CHAPTER SIX:
HIDDEN SKELETONS

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"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Allison. Happy birthday to you!" Mae burst into hushed cheers, grinning as Allison's face grimaced across her computer screen, a slight delay blurring her features. It was another early morning in Washington and Mae was sitting in the living room this time. FRIENDS was playing low on the television while she reached out to her sister for her birthday.

Allison Cooper, at the age of twenty-two, was almost six years older than Mae. James and their biological mum, Imogen, had Allison when they met in college. The same college that Allison had chosen for a degree in criminology. They decided it was best to stay together for her and later Mae's sake, and they lived a seemingly happy existence alongside each other as platonic companions rather than lovers.

Then Mae turned ten. Just after her birthday, Imogen came down with a cold, a cold that soon transformed into so much more. Cancer took her in just under a year. By the time Mae turned eleven and Allison sixteen, their mum hadn't been with them for months. It broke Mae's already tender heart. Eleven-years-old with a lot to learn about the world, she didn't understand the severity of visiting a sickly Imogen Carter in the hospital, not like Allison did.

But unlike Mae, Allison swallowed her grief and kept it locked up inside her where no one else could pick it apart. The moment she turned eighteen, she applied for college and deferred for a year, disappearing onto the open road for several months with nothing but the occasional postcard in the mail for her father and sister to know that she was safe. Several months went by before she showed up on Mae's fourteenth birthday as if nothing had changed, as if there wasn't an undeniable rift between her and her family, not to mention her dad's new fiancé and her future step-sister.

But somehow, despite the odds, things slowly went back to business as usual. Allison returned to college where the world of criminology waited for her. James and Kira Song got married (Allison even attended the ceremony without showing any outward resentment) and Mae found the companion she'd lost and never quite found again in Lina Song, Kira's only daughter who, despite being so different from Mae, was like her other half.

Things might've been normal again, but a tiny fragment of the tension lingered in her chest, kind of like a scar from a wound that didn't quite heal properly. She and Allison never spoke a word about her absence. Allison seemed happy enough when she came back and James never chose to breach the topic with her, arguing that everyone faced loss in different ways. So Mae decided to leave it alone until so much time had passed and it seemed almost wrong to mention it, even though the words desperately needed to be said.

The Cooper family had more skeletons in their closet than people realised.

"Mae?" Allison's voice called through her computer speakers, amused but a tad impatient. "Mae, you with me?"

Mae nodded quickly, a flustered grin tugging at the corner of her mouth as she said, "Just thinking about what we can do when you come visit."

Allison smiled, though it seemed forced at the edges. She was planning to come stay with them for a week once she got her exams out of the way, but there was hesitance to her voice when James and Mae had called to see if she was free. James hadn't noticed it, the tiniest of pauses before she said yes, but Mae had. She knew that Allison had never been close with Kira, regardless of whether or not she went to their wedding, but she hoped that Allison could put that aside to see her and their father again. James had never said it but he missed Allison terribly. He'd even asked her to come with them to Forks but Allison didn't want to leave everything she knew and loved behind. So they saved her a room, a symbol of hope that she might change her mind someday.

"You should be getting ready for school," Allison pointed out once she saw what the time was.

"I don't want to," Mae whined, the last traces of her smile gone.

Allison just laughed at her, sticking her tongue out at the camera before saying, "I'll call you back later, okay? You can tell me how your day went."

"Fine," she sighed. The slightest of pauses followed, the words foreign but familiar on her tongue. "I love you, Allison."

Allison grinned, and this time, it was genuine. "I love you too, Mae."

Mae had never quite believed her since the day she left, but with every 'I love you' and promise fulfilled, she hoped that would change.

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IT WAS POURING WITH rain when James pulled into the school parking lot. The sky was an angry grey looming behind the towering building that housed Mae's personal hell; like a jar without its lid, heaven was crying buckets. Mae shuddered at the sight, lips pursed, as she turned to give her father a hopeful smile.

"Thanks for the drive, pops," she said, then reached for her bag and her dad's blue umbrella conveniently placed by her feet. "We better head out. Have a good day teaching the middle school brats."

"Not so fast," James chuckled. He snagged the umbrella from her hand before she could open her door and run off with it, shaking his head when she groaned and pouted at him pleadingly. "I need this myself, you know."

He did, the teacher's car park over at the middle school was a decent walk away from the main entrance, but that's beside the point.

"You'd let your beloved daughters freeze to death by walking in the rain?" Mae scowled. She heard Lina scoff in the backseat but ignored her as she pulled out all the stops with the puppy-dog eyes. The thought of leaving the warm car was unpleasant on a good day. Rain was a whole new level of torture.

"Yes," James deadpanned, lips pressed in a stubborn line. When Mae gasped, a smile broke out across his stern face and he laughed, ruffling her hair despite her protests. "Sorry, bub, you're just gonna have to make a run for it."

"Fine," she grumbled in defeat. Kissing his cheek with a scowl, she reached for the door handle in preparation. "Make sure you buy some soup when you shop today. We'll need it since you've given us the flu."

At her parting words, James just rolled his eyes. "Goodbye, girls."

Mae swung open the door, wincing as she held her backpack above her head and braved the onslaught. Kicking the door shut and running, she didn't stop to check on Lina until she was under the shaded area that connected to the main doors. Her freshly curled hair was a frizzy and knotted mess stuck to her cheeks and neck.

"Thanks for leaving me back there," Lina complained as she eventually joined her, removing her hoodie to reveal a thick sheet of dry hair and a damp grey long-sleeved top. She looked awfully put together as she adjusted her hair around her face, eyes narrowed at her sister.

Mae, with her cropped shirt and jeans, was not so lucky. Shaking off the shirt the best she could, she muttered a subconscious "It's every guy and gal for themselves today, Song" that made Lina glower and march off inside.

The sound of false leather and rubber squeaking against linoleum had Mae wincing the entire walk to English. Lina had disappeared to find one of her own friends after a grunt as a goodbye, leaving Mae to collect the assigned book and her notepad before heading off early. Surprisingly enough, Embry and Jared were already there when she arrived, along with a few others Mae hadn't really spoken to.

For two boys infamously known for being late to everything, they sat rather comfortably in their usual seats with their things spread out; unlike Mae, they looked warm and dry in their cut-off shorts (Mae put it down to a La Push thing because God knows she would die wearing shorts in this weather) and simple fitted t-shirts. Even their hair was bone dry, unlike the mess that Mae was desperately trying to tame with one hand while the other awkwardly juggled her things.

"You want some help there?" Embry chuckled as he noticed her stumbling down the aisle towards them. He didn't wait for a reply, leaning forward to take her books with a shy smile.

Mae gave a sigh of relief, stuttering out a 'thank you' as she fought her hair out of her face with a scrunchie she stole from Lina's bag before they parted ways. Content now that her neck could breathe, she slumped down in her seat while uncomfortably patting at her damp skin. "It's been that kind of morning, boys."

"We can tell," Jared remarked cheekily as he looked her over, earning the finger in response. He just laughed and ignored her.

"Here," Embry muttered when Mae turned to look at him, stacking her books by the corner of her desk.

Mae beamed at him. "Thanks."

Embry hesitated, staring down at her with nervous eyes. She didn't notice at first, too busy sorting through her things, but by the time she did look up the teacher had walked in. Just before she could ask him what was wrong, sensing the unspoken words, Mrs Watkins was hushing the suddenly busy classroom and Embry was forced into his seat.

Another time, maybe.

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EMBRY INSISTED ON WALKING Mae to her locker and her next class. Gathering her books together, she followed him out of the English room and down the hallway, a strange sensation of butterflies in her stomach. He chatted her ear off the whole way, pausing at her locker to exchange English notes for Math ones, and then they continued on their way. Not many people had arrived for Math yet, there were two or three who Mae recognised in the hallway and somebody was inside chatting with Mrs Sullivan, though Mae didn't get the chance to see who when Embry cleared his throat nervously.

"You alright, Em?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah," he stuttered, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her. "I, uh, I was just wondering—"

"Mae, you can come in if you like," Mrs Sullivan interrupted before he had the chance to say what had been on his mind all morning. "Oh. Hello, Embry."

"Hi, Miss," he grimaced at her, smothering his annoyance with a parting glance down at Mae. "I'll see you later."

Then, before she had the chance to question him, he was gone. Mae shrugged, stepping past Mrs Sullivan and making her way over to her desk. Paul was already there, lounging back in his chair with a frown on his face. Mae sat down next to him, a little startled when he didn't make his usual snarky remark of greeting.

"Hey, Paul," she decided to speak first instead. "You're here early."

Paul watched Mrs Sullivan chat to a few arriving students — Lina was included in this mix — before mustering a thinly veiled smirk. "I've decided to be a responsible student, Cooper."

"You? Responsible?" Mae snorted, the two words sounding ludicrous when put together. When Paul just raised an eyebrow at her, toying with one of the pens strewn across his desk, she added, "Does that mean you'll help me with the project then? Since you're being so responsible?" 

He groaned at the reminder — Mae hadn't stopped asking since that day at his locker with Maggie — prompting a grin to flash across her face. "Fine."

"Fine?"

He ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook, quickly scrawling an address across the front before chucking it across the table at her. Mae could barely make out the words but she assumed it was his address considering how easily he'd written it down.

"Tomorrow's Saturday. I have work in the morning but you can stop around here at lunch, I guess."

Mae just smiled, tucking the piece of paper into her pencil case before turning her attention to the front of the room where Mrs Sullivan was excitedly addressing them. 

Little did Mae know what the next day would bring.

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A/N: I'm so so sorry for how long I left this update! I've been so hooked on my Harry Potter fanfics that I completely forgot about my Twilight babies, but I promise that's going to change. I've plotted out the next section of Mae's storyline so be expecting frequent updates sometime after New Years.