Not What She Expected. [Jacob]

[angelsimons]

Angel sat alone on the sandy beach in Forks. She'd never been to a beach before, or even seen the sea. It was different for her. It wasn't what she expected at all. Angel had just expected a big pool of water, not the vast, endless sea that lay before her. It was strangely beautiful and strangely calming. She couldn't believe she'd never made the effort to go and visit a beach before. It was her first full day in Forks, and her third day in America. It was still quite odd for her, but as first days went, the one she was having was pretty good. Unfortunately, though, she still had to meet people. She was pretty alone at the moment.

Picking up a small, flat stone, Angel walked over to the water and skimmed the stone across the sea. It skimmed three times before landing with a small splash in the bluey/greeny water. She sighed, going and returning to her sitting spot. Sitting down, she started thinking of all of the people she'd left behind, and how much she missed them all. She had yet to make any friends at all here, as you couldn't make friends without actually meeting people. There was no one her age at the orphanage. Life was pretty lonely for Angel, at the moment. She hated it.

[believe410]

Jacob had wanted to run from La Push. He didn't feel quite safe in Forks... not with those filthy bloodsuckers around, anyway. He hated them. He hated the fact that Bella wanted to be one. That Bella was gonna be one. So, Jake had taken off, though he kept closer to home than his last time at running away. He had been back in town for two days, if that. He wasn't going to take off again. Not with everything happening so fast.

He saw the girl sitting down by the water and paused. He continued only after he assessed the situation; she posed no threat for him. He got a good look at her and closed his eyes. Nope, I still just see Bella. Whenever Jake saw a girl, he would close his eyes for a moment and see if she was the one. They never were. All he ever saw was Bella.

"Hello," called Jacob, his voice carrying over the water. He raised a hand in a good natured manner. Hopefully she didn't care about him intruding.

[angelsimons]

Angel's head snapped up at the voice, and she stood up quickly. She raised her hand cautiously, slightly wary of the newcomer. She didn't dare say anything. She didn't want anyone to make fun of her accent or anything. Plus, she knew that, as she was quiet, he wouldn't have been able to hear her anyway. In a way, he reminded her of one of her friends she had left behind. At least, he looked like it from that distance. She wondered who he was, and if he'd come over. However, she knew the chances weren't that likely. After all, she wasn't used to friendly people. She had come not to expect any act of kindness.

Still, she stood there, looking awkward, and then realised her hand was still in the air. She pulled it down quickly, mentally cursing herself for looking stupid. She then shook her head at herself, feeling like an even bigger idiot than she did normally. Angel never made a good first impression. She had come to realise this after many years of meeting people. None of them had ever liked her the first moment they met her.

The first thing she noticed about the newcomer was that he was incredibly tall. Angel was tall for her age, and for a girl, standing at 5'11'', however this was the tallest person she thought she had ever seen. She also noticed that he was very well built, almost unnaturally so. Her first thought was that he worked out and cared about his image way too much, but then she remembered that she should not judge a book by it's cover, so decided to wipe that thought from her head and wait and see if he was any different if she got to know him.

[believe410]

Jacob was well built and buff, though he currently was looking a little pinched. He figured it would go away once he gained his lost weight back. He didn't care; he could still pull his own weight around in the pack. Currently, though, he wasn't phasing. He didn't want to go back to that, not yet. Mostly he just wanted to sleep and relax. Should Sam say the word, though... he would be there. He would phase when Sam gave the command or when he was feeling better. Whichever came first.

"Sorry. Am I disturbing you?" Jake asked quietly. He didn't need to yell now. He was standing close enough to the girl that he could talk at a normal tone. He was taking the girl in. He hadn't seen her around. Perhaps she was new, but he hadn't been around much either.

"I'm Jacob Black," he offered to the silent, beautiful girl.

[angelsimons]

Angel shook her head. "Not at all," she answered. "In fact, I was hoping for some company." She wondered what he was thinking about at that moment. She was always wondering what people were thinking. She didn't know why. He's probably thinking you're a complete idiot for how you were standing a minute ago. Well done, Angel, she thought, sighing a little. "I'm Angel. Angel Simons. It's nice to meet you," she said in reply to his introduction.

It was then that Angel finally had a good look at Jacob. She was right, he was incredibly well built and unearthly tall, however the look somehow suited him. It was almost as if he couldn't be any other way, or he'd just look all wrong. He did remind her of someone she knew back in England, but not as much as she thought he did. She doubted anyone could look quite like Jacob did, anyway. "So are you from around here?" She asked him, sitting back down on the sand. "You can sit, you know. I don't bite."

[believe410]

"It's nice to meet you too, Angel," Jacob said in a cool tone. He kept his hands in the pockets of his jeans, not offering her one to shake. It didn't matter. Jake surveyed Angle. She was beautiful, he knew, and any guy would be lucky to have her. But she wasn't Bella. She wouldn't do for him. Maybe for a friend but... he felt a tug at his heart. He knew that nothing would ever erase the emptiness that he felt when he thought of Bella. When he thought of Bella, he thought of working on the Rabbit; soda cans in paper bags; the motor bikes; the kiss they shared; the last conversation he had with her before she left; condemning himself to wait in the wings forever.

"Yeah, I live in La Push. It's the Indian Rez down the road," he said with a nod. "Where are you from?" He couldn't quite place the accent. English, perhaps? He wasn't sure. Jake tensed when she said that she didn't bite. To him, that wasn't a joke. But he smoothed his face the way that Sam taught him and then he sat down on the sand, too.

[angelsimons]

"I'm from England. Lived my life in London. Am now living in an orphanage not far from here," Angel explained to him. She didn't mind explaining the bad things in life. After all, without the bad things, you would never know happiness. "You're the first person I've actually met here, you know. It's my first actual day in Forks." She thought back to when she was sitting on the plane, and she was thinking of everything that she would see here. It was nothing like she thought it would be, now she was actually here.

She looked around a little, before her eyes fixed back on the sea. "This is also the first time I've ever actually seen the sea. It's beautiful. It's not what I expected at all. I've never seen anything so beautiful in all my life," she said softly, still staring at it. "So what else is there to do around here?" She asked him, still not taking her eyes off of the sea. It calmed her, somehow. It made her much more relaxed, and she liked that.

[believe410]

"Oh," Jacob said lightly. He didn't really know what to say. He was kind of... unsure. How do you even respond to that? In the end, he decided that no response was the best response. "Well, I'm glad to have met you," he said slowly with a smile.

"Yes, it is nice," he said offhandedly. He looked over the water again. He hadn't really missed it. The first thing that he had seen after he came back to La Push was First Beach. And Bella had been there to greet him, as if she had known that he was coming. "I like the ocean," he commented. "Have you ever gone cliff diving?"

[angelsimons]

Angel shook her head. "No, I've never tried cliff diving, however it sounds like a lot of fun. I'm willing to try anything. It's on my list of things to do while I'm here," she said while smiling warmly at him. She was pleased that the first person she met was a friendly one, and she hoped they could become friends quickly. She didn't like being alone. "Do you go cliff diving then?" Angel asked him, eager to find out more about him. In some ways, Angel was an odd person. She loved meeting new people, and she loved learning about them. She found people fascinating.

It had always been that way. When Angel was a young girl, she used to go and sit in the park on a swing and just watch everyone go past. It soon became a routine for her. Go and sit on a swing and just watch the people go by. Through this, Angel became excellent at reading body language. She was able to tell whether a person was happy, upset, lonely, bored, heartbroken. Also, she learned how to help people in these situations. She learned from watching the mothers comfort their children, the people in relationships helping each other out. Learning about people was Angel's life, and she knew that was never going to change.

[believe410]

"I have," Jake said, thinking about it. He remembered the day that Bella flung herself off of it. He had gone running after her. Sure, he did it with Sam and the others before, but it meant something more when you're flinging yourself off the cliff to save someone's life. "On the Rez, I mean. Not here," he added quickly. He had never gonna cliff diving anywhere but La Push. He had liked it a lot. It gave you a rush, as if your life could end (Jake knew his was pretty safe).

"So..." Jake started, thinking. "Why Forks? Why not stay in England?" He asked, confused. It wasn't that it mattered to him, but it was an awful long way to move.

[angelsimons]

Angel smiled a little. "Well, I was living in England with my parents, and when they passed away I moved in with my Aunt and Uncle, and then they passed away and I knew I had cousins or something living over here who said it was good. I just wanted to leave all of the bad memories of England behind and start fresh. I don't think my cousins live here now. They moved long ago, but they said it was nice, so I'm going to check it out. Plus, I've heard it rains a lot here. I love the rain. It's one of the few things that manages to calm me down. I think I just love water really. Rain. Sea. Swimming. I love it all," Angel said softly, giggling only a little.

This made Angel think a moment. "Come to think of it," she started, "are there any good places to swim around here? I would swim in the sea, but I'm afraid the water will be freezing. And I don't actually know if it's safe to swim in the sea here... I know it is in England, but I don't know if it is here... I need to really read up on the place a little more. I don't know that much about it. I only found my way here by accident. I also need a bike or something. I don't like driving, but I don't like walking everywhere... At all."

[believe410]

Jake listened to her life story. "That must have been hard for you to lose all of those people." Jake had lost his mother, but he didn't remember her. She had died when he was a young, young child. Rachel and Rebecca had taken care of him until he moved out. His father was in a wheel chair, but he was around. Now, Jake had a pack of brothers to help take care of him. And, for whatever little amount of time he had left, Jake had Bella.

"The sea is safe," Jake said serenely. He had been swimming in the ocean for years and years. His tribe had lived along the rough pacific water for centuries. One day, Jake would be the head of the tribe that lived at La Push, like his father was at the time. Even though they didn't really have a chief anymore, Jake was ready to take the position if they should ask of him. He was thinking about talking to Sam again, about taking control of the pack. Now that he was losing Bella... he might as well. If the Cullen's wanted to renegotiate... he could make the decision on that.

"I don't know what you should do about a bike. I'm sure that Newton's in town would have bikes for sale," he said with a shrug. "I have a motor bike and I love it." He did. It was the bike that he had built with Bella forever ago.

[angelsimons]

Angel shrugged. "It was hard, yes, but life is life and death is death. Things happen, and if you dwell on the past, you'll never be truly happy. You need to pick yourself up and move on. The sad things in life make the happy things even more special. I'd hate being miserable all of the time. Bad things happen in life, everyone knows that. You can find people to help you get over it, or you can just get over it yourself. Then you can be at least moderately happy. I just think of all of the good times and the good friends I have, and it makes everything in the world better, you know?" Angel said, while smiling. Most people didn't think in the way that she did. "I mean, I lost my daughter and the man I loved a while ago. I'm still happy and smiling, and at least reasonably sane. You pick yourself up and move on. There'll be more happy times, and more bad times. If you think about the old bad times, you're only going to end up twice as miserable if another bad time comes along. Besides, everything happens for a reason. There was a reason I met you today. There was a reason I moved. There was a reason my family died. You may not know that reason, but there is always a reason."

After Angel had finished her speech, she was silent for a while, just staring out at the sea. It really was beautiful. It was then she noticed that it had started to rain. Only a little, but it had. This put a huge smile on her face, and she laid down backwards in the sand, not caring that she would be absolutely covered when she stood up. "Would you fancy a swim in the sea, then?" She asked Jacob, smiling warmly in his direction.

[believe410]

"I guess so," Jake said with a shrug. He wasn't quite sure that he could believe that. How could Death be just... what was expected? In one way, Jake understood that. In another way, he rejected it. Bella was choosing wrong. "You had a daughter?" Jake wondered aloud. Like Bella, when they had kissed, he had seen their future. They had never talked about it, but it was true. He had seen their dark haired children playing, Bella waiting for him. Jake didn't want relations with anyone else in the world. It was all that he wanted out of this life.

Jake's body heat was abnormally high, but that was to be expected since he was a wolf. Aside from the pack, the council, the pack's significant others and Bella, no one knew how high their body temperatures were running. "That would be fine," Jake said as he stood up. He pulled off his shirt and then shimmied out of his pants, down to his boxers. He was very fit and the muscles in his body were very toned. With a glance back at her, Jake took a running jump into the water. It felt so cool.. so nice against his burning body.

[angelsimons]

Angel stood up, pulling off her shirt and then pulling off her jeans, shoes and socks. She ran over to the water, smiling when she was swimming around in it. "Yes, I had a daughter. She was murdered along with both of my parents and my partner. Someone didn't like my family. I was out to dinner with my partner, and he went home a little while before me. When I got back they were all dead on the floor..." Angel said softly, tears rolling down her cheeks. She hoped that Jacob would just think they were droplets of water, though. "It was so long ago... You just have to keep smiling and move on.

Angel continued to swim around a bit, diving under the water every so often. She couldn't get Sarah out of her mind now. How gorgeous she had looked when she was born. How she had never wanted to let her go. How much she had looked like the father. Angel shook her head. That was all gone now. She had moved to get away from all of those memories. She never wanted to think of them again. Finding herself wiping more tears away from her eyes, this time without even realising, Angel dived below the water again, only hoping that Jacob hadn't noticed her tears, or had mistaken them. I just hope he's not good at reading body language... Angel thought to herself, before coming up from under the water and sighing a little.