[Angela]

“Come on, Josh,” I said, tapping my foot impatiently.

My nine-year-old brother kept on lacing his sneakers with agonizingly exaggerated motions. “I’m hurrying,” he said. I’m annoying you on purpose, his tone said.

“Remember, this is a privilege, not a right,” I reminded him. “You’re lucky I let you come. This was supposed to be Ben’s and my date.”

“Let me come?” Josh scoffed. “Mom made you take us, because the stupid babysitter is off in Cancún this summer. If you leave me here, you’ll get in big trouble.”

“If I stuff you in the closet and gag you with duct tape, she won’t have to know,” I pointed out.

“Puh-lease.” Josh started work on the second sneaker. “You’re way too nice to do violence to your helpless little brother.”

“Oh yeah?” I retorted, even though he was right. Darn it. The little twerp was too smart.

“Yeah. ‘Sides, I bet you’re only mad ‘cause now you and Ben won’t be able to make out without us seeing.”

Right again. Grrrr.

Finally, he tied the final knot on his shoelace. “Ready,” he said, jumping up.

“About time.” I opened the front door and was just about to walk out when the phone rang.

“Go wait in the car with Zac,” I said to Josh. His twin, Isaac, had been ready ten minutes ago. It was apparently Josh’s day to be the Evil Twin.

I went into the kitchen and picked up the phone. “Hello, Weber residence.”

“Angie,” said the familiar voice of my boyfriend, Ben Cheney.

“Ben!” I said. “I’m so sorry. It’s like pulling teeth, getting the boys out of the house today. I promise I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Actually,” said Ben, and paused. I winced. Noooo, pleasepleaseplease don’t say it.

“I can’t come.”

I groaned. “I was afraid you were going to say that. How come?”

“My mom’s sick today,” he said. “I wanted to stay home and keep an eye on her.”

Awww. I could hardly be mad at him when that was his excuse. “Well, okay. Tell your mom to get better fast.” I couldn’t help adding, “Josh and Zac are going to be so disappointed that you can’t come.”

He laughed. “Tell them hi for me.”

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you too.” I waited until I heard the click on his end before hanging up myself.

Now I was faced with the ordeal of taking a pair of nine-year-olds to the Seattle Center for the day. By myself.

Ugh.

*******

[Paul]

“It’s only one day,” wheedled Embry. “One day. Come on, Paul. Have you even been off the rez in the past month?”

I glared at them. My pack was ganging up on me. Even Seth, Collin, and Brady were giving me puppy eyes. They were doing it exceptionally well because they basically were puppies.

“Are you kidding me?” I said, glaring. “I am NOT going. The Science Center is lame.” I’d been there once when I was a kid, and even then I hadn’t been impressed by the obviously fake dinosaurs and the silly exhibits.

“It’ll be fun. We can watch Lewis and Clark in IMAX,” Jacob said, grinning. “Again.” As if that was supposed to help. Has a less interesting movie ever been made? Besides, the whole thing is from the perspective of white guys.

“No thanks,” I said, slumping deeper into the couch. “It costs an arm and a leg anyway.”

“What if we pay for you?” Embry said, in a last-ditch effort.

I lifted an eyebrow. “You seriously would?”

“Sure,” he said. I could tell he was expecting me to turn him down again.

So I smirked and said, “Okay. I’ll go.”

Embry groaned. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

Jacob and Quil laughed at him. I went to find my shoes, wondering if they realized Embry’s we included them.

*******

[Angela]

“Woooo! I’m flying!” Zac stood at the front of the ferry deck, his arms out and his shirt billowing.

“Dude, how many times have you watched Titanic anyway?” said Josh, snickering.

Zac turned around and tackled Josh, shouting in outrage. They bumped into the rail, play-fighting. I rolled my eyes. They did this every five minutes, or so it seemed. I was used to it.

“All right,” I said, pulling them apart, “that’s enough. Time to go back down. We’re almost to the other side anyway.”

“Can’t we stay up here while they dock, Angie? Pleeeease?”

They turned begging eyes on me, but I shook my head. “If we do, they’ll start unloading without us and somebody will run into my car. And I kinda like my car dent-free.”

This didn’t seem to matter all that much to them, but they followed me back inside anyway.

As I was pushing open the door, a group of Native American guys approached. The one in front looked kind of grouchy, and he was deep in argument with another guy. As they passed, I realized that one of the guys was Bella’s friend Jacob Black. Last I’d seen him was at Bella’s funeral, and I hadn’t paid that much attention because I was too busy crying.

I stopped, meaning to say something to him, and the grumpy one bumped right into me. He almost knocked me over—as it was, I had to grab Josh’s arm to stay upright. I looked back, waiting for the guy to apologize. But he didn’t even turn around. I wondered if he’d even seen me at all.

“What a jerk!” I muttered, rubbing my arm.

“Ooooh,” said Zac. “Angie just called somebody a jerk.”

“That doesn’t make it okay for you to do it,” I said quickly. “And sorry, Josh. Did I hurt your arm?”

“No,” he said, all tough-guy. “Are we gonna go downstairs or not?”

So we went downstairs and got in the car, and I promptly forgot about Jacob’s grouchy friend.

Which was, in hindsight, about the dumbest thing I ever did.

*******

[Paul]

“This is dumb,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning dramatically against the display case containing a T-Rex skull.

“Shut up,” said Quil, grinning in fascination as he poked the button that was supposed to make the jawbone move. “You just want to hate it, Paul.”

He wasn’t wrong.

I stomped, T-Rex style, into the next room. It was the one I remembered so well—the room of dinosaurs. Mechanically moving their long necks back and forth, emitting fake roaring noises from time to time, their plastic-looking skin grubby and dull in the lighting.

Little kids wandered around in awe, staring up at the dinosaurs. One of them looked up at the display of a couple of dinosaurs eating a fake-bloody carcass and burst into tears. I resisted the urge to growl at all of them. I didn’t like kids, and kids didn’t like me. It was an unspoken rule or something.

Lying on the floor in the middle of the exhibits was a cast of a giant footprint, supposedly made by some dinosaur or other. I watched a little girl lie down in it—she could almost fit her entire body in the space of the print.

“Look, Paul, they found somebody with the same size feet as you!” said Embry, coming up behind me.

“Nah, this IS his foot,” said Jacob. “Look, there’s a plaque on it…it says…THE FOOTPRINT OF PAUL RIVERS, A.K.A. ANGRYSAURUS.”

“It does not!” said Collin. “Uh, does it?”

Seth shoved Collin. “’Course it does, and right underneath it says GULLIBLE.”

“I’m going back outside,” I announced. My blood was starting to boil, which was never a good sign. This may have been an exhibit of monsters, but I doubted anyone wanted an impromptu werewolf exhibit right in the middle of all those giggling kids.

The cool air helped me chill out a bit. I took deep breaths and forced the wolf to quiet down. Saying a bunch of swearwords under my breath helped even further. My pack was my family, but sometimes I really hated them. I fumbled in my pocket for a pack of cigarettes—it was a stupid habit, but at least my werewolf lungs wouldn’t get cancer. I don’t think.

“Did you hear that? He just said a really bad word,” said a kid’s voice, hushed in awe. I looked up. There were a couple of kids staring wide-eyed at me. They seemed to be twins, if their identical heights and haircuts were any indication.

“Hey,” said one of them, “that’s the man you said was a jerk on the ferry, Angie!”

I felt a flush of anger. Jerk? I looked behind the boys, at the girl they were with—their sister, probably, because she didn’t look much older than nineteen—and froze.

Brown hair, cut off straight at the back, worn with a red headband. Brown eyes, wide, honest, but right now irritated. Black leather jacket, red shirt, dark blue jeans—the kind you have to wear out yourself instead of buying them already destroyed—and the sensible kind of shoes that moms wear.

I couldn’t blink. Could hardly breathe. This girl. This girl was everything. The entire universe revolved around her. Was she a goddess? At the very least, an angel….

“Um.” She shifted, turning pink at my prolonged staring. “You know, you shouldn’t swear in front of little kids.”

I forced myself to blink and glance away for a second before returning to my contemplation of her body, her hair, her face. And her voice! It was—

“Excuse me, are you ignoring me on purpose or are you mentally deficient?”

That snapped me back into reality. “No,” I said, sounding meaner than I meant to. I cleared my throat. “I mean, sorry.”

She rolled her eyes. “C’mon, guys, let’s go.” She grabbed the door handle and went to wrench it open.

I covered her hand with mine, pulling the heavy door open with ease.

She snatched her hand away, her face turning a darker shade of red, and herded her little brothers inside. I followed.

“Look,” she said, turning to me, “if you’re stalking me, here’s a tip—stalkers often make some attempt to be sneaky about it.”

“Oh.” I was a little taken aback. Usually, people didn’t snap at me in that mildly irritable tone of voice. I was the one, generally speaking, who did the snapping. “I…I just….”

“You just what?”

“I just…want to know your name.” There. A complete sentence at last.

She flicked her hair back, looking annoyed. “It’s Angela, if you must know. Happy?”

Oh, yes, I was. More than she could know.

*******

[Angela]

“My name is Paul,” he said, still with that dazed sort of look on his face. “Paul Rivers.”

I was having serious doubts about the guy’s mental capacity. He was clearly not all there, if you know what I mean. He was a living example of the stereotype that handsome guys are stupid jerks.

And, okay, he was handsome. In a major way. Tall and buff, he towered over me—I’d been nicknamed Beanpole in second grade because I was taller than everybody else, but I felt tiny compared to him. His copper skin, high cheekbones, and prominent nose reflected his Native American heritage. His eyebrows were heavy, making him look like he was permanently glowering—the only hint to his unpleasant personality.

But it wasn’t like I was ogling him, or anything. I mean, I had a boyfriend. If Ben had been here, he would have punched this idiot already…and then the idiot (Paul, whatever) would have probably rearranged his face, because Ben is miniscule compared to him. Right. Maybe it was a good thing Ben wasn’t here.

As it was, I was having enough trouble explaining away the sudden rush of warmth I felt when he touched my hand as he opened the door. Static electricity? Heat lamps hidden in the doorway?

Certainly not attraction. I was NOT attracted to complete strangers. And besides, I already had a boyfriend, whom I happened to love very much.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, not entirely truthfully. I attempted to sidle away, prodding Josh and Zac along in front of me, but—darn it!—the guy followed.

“What now?” I said, not amused.

“Can I walk with you?” he asked.

I sighed. Lord, give me strength. “Sorry, um, Paul, but I already have a boyfriend. He’s going to meet me here, as a matter of fact.” Well, a little white lie couldn’t hurt.

He looked taken aback. “A boyfriend? Who?”

“I doubt you’d know him,” I said acidly. Like I was going to give Ben’s name and address to some giant musclebound stalker!

“Oh. Can I walk with you anyway?” he asked. “Please, Angel.”

“It’s Angela.”

“Angel,” he persisted. Okay, now I was sure there was something wrong with him. Possibly he was a little deaf.

“Look, Angie! Dinosaurs!” said Zac enthusiastically. He and Josh had already gotten bored of the altercation between me and Paul.

I looked. Sure enough, there were dinosaurs. They didn’t look as realistic as I remembered. I felt a flash of nostalgia for the days when I’d clung to my dad’s pant leg, eyes wide, sure that they would step off their elevated stages at any second and come after me.

“Stupid, isn’t it?” said Paul, who was still following me. “Could they be more obviously fake?”

Grrr. What was it about this guy that grated on my nerves so much? Oh, yeah—the fact that he was a jerk and kept undressing me with his eyes. Lucky I’d worn comfortable, non-revealing clothes today. “I think they’re cool,” I said frostily, and pulled out my camera to give my hands something to do. I kept my eyes on the digital screen as I followed my brothers around. Snap—there was Josh, his arms and legs sticking up comically, in the giant footprint. Snap—Zac running around eagerly reading all the informational plaques, looking for—and failing to find—a graphic description of a dinosaur eating somebody. Snap—Josh again, playing with a big scrap-metal dinosaur, hitting buttons to make it open and close its mouth and lift its head. Snap—Zac being told off by a security guard for trying to climb onto the brontosaurus’s fenced-off, elevated stage.

I had to reprimand him for that last one, directing an embarrassed apology at the guard’s retreating back. “I think you guys have had enough of dinosaurs,” I said, leading them into the next room. “Look, naked mole rats.”

“Naked? Cool!” said Josh. They raced off. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that “naked” only meant that they didn’t have any fur.

“Angela?”

I looked up to see the rest of the guys I’d seen on the ferry. Jacob was the one who’d recognized me.

“Hi, Jacob,” I said. “Um. Been awhile.”

“Mmm-hm.” Awkward. We basically only knew each other through Bella, but neither of us wanted to talk about her.

“Wait. Jake, you know her?” This from my stalker.

“Yeah. Well. Sorta.” Jacob shoved his hands into his pockets. “She was Bella’s friend from school.” I envied him for being able to say it with such indifference.

“Really?” Paul looked at me in mild surprise. “So you live in Forks?”

I folded my arms. “Not for very much longer. I’m going away in the fall. College, you know.”

“Where at?”

“I don’t think I want to tell you,” I said. “You can only want the information for two reasons: one, to pass judgment on my intelligence based on whether or not I’m going to an Ivy League school; or two, to stalk me once I’m there.” And frankly, I suspect the latter.

“Oooooooh,” two of his buddies—the younger-looking ones—singsonged annoyingly. “I think you just got dissed, Paul.”

I rolled my eyes. Boys.

Then one of them that I vaguely recognized—was his name Quil? I thought I’d met him at a campfire a long time ago—got all round in the eyes and started nudging Jacob significantly and jerking his head not-so-subtly toward Paul. Jacob raised his eyebrows, then seemed to understand. “Oh,” he said, casting a meaningful glance at me. Another one of them snickered. Paul growled faintly (seriously, I heard him growl).

“Um,” I said, feeling kind of left out, “must have been an inside joke?” It kind of looked like they were speaking through interpretive dance or something. Whatever they were communicating, I was clearly the only one who wasn’t getting it.

“Yeah,” said Jacob hastily. “You had to be there to get it.” Somebody needed to work on his fibbing skills.

“Cool.” I pulled my jacket closer around me, feeling uncomfortable under the combined stares of the entire group. “Well, I’ve gotta go…my brothers’ll burn the place down if I don’t keep an eye on them at all times.”

Said brothers made their grand entrance at that point. “Angie!” Zac said loudly.

“Yeeees?”

“When can we see the movie? I’m bored.”

Oh crap! I’d forgotten about the IMAX film I’d gotten tickets for. It was some under-the-sea adventure, probably boring, but a lot better than Lewis and Clark. I glanced at my watch—it started in half an hour.

“We’d better go find seats,” I said. “Nice talking to you, Jacob.” Nice arguing with you, Paul.

I pulled the tickets out of my purse as I walked away. One of them fell, and with lightning speed, Paul was there, picking it up. “Here you go,” he said, glancing at the title of the film. “Secrets of the Deep? Sounds interesting.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Lots of cute little fishies. I’m sure you’d love it.” I took the ticket and hurried to catch up with Josh and Zac. Was it just me, or was this guy having trouble taking a hint?

*******

[Paul]

“Think they’re still selling tickets for Secrets of the Deep?” I said to Jacob.

“What, are you going to stalk the girl?” he answered. “Look, Paul, I know you imprinted on her—I mean, it’s a little obvious—but you can’t just force her to like you. Anyway, Angela’s going out with some guy from Forks, last I heard.”

“So she said. Who is he and when can I kick the crap out of his skinny butt?”

“Paul!” said Embry loudly. “Do the words abuse of power mean anything to you?”

“No.” I stomped off. “I’m going to find out if I can get tickets for this stupid fish movie at the last minute. You guys coming?”

“Whatever. We’ll try to keep you from making a fool of yourself,” said Jacob. I could tell he was thinking, If it’s not already too late.

We ended up only getting tickets for three of us—so me, Embry, and Jake went into the theater while the four others wandered back to look at the exhibits.

I saw her right away. Her little brothers were trying to start a popcorn fight, and she was trying to stop them. I climbed the stairs, keeping my eyes on her.

“Zac,” she was saying loudly. “Josh! Both of you, STOP. Or I’m taking you two home, and you can weed the garden all day.”

They stopped. She made them move so she was sitting in between them, probably thinking this would keep them from making mischief. But it didn’t; the one on her left reached into the popcorn bucket, aimed for his mouth, then suddenly changed direction and slipped the kernel down the back of her shirt.

She slapped his hand away and did a wriggling dance, trying to shake the popcorn out of her shirt. I laughed to myself. I couldn’t help it. It was funny.

She heard. Her head snapped up and she glared at me. “You again?” Obviously she wasn’t pleased.

I climbed over some people’s feet and walked down the row of seats toward her. “You need help keeping these guys in line?” I asked.

“No,” she said testily. “I don’t. They’re going to behave now, right, you two?”

The twins nodded rather insincerely.

Just then, the lights dimmed. I quickly took the seat next to one of her brothers. Jacob and Embry were a row behind us.

I stole some of the kid’s popcorn. He glared at me. I glared back. He offered me the carton again, eyes wide. Hey, who said I didn’t get along fine with kids?

The movie started playing. It was really boring—but then, I wasn’t all that surprised. As Angela had put it, there were a lot of cute little fishies, and some pretty ugly ones too. None of them were particularly interesting. My attention was on the angel sitting two seats away from me.

I could smell her, even through the sticky, popcorn smell of her brother between us. She was wearing some kind of floral perfume and had recently washed her hair.

I really wanted to touch her. It was almost painful not to. I kept imagining the ways I could reach out, lay my arm across her brother’s chair, and brush her shoulder or hair or cheek with my fingers. Or maybe she would reach into the brother’s popcorn carton and I could grab her hand, and we could hold hands across her brother’s lap—

But I couldn’t. She had a boyfriend, damn him, who probably didn’t even appreciate what a lucky man he was. And she also seemed to think I was a retard.

Except I bet she would be nice to retards. She was the kind of girl who’s nice to everybody. But not me. I was the one exception to her niceness. I wasn’t sure if that should make me feel special or really, really unlucky. Maybe both.

*******

[Angela]

I can’t believe he sat by us. Does this guy even know the meaning of the word subtlety? Why can’t he just leave me alone?

Oh, lord, he’s staring at me. Stop it stop it stop it! Gah! I can’t concentrate on this movie. What’s going on anyway? Some scuba divers…fish…more fish…he’s picturing me naked, isn’t he? I just know he is. Jerk. Really, really hot jerk…oh no. Did I just picture HIM naked? Not a good sign.

I need to get out of here NOW. How much longer does this stupid film last? Oh nooooo…forty-five more minutes…and I can’t just leave, Zac and Josh will wreak havoc if I let them out of my sight…but they’ll make a big scene if I take them with me. God help me, I think I’m going insane. I will never watch another fish movie in my entire life…

As soon as the movie was over, I hustled my brothers out as fast as we could. Then I told them we were going home and practically ran for the parking lot.