вυмp ιn тнe nιgнт

TWENTY SIX

sitting at the lunch table next to jasmine, hailey devours her food. she was lucky enough to be on the nice side of the lunch ladies, because they allowed her to have a larger helping of food when she began asking for it. noticing jessica snatch a fry from her tray of food, hailey lightly smacks her hand back, and the two of them fall into giggles.

"stop trying to steal my food, stanley."

"stop having the better tasting food, then, forrest."

"can you two not right now? i'm trying to eat?" eric teases, and angela scoffs at him before rolling her eyes and continuing her story.

"anyways, it was huge, like a freaking bear. it was dark, and it ran really fast, and it scared the crap out of me," she says urgently, looking at her friends and boyfriend with wide eyes, hoping any of them would believe her.

hailey didn't want to panic over angela seeing her dumbass cousin, so she simply resigned herself to looking disinterested in the topic. she almost missed the quick glance jasmine gave her out of the corner of her eye before the vietnamese girl locked her attention on angela, making hailey's nerves spike for a moment. she knew paul hadn't told his imprint, but with the look her friend had given her while angela was talking, she didn't want to know just how much jasmine had possibly realized.

"i believe you, ange. back home, there were some pretty large animals. maybe there are some here, too. the only reason i've ever seen them back home is because i would go out into the woods a lot, so maybe the one you saw has just been hiding or something," she reasons, and angela sighs slightly before turning to eric, who didn't look like he believed her the slightest bit.

"i did see something in the woods."

"totally. baby, i believe you," her boyfriend says, and the other three girls all roll their eyes at his display of holding angela's hand with false integrity.

"no, he doesn't. he's just trying to get lucky," jessica states, her bluntness earning a smirk from the female shifter as she crosses her arms and stares eric down. he quickly tried to backtrack, but angela cut him off, trying to convince them.

"no, okay. it was jet black. and huge. on all fours, it was still taller than a person. a bear, maybe?"

hailey watches jasmine tense up at her side, and turns her head the slightest bit only to go wide eyed upon seeing the one and only bella swan come to a stop at their table. the other four hadn't exactly noticed yet, but her stare grows worried, and she glances at her best friend sitting next to her.

jasmine was downright refusing to look at bella, staring straight ahead by angela's head. it was avoidance, which was something jasmine didn't usually outright do, but at the moment, hailey couldn't blame her for not wanting to deal with the horde of problems bella swan always brought with her wherever she went. at least now, they didn't have to deal with the cullen bloodsuckers because of them hanging around the swan girl.

"or an alien. you're lucky you didn't get probed."

"well, i saw it."

jessica's smile turned strained and a bit fake as she realized bella was walking around to sit in the only open chair at their table. she shares a look with hailey, and both of them glance once more at jasmine before turning their matching testy stares on bella.

"you're not the only one," bella chimes in, the most she'd really talked to any of them, bar jessica, since she'd gone comatose. the group exchanged looks, some of them glancing at bella as she stares painfully at the graves girl who wouldn't look her way, and took a seat. "my dad's been getting reports at the station. like, five hikers have been killed by some bear. but they can't find the bear."