Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga, or any of its original characters.

6: Double Trouble

It was only two days before Thanksgivings and I was engrossed in the latest series of House when Mom announced that we were going to be spending the holiday with some old friends of hers. Dad and I, to say the least, were apprehensive.

"Isn't it a little late to plan a dinner party now, Valerie?" Dad asked carefully, trying his best not to wake the dragon that was once his college sweetheart.

Mom waved this comment off lightly and said, "The Casey's invited us over to their lake house! Besides, I haven't seen Lorraine and Julian since I was in high school! It'll be great to catch up, don't you think?"

I glanced between them and then back at the TV, hoping not to get dragged into the discussion.

"I've never even heard you mention them before," Dad stated, pushing the rim of his glasses up a little. "Besides, it would be unfair on Penny to have to sit there while we... socialize."

Under different circumstances, I would've laughed at my father's uneasy use of the word. But it was almost as if that jerk had read my mind and decided, Hey? Let's drag Penny in anyway because it will probably be funny and draw attention away from my lacking social skills!

I obviously glared at him as Mom began babbling again.

"Oh, Penny will have a whale of a time with their kids!" I groaned inwardly as Mom turned to me and said, "I think their oldest, Charlie, is around your age! I'm sure you'll both have a lot in common."

I reluctantly muted the television. "I'm not sitting at the kid's table, Mom. It's not like I'm eleven still."

"I don't even see why we have to go," Dad added.

"Mom, we've never even met the Casey family before,"

She cleared her throat and closed the book she'd been reading. The first thought that came to mind was Shit because these two relatively innocent actions told us that Valerie Lambert meant business. "I'm sick of us not acting like an actual family! It's Thanksgiving for God's sakes! We're going, and that's final."

Her words stung but I, at least, knew that Mom was right. This was our first Thanksgiving since Adam passed way and there would be many more to come, so why get into the habit of sulking around the house whenever a holiday arose? But still, I couldn't help but miss him even more at that moment because, in all honesty, a large part of me actually wanted to spend Thanksgiving sulking around the house.

Heck, who would've ever thought I could be such an Emo?

Suddenly the couch pillow beneath me began to vibrate, and I practically hit the ceiling.

Mom shot me a look that seemed to say Really, you're living in the twenty-first century and you still can't work out when your cell phone is ringing? Honestly! What kind of daughter did I raise?

Running for my bedroom, I clicked the answer button without checking the caller ID. It was sort of habitual.

"It's started to snow," Seth told me straight away and I paused on the staircase to glance down through the window panels of our front door. He was right, and the sight of a fresh blanket of white covering our front yard was enough to make my breath catch.

Having lived on the border of Mexico since birth, I had never actually seen snow aside from on sitcoms and posters.

I was startled, and a little in awe. "It never snowed in Southern California. Whoa."

"Whoa, indeed," Seth replied.

Since the incident in my kitchen last week, we had been on reasonably good terms again - although it's not like you would've caught me telling my friends that he and I were dating. Which, in case you were wondering, we technically weren't... yet.

"How would you feel about going bowling with me?" Seth continued as I shut my bedroom door behind me.

"I've never actually been bowling before,"

I could almost hear that boyish grin of his through the receiver of my cell phone. "That settles it then, Penny. You, me and Sunset Lanes. Is tomorrow good for you?"

"I usually hang out with Kate on Sundays. It's the only day that she doesn't work," I told him.

Seth considered this for a moment and said, "She could tag along, you know? I have a friend that just might like some female company."

"Like a double date?" I said slowly. I had no idea if Kate would even go for it, considering that she was the type of girl that seemed to prefer boys as eye candy rather than arm candy. In fact, when I thought about it I had only ever heard her talk about ex-boyfriends.

"Precisely," Seth replied. "We'll meet you there at noon!"

And with that he said goodbye and hung up, claiming he had some stuff to do before work. It only occurred to me then that I had no idea what Seth even worked as and I made a mental note to find out during our... during our double date.

Oh, God. Kate was going to kill me with her perfectly-manicured bare hands and my blood was going to be splattered all over the pretty snow.

I went over to my laptop and left her a vague Facebook message, informing Kate of our upcoming bowling session. She replied almost immediately, despite the fact that she registered as offline, and it was fair to say that the lettering of her response was completely in capitals and consisted of many swear words.

Yep. I was definitely going to die before I'd even have to face a Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of absolute strangers. Which, in some ways, wasn't necessarily terrible.

At around twelve-thirty the next day Kate pulled up into the parking lot outside a parade of outlet stores, a Chinese takeout and, of course, a seedy-looking arcade called Sunset Lanes. The paint had long since peeled on the outside of the building and as the snow continued to fall, it made the place look almost entirely abandoned. But then I spotted the two extremely tall Native American guys standing right by the front doors.

Admittedly, my heart still kind of skipped a beat at the sight of Seth Clearwater.

"I can't believe you're actually putting me through this," Kate said through gritted teeth.

"Don't be a drama queen," I told her, and flung open the passenger door of her old and rusting Mustang.

Kate snorted as we got out. "You're one to talk, Penny."

The snow was horrific under foot and took me a few tries to achieve any real balance. Kate murmured to me to watch out for black ice (whatever that was) so I attempted to take my time and not seem like a complete retard. As we made our way across the parking lot, I could only imagine the devastatingly sexy effect that my slow and staggering walk emitted.

"Hey there," Seth said, his face erupting into a large grin as we finally met them at the entrance of the bowling alley. "What took you guys so long?"

"You should have gathered by now that I'm not the best when it comes to time keeping," I told him.

Seth laughed and I laughed and for a moment I actually forgot that Kate was with me. Then she cleared her throat and I gestured for Seth to introduce his friend to her, who had been leaning against the dirty exterior of Sunset Lanes with a smirk on his face until now.

"Oh, right," Seth began and, taking Kate by the arm, marched her over to his companion. "Kate McMillan, this is my best friend and you're wonderful date for today: the one and only Brady Fuller!"

Brady tipped his head towards her and said, "I'm totes amped to meet you, Miss McMillan."

Instead of responding to his very cute but cryptic greeting, Kate simply turned back to me and pulled a face. I mouthed a quick Be nice to her and made my way inside the cinder block building because the snow was starting to get heavier.

Seth followed me almost immediately, with a bemused Brady at his heels and his "date" a little further behind.

"You've really never been bowling?" Seth asked as we made our way up to the counter.

"There's a lot more to do in San Diego than there is around here," I replied.

"Well," he continued. "At least my victory on the lanes seems imminent now."

Like the childish dork I was, I stuck my tongue out at Seth and insisted on paying for myself this time. After the manager passed me a small pair of sweaty bowling shoes, I followed a still smirking Brady to the lane that Seth had reserved last night for the four of us.

"So," he started conversationally. "You're the killer beach bunny that the Little Kahuna hasn't stopped yapping about."

I gathered from the tone of his voice that it was a statement rather than a question; however I still ended up biting down on my lip because I wasn't exactly fluent in whatever language he was talking. What was it with these guys? "What did... I don't... It's nice to meet you, too, Brady."

Brady automatically laughed and lazily slung an arm around my shoulder as a hidden machine began to set up our pins. "You've really got him cooking on cloud nine, brah! It's totally nectar, so mahalo."

"Don't tease her with your surfer lingo," Seth stated, slapping Brady upside the head as he came to face us. He turned to me and said, "The manager's finding a beginner's ramp for you, Penny - just so you can believe that you have a chance of beating me."

"Have I ever told you that you're kinda cocky?" I questioned, and glared at him.

"Dude, where's the stellar nugget you allocated me wandered off to?" Brady asked.

I looked around the arcade and quickly realized that Kate was still trying to make the transfer between her boots and the bowling shoes. Smacking myself mentally, I offered the boys a sheepish smile and jogged over to meet her.

"He's a nice guy-" I began but Kate instantly cut me off.

"I can't believe you set me up with one of those Cliff Clones, Penny!" She hissed at me as she pretended to fiddle with the Velcro strap.

"Actually," I began timidly, "I think Brady's a surfer, which doesn't really have anything to with cliffs-"

Kate made a noise of disgust and said, "I can't understand a freaking word he's saying!"

"Neither can I," I admitted.

"These shoes are positively disgusting, by the way,"

"Stop being a buzz kill," I told her as she finally managed to fix the strap. I took Kate by the hand and dragged her over to our lane, eager to find out how bowling actually worked. And to at least try to bring Seth down off of his high horse.

Once Brady had logged our initials into an interactive scoreboard and provisional snacks were ordered, Seth set up the ramp for me and I quickly realized that I was terrible at bowling. Like the type of terrible that deserves to sit by the sidelines while her companions play because she's just that bad.

So, for the most part, that's what I did.

In between Brady's constant attempts at awkwardly flirting with Kate, who was completely uninterested for some reason, and my feeble attempts at trying to get a score that consisted of more than one digit, Seth ended up with his arm slung around my shoulder.

"Brady's so cute when he tries to make friends," he murmured, gripping me slightly closer.

I tried in vain not to smile. "How long have you two known each other then?"

Seth thought about this for a minute and said, "Since before I can remember. His family lives down the street from me but we weren't particularly close till he started ninth grade. He was always that kid who did stuff, but never hung around with others kid who did the same kinda stuff, you know?"

"So where did he pick up the crazy lingo then?"

"Well, he met a group of surfers down in Ocean Shores a couple of years ago and they suckered him into it,"

I tried to inconspicuously snuggle as close to Seth as I could before it was my turn again. Jeez, I was weak when it came to good looking specimens of the male species. I said, "And are you a surfer?"

"No," Seth said matter-of-factly, as if the very idea of him riding one of those big blue waves that you see in the movies were preposterous and completely deserving of ridicule. "I'm a real athlete,"

This also seemed sort of preposterous.

"No, really," he continued as I tried not to laugh at the indignant expression on his face. "I turned down a baseball scholarship when I was seventeen."

"Why on earth did you do that?"

Seth shrugged as Kate's pins were cleared away once she'd scored a Split. "My sister had just moved to Seattle for a photography internship, and I didn't want to leave my mom on her own."

I couldn't believe that he'd turned down college to stay in a place like Clallam County; however I suppose not everyone likes the idea of higher education. Besides, it was kind of cute that he cared about his family that much.

"It's nice that your close to your family like that. What about your dad though?"

Seth looked away. "My dad passed away about five years ago."

I felt a pang in my chest and with a deep breath I took his hand in mine, "My brother was killed a few months ago."

Our eyes met and understanding seemed to flood between us, and I didn't want to ever look away from him.

"It's your go," Kate said, shooting me a death glare as she came to sit back down that pulled Seth and I apart.

Brady beamed at her from across the seating area. "That was totes gnarly, wahine!"

Kate turned away from him, uninterested. I glowered, trying to get her to make eye contact so that I could offer some sort of reprimanding look, and then suddenly Kate's face paled. I followed the line of her gaze as I got up to retrieve up the ball I'd been using for the past forty minutes.

That's when I saw Carmen Arana, walking in with Megan and another popular girl from school that I'd never had the privilege to have been introduced to. The loud click-clack of their expensive heels on the polished floor was almost too loud to bear.

"So do you want me to show you how to get a real score?" I heard Seth murmur right by my ear.

I was paying more attention to the fact that our friends from school had turned up at Sunset Lanes than what Seth was doing, and when I felt his arm snake round my waist as well as his warm breath in my ear, I practically jumped out of my own skin.

The bowling ball landed with an obnoxious thud on my left foot, and a string of swear words found their way out of my mouth in less than a second flat.

"Penny!" Seth exclaimed, trying to help me regain my balance. "Shit. I am so sor-"

"Bummer," Brady laughed as I involuntarily found myself slapping Seth again.

My big toe was pretty much screaming out at me in pain as he helped me back over to the seats, ignoring my cursing and the red mark that had appear across his cheek. At least this time it as better than my blood.

"Why do you feel the need to slap me every time you hurt yourself?" Seth asked.

Brady, being as unhelpful as ever, was still laughing. He said, "Your beach bunny's a biter, dude. It's totes kinky."

It's fair to say that we both shot him a look that said I'm going to kill you when you least expect it. But by this time, of course, Carmen had spotted our little congregation and was heading towards us.

Glancing over at Kate, I saw that she looked less fazed by the trio's arrival than beforehand and I couldn't help but wonder what on earth had been wrong before. Carmen and Kate were friends, so why the hell had she looked genuinely scared to see her at first? Kate didn't do scared.

"Well," said an icy yet familiar voice. "Isn't this the cutest thing!"

A/N: Yeah... sorry for the long interval between updates. I've been meaning to get around to this for a while but I have been really busy recently. Anyway, please enjoy and review, etc... I will try to get the next chapter up before the end of this month! So tell me guys, how much do you love Brady?