CHAPTER 6
TWENTY QUESTIONS

WAVES crashed against the shores of La Push like a storm was vibrating the earth. Margo had driven both her and Melinda onto a patch of rocky sand, right beside Tyler Crowley's van. It was Saturday, and the weather man said it was supposed to be nice, but nice days in Forks just meant no rain. The sky was covered in endless clouds, all gray in color.

Aunt Jenny was a bit shocked when Margo told her of her plans the night before. Margo hanging out with Melinda and other teenagers? That couldn't be true. She didn't even believe that there were beaches near Forks until Margo did a simple Google image search for her. Nevertheless, she allowed her niece to go.

Margo had never liked the water, but she just simply enjoyed the environment of a beach. It reminded her of California. She knew how to swim, but she chose not to for her own reasons. While the rest of Bella and her friends hung out by Tyler's van, pulling on their wet suits, Melinda was dragging Margo to the sandy shores. "Stick your feet in the water!" Melinda instructed, tugging off her shoes as they ran.

Margo sighed loudly as she did what she was told. Melinda basically carried her towards the water, but Margo's feet stopped just a few inches before it. She bit her lip hesitantly. "It's not going to kill you," Melinda said.

"The water could be poisoned," Margo replied.

"Shut up."

Margo dipped one toe in the water, and then let in the whole foot. Moments later, both feet were in the water, allowing the waves to rock back and forth against her cold skin. Margo had been smiling towards Melinda, but then she had been reminded of something – something that she buried deep inside her mind so she would forget.

She felt darkness cloud her mind again. She felt the water invading her lungs. She felt her father's firm grip on the back of her head. He was angry with her. She wasn't learning to swim as quickly as the other kids in her summer camp. She had to be good at everything; his daughter was the gold child. She thought, maybe – just maybe – his intentions were to show her how to drown so she'd never do it again, so that she would learn to just swim. She was eight, and her head was being shoved into a sink full of water by her own dad, as her mother watched in pure horror. Margo Richards learned to swim the next day at summer camp.

She immediately back herself away from the water, feeling a shiver run down her spine from the cold. Margo hugged her arms around herself. She closed her eyes, pushing the memory back into her mind yet again. She didn't want to remember. She didn't have to.

Melinda looked over her shoulder at her friend before approaching her. "Hey," she muttered, holding her arms, "you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," Margo nodded. She plastered a false smile on her face.

The two turned to view at Tyler's van, spotting a new group of people striding over the walkway to them. Margo and Melinda grew confused, and began to quickly trudge back to the lot where their cars sat. Once they were amongst the other teenagers, Jessica faced Melinda and asked, "How's the water?"

"Cold," Melinda answered. She hesitantly looked over to the group of three guys approaching them. "Very cold."

"Bella!"

Margo was being handed a blanket by Angela when she turned at the new voice. It was a boy, probably the same age as her, with tanned skin and sleek, black hair that reached his shoulders. Margo almost guessed that he might be older, due to his height, but he was just a few inches above her. He had a childish roundness to his face and a lanky body, that of which an old tourist t-shirt hung from. The two locked eyes for a split second, and he smiled at her.

"Hey, Jacob," Bella greeted with a wave. "Guys, this is Jacob Black. He's from the La Push Reservation. Jake, this is –" Bella pointed off to each person with her finger "– Angela, Jessica, Eric, Melinda, Tyler, Margo, and Mike."

Jacob lifted his hand to give a casual wave while his friends stayed silent. "Hey, guys."

Bella looked over to her friend, who sat down on the edge of Tyler's van with her. "What, are you, like, stalking me?"

Jacob sniggered. "You're on my Rez, remember?" He looked up, his eyes meeting Margo's again, until she viewed away. Jacob noticed Bella's friend, Jessica, was zipping up her wet suit. "Are you surfing?" He asked Bella.

"No," Bella laughed nervously. She turned to Margo and Melinda, who were bounded in the same blanket. "Are you guys surfing with them?"

Melinda shook her head while Margo outright spat, "Absolutely not."

"Now you all can keep each other company while we surf, especially Bella," Jessica's grin faltered to a frown. "Her date failed."

Mike stopped fiddling with his wet suit. Eric's head immediately shot up as he asked, "What date?"

"She invited Edward!"

"To be polite, that's all," Bella interjected.

Angela shrugged and giggled softly. Her glasses slid down the edge of her nose. "I think it's nice that she invited him. Nobody ever does."

"Yeah," Mike nodded, "'cause Cullen's a freak."

"You got that right," one of Jacob's friends agreed.

The Nancy Drew in Margo was suddenly interested. Maybe she should rename her brain from Courtney to Nancy. Both Bella and Margo had the same suspicious look in their eyes, but it was the dark-haired girl that asked, "You guys know him?"

"The Cullens don't come here."

The air shifted around the teenagers after the Quileute boy spoke. Margo's brain was practically frying at his statement. There was a hidden message behind it; she could see it in his eyes. But what exactly was that message? If Bella had invited Edward to go to La Push with them, why had Edward declined? Was there something wrong with this beach? Margo's eyes casually slid to Melinda's, who shrugged at the comment.

"Well," Margo said, breaking the silence, "while you guys surf, I'm gonna go exploring. Maybe find some tide pools."

"Do you need me to come with you?" Melinda asked.

Margo shook her head. "It's okay. If I get lost, I'll just ..." She wrinkled her nose. "Well, I'll just yell, I guess."

With that, Margo zipped up her rain jacket and headed down the rocks to the wet shores again. She lifted her hood, in case of rain, while tucking her gloved-hands in her pockets. Her feet squished under the wet sand, which began to cover her boots as she trudged on. Margo's eyes were trained on the ground for tide pools, but she could barely even find a shell. There were only dirty rocks and the cold water threatening to run higher on the shore.

"Hey, wait!"

Margo immediately halted her steps and looked over her shoulder. It was Bella's friend, Jacob, running her away. He slowed down once he was near, but it was clear he was out of breath when he said, "I can show you a pretty cool tide pool. I live here, so I know all the good ones."

Margo nodded, "I'll take you up on that offer."

The two began to walk side-by-side, but the silence between them wasn't uncomfortable. Margo found it surprising that she wasn't already spouting out stupid facts like she usually did when she was nervous. Wait, was that the reason for the butterflies in her stomach? Probably. A boy hadn't taken interest in her since Lee Stephens tried asking her out on her third day at Forks High School. She almost forgot what it was like to feel nervous around a cute boy, and Jacob was, indeed, cute. She'd never let him know that though.

"I don't know if you kept up when Bella was calling out our names, but I'm Margo," she smiled, laying out her hand. "Margo Richards."

"Jacob Black," he introduced, giving her hand a firm shake.

Margo flexed her hand after the shake, due to his strong grip. She stuck her hands back in her pockets as she asked, "So if you're from around here – the reservation – how do you know Bella? She just moved here from Arizona, and you obviously don't go to our high school."

"Bella visited her dad here from time to time after her parents divorced. So during my childhood, I used to hang out with her and my sister. We were never acquainted much back then, though." Jacob explained, guiding her forward across the sand. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

Jacob scratched the back of his head. "I guess I should rephrase that: why are you here at the Rez if you're not going to surf?"

Margo shrugged. "Maybe I came here to see tide pools, which I have not spotted any for the five minutes we've been walking. You sure you're an expert?"

"Maybe I lied," Jacob chuckled. "So have you lived in Forks long? Do you have any hobbies?"

Before Jacob could ask another questioned, Margo exclaimed, "What is this? Twenty questions?"

Jacob only grinned big. Margo thought her heart was melting, and she knew that if Melinda saw her right now, she'd be teasing her, just like what Margo did to her.

"Um – well, I've only lived in Forks for three years. I moved here from California. Personal reasons," she added, which caused Jacob to nod. "And I like to ... you know, read, write, do school work, study – oh, I'm pretty into looking up fun facts –"

"That sounds kinda boring," the Quileute boy muttered. "You need more excitement in your life."

Margo knitted her brow together. "Hey, we've only known each other for a little over ten minutes and you're already judging me. Slow down." She nudged her elbow into his, but it made no impact, due to his rain jacket. "Can I ask a question?"

"Sure."

Margo paused, looking down at her boots as they got filthier from walking. She then glanced back at Jacob, "I know this is weird for me to ask, but – um – what did your friend mean by, like, 'the Cullens don't come here.' It was kind of ... I don't know, strange."

"Uh –" Jacob swallowed hard. "It's not really my place to say anything about it."

"So you know what he meant by it?"

"Are you playing twenty questions with me now?"

Margo's face had been serious, but suddenly she was giggling softly and shaking her head. "I just ..." She kicked some wet sand in another direction. "I go to school with the Cullens, and the statement freaked me out a little. This is a beach opened to everyone, right? Why not them?"

"Honestly," Jacob replied, "it's a stupid, scary story. Not sure if you want hear it. The only other person I've told is Bella, and that's because she kept hounding me about it days ago."

She flipped her hair over her shoulder, trying to pull a flirtatious grin to get what she wanted. But truthfully, it might've made Margo look dazed. Nevertheless, she continued to press Jacob about the statement. She wanted answers, and if she had to get them out of a cute Rez boy by flirting like an idiot, she would.

"I like scary stories," Margo assured. "C'mon!"

Jacob sighed. The things you do for a cute girl, he thought carelessly. "Okay," he said after a long pause. Jacob bit his lip for a moment. "Did you know that Quileutes – as in my family and ancestors – were supposedly descended from wolves?"

"Wait, what?" Margo's brow furrowed in confusion. "So, like a shape-shifter? They could turn themselves into real wolves?"

He nodded quickly. "Yeah, that's the ancestry of our tribe, weirdly enough."

Margo frowned. "So what does that have to do with the Cullens?"

"Well, they're also supposedly descended from this, like ... enemy clan," Jacob continued. "My great grandfather, the Chief, found them hunting on our land. But they claimed to be something different, so we made a treaty with them. If they promise to stay off Quileute lands, then we wouldn't expose what they really were to the pale faces."

She felt bile rise in her throat, but Margo swallowed it down. She stopped their walking, looking Jacob right in the eyes. "Different," she repeated. "What did you mean by them being something different? Were they, like, shape-shifters like your ancestors?"

Jacob released a laugh to clear the silence. "Don't think too much into it, Margo. It's just a story."

"Is it?"

Jacob's brow lifted, clearly surprised at her statement. When she realized how crazy she must have looked, Margo chuckled softly, running a hand through her hair. She sent Jacob another lop-sided grin. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry," she muttered. "I can get a little too into scary stories."

He was going to respond, maybe say that he could tell her more scary stories. Not many girls took the time to talk to Jacob, especially pretty ones. Margo Richards was pretty, and nice, and everything in between. Jacob felt like a twelve-year-old boy having his first crush, and he was sure that he must've looked like a total idiot right now just staring at her. He was so awkward and lanky. She was smart and annoying. They were a perfect pair of outcasts.

"MARGO!"

The two quickly turned their heads to Melinda at the edge of the beach's cliff. She was waving her hands in the air, screaming, "WE'RE LEAVING SOON!"

Margo gave her a thumbs up before viewing back to Jacob. She tapped his arm with her fist, faking a punch. "Hey, you never showed me that tide pool."

"Maybe you'll just have to visit the Rez again so I can show you."