CHAPTER ONE
THE SAM ULEY CLUB

"Punch me in the face."

Montana's eyebrows arched in response to Embry's request, her eyes drifting across the table to where her two equally amused best friends sat, fists pressed against their mouths to stifle their laughter – they were doing a terrible job of it, but fortunately Embry was too busy staring at Maddy Moreno to notice.

"You want us to punch you in the face?" Jacob asked mischievously.

Montana knew full well why Embry seemed to be on the brink of a breakdown. His longing gaze had been locked on Maddy, his longtime crush of around seven years now, for almost the entire duration of lunch. But as soon as she had left the comfort of her girl friends, and instead sat on a table with Jared Cameron and Paul Lahote, Embry's entire demeanour changed.

Jared Cameron was, in Montana's eyes, a massive douchebag. He had been her cousin Dakota's best friend since childhood, up until a months ago, when he stopped hanging out with her completely out of the blue. Montana never understood it, and she wasn't sure if she ever would. She'd grown up with Jared too, and he'd cared about both them, but now it was as if they didn't exist in his world anymore. Dakota had been heartbroken when she confronted him and he told her they could no longer be friends.

The boys massively disliked him for what he had done to Montana and Dakota, though a lot of their hatred stemmed from his affiliation with, what they liked to call "The Sam Uley Steroid Club."

However, Embry's ice cold stare was not directed Jared's way, for once, but instead at his best friend Paul Lahote, who currently had his arm draped around Maddy's shoulder.

Quil cast a glance over at them, nose scrunching in disgust, and the lines on his forehead crinkling. "Are you sure you'd rather we didn't punch them instead?"

"Punch me in the fucking face," Embry repeated. "It would hurt much less than this."

From across the table, Montana met Jacob's eyes, tilting her head to the side in consideration. Jacob shrugged nonchalantly, suggesting to her to go for it. "All right then," Montana said, brushing the cheeto crumbs from her hands.

Embry practically jumped out of his skin the moment he spotted Montana's fist in his peripheral vision, almost throwing himself off the table to avoid her hand connecting with his face. "What the actual fuck are you doing?!"

"Uh, dude, you said punch me in the face–"

"Not you!" Embry exclaimed, scooting to the other end of the bench to put as much distance between them as possible.

"Oh, ok, so you'd rather I punch you in the face instead?" Jacob asked him, his lips twitching into a grin.

"I didn't even mean it literally," Embry groaned, his head dropping onto the table with a light thud. "Ow."

A sigh left Montana's lips as she patted his head gently. "It's gonna be ok, Em," she promised. He slowly lifted his head back up, defeated eyes finding Maddy once more.

"You've had years to make your move on her," Quil pointed out. Embry ignored his comment, craning his neck to get a better view of the table. "This is your own fault."

"I was working on it," Embry muttered back.

"Maybe they're just friends," Jacob suggested optimistically. Montana gave him a pointed look for saying something so stupid.

"Did you not just see Lahote's arms all over her?" Embry bit back.

"I mean..." Montana trailed off, her eyes landing back on the table in discussion. Jared was sat with his back facing them, whilst Paul and Maddy were in full view. The dark haired girl's head was thrown back with laughter in response to something one of the boys had said, her cheeks flushing with warmth. Paul had a playful smirk across his lips, his arm now draped around the back of Maddy's chair. Montana's stare hovered a moment too long on the bulging muscles in his arms, and she quickly shook her head to snap herself out of it. "To be fair, not many girls can resist Paul's charm."

Jacob grimaced. "You think Paul has charm?"

Montana's eyes lingered over the boy in question for a few more moments, bringing her bottom lip between her teeth without realising. Her elbow was placed against the table, chin resting against her hand as she continued staring. It was undeniable that Paul Lahote was gorgeous, even before his sudden changes a short while ago. Both Jared and Paul had disappeared from school for a few weeks, returning having grown a few inches taller, sporting a tattoo on their arms, and had gained so much muscle in such a short space of time that the only viable theory Montana could come up with was steroids.

"Look, anyone with eyes knows that Paul has charm," Quil pointed out, gesturing his hand towards Montana as an example. "Isn't that right, Mon?" He waved a hand in front of her face to regain her attention.

Montana blinked, looking up at Quil. "Uh..." Jacob and Embry stared at her expectantly, and she swallowed thickly, coming up with an answer to Quil's question. "Yeah. Paul...Paul is, admittedly, quite attractive, yes."

Jacob and Embry both scoffed at her response, the former turning around to glare angrily in Paul's direction, whilst Embry's eyebrows creased in frustration. "Hey, Mon, here's an idea," Embry spoke up. "How about you date Paul instead so I can have a chance with Maddy?"

Quil chuckled at his friend's suggestion. "Montana dating Paul still won't help your chances with Maddy whatsoever." Embry's eyes shifted to Quil for the briefest of instances, giving him the harshest glare he could muster. "Plus, Montana would never date Paul."

"Yeah, why's that?" Jacob asked, finally turning back to face them.

"Because I'm way too good for him," Montana said simply, cracking a teasing smile. It was a complete lie, of course. If Paul ever asked her out she would say yes without hesitation. She didn't actually know any girl who wouldn't. "Anyway." She turned towards Embry again, messing up his hair with her hand. Embry huffed, batting her hand away in annoyance. "The last I heard, Maddy was getting with Jamie Nez, so they're probably just having some sort of fight, and she's using Paul to make him jealous."

Embry met her eyes, staring blankly at her. "Is that seriously supposed to make me feel any better?"

"Well, at least she's not dating Paul," Jacob said, coming to Montana's defence. "Yet," he added under his breath, holding back an amused smirk. A faint smile passed Montana's lips, though it began to slip as her attention fell back on Jared and Paul once more.

Montana remembered when things had first started to change with Jared. The carefree, and always beaming with positivity, person she knew became hostile towards certain people, a sort of aggression that Montana had never seen in him before. And then late one night he was supposed to pick her up from a shift at the diner; it was almost routine for the two of them by this point, so she assumed he couldn't have forgotten. Montana didn't drive and Dakota hadn't got her license by that point either. Her parents worked late, so Jared always used to pick her up. That night, she'd waited almost an hour for him to come, but he never showed up. In fact, she didn't see him for almost a whole month after that.

The lack of answers surrounding the situation was hugely irritating, to say the least. It had been almost four months since he stopped talking to them, and Montana still had absolutely no clue what had happened to Jared. He now hung out with Paul, who had ditched his popular group of friends for Jared and Sam. The whole situation was, weird, to say the least.

Jacob, Embry and Quil had never tried to hide the dislike they had for the 'cult' that Sam had going on, though they did tend to be more careful with their words choices about Jared so not to offend Montana. Though after the way he'd treated her cousin, Montana had a few choice words of her own to say about Jared.

"Hey, is that Dakota?"

Montana turned her head at the sound of Quil's voice, following his line of sight. She caught a flash of short dark hair weaving hurriedly between crowds of people, before heading in the direction of their table.

Dakota was undoubtedly one of Montana's favourite people in the entire world. She, and her older sister Kaia, were the daughters of Montana's late Aunt Ali, who had passed away in a tragic accident shortly after Dakota was born. Nita and Tye Bradley, whilst only a few months pregnant with Montana, had taken both girls in as their own, and the three girls had grown up together, considering themselves more like sisters than cousins. Kaia now lived in California, whilst Dakota was in her final year of high school with Montana.

"Ok, please stop drooling before she gets here," Montana told Quil sternly as Jacob smacked the back of his friend's head for staring. It was no secret to any of them that Quil had the biggest crush on Dakota. And whilst it was entertaining enough to see him get unbelievably flustered in her presence, Montana would appreciate being able to have a normal conversation with her cousin once in a while.

"Hey!" Dakota greeted them all with a smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. Montana quirked an eyebrow, noticing immediately that something was up.

"Hey, Kota," Jacob greeted, nudging Quil with his foot to snap him out of his daze.

A huge smile brightened on Quil's lips as he met Dakota's eyes, his entire face flushing with colour. "Oh, hey, Dakota!"

Jacob exchanged an exasperated glance with Montana, rolling his eyes.

"'Sup, Dakota," Embry mumbled in a deflated tone. Dakota's eyebrows pinched together in concern for the boy, but Montana gave her a look that suggested not to ask.

"What's up, Kotes?" Montana questioned, watching expectantly as her cousin bit down on her bottom lip, placing both hands flat against the table.

"Okay, so, uh, you know I was supposed to drive you to work after school today..." Dakota trailed. "Well, something came up, and I completely forgot that it clashed. You think someone else could take you instead?"

Montana's gaze drifted across her three best friends, an innocent smile on her lips. "So, you know how much you guys love me..."

"All three of us have detention," Quil reminded her.

Montana groaned. Of course they did. "Why are you guys like this?"

"How did all three of you end up with detention?" Dakota asked, a mixture of curiosity and amusement on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest, arching an eyebrow at the boys.

"Embry couldn't stop talking," Jacob responded, looking over at him with a glare. "Embry got in trouble. We laughed. We got in trouble."

Embry smiled sheepishly. "In my defence, that wasn't supposed to happen. Anyway, don't worry, Mon, I'll just skip detention to give you a lift. I know how to sneak out."

"You'll sneak out?" Quil asked him, raising his eyebrows. "You and your big mouth are the whole reason we have detention in the first place."

"Then we'll all sneak out," Embry shrugged simply.

Quil sighed in exasperation. "Mr G. is literally going to hang us."

"I'd like to see him try."

"So you're good for a lift?" Dakota double checked.

Montana nodded her head, waving her off. "Yeah, we'll figure something out."

"All right," Dakota said. "You got a lift home?"

Montana glanced at Jacob for assurance. It had become practically routine that he would pick her up once her shift had ended on Wednesday evenings. Sometimes all three boys would head there for dinner, and Montana would eventually join them when she was finished, but that usually happened on a whim rather than being planned.

Wednesday shifts were one of Montana's favourites since she got to spend it with Diane, who always made work a lot more fun. Montana didn't necessarily dislike working at the diner, in fact she quite enjoyed it sometimes, but working long hours, on top of spending all week at school, doing homework, extracurriculars, and trying to have a social life, was absolutely exhausting.

"Yeah, I'll pick her up," Jacob answered.

Dakota's eyes drifted towards him for a moment, smiling gently before she looked back at her cousin. "Okay. I'll see you later tonight, hopefully."

"Where are you going?" Montana questioned, recalling back to Dakota stating she'd had something come up. She had a sneaking feeling that it was a date, since she was being so secretive. Dakota wasn't usually secretive, especially with Montana, and the only time she ever had her guard held high was when it came to her love life. "Anywhere special?"

"Just out with some friends," Dakota replied vaguely, fiddling with the strap of her backpack over her shoulder. "All right, see you later."

Montana watched after her cousin, frowning in thought as she wondered what she was up to. Before she could dwell on it any further, the bell signalling the end of lunch rang, sending Montana's head falling against her arms on the table. "No," she groaned loudly. "I can't. I can't put up with Mr Harris for two whole hours."

"Wanna ditch?" Jacob asked.

"Ugh, I can't," Montana whined, tilting her head to the side to look at him. "I've got a test fifth period I need to stay for. And that means none of you can ditch," she said, pointing between the boys accusingly as she moved to her feet. "I'm not facing Mr Harris alone."

"Don't worry, we'd never subject you to torture like that," Quil promised as they began to exit the cafeteria.

"Speak for yourself, man," Jacob said, taking a step in the opposite direction to Harris' class, though the teasing grin on his face gave away that he was only playing with her.

"No, I don't think so," Montana said, both her hands wrapping around his arm to drag him back towards her. Jacob's laugh rang out around them as he allowed himself to be pulled back to her side, draping an arm over Montana's shoulder to bring her closer to his side. The two of them shared smiles as they fell back into step beside Quil and Embry. "We're in this together whether you like it or not," Montana told her friends.

"Four musketeers," Embry grinned down at her.

"No."

"The fantastic four?" Quil tried, laughing when he noticed the grimace on Montana's face.

"Nope."

"Awesome foursome?"

"Oh, God, please make it stop."

A/N

I already love them so much and this was only an introductory chapter!!