Chapter Text
It felt weird to return back to La Push. Maisie couldn’t put her finger on it, but it was like a thrum of excitement laced with a hint of anxiety. It had been almost ten years since she had been back to visit.
Her paternal grandmother had been getting older and her phone calls had become more frequent, asking when the family would visit. Even her younger cousin, Embry, and Auntie Tiff couldn’t escape the consistent guilt tripping and they lived much closer than Maisie and her family. A ten minute drive to be exact.
But all it took was the older woman ending the phone call with “I want you to know that I forgive you so you won’t feel bad when I’m dead” and Maisie’s parents decided to pack up the house and drive an old u-haul up the coast of the Pacific Northwest to the matriarch’s destination.
Maybe Grandma Call was a touch dramatic, but who could blame her. Maisie’s parents hadn’t found the time to visit in the last ten years, both working in healthcare, and Maisie had been busy with high school and then transitioning into a daily commuter student at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. And after her graduation came and went, Maisie found herself still living at home, taking on local apprenticeships and commissions for numerous business murals in the Bay Area.
Maisie’s friends were understandably distraught over news of the sudden move but understood familial duties, only wishing her well with many promises of saving up to visit her during the summer vacation. Leaving Oakland, California, full of rich culture, history, and so many personal memories was bittersweet, but the prospect of moving somewhere new was rousing.
But of course, for her dad, Theodore Call moving back in with his mom was not easy. Grandma Call was a woman who was set in her ways, having been used to living on her own for the last thirty years.
Their first few days in La Push were eventful to say the least. With an unending amount of boxes to be unpacked, old friends of her parents and grandma were constantly visiting to say their hellos, and update them on local gossip, leaving Maisie to tackle the unpacking by herself.
Maisie carried a box of her miscellaneous things as she walked down the hallway, admiring the collection of pictures that hung along the walls.
Her grandparents’ wedding portrait, her parents’ wedding portrait, an old digital of Aunt Tiff with her mom, Ruth, posing together with her mom’s pregnant belly on display. It slowly transitions to more pictures of newly-born Embry and toddler Maisie together, one being them in the front yard of Grandma Call’s house, before her parents’ jobs moved them down south.
Then came the first day of school pictures from kindergarten all the way til high school for both Maisie and Embry. She slowed to a stop at her grad photos that she had taken with friends at the Palace of Fine Arts. Spraying apple cider and throwing their caps up in the air, it made her smile at the memory. Hopefully making friends on the res was as easy as she remembered it was when she was a toddler at the tribal bonfires.
Next to her grad photos sat Embry’s senior portrait, his cheeky smile remained the same despite how much he had grown into a young man, having only really seen him on the occasional holiday Skype calls, and that their one visit to Oakland when she was a freshman in high school and he was a short sixth grader. And she supposed she had also grown a lot, now a young woman in her early 20s, taking after both her parents equally.
She had long, inky black hair that she constantly kept in all sorts of updos, showcasing her high cheekbones that Grandma Call said Maisie had gotten from her side of the family, just like Embry. Her sunkissed, freckled skin attributed to her days out on the sunny beaches of the Bay, her features framed by her dark thick brows that furrowed often in deep concentration.
Her grandma had once said that if Maisie ever furrowed her brows and the wind blew on her face, it would be stuck like that forever. She was a woman with many strange superstitious beliefs for sure. But as much as she would go on to deny it, Maisie had a small fear that it would happen, so she kept a neutral face for as long as she could. Alas, she was probably the most facially expressive person she knew, so it only lasted for a few days.
But taking a closer look at the photos in the hallway, what had surprised her was not the sudden growth spurt showcased in the high school photos of Embry, but his sudden haircut. It was short.
Not even, like a small trim but a big chop of what Maisie could guess was about a foot length of hair. The last time she could recall her younger cousin having hair that short, he had been not even 2 years old. It was bewildering to say the least.
Maisie could recall on a Skype call with her mom and Auntie Tiff that Embry had been out of the house more frequently, hanging with a group of boys around his and Maisie’s age range.
“Maybe it’s puberty?” Her mom offered.
“Maybe?” Aunt Tiff echoed. But even on the pixelated screen, she could see the doubt written on her aunt’s face. “But I don’t know, Ruth. He’s cut his hair, bulked up like crazy in the past week, is always going out and coming back at weird hours of the day with his new friends, and has an insane appetite that is about to eat us out of house and home…”
Her dad sunk onto the couch next to Maisie, squeezing himself into the sight of the webcam. “Tiff, tell Embry when he gets home to give me a call… maybe he needs to have a talk, man to man.”
Auntie Tiff raised a brow at her dad’s words. “You know, Theo….I ran into Billy Black at the diner the other day, and he offered to talk with Embry too.” Maisie could only watch out of the corner of her eye how her dad sank into the couch, a new weight seeming to rest upon his shoulders. “I guess it would probably do Embry some good, since our mother likes to remind me that he needs a strong male role model in his life, that I, his single mother, cannot fill the spot of.”
Her dad somehow shrank into the couch even more than Maisie thought possible, while her mom huffed in annoyance at him. Maisie excused herself from the couch, realizing this was not a conversation she should be in the middle of between her dad, his sister, and her mom. And somehow chief of the tribe council Billy Black had also entered as well, but Maisie remembered that the man’s only son, Jacob, was childhood friends with Embry, so maybe he knew what was going on with her cousin.
Finally when Aunt Tiff had Skyped a month later, it seemed like both Billy and her dad talked it over with Embry, and he and his mom had come to a mutual understanding about his new friend group and their late hangouts, as long as he kept up with his schoolwork. Embry then began calling her on the home landline more often, probably something one of the adults had advised, updating his cousin on his school days, life on the reservation.
“Sorry I wasn’t able to call you after your graduation, Maiz,” Embry’s voice sounded truly apologetic through the static of the landline.
Maisie shook her head as if her little cousin could see her. “No no, don’t worry about it! It was a busy week for us both. I heard from your mom that you and your friends were out doing res business.”
“Ha! Yup, just the usual res business,” He snorted at her words. “Billy had us moving some fallen spruce trees from th- a storm. They were blocking a few hiking paths on the way out towards Forks.”
“A storm in June?” Maisie raised her brow at this, Embry going silent on the other side.
“He-hey!” Her cousin quickly chattered. “You know, global warming and all, we’ve been getting weird weather in Washington. Haven’t you been getting weird weather in the Bay?”
“...I guess?” And that was one of their last phone calls before Maisie and her parents made the move back to La Push.
Maisie continued down the hallway, her sock-clad feet shuffling on the carpet on the way to her room. When they had first arrived at her grandma’s house, she had practically fallen in love at first sight with the house and its surroundings.
The old Call family home was a rustic creekside cabin whose interior was stuck in the 70s. The amalgamation of earth tones, shag carpeting, and warm lighting was not as unpleasant as Embry had described on the phone. In fact, Maisie absolutely adored how homey it felt.
In the four bedroom house, two bedrooms had been kept empty by Grandma Call, probably knowing Maisie and her parents would come visit her sooner or later. Maisie had claimed the bedroom that sat in the furthest corner of the house. It wasn’t much of a hassle between her and her parents as they knew she would benefit from having her own bathroom and more space for her art supplies.
As Maisie entered her new room, she took in account the amount of sunshine that flooded in through the bay window midday, bathing the room in golden light. The window lay opposite to where she and her dad had set up her bed, she could feel a tingle of joy at the thought of waking up every morning, being able to stare out the window to see the sights of nature's true beauty.
Maybe she would set up her easel by said window and break out her watercolor paints to recreate the lush greenery, hulking trees, and rushing stream that sat outside, once she got fully situated of course. It was mid July, so she had all the time in the world to enjoy her new surroundings.
But for now, she just had to finish unpacking the last of her picture frames, trinkets, and other miscellaneous things onto the shelves she had hung earlier this morning, after having breakfast with some of her parents’ old friends from high school. They had all happened to be “in the area” and were invited in by her parents who had been out on their early morning walk around the reservation woods.
Despite the fact that it was a bit of a shock to be bombarded by loud laughter and conversation so early in the morning, it was one thing that Maisie had grown to love in the first week back in La Push. Her grandma’s house had become a hub of sorts for gathering and she could tell her parents missed the community. Hell, even her grandma was enjoying the amount of visitors she was getting, whipping up meals left and right, forcing everyone to stay for meal times.
A knock on Maisie’s bedroom door took her out of the trance she was in, trying to visualize how to best display all her things on the shelves.
“Yeah?” She called over her shoulder, switching the spots of two picture frames.
The door creaked open and she looked to see her mom popped her head in, a wide smile gracing her face. “Maiz, you wanna make some friends, right?”
“Ma, what?” Maisie couldn’t help but fully turn around, abandoning her last box to unpack. “Is this about the bonfire you and some of the aunties were talking about at breakfast?”
“Mhm!” Ruth nodded excitedly. “Your Aunties Aaliyah and Sue said that it’s sort of a welcome home bonfire for us, but there will be a bunch of kids around your age, even Embry will be there with his friends.”
Auntie Aaliyah and Auntie Sue. Maisie had met both of them on Call family’s second day back in La Push, both of them friends with Ruth since their early school years. They had brought flowers for Maisie and her mom as ‘welcome back’ presents, so happy to see the young Call girl after so many years, promising they would send their kids over to take Maisie around the res whenever she was free.
Maisie couldn’t help but pick at the hemline of her baggy sleep shirt, slowly nodding receptively at her mom’s words, “I mean, I can’t really say no…”
“Nope!” Her mom chirped. “Oh, Embry and Auntie Tiff are on their way over by the way, so get ready for the bonfire!” And with that she shot Maisie a thumbs up and shut the door behind her, calling down the hallway to the living room, where her parents’ friends had gathered. “She’s going!” Cheers ensued before they returned to their idle chatter.
She froze where she stood. Wait. The bonfire is tonight? Shit. She had thought she had at least another week.
It wasn’t like Maisie was socially inept, even if there were certain instances where she wished the ground would swallow her up after an awkward interaction. But the thought of seeing the council chief, tribe elders, parents’ friends, their kids… hell, basically the entire community, and the bonfire being held to welcome them back? Would they even remember her?
She huffed under her breath before making a move to her neatly arranged closet. Sifting through the color-coded items to grab multiple knit cardigans, she held them up to herself, using an ovular mirror that leaned in the corner of her room.
“Knock knock!” a voice called out from behind her bedroom door. Maisie threw the clothing onto her bed, rushing to open her door, revealing her cousin.
“Embry!” Maisie exclaimed, throwing her arms open to hug her younger cousin who returned the warm embrace. “Oh my god! How are you so damn tall?” She let go of Embry to just hold him by the shoulders, her younger cousin practically towering over her.
Embry cheekily smiled at his cousin’s words. “Maybe you’ve just gotten shorter, Maiz. Probably your bad posture and all that caffeine you had in high school stunted your growth.”
“Ha ha ha,” Maisie dryly laughed, letting go of his shoulders to stand up straight and cross her arms, ready to retort. “Maybe your height is all thanks to those shoe lift inserts your mom asked me to find in the city for your Christmas gift last year.”
Embry’s cheeky smile dropped, his hands flying up in front of him in mock defense. “Hey hey hey. That was supposed to be between the three of us. And I don’t even use them…anymore,” He sheepishly finished, looking down at his sock-clad feet before looking back up to scan Maisie’s room.
“Woah, I knew it would be a mess because you’re moving in and all,” Embry uttered, making his way into the bedroom. “But what’s with the pile of clothes?”
Maisie huffed, making her way back to her bed where the collection of cardigans, pants, and undershirts lay. “My mom gave me very little notice about tonight’s bonfire so I was trying to pull a fit together.”
Embry prodded at the pile, staring almost haphazardly. “I see… well, maybe something warm? It’ll get colder once the sun sets.”
Maisie nodded, sorting through the pile for warmer clothing items. “So, besides our family, is it gonna be a big gathering? I wanna know how much I should mentally prepare to socialize tonight.”
Her cousin huffed in amusement, taking a seat on the corner of the bed. “Last I checked, it’s gonna be the biggest res bonfire we’ve had in a while. Hell, all of my friends and their families are coming, even the antisocial ones.”
“Awesome,” Maisie groaned sarcastically, setting aside a pair of dark wash jeans, white henley, and deep purple cardigan she had thrifted in Berkeley before the move . “I had no idea the entire community missed us that bad.”
Embry gave a nod of approval to the outfit his cousin set aside, before carefully responding. “I guess? It might also have to do with the fact that it’s the first bonfire of the summer and everyone had been on edge with the serial murders in Seattle. But they got the freak so-”
“Serial murders?!" Maisie interrupted her cousin, looking at him with wide eyes. Embry nodded slowly, watching the shock on her face before continuing.
“Yeah, pretty gruesome stuff,” he answered. “People thought it was some kind of animal that was attacking people at first. Billy had me and my friends patrolling the res in pairs, just to make sure everyone was safe and all accounted for.”
“Why in the hell would Billy send you and your teenage friends out to patrol while a murderer was out there?! Wait- Auntie Tiff was okay with that?!” Maisie rambled quickly, her hands moving around frantically to convey the range of worry, shock, and surprise she was feeling at this sudden news. “And what would y’all have done if you came face to face with the culprit?!”
Embry looked a tad bit overwhelmed at the bombardment of questions she had thrown at him, his ears visibly red. ”I mean, we were just going door to door to make sure everyone was okay. And thankfully we never did run into the perp, but we would’ve been able to handle them.” He cracked his knuckles into a fist jokingly but that didn’t seem to quell Maisie’s nerves, her brows set in a deeper furrow of concern than he had ever seen on anyone before. “Besides, it wasn’t like everyone helping were teens. Sam, Jared, Leah, and Paul are around your age, and one of them was always paired with us, Council Chief’s orders!”
Embry’s added mention of adults being present somewhat calmed her down, but she shook her head in disbelief. “Most of you guys are still young, hell- I don’t even consider myself to be a full-fledged adult yet. I understand ‘res business’ and all, but you guys should be worrying about preparing for your senior year of high school, and then college!” Maisie didn’t notice how the latter words made her cousin’s shoulders slump a bit. “I’ll try and talk with Billy tonight, see if I can offer any help to whatever y’all classify as ‘res business’ since I’m an unemployed college graduate with nothing but time on my hands.”
At this, Embry’s face lifted in a sort of apprehension that she couldn’t decipher. But to hell with it. She was going to try and become more involved in the reservation’s community sooner or later, so what better way than to try and alleviate the work load that Embry and his young friends had so they could enjoy the last months of teenage freedom.
“...Okay,” Embry uttered, not knowing what else to say, seeing the set determination in Maisie’s face and not wanting to rain on her parade. “Billy did mention a beautification project that he wanted to put us on, I’ll ask him to add you as a volunteer tonight.”
Maisie clapped her hands together in excitement. “Perfect! I can help with a few murals, plus I saw the old cultural center on our drive last week, a new coat of paint among other things would definitely be a good place to start!”
Her cousin could only nod meekly, watching her rehang her remaining clothes back in the closet, almost seeing the gears turning in her head at the prospect of new projects for her to work on. Embry decided that he didn’t have the heart to tell her that the res business that she would be doing wasn’t the same ‘res business’ that he and his friends did.