I meant to sleep in, but an unusual brightness woke me. I opened my eyes to see a clear yellow light streaming through my window. I hurried to the window to check, and sure enough, there was the sun. It was in the wrong place in the sky, too low, and it didn't seem to be as close as it should be, but it was definitely the sun. Clouds ringed the horizon, but a large patch of blue was visible in the middle.

I decided to stay by the window for as long as I could, pulling out a canvas and began sketching. I cursed to myself when I saw the familiar eyes I was trying to get over.

Shaking my head, I put the drawing away and got everything packed for the day. It was still going to be colder; the water was the biggest issue. So, I made sure to grab my rain jacket. As I headed downstairs.

My mom was sitting at the bar, a cup of coffee in her hands.

"morning" I replied grabbing some juice.

"Good morning. Everything is already in the cooler" she replied her brows furrowed as she looked at the paper.

"everything okay?" she looked up.

"yeah, just the paper... there's been some missing persons cases."

"any in town?"

She shook her head "no, they're outside of Port Angeles. Up north. Nothing for you to worry about"

I nodded, "okay... I'm heading to the Newton's Store"

"Remember to take your jacket okay, the water is going to be cold"

"I will, promise"

The Newtons' Olympic Outfitters store was just north of town. I had been here a few times but never for anything major. In the parking lot I recognized Mike's Suburban and Tyler's Sentra. As I pulled up next to their vehicles, I could see the group standing around in front of the Suburban. Eric was there along with Ben and Connor, Jess was there too, flanked by Angela and Lauren.

Bella was just stepping out of her truck as I pulled in. When I stepped I saw Mike approach Bella. Another boy who was obsessed with the girl.

I guess it made some sense, opposites attract right? Mike is outgoing, happy go lucky, athletic and Bella is the introvert. Quiet, awkward. I guess that would be why he and Jess wouldn't work out, Jess was his female version... to a point. Mike wasn't a gossip and was very loyal.

"You came!" he called, delighted. "And I said it would be sunny today, didn't I?"

"I told you I was coming," she reminded him.

"We're just waiting for Lee and Samantha... unless you invited someone," Mike added.

"Nope," Bella replied I couldn't tell if she was lying or not. Mike however looked satisfied with that. I couldn't just pretend that Bella only had eyes for Edward.

"Will you ride in my car? It's that or you could ride with Alex." Mike seemed to just now realize I was here.

"Sure." Bella replied earning a blissful smile from Mike.

"You can have shotgun," he promised.

I rolled my eyes and helped pack up everything and got everything into my cooler. Since this was Mike and I's plan, we were required to bring food. Or rather we agreed to because this was an all-day event. So, my mom and I ordered a bunch of sandwiches from the diner while Mike brought drinks (sodas, juice) and some chips.

Of course, others brought their own food, I for instance wasn't a big fan of chips probably because I never really ate them. I mean they were always too salty... with dip it wasn't so bad.

It was only fifteen miles to La Push from Forks, with gorgeous, dense green forests edging the road most of the way and the wide Quillayute River snaking beneath it twice. In the end I drove Angela, Lee, Samantha, and Ben, the others piled in Mike's car.

We rolled the windows down since it was so beautiful out, and it was a little stuffy in the car. We drove effortlessly through the winding roads, towering trees looming over the roads.

I'd been to the beaches around La Push more times than I could count, during the summer I often came down to visit my aunt Alison and cousin Sam, but even thinking about family trees was so confusing and complex that I tried not to.

Technically speaking I had a large family, with relations to the Blacks, Clearwater's, Littlesea's; somewhere way back I was related to all of them-mostly through marriage, but it was simultaneously weird and amazing to have such a big community on my side.

Despite that, the Blacks were my closest relatives, other than the Uley's for which my father was descended from... perhaps descended from was the wrong word, Charles Uley was my grandfather. He was married to a woman and had a son named Joshua, then his wife passed, and he ended up having a child with my grandmother, my father. So, my closest relative was my half-cousin Sam, who acted much more like an older brother than anything else.

While I would visit my family on the reservation, the beach was one of my favorite places. The mile-long crescent of First Beach was breathtaking. The water was dark gray, even in the sunlight, white-capped and heaving to the gray, rocky shore. Islands rose out of the steel harbor waters with sheer cliff sides, reaching to uneven summits, and crowned with austere, soaring firs.

The beach had only a thin border of actual sand at the water's edge, after which it grew into millions of large, smooth stones that looked uniformly gray from a distance, but close up were every shade a stone could be terra-cotta, sea green, lavender, blue gray, dull gold. The tide line was strewn with huge driftwood trees, bleached bone white in the salt waves, some piled together against the edge of the forest fringe, some lying solitary, just out of reach of the waves.

There was a brisk wind coming off the waves, cool and briny. Pelicans floated on the swells while seagulls and a lone eagle wheeled above them. The clouds still circled the sky, threatening to invade at any moment, but for now the sun shone bravely in its halo of blue sky. For this I was grateful to have a rain jacket with me, or grateful that my helicopter mother made me take one.

We picked our way down to the beach, Mike leading the way to a ring of driftwood logs that had obviously been used for parties like ours before. There was a fire circle already in place, filled with black ashes. Eric and Ben gathered broken branches of driftwood from the drier piles against the forest edge, while Tyler and I gathered actual wood from the forest. And soon we had a small teepee-shaped construction built atop the old cinders.

"Have you ever seen a driftwood fire?" Mike asked Bella.

I was sitting next to her on one of the bone-colored benches; the other girls clustered, gossiping excitedly, on either side of me. Mike kneeled by the fire, lighting one of the smaller sticks with a cigarette lighter.

"No" Bella replied, but I wasn't surprised since she lived in Phoenix practically her whole life.

"You'll like this then — watch the colors." He lit another small branch and laid it alongside the first. The flames started to lick quickly up the dry wood.

"It's blue," Bella said in surprise.

"it's the salt." I replied slowly building up another teepee of actual wood "but the chemicals are harmful when burned so it's not recommended that we burn a lot of it. Which is why we add other wood."

"Alex's right, it's pretty but dangerous." Mike replied.

"but if you add other wood, it helps limit the amount of chemicals we inhale and we still get to see some of the pretty colors" I replied lighting another piece of wood so that the entire teepee was lit.

After tending to the fire, I moved to sit next to Bella and looked out at the surf. After about half an hour of sitting around and doing nothing, besides talking about the stupid gossip that kids talk about.

I stood up and suggested we hike to the tidal pools. Most of the other girls besides Angela and Jessica decided to stay on the beach as well. Bella seemed to be facing a dilemma.

"don't worry Bella, I won't let you get too hurt" I whispered back knowing she was perhaps the clumsiest girl I had ever met. I couldn't help the slight snicker as she rolled her eyes at me, but in the end, she got up and joined the pro-hiking group.

The hike wasn't too long the green light of the forest was strangely at odds with the adolescent laughter, too murky and ominous to be in harmony with the light banter around me. I stayed back with Bella watching every step to ensure she didn't fall and break something.

"how can you just walk through without looking at your feet?" Bella asked. "there's roots and rocks everywhere"

I chuckled "I don't know, I just can. It's like I can tell exactly what's under my feet"

"must be nice" she mumbled.

"some people are just clumsy" I laughed lightly.

"so, is this what you do during the summer? Walk through the woods by the ocean."

I thought for a moment "Sometimes. I visit my aunt and cousin, sometimes my mom and I go on a vacation of sorts, usually a road trip."

"you and your mom are close"

I nodded "I mean when I was little, I had my dad, but my mom's always been there. She hovers if you haven't noticed. It's like she's worried something bad will happen any minute, that I'll just up and disappear, so she's trying to make up for it."

"you're not a little kid anymore. She's probably just worried you'll become an angsty teenager" Bella laughed, I laughed with her shaking my head.

Eventually we broke through the emerald confines of the forest and found the rocky shore again. It was low tide, and a tidal river flowed past us on its way to the sea. Along its pebbled banks, shallow pools that never completely drained were teeming with life.

"you see that island out there?" I told Bella. She looked out at the towering trees seemingly in the middle of the ocean.

"yeah"

"that's James Island. Top of the Rock, to the locals. Legend has it that many generations ago the Quiluetes and the spirits of our ancestors lived there. The land used to stretch all the way up the coasts, to Canada."

"what happened?" Bella asked looking out at the tiny island.

"well, I don't know. I don't think many do... floods, spiritual travels. The Elders remember 'back in the old days' when the 'old people' would challenge the kwalla" I used finger quotes but turned to make sure Bella was paying attention "the mighty whale... the Quileutes used to be Whalers. But the island is the burial place of many great chiefs. A place of Quileute Heritage"

"that's cool"

I chuckled "we have all kinds of legends and stories... some of them seem a little superstitious. But it's tradition"

I looked down at the bouquets of brilliant anemones undulated ceaselessly in the invisible current, twisted shells scurried about the edges, obscuring the crabs within them, starfish stuck motionless to the rocks and each other, while one small black eel with white racing stripes wove through the bright green weeds, waiting for the sea to return.

It was beautiful, one of the perks of living in the rainy state. Beauty lies hidden, it was a shame though since it was hidden in La Push, there was someone who would never get to see them. I shook that thought from my head, I was still trying to figure everything out.

But without getting close to them I would never be able to determine if it was true. Fast, Pale, avoids blood. It was starting to feel like the legends were, but it was too unbelievable.

Finally, the boys were hungry, so we eagerly ventured through the woods. I tried to simultaneously watch Bella and keep up with the group. It was tedious to try and have a conversation with Angela and watch Bella, so, naturally she fell a few times earning some shallow scrapes on her palms, and green stains on her jeans.

It could have been worse, but I managed to catch her a few times, so she wasn't injured further. When we got back to First Beach, the group we'd left behind had multiplied. As we got closer, we could see the shining, straight black hair and copper skin of the newcomers, teenagers from the reservation who had come to socialize.

It was just as much of an adventure for them to visit with the newcomers as it was for us to come to La Push. The food was already being passed around, and the boys hurried to claim a share while Eric introduced us as we each entered the driftwood circle.

I didn't need it, but it was nice anyway.

Angela, Bella, and I were the last to arrive, and, as Eric said our names. I noticed Jacob perk up at the sound of Bella's name. As we sat down, Sam, the oldest introduced the others.

Sam was 20, almost 21 his birthday was weird, but he was getting a break in his schoolwork. Anyway, like the others he had long black hair and eyes. With him was a girl named Jessica, I didn't know her personally so she must have been visiting. Then there was Kim, a shy yet sweet girl. Finally, there was Jacob, Embry, Quil and Seth. Seth was the youngest about 14-15; while Jacob and the others were the same age as me.

Often times we hung out and had been spending more time together since Sam was off at college, he almost always made time for me though. I wouldn't ask him to skip his schoolwork but it was nice to have him around.

I grabbed some sandwiches and brought them to Angela and Bella while Mike brought an array of sodas. During lunch the clouds started to advance, slinking across the blue sky, darting in front of the sun momentarily, casting long shadows across the beach, and blackening the waves.

As they finished eating, people started to drift away in twos and threes. Some walked down to the edge of the waves, trying to skip rocks across the choppy surface. Others were gathering a second expedition to the tide pools. Mike — with Jessica shadowing him — headed up to the one shop in the village. Some of the local kids went with them; others went along on the hike. By the time they had all scattered I was sitting in the sand lounging with my back against the driftwood log Just taking in the scene.

Bella was sitting on the log next to me, Lauren and Tyler were occupying themselves by the CD player someone had thought to bring, and three teenagers from the reservation perched around the circle, Jacob, Lean and Sam. Jacob eagerly moved to sit next to Bella, while Embry plopped next to me.

"you're drinking soda? What would Val say?" he chuckled.

"hardy har-har." I gave him a mock glare. "She's proactive."

"she made you eat kale, didn't she?" Sam asked with a laugh.