February
"Again!" a booming voice echoed somewhere in the trees. Grace tried to focus clearly on the sound, tuning out the high pitched birdsong, crashing sound of leaves rustling against one another, the boom of a pack of deer nearby scattering, the overwhelming thud and drag of the waves just off the cliff, and each tiny pinprick of insect feet crawling in and around the dirt for miles.
When her senses were tuned in like this, it became hard to block everything else out. Every sound was dialed up to eleven and she would feel her heart start to race as her ears tried to pick up the one sound she was meant to find.
Searching for a pulse was out, there was too much life around her. So she switched her mindset, she tried to listen for the distinct breath of the wolves. Their human breath trying to mingle with the intense, aggressive huffing of their wolf breath that was simultaneously trying to smell, breath, and cool. She could hear that sound and then she tried to envision the wolf behind it.
Once she made out the shape of Paul's wolf form down to his shoulders outlining around her through the trees, she opened her eyes and felt that familiar pull-a feeling that she had come to know very well over the past 6 weeks.
Grace's life had taken a unique turn after she had ended up in the woods with Ti'Hal unexpectedly after visiting Sam's. Elder Ti'Hal had told her she was the spirit bird. While Grace wasn't exactly sure what she had meant at the time, something inside her had clicked into place. Ti'Hal had advised her, no rather begged her, not to avoid Sam any longer and let the pull of whatever was happening to spill through her. She promised that Grace would feel so much better.
And she did. Surprisingly, once she stopped avoiding the pull of Sam, the reservation, and her people, the old anxiety and tugging in her ceased. She was filled with warmth and felt the most secure she'd ever felt since her father died. Around Sam especially.
After she had returned to Sam's. She had nodded in acknowledgement as she crossed the threshold of the home and sunk back into the chair at the kitchen table exhausted.
"So, what now?" she had asked. Sam had given her a knowing smile and took her into the forest. It was there that he revealed to her his wolf form and had called out to Jared and Paul to join him. Grace would have been overwhelmed at the sight of this had she not just recast her body through the woods and been washed with immense understanding that something deeper, the legends, the histories, all of it, ran through her and them.
She had taken a moment to admire their form before looking at Sam expectantly. He had hesitated for a moment, seeming to look around at his brothers before taking a step forward and towering over her. Grace had stumbled back in a fleeting moment of sheer panic by the meer size of him. But to this, Sam just stood tall looking down at her, his eyes intent on something.
And then, she heard a faint echo at the back of her head. A voice. Sam's voice, but it was too hard to hear. She turned around expecting to see him behind her even though she knew he was in front of her. Sam shook out his body as if squaring up to concentrate and tried again.
This time the voice had been louder, but still far away.
"Sam?" Grace said out loud, her face screwed up in confusion. Sam seemed to acknowledge something. "Wait, say that again." Grace said, staring at him. She tried to focus on the sound of the voice, far away as it was, she could feel herself seeking it out, like running down paths in a dense wood, with precarious twists and turns, she looked for the voice that was somewhere out there, but also in her. She shook her head in frustration.
"Again." She said in a small, unsure voice.
Paul and Jared walked up to flank Sam, seeming to join him. The voice grew, but only marginally so. She could hear a faint echo of his voice now in different tenors ringing out. But when she chased it, they scattered like fireflies pushing out and away from her.
She exhaled without realizing she had been holding her breath. Sam took another step toward her. She felt reassured this time rather than intimidated by his form and nodded at him in confirmation.
"Again." she said clearer this time.
Now standing in the forest, feeling her body pull and crush around her, she tried to focus on sound again, but this time it wasn't voices. She was trying to sense where they were without them having to actively call out to her.
After six weeks of what Grace could only describe as training, she was able to clearly hear Sam's voice, even if it did seem muffled sometimes, and was able to faintly hear the echo of Jared and Paul's voices in her head when they called out to her.
Recasting felt like a warming of her blood. Something that felt natural but that took an exceeding amount of effort. Depending on the distance she went when she recast was how exhausted she felt afterwards. When she traveled a short distance, like from one side of the street to the other, it felt like nothing- a quick blip. When she recast across stretches of forest, she was gasping for air like she'd just run a marathon.
Sam and Ti'Hal had reassured her that it would just take practice, her stamina would build as she continued to train, and when she and Sam finally fell into step with one another, recasting would feel second nature. Grace had been wary of this, even though she desperately hoped it was true.
When she felt her body dissipate around her, she focused on where the sound of the breathing was coming from. Hurtling toward it in her mind and then when she recast and reappeared she looked around her hurriedly. Paul was about half a mile away from her through a clearing in the trees she could see. She let out a groan and threw her head back. "Come on!" She had overshot her target by a half a mile.
"Come back. Try it again," Sam had said. He never grew tired or angry or frustrated with her while she did this. She was starting to suspect it was because he didn't really know how to guide or help her tune into this power. Even Ti'Hal was only able to offer theoretical perspectives of how to master this.
Grace envisioned her starting point and recast. She reappeared down the hill leading up to the cliff face.
As she attempted and again and again, she got gradually closer to Paul as he changed locations in the forest each time. But as she continued, she got more and more tired until finally, when Sam called her back to her starting position, she lost focus, and overshot the cliff, recasting a quarter of a mile out into open water. As she fell from the height of her anticipated starting point into the water, she loudly cursed before twisting her body midair to land in the water without hurting herself. Unintentional cliff diving was not the goal and she was really hoping not to get soaking wet today.
When she surfaced, she looked up to the cliff face and saw Sam standing, arms by his side. With a huge crash to his left, she saw Jared's human form surface and make his way toward her.
When Jared approached her with a broad smile, she rolled her eyes.
"He said we're done for the day." Jared commented as Grace wrapped her hands around his neck, resting on his back and kicking her legs to help propel them through the water.
"Finally." Grace breathed defeated.
"You'll get the hang of it, don't worry." Jared reassured her.
"Yeah, yeah."
"Just relax. I got this." he swam with earnest now and Grace wallowed in her defeat.
When she got home, Grace could barely keep her eyes open. Paul had dropped her off since she didn't have the truck. Grace didn't think it was fair to hog the truck since she was down at the reservation nearly every day for hours.
"Is that you?" Charlie called from the living room.
"Yeah," Grace said.
"Picked up some dinner. Bella's not back yet. It's on the counter if you're hungry." Charlie replied. Grace sighed in relief.
Bella not being home these days was common. Between working at Newton's and school, she made herself pretty scarce. While Grace was like the walking dead at home, she did have enough observation left in her to see that Bella had really perked up. She seemed happier, brighter. Maybe she was finally getting over Edward. This filled Grace with relief but she still missed seeing her regularly.
Bella would usually creep back home late after Grace had gone to bed. She had no idea how she was keeping up on her schoolwork, but whatever she was doing was working and Grace was happy for her.
Grace also noticed that Jake had stopped trying to get into contact with her. For this she was somewhat grateful. She didn't know how to explain what was happening to her but also what might be happening to him. Sam had told her that it was inevitable that more of the tribe would begin to phase, but he just didn't know how many or when. With vampires still making their way in and around Forks, it didn't seem like it would ever stop. And Grace felt this immense pressure to protect them all.
When Grace collapsed into her seat at their shared lunch table with their group of friends, they looked at her expectantly. It took her a minute and she looked at each pair of eyes staring back at her.
"What?" she said confused.
"Hey." Bella said. Grace hadn't realized that Bella had been sitting in the chair a couple of spaces down from her.
"Oh hey!" This was a surprise. Bella hadn't sat with them in months-not since the incident. Grace had tried and failed multiple times to sit with her in an isolated table by the windows, not wanting her to be alone in her grief, but every time, Bella had asked her to leave. After the tenth time, Grace would sit at the table with Angela, Jessica, and the others and glance over at Bella now and then. So Bella sitting with them now was a huge step and the group was looking to Grace for a clue as to why, but Grace decided she was just going to act normal.
"Did you get that paper back from McCarty today in AP Lit?" Grace asked Bella nonchalantly. She could see relief wash over Bella's face as she responded back.
"No, not yet. He said tomorrow." To this everyone descended back into conversation, excitedly asking Bella questions and talking amongst themselves as normal. Halfway through lunch, Grace was startled then when Bella looked around the group and said:
"Hey, did you guys want to go see a Face Punch?" a pained look on her face subsided when everyone agreed, "Grace?" Bella asked her pointedly. Grace hesitated.
"Oh yeah, I mean sure! Sounds good." She smiled. A night off might be nice, away from the monsters and the myths.
Bella nodded and smiled at her, grateful.
Bella clipped her phone shut as Grace pulled into the parking lot of the movie theater in Port Angeles.
"Who was that?" Grace asked.
"Angela. She has the stomach flu and Eric's staying to take care of her."
"Oh no, that sucks." Grace said. "That makes just us three then, right? Because Jessica and Rachel bailed too, yeah?"
"Yeah," Bella said dismissively as she hopped down from the truck.
"Does Mike still have a thing for you?" Grace teased, bumping playfully into Bella as they rounded the corner to the theater.
"I hope not." Bella breathed. She looked up from the pavement and her eyes lit up. Happy, Grace thought. She smiled at her happiness, not looking ahead to what made her react so.
"Hey!" Bella called out with a smile, "Jake!"
Grace froze. Her gaze shot from Bella to the towering form at the end of the sidewalk, standing off to the side of the ticket window.
Bella practically launched herself into his arms and he caught her, closing his eyes and smiling, his broad hands wrapping around her and holding her tightly. Grace slowly walked up to the pair, feeling bristled for a reason she couldn't pinpoint. Jacob looked over Bella, in fact he was even taller than the last time Grace saw him, so much so that almost knocked her breath from her.
A different look colored Jake's face, one that made Grace almost stumble in surprise. He looked disappointed to see her. Pain pulsed in her stomach and she tried to pull her grimace into a grin.
"Hey." Grace said quietly, her hands shoved in her jacket pocket. He gave her a curt nod and said:
"Hey, long time no see."
"Yeah, sorry about that, I've been-"
"Busy. Yeah, I got it." Jacob cut her off. This hurt way more than Grace was expecting.
"Come on, there's Mike." Bella gestured to them both, trying to ease the tension. Grace felt irritated all at once at Bella. Irritated that she didn't tell her Jake would be here, and irritated that she seemed to be so close to Jake now when before they were just distant childhood acquaintances. What was this?
Jacob turned and followed Bella quickly, leaving Grace standing on her own on the curb. Grace tilted her head back and groaned softly at the sky before walking reluctantly forward.
So much for her night off.
When they approached Mike, Bella caught him and Jacob up to speed with the recent change to their party.
"So, I guess it's just us." Bella shrugged.
"Great!" Mike said. The look on his face screamed double date. This made Jacob shift uncomfortably and Grace try to hide the blush rising in her cheeks.
Once they got the tickets and headed inside the theater with their popcorn, the awkward tussle of who sat where began. After much shuffling and Bella switching spots multiple times at the request of Mike, then Jacob, then Mike again, Bella settled on a spot in between Mike and Jacob. At the prompting of Bella, Grace reluctantly sat in the seat next to Jacob. He immediately tried to shift his massive, broad frame away from her and leaned toward Bella's seat. The pain in Grace's stomach grew and she fought back an immense sense of sadness rising in her.
At one point during the movie, Grace, who couldn't help her eyes from moving to Jacob's face every 10 minutes, saw that his hand was awkwardly placed on the arm rest next to Bella, with the palm facing up.
Was he hoping Bella would hold his hand? A new realization dawned on her.
Were they a thing? Were they dating? When did this happen? How did this happen?!
The questions rose in volume in her head and her face got hot. Why did she even care? She didn't want to answer that question posed to no one.
She did a double take and saw that Mike was trying to shoot his shot as well with his hand in the exact same position. Grace rolled her eyes and sunk down into her seat crossing her arms. At least it seemed that Bella wasn't having any of it. She had gone as far as to sit on both of her hands to avoid any accidental hand grazing. Grace couldn't wait for the movie to end.
During one of the intense final action scenes of the movie, Mike sprang up and ran from the theater. Jacob chuckled and settled back into his seat, but Bella got up to go after him and make sure he was okay. Jacob, not pleased with this development, glanced back once at Grace with little to no emotion she could perceive and got up and went after Bella.
Grace hesitated to follow. Was she going to be the girl that followed the guy who followed the other girl out of a dark movie theater? She sat for five minutes and then huffed. Yes, yes she was.
When she made it to the hallway she didn't see any of them around. Shoving her hands into her jacket pocket, she quietly walked down the empty movie theater hall until she heard Jacob and Bella's voices around the corner. She paused. They were having a quiet, seemingly intimate conversation. Grace looked behind her and took one step forward, not meaning to eavesdrop but not able to tear herself away. The familiar tug was pulling her forward and she decided to listen to it this time.
She could just catch the end of Jacob's sentence: "...hold your hand?"
"You're about to ruin everything." She heard Bella say in an almost half whisper. "And I don't want to lose you."
So maybe they were together. Grace let her face fall.
"Well, I got loads of time. And I'm not giving up." Jacob replied. Bella took a minute to respond.
"I don't want you too. But it's just because I don't want you to go anywhere," she choked out, "It's selfish, I know, but….I'm not like a car that can be fixed up. I'm never gonna run right. So I should be fair to you."
"It's because of him right?" Jacob said softly. Grace was surprised at that. "Look, I know what he did to you, but I would never, ever do that to you Bella. I promise. I won't let you down."
There was a silence and then a small, whispered, "Jake."
Then, Mike Newton stumbled out of the bathroom behind Grace, blowing up her spot.
"Hey are you okay? You look really sick," Grace couldn't help saying, announcing her presence. Jacob and Bella came out from around the corner, Bella seemingly wiping a tear from her eye and trying to look normal. Grace tried not to look at them. Jacob's mouth was set in a hard line.
"I think I need to go home." He croaked. Jacob rolled his eyes and exhaled a frustrated breath. Mike looked at him aghast.
"Dude what's your problem?" Mike said.
"You're my problem." Jacob measured him with a fierce stare.
"What the hell?" Grace said her face screwed up in confusion.
"Feeling sick?" Jacob jabbed.
"Dude, stop." Mike took a step back as Jacob walked toward him.
"Maybe you should go to the hospital." He shoved Mike a few steps back and to this Bella grabbed his upper arm and Grace threw herself between Mike and Jake.
"Knock it off Jake!" Grace said.
"Yeah, movie's over Jake, come on," Bella tried to tug at his arm but he wasn't having it.
"Do you want me to put you in the hospital?" Jake's face looked different, the anger seeping through him was unfamiliar to his usually warm, and kind features.
"Woah!" Bella stumbled forward as Jake tried to lunge for Mike again. Grace put a forceful hand on his chest and with almost all of her strength, sans power, she pushed him back a little.
"Jake STOP!" Grace yelled now.
"Jake, you're like really hot," Bella pulled her hand back and both Grace and Mike looked at her incredulously. Really? Was now the time? "No, I mean, like you're burning up. Like you have a fever."
Jake didn't respond and just looked down at Grace who still had her hand held up in front of Jake at chest height.
"And you." he seethed. Grace braced for it. She could see now what was happening.
"Jacob, listen to me," she tried to soothe.
"You just disappear? Think you can just show back up and that I wouldn't have noticed? What are you playing at huh?"
"I'm not playing at anything Jake, I think you need to go home. I'll come with you," Grace took a step forward and reached for him but he grabbed her wrist, a little too hard if she was being honest. Mike took a weak step forward.
"Don't come near me," he stated, resolute, painfully, almost cruel. Grace let out a little gasp as he squeezed her wrist as a warning and dropped her hand forcefully. Bella, wide eyed, had taken a step back, not sure how to intervene. Jacob turned and walked off, mumbling an apology to Bella as she passed. Grace cradled her red ringed wrist as she watched Jacob's form disappear out the glass doors of the theater.
Everything in her was pulling her toward Jacob, but she refused to follow. This time, she wouldn't listen. It hurt too much.
