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𓏲 ࣪₊♡𓂃 AT THE CLEARWATER HOUSE, Embry was making cheese sandwiches in the kitchen whilst Sophie sat on the couch beside Seth, the two playing Mortal Kombat together on the boy's GameCube. Seth had managed to kill Sophie in a match and he began to laugh manically, proud of his win.

"Yes! Suck on that, Sophie!" He turned and raised his arms in the air before he jumped up from the couch, running around enthusiastically with his arms in the air. Sophie watched with a small laugh as he jumped around and Embry entered the room, placing the plate of sandwiches down on the coffee table.

"Seth." Embry spoke to grab the boy's attention and he froze in his spot, a grin reaching his lips at the sight of his favourite type of sandwiches. He rushed over, placing his controller down on the coffee table and quickly picked up a sandwich, biting into it, "...You're welcome."

"Oh, thanks, Embry!" Seth smiled, speaking with his mouth full of bread and cheese and Sophie grimaced, leaning back into Embry who'd sat down beside her, laughing quietly to himself.

"Don't speak with your mouth full, Seth, you could spit your chewed—up food onto someone." She told the youngest, who winced, swallowing his food before he spoke, making her smile a little.

"Sorry, Soph." He sent her an apologetic smile and she rolled her eyes playfully, ruffling his shoulder—length hair with a grin on her rosy lips. Since knowing Jacob, Sophie had become close with the Clearwater boy, they were best—friends in Seth's mind and he'd never admit it but he also has a little crush on her, he only ever told Leah that.

But, unfortunately for him, Leah laughed at his silly confession.

The rest of the day was spent playing video games, eating sandwiches, watching movies Seth wasn't supposed to be and gossiping about what they knew to do with the council and what the meeting was basically about.

Kids usually knew a lot of things, they were the best eavesdroppers and Seth had a lot of information on the council, "Oh, yeah, my dad said there was wolves!" He exclaimed, the word 'wolves' was stuck in Sophie's mind like super glue. There was no way it was true, she didn't believe it for one second.

But, Embry did, though he didn't show his beliefs towards it, laughing it off as if it was a joke. He remembered the stories his mother used to tell him when he was super young, just about old enough to read and write and they were always to do with the topic of wolves, the supernatural.

Vampires and witches even popped up a few times, though they weren't as serious as wolves were, wolves seemed to mean a lot to his mother.

"I don't know, maybe there's a stray wolf in the woods." Seth shrugged, chucking a few Doritos in his mouth as he clicked on his controller, completely forgetting about the previous conversation. It clearly wasn't a priority for him, but it would be eventually.

It would be important to all of them in time.

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IT WAS BELLA'S BIRTHDAY, something the girl herself wanted to keep private but Sophie knew thanks to her father and the Sheriff being close friends. Henry had told her the morning of and asked her to keep it a secret from her friends, at that point, Sophie wasn't even sure why he told her in the first place.

It wasn't like she cared.

She made it to school on her own that day, her outfit much more spontaneous and out of her comfort zone than usual. She wore a dark—green fitted shirt, the sleeves short and puffed and black flared jeans, her feet clad in her usual vans.

The St. James climbed out of her Pontiac and immediately spotted all of her friends — excluding Bella — stood by Tyler's van. She picked up her shoulder bag from the floor of the car and placed the strap over her shoulder before closing the door, locking it immediately after.

As she made her way over to her friends, so did Bella and as expected, the spotlight was on the Swan girl despite the fact that Sophie didn't mind, just glad that her best—friend at least noticed her, "Hey." Layla greeted her cousin in a quiet voice, clearly a lot less enthusiastic than usual for reasons Sophie would ask about later that day.

"Hi." Sophie approached, wrapping her arm around the blonde's shoulders as soon as she came within proximity and Mike held his hands out towards Bella in a fancy manner, causing most of them to laugh.

"Wherefore art thou, Bella?" Mike bowed, pushing himself off of the van and Tyler took a bite out of his liquorice stick, chewing on it with an amused smile, "You finish the Shakespeare assignment?" He questioned the short girl, who walked up to them, her hand clasped onto the strap of her book bag.

"He means will you finish his assignment? He's fucking stupid." Layla rolled her eyes, her hand placed onto Sophie's hip and Bella chuckled, nodding.

"Sure, but first—" She paused, reaching into her bag and she pulled out a small camera, turning it on, "I need a picture of all of you, my mom's expecting a scrapbook full of memories." Bella shrugged, shoving a strand of her waved hair behind her ear out of habit.

"Ooh, yes, I love photos!" Layla exclaimed, letting go of Sophie to bundle everybody together but Angela stood off to the side, her arms wrapped around her stomach where her own camera laid, feeling a little self—conscious.

"I take 'em, I don't pose for 'em." Angela expressed but Layla shook her head, throwing her arm around the girl's shoulder with a grin.

"You do now, princess." Layla pulled her closer to the group and Eric moved around Mike and Jessica so that he could be closer to Sophie, his arms snaking around her waist discreetly. The aforementioned girl only smiled at the black—haired boy, feeling a little more confident than earlier being in her friends' presence.

Angela became flustered by Layla's nickname, her cheeks going bright pink as soon as the word rolled off of Layla's tongue. Jessica's worried voice brought Angela from her thoughts, "You'll photoshop my nose if it looks big, right?"

"Don't worry, I'm in the picture; no one will be looking at you guys." Eric spoke cockily but it was extremely clear that he was joking, causing Sophie to laugh.

"Your hair looks nice." Sophie complimented Eric, who chuckled, looking down at her just as the camera flickered, the shot being taken. A groan escaping Mike's lips made Sophie's smile drop, along with everybody else's as they looked towards where he was, knowing exactly why he groaned in such frustration.

Edward Cullen was approaching his girlfriend, a small smirk on his lips and Layla couldn't help but laugh out loud, finding her brother's crush on the Swan girl to be hilarious, knowing it would never happen, "Cullen's here!" The younger blonde exclaimed, sarcasm laced in her tone.

"Yay..." Jessica joined in, though her voice was much more dry and she waved her hands around in a jazz movement, adding to her sarcastic comment.

It seemed like they all became somewhat uncomfortable when Edward was around, well except for Sophie, she didn't care much for him.

"Check ya later." Eric was the only one to say goodbye to her, having a little hope that she'd acknowledge him but she didn't, too mesmerised by her boyfriend's existence than to care about her friends leaving.

"Typical." Sophie shrugged, wrapping her arm around Eric's shoulders as they approached the building through the parking lot filled with cars and students.

"He always ruins every moment." Mike huffed, rolling his eyes and Layla laughed again, slapping her knee as she walked beside Angela, whose eyes were transfixed onto the screen of her camera, scrolling through old photos.

Sophie's biggest mistake was looking back at Bella as they made their way up the set of stairs leading to the high school and just as she caught sight of the couple down in the same spot as they'd left them, she saw Jacob approach, wrapping Bella in a tight hug.

That felt like a pang to her chest, he'd never come all the way to Forks High School to wish her a happy birthday, only ever over text but she couldn't help but feel far from surprised, she was his second choice after all.

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LAYLA AND SOPHIE were Juniors whilst the rest of their friends were Seniors so they had all of their classes alone together, some of them just on their own without one another. But currently, they had Biology together with Mr. Molina, one of their most—liked teachers.

"Guess what, folks, I made another golden onion!" He held up the plastic onion painted in gold above his head like a crown and some students laughed whilst Layla cheered him on, earning a grin from the teacher. It was no secret that Layla was his favourite, in fact, she was every teacher's favourite student, it wasn't only her spectacular sense of humour that caught their eyes but it was also her charm and her wit.

Sophie's fingertips tapped onto the desk, her eyes distant, staring through the windows and into the forest outside the building. Her ears were definitely not in the room and rather searching somewhere else unknowingly, she was daydreaming.

She just couldn't get that moment out of her head, the fact that Jacob had travelled all the way from the Reservation to the High School to wish Bella a happy birthday, something he never did for Sophie. Of course, like any other normal human being, she felt nothing but jealousy towards Bella, per usual.

That was something she'd only ever felt towards Bella Swan, she always felt jealous of the way she was able to grab Jacob's attention without even trying. She didn't care about the millions of other boys the Swan had managed to catch the eyes of, all she cared about was Jacob. His dark eyes, his long soft hair she constantly used to fish braid, the way he smiled so sweetly at her as if she was the only person he could see...

A finger clicking in front of her face brought her back to the science classroom and she snapped her eyes over to the blonde, her hand resting underneath her chin, "Huh?"

"Daydreaming again, huh?" Layla smirked, rolling her eyes and she nodded her head down to the assignment at hand where a microscope was sat along with two small slides beside it containing two different specimens.

"Definitely not." Sophie lied jokingly and Layla giggled, pushing the microscope towards her.

"It's your turn, Miss St. James. I'll write." Layla told her and Sophie nodded, immediately looking into the eyeglass.

And after that, she never thought about that dreadful moment in the parking lot again... until—

@amxliewrites — 2024