Blood Moon (Paul Lahote)

Nine: The Beach

Dad is getting more and more worried about Bella. Even though I sleep beside her, I can't stop her nightmares. I told him that I think she needs professional help. He's talking on the phone with Renee right now while I get ready to leave.

Bella went out with some friends to the movies to please Charlie, but he's still thinking of sending her to Jacksonville.

I keep telling him that sending her to Renees will only make her worse. Renee will do an even worse job than him. At first we thought it would just go away, she would wake up and get over him. But she's stuck in this sort of zombie state. She hardly talks to me and I barely know her.

Jake invited me to a bond fire. They'll be food and drinks there. I grab my coat and wave by to my dad because he's still on the phone.

Since I'm going to La Push I decide to stop by the coach's office. His name is Nolan Littlecook. He also half Quileute, I talked to Jake about my offer. Districts is coming up in two weeks. If I do decide to play with them, I'll finish out the season with Forks.

On the twisting road my car starts to stutter. I pull over to the side of the road and hop out of my car. I pop the hood but it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong. The gas is full. Jake always talked about his "mechanic skills" so I dial his number.

"Jake." I say as he answers.

"You bout here?" He asks.

"About that." I start. "My car kind of broke down." Then he starts laughing in my ear. "What?"

"Now you need my help?" He laughs. "What about you putting my mechanic skills in quotation marks huh?"

"Just get over here please I'm like a mile out of town." I order.

"Sure thing." He says and hangs up.

Jake was definitely not going the speed limit when he arrives about five minutes later. He hops out of his dads car and I pop the hood for him. He starts checking everything out and closes the hood.

"You burnt out your clutch cables." He states. "We're gonna have to push it to my house to I can fix them."

"Push it?" I question. He nods his head and we both stand behind the back of my car. He gets lower and we both start to push before I have an idea.

"Wait." I say and he groans. I pull out my phone and call Ateara. "We need you and Embry's help to push my car back to Jake's." I say as he picks up the phone.

"I guess." He says and smacks his lips. I hear him call Embry and I hang up so Jake and I can start pushing.

My feet dig into the ground and I put my head down and push with all my strength. The car moves a tremendous amount at first it shocks me. We get it onto the road and it gets easier to push from there.

"Wait." I say and I stop pushing. Jake pushes it a couple feet after I let go before stopping.

"You getting tired already?" He teases. I roll my eyes as start pushing again.

A couple cars pass us and I start getting more tired. Pretty soon Jake is doing almost all the pushing. We take a small break and catch our breath. We just get down the road from Jake and Billy's when Ateara and Embry show up.

"Where have you guys been?" I pant as they get ready to start pushing.

"Didn't have a ride. We had to run." Ateara says. They both place their hands on the bumper and push hard and fast. I wasn't expecting it and my hands slipped and I fell face first on the ground.

"How's the cement taste?" Embry yells back at me.

"Haha." I say as I stand up and dust myself off. I look at my fingers after touching were my cheek stings to find blood. I can feel the warmth oozing down my face. Embry looks back at me and stops pushing. He rushes towards me and lifts my chin to look at my face.

"I'm fine." I say. He shakes his head.

"That's a lot of blood." He says. I shake my head and attempt to wipe it off with my shirt but he grabs my hand. "Let's get you back to Billy's." I nod my head and he leans down for me to jump on his back.

"I don't need you to carry me I'm fine." I protest. He picks me up anyways and I squeal before giving in. He jogs to where Ateara and Jake are.

"We'll meet you at Billy's." He says and they nod after looking at me. We only walk a little while before arriving to Billy's.

"He's at the bondfire." Embry informs before opening the door. He grabs a rag out of one of the cabinets and tosses it to me after damping it. He grabs some first aid supplies out of the bathroom and sets the supplies on the table before pulling up a chair in front of me.

"Let me." He says and tries to take the rag from me. I dodge his hands and shake my head.

"I got it." I say.

"You can trust me." He says and I nod my head and let him take the rag from me. He pats where the stinging in before setting the rag down and grabbing something off the table. I flinch. "It's just antibiotic." He says and shows it to me. I watch him as he places some on his finger and smears it on my scrape. Then he puts a butterfly stitch on it. "What." He says as I watch him wipe his hands off with a rag.

"Nothing." I smile.

"Sure." He chuckles just before Ateara and Jake walk in.

"Let's go." Jake says. "We went back and got the car too." I nod my head and walk outside.

When we get down to the beach there are more people than I expected. A lot of Jake's little cousins are there and about fifteen teenagers. People are already sitting down and eating in chairs around the fire. I make my plate and sit down beside Embry to eat.

"Jake said you're going through a name change." He says. I smile to myself. In two weeks I'll be able to call myself Cailyn Swan.

"Two more weeks and I'll be Cailyn Swan." I smirk.

"How's Bella doing?" He asks. I shake my head and look over to the waves.

"Dad's getting a little paranoid. He's thinking about sending her to Jacksonville for a little for sunshine." I sigh. I've heard 4 names come from Bella's dreams, "Edward", "Alice", "Carlisle", and "Emmet". She mentioned someone named "Sam" once but he isn't as frequent as those four names. "She's like a zombie." I say.

As I'm sitting by Embry I spot the point and shooting guard from La Push. More girls keep showing up and when a man walks in I realized what's happening.

"Jacob." I whisper as I wave him over. He jogs towards me with a stupid grin on his face.

"Hmm?" He whispers.

"Did you invite the whole girls basketball team?" I mumble through clenched teeth. His smile grows wider to where I can see his canine teeth.

"Oh you noticed?" He grins. Then he points behind me. I turn around and see the point guard.

"Hey." She mumbles. I turn around and Jake is by Quil watching me. I roll my eyes and turn back to the girl.

"Hi." I say. "Sunny right?" She nods her head.

"So I heard you were deciding on coming to La Push or not." She says.

"I never said that." I say.

"Well someone did." She says and points at Jacob. I roll my eyes.

"I'm not sure yet." I say. "If I do, it'll probably be after this seasons ends." She nods her head.

"Well I hope you do." She says. "We're supposed to be really good next year." I nod my head.

She introduces me to the rest of the team and we play a game of soccer before the sun goes down. We go to sit in the chairs around the campfire and listen to Billy tell scary stories. When it's time to leave I go to throw my plate in the trash the coach comes up to me.

"Have you made a decision yet?" He asks. I nod my head.

"I think I'm gonna take you up on that offer." I say. "But after this year's basketball season."

"That's sounds reasonable." He says. "But if you want to start playing in November you have to start school at La Push in March." I nod my head.

"I just have to talk to my dad about it." I say as I walk away towards Jake.