"Guys, this is Alaina, she'll be staying here for quite a while, so you should get to know her," Sam spoke to the group that walked up to us. There were several of them, at least six of them there, and one was a girl. She reminded me much of Emily, but younger and had a bit more muscle. She was just like the others, but feminized. None of them responded to Sam, giving me looks of disapproval and disgust, probably because I was white… or something else. The girl rolled her eyes and walked off. Did I do something to disgust her? A younger boy next to her sent her a questioning look as she jogged off.
He sighed and spoke up, "Don't mind Leah, she's always like this." The rest of the group sent him strange looks like he shouldn't have talked to me. The younger ignored them and smiled a bit, "I'm Seth by the way, nice to meet you Alaina." I blushed at his kindness, glad that he wasn't like everybody else there.
"N-Nice to meet you," I replied and again the group sent looks to each other. It was like they didn't expect me to talk or something. Or something, I thought. All of them were tense, even Seth despite his more outgoing behavior. What are they holding back?
"Mind if I join you guys in your game?" Sam asked to break the silence.
"We already have even teams since Jake isn't here," one of them said. His face was a bit longer than the others and he looked a bit more muscular than others. The name Jake caused everybody else to get tenser, and I wondered who he was.
"I can sit out," Seth said, and the entire group looked at him. "You guys can play while I hang with Alaina." That made me blush a bit more. When was the last time a guy was actually nice to me?
"Alright, then I get to be the striker," Sam proclaimed. The group erupted like it was unfair for him to be in that position, but they all drifted back towards the shore to play. Seth motioned with his head towards them, "Come on, we can sit by the fire pit." I followed behind him cautiously, watching the guys play roughly on the shore. The trees faded away so I could see the water more. The sand was rough, and there was a lot of rocks and shells in it. Rocks sat on the shore, in the water, and clumped closer together further down the shoreline. I could faintly see a cliff off in the distance where water crashed up against. The water lapped at the shore and I could hear sea gulls calling to each other.
"Here," Seth pointed to the logs sitting around a fire pit. I sat on one of them and he sat beside me. He wasn't completely avoiding me, we were a good couple inches apart, and he wasn't completely clinging to me. We watched the guys kick around, tackling each other, rough-housing on the sand. I couldn't tell which one was Sam, and the harder I looked, the more frustrated I got. I let out a deep sigh and Seth looked at me. "You alright?" he asked.
"Yeah…" I trailed off. That left an awkward silence between us and I wrapped my arms around myself out of nervousness. Usually when I was around guys, I was teased, pushed, and bullied. I was expecting Seth to push my shoulder to get more out of me, so the still atmosphere made me extremely anxious.
"So…" he started, and I glanced at him, waiting to hear teasing words come out of his mouth. "How are you liking Forks?" Now that was different. He was actually being kind to me, so I was taken a bit off guard.
I shrugged it off, "I like it. It's cold, but I like the cold. Especially the snow." The snowflakes came down much lighter now, but the temperature was slowly dropping. I didn't mind it that much, but I wanted it to snow more. Seth chuckled at my statement.
"I thought you would hate it, coming from Mexico and all," he said with a small smile. Now how did he know I came from Mexico? Evey probably told him. She probably told everybody.
"I guess I'm different that way," I said with a small smile. "It never snowed when I was there, so when Evey mentioned this place, I was actually happy to come." I wasn't happy to fly though, but I didn't want to tell him that.
He nodded, "I can see that." It looked like he was about to say something else, but he was holding it back. Not wanting my curiosity getting the best of me, I stayed quiet, listening to the waves. I did ask one thing though.
"So uh… who's who here?" I asked, gesturing to the guys playing.
"Well you know Sam," he said when Sam kicked the ball towards the invisible goal on the opposite side. "And there's Paul," he pointed to the guy with the longer face. "And there's Quil and Embry, they're like brothers," two guys passed to each other to get around Sam. "And Jared, he's closest to us." All I saw was Jared's back, but I nodded to Seth to understand who he meant.
"And… Leah? Was that the girl earlier?" I asked, getting a bit more comfortable talking to him.
"Yeah she's my older sister," he replied with a soft sigh. Now that he mentioned it, I could see the resemblance. "She doesn't like hanging with the guys that much." I assumed it was because all of them had their shirts off, but I doubted that was the only reason.
"Do I want to know why…?" I slyly asked, not wanting to intrude on something personal.
"She had a thing with Sam a while back. But since Sam is married to Emily, she always feels like the third wheel."
"Married? He seems a bit too young to be married," I said looking at how muscular and young Sam looked.
Seth shrugged, "They've always been together; it wasn't until a few years ago that Sam proposed. Plus, Sam is the oldest of all of us." Now that mentioned it, Sam seemed to be in his twenties, while everybody else looked to be in their late teens.
"How old are you?" I asked, since the subject seemed to revolve around that.
"Seventeen, you?"
"Sixteen, but I'm turning seventeen on the 30th." He looked older than seventeen, but I guessed it was hormonal…. or something to do with steroids. When he said that though, he was tense, like he was lying. Nobody would lie about their age though… would they? Seth was a strange kid, talking to me unlike the rest of the group and actually being nice.
He nodded and was about to say something else when something came flying towards him. I caught it just when it was about to hit his face and he blinked in surprise. Blushing, I tossed the soccer ball back at the group. They all stared at me like I was some freak and I brought my knees up to hug them. Maybe I shouldn't have caught the ball, and let it hit him, to prove I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't paying attention, it was just instinct. Evey told me my reflexes were incredible, making me stand out from the rest of my PE class back in Mexico. They called me something in Spanish, something that translated to a monster. Not only was I fast, I was strong, much more than the average kid. Standing out was something I despised, and I always longed to fit in somewhere. Even Seth was ignoring me now, watching the game go on and paying no attention to me. Why did we even come to Forks? Of course I'm going to stand out. I'm pale, have red hair, and have the speed of a cheetah and strength of an elephant.
That same call I heard from Sam earlier erupted from the trees, and all of the guys stopped playing. Embry grabbed the ball and joined the group into jogging back to the main res. Seth stood up and waited until I was with him before jogging back with the group. I kept up, but still slightly behind from the group. Comparing myself to the guys, as well as the rest of the people on the res, I knew I was never going to fit in. I'm the ugly duckling, I'll never find my true home, I told myself as we all split to eat some dinner.