sparks fly~ paul lahote

ⅹⅹⅳ. brunch day

It was a 'brunch day', as Paul had put it, and the pack was getting together. Paul had said they usually talked 'business' on brunch day, which was the only reason Diana had agreed to come. Sam, Emily, Jared, Embry, Jacob, Bella, Paul, and Diana sat together at a picnic table, in the middle of a quaint, backyard garden. Sitting around a huge breakfast, the current topic of discussion was the newly discovered Victoria.

"Excellent," Jared said decidedly. "If the redhead's after Bella, we've got bait."

Diana scoffed and rolled her eyes. She didn't take Jared's attitude towards them personally, she just didn't pay him much mind at all. On the other hand, Jacob grabbed a four-pronged spading fork from a cluster of gardening tools and flung it toward Jared's head.

That was how he always reacted when Jared insulted either one of the girls, but, as flattering as it was, it only encouraged the other boy. Jared easily evaded the attack, caught the tool, and rolled his eyes.

"She is NOT bait," Jacob growled.

Bella cut in at this point, which greatly aggravated Diana. As much as she loved the girl, Diana hated it when Bella tried to voice an absolutely absurd, useless idea.

"I should leave town," Bella suggested. The girl would've been lying if she had said that sitting at a table full of werewolves and a vampire didn't intimidate her.

Sam shook his head at her, "Victoria will just follow you and make it harder for us to catch her."

Now Bella shook her head at Sam, "No one can catch her. She can escape anything."

Paul scoffed, "Oh, so, she has special powers?" Diana cringed, she had hoped he could keep his snarky remarks to himself.

"Some of them do," Bella said. Diana cringed again, did no one know when to shut up?

Of course, the wolves paused and turned towards Bella and Diana who sat opposite each other.

"Like... what? Bella?" Jacob asked though he was looking at Diana.

"The mind reader you said you knew. He was a suckhead? Can they all do that?" Jared asked, glaring at Diana, suspiciously. He and Embry hadn't seen Diana's gift that night, and from the clueless looks on their faces, Diana guessed the others hadn't told them about it.

"That would blow." Embry sighed, shaking his head.

Bella tried cleaning up the mess by backtracking her previous statement, "No, I- I shouldn't have- no."

Paul scoffed, "She's still protecting them."

Jared shook his head, "I don't know why. It's not like they stuck around to protect you."

"Hey!" Diana snapped, swatting Paul on the shoulder. He looked at her with apologetic eyes, but she ignored him.

"Guys, back off." Jacob sighed, looking apologetically at Bella. She looked at Diana with a sad glance and Diana tilted her head, giving her a warm smile.

"I appreciate your loyalty to them, to my brother," Bella nodded meekly and she continued, "-but please understand; I don't share that loyalty."

Bella's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything as Diana turned to Sam, "You're already aware of my gift, but; my brother can read minds, Alice, the quirky one, can see the future, and her mate can manipulate emotions. As far as I understand, of the nomads causing all the trouble last year, only one had a gift and he's dead."

Jared looked like he wanted to interrupt, but at Sam's glare, he quieted.

"But then, what's so special about Victoria? Why is she so hard to catch?" Sam asked.