It's quite possible that I could have been grounded for the rest of my life and there would have been very little I could do about it. Fortunately and unfortunately, Mom and Dad grounded me for two months. This was still a long time but it was manageable and at least I could focus on Charlie in the meantime. Charlie and I were spending more and more time together. We adjusted back into our Friday dinners and got together at some point during the week and on Sundays as well when he liked to watch football and order pizza. This was all great except that Sunday football meant Jacob and his father were around and this was uncomfortable for me. I had mixed feelings about Jacob. On the one hand, he was concerned for me and that was endearing but on the other hand, he just couldn't accept that I was happy in home. He wouldn't deal with it and it made me mad. Still, he was there every Sunday at Charlie's house with Billy and Jacob seemed to often find himself 'coincidentally' in the kitchen alone with me. On this particular Sunday I was in the small, white kitchen to get a glass of water when Jacob followed suit.

"Hey," he gretted cheerfully.

"Hi," I said shortly, turning from the sink to face him. He was smiling but when he saw my face his smile faltered.

"How long are you gonna keep this up?" He asked. "What?" "How long are you gonna be mad at me? I never meant to upset you. I know what happened was drastic but I didn't mean for it to be so extreme. We thought you'd stay on your own." "What happened,"

I scoffed. "You mean my kidnapping?"

He squirmed uncomfortably. "Don't say it like that."

"How am I supposed to say it?" I sighed. "I'm not mad at you. Not really." His expression faltered considerably.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I just wish you'd understand how I feel." If he had heard my last sentence he chose to ignore it as he wrapped me in a strong hug. "Can't...breathe," I muttered dramaticlly and he chuckled and released me.

"Hey. Why don't you come hang out at the rez after the game?"

"Oh, I can't. I'm grounded for a while," I admitted. His face fell again.

"What? Why?" Since he already knew about vampires, I quirkly told him my tale in a hushed whisper. When I finished he looked pretty upset. "I can't believe I'm agreeing with the bloodsuckers but that was just stupid, Bella."

I shurgged. "It worked didn't it?" He said in disbelief,

"You could have died."

"But I didn't," I insisted.

He shook his head. "At least he's dead."

"Yeah."

"So when are you ungrounded?"

"In another week," I informed.

"We'll hang out then." His smile was contagious.

"Okay," I agreed, disregarding the part of me that knew my family would disapprove.

"Awesome, lets get back in there." The rest of my grounding went quite quickly and it wasn't long until I was driving myself down to the reservation to Billy's house where Jacob awaited on the porch.

"Bella!" He called as I stepped out of the car.

"Hey," I replied.

"Come on, I thought we could hang out in the garage. I'm working on my motorcycle."

"Sounds good," I answered and walked with him to the garage where he began tinkering with a motorcycle while I sat on the seat of it.

"So, don't the vampires mind that your here?" Jacob asked. "

No," I lied. "They're cool with it." Honestly, they had freaked out.

"You're going over there again?" Mom screeched.

"Bella, they kidnapped you!" Dad yelled and I cringed internally. Dad yelling was very rare.

"It was just a misunderstanding," I reasoned.

"Misunderstanding? Do you even hear yourself?" He yelled once more. I stood up from the couch I'd been sitting on.

"Look, I'm sorry if this upsets you, but I'm going," I said firmly and stopped out the door.

"Sure, sure," Jacob said but he didn't sound very convinced.

"They're cool with all this. Unlike someone I know."

He rolled his eyes. "They're bloodsuckers, Bella. How am I supposed to feel?"

"Like you accept that you don't know them personally and I've known them all my life. They're my family. They took me in when I was abandoned."

"I'm trying," he said. "I can't promise anything but I'm trying." This was enough to make me smile.

"I'm glad. So...what's the deal with these motorcycles?" I asked as there was another one on the opposite side of the garage.

"Just trying to fix them up so I can ride 'em," he responded.

"Not trying to sell them?" Charlie had told me that Jacob often sold junk vehicles after fixing them up.

"No, I figure I'll ride them around once they start running. Which will hopefully be soon."

"Oh that's great," I responded and I can't explain what possessed me to say what I said next, "Maybe when you get them fixed, you can teach me how to ride." He beamed.

"Sure thing." Oh, this should be an adventure.