Everything is blurry and my ears are ringing. Hands pull at my shoulders, trying to lift me upright.

My one arm is pinned beneath me, and my other is still in the sling. I manage to push my body off of itself. With my uninjured hand, I rip out my hearing aids and lay them on the seat next to me. Blinking a few times, my vision clears.

The window beside my head is cracked, with tree branches poking through it. I raise my hand up to my head, feeling the blood trickle down the side of my head. I look over at Bella, who is staring at me and breathing heavily.

She mouths something to me, but I shake my head. I can't hear her, and I've never been particularly good at lipreading. I go to put back in the hearing aid, but as I press the right one against my ear, I hear the ringing again. The left one seems fine, so I put that in. It's not as accurate or as good as wearing both, but at least I'll be able to hear Bella now.

"Are you hurt?" she asks, wincing.

"I don't think so," I say.

With that, she opens her car door and pulls herself out of the car. I watch through the windshield as she runs out of the car and pulls out her phone.

"Shit," Alice says from the front seat. She turns around to look at me, clutching her head and then at Rosalie. "Is everyone alright?"

"I'm fine," Rosalie says. "My arm is stuck though, and that damn hearing aid is so loud."

"Bella's going to call emergency services," Alice says. "At least, I imagine she is. Do you mind getting out of the car with your hearing aid?"

I shimmy my way to the other side of the car. With my right hand, I pull at the door's latch and push it open. There is still blood on my hand.

I dig into my pocket and pull out my flip phone. Bella sees me and heads further away. I cannot make out what she's saying without both my hearing aids. From there, I dial Embry, sitting down on the side of the road. I put him on speakerphone so that it is easier to hear him.

"Hey, Fawn," his voice blares out the speaker, almost choppy. "What are you thinking for lunch?"

"We got in a car accident," I say, rubbing my eye. I am sure I'm just smearing blood all over my face.

"Fuck, are you okay?" he asks. His voice becomes more muffled. "Quil! Get Jacob from the garage."

"I'm fine," I tell him. Turning around I look through the windshield at Rosalie and Alice. They look untouched, even though Rosalie's arm has been pinned in place by a tree. "We're going to need you to come and get us once the police come. The car is totalled."

"But you're safe?" he presses. "Untouched?"

"My hearing aid broke, but otherwise..." there's no point in telling him about the scratches all over the side of my head. His voice is already rising, filled with panic. I don't need to add any more pressure than necessary.

"Where exactly are you?" he asks.

I look around, but there are no street signs. Heading back to the car, I open Alice's door. She seems frazzled, looking up at me. Her breath is surprisingly calm. I'm still heaving a bit from the crash.

"Where are we?" I ask Alice.

"Who is it? Jacob?" she asks.

I shake my head. "Embry."

She holds her hand out, and I pass her the phone. She takes herself off speaker and tells Embry it's her on the line. She shoos me away, an apologetic smile on her face. I walk away, following after Bella.

"The police and the fire department are coming, but it might be like fifteen minutes," she whispers to me, taking herself off the line. "I'll call Carlisle next and get us a ride. Can I see that hearing aid?"

"We need an ambulance," I tell her, passing her the hearing aid. "Rosalie's arm is pinned. It might be broken."

"It'll be fine," she tells me. She rips the hearing aid in half. I can't hear the buzzing, but her shoulders relax. She tucks a strand of hair behind her shoulders, handing it back to me. "We'll pay you back for it."

With that, she jogs over to the car. Alice gets out too, without my phone.

Alice looks at me. "Mind giving us a hand? We're going to try to push the car, to get Rosalie unstuck."

I head over as well. Even with one arm, I'm still pretty strong. It's been a while since I've trained. The people who raised me were more than obsessed with fitness. It wasn't just a lifestyle habit; it was a necessity. I put the weight of my good shoulder against the car, and the other girls do as well. Slowly, the car pushes away from the tree. My heart is racing and my breath is heavy. Eventually, we have completely pushed the car away.

Rosalie goes to open the door, but it is stuck. Alice grabs the door and yanks it backwards, and I swear it nearly rips off its hinges. Rosalie sits in the car for a second, her eyes squeezed tight.

"Just, one moment," she says.

Alice wraps her arm around me and pulls me aside. "Once Embry is here, you need to go with him. We're going to stay back. Deal with the police and everyone."

I furrow my brow, looking up at the trees above us. We are surrounded by the tallest pine trees I've seen in my life. I remember that there are bears in the woods. It's a dangerous place, even for someone like me.

"I can't leave you guys here," I say, biting my lip.

"We will get Carlisle to come and drive us," Alice says.

I want to ask her what happened, but I remember Embry's warning. If I have any questions, he is the person to answer them.

"We will get Carlisle to call in for a new hearing aid," Alice tells me. "Just give us a copy of the prescription or whatever, and we will get it to you."

If I go too long without a hearing aid, I might need a more powerful one altogether. Although, Carlisle is a doctor, so maybe they can rush the one that needs to be made. After all, it's not working at all anymore. Not since Bella smashed it.

The police and the fire department arrive before Embry. The fire department does some first aid on me. They clean out the cuts on the side of my head, and put gauze on them to keep it safe. They even help wipe the blood off my hand and my body. Apparently, I'm lucky we crashed the way we did. I could have dislocated my shoulder again.

Finally, Embry pulls up. He sees me sitting on the side of the road, and runs over to talk to Alice. In his hands he has a sheet of paper. I'm sure it is my hearing aid information. They must've found my backpack, which I thought was well hidden. Quil gets out of the car too and he rushes over to me. He helps me off the ground, one arm wrapped around me tightly.

The police are still talking to Rosalie, but I don't know why. They should be talking to Alice since she was the one driving.

The police don't ask me any questions. Instead, Quil leads me into Embry's car. He sits me in the backseat, and I buckle myself in. It's so bizarre, moving from one machine that nearly killed me into another. Once I'm buckled in, Quil piles into the back with me.

Jacob is in the front seat.

"You're not hurt, are you?" he asks me, his eyebrow raising above his dark sunglasses.

"No," I tell him.

"She's pretty scratched up in the head," Quil narrates for him. "Her arm is bruised too."

"The dislocated one?" Jacob asks.

"No, the other one," Quil says.

"I'm fine," I reiterate, putting my head back against the headrest. I feel myself colliding with the trees again, so I lift my head. The memory is still sharp in my mind. Much sharper than my hearing, anyway.

The driver's door opens and Embry piles in. He doesn't have the paper, but he has the bag my shoes and dress are in. At least the crash didn't destroy the nice clothes that the Cullens bought for me. Quil takes the bag and puts it on the seat in the middle of us. I want to touch it, and even though I know my hands are clean, it still feels like there is blood on them.

"Are we good to go?" Embry asks, looking in the rearview mirror at the pair of us.

When no one answers, he turns on the car engine, and we are off. I left the broken hearing aid with Alice, so I feel like a part of me is being left behind. The last time I couldn't hear, my arm was dislocated.

We begin to drive back to the reservation. Apparently, we weren't anywhere near close to the meeting spot yet.

"We shouldn't have let her go with them," Jacob says.

"Normally you're all for the Cullens," Quil points out. "Now you want to chill out with them?"

"Nothing about this is normal," Jacob quips.

I straighten my spine. "If I want to hang out with Alice, I can. I'm my own person."

"Who lives in my house," Jacob points out. "Who eats my food and who sleeps in my bed."

He has a point, even if I hate it. Maybe I am still a child, but they don't know that. My birthday is coming up anyway, and soon I will be 18 for real. Maybe I will need to run away all over again.

"I have a job interview tomorrow," I tell him. "I'll find some roommates in Forks, and I'll leave."

"About that," Quil says, a frown on his face. "We might have something on our hands."

~~~~~

Hehe. I am excited. I think this is rather good. I cannot be sure, but at least it's thrilling. What do you think will happen next?