THE NEXT DAY, Lena and Theodore Parkinson spent their entire day doing what they should've done yesterday-unpacking. By the time they were done, the sun was setting over the horizon and the rain was pattering against the windows.

"So, I spoke to my boss yesterday. The Sheriff. He has a daughter your age." Teddy spoke, clearing his throat and darting his eyes to the can of beer that he had been cradling to his chest for fifteen minutes. The pair were sat on their porch, Lena's warmth keeping them safe from the harsh cold of the rain.

"Okay?" Lena replied, shrugging, "If she's a wolf, I'll gladly hit her up. If she's not, I don't know why you're talking to me."

"She isn't...as far as I'm aware." Her uncle replied, still not looking her in the eye, "But she is going through a tough time right now, according to her dad. I thought 'hey, maybe Lena could cheer her up a little' you know?"

"No, I don't." Lena whined, turning towards her uncle, "I came here to look for a pack, not to comfort sad little girls."

"She might be part of the pack, you never know!" Her uncle replied, his face desperate, "Lena, this is my boss. I need to look good for this guy. Please, think about it?"

Lena took a deep breath, thinking about her uncles words. He did bring her all the way here to find a pack, and the least she could do is help him look good in front of his boss, so she agreed.

That's why, the following morning, Lena found herself skating at top speed into Forks. Her uncle offered to drive her, but she she wanted the fresh air. Careful not to fall again-that would be a great first impression-the young wolf skidded to a stop outside of the Swan residence. By the look of the police cruiser in the drive, she was at the right place.

She grabbed her board under her arm, and knocked slightly on the door. A few moments passed before it was opened, a man decked in an officers uniform standing there.

"Ah, you must be Ted's daughter, Lena. I'm Charlie-uh-Bella's just upstairs. She's a little down." He spoke, letting Lena through. She smiled politely at him.

"It's no problem, Sheriff." She inwardly cringed at her own politeness, but kept the smile wide on her face, "I'll see what I can do."

After receiving directions to Bella's room, Lena made her way up the stairs and inside. Pushing the door open slightly after her knock received no reply, she smiled at Bella, who was sat at a chair by her window.

"Hey, Bella. I'm Lena, my uncle works with your dad. We're new in town and they thought it would be nice if we...got acquainted." As she spoke, Bella didn't move. Lena could hardly tell she was breathing.

She moved closer until she was behind the saddened girl, but still kept her distance. There was a heavy silence and Lena debated on leaving her alone, but it was about then that Bella stood up and turned to look at Lena.

Now this was the first time Lena actually saw Bella's face, and she was pretty, the wolf could tell. But her overall energy was off, sad, weak. Lena felt for the girl in front of her, who had apparently been through quite the nasty breakup. She smiled at her, "Hey."

"Hey. Lena, was it?" Bella asked, her voice course from crying.

"Yeah, Lena Parkinson." The girl held her hand out for Bella to shake, "Wanna hang out? I don't know anybody here."

Bella mulled over the idea, "Sure."

"I mean, we don't have to. We could just sit in and watch movies, or play twenty-one questions, or I could leave. It's up to you." Lena spoke, trying to be as polite as possible. It was clear from the start that this girl wasn't a shapeshifter, Lena didn't know how she could tell, maybe it was the coldness in the room, or the full plates that were stacked up on the floor.

Bella seemed to soften slightly, her stiff and awkward demeanour becoming more relaxed, "I...I would like if we stayed in. If that's okay with you, I don't want to bore you, or anything."

The dark haired girl thought over what they could
do, she knew that Bella was depressed, and if she didn't want to go out, she wasn't going to make her. When her parents died, she went through a drought of depression, and knew some things that might help the Swan girl get back on her feet.

"You won't bore me. I can make fun out of anything," Lena smirked, "I can make cleaning fun."

Bella's made a face, "How?"

The taller girl stood to her feet, and moved towards the CD player on Bella's shelf. Sifting through the stacks of CD's until she found one she liked, she stuck it in the player and clicked the button. AC/DC's Back in Black Album started to play, and the girl swivelled around to face Bella once more.

"Let's play a game of basketball." She smirked, moving towards the trash can on the floor, picking it up and placing it on top of Bella's dresser. She then did the same with a clothes basket that she found, only on the other side of the room, "Whoever gets the most shots in wins."

"Wins what?" Bella laughed, smiling slightly for the first time in months, at a girl she had known for five minutes.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Bella. Now get scoring!" Lena picked up a dirty t-shirt off the floor without a care, chucking it across the room and into the clothes basket, lifting her hands up in the air in victory, "Three pointer!"

The girls ended up having more fun than either of them expected, and Bella's depression room was spotless by the time they finished. All the dirty laundry, all the trash on the floor, even the plates and cups had been washed. Bella and Lena ended up watching a movie on the bed, Bella curling up against Lena's warmth without even realising.

"I might go shopping with my friend Jessica tomorrow. I haven't spoken to her in so long." Bella mumbled, her voice sending vibrations from where she was resting against Lena's chest.

"Okay, well have fun." Lena replied, "Not that I'm expecting an invite or anything, but I'm busy tomorrow."

Bella giggled quietly, "Yeah, you don't seem like the shopping type."

"Neither do you." Lena spoke, both girls erupting in laughter at the same time.

"I'm not. But Jess is, and I kind of miss her, so."

From where Lena had her arm around Bella, she gave the girl a squeeze, "Good. Don't push yourself."

"I won't." Just and Bella finished her sentence, Lena's alarm to go home blasted from her phone. She promised her uncle that she'd be back before dinner, so after hugging Bella goodbye and promising to see her again soon, she headed off home on her board.

•••

The next few days flew by, and Lena was settling in to her new home quite well. She hadn't run into Seth or Leah again, and hadn't been back to that gym, but she'd explored both La Push and Forks. She'd kept up with Bella, texting her every day for updates on her life. Recently, Bella had been fixing up motorbikes with her friend Jake, and yesterday had invited Lena to come with her.

"You'll love Jake." Bella assured the girl as they pulled up to the house. The old barn-slash-garage stood out clearly on the field, it's bright red paint matching that of the house to its right.

Lena hopped out of the orange truck and followed Bella into the garage. Coming face-to-face with two beat up motorbikes and a boy with long hair and a huge smile, whom of which Bella hugged tightly.

"Jake, this is Lena. Lena, Jake." Bella introduced the two, who sized each-other up, both for different reasons. Jake, ever the paranoid, was unsure of this new girl that had just popped up in Bella's life and swooped her off her feet, the situation reminding him too much of Edward, who had broken Bella's heart. Lena, on the other hand, had heard all about Jacob Black, and was analysing him to see if he was as great as Bella made him out to be.

"Hey." Lena spoke first, nodding her head at the boy, who gave in and nodded back.

"Hey." He replied, still unsure but willing to cooperate.

The three headed into the garage, and Bella dragged Lena over to an old beaten up sofa on the edge of the room. They watched as Jake worked on the bikes, sparking up the occasional conversation, but overall it was a relaxing silence.

A few hours later, Lena was playing with some cards on the sofa and Bella was hounding Jake about doing his homework, when two boys walked in through the door, "Hey Jake, you in there?"

Lena looked up as the two boys came in, one tall with long hair, and the other short with shorter hair. Jacob stood up to greet them, "It's okay, just my boys."

The wolf watched as Jake stood up to greet them, "Hey. Guys, this is Bella, Bella that's Quil and Embry."

"I'm Quil Atera." The shorter boy spoke flirtatiously, looking at Bella with hunger in his eyes. It made Lena gag.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" She spoke up, glaring slightly at Jacob before moving towards the boys, "I'm Lena. It's nice to meet you, no thanks to this guy."

The boys laughed, Embry pointing at her, "I like this one. Where'd she come from?"

Lena rolled her eyes and sat down as Jacob muttered something about her being a friend of Bella's. Quil then spoke up, "So the bike building story's true."

"Oh yeah-yeah, I taught him everything he knows." Bella sarcastically stated.

"What about the part where you're his girlfriend?" Quil asked, smirking slightly at Jacob as Bella stuttered out a response about them being just friends.

"Ooh, burn!" Embry called out, laughing at Jacob. Lena chucked in amusement at the boy, already taking a liking to him. She didn't listen when Jacob tried to make his excuse, simply standing and peering over Jakes shoulder at the boys.

"Yeah, I'm more Bella's type than Jake'll ever be." She uttered, smirking as the boys cackled. Jake pushed her back and she landed next to Bella, who have her a look.

"So you guys have girlfriends, that's so cool." She commented, watching on as the boys fell silent.

Jacob laughed, "Yeah right. Quil's actually taking his cousin to prom."

Embry laughed as Quil launched at Jake, "You want funny, Black? I'll give you funny."

The other three watched on as the boys sparred, Embry making his way closer to the girls, "I got five bucks on Quil."

Lena laughed as she watched, finding the boys more fun to be around than Jake, who always seemed to have a sense of awkwardness no matter what. She kicked Jakes body from where he had rolled into her feet, laughing when Quil shot her two thumbs up for it.

•••

Later that day, when Lena had long since left the Black residence, the girl found herself in the woods. She hadn't been in them since she moved here, and finally decided to make her way through them, her feet bare like always. Back in her old town, she hung bags of clothes in high branches on the trees near her house, so that if she ever phased, she would have a change of clothes on hand. Although usually, when she wanted to go on a run in her wolf form, she would strip naked before phasing, and would leave her clothes un-ripped.

Now that she was in a new place, where she knew other wolves lurked, she was more apprehensive about her phasing. She still held a duffel bag of clothes over her shoulder as she walked, just in case she ran into another wolf and had to phase on the fly without stripping down first.

Her track through the woods of the reservation wasn't exactly mapped, the wolf simply wandering wherever her body takes her. She wasn't expecting to run into anyone, not anyone human, anyway.

"You shouldn't be here." The voice was deep, and familiar, and came from just up ahead. The man from the gym, the same one that told her to watch her mouth, was standing in the trees, shirtless.

"One day, we're gonna meet, and you're gonna be fully clothed." She spat sarcastically, not bothering to stop in her tracks. Instead she kept walking, and went to pass the man, when his arm shot out and stopped her. Lena almost growled at him, the way he was acting, but kept it together.

"These woods are dangerous. For anyone." The man emphasised, seeming to remember her stubborn attitude from a few days ago. His arm didn't drop from her until she stepped back, glaring at him.

"I don't know who you are, but you need to get out of my face and mind your own business. So what if I get murdered in these woods? You can't stop me from doing what I want, you don't even know me." She ranted, waving her hands around as she did.

The man didn't react to her outburst, his face placid, and a little annoyed, "Trust me, kid. These woods are dangerous. Stay out of them." And with that, he walked away.

Lena huffed, burning two holes in his back with her glare as he walked away. She seriously didn't like that guy, and once she was sure he was gone, she stripped down and phased, her wolf form running through the woods at full speed in order to relive her anger.

- mills speaks!

i kind of don't like this. anyway, here's #bellena, i love them already.

also, lena will warm up to jake, at some point...