Chapter 2 Same Shit, Different Day

"I'm going to die of a heart attack."

My loud breathing was the only noise in the stockroom. I hated stocking days. Seriously. I loathed it. Nothing was more evil on this Earth than a stocking day at your job.

My day at work was so boring; I almost wished I had been late this morning. Being fired would surely be better than this monotony. I was ready to forget every nice though I had this morning about my job. Had I really thought it was a great job?

Keeping my grip on the last three boxes I made my way to the front of the store.

"Ooohh, Corinne. You're working so hard today. Thank you, dear."

And just like that I knew exactly why I kept this job when I loathed it. Mrs. Newton was so nice and she actually seemed to like me. Every Christmas and birthday she always had a present and dinner for me. It was very sweet of the older lady.

One time, my old arch enemy Lexi had come strolling into the shop with her double twit twin, Leanna.

"Hey Corinne." I had smiled shyly, still naïve to the evilness of sophomore girls.

"H-Hi." I couldn't believe they were talking to me.

We had gone to the same elementary, junior, and now high school and not once had they made an attempt to be friendly. They were everything I couldn't even dream to be: skinny, well-dressed, popular, and beautiful.

"So you work here, huh? You're like, the same age as us, why do you even have a job?"

Lexi wasn't really looking at me, but focusing on Mrs. Newton's son, Mike who was down the same aisle. Even with half her interest focused on me I wasn't sure I liked her tone. It was…misleading. Like a medicine bottle proclaiming it tasted like strawberry when it tasted like shit.

"Well, I'm saving up money for school and a vehicle. Stuff like that you know…"

I also wanted out of the house. Lately, my brother was driving me insane. He was sneaking out and getting angry for ridiculous reasons. The other night my father had even made me leave the house because Fletcher wouldn't calm down. I really wasn't the sit in the dark terrified type, but sitting in the woods at ten o'clock at night was enough to make me jump at every snapping branch. And it seemed like every wolf in the reserve was howling that night. But I couldn't tell people from my school this type of stuff.

"So we were thinking that we haven't hung out together in awhile. What are you doing Saturday?"

So when had we actually hung out?

"Um…yeah, I'm not actually doing anything this Saturday." My mind began to focus on stupid girl details like my horrendous hair and lack of cute clothes. Damn them for only having double zeroes on the sales rack!

"You should totally go with us to Jackson's party this weekend, everyone's coming. There's going to be guys and beer. It's going to be fun."

Oh crap…it's one thing to hang out with them, but go to a party? With alcohol? I had never even been out on a date with a guy, how was I supposed to act at a party with alcohol?

"Oh, wait…you know I can't go this weekend." Leanna's high pitched voice cut through my inner ramblings.

"Oh that's right! We have that stupid midterm project due on Monday - she turned to look at me during this part – post feminist icons and their effects on society today."

Bitches. Maybe I was nerd and I wanted friends, but I would slit my throat before I would stoop so low as to do their own homework just to go to a stupid party and get drunk.

"Yeah…sucks for you. Actually I just remembered I do have something to do this weekend." I'm pretty sure they read the 'fuck you' expression that was probably written all over my face.

Looking at me sharply Lexi just shrugged her should and began to walk off.

"No one wanted you there anyway, freak." Have I said Bitches already?

Leanna's irritating giggle made me want to throw the nearest tackle box at her pointed head.

"Yeah, why would we want to be seen there with you anyway freak."

"Yeah, I'm really going to miss hanging out with you and your double twit twin. But I guess I'll just have to get over it."

'Yeah, maybe I should have just let them walk off.' They had turned around and were making their way back to me, probably hoping to kick my puppy and make it cry, not that I had a puppy.

"Hellooo girls. How are you finding everything in my store today? I see you are acquainted with Corinne, one of my best employees, almost like a daughter to me. So tell me Lexi how is mother doing with her little 'slipup'?"

Amazing, usually such a pleasant woman, Mrs. Newton had just referred to Mrs. Anderson's fall off the wagon. I almost felt bad for Lexi until I thought about how much of a bitch she was going to be at school.

I just stood there with Mrs. Newton and wondered if I was really like a daughter to her.

Snapping myself out of the trip down memory lane I started to haul ass to get the rest of the stocking done because I hated Mrs. Newton trying to do it herself.

A few hours later I had lost myself in the monotony of stocking, once again, and thought about how life in a small town never changed.

It was always the same thing, every day. I would wake up, go to work, come home and cook dinner. During dinner I would listen to my father ask Fletcher how his day went, I would wait for him to ask me about mine, then when it was apparent that he wouldn't, I cleared the table, and went to my room.

Like clockwork, Mrs. Newton popped her head over to the aisle I was on,

"Great job today, Corinne. You can head out now."

Not able to keep the relieved expression off my face I went to my locker in the back and rushed getting my stuff together. My brother would pick me up in a few minutes and I really didn't want to miss getting a ride home. As I had said…me and physical activity weren't the best of friends. In my defense I was so clumsy it was a miracle Embry wasn't in debt to the hospital.

Walking outside, I hustled over to "Vera" and swung myself up into the trash filled truck. If this was how he treated something precious then I shuddered at picturing his room. Thankfully, I didn't clean his room anymore. When I had began working at the Newtons I had put my foot down that I couldn't clean his room, cook and clean the rest of the house, and work a part time job while going to school.

"Hey."

The silence was always so unnerving to me. God, I hated being in a vehicle when there was nothing to say. I cannot stand how quiet my family seems to be. I couldn't be the only one with something to say? Did they really just sit there and not have anything to say?

"Why do you have shit all in your hair?" At my confused expression Fletcher began laughing .

"Oh please don't tell me you worked like that all day today. Wow…smooth job."

Flipping down the visor mirror I could only look on with horror. I had dust from those stupid boxes all in my hair. I had been in and out of the back all freaking day and no one had said a single world. I looked like an old Indian woman who couldn't lay off the sweets.

"Whatever." Brilliant reply, I snarked at myself.

With nothing more to say to each other, he turned the radio up.

We came home and I finished the pot roast I had started this morning. Embry came in from the auto garage that he and Seth Clearwater, one of his best friends, owned and began washing up for dinner. My father's mildly curious look at my grey hair had me charging upstairs for a quick shower.

As I watched him smile at Fletcher, I felt the nausea that had been plaguing me for days come boiling up again. Setting my teeth against the heat and bile, I served up our dinner plates.

'Fuck this…It wouldn't kill him to talk to me for once.' I was ready to explode.

Fletcher was looking at me carefully, but started to eat his dinner.

"So…Fletcher, how'd your day go?" Fletcher leaned forward to answer our father, but I couldn't stop the words from tumbling from my mouth.

"Dad…you know what I did today?"

God, I was trying to talk to my father and instead I sounded like a ten year old trying to brag to their parents.

The looks on my father and brother's faces is what did it. Their looks of confusion and bafflement made my already tenuous grip on the nausea boiling inside of me explode. I couldn't hear the growls and screams falling from my lips, I was only focused on the heat. It was unbearable. The pain made me blackout, but I was still conscious. I just couldn't control my actions. I was out the door and into the woods, running. I was running from my stupid father, my golden child brother, and…my emotionally retarded self.

The pain and heat came to a boil and I fell to the ground in a sweaty heap.

'What the hell was wrong with me? Had I eaten something bad?'

My vision was blurring and that's when I thought I had to be dreaming. I looked down at myself but I wasn't me anymore. There was hair and paws and I looked like a giant wolf/dog and there was whisperings…

"Oh shit!"

"Who is that? I bet it's Sam and Emily's youngest…"

"Nah, my money is on Quill and Claire's kid…"

'Where the fuck is these guys?' I could hear voices but no one was around. They even sounded familiar…

'Holy SHIT! That's Corinne…Embry's daughter.'

My dad's friend Seth seemed to yell this out loud and was immediately followed by exclamations and then it was like my vision multiplied. I was seeing everywhere. I knew that I was behind my house on the rez, but suddenly I could see behind Forks, and up in the mountains, I was by the ocean, and on the other side of the rez.

'What the hell is wrong with me?'

As if I didn't have enough wrong with me, now I was clearly going psychotic. Something else for my father to ignore and secretly despise.

Suddenly, all of the voices went silent. And that's when I realized I could see other wolf dog things around me, a giant grey one stepped forward towards me.

'Corinne, I need you to calm down. You're not crazy, there are more of us. Look around, you know what we are. Just focus on your breathing right now. 'My father's voice speaking my name for the first time in a long time made me want to cry.

And that's when I realized everyone could hear what I was thinking because I could hear what they were thinking.

I knew that my dad's friend Seth Clearwater wished he could be at home with his wife Chelsea. I knew that Quill was on the other side of the reservation making tracks to be here. I knew that Sam Uley was the one beside the ocean, thinking of Emily. I knew Brady was waiting impatiently to change and go home because he was too tired for this shit. And my brother was here too!

I could hear how he felt a bit embarrassed for me. He knew I was already weird enough – that made me inwardly cringe – and this was the last thing in the world I needed. But it was my father's thoughts that made me want to curl up and die. It was the way I knew now, how he really saw me.

He didn't despise me. He pitied me. I wasn't beautiful or graceful. I read books all the time. I had hardly any friends. He saw me getting out of school and not talking to anyone. I saw myself singing along with the radio while cooking dinner, so off tune I flinched to hear myself. He thought everyone else thought I was a loser.

And I reminded him so much of my mother he literally was in pain every time he looked at me. I didn't have her beauty or grace, but I did look like her. The same off center smile, straight hair, and upturned nose, but more than that I saw the personal characteristics. And it killed him to think of my mother and not be able to talk to her, to touch her, kiss her…

But my own father thought I was a loser…

Oh god. Oh God. Shit.

' What do I say to that?'

Um…no I'm not a loser. But I am. Who else still knows the lyrics to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's theme song? Who else would rather read a book than watch a movie? Who else was part Mexican but couldn't handle spicy food. Who else went to their prom alone and never danced. And now I was even more of a freak.

I could feel the guy's unease at hearing my thoughts, even if they secretly agreed with me. I was a freak and loser. Even among freaks I was a freak. There was only one other female – Leah Clearwater! – and she was a bad ass wolf. She could run fast as hell and fight just as good. I looked like an overweight Pomeranian compared to her. The pack's memories and thoughts only re-enforced my thoughts.

'Corinne, I…don't think you're a loser.' My father couldn't help but think of me sitting in the house in sweats and a t-shirt reading a book on a Friday night.

That's it! Fuck him if he thought of me that way. I didn't need him. I didn't hand around all day begging for his attention – I could feel my father wince at this – and I never bothered him about other shit. I did my chores and stayed out of his hair. And as soon as I woke up from this fucked up nightmare and went to the hospital for food poisoning…I was leaving.

The pack's thoughts ranged from humor to disapproval at my childish thoughts about my – their – Alpha.

Alpha?! Embry Call was the Alpha of the reservation wolf pack?

More thoughts were flowing into my head, but I couldn't filter them. It was too much now. I had just turned and I hadn't learned to filter my thoughts from the packs.

'My father was the alpha…of the…wolf pack. ' I was going spotty. For the first time in my life I was going to pass out. My last thought was if this wasn't a dream, then I hoped everyone could hear my wish them to take a flying leap off the nearest building….the laughter turned black and I fell into strong arms.

A/N Sorry if I'm making Embry too much of an asshole. Basically right now, Corinne is taking in a ton of information that she can't really filter. Also, Embry is the alpha. Sam is stepping down as beta to stop phasing for Emily. Jake is the alpha of the other wolf pack. Him and Nessie (as well as the other Cullen's) are in Europe but will be heading back soon. As usual read and review. More reviews equals faster chapters!