Keep on Living

You know how some people have those friendships where they show affection for each other through the strangest ways? Like tripping each other, throwing books at each other, tackling each other, throwing food each other, stealing food from each other, etc.? That's probably the best way to describe my friendship with Whittier. She's the only person that can pull that almost non-existent obnoxious personality out of me.
There was this one time I was walking to class alone, just enjoying the peace, when Whittier suddenly came up from behind and tackled me to the ground. I probably would have laughed had I been on grass and not concrete, and had my head not hit a rock. I think I lost consciousness for an hour, and when I woke up in the nurse's office, I felt like I had a brain aneurysm.
I think this current pain was almost as painful that.
There were six different voices exchanging comments over me, all of which were masculine. At least I think they were masculine.
"I think you killed her."
"Shut up! You're not helping!" A burning sensation tapped my cheek, and I guessed it was a hand. "Oi, oi! Are you alright?"
"I think we've already figured out the answer to that question."
"I don't see you trying to help, Paul!"
"Seth, go get some ice," a calmer voice intervened.
"Will do!" This voice sounded a lot younger than the rest.
"Damn... She's really out of it." Silence. "Maybe if we hit her again she'll wake up."
"God, you're so stupid, Paul."
"Screw you, Jared!"
I groaned, only wanting them to stop talking. They all hushed each other, and a weary silence lingered. Somehow, I managed to raise a hand to my head and pull myself up into a sitting position. Unable to keep myself up, I fell back again, but this time a pair of hands caught me. "Woah there!" a booming voice laughed.
"Nyeaah, don't touch m... Ow..." Everything in my head was a jumble of thoughts, so it was impossible to say anything comprehensible. The group around me seemed to find this amusing, and they all laughed. I cracked my eyes open in an attempt to glare at them, but all I could see were five very big shadows hovering over me.
"Something tells me you're prone to danger." That voice. My vision began to clear, and my eyes stared straight ahead into the face of Jacob Black. Unlike earlier today, however, a taunting smirk graced his lips and an amused expression played on his handsome features.
Handsome? Wow, I must really be out of it.
When he could tell I could see him, the smirk only grew. "Hello again." Talk about a sudden change in attitude. Is this guy bi-polar or what? I think my eye twitched at his greeting, otherwise I was unable to respond. The other boys looked around, exchanging confused glances with each other.
"You know her, Jake?" one of them asked.
"I ran into her earlier today." And scared the living daylights out of me, you forgot that.
Just then, a boy of about thirteen, who was, sadly, probably taller than me, ran up with a bag of ice in hand. He grinned proudly as he held out the ice to Jacob. "Here ya go!" he chimed.
"Thanks Seth." He held the bag only by the plastic, so that he wasn't touching the ice at all. He outstretched his long arm to me, dangling the bag in front of me. "Here, take it. It'll come in handy." I think I tried to say 'thank you' when I took it and pressed it against my forehead.
Ahhhh, bliissssss~
"So!" I nearly jumped at the voice from behind me, belonging to the boy who was holding me up in my sitting position. I tried to crank my head back, and found him grinning largely at me. "I don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you from the town?"
"She's George's new stepdaughter," Jacob answered for me.
The boy's brows rose. "Oh? What's her name?" I noted how the questioning went from me to Jacob.
Jacob shrugged. "Never got to that."
With the ice, the pain began to die down, and I managed to regain some control of my body. I sat up straight, though that caused several ripples through my head, and pressed the ice bag harder against my temple. "Themitra White," I managed.
"Hey, she can talk!" laughed the one who had been holding me up. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Paul." Despite the light, aloof feeling of his voice, I noted an undertone of sarcasm. "That's Jared." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing towards a boy who had a small smirk on his face. "Embry and Quil." He indicated the two boys standing in front of me. "Seth." The boy who got me ice -- bless his soul. "And you already met Jacob."
There was one thing about all of them that no one could miss: their ridiculous massiveness. I know, that sounds really retarded, but you'll just have to believe me. All of them were at least 6'5", with Jacob being the tallest at 6' 7", and with the exception of Seth, who was about 6'. All of them had dark russet skin, dark brown to black eyes, and cropped black hair. Except for Jacob, whose hair brushed against his jawline. Save for Jacob, it was almost impossible to tell any of them apart from each other.
"Uh, hi." I know, I'm a master of words, aren't I? After sitting there for what seemed like an eternity (or maybe it was just the endless throbbing at the back of my head), I finally remembered why I had come out here in the first place. "Oh, food's ready."
Those were two words they clearly understood. Paul immediately jumped to his feet and ran off towards the barbecue, and was closely followed by Jared and Seth. Embry and Quil exchanged a look, stole a hesitant glance at me then Jacob, and followed. I slowly raised my eyes to Jacob, who was peering down at me expressionlessly.
His lips quirked upwards, and he extended his hand out to me. I looked at wearily and turned my eyes to his face, searching for some kind of trick. I mean really, when I met him earlier today he was like a whole other person.
"I'm not gonna bite," he said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
Despite my obvious hesitation, he continued to smile. My fingers itched, my frown grew, and my pounding head told me not to. But I still reached out and took his hand.
"My foot to the floor, I will drive to the place
where I can kick it with friends through the night;
A place we'll talk about now and the past, what the future holds;
Hanging out with not much to do,
just aimless with each other
is what we do."

"Mom, I'm not hungry." I pushed away the hamburger being waved in front of my face.
She made a face of disapproval. "Themi, you haven't eaten breakfast, and you haven't had lunch -- you have to eat something!" And to think, just earlier today she was scolding me for eating too much.
"I'm fine," I said firmly, taking a hold of hamburger and placing it on Quil's plate. The boy on my left somehow managed a thanks through all the fries stuffed in his mouth. "And if I force myself to eat, I might puke it up." She wrinkled her nose, unhappy, but sat back down between George and Sue.
I sighed as I leaned forward, resting my elbow on the table as I pressed the ice harder against my forehead. The throbbing had died down, and now there was just a numb sensation with the occasional ringing in my ears.
"So your headache's stunted your hunger?" Jacob asked from my right.
"I've been stuffing my face with chips and dip for the past week. I think I'm good." When I'm in a bad mood, I'm a bit more... outspoken that I normally am. Well, maybe outspoken isn't the best word. Sarcastic and ever-so-slightly rude. It's not a personality disorder or anything (I don't think so anyways...), but that's how it's always been.
He chuckled and shook his head before taking another bite out of his hamburger, which took off a little more than half of what was there. God, these kids can eat a lot.
"Sure you don't want some?" he asked through a mouthful of meat.
I made a face of disgust. "I'm good."
"Are you suuuure?" He began to playfully wave the eaten food in front of my face. I rolled my eyes and attempted to smack his hand away, only it felt like trying to hit a brick wall.
I managed to suppress the yelp that threatened at the back of my throat. "Ooooowwwww..." I dropped the bag of ice in order to cradle my now damaged hand with the other, and held it under the table as to not attract attention. "Super tall, super big, abnormally warm, and concrete-like muscles!? God, what are they feeding these kids!?"
Jacob blinked, as though he had missed what had just happened. "Are you alright?"
I glared at him through narrowed eyes as I attempted to massage my hand. "Dandy."
"So you're from New York, right?" I turned to Embry, who I realized had a thinner face and physique compared to the others. Yes, he was still very well built, but a lot more slimmer than the others.
I nodded dumbly. "Yeah. It's a lot... different from here." I tried to say that in the nicest way possible. The last thing I wanted to do was insult a pack of giants.
Paul laughed. "Yeah, I bet!"
A round of laughter circled around the table, and despite the fact that I felt no better a squashed bug, I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips. Well, they certainly were a cheerful bunch.
"Cause this ain't where it's at,
and my friends will second that,
and I gotta admit sometimes it's pretty sad;
But it's like we're own brat pack,
we're always kickin' back;
Nobody can take that;
That is that,
it's like it's all we have."

song;
Brat Pack.