AN: Alright, so just to clear things up, this is written in Aylen's (my O.C.'s) P.O.V. unless stated otherwise.

Disclaimer: I own this not.

Happy Reading :)

CHAPTER 1

Well Shit... It was my now 15-year-old brother Collin's birthday, and I had completely forgotten. To be more specific Collin's my twin, meaning I was the idiot that forgot her own Birthday... I was annoyed at this and that's probably why I slammed my bedroom door when I didn't mean to. Bracing myself for the upcoming on slot of people, I made my way to the family room. I could already hear the voices of the handful of close family friends that mom had invited over.

"Aylen, hi. Happy Birthday, sweetheart! Your turning out to be a fine young woman." Sue greeted me kindly as always. I also heard two snorts at the comment in the distance- Collin and Brady- and I was sure I heard a "sweetheart my ass" from Brady.

I'd get him for that later.

"Here, take this", Sue said as she shoved a neatly wrapped box into my arms. Classic Sue; first sweet then the anxious and impatient middle aged women.

"Thanks, Sue." I grinned in amusement. "So how's Leah and Seth?" I hadn't seen them in at least 2 months. I was pretty close to Leah, thanks to the hundreds of times she had babysat me. She was like the sister I'd never have.

"They're absolutely great, really busy though. I'm sorry they couldn't make it. Leah misses you." She smiled sadly at me.

I tried to act nonchalant. It didn't bug me that much...

"It's fine, I understand. Tell her that I miss her too.", I rubbed my arm to distract myself… I gave her a final hug, "Well thanks again, Sue." I just wanted to get away before I started yelling, demanding her to force her kids to come and see me.

Everyone seemed so busy lately. Who'd they think they were? Passing up some TLC from me! Every time I tried to get a hold of Leah or even Embry, my own brother, they'd be busy. Leah was supposed to be in college. Embry was supposed to be a senior in high school, but he never actually went to school. He's a lazy shit, that's explanation enough. If I didn't know any better I'd think they were sneaking around together. I wouldn't be surprised, honestly.

When I walked up to Quil Sr. and Billy they gave me the same weird looks that they gave Collin.

"Happy birthday, Aylen", I smiled and gave them each a hug. With my own father disowning my family (apparently he hadn't cared enough to stick around),they were the only father figures I'd ever known.

"Yeah" What were you supposed to say when someone wished you a 'Happy Birthday'? Call me socially awkward, but "Thank you" seemed way overrated. At this point Old Quil handed me a tattered and worn looking book. I looked up at him, and he gave me a slight nod and a pat on the shoulder. I didn't even notice Billy starting to steer me away from them, pushing me in the direction of my brothers and friends.

I was stopped in my tracks by my mom though. Being the drama queen that she is, she looked about ready to cry. She grabbed me by the tops of my arms, a little to forcefully for my liking, and successfully pulled me to her and planted a wet kiss on my forehead with her lipstick clad lips.

"Aw!" Do you know how hard it is to get lipstick off? Well it's rather difficult!

"Oh quit complaining" I notice my brothers laughing at me. Yeah, they won't be when mom goes after them with her fish lips.

"Oh yeah, laugh it all you want", I said in a joking manner as I walked over to them. I stopped short and opened my arms wide, waiting for a hug.

"Happy B-day, Collin!"

"Yeah. You too", he said, not bothering to get up from his chair to give me a hug. I rolled my eyes and let my arms fall to my sides.

"Fine. Be that way.", I said trying to make him feel some form of guilt.

"Okay, I will", He answered. Obviously it didn't work.

"Don't be such a prick Collin. Happy Birthday kid", Embry said, coming to my rescue. I stuck my tongue out at Collin as I gave Embry a hug. I noticed how tall Embry had gotten since I'd last seen him. He was well over 6 feet tall. His muscles seemed a hell of a lot more noticeable to.

"Shit." I mumbled. I heard him chuckle. How in the world did he hear me? I looked to my right and noticed that Jacob and Quil were around the same size as Embry. Maybe they did some kind of weird ass steroids together.

"Haven't seen you guys around in a while", I told them. They glanced at each other and then back to me.

"Well...yeah", was all they said before an awkward silence took over.

"Is there cake or what?", Quil asked, breaking the silence.

"Well I made one, but this little shit ate it without my permission!", Caitlyn explained referring to Brady.

Quil started to stomp his foot in protest, while Collin started to cry out to our mom.

"There isn't cake?" Collin whined.

"No", mom answered carefully. Why did Brady have to ruin everything?

"Idiot", I said as I shoved past him. At least he didn't eat all the food.

Once everyone left mom let us go out. Sort of, anyways. She had commanded Embry to drive us to buy ice cream. Something about sibling quality time. I wasn't complaining though, because it meant free ice cream on my brother.

"So, Embry, how long till you up and leave for whatever the hell you do?" Collin asked, breaking the silence in Embry's used Ford. I shot him a look, silently telling him not to piss him off while he's behind the wheel. Embry had quite the temper, and I didn't feel like dying in a car crash anytime soon.

"I don't up and leave, Collin. You guys see me every day."

"Yeah, for like 10 minutes. What do you do anyways?" I saw that he was shaking a little.

Collin seemed to notice too.

"Are you cold or something?"

Embry didn't respond. I raised my eyebrows and I leaned forward from the back seat to get a better view of what was going on.

"...Embry?" I hesitated. His shaking stopped for the most part.

"What was that all about-" Collin started once Embry got back to normal.

"Nothing. We're here" Embry answered in a rush as we pulled up to our local ice cream, malts, and shakes place.

Interesting brother that I have.

I think I've outgrown opening presents and then getting my picture taken with them. Taking said photos with my twin brother sitting next to me just makes it worse, but mom seemed to have a different opinion on the matter. As soon as we made it home, she pointed out the fact we had forgotten about the lame tradition.

"Mom, C'mon", Collin whined next to me.

"Smile!", Mom seemed pretty damned determined.

"These presents aren't even the kind of presents you take pictures with", reasoning never hurt anyone.

"Stop! Hold still!", mom went and continued to take pictures of us, while reprimanding us not to move. She claimed that these are precious moments that need to be caught on photo.

So far I had gotten a Quileute Legends book that had been passed down to the daughters of our tribe from Quil Sr., and I got over 200 bucks in cash from everyone else. I still hadn't opened up Sue's gift.

Colin basically got the same as me except that Quil Sr. gave him a really cool woven blanket. It had the animal fur and everything. I guess it was really old and it has a lot of sentimental value.

"Okay now open Sue's gifts!" Mom urged us on.

I wasn't sure what to expect. Sue is the type of person that would surprise you with everything she did. I slowly opened the box after I had removed all the paper and peeked in. All I saw was some red lace, and that was enough to tell me not to open it. At least not in front of my brother and mother. So before mom came over and grabbed the box, I skillfully threw the thing behind the couch. I would just retrieve it later.

I noticed Collin seemed a little uncomfortable next to me.

"So what did she get you?", Mom asked him.

"What? Hey, mom, I'm pretty tired", Collin sent me a look that said 'Go with it, and don't let mom keep us back'. So I did what I could do.

"Now wait a sec-", Mom continued.

"I gotta use the restroom", I wasn't really lying because I did.

"Fine, but you better come ba-", Her failed attempt got her nowhere.

"Goodnight mom"

"Hold on I said-"

"See you in the morning!", and with that Collin and I got up and walked down the hall to our adjacent rooms.

"I'm gonna need to have a little talk with Sue."

"Yeah well what did you expect?"

"So what did she get you?", We asked each other at the same time

"I'm not telling you", Again in perfect synchrony.

"Fine!", Our two voices merged as one. After that we didn't say anything to each other, scared that we'd talk in sync again.

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