Reed—just like he said he would—picked Callas up from school and drove her to Forks. He seemed rather excited now that they were actually going to look for running clothes. The radio played the same six songs repeatedly in a quiet hum as they neared the running shop. As Reed pulled up, she could see that the parking lot was filled with cars. It wasn't that much of a surprise, most of the tourists drove through Forks to get to their destination, so they'd have to stop off somewhere to buy whatever it was that they needed. Next door to the running shop there was an outdoor centre, small tents and surfboards were positioned outside.

Callas got out of the Jeep and stretched, the twenty-minute drive from school to the running shop left her body stiff and tired. She followed Reed towards the shop doors, stopping as he paused in front of the surfboards outside the outdoor centre, she smirked to herself knowing he would probably want to go back at some point to get things for when the weather was a bit better. Callas wanted to see what was inside, maybe she'd get some camping things—that was if Silas didn't already have some in the barn.

The running shop had two floors, Reed was stuck as to which one he wanted to go to first. "Shoes, Reed." Callas pointed out the bottom left-hand corner. "You need running shoes."

"Right, forgot about that." He nodded to himself, walking over to get seen by one of the workers.

Callas took that time to look around, maybe she'd find something to wear for her P.E. lessons. She walked upstairs and looked around the clothing section. She went straight towards the long-sleeved shirts and running trousers, trying to pick out the plainest ones, not liking the bright colours or patterns too much. Her phone buzzed a couple of times, catching her off guard, she let go of one of the price tags and dug her phone out of her pocket. Five new messages:

Henry:
Hey, Cally. Sorry about responding so late. When I got home my dad took me out for dinner, he said he had something to talk to me about. Anyway, I ended up getting food poisoning and it was pretty bad. It had nothing to do with you, so I'm sure you can rest easy knowing that you weren't the culprit to my downfall.

Callas rolled her eyes at Henry's text, smiling to herself before she saw she had another one from him:

Henry:
Did we get any History homework? Or just homework in general? Sorry about abandoning you today, but I don't think you'd want me to throw up on you. I might be in on Monday, but I'll see how I feel.

The other three texts were from Embry. Callas' heart fluttered slightly when she saw his name flash up on her phone. She bit her lip with a smile as she opened the messages:

Embry:
Yo, Calvin!

Embry:
No, I meant Calum!

Embry:
Wait autocorrect. I meant calcium!

Callas laughed to herself before she saw him typing again:

Embry:
My god.

Embry:
Why can't my phone just get your name right?

There was a pause as Embry continued to type something out. It took a while so she put her phone away and looked towards more of the clothes. She was thankful that Reed had found the place, the clothes were of much better quality than the ones she had already. Her phone buzzed again, she took it out and read Embry's message:

Embry:
Anyway. I wanted to know if you were down to come to the beach with me and the others in like half an hour? We will be down at First Beach if you are. Jacob is complaining that he didn't get to see you all day. Quil and Seth kept asking for their 'alpha' and I'm the only normal one who just wants to hang out.

She was about to respond when Reed came up behind her rattling a shoe box. "Found a pair. What are you looking for? Winter clothes?" Callas nodded to him. Still looking at her phone. "Who's Embry?" Reed asked looking over her shoulder.

"He's a friend. Jacob introduced me to his group."

"Oh, alright." Reed nodded as he picked up the price tag of the clothes she was looking at. "These aren't a bad price, considering how much these shoes were." He laughed as he let the tag go. "You need them for school?"

"Yeah, Coach has us doing cross country, and I don't think some plain long sleeve and sweatpants are really going to cut it."

"Ah, the dreaded winter races. Well, if you want them, get them, it's why we came." He shrugged before he wandered off to the men's section.

She picked up the clothes and followed him over to where he was standing. "Embry wants to know if I can go to the beach with him and the others..."

"I don't see why not," Reed mumbled as he picked up a black shirt. "How many will there be?"

"Uh, Embry, Jacob, Quil, Seth, probably Paul and Jared too, so, I'd say seven."

"And you which makes eight."

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

"Cal, I'm not going to stop you from seeing your friends. Isn't Harry going to be there?"

"Henry," she corrected. "And no, he has food poisoning. His dad took him out for dinner and it didn't go so well apparently."

"Oh, okay, yeah that's fine then. I'll drop you off on the way back." Reed continued to look around while Callas responded to Embry:

Callas:
Hi, Embry. Reed said he'll drop me off when we're done in Forks, so I'll see you in a half hour. Tell Jake to knock it off and calm down, I swear all he does is complain. Let Quil and Seth know I'll be there to save them soon, and I'll see you later. X

She hit send and looked for Reed, who walked off somewhere. By the time Reed had finished walking around he walked up to the till and paid for their new running gear, he threw the stuff in the back seat of the Jeep, getting in, while Callas took off the jumper as it was getting too hot. She shoved it in the back seat and put her seatbelt on as Reed started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot and towards the highway back to La Push. Callas took her phone out to continue to talk to Henry again.

"I've only met Jacob, haven't I?" Reed questioned as Callas looked up from her phone, stopping herself from typing.

"Yeah, he dropped me off at school." Callas' phone buzzed, it was another message from Henry:

Henry:
I don't doubt that she seemed overly happy about it.

"Right, he's a good kid. Maybe one day I'll meet the rest of your friends." Reed nodded as Callas hummed and responded to Henry:

Callas:
Yeah, she told me how lucky you were to have me as a friend.

Henry replied quickly:

Henry:
Well, she's not wrong.

Callas turned her phone off as Reed continued to talk to her, "I might have to go to work tomorrow, but I don't think it's the whole day. So, we might have to plan the route on Sunday. I'm definitely off on Sunday. Chief Swan hasn't said otherwise."

"That's okay, I have some work that I need to finish off, but it's not a lot."

Reed smiled. "So glad that I don't get homework anymore."

"Yeah, lucky you."

He chuckled before he began to drive slower as he turned into the small parking area by the beach. He told her to stay safe as she got out of the Jeep, closing the door, waving him off. As soon as she lost sight of Reed's Jeep she turned to walk down the stairs to the beach but crashed into a hard chest. She stepped back rubbing her nose to see Paul standing there with a small smile on his face. She smiled back at him weakly, dropping her hand from her face.

"Hey, Paul."

"Hey."

Callas paused. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "No." Callas tilted her head in confusion. "I just wanted to apologise for being rude to you in the canteen the other day, it's not my place to tell you who you can and can't hang out with. I didn't mean for it to come across like that, but I guess I did. From now on I'll try to keep my comments to myself."

"Thanks... But I still don't understand why it annoys you that I'm friends with Henry."

"It's hard to explain, but I'll try leaving him out of things from now on. I suppose I just kinda took an overprotective role with you." He shrugged. "I don't know why, but I'm just trying to look out for you."

She smiled lightly at him. "I can take care of myself, you know."

"Yeah, I just don't—"

"Hey, Cal!" Jared beamed as he walked over. "The others are wondering what's taking you so long." He slapped Pauls back. "But now I know why." He looked over to Callas then back to Paul. "You beat me to her. I told you I wanted to apologise first, she's not as pissed at me as she is with you." He laughed lightly.

"It's okay, Jared. I forgive you both. But you know I'm not the only one who needs an apology," Callas told them while making sure her phone was in her back pocket.

Pauls jaw tightened. "I can only apologise to one person at a time, I still need to work some things out," he said calmly before he walked down the stairs and onto the beach.

"Don't worry, he'll come around." Jared shook his head.

He placed an arm around her shoulders, leading her down to the beach as well. He began to ramble on about something that she couldn't quite follow. Something about falling off a cliff or maybe it was cliff diving or something like that, but he said that would be for another day, maybe when it was closer to summer. As they neared the group, Callas could see Embry look over with a smile before it was replaced with a scowl. She wasn't sure if it was directed at her or not.

She began to regret not bringing a jumper with her as the wind was colder now that they were by the water. Embry must have seen her shiver slightly, as he walked over and handed her his jumper with a shy smile. She smiled back at him with a small blush on her face as Paul hooted, with Jacob encouraging him. Embry seemed to freeze as Jared smirked, kissing Callas's cheek quickly before running over to the group. It was only obvious to her that Embry had a frown on his face as he watched his friend leave with a smirk on his face.

"Thanks," Callas mumbled as she took the jumper from Embry, slipping it over her head, rolling up the ends of the sleeves that were too long for her.

"No problem." He shook with head with a smile. "Do you maybe want to go for a walk, just so we don't have to deal with the others?"

Callas nodded her head. "Yeah, sure." She agreed, knowing that it was Embry that didn't want to deal with the others teasing them.

Embry looked down with a grin before walking next to her, away from the group—who continued to cheer Embry on for whatever reason. Callas moved her phone into the pocket of Embry's jumper, just so it didn't fall out of her back pocket. "I wanted to apologise about earlier," he started.

"How many apologies am I going to get today?" Callas shook her head with a smile. "First Henry, then Paul, then Jared, now you."

"It's about Chemistry. I just wanted to say sorry if I overstepped any boundaries, you know, with what I said? About you being a flustered mess. I didn't mean it in a bad way, I hope you know that," he explained. Callas nodded her head, not really having taken offence to it before. "I just kinda like seeing you shy around me," he mumbled quietly to himself, Callas almost didn't hear him.

"It's okay, Em," she told him.

"To make up for it anyway, how would you feel about going out somewhere with me next week on Thursday? After fourth."

"Don't you have last lesson?"

Embry grinned lopsidedly at her. "I don't think they'll miss me if I bunk one lesson," he said to her. "So, do you want to? Go out... with me?" He asked shyly, shoving his hands into his pockets like he did earlier that day.

"Where?"

Embry smiled. "There's, um, a small cafe near school, so it's not like it's a long way to go, but they have really good food, and the view is nice too," he replied nervously.

"Okay." She nodded with a grin on her face that she tried to hide.

Embry nodded as well, not really taking in the information straight away. He stopped walking, making Callas pause abruptly, turning around to look at him. "Wait, really?" Callas smiled shyly. "D-Do you mean it?"

"Yeah, I do."