charlie." I said and stuck my hand out. She shook it hesitantly.

"Renesmee" she said, just above a whisper. Weird name.

"Sorry, about the boys. They seem to do that a lot." I said. Referring to the random disappearing.

"Oh, I know. It's a wolf thing. Are you one of the imprints? I've only met Emily and Kim. Are you with Paul?" she said. She seemed nice. But wait. Wolf thing? Imprints? …the fuck, man?

"What? What wolf thing? What the hell is an imprint?" I said. She got wide eyed.

"Um, werewolves. Shape shifters? And soul mates and stuff. You know the tribal legends." I stared at her. What the fuck was she talking about? What was she smoking?

"Umm… Oh, crap. I'm sorry I didn't know that you didn't know. Oh god, Jake is so going to kill Me." she said and put her head in her hands. She just kept repeating, the words 'oh no' and 'crap' a lot. This chick was tripping. But then, I had heard the legends from Sleepy, before. It sounded a lot like what this girl was talking about. That crap can't be true; she must be on acid or sumin. But then, it kinda makes sense. The weird growling they do every now and then, the weird wet dog smell, the constant leaving. Could they all be going out to fight the 'cold ones'? I got up from the booth, my mind was spinning. I must be just a little trippy from the spray paint fumes. I looked around the diner. I didn't see Giggles she must be in the back helping Jules. I ran my hand through my hair and pulled the little apron off me and onto the table.

I yelled towards the kitchen that I was going to take a break. My voice kind of cracked. I walked calmly out of the diner with my mind still reeling. I heard a great noise. It sounded like thunder but the clouds didn't look all that dark today. I followed the smell of wet dog into the forest. I walked a little while before I came across a clearing. And what I saw made me think someone had slipped some acid into me somehow. I saw a wolf. Three wolves. Three giant fucking wolves. And a man. A pale looking man that the giant animals were growling at. Its real isn't it? The legends. Are real. But that's impossible! But it all made sense. Complete and perfect sense. Imprinting, that's why Sleepy was always so overprotective of Claudia. And Embry. Did Embry imprint on her too? I heard someone yell my name and saw that Paul was now running towards me. And one of the wolves was gone. Wasn't that a coincidence? I ran my hand through my hair again. Not possible.

"Ah, School girl. We meet again. I must say. Surprising to see you again, alive" a voice said. I knew that voice. Spooky. He was here! He had finally come back for me! I felt the fear spike through me. My eyes widened and my body froze. All from just hearing his voice. Then he stood in front of me. I felt myself shaking in fear. Bad vibe! Really bad vibe.

"Spuh-Spooky. Long time no see." I said, trying to hide my feelings of fear behind an air of nonchalance.

"Well, yes. Don't tell me that you're with these mutts" he said and made a face at Paul and the other wolves. Paul ran and tackled him. And he exploded into a giant wolf. Right. In. Front. Of. Me. my eye twitched twice. A sure sign that I was about to freak.

Spooky was here. Spooky, he's come back to finish the job. I stumbled backwards. And fell against a tree. Paul turned his attention back to me. He looked torn between continuing to beat the shit out Spooky and coming over to me. Spooky took this little moment of hesitation to move quicker than my eyes could catch. He was in front of me, leaned in and whispered something in my ear. Something that made my blood run cold. Oh how I wish this was nothing but a dream, a bad trip. Please god please! Then he ran. He was gone as soon as I had gathered that he was in front of me. I'll be back. His words ran around in my mind. He would be back. And I knew it. I needed to get out of here. And now!

"Go after him!" Paul screamed at the two other wolves. Who I could only assume to be Jacob and Seth. Poor little Seth. I tried to stand up but, I couldn't, I was in shock. I closed my eyes. Okay now. Next time I open them I'll be in my room and this will have all been a dream.

000

Except it wasn't a dream. It had all been real. I was sitting in the same house me and Giggles had first been in when we first got here. I think we were even in the same seats. Paul was sitting next to me and Embry was sitting next to Giggles with the baby in his lap. Except Little Joshua wasn't much of a baby anymore. He was two, and you could already tell he would be a heartbreaker. Would he be like the others? Like Sleepy? Like Paul? Like Embry, Seth, and Sam? I was sitting as far away from anyone as I could. Hard since I was near the middle of the couch. I had my hands clutching each other in my lap. My eyes were on my lap. What had happened was still fresh in my mind. Wolves, giant wolves. And Spooky. Spooky was back.

"Giggles?" I asked. And suddenly all talking in the room ceased. I had not spoken a word since I had been in the diner. Everyone turned to look at me. Everyone was here. Sam, Emily, Paul, Jared, Kim, Embry, Giggles, Quil, Jacob, Leah, Brady, Collin, and Seth. And all of their eyes were watching me. I bet they expected me to blow up. To freak out, start screaming and run away. And believe me, I expected myself to do that. But I knew that Spooky was still out there. Probably as soon as I stepped outside that door, he would be there to get me. He'll kill me. And right now, I really didn't want to die.

"Did you know, about Sleepy, did you know?" I asked her. Staring right into her eyes.

"Yes. I knew." She said looking ashamed.

"Then why didn't you tell me? Didn't you trust me enough? We've known each other since we were kids. How could you not tell me?" I said, tears welling up. I was starting to lose it. This was just too much for one day.

"I wanted to I really did! But, I couldn't. He told me I couldn't tell anyone!"

"But you said yourself, I'm your family, you couldn't tell family?" I said, the tears actually starting to fall. "And you!" I said turning my attention to Embry. "You didn't tell me either!" he looked at me exasperated.

"I couldn't. Only the pack member who has imprinted on you can tell you that they imprinted on you. That's the only way it is for you to find out." He said.

"But no one imprinted on me! So I was supposed to just sit around forever, wondering what the hell all y'alls problems are?" I yelled at him. This wasn't his fault, and I knew that. I hung my head. God my head hurts. Well, not hurting but pounding loudly. Like if you'd gotten water up your nose and it had gone all the way to your brain. This was all getting a bit too much. I rested my forehead on my knees and closed my eyes. I felt a hot hand on my shoulder. I looked slowly looked up at Paul.

"Come with me." he said. He got up and pulled me along with him. I just went with it. He pulled me away from everyone and through the backdoor. He took to leaning against the wall. I leaned against it to, and then I slid down and brought my knees up to my chest. He took a seat next to me and put one of his oversized hot arms around my waist and pulled me close. I let him.

"You were wrong. In there, about being imprinted on." I stared at him. I never liked to be told I was wrong. But for this instance I would swallow my pride and let him explain.

"Oh, really?" I said. All these revelations today were making me very tired. I hung my head again and just waited.

"You were imprinted on." He said. I started to drift to sleep. He better hurry up. "You see, it was…um, well. I imprinted on you."

"That's nice…" I said and fell asleep.

Ugh, now I'm off to swallow a handful of ibuprofen. I'm going through one of my many, and incredibly painful growth spurts which shoots me up an inch or so each time. You'd think that being 5 foot 7 that my body would decide that was enough. But nooooo. I swear to god, if I make it to my dad's 6ft I will personally cut off my own shin bones. Girls aren't supposed to be tall! I'm already taller than the majority of my friends and boyfriends. And let me tell you, being taller than your boo is aaaawkwaard. *groans* Review, please.