CHAPTER TWELVE

Jeremy glances over at his sister where she's laying with Kim and Bella on a large blanket on the sand, and then he throws the football back to Paul. He noticed his sister acting weird when she got home from her run this morning, but she wouldn't tell him what was bothering her. She seems okay now, but he knows how good she is at masking her feelings. It's an annoying trait of hers that he wishes she were worse at. Now he doesn't know if something happened that he should be helping her with.

Jared eventually notices that he keeps looking over at the girls, so he walks over to him. "Okay, either you have a thing for Bella, or you're worried about your sister. What's going on?" He asks, and Jeremy shakes his head.

"Nothing in particular. She's just been through hell. I kinda feel like it's my job to look out for her, you know?" He tells him, and then they hear the three girls laughing.

"She seems alright to me, man." He shrugs. "You moved here for a fresh start, right? I think she's starting over pretty well."

"Shut up!" Jay laughs as she covers her face. She's laying on her back with Kim and Bella on either side of her. She's been staring up at the overcast sky for most of their conversation, but now her eyes are squeezed shut under her fingers.

"Look at the blush that she's trying to hide." Kim rolls onto her side then and tries to pry the younger girl's hand away from her face. "Damn it. Why are you so tiny and so strong?!"

"Paul's looking over here." Bella says, her voice low so that the boys can't hear her. "Just admit it, you think he's cute. It's okay."

"I admit nothing." Jay lets her hands rest over her stomach, her dark eyes on the sky again.

"You don't admit it." Kim quirks an eyebrow. "That's not denying it either."

"Damn it." She turns over onto her stomach and buries her face in the blanket while the other two girls laugh, amused by her embarrassment.

"Hey, Bella!" A male voice gets the girls' attention, and they all look over in the direction that it came from. "Hey." A teenage boy smiles at the oldest of the girls as he and his two friends make their way over to them.

"Jacob." Bella smiles as she stands up, and then the other girls do as well. "Guys, this is Jacob, his dad's friends with mine. Jake, this is Jay and Kim."

"Hi." He smiles at them. "This is Quil and Embry." He introduces his own friends.

"I'm Quil Ateara." He holds his hand out to Jay, and she chuckles as she shakes it, amused by his attempt at a flirty tone.

"Jay Sommers." She tells him.

"Leave her alone, man." Embry says as he nudges him, smiling at Jay as well.

"Guys don't know you exist?" Kim asks, speaking under her breath as she looks at Jay. "M'kay."

"Shut..." She pushes her away from them, and Kim laughs as she then walks over to Jared where the three boys are closer to the water, though none of them have touched it. It's too cold.

Bella and Jacob end up walking off on their own to talk soon after that, leaving Jay standing all on her own with Embry and Quil. She offers them a smile as she glances between the two boys, both of whom have smiles on their own faces as well.

"I've never seen you around before." Embry says, and she nods.

"Yeah, uh..." She motions toward Jeremy. "My brother and I just moved here from Virginia. We live with Kim and Henry, but we don't go to school on the reservation. That's how I know Bella — we both go to Fork High School." She explains.

"Where are your parents?" Quil asks, and she looks down for a second. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"No, it's..." Jay shakes her head. "They passed away. We were living with our older sister and my mom's boyfriend, but things got tough, so... New town." She says, and he nods.

"Our town's better, huh?"

She chuckles. "Certainly has its upsides."

"How old are you?" Embry asks her.

"Fourteen. Actually, my birthday's next month, I'll be fifteen." She tells him.

"Are we invited to the party?" He smiles.

"Not so sure we're gonna be havin' one." She shakes her head.

"Oh, come on. You have to have a party." He says and then looks behind her. "Hey, Kim! When's the birthday party for Jay?!" He yells, and she looks over as Jay shakes her head again.

"No. No, party." She says as she looks over at Kim as well.

"Excuse me? Birthday?" Her friend questions. "And why did I not even know that it's coming up? I have to know these things."

"Well, 'cause—"

"No, no. We have to have a party." Kim says. "It's gonna be fun, and you're gonna love it."

"Yes, ma'am." Jay nods, and the boys beside her both chuckle.

"Are we invited?" Stefan's voice makes Jay whirl around, and she immediately rushes over and pushes him back, her hands flat on his chest. "Where are we going?"

"Away."

"Oh, hell." Jeremy mutters when he sees Stefan and Tyler with his younger sister.

"What's the matter?" Paul asks, and he shakes his head as he walks across the sand to get to them.

"Can we come to your birthday party?" Stefan asks as Jay shoves on his chest again.

"No, you can't." The little brunette says as she glares up at him.

"I see you didn't have any trouble making guy friends." Tyler says, and Jay then turns her glare to him.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Jeremy questions when he reaches the three of them.

"Uh, there were hybrids." Jay says as she glances at her brother. "I thought I told you guys to leave after they were dead."

"And we're leaving, but we wanted to say goodbye." Stefan says, and she can tell that the version of him that gave that almost sincere apology this morning is gone.

"What the hell is with your mood swings? Are your emotions on or off?"

"Somewhere along both."

"I don't know what that means, and I don't want to." Jeremy says. "You took care of them? Then get the hell out of here. We were supposed to have left this crap in Mystic Falls."

"It's not our fault that they followed you." Stefan argues.

"Yeah, 'cause it's just yours." Tyler reminds him.

"And Elena asked you two to take care of this?" Jeremy questions, knowing that that doesn't sound anything like their sister. At least, not with the way that they've been acting lately.

"No. Tyler overheard Klaus give the order, and then he threatened to bite me if I didn't help him kill the hybrids and protect you two." Stefan tells him.

"Well, mission accomplished. Now go home." Jay says as she looks between the two of them.

"That's not the only reason that I came here." Tyler says, and she reluctantly turns to face him; she doesn't want to address their past or how they ended things. "You left without saying goodbye, so I didn't get a chance to return this." He holds up his hand, and a gold chain dangles from his fingers.

"My locket." She reaches up and takes the oval between her fingers, she brushes her thumb lightly over the cursive J that's on the front of it.

"I had to fix the chain, and get it cleaned up." He tells her. "I'm sorry it took so long, but I know how important this is to you, so I wanted to make sure that it was done right."

"I didn't know when I'd lost it, and I couldn't find it anywhere in mine and Elena's room." Her eyes move to his face, and he looks down. "Oh."

He accidentally broke the chain the night that he attacked her the first time. He found it when he woke up the next morning, and he's been holding onto it ever since.

"I wanted to make sure that you got it back, so I couldn't send it through the mail." Tyler tells her as she fastens the clasp around her neck.

Jay can smell the fresh vervain that's inside the locket to prevent any vampires from compelling her. And she knows that that means he had to go to Damon to get it. "Thank you." The little brunette says, and he nods.

"I told you before that I liked who I was better after your influence. This felt like something that that guy would do." He says, and she smiles. "Even though you're here now, I'm still gonna try to be the guy that you were dumb enough to call your friend."

Jay laughs as she pushes him back. "Backhanded compliment..." She mutters as she starts to turn away from the two supernatural beings. The brunette stops short and turns back to Tyler before walking back over and hugging him.

He's taken aback when she slams into him, but he's quick to wrap his arms around her as well, letting them snake around her waist. Tyler's eyes fall shut as she clings tightly to him, her arms around his neck, and he tucks his face into her shoulder.

"I know that what happened that night wasn't your fault." She whispers. "As far as I'm concerned, it's forgotten... So, you can forgive yourself, Tyler."

"I miss you." He tells her, and a sad smile tugs at her lips.

"I miss you too." Jay says before pulling back so that she can look up at him. "Visit again sometime...and leave Stefan at home."

"You got it." He nods, and she smiles before turning around and heading back in the direction of her new friends; Jeremy trails close behind her.

"I don't get a goodbye hug?!" Stefan asks as he watches her walk away from them.

"Go to hell!" She calls over her shoulder, and both Jeremy and Tyler start laughing.

"Is everything okay?" Jared asks, eyeing the two figures now walking off the beach, and she nods.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"Who were those guys?" Paul asks, wanting to know more about the strangers that his imprint seems rather close to.

"Elena and Jay's exes." Jeremy tells him.

"So, this party that we're having for your birthday..." Kim smiles as she looks at the younger girl, wanting to change the subject to something more lighthearted.

"You know, it was Jeremy's birthday just a few days after we got here." Jay says, and he groans as he looks down at her sister. She smiles as she then takes the football from Jared.

"A double party." She says, and Jared chuckles as he wraps his arms around his girlfriend.

"Hey, someone come throw the ball around with me."

"We're not gonna give her any access to alcohol, right?" Jeremy asks as Paul then follows the little brunette away from the group. "We don't need a repeat of what happened at Elena's party last June."

"So I got a little drunk; I was perfectly safe at Damon's house. You are the one who got stoned with Matt in the Boarding House library." His sister argues. "What loser smokes in a library?" She questions as she throws the ball over to Paul.

"You know, I think I might like their kind of parties." Embry says, making everyone else laugh.