Chapter One
Meeting Kara
Do you know that one kid in your school that everyone just seems to dislike or just likes to pick on? Yeah, that's me. I'm fifteen years old and am starting my sophomore year in the Quileute Tribal High School. I live on the reservation and I am proud of my heritage. I come from an incredibly beautiful family. I have an older sister that is perfect in her beauty and a younger brother who is your typical Quiluete boy. I, on the other hand, am nothing like my family. I have green eyes, light brown wavy hair, and lightly toasted skin. My parents tell me that I get some of my features from a distant grandmother who wasn't Quileute. It's just my luck that I get the random recessive genes that make me look like an outsider. I have been lovingly teased by my family since I can remember about my appearance. At school I have been treated cruelly. I am mocked and made fun of and they have always commented on the fact that I don't belong in their world. Today starts the school year here; my freshman year was spent with my aunt and uncle in Seattle. My parents gave me the option of going there last year and I jumped at the chance. I am not excited at all about being here this year. There are too many hurtful memories from my fellow classmates. I just want to stay home and avoid the stares and mocking words, but that's not how my parents raised me so I am stuck going to school.
I grabbed the first pair of dark jeans I could find and my favorite purple top and headed downstairs to see my family for breakfast. My mom is freakishly crazy about having the family together for breakfast and dinner. So everyone was already there.
"Ah, there's my favorite adopted sister!" Great, Ben just couldn't resist teasing me this morning. I didn't ever deem that worthy of a response so I just rolled my eyes and smirked.
"Kara, it's nice that you decided to grace us with your presence." Typical remark from Ashley, my older sister. She is starting her senior year today and is totally stoked about it. She looks like a Quileute princess with her dark brown eyes, beautiful silky long black hair and the brown skin with a hint of russet. She was every boys dream girl on the reservation. She is also my best friend and confidant.
"Yeah, well I wanted to be fashionably late." I told her with my sweetest smile I could muster on the first day of school.
"Kara, I want you to start off this year really well. Please try to make friends and be nice to the other kids in your classes. They haven't seen you in a while and you should give them a chance." This is the standard statement from my mom. Like I can control the way others perceive me and make them like me.
"Jeez, mom, you think that I am the one that isn't nice. It's not me they don't like it's the way I look. How many times do we have to have this conversation before you understand that I want friends, but they don't want me?" I guess that looking different wouldn't have been that bad if I had a winning personality that attracted a lot of friends. I am just really shy and sensitive so when the kids started making fun of me in elementary school I just withdrew into myself and let it happen.
"Well, you weren't there last year, so now you can have a fresh start. Try to forget all of the past and see what happens." I was starting to rethink my decision to come home this year. I just really missed my family and the kids in Seattle weren't much different than the kids in La Push. I just never really made friends and so there were lots of terrible rumors going around about why I was there.
"Sure, Mom." I said this sarcastically and she gave me look that let me know she heard. As soon as they recognize me it will be business as usual. Maybe since Ashley is a senior it will be different. We haven't been in the same school in a long time, so she could influence the outcome. Hmm, I never thought about that. Maybe this year will be different.
"Oh, well, anyway this year could be different. I don't know why you think they don't like you because of your looks. I think you are unique and beautiful."
"Mom, no girl wants to look unique in high school." I mumbled as I finished my breakfast. As usual my dad and brother stayed quiet during this conversation. They just ignored the fact that I was miserable at school and acted like nothing was wrong when I got home. I was perfectly okay with this because it allowed me the normalcy that I didn't get at school. My mom and sister, though, liked to dissect everything I did just to see if they could help. Of course, nothing I did ever worked. This year Ashley's goal was to have me get a super tan by the end of the summer. Well that is pretty hard when you live in La Push, Washington and there are only a precious few sunny days all year. So I am a little darker, but not a big enough difference that people at school are going to notice. I wanted colored contacts, but my mom refused because she loves my green eyes and didn't want to waste money covering up one of my "assets" as she puts it.
"Come on, Kara, we are going to be late, hurry!" Ashley yelled from the door on her way out to her car. Ben was already out at the bus stop waiting with his friends. He starts the eighth grade this year and was really excited to try out for the varsity basketball team in his junior high. Seeing how there aren't very many kids in our schools I thought he had a great chance of making the team. Also, in my opinion, he is a really good player.
"I'm coming. I don't know why you're so excited to get there." I mumbled as I walked out to her baby, a cute baby blue VW Passat. Our parents bought it used for her 16th birthday. The only stipulation is that she helped Mom to run errands and drive me and my brother when Mom needed her to. She also has to share the car when I turn sixteen. I am really excited about that, but I know that I won't get to drive it all that often. She really loves her car and I know that I will only get to use occasionally and I'm okay with that. Ash really is my best friend and it works because she loves to talk and gossip and I don't really have a lot to say.
At school things looked like they might be different. Everyone looked at me with interest and not loathing and greeted Ashley warmly. She took off to see her friends and told me to meet her at the car right after school and not to take long to get there. I headed towards my first class and waited outside the room with a book. I had English first this year and I wasn't that excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good book, but I loath writing essays and such. My absolute favorite subject is Math, any type, it didn't matter. It gave me such pleasure to figure out math problems and it was a way for me to escape my terrible reality.
As I was thinking about my upcoming day I saw Danny. He was one of the guys that was normally in my math class in junior high and enjoyed math like I did. I really had a crush on him and I thought that maybe this year we could move our status to friends since we both loved math. Boy, one year really was good for Danny. He was really cute with his dark skin and he grew probably four or five inches. His eyes were a light brown and he had dark silky hair that he pulled into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. I waved at him and he kind of did a half wave, probably not recognizing me.
After English I had math and to my pleasure Danny was in my class. I was really relieved to have him in my class again this year.
"Hey Danny, how was your summer?" I asked him while sitting next to him.
"Um, it was good. Wait, Kara is that you?" He looked genuinely surprised to see me and I gave him my best smile.
"Yeah, I went to Seattle last year and decided to come back home this year. I missed everyone too much." Oh, jeez, I can't seem to keep my mouth shut and I know I am giving him a goofy grin. Just then I heard the one voice that I was hoping to avoid this year.
"Kara Chehalis? Well, well I'm surprised to see you could show your face around here. Did they let you out of the detention facility early for good behavior?" That was Melanie Tasi. She was the "it" girl in our class and has been the lead tormentor my whole life. I was not looking forward to this.
"Um, actually," I looked down at my shoes feeling all those inferior feelings since kindergarten, "I was living with my aunt and uncle in Seattle last year." That was lame. Now I just looked spineless and the reasons were ones I didn't want anyone here to know.
"Oh, and why is that Kara? Did you finally figure out that you weren't welcome here? Obviously you forgot so let me remind you. You don't fit in here, Kara, why don't you run back to your auntie and leave us alone." She was laughing and so were her friends. I noticed that Danny was just avoiding the situation by looking out the window. I was taken back by her malice and I just turned around and sat at the back of the room. I don't know why I didn't just stay up in Seattle. This year is going to be torture.
I decided to just concentrate on the class and then after class I was going to try to talk to Danny again and see if he wanted to get together this weekend. He was really cute and seemed to be good in math. It would be fun to study with him. Math class flew by and I knew that I was really going to like it this year.
After class I caught up with Danny to ask him about this weekend and to reconnect with him without Melanie interrupting us.
"So, do you think that this will be as fun as math class in eighth grade, Danny?"
"I don't know, it's just a class." He walked out after that. I was a little confused, but I guess he is just trying to get to his next class on time.
The rest of the day drug on as usual and I was walking out to the car when I saw Ashley for the first time since this morning. She was surrounded by her usual group of friends. I jogged to catch up with her so she wouldn't get upset by waiting for me. When I caught up to her I noticed the curious glances that I was getting from her friends. It was then that I heard one of her friends laughing with another girl and whispering. I caught enough to know that she had heard the story about Melanie's and my encounter. I was really hoping that my sister's influence would give me more of a chance here, but I guess that my hopes were too high. I finally was next to Ashley and I wanted to talk to her so I tugged on her shirt and pulled her aside.
"Hey Ash, I'm sorry, but I've had a bad day. Did you offer a ride to any of your friends?" I could feel the tears working their way to my eyes and I knew I wouldn't last much longer. She caught on quick.
Turning to look at her friends she said, "Hey guys, I'll catch up with you later." She then hooked her arm with mine and led me to the car. The tears were spilling over by the time we got there. Once we got into the car she turned to me with curious eyes expecting me to tell her what happened.
"Spill, Kara." That's all the encouragement I needed from her and I told her about Melanie and the weird way Danny was acting. I told her about how most of the people in my classes were acting the same as always. Since I was on a roll, I told her about her two friends who ended my miserable day for me. After I was done I knew I didn't want to hear words of sympathy so I quickly changed the subject.
"So, Ash, what happened on your first day back? Any good gossip to share?" This was all the prompting she needed to know that I was done talking about me.
"Well, the biggest piece of gossip is that Jacob Black wasn't in school today and rumor has it that he hasn't been seen since earlier this summer. There are a lot of theories about where he is and what he is up to. I am kind of disappointed since I wanted to see if he would notice me this year. I guess not though, I think he is still stuck on this girl from Forks that he was into last year…" As she rambled on about a boy I hadn't ever met before let alone wanted to know about I tuned her out and started thinking about how I would avoid giving the depressing details of my first day back to school to my mom. She was sure to ask about that first thing when she got home from work at the hospital. She is the head nurse on the Maternity ward. She normally gets home at 5:30 so she can have dinner on the table at 6:00 which is when my dad gets home.
Ashley kept going on about her day right up until she parked in our long driveway. I took advantage of the lull in her gossip and asked her, "Ashley, I really don't want to have to tell Mom about today. It would make her go into one of her moods where she tries to 'fix' me." I used air quotes and she laughed at my antics, but knew I was right. She made a zipper motion on her lips and I was satisfied. She was my best friend and always seemed to know when I wanted help and when I just needed a listening ear.
I got out of the car and looked up at my house before heading in. We lived in a house that was tucked away in the woods. It was nice and secluded from the main road so it was quiet and private. The house itself was a two story frame house that was white with deep red shutters. It could use a fresh paint job, but was pretty nice for La Push. My parents bought it as a "fixer-upper" and worked hard on it and now it is pretty comfortable and has lots of room for us all.
When I got inside I ran straight up to my room to unwind from the day. I turned my music on and the calming strains of Glen Miller rang through my room. I knew that no matter what, this music could calm me down enough to get through the rest of the day. As I was relaxing and letting all the negative comments that came from my classmates roll off of me I decided that I was definitely going to ask Danny to hang out with me. He may not be the hottest boy in school, but he was cute and I wouldn't mind getting to know him better. I don't know where this confidence came from; I guess I'm really just tired of being lonely.
Mom got home and dinner was ready by six when Dad walked in the door. I knew this was my que to go downstairs and join the family. It was a good dinner of lasagna and Ashley kept the conversation turned toward her. I knew this was mostly for my benefit and she liked the attention so it worked out well for both of us. My dad, who is really perceptive when it comes to me, noticed it and gave me a questioning look. I just shook my head a little and went back to my food. He wanted to avoid "that" conversation so he just asked Ben how his day went. I was in the clear and I could go back to my room and get ready for bed.