𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝖾𝗋 𝖮𝗇𝖾: 𝖬𝖾𝖾𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖭𝖾𝗂𝗀𝗁𝖻𝗈𝗋
" 𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖯𝗈𝗐𝖾𝗋 𝗈𝖿 𝖠𝗉𝗁𝗋𝗈𝖽𝗂𝗍𝖾 "

The last thing Seth wanted was to greet some nearby neighbors whom he'll probably never see again after this but here he was, in his mom's car, on their way to the old lakeside mansion someone ended up buying. He could be at the beach right now. Enjoying some of Emily's homemade cookies and other foods but he was, stuck here while Leah got off easy because she was smart enough to leave early. He knew he should've went with her when he had the chance.

"What's with the long face, buddy?" Sue Clearwater asked, bringing him out of his thoughts. "You're still mad about having to come with me? You should have left with Leah earlier."

"I just don't understand why we have to drive 10 minutes to meet some neighbors whom we're probably only going to talk to once?" Seth complained, crossing his arms. "This is a form of torture somewhere, I know it."

Sue chuckled at her son's complaints. So much like his father was when he was at that age. Youthful and could never sit still long enough to pay attention to life. "Because, Seth, it's the neighborly thing to do. Besides, you know me, I like making new people feel welcomed. Especially when they move on the reservation."

"Yeah, well, it's boring and awkward." Seth retaliated, giving her a bored look. "The last time we did this, our old neighbor's weird son kept hitting on me."

No one could forget the Letterman family. They were a family that consisted of four. A married couple with two sons moved on to the reservation 3 years ago. The oldest son, who was Seth's age, was gay and he had a weird obsession with him.

Now there was nothing wrong with the boy being gay, it was the fact that even after Seth politely declined his attraction, the boy insisted on thinking that he was just closeted and that he didn't mean it. Which started that whole fiasco.

The family has since moved to New York after some time and Seth hated meeting new neighbors because of it.

"I have a feeling this one is different than that mess." Sue reassured. "I heard that this one only has one child and she's a girl."

"Girl?" Seth's ears perked up at that word. He looked like a puppy just then, curious and slightly happy. "Well why didn't you say so? Mom, it would be incredibly rude if we didn't at least bring something."

"I made brownies, you punk." She chuckled, pointing to the backseat. She knew that would peak his interest. Seth was so easy to get to. "Besides, here we are."

Seth looked as his mother pulled into a fancy looking driveway that lead to the massive house. Looking up close, he noticed just how big it really was. He had only seen the house from afar, so this was a shocker to him.

"Help me carry this, Seth." Sue said, parking her truck.

Seth took off his seatbelt and took the long tray of brownies wrapped in ceramic wrap. The two climbed out of the truck, closing the doors behind them as they surveyed the property. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is." Seth admitted, lingering his strides as they made it to the front door.

Sue knocked on the big door once they made it to the front. Seth would say that they've waited for about 4 seconds before the door slowly swung open. The door revealed a shortish woman with long jet black hair.

My lord, she had to be the hottest woman Seth had ever seen in his life. This must be who his mother was talking about. But she looked older than him. But there was no way she was his mom's age. she had to be at least 34 years old.

But even then, this woman was stunning! She was wearing a Rolling Stone's black t shirt and some shorts. Her skin was fair and free from any blemishes or anything. Her eyes were almond shaped and light gold. Not vampire light but something else. Something more ethereal.

She was the type of beauty you only come across once every millennium.

The beautiful woman smiled at them, her smile catching him off guard. It seemed like everything became brighter when she smiled at them. He felt very warm and welcomed around her already and they haven't even utter any type of words to each other.

"Hello, how may I help you?" She spoke in a mature voice.

"Hello! I'm Sue Clearwater and this is my son, Seth." Sue introduced with her best smile. "We live just down the road and we wanted to come on down and introduce ourselves. Just a tradition on this reservation."

"Thank you!" She thanked, eyeing the tray of brownies. "And you've brought offerings, too. How sweet! Come on in, I just made lemonade ice tea."

She stood aside, holding the door open for them. Seth entered the house after Sue as looked round the entrance. It looked as fancy as he imagined. It looked like those mansions you see in gangster movies except, it looks like a lodge. She even had the fancy chandelier above them.

"How terrible of me, my name is Althea Park." The beautiful woman, Althea, introduced after closing the door. She walked over to Sue, sticking her hand out. Sue smiled and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Althea."

"Nice to meet you, too." Althea shook her hand before she pulled back, reaching for the tray that Seth had. "Here, let me get that for you."

"No, it's okay." Seth reassured, pulling back his arm and giving her his best smile. "We're your guest, its fine."

Althea smiled, clearly impressed with his politeness. "You've raised a gentleman, I see."

Sue grinned at her son with pride. "Yes, I did."

"If you two would follow me, the kitchen is this way." Althea said, leading the way to the kitchen, with was right next to the living room.

The kitchen and living room were both big. The kitchen had a big island in the middle of it and it was white marble. On top, rested a glass pitcher of freshly made lemonade ice tea with circular lemon slices floating in it.

"Have a seat anywhere," Althea instructed as she walked over to one of the cabinets. Seth sat next to his mom as he watched her stand on her tip toes to grab three glass jar mugs and three small plastic umbrellas. "So, you say you live just down the road?"

"Yes, just a ten minute drive, nothing too bad." Sue waved off as Althea walked over to the island. She picked up the pitcher and poured the lemonade ice tea in the three mugs before giving one each to the two of them.

"That's good to know." Althea said, sitting down across from Sue at the kitchen island. "When we acquired this property, it said that it rested on their reservation and that it was secluded from a lot of other neighborhoods."

"Oh, I imagine it was a relief for your husband, huh?"

"Oh no, I haven't been married since my little girl was only 5 months." Althea chuckled out, sipping from her glass mug. "It's just me and my daughter."

"Oh!" Sue exclaimed slightly, hoping she didn't offend her. "I'm sorry, I just assumed-"

But Althea just chuckled and waved her dainty hand. She didn't see the harm in it at all. "No, it's okay, really. Yeah, it's just been me and Venus ever since."

"Where did you move from?"

"We've lived in Paris for about 10 years before I decided to open up my wiccan shop in town."

Seth tuned out most of the conversation in favor of looking around the house more. He noticed the amount of dream catchers and other witch like items around the place.

   There was a mini caldron next to her toaster and he noticed a shrine like area in the living room. It was a long drawer decorated in pearls, a big pink lace seashell behind a white mini statue and around it had pink and red rose petals. There were also candles and fruit around the statue.

    On the other side of the same drawer, their was another shrine made with the same sort of decorations. The differences were in color. That shrine was lavender and had lavender decorations.

   Seth wondered if they were witches or something like that. They seem to have a lot of stuff that would say so.

   "Oh! Venus, honey!" Althea's voice brought him back to the reality as he whipped his head back around to a sight that left him breathless.

   There was a girl around his age that had entered the kitchen. And he swore his heart stopped right then and there.

   She had long hair that fell into soft waves all the way down to her hips. Her hair was the color of obsidian or even the night sky, it was so black. She was wearing a pretty black floral mini dress and scrappy sandals. She really looked good in that dress.

  But the thing that stood out to him the most were her eyes. They were so light and bright. Also very green. Like emerald green if the color was lighter somehow. But her eyes were hypnotic.  She could probably get him to jump into the lake behind this place if she told him to.

   Seth was so in a trance, he forgot where he was. All that mattered was what was in front of him or who was in front of him. She was all that mattered to him. His heart was beating so fast, he would have thought it was about to jump out.

   "Seth?" Sue called out, shaking his shoulder lightly. "Seth, honey, introduce yourself."

  "Huh?" Seth snapped out of his mind trance once he realized where he was again. He looked to see all eyes were on him and he couldn't have felt more embarrassed. "Ah, I'm sorry, my name is Seth Clearwater."

   He stuck out his hand to the green eyed beauty. She giggled lightly, taking hold of his hand and shaking it. "My name is Venus Park, it's nice to meet you all."

   "Yeah....nice to meet you," Seth replied back goofily, making Sue and Althea laugh slightly under their breaths.

    "Venus, Sue and Seth live just down the road and they're apart of the Native American tribe here." Althea informed her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Sue was just telling me that they were on their way to a beach celebration after stopping by."

   "It's just a little party to commemorate the first day of summer," Sue added. "I was just talking to your mom about joining us there. Just to get a feel of the neighborhood and get to know some of the locals."

    "What do you think, baby? Sounds fun?" Althea asked, looking up at her as she leaned back into her chair.

    Venus looked optimistic about the idea, Seth noticed. Which means she thinks Native American men are cool! Nice! He does have a chance! 

    "Yeah, that sounds fun." She said, smiling. "I would love that."

   "Great!" Althea exclaimed with her own smile. "Then we'll stop on by."

   "Great! I'm happy you're joining us." Sue said, standing up. "Well, we'll get out of your hair, we still have to help with decorations and such."
  
   "I'll walk you out." Althea said, standing up to escort her out. 

    While the two mothers walked ahead of their children, Venus stayed behind to talk to Seth. Seeing as he was the only neighbor around that was her age and he was very good looking, maybe this was her luck at finding romance.

   "So you'll be there as well? The party, I mean." She asked, showing the way to the front door.

   Seth chuckled a little nervously as he went to touch his black hair ( which was getting pretty shaggy ). A nervous habit of his. "Yeah, yeah, it's a tribe thing also. A lot of the people from my tribe will be there."
 
   "It must be cool to learn about your tribe and such." She marveled a bit. She has always been a history person. She loved mythology, as well. "I'm glad you'll be there, at least I'll have one person to follow around and bug."

   "Trust me, you could never bug me." Seth flirted back as they stood at the open door.

  When Venus giggled again, he realized how that might have sounded. "Not like that, I'm sure you're not an annoying person. Wait. That sounded bad, also-"

   "I'll see you there, Seth." She giggled out, noticing Sue waiting in the car for him patiently. "I don't want to hold up your mom anymore."

   Seth looked back at his mom, who was smiling at him from the driver's seat. He ruffled his hair again and gave Venus one last friendly smile.

   "Yeah, I'll see you there. Be sure to look for me."

   "Will do!" She yelled at him as he quickly made his way to her truck.

   After one last wave from both Althea and Venus, the two drove off towards La Push Beach. On the way, Sue couldn't help but to burst out in glee.

   "Seth, I think you've imprinted!"

    "What!?" Seth nearly screamed, whipping his head towards his mom. "Imprinted? That's impossible! I just met her!"

   "How do you think your father and I were able to get married the way we did?" She questioned.

   Seeing as how he didn't have an answer to that, she knew she was right. "You've imprinted, my son. And on a beauty like her? You're lucky."

   The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. That was why he was so hypnotized by her. Why he felt so drawn to her already and connected. Why he legit fell in love at first sight.

   Holy crap! I did imprint! Wait until the guys see her! They'll be so jealous!  Seth thought as he began smiling to himself.

    Suddenly, meeting neighbors wasn't so bad anymore.