Airports sucked.

Usually they wouldn't for Alex. It would normally be a sign of a happy vacation she was about to take with her family. Not today though, all it meant for her today was that her twin brother was leaving and was going to be across the other side of the country.

Her mother, Camila, was wiping tears away with her sleeve. Her father, Luke, was holding his wife comfortingly. Alex, however was trying her best to keep a strong face, she vowed to herself that not one tear would be shed on her behalf. Although she was aware this was probably a terrible bet to make.

"That's my last call," Jordan said to his family regretfully after a voice came over the loud speaker. He had ignored the first two requests for passengers to board his flight, wanting to spend as much time with his family as he could but this was something he couldn't put off any longer. "I better get going."

Camila wrapped her son up in her arms, not even ashamed at the tears that poured out of her sparkling brown eyes. Alex had to look away from this, and when Luke pulled his son into his embrace as well because it was finally hitting her that this was real. And that was more frightening then she wanted to admit.

Before Alex even knew it Jordan was standing in front of his sister whom barely made it up to his shoulders in height. Alex quickly wrapped her arms around his torso, not even bothering to try to get him down to her size. Jordan's arms bound around her petite shoulders and he placed a brief kiss on the top of her hair.

"This sucks," Jordan said in a breath, pushing Alex away from him so she could look at him while he was talking.

It took that split second of looking at her twin's face for Alex's eyes to well up with tears. So much for her strong facade.

"Don't cry, hermana," Jordan spoke easily, his hands brushing her shoulders comfortingly. "You're going to be fine without me."

Hearing him say the word sister in Spanish made Alex wanting to cry harder. Jordan never spoke Spanish, no matter how much their mother tried to get him to do it. Alex was more willing, but Jordan wasn't. It must have been to sooth Alex and that small knowledge of him caring to do something for her made her the brunette's heart hurt.

"Am I really going to be? I have barely lived a day without you, how am I supposed to know what to do?"

Jordan sighed, seeing Alex like this – with tears flowing down her cheeks and her bottom lip beginning to tremble – was making leaving a lot harder than he ever thought it would be. Forks had always been a place for Alex, who liked simplicity, but not for Jordan. He was bigger than this city, his family was the only thing keeping him here. "You'll figure it out, you're the smart one out of us remember? You've got this. I know you do."

Alex forced a nod of her head, although she didn't believe a word that he was saying.

"You have to promise me something," Jordan spoke with so much love in his voice that it was foreign to Alex. "Don't just sit around while I'm gone. You need to live, experience things and have fun. I know you love home and your books, and that's fine, but I want you to really be a teenager for once. Be reckless and make stupid decisions."

"You do that enough for the both of us," Alex countered back jokingly.

Jordan shook the girl playfully. "Exactly, but I'm not going to be here to do that anymore. You need to take my place, keep Mama on her toes."

Alex genuienly smiled then, which she didn't think would be possible.

"When I come back for Thanksgiving I want to hear about all your new, cool friends in La Push and the crazy shit you all did. That's all I'm asking," Jordan reiterated.

"Alright, alright. Make friends, got it. You are my only friend at the moment and that is rather sad," Alex thought aloud, to which she got a sly smile from her brother.

"That doesn't mean you can forget me though," Jordan clarified, narrowing his dark eyes at the brunette. "I'm always going to be your favorite. Always."

Alex nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Always."

The smaller girl wrapped her arms around his torso again, her head leaning on his chest. "I love you."

"Love you too, Lexi."

Alex wiped some of the moisture of her cheeks when she disentangled herself from Jordan and sent him a small smile. "We're womb buddies. Not even distance can get rid of that."

"Damn right," Jordan smirked back at the five-foot-one girl and rose his hand for a high-five, which she obviously returned.

Alex sure hoped Jordan was right.

♡♡♡♡♡

Alex's first impression on La Push's local high school was that it was tiny – and Alex knew tiny since she had previously attended Forks High.

Camila Santiago watched her daughter with an apologetic look. She wished she didn't have to change schools, but it was the most logical thing to do. Money was tight and the smaller sizing of the houses in La Push meant that they weren't desperately clinging to coins for rent like they were in Forks.

"Wish me luck, I'm most probably going to need it," Alex turned to her mother and rolled her eyes at the look that was on the older woman's face. "I told you it's fine, Mama. Don't stress I'm okay."

"I just wish J was here that's all." Camila really did want that, she knew how much of a security blanket he was for Alex.

"Well, he ditched us for a bunch of smelly, stinky jock douches. He's a traitor in my eyes now, Ma," Alex joked, her mother smacked her lightly on the hand at the language used.

"Don't use that word, mija. I don't like it."

"You don't like a lot of things. If I did everything to your liking then I would be turning up to this place speaking only Spanish to a bunch of Americans who only understand English. They probably wouldn't appreciate it." Alex was in no way insulting her mother, in fact she admired the love the woman had for her culture and where she was actually born – Colombia.

Camila cradled Alex's head in her hands. "Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you?"

Alex scrunched up her nose and tried to move out of her mother's embrace, but the woman had a firm grip. "Of course I don't want you coming in. My goal is to make friends not to get teased as soon as I walk in the door."

"How did you get all the dramatic genes?" Camila asked playfully before she kissed Alex's head gently. "Have a good day, mija."

"I'll try, Mama."

♡♡♡♡♡

Making friends seemed like an easy thing to promise her brother, but Alex quickly realized that she may have been aiming a bit high.

She never used to worry too much about making friends in Forks, sure she had a few people in her classes that she liked but at the end of the day she always had Jordan.

Not anymore she didn't which meant friends were a must for Alex. She just had to work up the nerve to talk to someone. Easier said than done.

In Chemistry this morning the brunette had talked to her partner, Katie, briefly but Alex didn't think she liked her very much. Then again, most of the time Alex thought that no one liked her when in actuality they did.

It was lunch now and Alex was deeply regretting not speaking to anyone in her English and Calculus classes. She had no one to sit with at lunch now and it was going to be beyond awkward.

The small girl walked in to the cafeteria – after looking for it for 10 minutes – and a feeling of nerves ripped through her stomach. Alex hated being the center of attention, and that is exactly what she was. It was obvious that La Push High didn't get many new people, since the place almost went dead silent as Alex walked through the steel made doors. Everyone was staring at her.

At this point, Alex simply wanted to curl up in a ball.

Alex didn't know how much time had passed before someone tapped her on the shoulder gently. The girl turned around at the tap and was forced to lift her eyes up to look at the face of the person wanting her attention. He was so tall that her eye level was his mid chest.

If Alex wanted to curl up in a ball before, then right about now was when she just wished to be buried alive.

The boy who tapped her on the shoulder coincidentally also happened to be the boy who continually stared at her yesterday out on her back porch. The same very boy that totally caught her staring at him.

"You're new," His voice was deeper than Alex remembered. "I have never seen you around here before, well except for yesterday."

Alex simply stared at the boy, knowing all too well that her face was redder than it had ever been in her entire life.

"I'm Paul Lahote," He introduced, a sly smirk on his face. "Not a talker, huh?"

"Not particularly," Alex uttered out after realizing she had been silent for way too long. Why was this boy constantly there to witness her mistakes?

These words only seemed to make Paul's smirk widen. "Interesting. Pretty and quiet. A deadly combo."

Alex didn't think her face could blush any harder but it did. Her stomach filled with butterflies at the easy compliment that fell out of his mouth. She realized quickly that Paul seemed like a guy who did that a lot– compliment girls.

"Can you talk enough to tell me your name?" Paul goaded gently, trying his best to act cool under the pressure. His heart was beating faster at being closer to the girl. It was almost scary to him that his body was having this reaction to someone he didn't even know the name of.

"Alex," The brunette spoke softly, her eyes coming up finally so that they met with Paul's. His eyes were deep and dark, an enticing color that Alex didn't want to forget anytime soon. "Alex Santiago."

"Alex Santiago," Paul tried the words out of his mouth and instantly wanted to repeat them a thousand times over. They sounded like magic. "Well, Alex Santiago, would you like to come sit with my friends and I? Wouldn't want you to sit alone on the first day."

The small brunette nodded her head knowing that this was probably the only offer she was going to get. Sitting alone was the other option and Alex wasn't keen on that, plus her mind more or less decided for her. Her nodding was almost involuntary.

Paul started to walk off to the right where two other people were sitting at a table. Alex took a quick look around the cafeteria overcrowded with students and noticed that everyone was still staring at her. The brunette tucked a strand of hair off her face nervously, hating having dozens of eyes on her. She also wasn't sure if they were staring at her because she was new or because she was walking with Paul.

Alex already knew that the boy was charismatic, which usually went hand in hand with being well liked.

"This is Jared," Paul quickly introduced to Alex when they made it to the rickety table. "and Kim."

Jared was the name of the other boy that was with Paul in the forest yesterday, the thought of which already made Alex blush again. Kim was tucked under his muscular arm and smiled happily at Alex. Her mousy brown hair fell down to her shoulders and freckles were dotted around her face.

"This is Alex Santiago," Paul said to them both, his eyes however not leaving the new girl's face once. He had truly gotten his first pull from the imprint when Alex had walked into the cafeteria. Kim had told him that she was in her Calculus class, but it wasn't until Alex was in his sight that he needed to talk to her. Especially because everyone was staring at her, Alex looked lonely and that was something Paul's heart pulled him to fix.

"That's such a cute name," Kim spoke while she picked at her sandwich absentmindedly. "I got stuck with boring old Kim"

"Shut up," Jared nudged the girl with his free elbow. "Your name is cute too."

Paul leaned in closer to Alex, his arm resting easily on the table. The two of them had sat on one side of the table, while Jared and Kim were sitting opposite. "Jared and Kim have been dating for two months, it is like this every day."

"Sounds like fun," Alex spoke softly as she moved her eyes to witness the pair of them sneak a small kiss off each other.

A small noise of disgust came from Alex's left. Paul had his mouth pulled into a frown. "Guys, we have a guest. Can you maybe save that for the bedroom later? No one wants to see you sharing spit during lunch."

"Jealous," Jared stated, smacking his arm playfully. Both of the boys and Kim knew what he meant, which left Alex in the dark. Paul narrowed his eyes at his friend in challenge, he wasn't allowed to spill any beans.

"So, Alex. Why did you move to La Push?" Kim asked the girl happily, a smile tugging at her lips.

Alex bit her lip out of instinct. Three pairs of eyes were on her and it was a little unsettling. "My brother moved states for a football scholarship and so my parents chose to downsize houses. We moved from Forks to here."

"Forks?" Jared asked amazed, his face turning rather playful. "You know the Cullen's?

It was asked so casually that Alex didn't pick up on anything, but Paul sent a rather pointed glare to the boy. Jared simply rose his eyebrows at him in return. "I never actually spoke to them but I saw them around. They are all very pale."

This made Paul let out a short laugh. "That is a very accurate thought, Alex."

Alex quickly decided that she liked the way her name sounded coming out of Paul's mouth. She wasn't sure why, it was just something she liked.

"You actually live pretty close to me," Kim announced with her attention fully on Alex. "Jared was telling me where he and Paul saw you. I'm only about five minutes away."

Alex hated the bringing up of when she saw Jared and Paul. She fought hard to not let a blush form on her cheeks again.

"We should carpool to school or something. I just got my license, Jared won't let me drive with him but I'm sure you're cool enough to let me," Kim joked to the girl, while Jared rolled his eyes at her comment about him.

"Just not looking to die anytime soon," Jared defended himself.

Alex smiled at the two of them, she could already tell that they really liked each other. "You can drive me if you want. I don't think anyone could be a worse driver than my brother so I can handle it."

"You'll regret that decision," Paul muttered under his breath so that Alex could hear him. Kim also did however and swiftly picked up a bit of bread from her sandwich and hurled it at the Lahote boy.

Alex found herself laughing already in the presence of these three strangers. She felt a lot more comfortable then she expected. "I won't regret it, don't worry, Kim. Drive me anywhere."

The brunette smirked at both the boys confidently before leaning her fist in, which Alex bumped in response quickly. "I like her, she's a keeper."

Paul couldn't help but think that Kim was right, he definitely liked Alex and he didn't think it was solely the imprint talking.

♡♡♡♡♡