Ash Over Seas

Later that afternoon, I stumbled into study hall, dazed and holding my head, wondering what the hell had just happened. I had never had a problem in gym class. Ever. I mean not since like…

Ugh. I quickly shook the thought from my head. That couldn’t be—wasn’t—happening again. I wouldn’t let it. I was free.

But still, it was completely against my nature to lose my breath in such a way. Running was never a problem for me; swimming; I could keep going for hours and not even break a sweat. But today, in the middle of playing volleyball, after a rather extensive trash-talking match with Jake and Quil, my breath had caught in my throat and I panicked. Jacob seemed truly worried too and his close proximity while holding me up didn’t really help very much….

“Cole!” I heard a voice call once I reached the library, shattering my train of thought. My head snapped up to see Seth waving at me from one of the tables near the back, a petite black-haired, blue-eyed girl by his side smiling politely. She actually reminded me a lot of myself, except that she was about 5 inches shorter than my 5’9” height.

“Hey, Seth, um…” I trailed off, looking to the girl.

“Oh! Right, sorry. That’s Penelope—“

“Penny,” she corrected him, smiling and extending her hand. “Penny Liken.”

“Oh,” I said, smiling as I shook her hand lightly. “Are you two…?”

“Dating? Yeah,” Seth replied, beaming down at the girl with such adoration that it made my stomach flip. He placed his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to his body and I sighed inwardly. I was, perhaps, a little jealous.

“So what was that at the lunch table?” he asked, getting straight to the point. A point I wasn’t really in the mood of discussing. Funny how life just likes to ignore your requests just for the hell of it. Sometimes I wondered to myself if the universe had some sort of vendetta against me.

“What was what?” Penny asked curiously. She must have had a different lunch than all of us, for she hadn’t been there to hear my pathetic attempt at lying. I never was any good at it.

“Cole was looking at something under the lunch table and wouldn’t show any of us,” Seth replied, shooting me an amused glance.

“It was nothing, really,” I replied uneasily. It really wasn’t a big deal at all… just talking about Cormac annoyed me.

Penny turned to me; eyes alight with curiosity. “What was it? Oh, do tell.”

I had to chuckle to myself; she was almost as nosy as I was, and I supposed I ought to honor that and just tell them. What harm could it do anyway?

“Fine, fine,” I sighed. “It was just a text message from my ex.”

My tone was rather bitter toward the end and Seth picked up on it easily.

“Not a big fan of him, I take it?” he chuckled.

I laughed humorlessly as I picked up a pen and began doodling on a scrap piece of paper that someone had left on the table. “You could say that. Ugh, he’s just the worst. We dated for a year or so back in London. He knew… a lot about me,” I added, throwing Seth a meaningful glance. Cormac wasn’t like me, but he had found out my secret one day and had stuck with me, saying it didn’t bother him in the slightest. Sometimes it seemed he only stayed because he thought my species was fascinating, though I never pressed the issue too much. “Anyway, he’s just a rough sort of type; tattoos, reckless, partying all the time. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize he was a complete tosser. Atticus never liked him.”

“Tattoos? Wow, like a lot of them?” Penny asked, watching as my pen glided across the paper idly, creating a swirling design that seemed to have no beginning or end. Her nose seemed to wrinkle a little as I described him and I figured he definitely wasn’t her type at all.

I shook my head. “No, just one, really. Some sort of, like… jagged sun design I guess you could call it, on his neck above his collarbone. I’ve no idea what it meant, if anything, but he always seemed real proud of it cause he designed it himself.”

“So, you say he knew a lot about you?” Seth said, frowning slightly.

I grimaced and nodded. “Yeah, he did… he found me quite fascinating, if you will. I wasn’t like what he was used to.”

“You must be glad you moved here, then,” Penny said kindly, leaning into Seth comfortably.

I chuckled and nodded. “More than you know.”

In the distance, the bell rang, signaling the end of the block. I scrapped the paper I was doodling on, tossing it in the bin as I slung my bag over my shoulders.

“Well, that was a productive Study,” Seth chuckled as we mingled with the other students crowding the hallway. I smiled and waved goodbye to the pair as we split, and I made my way to History.

“Hey,” I replied happily as I took my seat next to Jacob. “Make any bad decisions since gym?”

He grinned and winked again. “You know me too well. Hey, are you feeling okay?”

I nodded and waved my hand dismissively. “Fine, please, nothing to worry about, really.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, eyeing me skeptically.

“I’m fine, Jake,” I replied with an air of finality that he seemed to know better than to question.

The rest of the class quickly quieted as Giovanangelli strutted into the classroom, looking very sharp in a pair of well-ironed trousers and a crisp red button up. His moustache was just as bar-handled today as it had been the day before and I decided mentally that, aside from his hard exterior, I liked the man. He had character.

“Okay, class,” he said promptly, clapping his hands in front of him. “We’re continuing our unit on Europe today, and you will be given an exam on Monday for the material we’ve covered thus far. Good? Good.”

Ignoring the many groans and complaints from the class, he swiftly pivoted toward the board and began scrawling across it in his choppy script.

“Brilliant,” I groaned sarcastically as I flipped my notebook open, dreading the coming week already. It was only the second day of school and he was planning on finishing an entire chapter by Friday, then testing us on it. Yes, bloody fantastic.

“Nervous?” said Jake, grinning smugly as he noticed my sour expression.

I sent him a withering glare. “Sod off. I need a good grade in this class if I want to go to University and I’m rubbish at History. I'm not going to be able to study this,” I said, disgustedly waving my hand at my textbook. “I think I’d rather chop my arm off.”

The handsome boy chuckled and shook his head. “Really,” he replied, clearly not taking me seriously.

I nodded curtly. “I have no attention capacity for this nonsense.”

His smile grew and I glanced at him from the corner of my eye.

“I’ll help you study, if you’d like,” he offered, shrugging. “I’ll make sure you pay attention to it.”

I snorted, smiling doubtfully. Somehow I hardly believed that his presence would help me study. If anything it would distract me more. Either way, I figured if I wouldn’t be studying I’d rather do my procrastinating with Jacob, so I accepted.

“Alright, I suppose it couldn’t hurt,” I said vaguely.

“Great,” he said happily. “We can meet Sunday or something since that’s when it seems most people are doing all their work. We’ll have a cram session.”

After receiving a threatening stare from Giovanangelli, I nodded and said quietly, “Sounds like a plan,” before turning and trying to focus my attention on outlining the chapters we’d covered.

When the bell finally rang I was incredibly relieved to leave the classroom as I gathered my books and shoved them unceremoniously into my bag.

“Anxious much?” Jake teased as we walked from the classroom.

I let out a deep breath and shuddered. “That place is death.”

“Aw, come on, it can’t be that bad. I’m in that class.”

I laughed wryly and glanced at him. “You fancy yourself far too much.”

“I don’t fancy myself,” he said indignantly, but I just grinned and stopped at my locker to throw my books in it. Jacob stopped with me and I had to refrain from making several retriever jokes.

“So I brought my bike today,” he said offhandedly as he leaned against the locker next to me, eyes dancing as he peered down at me.

“Oh?” I asked, the corners of my mouth twitching in a smile. “Training wheels off yet?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Ha-ha,” he replied sarcastically. “No I brought my motor bike.”

“Oh. Good for you,” I smiled politely, patting him on the shoulder as I closed my locker and brushed by him.

“You're so frustrating,” he growled as he caught up with me.

“How so?”

He scoffed. “I’m trying to ask you if you want a ride on it.”

My mouth twitched again as I glanced up at him. “Jake, if you want to ask me to ride with you on your bike, just ask me.”

He rolled his eyes and muttered, “Obviously.” Taking a deep breath he started again. “Colby Woodbury, would you like to take a ride on my motor bike?” he asked, exaggerating his politeness.

I grinned, ignoring his sarcasm and replying, “That would be lovely.”

We reached the parking lot and I quickly found Atticus, telling him I’d be home a little later and that I was getting a ride from Jake. His eyes darted between the two of us for a moment before the corner of his mouth twitched in a smirk and he reminded me to be home by dinner. I just nodded and followed Jake to a small black motorcycle across the lot.

I laughed as he tried to force his helmet on my head several times, but eventually gave up when I threatened to shove it somewhere that would be quite unpleasant for him.

“Why are you so stubborn?” he muttered as he climbed on.

I just shrugged and positioned myself behind him, wrapping my arms lightly around his waist. “I don’t like feeling restricted or held back… I’ve had too much of that in my life so far.”

“How so?”

I glared and pursed my lips. “Are you going to drive or not?”

He shook his head lightly and started the engine, tearing out of the lot and quickly turning onto the street.

I grinned as I felt the wind whipping through my hair, causing it to ripple behind me like a curtain. The sensation sent shivers throughout my body and raised goosebumps along my arms, although that could have also been in part to the handsome boy I was clinging to.

I hardly noticed we were slowing down until he turned off the road, pulling into a small parking lot, full of cracks and potholes. I glanced over to see the beach that Atticus and I had wandered to when we’d first moved.

“What’re we doing here?” I asked curiously, though quite pleased. I loved the beach.

Jake shrugged and put down his kickstand, sliding gracefully off the bike. “Thought we might hang out for a while. Maybe you want to pull a death stunt again and try to climb the cliffs.”

I stared at him oddly for a moment. “How did you—“

“My friends and I saw you here over the weekend with your brother.”

I nodded in understanding as we began strolling through the sand. “Ah, you were the group wrestling around by the water?”

He nodded. “Yeah, the pack can be a little childish at times.”

“I think it’s great. At least they have a sense of humor,” I sighed wistfully.

“Your family a little uptight?” he asked, coming to a stop and falling gracefully into a sitting position as we neared the waves.

“Yeah,” I sighed as I plopped down next to him, pulling my knees into my chest. “I know they only mean the best, but I wish they’d loosen up a little sometimes. Everything is so cautious and calculated with my Father. He’s so protective.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “I dunno,” I replied, feeling a little guilty for lying. “I guess it’s just the whole thing with my mother. I’m all he’s really got left of her.”

Okay, that was mostly true. It’s not a crime to just happen to leave details out, right?

Jacob nodded in understanding. “Well, you’ve got me and the pack now if you ever want to let loose and have a good time,” he said heartily, wrapping his arm around my far shoulder as he pulled me in for a rough one-armed hug.

I chuckled and nodded. “Yes, thank heaven for that.”

Neither of us made any move to separate as we continued our conversation, laughing as if we were the best of friends already. I allowed myself to sink against his side, leaning comfortably into his warmth, his thumb absently stroking along my arm. I could feel the vibrations in his chest as he laughed at something I’d said.

“Yeah, it was ridiculous,” he chuckled. Our conversation had steered toward the subject of Jacob’s not-so-secret admirer. “All she talked about was her friends, who they liked, and what we should do this weekend.”

“So you actually called her then?” I asked, watching him from the corner of my eye as the waves crashed soothingly in the distance, the wind was dancing around us and filling my nose with the smell of the ocean. I realized that I hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time.

He shrugged and my head and shoulders moved with him. “I didn’t want to be rude.”

I snorted. “She probably just would have assumed you were too nervous to actually call her or something. Actually, her friends seem to think you asked her for her number the other day.”

“Do they really?” he chuckled and I nodded. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Her friends were talking about it today in Biology,” I replied, wondering if I should bring up what else they had been talking about, but decided against it.

He sighed deeply, shaking his head. “Girls.”

“Hey!” I chuckled, slapping him playfully. “I'm a girl, too, you know!”

He smirked down at me, his warm chocolate eyes glinting mischievously. “Oh, really? Is that what you are? See, I couldn’t tell,” he teased.

I scoffed. “Sod off, you bloody git,” I cried as I playfully shoved him away from me.

“Hey, hey,” he laughed, roughly pulling me into him once more and securing me there with both arms around my shoulders, making my heart flutter slightly. “I was just kidding. Believe me, I think everyone in the school knows quite well that you're a girl.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he chuckled and I sighed, letting it go as a comfortable silence fell over us.

We stayed that way for a while before I felt a soft kiss, so light it was almost unnoticeable, placed on my hair and Jacob moved to stand up.

“Come on,” he said, holding his hand out to me. “We should get you home by dinner.”

I nodded as I allowed him to pull me up and lead me back to the bike where I once again refused to wear his helmet.

“Thanks for driving me,” I said once he’d pulled into my driveway.

“Anytime,” he replied happily as I climbed off the back. “So I’ll see you in school tomorrow?”

I nodded and waved as I watched him pull back out and head down the road.

When I entered the house I found my Father setting the last plates down for dinner. I’d have to praise Jacob on his perfect timing tomorrow.

“Hey, Daddy,” I greeted as I took a seat between my two youngest siblings. Pan was shuffling his corn around his plate boredly and Artemis seemed unusually enthusiastic about piling potatoes onto her plate. “What’s go Ari so wound?” I asked, noticing the smile that she was trying to bite back.

“Cullens are back in town,” Atticus replied.

I frowned. “I thought—“

“He means Edward and Bella are back from their honeymoon,” my Father supplied as he sat down, crossing his fingers with his elbows on the table as he politely watched us eat. I reached forward to take some roast beef, my stomach growling fiercely.

“And what’s that got to do with Ari?” I asked as I glanced at the fiery-haired girl. Her cheeks flushed to the color of her hair as she focused her emerald eyes on her plate.

My father chuckled softly. “Seems she’s got a bit of a thing for Mr. Edward.”

I grinned and Artemis glanced in horror at my Father. “Daddy!” she protested and he chuckled once more.

“So did they say how their trip was?” I asked as I took a large bite, almost sighing in content. My father was a wonderful cook.

“Yes, they had a wonderful time. Bella was changed over there, also.”

My eyes widened slightly. “Really? And she’s back in Forks already?”

My father nodded, frowning a little. “Yes, it seems she’s been blessed with some sort of perfect control. It’s odd, really, but she’s already having her father visit soon.”

“Wow,” I said, shaking my head as I took another bite. “Lucky girl.”

He nodded. “Yes, very lucky indeed.”

The rest of dinner was filled with conversations about our days and I remembered that I still had yet to think of a better project for my photography class. I sighed, knowing that Jacob was surely going to let this go to his head, but still feeling a little excited for the shots I had floating around in my head. I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to convince him since, after all, he was quite full of himself.