How It All Goes Down
- Over the weekend, Bella decides to go with Mike, Eric, Tyler, Jessica, and some other friends from school to a beach in La Push. She meets everyone at Newton's Olympic Outfitters, Mike's father's store, and rides in Mike's car to the beach.
- At the beach, they have a bonfire and meet up with some guys that live on the La Push Indian reservation. One of them is Jacob Black – Bella's dad Charlie is a friend of Jacob's dad Billy. In fact, Bella's truck used to be Billy's.
- A girl named Lauren makes an annoying comment about the Cullens. "The Cullens don't come here" (6.81), one of Jacob's friends says cryptically.
- Bella is determined to find out exactly what he meant. She asks Jacob to come on a walk with her, and flirts up a storm, hoping to get him to tell her more about the Cullens. Trying to impress her, Jacob tells Bella a Quileute (that's Jacob's tribe) story about "the cold ones":
"The cold ones are traditionally [the Quileutes'] enemies. But this pack [of cold ones] that came to our territory during my great-grandfather's time was different. They didn't hunt the way others of their kind did – they weren't supposed to be dangerous to the tribe. So my great-grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off our lands, we wouldn't expose them to the pale-faces."
[…]I tried to keep my tone casual. "So how does it fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones your great-grandfather met?
"No." [Jacob] paused dramatically. "They are the same ones." (6.117, 122-123) - So what are these cold ones? Jacob explains, "Blood drinkers […]. Your people call them vampires" (6.128).
- Bella feels guilty for using Jacob, but she thinks he's a nice guy.