petrichor [rosalie hale]

vii. school standoffs

Riding with Harry Clearwater was a little strange since she hadn't really spoken to the man in years but it was clear from the atmosphere in the car that something bad had happened. She didn't want to interrupt whatever dark silence was happening in the car but the absence of her twin was rather unsettling considering it was as if they were mourning.

"Dad... is Jake...?"

"Your brother is fine," Billy replied, twisting his neck to look at the girl who was sitting in the back seat of the car. It was a bit of a squeeze but she could make do. "There was another animal attack. It's Waylan, he's..."

Billy didn't need to finish his sentence. Kiara had clearly gotten the point that he was trying to get to from the sudden look of panic and fear in her eyes. Her father's fishing friend was dead. The man who had played Santa for her when they were growing up was DEAD. She didn't care anymore that they were going over to Sam's, in fact she almost felt better knowing that if anyone was equipped to keep her father safe from whatever animal was roaming about, it would be the boys.

She wasn't sure if she really believed their whole park ranger story but it didn't matter in that moment. What mattered to her was making sure that her best friends were safe, and that they were going to be able to promise her that her father would be too. She didn't even pause to think about herself because Kiara knew that if anything happened to her family that she wouldn't be able to live without them. It wasn't even an option to her that they could ever get hurt and here she was, faced with the knowledge that a second person had been killed in an animal attack that week.

As soon as they pulled up to the house, the boys and Emily were already waiting outside. A few of the older men from around the reservation - their Elders - were also gathered outside but they paid little attention to Kiara as she hopped out of the car and locked eyes with Jared and Paul. A few of them looked over as Kiara and Paul crashed into each other, the boy holding the much smaller girl to his chest tightly as she breathed in and out quicker than usual. Jared looked at Paul for a moment as the other boy let go and allowed Jared to wrap his arms around her too, Sam and Emily smiling a little despite the situation.

Of course, Kiara didn't know anything about how the boys turned into wolves daily. The very elders standing around her had even experienced it themselves when they were younger and they couldn't help but almost sigh at the disappointment of neither Paul nor Jared imprinting on the youngest Black daughter. 

While they didn't want Jacob to have to phase, some of the elders had hoped that one of the boys would imprint on Kiara in the hopes that the Black line would stay within the Quileute bloodline - although Billy would have been furious if a single one of the wolves ever thought about touching his daughter like that. Kiara just hoped that her father never found out about how her and Paul used to spend their drunken Saturday nights together, under the sheets of his small single bed.

"Kiara, hey," Emily breathed out as she pulled the girl into a half hug, smiling as she passed her a freshly made warm cup of hot chocolate. Kiara accepted it with a smile as she looked at the men gathering outside of the house before looking back at Emily in confusion. "Oh, they're just having an emergency council meeting. The boys are going to attend but I was thinking we could put on a film, maybe chat about how school is going and just wait for them to be finished?"

Kiara nodded, knowing that council meetings like this tended to be invite only. Since she wasn't really one for listening to their stories at the bonfire either, it was very likely that there would be no chance an invite would ever be extended to herself anyway. She thanked Emily as they settled into the woman and Sam's couch, wrapping the blanket that she had taken freshly out of the laundry for Kiara around herself.