Born in La Push, WA, on the Quileute Reservation to Billy and Sarah black, Jacob had a very normal childhood. At least he did early on. He has two older sisters, Rebecca and Rachel, who are enough older than him that they had a hand in his up bringing after their mother died when Jake was seven. Raised by more than just his dad and his sisters, Jacob seemed to be a true child of the tribe, like many of the boys of his generation. The tribal Elders in particular, took a special interest in the only grandson of the tribe's last chief.
For two weeks during the summers, when his father's best friend, police chief Charlie Swan, would come to La Push to go fishing while his daughter was visiting, the two kids would be thrown together to entertain themselves while the adults went off and fished or watched sports on the Black's aging TV set. Even though Isabella Swan was two years older than young Jacob, the two became fast friends, until Bella stopped coming to visit when he was twelve. It was shortly after this that Billy, always overweight, became wheelchair bound and Jacob started taking care of his aging father as much as he was being taken care of himself.
Like all Quileute children, Jacob's life was steeped in the stories of his people. He loved nothing more than to spend a warm summer evening gathered around a bonfire listening to the Elders tell the stories of their people: Of the Spirit Warriors and how his people first became brothers to the wolves. Stories of the Cold Ones… He never truly believed in the old legends, but he loved them and came to know them by heart.
In 2003, when Jacob was fourteen, Sam Uley, one of the older boys in the tribe, vanished for two weeks. There was a lot of speculation as to what might have happened with Sam: If maybe he'd gotten into drugs, or found himself on the wrong end of a wild animal, or maybe something else, but none of it good. That was also the year that Bella Swan came back to live with her dad in near by Forks, WA, and Jacob tried to strike up their old friendship again. He blessed the Swan name every time he heard it because Chief Swan bought Billy's old pickup for Bella to drive, and so Jake was saved the horror of having to drive a vehicle that was incapable of going over 55 mph.
The first time Jacob felt the faint fluttering of a developing crush for Bella was one day on First Beach, shortly after she had arrived. She already had the advantage of being the 'new' girl in town, and was his old childhood playmate, and she turned on the charm. Her flirting may have been inept, but Jacob hadn't been flirted with much up to that point, so who was he to judge? He tried to scare her by telling her about some of his people's oldest legends, how the Quileute are brothers to the wolves, and how some of his people used to be wolves, and about their ancient enemy: The Cold Ones.
Jacob was mildly heartbroken when Bella left town again, figuring he had seen the last of the girl he'd made mud pies with when they were little, only to hear that there had been some kind of an accident and that she was hurt. When she came back, he thought that, maybe, they could try to pick up their old friendship where it had been left off so many years ago, but she was too much absorbed in her new boyfriend and his weird family. He came to hate those Cullens, especially Edward, when they left without any warning and broke Bella's heart.
It was a very confused, but happy Jacob that renewed his friendship with Bella when she finally came out of hiding after spending months as a recluse only to have a pair of motorcycles in the back end of the beast. It was then, in the middle of hanging out with her watching him fix up the bikes that he fell in love with her, even if he was sixteen and she was an old woman of eighteen.
Over the years since Sam had first vanished, the older boy, now nineteen, had somehow managed to gain the respect of the Elders and been joined by three other boys, including one of Jake's best friends, to make up some sort of gang. It was while Jacob was falling in love with his Bells that Sam started paying attention to the younger teen.
Not long after, Jacob came home from enjoying a movie with Bella and one of her school friends, and blew up at his dad. Literally. Fortunately, he didn't actually attack the old man when he suddenly went furry and four footed and there were Sam, Paul, Jared, and Embry waiting to help him through it. He discovered that the old legends were more than just legends; that certain members of his tribe really could become wolves at will and that it was all triggered by the stupid leeches living so close over in Forks. It was hard trying to break his friendship with Bella, simply because it wasn't safe for her to be around him anymore, but he managed to give her enough clues that she was able to figure his new secret out.
Not very long after this, Alice Cullen appeared back in town; at the Swan house, no less. Jake was just bringing Bella home from visiting the rez and felt betrayed by her automatic turning from him to this tiny leech that was her only connection to the vampire that abandoned her months ago. The next three days were a living hell for him when Bella disappeared, run off to Italy to rescue her idiot boyfriend from himself. When she finally returned, Edward in tow, the young shifter wasn't the happiest of wolves. He ended up dropping Bella's bike off at her dad's in the hopes of getting her in trouble badly enough that she couldn't see Edward anymore, but just made her angry with him.
He confronted Edward about the plan to change Bella into a leech like the Cullens, reminding him of the treaty and the little issue of any of the Cullens biting a human: It'll mean war. Whether the human is willing or not and whether or not they 'survive' the experience.
