"Hey! There he is!"
Emmett Cullen smiled to himself as he pulled off his light jacket and hung it up on the pegs next to the door. Two feet down, he swiped his timecard, punching himself in. It was his favorite time of day.
The smell of ink and paper filled his sense of smell as he made his way to the middle of the shop. Of course, those weren't the only things he smelled. The adhesive on the pads of paper to his left had just went on, Arnold was applying a wash liberally to the press rollers ahead of him, and, of course, there was the unmistakable smell of unspilt blood. He tapped his fist on the edge of the large cutting machine his supervisor, Brett, was working at.
"What's new boss?" Emmett greeted him, glancing at the clock. Right on time.
Brett tossed a couple job tickets at the boy, "Here's what we got tonight. Lighter load today. You got a new girl coming in tomorrow."
"I do?" He glanced up from the tickets he was reading. It was rare they had a new employee. Emmett had been there almost two years, nearly the newest one there if it hadn't been for Cameron leaving and needing to be replaced by Alex. Of course, Stacy had left and come back after Emmett started, but that didn't really count….
"Yup. High school kid's joining ya on evenings. Some girl that a friend of Kevin knows or something? Just moved to town and needs a job." Brett dragged him out of his thought spiral.
Emmett nodded in response. It would be nice to have someone else on evenings to keep him company aside from Tyler. Not to mention good practice. Though he would be lying if he said that he wasn't nervous about being left alone with a human at night. Everyone else in the print shop left at 4:30 or 5 and there was no second shift – it was much too small to need it. And Tyler wasn't around much, being that he didn't actually work for the company. That meant if Emmett slipped….
It was really the whole reason he even worked there. He didn't need the hours or the money, but the practice was priceless. And he'd done incredibly well so far. He could handle being in school and at work with the guys for over eight hours a day with no problem if he hunted recently. Hopefully that meant an extra couple with one girl would be fine.
"Figured we could have you train her in since you'll be working the same hours. You've been here long enough you know what you're doing." Brett continued. "Besides, maybe you can get a social life out of it."
Em rolled his eyes. It was a common joke amongst the team that Emmett had no social life and that was why he worked at the little shop. "You know I have a girlfriend, right? I only talk about her always."
"Ahh yes. The mysterious girlfriend we've never seen."
"Dude. I've shown you pictures!"
Brett shrugged and gave him a wink, "You're good at photoshop?"
"You need a partner?" Jim yelled from across the shop. Of course, that was the only part he heard. He grabbed something off the table beside him and wandered over.
Emmett shook his head. He could only imagine what was coming. Jim was a balding, white haired man that had been with the company since it began nearly 50 years ago. Despite his age, he was an…interesting character. Never married, and no kids, Jim got most of his social interaction through this job...and it showed sometimes.
"Here ya go," Jim threw a calendar at Em. Emmett only glanced at it while it flew through the air, but it was enough to make him groan.
"Jim…" Emmett threw it back almost as soon as it touched his hands, "I don't want your porno calendar."
Brett busted out laughing, "Throw that damn thing away!"
Emmett just turned and got to work before Jim had the chance to argue. It wasn't really a porno calendar, just one with a bunch of people in swimsuits. A local bar had them printed a couple weeks ago and Jim was "holding onto the extras just in case." Em wasn't sure why. Jim had taken three of them home after they made count. In any case, he wasn't about to ask. He had work to do and mental preparation to complete…and maybe a hunt on his way home from work.
An hour away, in a military apartment complex on the outskirts of Port Angeles, Hensley was throwing clothes into the two drawers she got to claim of the bedroom dresser. She really wasn't sure why she was unpacking. This was the 3rd time she'd been relocated in the last year and she wasn't at all convinced that they'd last long in Washington. Nothing ever lasted too long anywhere.
Next to her, her roommate, Kaufmann, was doing something similar with his clothing, though his organization method was…nonexistent. Her other two roommates, who were also crammed into the one-bedroom apartment, had finished hours ago and were tossing a foam football across the room.
"Can't believe you waited until the last minute to do this." Anderson chided, watching Hensley.
He was not one to talk and Hensley was quick to remind him of that. "This is usually you, dillweed." Hensley rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see it. Her sharp tone was enough to get the point across that she was in no mood for teasing. So, they continued teasing.
"And yet, here I am, finished."
"Finished in 30 seconds, just like normal." Hensley shot back, to the glee of Kaufmann. Though he was the oldest of the four, at 22, he sure could act like a child.
Therefore, it was no surprise to any of them when he took the joke and ran with it. "Ya get a discount on services when ya finish that quick?" His Texan accent shown through more than ever when he was giving someone hell.
Anderson huffed. He had walked right into this series and contemplated how he was going to get himself out of it. "No, your mom usually doesn't charge much."
Even Red, who was named for his flaming red hair, laughed at that. Gruff and rough in every sense of the word, Hensley was surprised that got him to crack. It was a true sign of a good jab when Red laughed. He was always serious and on edge; muscles tensed and tight in a way that made Hensley slightly uncomfortable just looking at him. Though he was only younger than Kaufmann by a year, Red had seen more shit than any of them.
"Are you excited?" Kaufmann sang, pausing his work to face her. She could feel his playful eyes staring at the side of her head.
"Not really. It's an hour drive. Why I couldn't attend school here I'm really not quite sure." The foam ball nearly hit her on the back of head, had she not moved out of the way.
Anderson cursed, running his hands through his non-existent hair, "Damn! I was really hoping to catch ya off guard there."
Hensley rolled her eyes and threw it back at him, successfully hitting him in the arm even while he leaned away.
"It's foam, ya wuss." Kaufmann teased the boy.
"She can make anything hurt," Anderson whined.
"Anythang." Hensley teased Anderson's own southern drawl. It wasn't as prominent as Kaufmann's, but it came out every now and then. Kaufmann often said he kept his strong to 'win the ladies.' He did get a lot of ladies, so perhaps that was true.
"Maybe you have a shit pain tolerance." She continued, even though she knew that wasn't true. To be with them, you had to handle pain.
"Not all of us can take an arrow to the arm without flinching." He conceded.
Kaufmann joined in on her laughter and Red cracked a small smile, all remembering that day despite how many years had now passed. In order to help his accuracy, the Sargent had Hensley stand in front of Anderson's target. They were hopeful it'd help him slow down and hit decent for once. Instead, it ended with Hensley taking the arrow to the forearm. She'd been too shocked that he hit her to react – as if there was any crying or wincing from the pain in their branch anyway.
Anderson had felt terrible about it until a few months later, when Hensley nicked him with a knife during training. She'd misjudged which direction he was going to turn and caught his ear. They all learned quick that injury was just part of the process.
They spent the rest of the night tossing the ball around and taking jabs at each other. Hensley decided she could finish unpacking later when there wasn't as many interruptions. As much as they wished they could've stayed up late and enjoyed the night, the three boys had work and Hensley had an exciting day of a new school ahead of her.
The worst part about sharing a house with three guys was the bathroom wait. Everyone said that women are slow, but Hensley could be showered and dressed 3 times in the time it took Kaufmann to get his ass out once. Having one bathroom for four people was just plain inconvenient. Normal, but no less terrible.
Breakfast was basically a skip meal by the time she threw on her clothes and packed up her backpack. Kaufmann tossed her a granola bar and handed her a thermos of coffee, supposedly an apology for making her late to her first day. She nodded to him as she took a sip. He knew how to make her coffee beautifully: with a fuck-ton of sugar and creamer.
Once outside, a small smile fell on her lips as she got into her Jeep. Sure, it wasn't the newest one out there anymore, but it was the first thing Hensley had purchased with her own money and it held a lot of good memories. Most of them shooting the shit with the boys while they fixed what had broken on it.
The drive to school was quieter than she'd expected it to be, though she wasn't sure why. It wasn't like there'd be tons of people itching to get to Forks. She'd never even heard of the town until she found out they were set to be transferred to the area. Who even named this place anyway? Did they create the first fork? Did they have a lot of road forks? How stupid of a conversation starter would that be on her first day?
It turned out she didn't need one. If a new car didn't catch someone's eye, then the sight a new face certainly did. Hensley's arrival wasn't exactly announced to the school district until a few days ago and she was certain the school was under strict instruction to say nothing. After all, Hensley had seen the vetting process for a school being eligible to instruct her and it was not pretty. No prior warning of a new kid was sure to pique a lot of interest, especially in this small of a town.
She tried to ignore the eyes of strangers as she walked to the main office, bag slung over her shoulder. Most people avoided her, a blessing and a curse, preferring to clump together to gossip rather than introduce themselves. It wasn't an uncommon practice. Hensley had been the new kid far too many times to be surprised at such a reaction. The fact that her arrival was so secretive usually didn't help her make friends either.
The office inside was warm and cozy, as if compensating for the fall air outside. Hensley noted immediately that the technology in this shabby school was painfully outdated. Why was that always a requirement for a school she attended?
A shorter woman with cat eye glasses greeted her almost instantly. It was humorous to see the woman put on her 'customer service face' as she stood. "You must be Alexandra."
"Alexandria." Hensley corrected with a small smile, "but yes."
Mrs. Cope, according to her name tag, handed her a half sheet of paper. "Apologies, Alexandria. Here's your schedule. Just have all your teachers sign it and return it back here at the end of the day. And here's a map to help you get around."
Hensley didn't need the map. She had memorized the location of every room in this building weeks ago, but she took it to not draw any more attention to herself. "Thank you, have a lovely day."
Her first four classes were much the same. Teachers making her introduce herself, a couple brave, or nosy, students welcoming her to Forks, and a riveting lecture to listen to.
Jessica Stanley was a constant throughout in her morning classes. Hensley couldn't decide if that was good or bad. She was quite chatty between the three lectures they shared. On one hand, Hensley wasn't very optimistic that she'd be around long enough to call Jess a good friend, but it was nice to have someone actually speaking to her instead of whispering about her.
Jess was also quick to introduce Hensley to some other friends, notably another new student, Isabella – or Bella, rather. Hensley was surprised the two made it as friends. Bella was pretty quiet, though maybe that was helpful for the pair. Usually a talker and a listener did work well together. Hensley learned that Bella was the Chief of Police's daughter and also new to Forks from Arizona, but Hensley wasn't sure if that was a sick joke or not. Bella was incredibly pale to be coming from such a sunny state.
Hensley wanted to ask, though thought better of it. It probably wasn't a good idea to anger the only two people willing to chat and invite her to lunch on the first day. Besides, she had far more pressing things to deal with….