Yesterday | Seth Clearwater

Chapter 1

Today is the greatest day

That I have ever really known.

~ Smashing Pumpkins "Today"

It was an unusually sunny afternoon on the La Push reservation where Brooklyn Fisher lived with her mom, Jamie Basina, and older half-brother Paul Lahote. Brooklyn's father, Steven Fisher, was a "pale face" who had had an affair with her mother approximately sixteen years ago, and then decided he would rather go back to—what Brooklyn could only assume was—a loveless marriage to a woman named Kathy, than to stick around and play happy family with her mother. Needless to say, they weren't close. In fact, she thought he was kind of a dick, but she would probably never say that to his face.

On this particular afternoon, Brooklyn was in her room humming along to a song that was playing from her laptop while trying to find a particularly elusive pair of denim shorts that she had hoped to wear to the beginning of the year party that one of the soon-to-be seniors was throwing that night at the La Push beach. She was wearing a crop top and pajama shorts, and her dark hair was gathered into a sloppy ponytail. Her tan skin glimmered with sweat from the summer heat that had infiltrated the room.

Several weeks ago, her mother had declared that due to the cost, they could not run the air conditioning system unless they were willing to go without heating that winter—which was something that Brooklyn and Paul had immediately and dramatically objected to. So, they decided that instead of dying of hypothermia that winter, they would cope with the heat of the summer by taking frequent trips to their freezer and spending time with friends who had air conditioning. Besides, La Push never stayed very hot for very long.

Despite being a part of the incoming Sophomore class, and subsequently lacking in any serious social standing, Brooklyn and her best friend Seth Clearwater had been invited by some of the older kids who thought that they had shown "potential." Whatever that meant. Her best guess was that her status as one of the youngest students on the varsity girl's soccer team had given her the push she needed to make the cut. Besides, everyone loved Seth, and they were a joint package.

"Finally!" Brooklyn cheered in triumph as she held up the blue fabric. It had taken her nearly twenty minutes to dig the shorts out of the black hole that was her closet.

A knock at her bedroom door halted her celebration.

"Come in," she called, not bothering to check entered the room. It was probably her mom coming to nag her about some chore she'd forgotten for the millionth time.

"Are you getting ready for the party already? It doesn't start for another, like, two and a half hours."

Brooklyn looked up with a grin. "Seth!" She said cheerfully as she closed the door behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a too-close-to-be-just-friends embrace. His hands found their way to her hips, and her smile grew wider.

He wore a grin that matched hers, "I got bored of waiting at home, and your mom let me in." He leaned in and gave her a delicate kiss on the lips.

Brooklyn and Seth had been best friends since the third day of kindergarten when he had accidentally kicked a soccer ball straight into her face—instead of crying like he had expected her to, she had burst into laughter and returned the favor, sending the ball into his face with incredible force and accuracy for a child her age. Their relationship had been purely platonic until about halfway through their first year of high school, when they both came to the realization that they shared certain romantic feelings, and they had kissed for the very first time.