𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 

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╰┈˚ · ° .  THE DAY WAS STILL WARM AS AUGUST FASTLY LEFT to the beginning of September. The sun was still a bit too hot, even with the clouds that were a bit too dark in the almost always covered sky of the Olympic peninsula, and a slight chilled breeze that was in the air.

With the new month, the new school year started. The house was silent apart from the sparse sounds coming from both mine and my brother's room. My mother, probably still deep asleep, like almost all the time. She was a good mother, at least sometimes. She had a few shifts at a bar and would bring home a bit of income that we wouldn't spend on her medication, she was responsible for the most part, she troubled herself once in a while to show interest in her children. But she was in pain, her mind was in pain, but at least, she was still here. That couldn't have been said for Joshua, who I loved to only referred to as the sperm donor.

I made my way towards the kitchen, dressed in jeans and an old shirt of my brother that I had cut and adjusted to arrive at my middle, the leather jacket that was in my hand, was quickly draped on the back of a chair at the dining table, and my school bag, unceremoniously dropped on the floor near it. I quickly prepared the coffee, enough for two even if I did not bother to pour a cup for my brother too.

The kitchen was silent as I sipped the boiling hot brown liquid from my favorite mug. Like a lot of my things, it was modified and painted by me. Giving a new life to something that was sure to be thrown away otherwise, was one of the things that I loved to do most. I ate some premade waffles that I had passed in the toaster, that were actually just warm at best and definitely too dry, the only sound was the one that I made with the zippo in my hand as I opened it, gasoline igniting the flame with a movement of my thumb, and then closed it, for then to repeat every motion once again.

The fire, a mix of reds, oranges and yellows never failed to keep me entertained. I was like a moth that could never escape the pull of the flame.

"Come on, Tris. We are going to be late!" Sam's voice was what snapped me out of the trance that that small flame had put me in..

He had closed the Zippo with a sharp movement, anger rising quickly inside of me. I looked up at him, eyes ablaze with rage. He knew to never touch it. I had made it clear years ago, and still, it was the thing that he loved to do the most because he knew the reaction he would get out of me. It was only when my eyes collided with his that I noticed the waffle and the mug in his hand. My mug, my waffle.

"You were so focused on that thing that I thought it was a waste to throw this away." he said with a shit-eating grin that I would oh so love to smash with a perfectly placed punch to his face. "Should I worry that you would burn the house down?" Amusement was clear in his tone, one his eyebrow sharply raised. The mocking way in which he said it made my annoyance build even more.

"Yes. With you inside." I barked out with a glare as I yanked the now almost finished stolen waffle from his hands.

We both know that it was an empty threat, because as much as I loved fire, burning things down was not something that I was interested in.

Sam rolled his eyes at me, but nevertheless, he finished my coffee in one gulp, grimacing at the sharp bitter taste of no sweetener and the burning, or by now, just hot temperature of it.

"Gross." He muttered before leaving the mug in the sink with at least half a dozen of unwashed plates, glasses and cutlery.

"That is how I like it. It should deter you from drinking it." I mumbled with an irritated sigh as I wore my jacket and safely placed the zippo in one of the pockets.

"And not annoy you first thing in the morning?" He said with a snort "Definitely not." He laughed as he started his normal morning routine for school, which was preparing his own coffee in his travel mug with plenty of sugar added to it.

I rolled my eyes at him, not even bothering him with an answer as I picked up my bag from the floor, and went ahead of him outside and inside the pickup truck, waiting for him to drive us both to school.

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╰┈˚ · ° .   As always, we passed from Clearwater's house on the way to school to pick up someone. That someone was Leah, the eldest daughter of Harry and Sue Clearwater and Sam's girlfriend from two years.

Leah was a calm girl, not always with a smile on her face, but she loved my brother immensely. I could see it in her eyes whenever she looked at him. It was unsettling how a girl with a tough exterior as her would get all mushy and soft at only the sight of my brother. I never knew if I wanted to barf whenever they were together doing all that sweet and in love couple things or being happy for my brother that seemed to be actually content with her.

As quickly as I could, I all but jumped out of the car when we arrived in the parking lot of the school. Sam had just pressed his foot on the brake, the car barely coming to a stop, still with the engine on, and I was already walking away.

I didn't have many friends, or at all. I didn't need them. The only person that I would ever need in my life was my brother. And it's not like there was a line of people eager to be friends with me. I was hot tempered, quite rude and last year I almost made the chemistry lab explode, and since I had a known obsession with fire, everyone just started to think that I did it on purpose. I had not and I was not even the only one that had caused it.. But I was at the bottom of the social pyramid of our school and he was not.

La Push High School was small, only the kids of the reservation went there, but still, the hallways were full, laughs and chatting could be heard by the students, but the louder of them all, was always him. The now junior student, Paul Lahote. Surrounded by other guys like him, loud and popular, with girls hanging off both their arms. It was a known thing, like almost everything in the reservation, that the guy had a problem with anger issues and didn't think twice about sleeping with different girls every day. And of course, he was my chemistry lab partner last year. Even if I was a year behind him, he had apparently failed chemistry so I had been stuck with him as my partner for the entire last spring semester. Since that accident, he had coined a new nickname for me. If I was a different person, I was sure that I would have cared much more about his words and his talks and derision about me. But honestly, I didn't give a fuck.

There was something in common by all the students that crowded the hallways. Gossiping was one of the most common things that happened at this high school, probably in all La Push and our neighboring town Forks, but this was different. A name was being passed through their lips, the hatred was palpable in the air. And all of the chatter said one thing.

"The Cullens are back."

There were legends in our tribe, all told to each one of us since we were kids. Of the spirit warriors being able to shapeshift to protect their land from our enemies, who had the name of the cold ones. Other legends talked of the four elemental women, said to have the spirit of nature itself in them, gifted one of the four elements each. Their role, alongside the spirit warriors, was the protection of the land. Of the people and flora and fauna.

If we as a tribe descended from the spirit warriors and elemental women, the Cullen were the descendents of our enemies. And so, the long-time hate between us continued to this day. Even if no one believed the legends, there was probably not one person on The Rez that didn't hate or at least disliked The Cullens. Like it was infused in our blood to do just that. It came as natural as breathing.

The bell had not rung yet, but I wanted some space and calm before the lessons. I was not a people person and the hallway was feeling more and more claustrophobic by the second. I only did one quick detour to my locker before entering the class that I knew my first lesson was held in. My sketchbook and pencil case were out of bag seconds after I had chosen where to sit. Right row, near the window and approximately in the middle. Not too far back, not too forward near the teacher desk. The perfect spot to pass unobserved. And I did just the only thing that would help calm my mind. Drawing for ten minutes straight a flame too high to be created only by the Zippo that it came out of. It was only when the first bell rang making me more aware of my surroundings that I noticed something in my drawing. Something that I didn't remember drawing or even wanting to. Because in the flame, hidden behind the colorful shades of the fire, there was a shadow. And the resemblance with a wolf was uncanny.

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╰┈˚ · ° .  For the entire day there was only one thing that everyone was talking about. The return of the Cullens. And I got bored of it after the second period. The end of the day couldn't have come any sooner.

I was out of the building as soon as the last bell rang, only waiting for Leah and Sam to join me, because I was so ready to get the hell out of there. The both of them had not many friends, the few that they had were considered acquaintances more than anything, but still, they usually took at least ten minutes after school to stay with them and talk and do shits, I don't know, but since it was the start of the year, their senior year, I knew they would take a bit more time to spend with them.

Cursing myself to not thinking about asking Sam for the keys of the truck before, now I was stuck outside. Deciding that it was better than staying standing, I lowered myself on the asphalt ground, my back against the passenger door. The zippo, almost instantaneously, found itself in my hand. The motion of sparking the flame, cathartic in a way that I have never known how to explain. It just was. I don't know how much time passed before the couple arrived. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes? It was just me and the flame and the chatter of people, friends, talking and laughing as background. Probably passing more time with a lighter in my hand didn't help with creating friendships. Not that I cared. Or maybe I did, I don't know. There were a lot of things I didn't know, but what I was sure of, if anything else, was how I could stare at fire, a small flicker of a flame to one as big as a bonfire and be content. Maybe it wasn't the healthiest way to live but it was the only one that I knew.

Kids are told by their parents to not play with fire, but I had no one to tell me that though.

The drive was silent, only the radio playing silently. Apart from the way Leah clinged to my brother and his love-filled smiles aimed at her when he could take his eyes off the road, it was pretty comfortable.

And once again, my Zippo was in my hand. I opened the metal lid, rolled the little wheel with my thumb making the small flame erupt, and then I would close it, for then repeating it over and over again.

"I never understood why you like it so much." The silence was broken by the girl sitting next to me. Her eyes locked to my lighter.

Once it might have been new, now it was just worn out and the corners were almost smooth. But she actually made me notice how small the flame was as I lit it up.

I need to refill it.

"You always carry it with you and play with it. I've always been curious about it." She added. The word play was said almost hesitantly, but the curiosity was clear in her deep brown eyes.

"I'm pretty sure everyone wants to know." Commented Sam with a light chuckle "But it's actually not the Zippo." He said before I could. He knew, of course he knew. He was the only one who did.

Continuing where my brother had left off, I couldn't help but whisper the truth as my eyes fixated on the flame emitted from the old lighter that with every second called to me more and more.

"It's not the Zippo." I said "It's the fire." 

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

Here is the first chapter, I hope you liked it!!

Like I said, this first couple of chapters are going to be a bit slower, with less dialogue between chapters, and it is because Beatrice is not a very social person. I would love for you to understand that many things that she thinks are mostly a defensive mechanism. Everyone wants friends in high school even if we think that we do not need them. You'll see it in the later chapters too.

Yes, my add to the plot, as you could've guessed, are the elemental women. This story will have their legend added and who knows.

The age of the character will be this for the first 8 chapters before they will age up.

Beatrice: 15 (sophomore)

Sam: 17 (Senior)

Paul: 16 (Junior)

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Thursday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾