Howdy. Sorry it took so long guys, alot of crap has been going on lately - my little sister getting in a car accident being one piece of it - and updating has kind of been way down there on my priority list. I just got a burst of creativity and finished this chapter which I've had almost done for about four days now. I hope you like it, because it is extra long and I'm kind of proud of it...and hopefully it also makes up for the absence. Read, review, be merry...and make me feel better. :)

DISCLAIMER: I own anybody you don't recognize mmk?

Arriverderci.

Oh...and sorry kids. No Quil yet. There's a brief encounter, but we haven't actually seen him yet at the end of this...but next time. I promise.

I was halfway through my last class of the day – science – dozing happily, when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I jolted awake and jammed my hand between it and the echoing metal bar pressed into my hip.

With a quick inspection of the surrounding room I relaxed; nobody had noticed.

It buzzed again stubbornly.

I bit my lip and for the firs time in my life attempted to formulate a plan to sneak out of class. Someone behind me burped and my light bulb flickered on.

"Mr. Jones, can I go to the nurse?" I blurted, trying to make my voice sound sick and feeble.

"Absolutely not." His pompous voice rebounded through the classroom, cutting all side conversations short. "I'm in the middle of explaining the temperature decrease in-"

"Well then do you have a beaker I could throw up in?" I smiled innocently as he pointed me out to the hallway, his dark face an odd shade of green. A few kids snickered as I passed and I tried to ignore them. My phone buzzed again on the way out; I tried not to look too guilty.

Only when the door was shut and I'd assured the fact that I was alone in the hallway, did I pull the contraption out.

The screen blinked: three missed calls and I rolled my eyes. So impatient!

I dialed the familiar number and waited for him to answer.

One…Two…Three…

"Hey Cub." The deep hum of Quil's voice sounded quietly. A smile crept to my lips at the use of his nickname for me. Not condescending and sharp like Airhead or Dim, but loving and sweet. A term of endearment.

Cub. Claire Uhla Burns.

"Hey," I slumped against the wall behind me and settled onto the generic carpet with my chin on my knees. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to apologize for not coming to lunch today." His voice was dripping with regret and I could feel myself softening automatically. Every year since I had started the sixth grade, Quil had been coming to lunch on my birthday week, just to get me excited and ready for the blessed event. He had kept his promise – every school day before my birthday – until today. The breaking of a pact lay heavy in the air, but I couldn't be mad at him. It was impossible for me to be mad at Quil for too long…it probably had something to do with the fact that I was almost positively in love with him.

"I had to work last night and your uncle didn't let me off until just a few minutes ago." I felt anger boiling hot beneath my skin. I'd have to talk to Uncle Sam about that; he could not treat my Quil like that – even if he wasn't technically my Quil. "I'll come see you later though, promise." He sounded worried, like he thought I was going to disown him or something.

"It's okay Quil," I laughed. "I'll get over it, someday." I added jokingly and heard him chuckle on the other line.

"Good."

"Are you going to pick me up from school?" I asked and tried not to feel the excitement brewing in my stomach. Driving home with Quil was like going on a roller coaster; he swerved all over the road just to hear me scream.

"Uh, Claire?" His voice was guilty again. "I will if you want me to, but…I'm really tired and I don't know if it would be safe-" I scoffed, but tried not to make it sound critical. Like driving home with him was ever safe anyways.

"It's okay Quil." I sighed. Was I ever going to see him today?

"I bet Daniel would take you to Sam and Emily's if you asked nicely." He stifled a yawn into his shoulder on the last word.

"Okay. Get some sleep Quil."

"Hey, Cub?"

"Mhmm."

"I'll come over tonight for sure okay?"

"Okay." I flipped my phone shut and banged my head back into the wall. Sadness flowed over me like the waves on the shore and I focused hard on not crying. It was a stupid reaction, but Quil was like oxygen for me; I needed him to breathe and being away from him for so long was leaving my lungs dry and shriveled.

With a sigh, I slid up the wall and made a grab for the door handle; but something stopped me. Naughty Claire was making an appearance, and she wanted to skip the last half hour of class. Mr. Jones will think you've gone home anyways…just go to your locker, grab your stuff and wait outside Danny's classroom so he can give you a ride home, she crooned, and I listened without a second thought.

Quil's absence was making me strangely rebellious, and Naughty Claire liked it. I followed her instructions obediently, ignoring skeptical glances from the office ladies as I passed to my locker. I grabbed the books I needed for my homework that night, stuffed them into my backpack, and hightailed my way out of the main building. Mrs. Connors, the school secretary, was legendary in her note checking, and I wanted to be as far away from her as possible while I skirted school law.

Daniel had math last period, so I plopped myself outside of the A building and closed my eyes against the sunlight. The warmth radiating from the big yellow star felt amazing on my body, and I relaxed into a reclined position. Warm and pondering, I fell asleep and dreamed of Quil.

xXx

Daniel was unexpectedly sympathetic to my situation when he came out of his class at the end of the day, and found me asleep in the grass waiting for him. He could tell something was bothering me – probably because I'd never ever skipped class before – and I only told him when his questioning became annoying. For some reason he didn't believe that it was only the fact that Quil hadn't come to lunch, and the entire ride to our aunt and uncle's house he glanced at me like he expected more.

I couldn't fathom what his tiny, tiny little brain was suspicious of with Quil, but I was past caring when we pulled into the driveway.

"Thanks for the ride Danny." I smiled as I yanked my backpack out of his back seat and slammed the door. "Tell mom and dad I'll walk home tonight."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Get Jake or Paul to drive you home alright?" He asked and I nodded slowly – suspiciously. "It's going to get dark fast because of the clouds and it's not safe to walk home alone." Now I was really suspicious. Since when was Daniel the over-protective older brother? And since when was La Push dangerous?

I nodded again and turned to walk into the tiny graying cottage. The flower pots underneath the little thatched windows were bereft of their usual brightness. It was still too early in the year for Aunt Emily's flowers to be growing, and without their color the house looked almost sinister in its blandness.

Danny honked on his way out and I heard his tires spin as he headed back out to the school. He had football practice.

A little voice wailed inside the house and a smile tugged at the corner of my lips. Anna was awake. Sam and Emily's latest addition to their family was the loudest baby I'd ever heard; and the hungriest, so we heard her angry protests quite often. It wasn't uncommon to be interrupted mid-sentence by the tiny wailing thing.

Quil said I was just as loud as a baby but it was hard to believe that anything could match that volume.

I stomped my shoes off on the front steps and placed my hand on the door handle, but it flew open without me turning it. My little cousin Eli stood behind the door, his chubby little cheeks covered in some sort of orange goop.

"Come on in." He exclaimed happily and tugged me inside.

"Claire is that you?" Aunt Emily shouted from the baby's room.

"Yeah," I answered back and lifted Eli into my arms, balancing him on my hip. He pointed down the hallway and I followed his directions.

Emily stood in a cloud of baby powder with Anna squealing on the changing table in front of her. The new mother's hair was in a frazzled lump on top of her head and she had things smeared on her face that I didn't want to know about.

"What happened in here?" I asked. Eli wriggled in my arms and I set him down so that he could run to his mother. Emily just laughed, shrugging.

"Changing time is always a battle. You wanna grab a helmet and come help me?" Laughter bubbled up between my lips. I sighed dramatically and strapped imaginary armor on.

"Fire away captain."

xXx

Emily hadn't been kidding. Somehow in the course of changing two dirty diapers, I managed to rip my shirt, fall over, and bruise my shoulder. We left the kid's room laughing – Anna and Eli snoozing happily in their beds – and headed into the kitchen.

She unloaded a bundle of pots and pans to start making dinner while I sat down at their kitchen table to do homework. Before too long, the rich aroma of sizzling bacon circulated throughout the house and my stomach growled hungrily. I finished my last problem of math, and slammed the book shut with a satisfied sigh.

"So how are things at QTS these days?" Emily asked in a lull between cooking times. "Any hot gossip worth hearing about?"

I bit my lip and pretended to think very hard about the question. "Do you remember Stephanie Brookwater?" I asked and she nodded. Of course Emily would remember; she never forgot anybody.

Stephanie had been my best friend right up until seventh grade when she asked Chris Thompson out, right after I'd told her that I had a crush on him. I hated her after that, and without me and my family she had quickly slid down the drain.

"She got pregnant last week." I told her and felt the guilt take over my heart, just as it had done when I'd learned of this last Thursday. Stephanie had been an amazing friend to have. I had been able to tell her everything I couldn't tell Quil; all the girly junk that he wouldn't want to hear about anyways. It was hard, watching her life go downhill so quickly, because I knew that if I hadn't kicked her out of my life, none of this would have happened to her.

"That's terrible." Emily sighed and went to flip her twelfth omelet. She had to cook enough for an army just to keep her and her extended family fed. "She was such a nice girl."

I mumbled my agreement and stuffed my nose into Alas, Babylon which I had to read for English. I read the same page over and over again, pondering what it would be like to be fifteen years old and pregnant. I knew what I would do in that situation, because I knew that I could count on my family and friends – Quil – to keep me sane and happy. But Stephanie had a crappy home life and I was scared for her. The more I thought about it the guiltier I felt, and soon my mood was so black it was almost nuclear.

Even the arrival of my uncle and his whimsical cohorts didn't help to improve my attitude – though they did make me laugh with their stories of miss-adventure and accidental hilarity. I did have to admit though, staring into the faces of the four men seated next to me, so alike in shape and features that they should have been brothers, that there was no place I'd rather be. Family or not, the men and women that worked for my uncle were the best bunch in the world. I wouldn't have traded any of them for anything.

No, that wasn't true. I would have traded all of them for Quil. Easily.