Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or mike. Some things are taken directly from the book.

Chapter 6: Another Competitor

After Gym, I was in too much of a foul mood to talk to anyone about what happened. Somehow everyone knew about Bella getting sick though. Everyone knew what happened to Bella because everyone paid attention.

Jessica came up to me and asked me about all the details but I just blew her off. She would never leave me alone!

She told me she was more interested in what happened with Bella and Cullen in the cafeteria anyways. So I was off the hook, having no information available to share.

So all I could do was wait for the beach trip to La Push, which surprisingly put me in high spirits. It was enough of a distraction to keep my mind off the blood typing incident.

I still walked her to our usual lunch table the next day with Jessica tagging along as usual. I managed to get everyone excited and animated about the beach day tomorrow. Tomorrow was promised to be sunny, which even made Bella smile a little bit.

And then Lauren had to go ahead and remind me about my current problem. We were walking out of the cafeteria when she half whispered, half snarled some nasty things about Bella.

"I don't know why Bella doesn't just sit with the Cullens from now on." she concluded.

"She's my friend; she sits with us," I whispered back instinctively and defensively.

I didn't let her rude remarks get to me though. I put a smile on and thought of the sun, and before I knew it, I was at my parents' store, waiting for the rest of the crew to be ready to take off to First Beach.

Bella pulled up next to my Suburban, and I waved to her happily. "You came!" I yelled enthusiastically. "and I said it would be sunny today, didn't I?" I walked up to her and she reminded me that she had already promised to come. "We're just waiting for Lee and Samantha…unless you invited someone," I implied.

"Nope," she replied lightly but there was something wrong with her voice. I decided I was just imagining it. I wasn't going to let anyone bother me today.

"Will you ride in my car? It's that or Lee's mom's minivan." I hoped she couldn't see how much I really wanted her to say yes.

"Sure." She sounded pretty indifferent to me. Again! Imagining things! I put on my most sincere smile.

"You can have shotgun," I assured her. She blushed a little. Was that a good thing?

My plan didn't work out as nicely as I would have hoped, because Lee had to bring two extra people. And Bella, trying to be nice as usual, stuck Jessica right in between us. I barely put any effort in hiding my disappointment. But Jessica didn't seem to care so at least I wasn't hurting her feelings.

When we were finally there, I led everyone to a ring of driftwood logs that surrounded a stone ring for the fire. I tried to sit next to Bella but some of the other girls beat me to it. I had come up with a different way to get her attention.

"Have you ever seen a driftwood fire?" I asked, raising one eyebrow. I didn't wait for her response, picking up one of the smaller sticks and lighting it with a cigarette lighter.

"No," she answered curiously as she watched me place it carefully against the driftwood teepee.

"You'll like this then…watch the colors." I smiled more widely as I lit another small piece and placed it next to the first.

"It's blue," she said with a surprised tone.

"The salt does it. Pretty isn't it?" I was still smiling, hoping I had impressed her. I saw a pace between her and Jessica that I thought I could squeeze into. My plan backfired though, when Jessica claimed my attention.

I tried to talk to Bella some too but Jessica wouldn't allow me much freedom. After about a half hour of it, I had enough. I decided to get some of the guys to check out some tidal pools. I was hoping Bella would go too, but even if she didn't, at least I wouldn't have to deal with Jessica anymore.

It made my smile reappear when I heard Bella agree to come once Tyler and Eric sat down again. I dared to let myself hope that she wanted to spend that time with me.

She was a very slow hiker, but I was just glad she came with us. She leaned cautiously over the little ocean ponds while the rest of us were going crazy trying to impress her.

Eventually we got hungry so we headed back to the main group. When we finally got back, there were more people there I couldn't put names to. What were they doing there? I assumed they lived on the reservation.

The biggest guy was introducing his crew to us as I passed out the food and beverages to Bella and the people who didn't have food yet.

The food was delicious, but it was hard for me to enjoy it when I kept catching that one kid stare at Bella. What was with people? Everyone has to be attracted to her!

I mentally scolded myself when I realized how hypocritical I was. I was also guilty. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud.

This was all too much. I needed to get away from the group for a little while. I decided to head up to some shops in the village and Jessica came along too. Shocker. Bella didn't follow but that was probably a good thing. I needed to clear my head from all things Bella.

I went into this one shop and there were these cool little figurines all over the place. Jessica pointed out some pieces of jewelry and I showed her some carved wooden wolves. The paint was chipping, which made me wonder what kind of place this was.

We didn't buy anything because we didn't have any money. Instead we checked out some more shops and the wooden wolves showed up everywhere. I told Jessica it was a part of their tribe, but truthfully, I really had no idea.

Finally we made it back to where the others were. I didn't see Bella but I figures she was with Angela or something. I walked over to where Tyler and Eric were talking to the really big guy and all his friends.

One of them wasn't there though. That one kid who was checking out Bella was gone. Maybe he went home, I told myself.

I glanced around me and saw that Angela was talking to Ben. Without Bella. Bella!

"Where is Bella?" I asked, trying to hide how worried I was.

"Oh, I think she went off with that one dude," Tyler answered me.

"Jacob," the big one corrected him.

"I should probably go look for her, it looks like it's going to rain soon anyways." I glanced up at the sky anxiously.

"I'll go too, Mike!" Jessica said, which made me jump. Was she standing there that whole time? Creepy.

"Okay, Jess."

We walked some ways when I spotted two figures sitting and talking. As we walked closer, their heads snapped up and they stared at us.

Relief flooded me. "There you are, Bella."

"Is that your boyfriend?" I heard the kid named Jacob ask her. The thought made me smile but then I remembered that it didn't change the fact that she wasn't my girlfriend.

She whispered something back to him and he smiled. I clenched my teeth together as I walked closer, with Jessica close behind me. They exchanged a few more words before I approached them.

I was able to see Jacob clearly for the first time and it almost made me laugh. He's a youngster! There was no way Bella could fall for this guy. But I had to make sure.

"Where have you been?" Bella looked at me like I was crazy for a second, but she smoothed her features and then responded lightly.

"Jacob was just telling me some local stories. It was really interesting." She smiled at him and he mirrored her, like they were in on some kind of joke.

"Well," I started, trying to remember what my excuse was to come looking for Bella. "We're packing up…it looks like it's going to rain soon."

She looked up and so did I. Even though I had wished for the sun all of last week, I welcomed the rain. It meant I could stop these two from bonding.

"Okay." She stood up from the log she was sitting on. "I'm coming."

"It was nice to see you again." Jacob said tauntingly. Again? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"It really was. Next time Charlie comes down to see Billy, I'll come too," she promised. It made me sick.

"That would be cool." He didn't even try to hide that smile.

"And thanks," she added earnestly. Cullen and this Jacob kid? What was with her and toying around with every boy's heart?

A/N: I hoped you liked this chapter. I enjoyed writing it. Sorry for the long space between the last update but I think it's okay because I gave you all three chapters in a row :D

Please review! They're better than seeing Mike's face when he saw Jacob and Bella flirting.

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