Rayonnante - Paul Lahote

Chapter 1

She'd never gotten tired of the rain. Her fellow peers had often complained about how the weather ruined their plans, wishing for sunnier days. And while she loved sunshine and warmth as much as the next person, she couldn't help but find a certain beauty in the grey sky, the dark clouds and the rumbling of thunder. It reminded her that she wasn't completely in control. It was humbling, really.

Even now, as she rushed towards her house, trying not to get mud on her favorite pair of ballet flats, she was smiling. It wasn't exactly a surprising sight. Lena always tried to find the good in every situation. She'd learned long ago that focussing on the things that you couldn't change wasn't a nice way to live. Growing up, she'd seen her dad complain about every little thing. He was the king of blaming outside sources for his troubles. Society was the reason why he'd never been able to hold a job, not his own irresponsibility. It had become somewhat of a competition for him, trying to always be the most miserable person in the room. If someone talked about something bad that had happened to them, he'd immediately try to one-up them by talking about his own problems. In fact, Lena was convinced that he'd be able to do the same with a patient on their deathbed. She often thought she was very lucky that he'd decided to leave the reservation for good when she was twelve, opting to move to Ottawa.

Since her mother had passed away when she was six months old, Lena had moved in with her aunt, who also lived in La Push. She wasn't what one would call a responsible parental figure, often going out for days without much warning. But they still managed to find a nice rhythm to their home life. While her aunt took care of paying the bills, Lena was the one who did the shopping, cleaning and most of the cooking. She didn't mind doing so, especially since it meant she'd be able to make extra to take to her neighbor. Billy Black was basically her favorite person on the reservation. He'd been more of a father figure in the past few years than her own dad for her entire life. She loved hanging out with him and watching the games, trying her hardest to figure out what was going on while he laughed joyfully at her. She was a lost cause when it came to organized sports, especially football. There were just so many rules to remember! The fact that she also adored listening to their tribe's legends probably also played a huge role in the close relationship between the unlikely pair. While Billy loved telling the stories, she never tired of hearing them, asking dozens of questions. Somehow, they just always made her feel good. She hadn't seen Rachel and Rebecca, Billy's twin daughters, for a few years, but she got on very well with his son Jacob. She even hung out with him a few times, but his newfound friendship with Bella Swan meant that he didn't have much time for her. She didn't really mind, understanding that he had a huge crush on the young girl. It just wasn't in Lena's nature to hold a grudge. In fact, she hated to be angry. It took her a lot to truly be mad and the few times it had happened, she'd ended up bursting into tears, not knowing what to do with herself. It wasn't that she was a pushover, per se. She just didn't feel the need to respond to rudeness with disrespect. In fact, she'd discovered that people looked even more ridiculous when she answered their insults with niceness. Kill them with kindness was basically her motto.

Lena unlocked the door of the small one-story blue house, taking off her shoes and heading towards the kitchen with her groceries. Her aunt wasn't home, she'd taken off for a few days with some friends. This meant that the teenager had the house to herself. At seventeen years old, she was quite used to this arrangement, almost preferring to be by herself. It meant that she could watch whatever she wanted on TV and not worry about Hellen's complaining. She'd gotten so used to living on her own that she'd fallen into a routine. Lena started by putting away the food she'd just bought before putting music on her cellphone and connecting said phone to a bluetooth speaker she kept in the kitchen. She then started on dinner. She was making lasagna tonight, one of her favorite dishes. It was also one of the Black's favorite, which is why she was making an especially large one. She planned to keep some for herself so she could eat the rests at a later date, but most of it was going to feed her neighbors. It wasn't like Billy couldn't cook. He could make a decent roast chicken and some other basic recipes. But he wasn't exactly the most talented chef. She threw onions and carrots in a large pot, adding garlic a few minutes later, smiling at the delicious scents that were already emanating from the pot. She was really hungry. The school provided lunch hadn't exactly been great today, so she hadn't eaten much. The Quileute high school was running on a tight budget, so sometimes the cafeteria meals suffered. The kids once had to eat rice and tomato juice for an entire week. They'd since gotten better at budgeting, thankfully.