A/N: Any wolves you recognize from The Twilight Saga belong to Stephanie Meyer.

Basically everything else, including past and present wolf pack members, imprints, wolf families, and additional characters in this story belong to the universe created by the amazing, brilliant, and wonderfully talented yay4shanghai!

This is another two part chapter which serves as a lead in to the Fourth. I'm leaving in a couple hours to drive from New Mexico to Indiana, so Part II will be posted once I get there.

Thanks everyone who reviewed. I love you guys and I know a lot of you are frustrated about the slow pace the characters are moving. I promise they are trying and will get there, so I really hope you'll stick with this story and keep reading. :)

As always I recommend you read the other spinoffs by liljenrocks, ari11990, AsagariMelody, Guzhong, and twihardcaligurl. They are fantastic and worth taking the time to read.

And thank you yay4shangai, you're an amazing beta and I really appreciate how supportive and encouraging you are!

Scheming and Shenanigans

23 June 2041

It's a little after five in the morning and I'm sneaking out. I'm not sneaking out to avoid discovery by my parents, nope these super secret stealth moves are all for Bree, my best friend whom I keep no secrets from—until now.

I had a mission and like all good missions, it required careful preparation to execute flawlessly. With that in mind, I devised a three part plan once I got home last night that would initiate the mission by allowing me to evade Bree's unwanted detection and breakout of my house.

Part one involved a wake up call. For this, I set the alarm on my phone and switched the sound to silence, so it would only vibrate when it went off. Then I waited for her to leave the room when she went to brush her teeth before sliding it into place under my pillow. I hoped by hiding it there, it would only wake me in the morning. No problems so far.

Now for part two, this was the hard part—keeping Bree asleep and everyone in the dark about my morning escapade. This meant I needed to get dressed elsewhere and make sure I was ready for work in time without having to come back home and someone seeing I had ever left. To accomplish this, I needed to stash my clothes for today in the bathroom without Bree or Beth noticing. I managed to conceal a sundress and swimsuit with the towels under the sink while Bree was downstairs getting a glass of water.

Part three of this little operation meant tackling my final obstacle, which just happened to be sitting in the kitchen at this very moment just waiting for me.

"Morning Dad, did you sleep well?" I asked, walking in and taking a seat across from him after grabbing a bowl. He passed me the box of honey and oat granola cereal sitting next to his hand without any other indication of life. I tried not to laugh as I grabbed some blueberries from the container in front of him and tossed them in my bowl, poured some vanilla flavored soy milk and started eating. And still no response from the man sitting across from me mechanically chewing a bite of his own bowl of cereal.

My absolute favorite quirk about my father is that he is not a morning person. He's up by five everyday so he can go in and open the store by six, but after he has consumed roughly an entire pot of coffee, which usually takes until he's been at the store for about an hour, he's not really there. He goes through the motions, but rarely remembers anything that happens during this time period. It's hilarious and something I know Beth will take full advantage of in the coming years, much like Angie did on occasion. She can sneak out at night after they go to bed and no one will notice, because if dad is oblivious, then mom is dead. She is the soundest sleeper ever and nothing, not even a bucket of cold water dumped on her, will wake her before eight.

"I might be in a little late today, ok? I have an errand to run," I let him know as I finished up my breakfast and rinsed out my bowl. I saw the collar of his red work polo tucked into his shirt. I bet it will still be like that when I get there in a few hours. I'm fairly sure he gave me a vacant nod of approval before I headed outside.

I should be back in plenty of time, so it didn't really matter either way, but I don't like not letting them know where I am. It was more or less a just in case kind of thing, but it also served to make them trust me more and allow me more freedom than they would otherwise. A sort of win-win relationship, you could say.

Now that part three was successfully completed, it was time for the actual task, acquiring a book on learning sign language. I'm not sure why I was so determined not to let Bree know about this, but I was. That was why I got up early this morning, so I could get the book and get to work without her ever finding out. It was also important that I do it today or I would lose my nerve altogether.

There still wasn't a book store in Forks and even if there was, I wouldn't chance running into someone I knew. This was another reason why I was willing to get up early, because I needed to drive a little over half an hour each way to find the book.

By the time I parked my car, I was impatient to be the first person inside when the store opened and silently begged that it remained empty until I had what I came for and was gone. All the secrecy was getting to me. I felt positive that I would die of shame if anyone noticed what I was buying. Like they would be watching me, ready to call me out for what I was doing; learning how to interact with a boy I was completely into, but had never talked to. I worried that what I was doing was obsessive and that it would make me come off as an overly zealous fanatic. It reminded me of Kai and Nikki, regardless of the fact that they would never waste time learning when there were far easier pursuits out there. I was extremely relieved that I didn't have time to continue agonizing a short wait later when the store opened at six.

The whole process turned out to be rather simple and the only person I saw inside was the elderly man that rang up my purchase and he looked too tired to have even paid attention to me or what I bought. I was a little confused that instead of being appreciative for that or feeling eager to get started, all I felt was disappointment after how much I had built everything up in my head. That and a tad bit ridiculous about my antics now that I had the book and was on my way to work.

It wasn't even seven yet when I arrived, so I had been right about not being late and even ended up really early. Now I had to worry about that not arousing suspicion from my dad and make him question me about it. I sat in my car as long as I reasonably thought I could get away with before storing the book in my trunk and trudging in.

Luckily, he didn't say a word about it when he saw me, just walked up semi-alert and cheerfully gave me the usual hug good morning. Hoping to keep it that way, I adjusted his still tucked collar causing him to flush and thank me before wandering off mumbling about not having noticed it. Guess he didn't remember breakfast either, making me grin as I watched him weave around display tables near the checkout counters.

Work dragged by at a snail's pace after that and I wasn't sure if it was because of the book I had waiting for me or because less than ten minutes after I got there it started pouring out and hadn't let up since. I was so wrapped up in what I was doing I hadn't noticed the overcast skies earlier and now it appeared our recent streak of good weather was at an end. The rain always made time seem to creep at an excruciatingly slow pace for me before, but the rain made it implausibly worse now because it meant the beach was out for this afternoon, goodbye sun tanning. And I was particularly disheartened when I suddenly realized that this would also cause me to miss out on my daily opportunity to see Levi.

I stayed later than usual even though I had started earlier in order to put off my talk with Bree as long as possible. Dreading would be a great way of describing how I felt about our upcoming discussion about the events of last night. I really wasn't in the mood to pick apart every detail and I had no intention of attending the Fourth of July festivities Melody had invited us to, but I wasn't all that certain I was going to be able to convince her that going was a bad idea.

Without my usual Levi fix I was a bit indifferent and robotic by the time I finally made it home. The exhilaration from this morning's adventure had completely worn off after the anticlimactic ending and the subsequent revelation that it would probably be days before I saw him again if this weather held up.

I hardly reacted to the sound of a book snapping shut then banging against a wooden table as I stepped inside the otherwise unnaturally silent house.

Turning towards the noise, my eyes took in exactly what I expected to see—Sabrina waiting in the family room to ambush me the second the front door opened. She was standing in front of our comfy rocking chair that faced the entryway with her arms crossed. I assume from the book resting on the end table next to her that she had been passing the time reading. It looked like the same one I'd seen her with during the car ride home last night, probably something about conspiracy theories; her latest interest came after hearing a rather heated debate about JFK in one of our last history lessons of the semester. She sat back down and pulled her legs up, wrapping her arms around them after I drifted over to the couch and slumped down joining her, resigned to the inevitable.

"You were avoiding me." It was a statement and she sounded hurt making it, but I couldn't see her face to confirm it or judge how bad, because she was looking outside instead of at me when she said it. I instantly felt horrible and closed my eyes wincing.

I hadn't considered how much it would hurt her feelings when I stayed late on top of leaving before she woke up this morning, both things unusual. I always made a point of saying bye when I left and letting her know when I would be late or was deviating from my usual routine. She had probably tried to call me as well, but I had forgotten to take my phone off silent.

Sabrina suffers from serious abandonment issues. Not surprising, considering she only sees or hears from her parents every couple months and her grandmother has never once, in the last four and a half years since it started, noticed that Bree never stays there more than one night a week. She copes with things relatively well and mostly because my family has practically taken her in, but we're pretty much all she has and sometimes I forget how easy that makes it for us to unintentionally hurt her. I can't believe I let myself get so wrapped up in myself that I forgot and with everything that has been happening lately, of course what I did would make her feel like I was shutting her out.

Sometimes I really sucked at being a friend. I knew I didn't deserve her friendship. Bree was fiercely protective of everyone in my family and loved each of us unconditionally. She was always looking out for me and trying to help, giving so much of herself and never asked for anything in return. Her generosity and selflessness were astonishing. There never seemed to be anything I did or could do for her in return, which made me feel like I was taking advantage of her loyalty.

"Bree, I'm so, so incredibly sorry. You're my best friend and I love you…you know that, right?" I sat forward and gentle reached over to touch her arm when I said it. I waited for her to nod and look back at me. She was already smiling again when I admitted, "I was so distracted thinking about—I mean, I just wasn't thinking when I forgot to call and let you know I was staying late at work," I corrected lamely, but not wanting to confess anything Levi related before asking, "umm, where's Beth?" I cringed at finishing with that, but I had to know. This wasn't a conversation I wanted her to overhear. I bit one side of my lower lip while waiting for a response.

"Down the street—at Natalie's. She was planning on staying the night," Bree volunteered relaxing and laughing a little, having already forgiven me. Completely understanding and even seeming to love it once realizing it had something to do with Levi. I sighed in relief, sitting back against the black throw pillows again.

"I really am sorry Bree," I whispered slowly drawing out each word so they had time to sink in.

"It's fine Kris, really. I was more worried you were pissed at me for some of the things that slipped out and for me butting in like I did," she leaned forward to look apprehensively at me as she admitted that. She always blamed herself, even when it wasn't her fault and I didn't want her to be upset so I rushed to reassure her.

"Honestly? You wouldn't be you if things had gone differently…and I wouldn't want that. Those are the traits I usually love about you," I teased with a faux-serious look at the end and knew it worked to lighten her mood when I saw her disgruntled face.

"Usually?" I heard her snap out indignantly a second before she whacked me with a pillow.

"Fine—I admit it…I am so grateful that you are like that because…well, it never fails to keep my life interesting," I said before we both burst into uncontrollable giggles. It was nice being back to normal, but it didn't last long.

"We don't have to talk about this if you don't want to…," Bree trailed off looking uncomfortable and turned back towards the window, leaning forward with her forearms resting against her legs.

"No, I want to…I could use a fresh perspective. So what are you thinking about last night?" I quickly fired off so she wouldn't doubt my sincerity and now that I'd asked, I really did want to know.

"I think Melody liked you and you clicked with her right away, which isn't like you." She replied confidently and didn't have to think before saying it, sitting back to look at me again. It made me wonder if she had thought about it a lot today and I was secretly glad that she thought Melody liked me too.

"Yea, weird huh…it was like I'd known her for years."

"Speaking of knowing—she probably knows her brother best so…," she trailed off tilting her head a little and giving me a very pointed, wide eyed suggestive look. When I groaned and covered my face with the pillow she'd thrown at me, she moved to sit next to me on the couch and confiscated the pillow. Then added, "well? Maybe you should get to know her…it couldn't hurt to have her as an ally—you know?"

"I am not going to use her like that! She was way too nice," I gaped at Bree for suggesting it. Bree rolled her eyes at that.

"God Kris, I didn't mean it like that. I meant really become friends with her. Like you said, she's really nice…it never hurts to have another genuine friend and it'll be easy for you to be yourself around her. If you let her see how great you are I know she would want you to be with her brother. And yea, it doesn't hurt that with her help you'll also be able to get to know him—find out what he's like and get chances to be around him."

"Ugh. I wouldn't know where to start, she already thinks I like her brother—that's so awkward. And this is pointless…I know nothing about him!" Well, nothing except the fact that I am undeniably infatuated the guy, I added silently in frustration.

"So, all the more reason to take her up on her offer and let her teach you how to sign or something," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and sat back smiling smugly at me.

"No, I don't want to get too emotionally invested when everything is so uncertain. If I run into her again maybe we could hang out, but I'm not going to call her up and invite her over…or ask for lessons. I really have no idea if he is even interested or if she is just meddling in his life. Maybe he always acts like this and it means nothing to him. I can't risk getting in too deep yet." I didn't look at her when I said this, picking at a little scab on my wrist. A souvenir from last week when I was still in a daze and tripped, scrapping it in the sand after he disappeared from one of our brief eye contact sessions. I still didn't look up when I was done either, instead wondering if she thought I already was and that right now I was just lying to myself. It sure felt like I was, but if Bree didn't think so then there was a chance I was still fine.

"Seriously? You don't think—just maybe…that it just might be possible…that you already are in over your head?" The way she spoke, more than the words themselves caught my attention and when I glanced at her, the look on her face said it all. I decided it was in my best interest not to respond to that.

Now I truly couldn't tell her about how I spent my morning or I'd never hear the end of it. Right now we needed a subject change so I went for the next issue I knew we needed to discuss, trying to escape the upcoming bonfire.

"About the Fourth…I'm not going. I can't. I mean it. I'm not friends with any of those people…how desperate would I look? They'll think I'm chasing after him or something! Oh! And you saw how many people were there last night…you know how much I hate that. It would kill me before the end of the night." I rushed to explain myself and defend my decision, out of breath by the end and thoroughly shocking she hadn't interrupted.

"Alright. You win," she quickly, a little too quickly, conceded. Adding with a little shake of her head, "I won't harass you about going." If I were shocked before, I was absolutely staggered now.

"Just like that?" It was too easy, there had to be a catch. Bree never gave up without a fight, so doing it now aroused my suspicions.

"Just like that," she confirmed with a single nod. "It wasn't my place to commit you like that…especially when I knew you wouldn't want to go. I thought going would help you…but I…well, it's not worth it—not if it means you're going to be mad at me."

That made me feel even worse for avoiding her earlier, so I let it go, ignoring all of the nagging doubts in my mind. Trying to suppress the thought that she was manipulating me; that she only said that last part because she knew how it would make you feel. Specifically, I pretended not to hear the little voice in my ear pointing out that she hadn't looked at me once when backing off, staring at her fidgeting hands instead.

We didn't talk about it again the rest of the night and wasted time by watching a movie with my parents after dinner. Bree stayed the night so I didn't get a chance to retrieve my newly acquired purchase.

~x~*~x~

27 June 2041

It was four days of the same dreary weather and general uninterested feeling before I managed to sneak the sign language book inside. Bree was doing one of her periodic visits home to let her grandmother know she was still alive and Beth was at Natalie's again tonight. I waited until after dinner to nervously transfer my acquisition from my car to my room, but I didn't open it right away.

At the store I had grabbed the first book I found and practically ran to the register to pay for it before escaping the store as soon as possible, afraid of being caught. Now, I climbed onto my bed and sat with my legs crossed, slightly hunched over the book resting in front of me. I contemplated it with an intensity that would make you believe the secret of life was contained within its pages. I felt irrationally paranoid to look through it, like I was doing something illegal.

With that thought in mind, I jumped up and locked my bedroom door then closed the forest green curtains in my room. It helped. Breathing was a little less difficult and I was a little calmer after that when I returned to my previous position. Hesitantly, I carefully picked up the book. It seemed to represent the bizarre bond I had with Levi—fragile. How could it be anything else? The link, our unmistakable connection, was like glass and if not handled properly, it would shatter, scattering shards that would slice me to bits and undoubtedly scar—if ever healing at all.

Gently opening the cover, I turned to a random page near the beginning and that was it. I was pretty thoroughly lost with the very first word in the upper left hand corner. They were described using pictograms of hands, which of course I expected, but there was an instruction too, one word—move. It was nearly impossible to make out precisely how the fingers were folded to shape the hand or distinguish a difference between it and the drawling next to it that also had the single word instruction of move.

I swear it was the vaguest damn thing I'd ever seen. How the hell were you supposed to move it? What the fuck? Were you just expected to know if it was side to side, up down, forward back, or maybe more of a shaking motion?

I had covertly watched him and the others signing at the beach enough recently to know that many words must look similar, so it was important to differentiate them with the specifics; specifics that didn't seem to be included in the descriptions here. Flipping through the pages showed more of the same. Fuck. I had to of bought the shittiest book out there.

I can't remember the last time I was this frustrated and angry, if ever. I'm usually pretty laid back or at least I used to be, now anything having to do with Levi sets me off.

Not knowing what to do, or possibly just not thinking clearly, I threw the book as hard as I could across the room. Along the way it bumped and knocked off the hand-blown vase of dried roses I got on my sixteenth birthday sitting on the top of my dresser. The vase smashed on impact. It was so close to what I'd been thinking earlier that staring at the splintered pieces littering my floor, all I could think about was that this was a sign I could not misinterpret.

My eyes burned and my vision blurred, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the ominous wreckage. I blinked repeatedly, but it just made the unfamiliar, painful sensation worse. I didn't look away until I felt a warm wet drop hit my hand. A level of despair I wasn't aware I was capable of feeling combined with utter confusion prevented any logical reasoning from taking place in my brain as I examined the spot on my hand. It wasn't until I saw another fall, landing on my leg that I reached up to touch my face. I felt like an idiot when my fingers came away damp and I realized I was crying. It was the first time in over six years.

Completely overwhelmed at this point, I crawled under the covers and let the emotions take over, crying myself to sleep. I actually felt better the next morning. Well enough to clean up my mess and stash the book under my bed for safe keeping before heading to work. I made sure not to think about why I didn't toss the book in the trash along with the broken glass.

~x~*~x~

3 July 2041

Things were…different after that; weird might an accurate way of describing them.

Beth was at her friend Natalie's more often than not, pissed that our parents hadn't caved yet about the dance classes. It was the longest I'd ever seen her stay mad, but then it was the first time I'd ever seen anyone hold out against her as well.

Bree had been nervous and twitchy for the last two or three days, but anytime I asked about it she just brushed it off. She hadn't gotten the job she interviewed for, but I didn't think this was related and I had no alternative explanations for what could be causing it. All I was sure of was that it made me extremely uneasy.

On top of that, the weather was complete crap. It was only nice even to visit the beach twice, but even then it was overcast and started raining about an hour after we got there.

Being suck indoors was making me restless and I was grateful it did. It was better than the apathy I had been feeling between sightings. It still happened sometimes, but since my emotional upheaval and total meltdown most of my time was spent feeling impatient or agitated.

Nothing changed where Levi was concerned. I still lived for seeing him each day, even when each day became every few days. I doubted it was possible to ever change that and was beginning to think it has always been this way; that there had never existed a time before he came into my life.

It was drizzling outside, again, and someone called in sick today so I ended up working later than usual, but was finishing up now. Sabrina had shown up about ten minutes ago claiming to be bored out of her mind. She'd never done this before, but instead of questioning it, I put her to work helping me restock the last fruit table, which held eight varieties of apples. She was driving me crazy though, adding one apple at a time and looking at the door after setting each one down. I was running scenarios of what would happen if I threw one at her when she grinned watching a girl with short, shiny black hair walk by. I realized who it was just before she called out to her.

"Hey, it's Melody right?" Her overly surprised and friendly greeting brought the lively girl to a halt in front of me. All my senses were on high alert; that was not typical Bree behavior.

"Yea…Sabrina, wasn't it?" Melody cheerfully replied, then faced me looking even more excited, "and Krista?" I nodded, but didn't say a word. My face was scarlet, I just knew it was. I sighed. This felt way too much like a set up for it not to actually be one.

"Wow, funny just happening to run into you again…how ya been," Bree asked in the strangest voice I had ever heard from her, high pitched and monotone. It sounded rehearsed and I'm sure it was.

"It's good to see you too. I was just picking up some…," she looked around then spun and grabbed an orange from behind her, holding it up like a prize or as evidence of a legitimate excuse to be here, "oranges. I heard they were great here and I had some time to kill." Melody was a better actress than Bree, much more convincing, but I had a fairly good guess what would come next.

"Time to kill? Why is that?" And there it was; Bree was right on cue. The fixed smile she was wearing was replaced with a confused expression at least that's what I think she was going for, but it seemed a bit more painful than it should. Melody must have noticed too and agreed, because she was fighting back laughter as she looked at Bree.

I had to admit, this was pretty entertaining and I had no intention of resisting the opportunity so blatantly arranged for me. By now I was desperate for anything Levi related I could get. If I couldn't see him, maybe Bree was right and I could at least learn about him from Melody instead.

"Oh, well Taylor…my boyfriend—you met him at the bonfire, decided last minute to go camping with my brother. Guys only, manly bonding shit or something, but it meant I got left behind and everyone else already had plans for the night so I'm just sort of… wandering around town." She directed this at me animatedly talking with her hands and followed it with a wistful sigh as she slumped back to prop herself against the orange table. I could almost believe her tale, if not for describing it as last minute and the obvious preparation and planning on Bree's part.

"Hey, I know…you should have dinner with us! Oh, and we're playing cards after…it'll be great," Bree jumped back in to exclaim animatedly, even clapped her hands twice. She was really hamming it up and honestly at this point I really wanted to see if they had worked out for after getting me to agree. So when Bree gave me a pleading look that I'm sure she learned from Beth, all I did was nod. I was afraid if I opened my mouth to talk I'd burst out laughing and ruin the charade.

We left then, Bree dragging me behind her to squelch any attempts to flee in case I intended to change my mind. We only stopped long enough to introduce Melody and my dad and tell him that we didn't quite finish up, but we were going to get dinner started since she was joining us. He waved us off saying not to worry about it and that he and mom would be home soon.

Bree and Melody kept up their whole "wow, imagine running into you" thing until we got to the house. I couldn't take it anymore, it was just too funny and I was curious how Bree managed to get in touch with her, but when she saw I was red from stifling laughter rather than embarrassment, she sighed saying, "oh thank god. I couldn't keep it up any longer."

"And why were you to begin with?" My curiosity was waning and I wasn't sure if I should have asked that when Levi's sister would also be listening to the answer.

"You don't really want to hear the answer to that. So why don't we do the whole—don't ask, don't tell?" I could have kissed her for saying that. When I looked at Melody she just rolled her eyes and headed towards the house.

I loved that she was so relaxed and at ease here, even going so far as to let herself in despite this being her first visit. It helped alleviate any shyness I might have felt as we followed her in to get out of the rain.

We made our way to the, luckily spacious, kitchen at the back of the house because as we soon found out—Melody is a walking disaster in one. We were making fajitas; so all that really needed to happen was cut and sauté the veggies, grill some chicken, heat up a few tortillas, and get out any extra topping ingredients we wanted. But somehow she kept knocking things over, adjusting temperatures so things weren't cooking right, and grabbing random spices to dash on the veggies without looking which she was adding.

The whole process turned out to be hilarious. Food and dishes were everywhere. It looked like a tornado had swept though. I sincerely doubted anything would be edible and I swear it was a miracle the room was still standing.

Bree was laughing so hard she had curled up in a ball sitting in the corner pressed against the cabinets with tears streaming down her face and begging us to stop, insisting she would pee her pants if we didn't.

The whole time Melody continued to adamantly vow it wasn't her fault; that Levi did all the cooking at their home and usually at Taylor's too or her Uncle Jordan was in charge so she never got the chance to learn. I wondered if she was only claiming innocence so she could tell me about Levi, but I didn't mind if that was the case so I went with it. I'm not sure I could have stopped laughing long enough to question her anyways.

A short while later my parents got there. They took everything in with a single glance before we were shooed out by my mom while she and my dad valiantly tried to save our masterpiece of a dinner.

I can't remember the last time I had that much fun cooking. The best part was just after we'd been relegated from the kitchen into the dining room and Melody looked at us seriously, gravely saying, "It could have gone worse. I'm not sure how, but there must be something else that could have gone wrong." A second later my mom's shout could be heard when she yelled—fire! Before we could react to that, my dad walked out with a raw chicken breast on his head. At our curious looks he explained in a less than pleased voice that it fell from the ceiling. Melody's straight face never waivered, but I was amused to see a faint blush grace her light coppery cheeks. We were expelled to the backyard after that.

~*~ ∞ ~*~