Roots

A.N. Thanks to everyone with the great feedback after the first chapter, I hope you continue to enjoy.

I'm trying to move away from the typical Twilight timeline a little, so I have aged up some characters to allow this to work a bit better, and for the future plot as well, so yes, I know Jacob should be 15 and not 16, but trust me.

Chapter 2

It took us four hours to get into the urgent care, seen, and then home.

It was good news, no breaks, no major damage, but it was going to be a couple of weeks of inflammation and pain and swelling and bruising to add to my humiliation of starting at a new school halfway through the academic year.

Thankfully, the doctor had prescribed me some anti-inflammatories and some sort of cream to help the bruising go away, and from the drug store I was able to find some makeup to help cover it a bit. My eyebrow split had been patched with tape, and no other skin was broken so I was free to cover it up.

Tuesday was an interesting day at school.

No-one other than the school receptionist, who I now knew to be Mrs Cope, had witnessed the issue, and I was willing to write it off as a mistake on Edward's behalf. But we were in Forks, and this small town liked its gossip.

As soon as I was out of the cab of my truck, the girls from yesterday were swarming on me.

"Bella, are you okay?" Angela asked, she seemed genuinely a kind person.

"My mom said there was something between you and Edward after school yesterday and you got hurt?" Jessica pressed.

I snorted a laugh, still wanting to play it down, even if I had a huge goose egg on my forehead and bruising over it and my cheekbone.

"It was an accident, Edward was leaving the admin building as I was going in, we didn't see each other, and I got hit by the door." I tried nonchalantly explaining.

"Yeah, well the rumour is you ended up in the hospital and Edward ran away." Lauren said. I was still struggling to read whether she was kind or wanting the gossip. Gossip was practically a sport here.

I sighed.

"Yeah, I needed to be checked out at urgent care, but it wasn't the hospital, and everything is all fine." I said, pausing before I continued. "And I honestly don't think Edward even saw me fall, it's not like he ran away." I wasn't sure why I was trying to cover for him, there was no way he hadn't seen what he had done, but some part of me was hoping this would all be swept under the radar and forgotten.

"That seems odd for him." Angela said quietly.

"Everything about the Cullen's is odd." Lauren snorted.

"Yes, he's a loner and only really talks to his family, but he would usually be the one to hold the door open for someone or pick up something you dropped." Angela continued.

I wasn't even sure we were talking about the same person anymore. I asked for some clarification about which one was Edward, and Jessica confirmed it was Mr Weird from my biology class.

Well shit, biology would be fun today.

But he didn't show up to class.

Nor did he for the rest of the week.

I had his siblings pointed out to me through the week, and between second and third period on Friday I passed the small one, Alice, in the hallway. She gave me the most bizarre look, a smile with her lips pressed firmly together, and her eyes wide and almost unseeing. It was unsettling, and I could have sworn I heard her sniff as I walked past.

It seemed the whole family was insane.

I pushed it to the back of my mind and finished off my school day, ready to head up to La Push for a bonfire for Jake's sixteenth birthday.

By some miracle for mid-January in the Pacific Northwest, it was actually a dry day. Cold and overcast, but we weren't expecting more than a light drizzle later in the evening, so as people in this part of the world did, we were hosting the entire birthday celebration on the beach, out in the open. I remembered to take my good waterproof coat in case, but otherwise it was a casual event, everyone in jeans and flannels.

I had baked a cake the evening before, and when we arrived Charlie reintroduced me to Sue Clearwater, who had evidently been the one to arrange most of the food. She put a motherly arm around my shoulder and led me off to a long folding table where there was a mountain of food, including my simple chocolate cake. I remembered Sue from my childhood, I had called her 'Aunty Sue' for the longest time, but I hadn't spoken to her since the last time I was in Forks. She asked about school and how I was settling in, and then pointed me in the direction down the beach where all the other 'kids' were.

I set off down the beach towards the large group I could see, and after a moment of walking, I could clearly hear them too. They appeared to be walking back from the direction of the tidal pools, it was getting darker and obviously they had had their fill of poking around for small creatures.

Eventually, the tallest of the group saw me, waved enthusiastically and then yelled out.

"Bella!" It was Jacob. He was clearly the tallest, with one other lanky boy coming close, and then another slightly shorter but burlier looking boy all standing around him. Tagging along with them, looking like he wasn't really a part of the group was a boy quite a bit smaller, and obviously a little younger.

They all started to jog towards me, and then the burly boy seemed to sprint and just about tackled me into a hug.

"Belly!" He yelled, picking me up and swinging me around as he hugged me, calling me by his childhood nickname for me.

"Hey Quil, long time no see." I said as I hugged my cousin back again. Well, we were more like second cousins or something, but as kids that never bothered us.

"And Jake, happy birthday!" I said as Quil let me go and let me hug Jacob. I wasn't usually a hugging kind of person, but these two boys brought it out of me.

Jake then introduced me to their other friend, Embry, who I hadn't met before. Turns out he was a little newer to the res, he had moved when he was about 10, right around when I had stopped coming so frequently. And then the smallest of the four boys, Seth Clearwater. In my memory he was still the little baby that Sue Clearwater had placed in my arms when I was visiting at about age four or five, and then the chubby toddler following all of us around as we played. It was a shock to see him as a gangly teenager and taller than I was.

Jake wrapped a warm arm around my shoulder as we all made our way back to everyone else, and the now roaring bonfire on the grass between the parking lot and the beach. I realised that the flat grassed area would be somewhat easier for Billy to navigate in a wheelchair than the beach itself. And it made for a more stable surface for everyone to set up their camping chairs and mingle.

I was introduced and reintroduced to everyone though there were a few I remembered; 'Uncle Harry' Clearwater, and of course 'Aunty Joy' Ateara, Quil's mom.

Right as all the sides began to be uncovered and the hotdogs pulled from the coolers to be threaded onto wire hangers and held over the flames, a group of three men approached. The largest of them looked like he was in his mid-twenties and seemed to be in charge. The two others looked a couple of years younger and seemed to flank him. They quickly said happy birthday to Jacob, and then made their way to the men. Something about the group seemed to upset Jacob and Quil. I didn't want to push it, but the group of three kept glancing over towards the younger boys, and there was something unsettling about it all.

They were over the other side of the fire from where I sat, and I couldn't make out their faces, but the boys beside and their odd body language was enough for me to know they were bad news.

We all grabbed food, the boys more than I could have imagined they were able to eat, and sat around the fire, away from the parents. The boys were clearly still in the parents are uncool phase of adolescence.

They all seemed to look so much older, but that might have been the fact they were all clearly over six feet tall. It made it easy for me to forget they were like my little brothers once upon a time.

Eventually, Jacob asked about my face, and Quil offered to beat up the kid who did it.

Of course, I gave them the story of how I had a run in with a swinging door, but they insisted on telling who it was on the other side of the door.

Finally, I somewhat reluctantly told them it was Edward Cullen.

Jacob just about vibrated in anger when I told him this.

I could have sworn I heard a growl from somewhere, and I quickly glanced around the fire, but no one else was reacting, I didn't think anyone else had heard.

Instead, I decided to see what I could find out about this strange pale family in town.

"So, you know of the Cullen's then?"

"Yeah, we know of them." Quil said.

"They Cullen's don't come here." Said Embry.

"Cool." I said, reading the awkwardness.

I glanced around, to see if anyone else was listening, and I could just make out in the fire light that two of the strange, large men were looking at us intensely. There was something feral in their eyes, they seemed to be looking right through me, as if they were trying to read all my secrets. I couldn't see where the other member of their group was, I hadn't paid attention to when he must have left.

But this whole conversation left me with more questions than answers. Who were these strange people living in Forks, and why did the people I considered my family hate them so much? And why did these strange newcomers seem interested?

Eventually the boys were busily chatting amongst themselves about cars and motorbikes and all sorts of things I had nothing of interest to contribute, so I made my way around the fire to where the adults were. Unlike the boys I had no qualms about parents being uncool.

Sue and Joy waved me over to sit with them, and I happily took a seat on the large dry piece of driftwood beside Joy. I hadn't seen them in years, but it was like I was eleven or twelve again and asking to help them in the kitchen when this big mishmash of a family got together, and all they wanted to do was feed me, and listen to what I had been up to.

It was no different tonight. I filled them in on how school has been going, my plans for college, which was currently very up in the air as to what I wanted to study or where, and the friends I was making.

Eventually, Sue commented on my face, making sure I had been checked out and then asking about how I was looking after it. She was a nurse after all, though she worked at the small clinic in La Push rather than the large hospital in Forks. She seemed happy with what I was doing, and then suggested an herbal tea blend she liked for anti-inflammatory properties that she was happy to pass along.

Sue reminded me of Renee in a lot of ways, but the differences were also stark. She had a deep sense of community and home where Renee didn't, she knew her place in the world, she loved living on the reservation. The similarities were more to do with accepting more traditional approaches to things like medicine and wellbeing. I can always remember Sue showing us some yoga poses when we were kids, and she was watching us. I was always one of the more enthusiastic participants given it was one of Renee's many hobbies over the years. I wondered if Sue and Renee had been friends back in the day.

Joy was different to Sue. A little harder in some ways, much softer in others. She was the biggest hugger I had ever met, and every opportunity she would wrap her big arms around you and pull you into her large, soft body. She was tall, probably nearing six foot herself, whereas Sue was a more average height. Joy was round-faced and overweight, while Sue was slim and had sharp features. But they both seemed to radiate that strong motherly energy of someone who will invite you into their home, make sure you are warm, dry, and fed, and then help with anything from the smallest to the biggest problems in the world as if you were their own child.

Joy though had the hardness around the edges of someone who had lived a hard life. She was a single mother after being widowed in her early twenties, and though she had the support of everyone around her, you could see the hard edge of struggle around her eyes. She ran her shop, looked after her son, and her aging father-in-law all by herself. It aged her more than she should have been at not even forty.

"So, Bella, Charlie was saying it was an accident at school where you hurt yourself?" Sue asked, clearly sounding like she wanted to hear more details.

I nodded to acknowledge her and swallowed the coke I had been drinking.

"Yeah, I was heading into the admin building, and another student was heading out, and I just had a clumsy moment and got hit by the door." I summed it up.

"Oh dear, that must have been quite a hit then." Joy said, shock clear in her voice that a simple hit from a door would leave this sort of damage.

"Well, you know me, I've always been clumsy." I replied.

"Who was it, Bella? The other student leaving." Sue asked.

"Oh, um." I swallowed. "It was Edward Cullen." I answered.

Both women looked at each other, a looked that possessed far more knowledge and communication than I could hope to understand.

Joy then asked Sue something in Quileute, just one word, and Sue responded with a terse nod.

"He really should be more careful." Joy finally said after an awkward moment.

I took a breath, wanting to know more, and hoping these two women wouldn't see right through my questions as pure nosiness, I tried to speak as innocently as possible.

"Do you know the family? Embry said something odd about the Cullen's not coming here." I trailed off.

"There's been some tension between the council and the Cullen's," Sue answered, still looking at Joy. "It's probably best that you keep your distance from them Bella. People up here wouldn't be too happy to hear they have caused you any kind of harm, nor for you to be close to them."

It seemed so strange. There was so much more going on with this strange, beautiful family than anyone would tell me. It sounded like there was history, and friction between the groups.

I dropped the conversation though; it was late, and it wasn't worth pushing it.

Instead, I looked back over the fire to the two strange men who seemed to be keeping to themselves and not really a part of the party. I looked to my aunties and asked, "Who are they?"

Sue was the first to answer, her voice casual and as if these men at the bonfire were no more of an event than the weather.

"That's Sam and Jared, and they were with Paul earlier though I assume he had to head back out to work." She answered. "The work for the tribal council, mostly security."

"Oh," I replied. "They seemed a little older than the rest of the boys and not really friends with anyone, I was wondering why they were here?"

"Well Jacob is the future leader of the tribe, and so everyone involved with the council is here tonight as well as friends and family." Joy added.

I just nodded and sipped my coke again.

There was something more than was being said. About the Cullen's, and something about these men too.

…..