Sunrise

5

"Sam was worried when you were gone early."

Kari rolled her eyes. "Jake and I went to Forks. He had to run an errand."

Jared's eyes narrowed. "You should've told Sam, or at least your mom."

"My mom works so much I hardly see her," Kari said.

"Sam can shove it," Jacob muttered.

"You should have more respect," Jared said, aimed more toward Jacob. It was as if the words were a reflex. The thought made Kari shutter. "Sam does more than you know."

"Right, for the tribe," Jacob said. "Look, Sam isn't anything to me. I deal with him because I'm friends with Kari."

Jared rolled his eyes. "Just tell someone next time you leave the reservation alone."

The teacher walked in then and all conversation stopped. Kari and Jacob shared a look, silently wondering why Jared was so on edge and weird. They could practically feel the heat coming off his body, and he'd cut his hair out of the blue. If that wasn't enough to tell them something weird was going on, the kid also had a major growth spurt in the few weeks since school had started.

Kari met Jacob in his garage after school and dropped her backpack to the floor. He looked up with a furrowed brow. "Everything okay?"

"Jared wouldn't stop looking at me," she whispered. She sat on a stool. "I can't shake the feeling he's watching me for something to happen."

"It's probably just Sam being paranoid," Jacob suggested. "He avoids Forks at all costs now. He doesn't even like Emily going. I heard Billy talking about it on the phone earlier."

"I swear, Sam's afraid of his own shadow sometimes," Kari muttered. She let out a sigh. "What are you working on?"

"Math," Jacob said. "Billy gets mad if I push it aside."

The two sat and worked on homework in silence, the radio playing softly in the background. They planned to do the same thing for the rest of the week before working on the Rabbit more. Jacob, shocking as it was, had decided to put the project on the back burner for the summer since he didn't have all the right parts for it just yet. It was strange for Kari to see him without a mechanical project, but she understood. They wanted to start up again the next week.

"Jacob!" Billy yelled from the house. "Bring Kari and get up here!"

The two teenagers shared a look. Billy sounded worried, which wasn't something normal by any means, and that immediately had them worrying. They raced toward the house, breathing hard and surprised to see Sam. Jacob looked between the two. "What happened? Is someone hurt?"

"It's Bella."

Kari looked at Jacob, catching his expression, before looking at the men in front of them. "What happened?"

"She's missing," Sam said. "I'm going to help Charlie look for her."

"Let's go," Jacob almost shouted.

"Jacob," Kari said. She put a hand on his arm. "We might just be in the way."

Jacob almost glared down at her, only for Sam to interrupt them. The four of them climbed into Sam's truck and drove out to Forks. Charlie had a map on the hood of his police cruiser, trying to map out where to look.

"Any luck?" Sam asked immediately. It was getting dark.

Charlie shook his head. "No. The search party is still looking."

"I'll go help," Sam said. He took off into the trees near the house. Kari looked after him, confused when she noticed he's only wearing a pair of shorts. No shirt, no shoes. He was going to freeze out there.