Pain

La Push

Like almost every time she'd baked before mom made an abundance of cookies and so I asked if I could take a batch to school to give my friends. I was surprised when she told me to take the lot, but insisted that she planned on baking some more goodies anyway. Making my way to my room I sat on my bed and did homework, though every now and then I would let myself get distracted with thoughts of Jasper. I was too nosy for my own good, I had always been that way, I wanted to know things, even if they weren't my business. Since mom was giving me the whole batch I thought I would have enough to maybe give some to Jasper... and his siblings. Though the thought of speaking to anyone other than Jasper or Alice made me nervous, and of course I was most nervous about Rosalie. I wanted to be nice and friendly to them, even if Rosalie seemed to hate me for some odd reason. 

The next day Laura made sure to grab the tuber ware full of cookies before leaving for school, and throughout her first four classes which were Art, Gym, Spanish and English handed them to her friends, those being, Angela, Eliza, Tyler, Bella and Eric. She planned to give the others a cookie at lunch, which she did upon arriving at the table. "Ah sweet" Eric chirped about to grab one. 
"Ah" Laura scolded him, slapping his hand. "You got one already" 
"You wanna go to La Push with us tomorrow?" Eliza asked as she forked her salad. 
"Sure" Laura nodded as she closed off the cookies with Mike and Jess having taken one. 
"There's a big swell coming in!" Jess nodded eagerly. 
"Have fun with that because I definitely won't be going near the water" Laura chuckled just as Bella approached the table and Eric invited her. Laura glanced at Bella as she made her way to the salad bar, before looking towards the Cullen's table. Taking a deep breath she grabbed the cookies again and stood up. "Back in a sec" she told her friends before she began to make her way towards the table, though as she looked at the family again she found a wave of nervous hitting her.

Jasper always knew when Laura entered the room, if it wasn't because of her scent, it was what she radiated. Though after a moment of her being in the cafeteria he felt her become nervous and he couldn't help but glance at her and noticed she was approaching. The blonde began to calm her nerves, when suddenly Alice appeared by the brunette's side. Laura's gaze moved quickly from the Cullen's table when someone was by her side. 
"Hi!" by now Laura knew that chipper voice from anywhere.
Letting a smile come to her lips she looked at Alice. "Hey"
"What you got there?" Alice asked with her hands clasped in front of her as she looked down at the tuber ware in Laura's hand. Alice, the ever calculated had foreseen Laura's intent, but she had also seen her cop-out because of nerves and decided she would lend a hand. 
"Uh cookies, my mom baked them" Laura explained swallowing the lump in her throat. "Do you want one? You can give some to your siblings" Great, Laura thought, a way to do the nice gesture without having to face the others at the table. 
"No, no you should definitely come over and let them take one out themselves!" Alice encouraged, and before Laura could deny she began to walk towards the lunch table. "C'mon" she smiled. 

"What is she doing?" Rosalie muttered under her breath as she watched Alice walking towards them with Laura following behind. 
"Be nice" Emmett warned as he sat forward in his chair. It was only Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper at the table, Edward was at the salad bar preoccupied with Bella. 
"Laura comes bearing gifts" Alice beamed as she took her seat. 
Laura let out a nervous breath as she shook her head. "They're just cookies, my mom always bakes too many so..." she said opening the lid and holding out the box for them to grab one. Alice was the first, followed by Emmett. Jasper gave Laura a smile before taking one and that just left Rose who was quick to shut Laura down. "I'm good"
Not really surprised Laura nodded and gave a half-hearted smile before closing the tuber ware. Unbeknownst to Laura, the Cullens wouldn't eat the cookies, but Alice, Emmet, and Jasper had still put in the effort to take one since the gesture was nice. "Thanks for these" Emmett piped up, wanting to keep spirits high despite Rosalie's clear distaste at the situation. 
"You're welcome" Laura smiled before looking to her familiar blonde. "Uh, can I talk to you for a minute?" 
Jasper was surprised but nodded and slowly got up from the table, Rosalie's glare of course not going unnoticed though he still walked a few feet away with Laura. 
"I'm sorry I've been really pushy about the accident, and I know you said you don't go to La Push, but we're going tomorrow so the invitation is there" Laura offered, thumbing over her shoulder to her friends when she said 'we're'. 
"Tomorrow?" Jasper repeated before shaking his head. "Emmett and I are doing something, sorry" he lied smoothly. 
"That's cool" Laura assured him. 
"You apologised for being pushy, but you're not going to stop are you?" Jasper suspected with a quirked brow. 
Laura gave a light grin and shook her head, "Definitely not" 
Jasper grinned amusedly as he looked down at his feet. "Thank you for the invitation" And with that, he made his way back to the table and so did Laura. 

Getting to La Push the next day there did indeed seem to be good waves like Jess had said, but it was also accompanied by a cloudly, gloomy overhead leading the non-surfers, a.k.a Angela, Bella, and Laura to wear hats and jackets to keep warm while also sitting just inside a van.  
"Ever miss Phoenix on days like this?" Laura chattered coldly.
Bella gave a light smile before Angela spoke. Angela mentioned she kept thinking Eric was going to ask her to prom, but he hadn't and so Bella encouraged the girl to ask him instead. 
"I got Eliza to ask Jace and now they're going" Laura added with a smile before Jessica came over and asked Angela to zip up her wetsuit. 
Just then Jacob, Embry and Sam approached. "Hey" Laura smiled quickly standing up.
"Guys this is Jacob" Bella introduced.
"And this is Embry and Sam" Laura added, guessing Bella hadn't introduced them because she didn't know who they were. "Sam's my cousin" 
Jacob took a seat next toBella where Laura had been sitting and began to chat briefly before Jess spoke up. 
"You guys should keep Bella company, her date bailed"
"What date?" Eric asked frantically. Laura stood with her brows slightly furrowed.
"She invited Edward" 
Laura nodded to herself, made sense. She had refrained from telling the other's she had invited Jasper and she was glad as she heard Mike speak, "Yeah cause Cullen's a freak"
"You got that right" Sam agreed with a nod. 
Laura brows knotted tighter. Sam had warned her to stay away from him and the other Cullens, but now on top of that was agreeing that he was a freak. 
"You guys know him?" Bella asked, clearly intrigued. 
Sam was sharp in telling her, "The Cullens don't come here" 

Things were weird if that wasn't already obvious. Jasper said he and his family preferred another beach, but why was Sam being so stern about them not coming to La Push, as if they weren't allowed. What did the Quileutes have against this family?

Laura, Bella, and Jacob made their way down the beach. Laura felt kind of off about Sam and didn't want to really be around him so asked the pair if she could tag along with them. 
"What did your friends mean by, you know, the Cullens don't come here?" Bella asked, mocking Sam's voice and Laura had no objections about it.
"You caught that huh? I'm not really supposed to say anything about it" Jacob said in a low voice. 
"Hey, I can keep a secret" Bella prompted. 
"And I'm part of the reserve" Laura shrugged. 
Jacob laughed, "Really it's just like an old scary story... Did you know Quileutes are supposedly descended from wolves?"
Laura found her eyes widening. She thought Jacob wasn't supposed to know yet, then again he was saying that it was just a scary story. The second thing she thought was that he definitely wasn't supposed to be saying anything about it, but she didn't want to stop him because then it could make her look weird or suspicious, and honestly, she wondered if he knew possibly more than she had been told. 
"What?" Bella asked almost amused. "Like wolves, real wolves?"
"No way" Laura added, feigning surprise. 
"So what's the story about the Cullens?" Bella asked, and this was where Laura was really intrigued. 
"Well, they're supposedly descended from this like, enemy clan. My great-grandfather, the chief, found them hunting on our land. But they claimed to be something different, so we made a treaty with them. If they promise to stay off Quileute land, then we wouldn't expose what they really were, to the pale faces" he said with a nod of his head. 
"Hey, I'm only half pale face" Laura playfully rebutted. 
"I thought they just moved here?"
"Or just moved back" Jacob countered. 
A scream was let out causing the trio to jump as Angela ran passed with Eric chasing her, holding a dead crustacean. 
"Well what are they really?" Bella asked wanting to get quickly back on topic. 
"It's just a story Bella" Jake laughed. 
Laura gave Bella a look before they continued along the beach with Jake. 

On the ride home in the vans, the two brunettes sat in the back together. The others up front were chatting loudly, not that Bella or Laura minded. They both sat in silence, most likely dwelling on what Jacob had said until Laura spoke, "I invited Jasper too"
"What did he say? I mean, was it just a straight no, or?" Bella asked curiously.
"He said he was doing something with Emmett, but, he told me before his family prefers a different beach" she elaborated, bringing in the fact she was previously somewhat aware that the Cullen's avoided La Push. "Also" she began, "I mentioned Edward's name to Sam the last day after the accident, and he told me to stay away from the Cullens, and mentioned that the Quileutes and them don't get along"
"Did he mention the legend?"
Laura pursed her lips and shook her head. She wasn't going to reveal that, she couldn't, and Jacob had already said enough on that matter. Bella gave a slow nod. "I'm going to research Quileute legends... I'll let you know if I find anything" she whispered. 
"Thanks" Laura smiled. They were both involved since they had both witnessed what truly stopped the car accident, or rather who. "You wanna keep each other in the loop? So if I find out something I tell you and vice versa?" Laura asked hopefully to which Bella gave an agreeing nod.