Stir-Crazy

"You can't do this to me!"

I had been lying in my bed, reading a trashy romance novel a few hours before. The first day of school had just ended, and I was trying to spend some time unwinding.

The key word here is had.

A few minutes later, I heard a tap on my window.

And another one.

And another one.

And the next thing I know, a rock the size of my fist smashes through my window, leaving a large hole and glass scattered all over my floor.

Naturally, I thought it was a burglar, so I picked up the nearest weapon which happened to be my alarm clock, and glanced downward. Instead of a robber, I saw Leah and Emily laughing.

"What the hell are you doing?" I shouted, ignoring the fact that it was eight o' clock at night.

"We're busting you out of here," Leah shouted, an impish grin on her face.

"What the—?"

And the next thing I know, I'm riding in the backseat of Emily's faded green Honda. Twenty
minutes later, I was shoved onto the bed. And now, here I am, protesting angrily.

"We're going to a party." Emily said giddily.

I glanced at Leah, who I should have protested but instead was giggling also.

"So what do I have to do with this?"

"You're coming, silly."

I stared at Emily like she was insane, but she just laughed before rifling through her closet. Emily began throwing articles of clothing on the bed, some of which were way too sparkly.

After her rampage ended, I crawled towards the clothing cautiously.

The first thing I spotted was a blood red tank top, decorated with sequins on the lower half. Then, the faded jeans with a rip on the knee.

And finally, the sparkly silver flats.

They all seemed so different, so out of place separately, but as I was urged to try them on and looked in the mirror at the finished product, it all seemed to flow together.

It was perfect.

"Look at you!" Emily squealed happily, before getting out the flat iron.

As she inched closer to me, the steam beginning to rise as the plates got hotter, I screamed.

This was going to be a long night.
 
[ x o x o x o ]
                                                                                   
The party was in Forks.

That was the first thing I learned.

The second thing I learned was that parties in Forks were different than parties in Chicago.

As in, there was alcohol.

Lots of alcohol.

When we pulled up, the party was in full swing. Music was blasting and the lawn was overflowing with cars. Emily had picked up Kim—Jared's girlfriend—on the way.

She parked the car across the street and we walked towards the house. It was spacious and the door was left open for anyone to enter.

Leah told me that the house belonged to Mike Newton, a graduate of Forks High and his younger brother Robert, who was now a senior.

To my surprise, Leah, Kim and Emily walked straight past the dance floor in which what seemed to be hundreds of people gyrating against each other, past the keg in which there was a drinking game going on and past the couples lined against the wall making out and instead, headed out to the garden.

"Hey baby, what's your name?" A drunk guy with red hair slurred at me and I quickened my pace.

The room smelled of sweat and alcohol and I felt disgusted. I was shoved around as people attempted to maneuver to get a drink.

Once I got back outside, I noticed an immediate difference.

It was quiet, other than a few groups of people talking. Most of the people were holding flashlights that flickered in the dark, and I squinted and found Emily, Leah and Kim along with a few guys leaning against a wall.

"Hey!" Leah called out, and I quickened my pace to reach them. "We thought we lost you!"
 
As I got closer, I recognized Sam, Embry, Quil, Jared and Jacob standing next to them. Emily was huddled closer to Sam and Jared and Kim did the same.

"Hey." I addressed the group and they nodded back, welcoming me in.

Somehow, I had ended up next to Jacob. Seeing as everyone else seemed to have broken off into smaller conversations, I turned to Jacob.

"What is the one thing you are most afraid of?"

I had learned to go with his odd questions, as they had something to do with my 'real story'.

"Spiders."

"That's not a real fear."

"Yeah, it is."

"Not like vampires, ghosts, voodoo, maybe…werewolves?"

"Those things don‘t exist anyway, so why should it matter?"

"Fine." He looked amused, and I just stared at him.

“You don’t believe in that stuff, do you?”

“Maybe.”

Interesting… Well, time to change the subject.

"What's your favorite sport?" He thought about this.

"Track, I run fast."

"Okay."

"If you could be any animal, what would you be?"

"A goat."

"A goat?" He looked at me incredulously. "Why?!"

"Because they are cute, and no one is ever a goat. Cat's and dogs are boring but goats, they're the shiz."

"Oh really?"

"Yup."

"What is the one thing that your parents don't know about?"

 "That I have my belly button ring."

"You have a belly button ring?"

"Yeah. Isn't this supposed to be my real story?"

"I guess." Jacob nodded, thoughtfully.

Jacob often asked the questions, and for some reason, I was okay with that. I rarely asked the questions, because for some odd reason, I never actually felt like I needed to know about Jacob.

“What’s the one thing you’re afraid of?” Jacob was standing straight up now, his muscled tense.

“We’re going for a walk.” Everyone looked up to their conversations, wide-eyed.

“Oh-kay…” Leah giggled and winked at me secretively.

I rolled my eyes. Jacob grabbed my hand (which made me extremely giddy if I do say so myself), and lead me away from the party.

As we walked in step, my stride attempting to match his rather large one.

“So,” I asked, “You never answered my question.”

“About?”

“What is the one thing you’re most afraid of?”

“You’re reaction.”

“My reaction to what?”

He stopped and I briefly realized that we were in the forest. He let go of my hand, and stepped back at least ten paces.

“What are you-?”

“Stay.” he commanded like I was a pet, and began to step back some more. My heart started pounding and I looked around.

We were alone.

What was he going to do to me?

And then, he transformed.