The life of a college student isn't always that great...sorry for the long wait! Here you go! Five reviews, please!

The water in plastic bucket fell to the floor and splashed onto my bare feet. The spill was ignored as emotions flashed through his eyes and across his face. First, surprise and hope, followed by confusion and uncertainty, and finally, anger. His face settled into a scowl as his eyes beamed down in anger at me.

"Never mind!" I laughed nervously as I dropped the rag, picked up my dirty board, "I can do it on my own…thanks anyways!" I moved around him, walking out of the makes shift garage, "Bye." I said shortly and made my way back to the beach.

I'm not even sure if he answered me or even moved after my departure. I was too freaked out by the change in the mood; it was too close to the shift in my mother's mood swings. I made it back to the beach in record time to see Emma on the shore; her lips locked on Embry's.

"DEAR GOD!" I screamed before tripping over sand as I started to run to my car. I could hear Emma gasp, "Oh!" at being caught by me. "AURORA!" She screamed after me.

"NO!" I screamed as I tossed my board in the back of my car, "You are on your own!" I screamed again as I started the car and began to drive away, trying to keep a scowl in place. The scowl was having a hard time keeping down my strengthening grin as I drove away.

I pulled into the driveway of my house as Molly greeted me from the porch, "Aurora!" She yelled. Molly was planting flowers in our front yard.

"You do realize winter is going to be coming in about a week…right?" I said slowly as I closed my car door. She shrugged and went back to planting as I pulled out my board. I walked into the front door and headed up to the bathroom. I turned on the water, letting it fill the tub before I grabbed a towel so I could finally clean my board. The two hours of being hunched over my board caused painful, throbbing, cramps in my neck and back but I was finally done. Well, the cleaning part anyway.

I stood up as my back popped with the welcome movement, "Ugh." I grunted before I moved again—the popping continued in my knees and ankles—as I walked to the garage to get the wax for my board.

I saw my mom in the kitchen cooking dinner. "Hello…" I said quietly as I passed her. She didn't seem to hear me; she just continued to stir the soup that she was making. I was being to think that her condition was getting worst. I heard Molly chatting up Dad from the living room as I opened the door and walked out to the garage.

The sun had set and I hadn't checked my phone to see if Emma needed me to pick her up, but I figured Embry would offer her a ride back home. The process of waxing my board is easy since I've done it plenty of times. I removed the fins and put a thin layer of base coat before applying the actual wax. I kept the fins off because I figured it would be too cold to go swimming or surfing since winter is fast approaching…I've been pushing my cold limit anyway, even with my dry suit on.

I stayed in the garage lying on the cool cement for a few more minutes after I had finished waxing. I heard Emma get home and from the giggling that was echoing out to me, she wasn't upset at my stunt.

I stared at the ceiling and began to think back to Jacob; why did he's emotions suddenly go from friendly to hostile with a simple look in the eyes. I didn't say anything to cause that sudden anger. Unless he was extremely repulse by my face…

I scoffed. Ridiculous, but I'll play his game…well, on my terms of course.

I could hear Emma calling for me, so I got up and called back as I made my way back to the house. "You have some nerve!" She hissed.

I grinned, "I know." She looked angry.

"Seriously! Aurora? This is one of your worst stunts yet!" She grumbled as she punched my in the shoulder.

"What?" I laughed, "The shark wasn't the worst?"

Emma's face contorted into absolute red, seething anger, "you…are…" She took a deep breath, "DEAD!" She shouted from the top of her lungs. She lunged for me but I was expecting her attack.

"Missed!" I sneered as I began to run away. I heard her heavy footsteps after me, "You aren't mad!" I laughed at her antics.

I could hear her gasping of air mixing with the choking of laughter, "You…suck" Emma gasped out as she hit the ground.

I slowed down, grinning, "You love me." I said simply before running to the house, dashing inside. Mom had left the soup to stew over a flame and Molly had left to stay in a hotel. Dad was upstairs in his room and Mom was lying across the coach, staring blankly at the screen.

"Your room?" Emma panted from behind me. I nodded and walked to my room. She began to explain about how she got knocked off of the Thruster by accident and Embry thought she was drowning.

"What!" I giggled, "What did he do?" I yawned. Emma mimicked my yawn, "He swam out and pulled me out. I had to explain to him that I just got knocked off!" She laughed, "Then mid-way through explaining, BAM!" Emma began to laugh again, her cheeks turning pink, "He kissed me!"

I grinned, "Unwelcomed or welcomed?"

She gave me a cheeky grin, "Welcomed…definitely welcomed!" We broke into laughter before it died down as we fell asleep in our dry-suits.

I woke up to a thick, dark smoke filling my room. I shot up, before crashing back into my bed, the smoking burning my nose and throat. "Emma!" I coughed as I pushed her. She didn't wake up. "Emma!" I screamed and coughed at the same time before I punched her arm. She woke up and shot up like I did, repeating the actions I did when I first woke up.

"We need to move!" I screamed and crawled onto the floor. "Why isn't the fire alarms going off?" Emma coughed next to me. "I'm not sure." I sneezed. We got to my door and I went to open it before Emma slapped my hand away.

"You are dumb!" Emma snapped and placed her hand against the door, "It's warm. That's not good. Let's go out the balcony." We crawled back and opened the balcony door. The fresh air felt cool against the burning sensation that attacked my airways. Emma and I climbed down—jumped more like it—on to the dirt below.

"Go see if your parents are awake! I'll call 911!" Emma screeched, moving away from the burning house.

I nodded and ran around into the front; I used the porch to get onto part of the roof. I balanced myself so I wouldn't slip as I walked towards my parent's window. I looked in, smoke had consumed their room, but the fire hadn't reached the room. I banged on the window and they didn't stir.

"Daddy!" I cried, "Mommy!"

Both of my parents hadn't moved. It had to be the toxic gas. I took a deep breathe before punching with my scarred right hand. It didn't break. I tried three more times before the window completely shattered. My knuckles were bruised and bloody while new stinging cuts made their way around my scarred arm.

"DAD!" I screamed as I jumped into his room as the faint sound of sirens filled my ears. "Daddy, wake up!" I shook him for a moment then moved to my mom, who woke almost instantly at my touch.

She looked confused, "What's going on?" She coughed, as she inhaled the noxious smoke. "Fire…" I cried and pulled her out of the bed and over to the window, "Go!" I screamed, chocking on the smoke. Flashing lights filled my eyesight, "The fire department will get you!" Surprisingly, my mom listened to me and climbed out on to the roof and waited to be rescued.

I turned to my dad who was lying unresponsive. "Dad!" I screamed, "Wake up!" I cried as I began to pull him out of the bed, "You—" I choked again, "need fresh air!" If he heard me, he made no noise. I dragged his weight over to the window, "Come on!" I begged. At this moment, I was thankful for my mother taking her medications.

I lifted his body over the window, causing his back to be cut by the broken glass. Two sets of arms pulled my dad completely out. The firemen had got him just in time. I climbed out of the window and watched as the men lowered my dad to the ground. I tried to ignore the burning that was in my throat and dizziness that was coming from the unrelenting smoke. One of the firemen attempted to help me but I shook my head and climbed—practically slipping—on the way down.

"Aurora!" Voices called me as someone dragged me away from the burning house. The fire was put out quickly and that is when I realized the audience I had. Emma was now ignoring Embry to make sure I wasn't dying. Practically the whole Quileute tribe was at my scorched house. Of course, everyone that wasn't authorized personnel were placed behind a roped off area.

I wasn't sure if they were here to make sure we were all right or if they wanted a show. "Ma'am?" A man in a blue uniform, clearly a paramedic, "We need to take you to the hospital…are you bleeding?"

I stared at him before looking at my arm and for the most part my arm was fine. Dried blood glued to the new cuts. "No." I coughed, before looked at the smoking that rising from my house.

"Ma'am…we need to have you tested for smoke inhalation…" The paramedic tried to reason with me.

"No!" I choked out that was meant to be a shout.

"Ma'am…"

"I don't want to be helped!" I snarled toward the paramedic. I knew eventually I would get up and make my way to the hospital but not now. "Aurora?" Emma whispered to me, rubbing my back, "You need to go to the hospital…"

I choked back a sob, "I don't care! I don't want to see her!" I brought my knees up to my chest, "How could she do this!" I shouted. "Aurora…I'm sure she didn't mean it…" Emma tried to calm me as my body shook with sobs, "And why are they here?" I snapped.

"Charlie, you remember him, right? Well he was at one of their houses and word got out that it was your house and Embry knew I was here so he came and since he came his friends came…" Emma said slowly.

I stopped sobbing and wiped the tears away, my face going blank. I had to have control of my emotions now. My sister was going to start panicking the moment she finds out about this and I had to be the one to make sure everything gets done while she fusses over my parents. "I need to go to the hospital." I said blankly. Emma nodded and stood up to help me. All of the ambulances had left and slowly the police and fire departments were gone leaving the Quileute's and Charlie.

"Are two all right?" Charlie asked. Emma's story rang true mainly because Charlie wasn't in his uniform. "Yeah, I think so…" Emma said softly. Quickly the Quileute's were asking if we were all right.

Charlie, noticing I wasn't speaking, "Aurora…" I moved my head to show him I was listening, "Are you okay?" He asked slowly. Everyone went quiet to such a simple question. Emma grabbed my arm, knowing my mood was breaking.

"I'm always okay." I snapped hoarsely before ripping my arm from Emma's arm.

"Aurora?" I recognized the voice. It was Seth. He sounded extremely nervous.

"Mm?" I coughed. Seth moved closer towards before, "Can I hug you?" He asked quietly.

My face crunched up and looked at him. I wasn't expecting that…was I being that unfriendly? "Of course." Immediately Seth was hugging me in a tight, warm bear hug. The impact of being squeezed into a hug caused me to break out into a fit of coughing. "I'm sorry!" Seth panicked and loosens his grip.

"Seth." A strong voice made Seth move away, but only slightly, "She needs to go to the hospital."

Seth nodded, "Yes, Sam." Seth said sadly. My coughing wouldn't stop as the man named Sam began to walk away. "We are taking you to the hospital in Forks…" Seth whispered to me. That is when I noticed him through my fit of coughing. Jacob was standing next to a Volkswagen car.

I stopped and stared at him. I wasn't glaring at him but I was staring at him in a very strange manner. Jacob looked at me for a split second before looking away like he was in pain.

"Jake is taking you to the hospital." Seth said leading me over to the passenger door of the red Volkswagen. "You are coming with me…right?" I asked Seth in almost a panic. "Yeah!" Seth said cheerfully as he opened the front door of the car letting Embry and Emma crawl into the back seat of the tiny vehicle. Seth climbed in after them and locked the passenger seat in place then singled me to sit in front.

The drive to the hospital was filled with a silence that was only broken when I broken out into a fit of hoarse coughing and wheezing. "Aurora, are you okay?" Emma asked breaking the painful silence. I nodded as I choked back a cough because the movement of the car was causing my stomach to be upset.

"Peachy…" I choked, "Just thought I might donate a lung. Might be a tad black though." I bit sarcastically. Embry and Seth began to guffaw at my attempted act of humor. Emma sighed and slapped the arms of the two boys.

We arrived at Forks Community Hospital ten minutes later. "Em?" I called to my best friend as she climbed out of the car.

"What?"

"What?"

Both Emma and Embry answered. Their facial expression changed from shock to embarrassment as they looked at each other and laughed. A rumble of laughter went to escape my throat but it changed at the last minute to a terrible choking cough.

"Aurora! Hospital! Now!" Emma cut her own laughter short and began to push me towards the opening of the hospital. Everything began to blur after then. I manage to tell Emma to call my sister but it was pointless. The moment we entered the hospital, we were both admitted in as possible smoke inhalation victims. Unlucky for me, but what was expected, I had a mild case of smoke inhalation. The nurses' put an oxygen mask over my face that was pumping humidified oxygen through my airways while Emma was off scotch free. Emma walked in with no case of smoke inhalation while the three boys followed in suit behind her. I was confined to a hospital bed.

"I take it you have smoke inhalation then?" Emma said somberly. I nodded grimly, "Did you ever get a chance to call Molly?" I asked quietly.

Emma shook her head; "I've called her but no answer on her phone or even through the motel's phone." Emma tossed me her phone. "I'm going to check in on the parents." She walked out the door and out of my sight leaving me with Embry, Seth, and Jacob.

Embry dashed out right after her a moment later.

"Aurora…" Seth whined as he sat on my bed. I pulled my legs in closer so he would have room to spread out on the bed, "Are you going to be okay?" I sneezed before giving him a look, "Stop being whiney. I'll be fine." I shrugged.

"Are you always so problematic?" Jacob suddenly snapped in. Seth's head jerked to look at him, shocked that he even spoke. I glared at the bitterness in Jacob's voice, "No." I said roughly.

Another awkward silence filled the room, "Rora! I can help fix your house!" Seth piped up, "I can't really build but I can help carry anything that aren't useable out!" Seth was so pure in his nature. It was obvious all he wanted to do was to help those in need. He had a smile that could melt anyone's walls and the smile was so contagious it was worst then a flu outbreak.

"If you want too. I was just going to hire people to help get rid of it and hire others to install new floors and walls and such." I coughed. The humidified air helped the burnt inside of the throat and nose but it didn't completely take away the coughing or wheezing.

"Hello Miss Evans!" A tall, pale, blonde hair doctor walked into my room, "Oh. Seth, Jacob. I wasn't expecting to see you…" Seth stood up to greet the doctor, "Hey Dr. Cullen!" Seth said cheerfully. Dr. Cullen was barely taller then Seth, by at least two inches. He had dark circles under his eyes that made it look like he didn't sleep well at night. His pale skin was almost unhealthy looking. Ironically, Dr. Cullen was handsome.

Dr. Cullen looked at Jacob, "Hello Jacob." He greeted him. Jacob stared at him before scowling and looking away. Dr. Cullen did not seem offended. "Miss Evans. You have a mild smoke inhalation, which we are going to treat with some antibiotics and steroids. Do you happen to be allergic to any types of antibiotics?" He asked kindly.

"I'm allergic to penicillin and amoxicillin. I'm also allergic to any type of sulfa medication." I said hoarsely. Dr. Cullen smiled, "Trying to stop the healing process, are we?" He joked, "Let me see what we can prescribe to you for antibiotics." He turned to leave the room.

"What was that suppose to mean?" Jacob snapped bitterly.

"Jake. Stop." Seth glared at him. "If you are talking about the joke he made, it is because penicillin is the leading antibiotic to stop infections from growing followed by sulfas. I'm allergic to both. Meaning when I get sick it takes a tad bit longer to figure out what I should take." I said bluntly glaring at Jacob.

Jacob scoffed, "What if it can be only treated by one of those?" He snarled quietly.

"Then I die." I snapped.

"I didn't mean to—" Jacob started to say something.

"No, really. I would. There is one type of illness that if I got it, I would die because it is only abled to be cured with penicillin." I said harshly. Jacob sighed and wouldn't look at me after that. He didn't bother to leave the room, either.

"Aurora…" Seth called me to distract me, "How was life in California?" I grinned through the mask that covered my nose and mouth. "I miss it a lot to be honest. Everything is so strange here and I'm not sure if I like it." I answered honestly.

Seth looked puzzled, "What don't you like?" I couldn't help but laugh, "Well ignoring the obvious weather differences, I don't like this closeness of community."

"What?" Seth looked at me like I grew two heads; "Everyone is there for each other…how could you not like that?" I looked up at him sadly. "It's all you ever known, isn't it?" I asked. He nodded. "Well—see—back home, no one does that. We don't look out for each other. It is like we are all on the same plant but in different a different world." I tried to explain.

"But…" Seth looked down trying to think about what I had said, "That's weird for me. The pa—tribe has always been there for me. I can't remember a time when I wasn't alone." He paused to look at me, "How could you not want that?"

"It's hard to understand…" I mumbled, "I wasn't raised that way. I was raised that everyone is out for himself or herself and to leave before left. Does that make sense?" I paused to think of an example, "Have you ever met someone that seemed really nice or amazing…that you would want to do almost anything for?" I asked.

Seth looked baffled, "Not yet…"

"I don't mean just relationships, Seth…I mean family too." I pushed.

"I guess. I mean that pa—the whole tribe is our family…"

"And you would do anything for them, correct?" I whispered.

"Yeah!"

"My family isn't like that. We just look like that." I saw the shock in Seth's eyes. "I think…I understand…" He mumbled out, "Well…" He hesitated, looking nervously at Jacob, "You know…you are like family…to me. You can come to me for anything."

I could feel the heat rise up to my cheeks and my heart began to race.

"Seth!" Jacob roared and launched himself up from the chair he had sat in, across the room towards Seth, tackling him to the ground.

I let out a shriek, as I watched the two over-sized men—no, boys—wrestle each other on the ground below me, "Stop!" I shrieked again but neither of them listens to me. "Jacob! You get off of him right now!" I kicked the blankets off of me and threw myself on to his back, feeling the oxygen mask snap off. "Stop now!" I clawed at his face, "You stupid, idiotic fool!"

Embry came rushing in out of nowhere with the ability to pull Jacob off of Seth. Embry pushed him into the corner of the room as the nurses came in to see what caused me to scream. They forced me back into my bed, placed my mask back on before glancing over Seth.

Embry still had Jacob pushed into a corner as the nurses glared at them before walking out. "Seth?" I reached out to him, "Are you okay?" Seth nodded and frowned over at Jacob who was an abnormally tint of red and literally vibrating with anger. "Jacob…" He mumbled out, "I wasn't…"

Jacob snarled something in another language, which I would assume was the Quileute's own native language. Seth looked back at me sadly, "I've got to go. I'll see you later…" Seth walked away, ignoring my protest against his departure.

Embry let Jacob ago, mumbling something about temper.

"Go away!" I screamed at Jacob, who looked at me with large, chocolate-brown, sad eyes. "Get out, I don't want to see you!" I screamed again. Jacob obeyed and stormed out of the room.

Embry looked at me for a moment, "Can you get Emma?" I asked him with an irritated voice. "She was getting your sister from the front…" He said plainly, "hey, look…" Embry hesitated for a moment, "Jake…he isn't normally like that…"

I stared at him, "You mean angry? You mean he isn't normally angry?" I said harshly. Embry nodded in agreement, "Yeah, he isn't angry all the time…it's just…" He sighed, "He's just having a hard time with…a lot of things."

I gave Embry a perplexed looked, "You know, normally, I would give a sarcastic remark about how he is having a hard time with things and I'm currently stuck in a hospital bed…but I won't." I sighed. Embry gave a sad chuckle, "Your sister is here…I think…" Moments after the words were spoken my sister came running in, full force, "Where is Mom!" Molly wailed.

"Yes, sister, I'm okay." I said bitterly, "I'm not sure where the parents are." I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

She gave me a sad smile before leaving me alone with Embry once more.

Okay, I know some of you are perplexed about Aurora's family life right now, but some of it will be explained in the next chapter!

Five reviews, please!

Happy Readings!