Our Battle Cry

Aria's POV

When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar room. The walls were blue and green, each wall alternating the colors with the green walls having big deep purple circles on them. There was a dresser across from the bed and to the left of the bed was a desk with what looked my guitar sitting next to it. When my eyes passed by the door I noticed that my bags were in between it and the dresser. "Huh wonder how they got there…. Come to think of it…. How did I get here anyways?" I thought to myself as I slowly got out of the bed. Once I changed into some fresh clothes I headed towards the door.

When I opened the door I heard voices. They sounded like guys' voices too. Following my instincts I slowly went down the stairs. Just like I thought, the further I went, the louder the voices got.

I turned the corner and was met with six people sitting around what looked like a living room. Once they noticed that I was in the room all the talking stopped. The three people sitting on the couch looked over their shoulders. I recognized Emily sitting with who I thought was her fiancé, Sam Uley.

"Oh Aria! You're up! Great! Come down and meet everyone." Emily said as she got up and walked over to me and gently pulled my arm to get me to walk to the living room. "This is Sam, as you know. And over there is Jared, Paul, Quil, and Embry. These are some of the boys who help Sam out around the reservation. Don't worry there are only a few more people who will be coming around here regularly," she said as she pointed to each guy while saying their names, and noticed the look of distress on my face when she mentioned the other guys who I've yet to meet. They were all big and buff. Every one of them had dark tan skin and brown cropped hair. When i looked closely i could see the same tattoo on each of their right shoulders. They were also easily over 6 foot, if not taller.

Everyone waved to me so I hesitantly waved back at them as I went and sat down on the only lazy boy left. Even though I wasn't happy about being here, I figured that there wasn't anything I could do to change it. "Might as well make the best of it and not be a total bitch" I thought to myself.

I noticed that they were just staring at me right now. No one was saying anything. It was so quite that if a toothpick were to fall on the ground you would be able to hear it hit perfectly clear. It was very awkward. I hate awkward situations. I was thinking of getting up and just going back to my room but I was stopped by one of the boys talking to me.

"As you know I'm Quil. A.K.A. the best one of the group," he said while puffing out his chest like superman. I giggled a bit. Everyone smiled at me.

"Pfft. Please you so aren't the best. Everyone knows that it's me! I mean come on look at me!" Embry said while pushing Quil in the shoulder so that he almost fell over.

"Guys, be careful," Sam told them, all the while smiling at their behavior and shaking his head. It got quite after that. No one said anything and it was starting to get awkward again.

"Sooo… Do you want to tell us about yourself?" Embry asked me out of nowhere.

"Umm…. Okay? I'm 17 almost 18. I have three best friends who would do anything for me. And—"

"I go through guys like money flying out the hands

They try to change me but they realize they can't!

And every tomorrow is a day I never planned

If your gonna be my man than understand…

I can't be tamed!

I can't be tamed!

I can't be blamed!

I can't—I can't be tamed!"

I jumped when I heard that ringtone go off. I quickly tried to reach my phone. Once I did I answered it without even looking to see who was calling me, since I already knew.

"Hey Phyl, what's up?" I asked one of my best friends.

"Hey Aria. Not much. Just wanted to see how you were doing in your new place is all. Ya know, like a good friend does," Phyleesha said to me. I could practically see her twirling her red hair around her finger. I slowly got up and excused myself out of the room.

"I'm doing fine. How're you and the girls?" I asked.

"Oh... We're all good. Nothing new here, just missing you is all. I wanted to make sure that you're alright and don't need us to come down there…" She said while trailing off a bit at the end.

"Uh-huh, really now? Is that they call it these days? Why did you actually call me?"

"Well now! I am offended! Can't a girl just call in to see how her best friend is doing?"

"Phyl, we both know that you have three best friends not just one, and that you never call me. You hate talking to people on the phone! What do you need?" I asked.

"Well… I don't really know how to put this…." She said to me.

"Bluntly would be nice. Or even better you could have Em or Wei* try to say it…. Anything helps really," I told her while I made my way into the kitchen with sarcasm dripping off every word.

"Fine! Gosh, you don't have to be so rude! I need help picking a song for the competition. I figured that you would be able to help me since I'm only in it because of you. But I just don't know what to sing at all! I mean without you there I'm not even half as good as before!" She said. I could sense that she was about to rant.

"Okay, I'll help alright? And you and I both know that you got in the competition all on your own, I didn't do anything. See asking for help wasn't so hard now was it?" I asked her sarcastically.

When I looked up, I saw that four of the five guys came into the kitchen, obviously following me and wanting to listen to my conversation. There was silence on the other side of the phone. Knowing Phyl, she was letting me think. It was good that she called since I knew what she should sing, however I kept up the pause waiting for her to make some remark since I could picture her face in a worry state, almost like she thought I would take it back.

"Aria?! Do you have any ideas? Aria!" She called through the phone

"Okay, I think I got it. Sing 'Listen'. Everyone loves it when you sing that. It's perfect," I told her.

"I would but I can't. Maggie Peirce registered that as her song two days ago. And I so can't sing the same thing as her. What do I do?" She screamed into the phone. I had to hold it away from my ear for the safety of my hearing.

"Okay. Okay. Relax, take deep breaths. It'll work out. Alright?" I told her. One of the boys (I think it was Jared?) started drumming on the table with his hands in a somewhat familiar beat. Suddenly it hit me. I knew what she should sing. "I got it! Sing 'Baby Love'! It's perfect! I mean isn't Juju taking you there since he goes to school by it?"

"That's perfect! Oh thank you so much! Wait… What do you mean since Juju goes to school near it? He's not taking me and I resent your accusations!"

"Whatever, you have yet to prove that my so called 'accusations' aren't true. When you do, then I'll leave you alone," I told her while smiling. She knew that I was joking though since she used to have a huge crush on him for the longest time.

"Anyway, thanks so much! You are awesome and I owe you big time! You are the best friend a girl could have." I could tell that she was really happy since she said that she "owed" me.

"Whatever you say. Hey, I got to go, so I'll text you later alright?" I told her. After she said her goodbye's to me she hung up the phone.

After I put my phone away, I realized that everyone had migrated into the kitchen and listened in on my half of the conversation. All of the boys were staring at me with confused faces.

"What?" I asked them while tilting my head to the side.

"Nothing, nothing. That was just an interesting conversation to listen to. Umm… do your friends always ask for your help like that?" Jared asked me with the other guys nodding their heads behind him.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Not all the time. But some of it yeah, I mean I don't mind helping them 'cause I know that they would do the same for me in a heartbeat," I said. I turned and went to the fridge looking for something to drink. I found a bottle of water and took it out while unscrewing the cap. I sat at the medium sized table with all of the boys looking at each one slowly.

"Sooo….. What were you saying before you got interrupted? You have three best friends? Are they hot?" the one who I figured out was Paul asked. I figured that it might take a few days before I could officially tell them all apart.

I could see Sam giving Paul a disapproving look before I answered him. "Yes, I do have three best friends. Their names are Emmerson, Phyleesha, and Wei-Wei (pronounced 'Way Way')*. I love them all dearly and they happen to be very hot. But, none of them would like you. Sorry," I told him with a fake look of sympathy on my face. As I got up to head upstairs to finish unpacking Sam called my name.

"Yeah Sam?" I asked him.

"The rest of the guys will be over later tonight." he said giving me warning so that I could prepare myself for the invasion of people.

"That's cool. I'm going to finishing unpacking if that's all right," I told him while turning around and continuing my way up the stairs and to my room. The entire way up I was wondering what these other boys would be like.