How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em."
― Shel Silverstein

Shay swung by the bakery on her way to school, having a few minutes to spare and wanting to pick up her paycheck anyway.

Leah was sitting behind the counter – she must've dragged a chair there—and had her eyes partially closed.

They sprung open when Shay pushed the door in, smiling at her.

"Hey, sleeping beauty."

Leah rubbed her eyes, giving her the finger.

Shay laughed and hopped over to the counter.

"Didn't sleep well?"

"Didn't sleep at all. I was on patrol last night."

Shay stopped in her tracks, her sneakers squeaking on the floor.

"What?"

"Patrol? We go around..." she trailed off. "They told me you knew about the wolf thing." Leah's eyes widened slightly, the most panic she could muster. "Please tell me you know about the wolf thing."

"I know about the wolf thing," Shay said, mouth still gaping. "I just didn't know you were part of the wolf thing."

"Oh," Leah nodded her head. "Yeah. You didn't get all the sordid details?"

"To be honest, I haven't talked to them much since I found out. Jacob just told me you're doing lots of patrols in case of the..."

"Vampires. You can say it, my mom can't hear."

"Vampires." The word still felt strange in her mouth. She didn't like to say it, let alone believe it existed right outside her front door. "Are there any other girls in the pack?"

"No. I won the god damn supernatural lottery." Leah cracked her knuckles. "Just got lucky."

"Wow. Wow. Okay. How...is that?"

"It's great," she smirked. "They can hear my innermost thoughts and they've seen me naked. You should be jealous."

Shay bit her lip as Leah rolled her eyes.

Leah didn't strike her as the person who would be afraid of anything, so being a wolf actually made some sense.

"Well I'm going to be late for school, so I don't have time to unpack that, but we will be talking about it in the future. Probably tonight."

"Do we have to?"

Shay leaned against the counters, palms clutching the glass case.

"Yes. Now please get my pay check and a croissant, and very quickly tell me—have you seen them naked too?"

There was no class today because of the whale welcoming ceremony.

Normally Shay would've been pretty excited about this, but as she stood on the beach alone, she almost wouldn't have minded being in math.

Chancing a glance to her right, she saw the guys and Kim fidgeting in the still slightly cold air. Paul was frowning at something Embry said, which made Quil burst into laughter. Jared snaked an arm around Kim, who as if sensing Shay, turned and made eye contact with her.

Shay's eyes shot away, down to her sneakers, which already had grains of sand sneaking in.

Kim hadn't tried to call once, and Shay returned the favor.

Missilieness she thought. The feeling of solitariness that comes from missing something or someone you love.

She wiggled her toes a little and tried to hide the fact that she was chilly and miserable, and her croissant was heavy in her stomach.

"Did something happen with you and Kim?"

Shay turned to Simon, noticing he wasn't wearing his glasses today. He gave her a slight smile, hands in his pockets.

"We got in a little fight," Shay said. She didn't feel like rehashing it, not to mention the fact that she couldn't exactly reveal any wolfish secrets to him. "Just more time for us to get to know each other?"

"Yeah." He smiled, outstretching his hand. "Want to go watch with my friends?"

Would it be impolite to say no?

She took his hand and let him take her over to Joseph, Kala, Dakota, and Ben.

Although she'd been eating lunch with them, Shay still felt out of place. She remembered every acute feeling she'd had when she moved. Was she talking enough? Was she annoying everyone? Did they think she was funny, or weird?

It didn't help that Kala tried to twist everything she said to make her look bad.

Thankfully she didn't have too much time to worry because just as they reached the group, Mr. Jacobsen started talking.

"Thank you all for coming to the welcoming of the whales ceremony," he said, clapping his hands. "We'll start with prayer by one of the elders, and then some singing and dancing from students. Let's get started!"

When Shay first came here, she had no idea what a whale ceremony was about. She loved the sea in California, but they didn't exactly go around having parties about it.

Her grandfather had explained that the ceremony celebrated the migration of the gray whales as they passed La Push. Sometimes they took salmon into the sea as an offering to the whales, since fishing was so important to the tribe.

Shay had been panicked when she heard this—did they still hunt whales? But her grandfather assured her they haven't since the 20th century, but still celebrate their return as it was a part of their history.

Shay loved hearing him talk about the tribe. It was like finding a piece of herself she'd never known about. Sometimes she could hear his voice in her dreams.

She breathed in the salty scent of the beach and kept her eyes on the water as the elders started their prayer.

"Ten bucks we see a whale this year," Joseph whispered, nudging Simon.

"You're on."

Shay frowned. She had grown to love looking out for the whales, to concentrate and hear the songs and prayers around her. It made her feel closer to her grandpa. She wished she could just move away and stand on her own, but Simon's hand was still clasped around her own.

She ignored them talking and watched as some of the younger kids started to a ceremonial dance.

She felt like Simon and his friends probably didn't appreciate things like this. Traditions were so deeply rooted here, stories about their ancestors never seemed to phase most of the class. But Shay liked to watch every part.

She didn't speak through the song that was sung next, or when a boat went out and left salmon in the waters.

Suddenly, a kid cried out to their right. Her eyes flung in that direction - and sure enough, a spout of water shot into the air from the distance.

A cheer went up and Shay felt swept in the excitement, dropping Simon's hands to clap her own together.

There weren't many more sightings after that, and people started to break up and mingle. She kept her eyes on the shore a minute longer and then turned to Simon.

"Hey, after this we're going to get some lunch. Do you want to come?" Simon asked. He made a move to push his glasses up but must've realized he wasn't wearing them today and pretended to itch his forehead instead.

"Uh—I actually told Jacob I'd help him get his sister something."

"Oh. You seem to be spending a lot of time with him lately," Simon said, his voice light but his eyes glancing away from her.

"Um, sort of. He's in my friend group."

"You're not with your group right now."

Shay took a step back and fixed him with a look.

"No, I'm with yours. Do you not want me to be?"

Simon looked at his friends, who were all failing at looking like they weren't listening to them. He gestured her a few steps away.

"I didn't say that. I just meant—why are you hanging out with him so much? I asked you to the movies tomorrow, and you're going to his house. I asked you to lunch today, and you're going out with him."

"I mean, it's just a coincidence. It's not like I'm avoiding hanging out with you."

"But you could, though. You don't owe me anything. If you don't want to hang out anymore, just say so."

"I do want to."

"Okay, good." He smiled now, and the dimple she loved appeared.

"Hey, are you ready to leave Shay?"

Worst timing award, Jacob, Shay thought, twisting around and looking up into Jacob's eyes.

"Go ahead," Simon said, seeing her panicked look as she turned back. "I'll talk to you later."

"You sure?"

"Of course."

"Okay, bye."

Simon almost fooled her if not for his slightly hunched shoulders. She didn't miss the glare Kala shot her either, but she turned to Jacob and ignored it.

"So, how's it going?" Jacob asked brightly, not noticing the tension.

"Fine."

Jacob started walking slowly to his car, hands in his pockets. She trailed not quite behind, not quite next to him and crossed her arms.

"Did you like the ceremony?"

"Yeah."

She bit her lip. Did Simon really find it so annoying she had male friends? Or was he already not liking her as much as he did just a few weeks ago?

"Me too." Jacob nodded.

They reached the point where the beach started to fade into grass that started to fade into the parking lot.

"You seem a little," Jacob paused, wetting his lips. "...crispy."

"Crispy?" Shay rose an eyebrow, her lips thin.

"Yes. It's a word my dad used to make it sound like he wasn't calling my mom cranky."

"And how did that work for him?"

"About as good as it's working for me right now."

Jacob flashed her a smile that made her forget she was angry, and as they reached his car he jogged to the passenger side to open the door for her.

"Sorry," she muttered and waited for him to climb in the other side before talking again. "It's not your fault."

"You don't have to apologize," he drummed the steering wheel. "Just tell me what you want to do."

Shay paused. What did she want? Jacob probably thought she'd say something like, I want to go home, or let's just go, but she leaned her head against the seatbelt and decided to be honest.

"I want...to forget about school, and fights, and wolves and vampires. I want to drive fast with the windows down. And I want a cinnamon bun. No, two."

"Well I can definitely drive fast." He put his keys in the ignition and the car roared to life. "Buckle up, Brooks."

When they stopped driving thirty minutes later, Shay already felt better. The fresh air from the trip had eased her mood, and it had helped that Jacob blasted the radio as they sped down the most scenic roads he could find.

He somehow seemed to know that Fall Out Boy was her secret obsession, and that she meant fast but not too fast when they cruised down the streets.

She hopped out of the car, seeing they were in a cute main street of a town she didn't quite recognize. They parked between a hairdresser and a stationary store, both with cute green awnings and potted plants decorating the sidewalks.

"Hey there, wild hair," Jacob grinned, coming up beside her. She felt her cheeks grow warm as she realized the wind must've made her look crazy. Jacob thankfully ignored her embarrassment and reached to smooth it back into place. This did nothing to help her warm cheeks.

"Thanks," she said quietly, smiling at him. "Are we near the store your sister likes?"

"Yeah, it's right there." He pointed across the street to a store called Crystal Delight.

"It's kind of...metaphysical? She's into that. Last year I got her some stones they recommended and she flipped. I didn't have the heart to tell her they're just pretty rocks."

"Some people like that kind of stuff," Shay protested, following Jacob as he started crossing the street.

Jacob was either faster than her or hell bent on being a gentleman, because he sprang forward to grab the door and let her in.

She smiled as the bell dinged above her.

It smelled like incense. She took a deep breath and felt memory surge through her.

"You okay?" Jacob asked.

Shay realized she had frozen to the spot.

"Oh yeah. Do you ever realize you know something that you didn't remember?" Jacob tilted his head, urging her on. "My grandma used to love patchouli. She always burned it. It's not something I would've really remembered, but smelling it just made me think of her instantly."

"I feel that way about lilacs. My mom smelled like them all the time."

She smiled and reached forward to squeeze his arm before she realized what she was doing.

He smiled back, not giving her time to feel stupid. Her body relaxed. It was like she could suddenly just be herself –with Jacob Black, of all people.

Twenty minutes of browsing through rose quartz and candles later, Jacob held up a bracelet made of pastel crystals.

"Says it helps anxiety and stress. You don't know my sister, but that's something she needs."

"Maybe you should grab one for Paul, too."

Jacob snorted.

"How many do you think he would need? Ten up each arm?"

It was Shay's turn to laugh.

"Let's get it." Jacob declared. "If I look at one more dreamcatcher, I swear one of my ancestors is going to haunt me tonight."

Shay laughed and followed him to the cash register.

After being rung up by a woman with dreamy eyes and a calming voice, they walked out of the store.

She was about to cross back to their car when Jacob caught her arm.

"I have one more thing to do. Can you sit here and wait a minute?"

Shay looked at the bench he was gesturing to. It curved up at the edges and had sunflowers imprinted into the back. Was everything in this town cute?

"I can go with you," she protested.

"Nah, it's cool. I'll be back in five minutes, tops."

"Okay, mysterious." Shay sat down and crossed her legs, watching him jog down the street. He disappeared into a store right on the corner, but at a weird enough angle that she couldn't see the sign.

She swung her legs like a kid, kind of feeling like one. When Jacob wasn't being emo and rude, he was surprisingly carefree and funny. Everything he did put her at such ease that she found her mouth opening and spilling honesty – not something that usually happened to her. Ever.

She was just about to get up and creep to see what the corner store was when Jacob emerged, holding a black and white striped bag in his hand.

"Close your eyes!" he called, still halfway down the block.

A few people looked his direction, giving him a strange look but she just giggled as he yelled again.

"Close them!"

Doing as she was told, she heard rather than saw him reach her.

"Hold out your hands."

She cautiously reached forward, and felt weight land in her palms. The smell hit her as her eyes opened.

"Cinnamon buns," she whispered, the warm sugar spice filling her nose. "Two."

Jacob smiled his signature wide grin and sat beside her, taking out one for himself.

"I can't believe you got these."

"You're easy to please," Jacob shrugged, licking icing off his upper lip.

She leaned toward him, resting her arm against his. Jacob stiffened at first, then slowly relaxed and leaned back into her. She felt the warmth of his skin through her shirt and didn't dare look him in the eye.

"No, I'm not," Shay said, her voice low as she bumped his shoulder. "Thank you."

"How did I do with your list?"

"A+," Shay breathed. "The best day I've had in a long time."

"Me too."

And he actually seemed like he meant it.