Okay, let's actually get into New Moon territory. Thanks for your reviews, IllusionSign and timothysch22.

We'd been getting weekend homework done when we heard the sound of a truck roar into the driveway. Jacob glanced out the window, and his face lit up.

"Recognize something?" I whispered to him.

"Sorry, we'll have to cut the homework session short." he said, but he seemed happy. "We can do it later if we have time. But it's not like you need my help anymore, so you could always do it on your own if you have to go home before. Anyway, I better get out there. You coming?"

I followed him to the door, asking "What is this about?"

I saw the reasoning before I heard Jacob's friendly excited call of her name. "Bella!"

Bella was smiling back at him, as she greeted him with a "Hey, Jacob!"

I hovered a few steps behind, and Bella suddenly caught my eye. Her smile became uncertain, but at least she still looked pleased to be here. "Hey...er, we've met at some point, right? I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

I laughed. "Don't worry, it was almost a year ago. I'm Beth. We met the first time you came here, with a bunch of your friends. I remember you, though. Hard not to – this guy never shuts up about you." I nudged Jacob playfully.

Bella giggled, and although it sounded genuine, there was a little bit of hollowness in it, too, like she hadn't laughed in a long time.

We went inside. "We were just doing our Spanish homework together." Jacob explained. "I mostly tutor Beth."

"Actually, he hasn't done that since last year." I argued. "We still have the same class, so we do it together, that's all. Anyway, I tutored him in Math last year, so we were even."

It was pretty clear to me that Bella was going to be over a lot, since she'd apparently acquired two motorcycles and was wondering if Jacob could fix them up. She even offered to pay, but when he said no, she suggested he give her lessons on how to ride one bike and he could have the other.

I was feeling like a third wheel for a moment, but then Bella looked at me again. "Oh! Sorry, Beth – I didn't mean to leave you out. There's only two bikes, though."

I shrugged. "That's okay. I do homework with Jacob like a good girl-next-door friend, and you guys ride motorbikes."

"No, really." Bella said. "If you want, I could share the bike with you and we could both take lessons. Or you could help teach me or something..."

"I'd be taking lessons – I've never ridden before." I said. "But thanks. I'd like that." I smiled at Bella, feeling a lot more positive towards her than I had when we'd first met.

The two of them talked a bit more, about how Jacob had missed Bella's eighteenth, and she'd missed his sixteenth. As Jacob mentioned it, though, he said playfully "I forgot Beth's birthday, too, and she reminded me every day leading up to it."
I nudged him again. "Did not! And you made up for it by promising when you finish the Rabbit, I get to be the first to ride in it." I grinned suddenly. "And shotgun without having to call it if another girl is there."

After that first meeting, Bella came over all the time, first to help find parts for the bikes, and then mostly just for social reasons. She was there almost every day. Even I didn't go over that often – three times a week I came over, and Bella was almost always there. We spent most of the time hanging out in Jacob's garage, chatting. Bella didn't seem as depressed as Jacob had said, but he later on told me she seemed so much better than she had in December. At one point, Quil and Embry came over, too, and introduced themselves. I was really starting to feel like the girl-next-door now. Bella wasn't any better at conversation than I was, but she was so much prettier and with Jacob already crushing on her, I was really starting to feel second-best. I liked Bella fine and she did her best not to leave me out, but I could tell she was really here because of Jacob. It wasn't that I was really jealous of the romantic attention, but just the attention in general. Jacob couldn't keep his eyes off her, even though I knew he was trying not to leave me out, either. We had fun – it's just that I did feel a bit less wanted than I was before Bella started coming over.

But after hearing how much better she was than she was last year, I couldn't say anything. I got the feeling this was what was making her happy. How could I begrudge that?

Bella wasn't my only problem, either. Embry had been away from school for a little while, and when he came back, something had changed. I wasn't sure what. Jacob confided in me that Embry wouldn't talk to him or Quil, either. Something had definitely changed, but none of us really understood what it was.

Things got worse. On one of those afternoons when Bella was over, we saw some of the guys cliff-diving. Bella thought it was a suicide mission at first and we had to calm her down. We'd both cliff-dived, just not that high up.

"Most of us jump from the ledge halfway down." Jacob pointed.

"It's actually pretty fun in the summer." I added. "Those guys have enough experience to do it high up, but they're just showing off."
The thing was, Embry was one of those guys. Jacob had already told me some things that were going on – about Sam Uley and his little group. There were just two other guys, both younger, still in school – they were called Jared Cameron and Paul Lahote. But Embry had just started hanging out with them.

There was something else, too. "It's the way they treat me." Jacob explained to Bella. "It creeps me out."

I spoke up. "I think they want him to join. Sometimes when we're just on the beach, Sam gives him this glance, like he's waiting for something. He looks completely through me – it's just Jacob he's looking at."

It wasn't just the gang. As I'd mentioned, half the guys in my year seemed to be growing taller every day, and the ones who'd grown the most seemed to be the ones in that group. I'd talked to my mom about it and Jacob had talked to his dad. Neither of them had been helpful. Even my mom had just said "It's nothing to worry about. This always happens. It's all a natural thing."

I hadn't believed it, and Jacob didn't either. And Bella agreed with us wholeheartedly. "It's hard to believe I'm two years older than you." she remarked, looking up at Jacob. "You make me feel like a dwarf." She grinned at me. "I can't even imagine what Beth feels like."

"Tiny." I muttered. I was a few inches shorter than Bella, and petite with it. Being surrounded by giants was not my favourite thing.

Jacob had finished the motorcycles the day we talked about it. Of course, we'd all planned to work with it, but at the last minute, I changed my mind.

"I think you two should do this without me." I suggested, starting to walk away.

Jacob looked confused, and Bella dismayed. "Did we make you feel left out?" she asked, eyes wide with concern. "We didn't mean to."

"Come on, Beth, we like having you." Jacob chimed in. "I need at least one girl to be cheering me on while the other learns from me."

"No, it's not that." I insisted. "I don't feel left out. It's just – Jacob, we have stuff we do together without Bella. It's only fair you guys have some one-on-one friendship time, as well. I've got other friends on the rez. As long as we can spend some time just hanging out, all three of us, you guys go ahead and do the motorbike stuff without me."

"Well, if you're sure." Bella said uncertainly, but I could tell she was grateful. She wanted the time without me tagging on, just as I thought.

After that, things got better. Bella still came over a lot, and sometimes it was all three of us, but she usually came down later. If I was over at Jacob's, we usually had a good hour to spend on homework and joking around before she arrived, often bringing homework herself. The time we spent hanging out was easy, with all three of us laughing together and chatting.

Life was good.

But Jacob's time is drawing ever closer...