AN: Its Nessie and Jacob! Sorta... Writing this chapter has me missing Seattle so much! Gosh, it was fun. And yes, the bathrooms in the lower levels at Pike's Place are missing the top half of the doors! That freaks you out. Next chapter will have more Jacob, and just as much Nessie. Enjoy!

Chapter Three

New Friend

"Is your phone charged?" Mom asked panicking as we neared my drop off point in Seattle, a lawn area looking out over Puget Sound right next to Pike's Place.

"For the last time, yes!" I yelled impatiently, clutching the Blackberry my mom gave me after she got a new one last year a little tighter.

She looked back to the road as everyone slowed down for a red light to let pedestrians cross. "Whistle?" She asked once the truck was fully stopped.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. "Mom, it's on my key ring, which is hooked to my belt loop." I said slowly, pointing to my hip to show her my key ring that held spare keys for the truck and trailer, a little glow in the dark skeleton, a blue link that held my keys to my jeans and a shiny steel whistle that blows so loud it will make anyone's ears bleed.

She glanced at my hip for the fifth time since we got on the truck and watched with horror as the light turned green four cars ahead. "Debit card?"

"Back pocket, with my ID and list of allergies." I answered quickly. I hate jewelry so medical bracelets are out of the question so I keep a laminated paper that lists my known allergies, eggplant, eucalyptus and morphine. I got the short end of my fathers stick, he was only allergic to morphine.

She was satisfied with that. "And remember-" I didn't even let her gather that though.

"Normal people are strangers too, no empty alleys and only eat the food I know won't kill me." I listed expertly. The same list she's been reading to me since I was six. I reached over to her and held her hand tightly. "I will be fine Mom, you've been prepping me for the last three hours I think I can handle it from here." I added with a smile, hoping to calm my panicked mother.

The trunk inched up to the cross walk where I was to be let out and Mom stopped with a deep frown. "If you buy anything, get a cute bag to put it in." She said trying her hardest to smile.

I let out a relieved laugh and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Sure thing," I hopped out of the truck with my phone still tight in my hand and rushed to the sidewalk.

"I love you!" Mom called out from the window as she was forced to drive away.

"I love you, too!" I yelled back. I could only see her fearful face as she turned the corner.

That woman is going to drive herself to have a stroke.

I waved and watched as the truck slowly made its way through the slow traffic of the city. Once she was out of sight I walked happily toward the nearest ATM. Yes, the debit card is nice but there are only a few vendors in Pike's Place that actually take plastic so its best to have some cash on hand. The line to the ATM is ridiculous for nine in the morning but I wait patiently, texting my mother as I do. She had made her way onto high-way, back toward Tacoma, and was currently the lowest vehicle on the road. I ordered her to stop texting me until she got off the road and pocketed my cell phone.

Once it was mine turn at the ATM I took out seventy-five dollars, Mom had told me earlier that I had three hundred dollars to play with until Friday, pay day, and then I would have a little more after she paid a few bills. I went into the closest store I knew had a bathroom and bought something tiny just to use it. The bathrooms in Pike's Place are a perverts wonderland, is there any reason why a bathroom needs half a door? That took me and my mom for surprised the last time we were here. She made that a stipulation, too, no using the Pike's Place bathrooms.

From the bathroom it didn't take me long to get into Pike's and start buying cute little trinkets, and I did as I was told and bought a hand made bag that looked like it was straight from the seventies to keep it all in. Once I was out fifty dollars and it was closing in on lunch time I searched for my favorite Greek restaurant nestled deep in the busiest part of Pike's.

I barely missed the lunch rush and scrambled down to the lower levels of Pike's. There were a few shops down there I loved, and took plastic. I hit up the poster store, picked up an old cover of Rolling Stones for Mom and then to the book store and found an ornate journal I had to have. My bag was almost full and I hadn't even gotten to my favorite store.

Golden Age Collectables was a shining beacon for nerds and movie fanatics alike, the moment you walked in all you could smell was paper, and the salt from Puget Sound just outside the tiny windows. I went straight for The Spirit comic books. It's my guilty pleasure. Some people read romance novels, I collect comics. The shelf had an armful of them, and quite a few I didn't have. I snatched the ones I didn't already own and looked around for more reading material.

I was half way down the X-Men aisle when I walked right into someone else. I didn't fall, but I did falter and my comics spilled out of my arms.

"I'm sorry!" The sweet voice of the person I ran into cooed apologetically.

I looked up from my fallen comics to see a girl that shouldn't be human. She was sickeningly beautiful, big brown eyes, long curly copper hair and perfect pale skin. She wasn't much taller than my five-foot-five frame and she was this with a little bit of muscle. My ego took a blow, a hard blow. I sucked in my little tummy, it was that stubborn little pooch that never went away, no matter how many sit ups.

"That's okay, it was my fault." I said blushing slightly and crouched down to start picking up my comics.

"Let me help." She offered, lowering herself gracefully to her knees to help me collect the fallen books. She picked up the last two comics and inspected the cover. "Spirit fan, huh?" She asked with a smile.

"I blame my mom." I quipped as I stood.

She followed, standing with ridiculous poise and handing me my comics. "My name is Nessie,"

Well, I've never heard that name before. "Claire," I said with a tiny smile.

"Nice to meet you." She said politely. I continued to smile awkwardly at her, trying to think of a reason to walk away. "Do you think you could help me?" She asked suddenly.

"With what?" I asked curiously.

"Well, my boyfriend's birthday is coming up soon and I want to get him something he doesn't already have. He loves the Hellboy comics, but he already has them all." She explained frowning. It wasn't much of a shock that she had a boyfriend, but it did seem odd that he was comic book fan.

"Leave it to men to ruin all the good gift ideas." I chuckled. She nodded in agreement. "How about the B.P.R.D. comics? They're part of the Hellboy universe, I don't know if they have them here, but they should be with the Hellboy comics." I said pointing toward the Hellboy section.

She laughed and shook her head. "I haven't even looked anywhere near them, I figured there was no use." She said smacking her forehead. She laughed at herself for a moment. "Thanks for your help." She said sincerely.

I smiled widely. "No problem." I gave her a little nod and walked toward the pictures.

I finished trolling through the shop without much contact from anyone else and picked up a few other random things. A movie still of an old movie Mom loves and some Nightmare Before Christmas memorabilia for me and Joe. I paid for everything, not all that surprised that eight comics, a photo and items from a movie almost thirty years old came out to be almost a hundred dollars, I used my plastic for that.

I left my store sadly. I'll probably come back tomorrow, but it's still so sad to leave. I stopped to admire the movie cut outs standing outside the store when a familiar voice stopped me. "Claire!"

I should be thinking about those rules my mother gave me and to not talk to strangers. However my instincts aren't telling me to run for the hills and I don't even have a knot in my stomach from being nervous, since neither of those have been wrong about a person, I'll give Nessie a chance.

I turned around to face her with a smile on my face. She was just coming out of my store with a bag a lot smaller than the one I walked out with. "Yeah?" I asked as she walked up to me.

"I'm alone in the city for the next six or so hours, want to be alone together?" She asked hopefully.

I laughed at that, she sounded just like Natalie. "Sure, it'd be nice to have some company while I wait for my mom." I agreed with a nod.

Nessie looked at me with knitted brows.

"She's working, she dropped me off here so I didn't have to wait around in the trailer all day." I explained quickly, hoping she would asked about the trailer or instigate anything about my mother. I don't mind being a loser, but I still feel pathetic when I have to explain my mother. "What about you?" I asked changing the subject as fast as possible.

She took the change in conversation with a smile. "Same, kind of, my boyfriend has some work to do around here so he brought me along and dropped me off here, he knows I love Seattle, so he made it a surprise." She said with a dreamy smile.

"Aw, that's sweet." I cooed. You don't find guys like that any more. It gives me hope that there might be one out there for me.

"He has his moments." She sighed tiringly.

"I haven't been in the city for a while, I don't really remember a lot of the stores and places, anywhere good to go?" I asked lying a little bit. I remember the whole city, down to the street lights and graffiti.

"I was thinking about heading to a book store, there is a really good one not too far from here if you don't mind walking." She offered with a bright smile.

"That works, I was actually going to look for a bookstore." I agreed, smiling a little more.

"Elliot Bay is the best bookstore in all of downtown." She said bouncing a little.

"Well, that all depends on its collection of mythology books." I countered in mock firmness.

"A fan of comics and the classics, impressive." She said sounding a little more than amazed.

"Well, there isn't anything good on TV any more, might as well revert to reading." I said shrugging.

"True," She sighed with a frown.

As we walked through Pike's Place and back to the surface toward the bookstore Nessie was so keen on going to, I learned a lot about her. She was eighteen, like me, and had just moved in with her boyfriend and away from her parents. She talked about her parents and grandparents and two sets of aunts and uncles. I couldn't help but feel a little jealous, she had bother her parents and a huge family not to mention her boyfriend and all I had was Mom and Natalie. I told her about my mom, how we traveled because of her job and how my dad died when I was five, she seemed more confused than apologetic it was definitely a new reaction.

She started talking about college after I told her about my dad. I felt a little more pathetic at that. I hadn't even thought much about college. I've take two AP classes and gotten a lot of offers from colleges because I had gotten fours on both tests, but I haven't tried to get into any. Nessie was talking about Dartmouth. I haven't even though about a school more elite than Penn State. I started asking about her boyfriend after that.

For three blocks I listened to Nessie gush about her boyfriend. Of course, she also growled a few times, and then there was that time she snapped, but she always smiled when she finished her description. I think I know more about Jacob Black than I know about my own self. We were closing in on the book store when Nessie was finishing her rant about her boyfriend.

"He sounds like a great guy." I noted once she finally took a breath.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gushed like that." Nessie said blushing.

"Its okay, its nothing my best friend hasn't done, you two are a lot of like." I reassured her.

She perked up at the mention of Natalie. "Really?" She asked happily.

"Yeah," I answered, "You're not as flamboyant as she is with her clothing decisions, but other than that." I adding, laughing a little.

"Does she travel like you and your mom?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"Yeah, but she's with her dad, he's a travel writer. Her mom died when she was seven, we always bonded over the fact that we lost a parent." I answered quietly.

Nessie didn't have an apologetic look, and quickly changed the subject. "Where is she now?"

"Moscow I think, I haven't been able to talk with her much, she just texts me when she gets off the plane safely." I explained shrugging a little.

She was about to ask another question when she froze, her eyes narrowing in anger.

"What is it?" I asked fearfully, looking over my shoulder then hers. She looked behind me with trepidation, which freaked me out a little more. I turned to look, hoping there wasn't a serial killer in my blind spot.

"Jacob!" Nessie squealed angrily. I spun to see Nessie being held off the ground by a rather handsome giant. The man I assumed to be her boyfriend Jacob, set her down as he laughed. He was tall and muscled, and by his copper skin and shining black hair, he was Native like me.

"I figured I'd find you here." He said grinning.

Nessie rolled her eyes and looped her arm with his massive one and turned to look at me. "Jake, meet Claire," She said pointing to me with a triumphant smile.

Jacob finally looked away from his beautiful girlfriend, not that I blame him for looking only at her, and to me. His smile faded away and he gaped at me with unabashed shock.

I swallowed hard. "Hi," I said meekly, waving smally.

AN: Review!