A/N: It's ridiculous that I should be updating a story for my least favorite catagory before any of the ones I like more, but I guess my OCD decided to focus on this. It happens. A lot, actually. I wonder if it's possible to train your OCD. Anyway, I'm babbling; on with chapter two!

Songs:

Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz
Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
Your Own Way - Spectacular! Cast
No Air - Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy... - Fall Out Boy

Chapter 2

McGorgeous

Sarah had us photo up, even the newly awoken dad, and then she'd gone on her way, dragging Collin and Brady with her, who'd reassured me that school tomorrow would be great. I was just lucky they were only a week in, otherwise, I'd be royally screwed. They'd also promised that they would introduce me to the notorious pack tomorrow - apparently, it was what they called their group of friends.

After I'd finished my second cup of coffee, I'd decided to go grab my board and go surfing. It wasn't supposed to rain today; just overcast, and Washington wasn't known for lightning storms anyhow, just the constant rain. Plus, I'd lived in the bipolar state; I could handle it.

I thumped down the steps in my swim suit and board shorts, my board at my side. I was known in Texas as Wolf Girl, because that's what all my surfing equipment said; my board, my swim suit, my shorts, my towel, and my bag that carried a first aid kit, a small snack and plenty of bottles of water. All of them were black with navy lettering and a sliver wolf. I came running into the kitchen, loading up my bag with water bottles, and two cut up apples. "Where are you going?" I heard J-Dad's knowing voice behind me.

I smiled, and turned around to face him. "Oz. Do you know where I could find a yellow brick road? Or a tin man?" I zipped up my bag, and kicked the fridge shut behind me, slinging the bag onto my shoulder.

Dad smiled. "Nope, sorry. Guess you'll just have to settle for a scarecrow." We both laughed at the cheesiness of this. It was nice to have someone to joke around with again.

"I'm going surfing for a couple hours. If that's alright with you." I added. I didn't want to make it seem like a I'm-going-whether-you-like-it-or-not thing. I had nothing but respect for my adopted parents. And Dad knew how I was about surfing; he wouldn't deny me, even after what happened.

He smiled at me, though I saw the slightly worried edge he held to his gaze. He was probably remembering that day; the call about his daughter being sent to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder, a concussion and a fractured cheek bone. I'd been fine, but there was always that too-real fear for them, and an apparent 'side-effect' from the concussion that made me quite... abnormal. "Yeah, it's fine." He was trying to shake himself of the worry, but I could tell he was finding it difficult. "Just be careful."

I smiled at him. "I will be."

--

Without a car, getting to the beach actually only took about fifteen minutes, but getting to a part of the beach with primo waves? That took about thirty. Not like I minded, though. I'd walked from Houston to Galveston... once, anyway. Never did it again, but I had done it once. There were even a couple other surfers there, probably trying to catch the last of the weekend waves that they could before school tomorrow. And over to the side, I could see a looming cliff with three guys standing on top; cliff diving. I'd heard of it, and made a mental note, as I watched one of the guys jump in, to try it, but from a lower spot and with someone else there to watch my back. Didn't need to relive my accident.

I always brought two towels to the beach; one to lay on the ground and claim a spot so that I had somewhere to put my things, and one I used to dry off afterwards so I didn't get all sandy, but they looked exactly the same. I laid out my first towel on the white sand, and then put my bag on top so it wouldn't blow away. There was a nice breeze going.

I grabbed my pre-waxed board and ran toward the shore-line; I'd laid out my towel a good distance away because high-tide would probably be coming in soon. I splashed into the water. reveling in the familiar feel of the salty water and squishy sand beneath my feet. It had been a while since I'd last gone surfing, my parents a little nervous after the accident, thought maybe I should spend a little more time away from the ocean. I was glad that they seemed to be getting over this fear.

I paddled out to the wave, and stood up. The swell carried me upward, and skillfully manuvered myself to the top of the wave, forgetting the accident, and everything else. This was me.

A while later, and a lot of good waves later, I sloshed my way back to the little spot of beach I had claimed as my own. I let myself fall on the towel after setting my board down, and dug into my bag, looking for those apple slices and a bottle of water. I slid my glasses on to block out the tiny rays of sunshine poking through the clouds, and shut my eyes, taking a small rest.

Only a couple minutes after I had laid down, something above me abstructed the minute amount of light that was making it through the triple threat of the clouds, my glasses and my eyelids. I didn't dare open my eyes, afraid I might see something truly horrendous hovering above me. It was a frightening prospect to say the least. Instead, I waited. "Are you okay?" A girl's voice answered my silence, sounding kind of worried. Though, why, I couldn't tell. I was still breathing... wasn't I?

But, instead of pointing out the obvious, and being mean to someone who was obviously friendly, I decided to be nice and at least sound pleasant. "I'm fine," I said, opening my eyes, and sliding my glasses up, off my nose and onto the top of my head, like you always see those really preppy girls wear their sun glasses.

Above me were two teens, a guy and a girl. The guy wasn't giant and smiling at me, and the girl was tall by regular standards, but dwarfed by the huge giant next to her. Jeez, what do they put in the water around here, I thought to myself as I stared up in wonder. This guy was even taller than Collin and Brady; and I'd thought they'd been giants. Sheesh. The girl was looking down at me apologetically. "I'm sorry; we didn't mean to bug you. It's just... you look so pale and you hadn't moved for a while." She paused for a second, wringing her hands, but the guy grabbed one, putting a stop to it. "We were watching you surf earlier, and we weren't sure if maybe you'd hurt yourself. Sorry again."

I brushed off the apology with the flick of my wrist, and stood up, brushing off my shorts, though there was nearly no way there was sand on me. "It's no big deal," I assured, and she gave me a greatful smile. "It's happened before, actually. I always kind of have a... deadish look to me. I know, it's insanely creepy." I joked, envoking a laugh from both. "I'm Sydney LeHaye." I introduced myself after the laughter had died to mere chuckles.

"Oh," the girl said, looking stunned, as if she was wondering how in the hell she could have been so rude. "I'm Kim, and this is my boyfriend, Jared." Jared... why did that sound so freakin familiar? "You're new around here, right?" she asked, as though it weren't obvious.

"Umm, yeah," I answered, glancing around the beach, simply out of habit; whenever I was at the beach in Texas, I'd always see someone I knew. But I didn't really know anyone yet, so that would be kind of impossible here. I looked back at both of them; picture perfect couple they were, too. "I just moved here with my parents, Jed and Missy LeHaye. I'm actually adopted, and Mom and Dad thought it would be a good idea for all of us to get back to our roots." I shrugged, brushing it off.

Kim suddenly looked kind of excited. "You must be Sarah's cousin's daughter!" she exclaimed, and I almost laughed. Because of how she associated me to Sarah, and because, well, she knew about me, 'Sarah's cousin's daughter.' "Sarah wouldn't shut up about Missy or you, and how she couldn't wait to meet you." She rolled her eyes, and I was tempted to do the same.

Jared broke into a wide grin. "How early did she wake you up this morning?"

I laughed; they must know Sarah pretty well if they knew she was going to do that. Or... maybe they didn't need to know her that well, but I suspescted they did anyhow. "Around nine-ish." I answered, estimating because I hadn't actually looked at a clock when I woke up to hear that incessant ringing. "She came bearing food. I'm surprised that Collin and Brady didn't eat it on the way over, the way they scarffed breakfast down. You'd think Sarah never cooks for her son."

"Oh, you've met Collin and Brady," Kim said, beaming brightly. Well, they knew each other. To state the obvious. "I thought Seth was supposed to be there too." She frowned in confusion. Seth; the elusive Seth. Seth who was supposed to cart more than half the food that the boys had been carrying this morning. Seth who 'Jake' had called off this morning. It seemed everyone knew each other down here, where as, in Texas, I only knew about half my grade; a total of six hundred students.

"I think he was," I lied; I knew he was. "But Jake called him off...?" I trailed off, making it a sort of question. I didn't know Jake or Seth, or why Jake would have any authority of Seth. "How do you guys know each other so well?" I asked, not really liking being left out of the loop. It may be an everybody-knows-everybody kind of town, but they seemed really close.

I could see something register in Jared's face. "The boys must have mentioned the pack, right?" he asked, his jaw a little tighter than before. I nodded. "I'm part of the pack," he said with a tensed shrug; he was watching me pretty closely.

Well, I guess that made sense, but I didn't quite get why he was looking like that. I raised my eyebrows a little bit, and looked around. "Okay..." I said, pretty much out of reasons as to why he was looking at me like that. It was kind of making me a tad uncomfortable. "They told me that I'd meet the pack tomorrow. Guess you wanted to one up them." I joked weakly, but it was enough to break his stare, and for him to untense. He even chuckled a little bit, though the joke was quite horrible.

Kim turned to look at him, looking just as confused as I felt, and when he looked at her, like she was his world, I felt that I was intruding on a very personal moment, and had the urge to go catch another wave. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Kim, Jared," I said, turning around and picking up my board. "But the waves are calling my name."

There was a short - no, minute pause, before Kim said, "I really do want to one up Collin and Brady. And surprise them too. How about we give you a ride back to Emily's house. You did walk, yes?" Apparently, she already knew the answer because she didn't wait for my response. "And then, after we shock them, Jared will drive you home." I turned back around to face them again; they were holding hands, and Kim looked completely serious while Jared didn't seem to mind that he'd been volunteered to drive me home.

Jared saw my board, and then he reexamined what I was wearing, and then my towels, and he broke out into a wide grin. "I see you like wolves," he said, and I smiled too. I did like wolves.

But I put on an exasperated expression. "I don't like wolves," I said, sighing over dramatically, like that was the most ludicrous thing that I'd ever heard, and Jared seemed to know what was coming before I even said it, because he didn't take the cue, and look totally confused. "I love wolves. They're adorable. I have a plushy at home." I smiled, thinking of Coal who was sitting, right now, in my bag. I'd forgotten to take him out last night.

Jared chuckled a little bit. "Well, she admitted that freely enough." Then he looked at Kim, who seemed to be waiting for something. "Oh, and we'll drive you back to Emily's when you finish wave riding, or whatever you call it. And then, I can try and con one of the other guys into driving you home." He laughed - and so did I - as Kim smacked his shoulder.

I planted my board in the ground and leaned on it a little bit. "You guys don't mind waiting?" I double checked, and seeing them shake their heads in a negatory fashion, I was assured, that they would be just fine. "Alright. If you don't have anything else, there's an apple in that bag." I told them, though, if Jared ate anything like Collin and Brady, that apple would not be here when I got back. Good thing, from what I'd heard of Emily, she was always cooking something up for her hoard of gluttons.

--

A couple wipe-outs later, a quite a few good rides, I was walking up the beach, wrapped in a towel with Jared carting my bag and board, and Kim holding his free hand. I was still astounded that he had a free hand. "Don't mind the car," Kim told me as we came up to an awesome black truck. "We borrowed it from one of the other pack members." She looked embarrassed, but that truck was effing awesome.

Jared seemed to agree. "Don't diss the truck, Kim. The truck is awesome, end of story. And at least we weren't stuck with Embry's piece of crap. Damn thing smells like fish tacos. And Seth's poor little car's about to break down." Embry's car smells like fish tacos? That was the sentence that stuck in my mind. I didn't know Embry, but he'd been mentioned in this morning's conversation with Collin and Brady. And now I knew what his car smelled like. And I honestly was glad they got the truck. Jared put my board and bag in the bed, then held my and Kim's doors open so we could respectively get in, and then slide across the hood of the car and jumped into the drivers side.

He jammed the key in the ignition, and the soothing sound of Linkin Park filled my ears. Well, not really soothing. The song was Forgotten, which started off a bit loud. "Sorry," Kim apologized again, over the music, obviously not noticing me. "But Paul's radio is broken, and he only has Linkin Park available in way of CDs."

"Kim," Jared said, catching her attention. "She likes it." I laughed a little bit when Kim turned to look at me, obviously shocked as I grinned and mouthed the words right along with it. "Little Miss Sydney here will fit in very well with the boys." He laughed, and punched it. We went tearing off the beach sand, and I'm not kidding, a wall of it sprayed up, above my window. Jared drives like my mom; that's why we always have dad drive. Even Kim was clamped to her seat while I was rocking out and Jared focused on the road.

It didn't take long to get to Emily's house. And it was a lot smaller and more humble than mine was, but seemed more warm and homey. Jared grabbed the keys, and got out, racing to open the door for both of us girls, and looking crestfallen when we beat him to it. Nothing a little kiss from Kim couldn't cure.

They walked me to the front door, and I suddenly felt a little nervous. I'd only met Collin, Brady, Jared and Kim, and they had been nice enough, but what about the others? Would they like me? Would they be willing to accept me into their group of friends? But I started thinking this far too late to chicken out. "Hey, guys! Look at what Kim brought home!" Jared yelled as he opened the door.

"Is it another cat?" I heard a deep voice rumble from another room. "Cause you know Emily's allergic."

Kim huffed and rolled her eyes. "That was one time!" she said, storming out of the front room. "And I'm sorry. I didn't know she was allergic. I honestly thought she was faking it for your sake, cat hater!" I didn't see where she went, but Jared seemed inclined to follow. He slung an arm around my shoulder, to strong for me to duck out of, and led me after her.

"Guys, it's not a cat," he said, as he led me through another empty room. When we got to the door way, he took his arm off my shoulder, and picked me up by my waist like a little rag-doll, and showed me to the room. "It's Sydney." The room had a total of five people in it, one of them being Kim, who was slapping an older man with a roll of newspapers. But he seemed too shocked to care too much. There was a woman, who turned from her cooking, a baby bump clear as day showing through her loose shirt, and scars running down one side of her face, turning one side of her mouth down. She was gorgeous anyway. There were also two boys. One had stopped mid-bite as Jared picked me up, and stared at me. The other just smirked.

"Sydney, as in LeHaye?" Smirky asked, and I nodded. He got up, and took me out of Jared's arms, and set me on the floor. He put a hand on my head, and measured. I only came to the middle of his chest. "I imagined you taller." he said flippantly with another smirk. I wondered if I could get away with smacking him. I sized him up again. Probably not.

Before I could blink, let alone respond, I heard a loud SMACK! sound, and saw that the woman, presumably Emily, had hit him over the head with a rolling pin. I covered my mouth to keep myself from bursting into giggles as he turned, rubbing his head, to stare at Emily, a hurt, puppy-dog expression on his face. "You leave that poor girl alone, Embry Call." I blinked; Embry.

He pouted and crossed his arms across his chest, making the muscles buldge, grumbling. "Whatever you say, Em." he said begrudgingly as he went to sit back down.

Emily, seeming satisfied, turned back to me, half of her face in a warm smile, and though the other half was set in a permanant frown, her eyes sparkled. She wrapped her arms around me in a hug, and I was a little shocked. "You must be Missy's daughter. It's nice to meet you. I'm Emily Uley. I grew up with Sarah and Missy." She pulled away, and looked me up and down. "Sydney, I'm sure you met Seth this morning." She gestured to the boy who'd frozen mid-bite.

I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could, Seth piped up. "Actually, Em, Jake called me off for work before I could meet lovely young Sydney here." He stood up, and held out a hand for me to shake, which I did. "But it is nice to meet you, Sydney. Welcome to La Push." He gave me a grin, and I couldn't help but grin back; his smile was a little contagious.

"Nice to finally meet the infamous Seth. The one who disappears, and whose poor car is about to break down." I laughed as Seth shot a glare in the general direction of Jared. "And the infamous Embry, whose car supposedly smells like fish tacos." I said, giving him a weird look over Seth's shoulder; not an easy feat on my part; he was freakishly huge too. Seriously, were all the guys around here complete giants? Embry alternated between glaring at me and Jared.

Emily laughed, still at my side. "Before Sydney manages to turn the whole pack against poor Jared, I'd like to introduce you to my husband, Sam Uley." she said, as the man who Kim had been wacking with a newspaper got up, cleaning off one of his hands, and offering it to me.

"Good to meet you, Sydney." he said as I shook his - rather warm - hand with another smile; man, I was smiling a lot today. La Push is already having an excellent effect on me.

"You too, Sam." I looked around the tiny kitchen that was already cramped, but I had the feeling it was usually a lot more cramped, but in a warm and homey way. Like a huge family pressed into a too-small house. "Collin and Brady around?" I asked, looking around, already thinking of tricks to play on them if they weren't. I did that sometimes.

Seth was the one to confirm that my evil plots would be useful. "No. Paul and Jake are out in the garage though, fixing my sad little car." He shot another glare at Jared, who just grinned back at him. "Collin and Brady went with Quil and my big sister Leah to Seattle. Yesterday, Em found out she was having twins. They took Leah's truck and a borrowed friend's truck to go pick up two cribs and all that. Leah needed the boys to carry things." He shrugged. I had plots in mind. Evil plots. But from the sound of things, they would be gone for a while, so I had time to plot more, and maybe even get someone on my side of things.

"Yeah, cause Leah would have beaten Jake and Paul to death if they'd gone with her." Jared said with a scoff, and I giggled a little bit. "You know Jake and Leah have never been the greatest of friends, and Leah and Paul would fight to the finish. At least with Collin and Brady there, Leah won't strangle Quil." He opened the fridge, and started digging for something, causing Emily to roll her eyes.

"Leah's not as big of a bitch as they're making her out to be," said another guy as he walked through the screen door that led to the back, and presumably, the garage - Jake or Paul, maybe? He was holding a can of soda, and was greased from head to foot. "I just don't get along with her very well. I'm Jacob Black. Call me Jake." He shot his can into the trash can, and gave me a grin. Jake had a very, very cute grin. He turned to Jared, who had just come ducked out of the fridge, a sandwich and soda in hand. "But you're right, Paul and Leah would fight to the death."

"I heard my name." And yet another hot guy will pop out of the blue, I thought. But I was wrong.

As I turned around to face the screen door that Jake had just come through, I laid my eyes on the most handsome man I'd ever laid eyes on. He was shirtless, and there were small grease stains on his skin, which was bronzed, and shone with a light layer of sweat. His hair was cut short, and when our eyes met, something in me snapped, and I felt so... drawn to him. And he was staring at me too, and very slowly, McGorgeous's face split into a smile. "Hey," he said in a breathy, deep thrumming voice. He had a rag in his hands, and used it to wipe off, and threw it on his shoulder as he approached me, holding out a hand for me to take. "I'm Paul Walker."

I took his extremely warm hand in my own, cherishing the feelings running through me. "I'm Sydney LeHaye."

A/N: Okay, took me a little while to finish this, and I know it wasn't really a satisfying chapter, and I'm sorry, but I got most of the pack introduced, or at least mentioned. And I just thought I'd let you know now so you aren't confused later; Bella and Edward did have Nessie, but Jake did not imprint on her. She has her own mate. Jake will imprint on somebody else later. Not sure who yet, but he will.

Alright, review. Tell me how much you loved it, how much you hated it. How much you want to shoot me or how much you want a cookie. Flames are welcomed. Until we next meet.

Madly Yours
Jassabella