Title: The Story of Alex Walker
Category: Books » Twilight
Author: Jane0
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: General/Romance
Published: 02-04-09, Updated: 02-04-09
Chapters: 1, Words: 3,950
Chapter 1: The Story of Alex Walker
The Story of Alex Walker, Published by IA (Imprintees Anonymous)
Summary: I was having an aneurism. Okay not really, I think I just imprinted. I shook myself, trying to break free from this… thing. Except I couldn't, because, well, imprinting is kind of permanent. Post BD. Seth/OC. Rated T for language.
Please Read the Author's Note
Author's Note: This is my first This story is written very colloquially. I wanted it to feel like the characters were actually talking to you, the reader, instead of just having them narrate. It's a style of writing I don't usually use, and I would love to hear your feedback as to whether writing (this style and others) is something I should continue pursuing. I didn't have a Beta-reader read this, so I apologize for any glaring grammatical and spelling errors. Feel free to let me know about them. I would also greatly appreciate your thoughts on the concept/content of this story. Any and all feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Timeline: This story is set after Breaking Dawn. I'm assuming the GIANT-VOLTURI-CONFLICT took place in February. This story takes place at the end of June that same year, putting Jacob and Quil as rising seniors and Seth as a rising Junior. This is a Seth!Imprint story, with the pairing Seth/OC. Rated T for language only, all action is K/K+. I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except for Alex, the plot and the dialogue. All exclusively Twilight material belongs to Stephanie Meyer. Any movies, books, etc. (other than Twilight) that I have quoted are credited in the story.
June 30- Alex
CRASH!
"Oh god, I am so sorry."
My name is Alex Walker, and this is how I began my first day at Forks High Summer School. Running into someone on the way to class, because I am already very late. Perfect.
I'm from New York; my family just moved here for my parents' jobs. I'll be a junior at Forks High School in the fall, but they have a weird credit system, so I have to take some summer classes to be at the "same level" as everyone else. It's fucking humiliating having to take summer school. I was close to the top of my class back home, and I went to a pretty good school. Just some shit technicality is ruining my summer.
I hastily scooped up the books on the floor, handing them back to…
Well damn, it looks I managed to barrel into one of the most gorgeous guys I've ever seen.
"Um, here are your books," I said, somewhat inadequately, before continuing my sprint down the hallway. I looked over my shoulder and called, "Sorry, again, for running into you." When I finally found my destination, I paused outside the door to take a breath. I didn't want to enter looking like a total freak. I slouched in, took the first empty desk I saw, and started doodling on my notebook. The teacher didn't even blink at my late, surly entrance. He looked like he wanted to be here even less than the students.
Having nothing better to do, I replayed the scene from the hallway in my head, wincing. God, that was embarrassing. For the record, I didn't run away from that guy because he was devastatingly hot as some people are wont to do, I'm not that lame. I wasn't even afraid that he'd caught me checking him out (not that I was); when you're like me you learn to check guys out very surreptitiously, not that checking guys out is a bad thing, but sometimes it's just not worth the trouble of getting caught. But I know he didn't catch me. No, I ran away because that guy looked like a total badass. Granted, in some of my more narcissistic moments, I consider myself to be somewhat of a badass, but this guy… it's like there was this weird aura of strength around him. He could definitely break me in half if he wanted to, and I had just run smack into him. But mostly I was running because I was late for class.
Right. This Class. Which I should be paying attention to.
I had to check my schedule again to even remember what class this was. Latin. Okay, I could handle this. I tried to tune-in to the lecture. The teacher, Mr. Briggs? Bridges? Brigg?... whatever, I'll just call him Mr. B, was going on and on about cases and declensions, blah, blah, blah, beginner's stuff.
"There are five different declensions for Latin nouns. Each noun has one, and only one, declension. Now…"
This guy was doing a damn good impression of that teacher from Ferris Bueller. Needless to say, the lecture did not keep my attention. Instead, my focus was drawn to the boy from the hallway. He was tall, about 6' 2", with lean muscles, not huge though, nothing like the guy standing next to him. I was pretty sure, from their darker skin and jet black hair, that both he and his friend were from the nearby Indian reservation, La Push. My dad is going to be working with several historians on the reservation this year on some anthropological thing (this is why we moved to Forks. My dad's an anthropologist). He said that a few of the kids from the reservation will probably be at summer school, their school doesn't offer summer classes, and apparently there was this weird virus thing going around last year so a bunch of them missed a lot of school. Although the third guy in the group looked nothing like them. He was the shortest, but not short, extremely pale with coppery hair. He looked younger than the Indian boys, but unlike them he wasn't holding any school books, just a set of keys. Maybe he was their ride.
To my horror and embarrassment, my mental review revealed that they were all highly attractive. Great. It was bad enough embarrassing myself in front of one hot guy, but three… just kill me now. It was clear that the pale young man was the most beautiful of the three, but my attention kept shifting back to guy I had run into. He was wearing jeans, a tight black t-shirt, and an old green army jacket. His hair fell in front of his brown eyes, but it was still short. He was standing slightly slouched, but whether that was from me running into him or not I wasn't sure.
Maybe I should find him after class and apologize again, I thought. No that would be stupid, I already said sorry twice. I realized that I was just trying to come up with excuses to talk to him. I don't even know his name, I thought. I'm being ridiculous.
"There are seven different cases for Latin nouns. We are going to start with nominative…"
I tried to tune back into the lecture, but Mr. B was still going over things that I had learned in middle school.
I hope that hallway guy wasn't mad. He didn't look mad. I wonder what he looks like when he's laughing… No. No! Stop it, you obsessing over this random guy. You sound like a crushing school-girl! I tried to convince myself. This was getting absurd. Okay, so he was hot. But that's no reason for me to start wondering about his feelingsand various expressions. I'd had a 30 second interaction with him, and I couldn't bring myself to think about anything else. All of my thoughts found some segue back to him. Maybe I just need some closure, to know for sure that he wasn't mad at me. (Closure?! For running into him in the hallway?! Talk about pathetic. And who cares if he was mad at you, the more rational side of my brain was telling me.)
Okay. I'll apologize again after class, but then I will not think about Random Hallway Guy anymore. Focusing once more on the lecture, I opened my notebook, and proceeded to painstakingly copy down all of the information word for word. Anything to keep my brain from melting because of this ridiculously irrational situation I had run into, literally.
June 30- Seth
Smack!
"Seth, wake up! We're going to be late for school."
'Wha?" I mumbled sleepily.
"Get up!"
"Go 'way, Jake," I mumbled again, turning away from the horrid noise that was my alpha. I heard him shift around the room.
"AARGH! Get that thing off me! That's just mean Jake!" He'd shoved a nasty smelling pillow in my face. Vampire stink all over it. I guess Alice had been sitting near it. I rolled off the couch and got up grudgingly. I'd forgotten that I wasn't at home. Jacob and I had been running patrol late last night. Afterwards, he'd wanted to swing by the Cullens' place and see Nessie, I'd figured I'd come and say hello, as well. We ended up staying so late that Esme insisted that we just crash on their couches.
"Hey, are you guys coming or what?" Edward called from the garage. I guess he was giving us a ride to school; it would help with the blending in aspect of supernatural life. Running to school in the form of a giant wolf definitely does not qualify as blending in.
Jacob, Quil, and I had all enrolled in summer school. Jacob had missed so much school because of the Volturi conflict and his imprinting thing with Nessie. Because of the danger and his imprint, he had felt compelled to either be around her constantly or at least be doing something that would benefit her in the long run. We'd all missed a ton of school for the Volturi thing, but Embry didn't miss as much school because he didn't have an Imprintee to worry about and Leah wasn't in school. Claire had gotten sick this past spring, like the four-year-old version of mono or something, so Quil missed school to take care of her.
As for me, my life has been so busy with vampire/werewolf stuff that this past March was first time I had any down time. Before then, I didn't really deal with my dad's death, except for taking care of Mom and making sure Leah was alright. I'd just kind of shoved my own feelings in a dark corner and forgotten about them. And then I'd become a werewolf. And then Leah became a wolf, and became more messed up than she was before. And then Victoria plus 20 had attacked. And then Jacob was all messed up. And then Bella got sick, which made Jacob more messed up. And then the pack spilt, which messed us all up. And then the Volturi conflict happened. And then March happened. March—Basically, all the depressing things I'd shoved in a corner exploded inside my brain once all the conflicts of the outside world had died down. It wasn't anything abnormal, but it was the first time I let myself really grieve for Dad. I wasn't super depressed and I got back to normal fairly quickly, but I was a little burnt out and my grades suffered. A lot. So now I'm in summer school.
"Shotgun!" Jacob called as we entered the garage. I climbed into the back seat, not bothering to put my seatbelt on. I glanced at the clock on the stereo. Even with Edward's maniac driving we were still going to be late. Not that I'm against driving fast, but Edward drives like a bat out of hell. Get it? Bat? He's a vampire? Haha?
Up front Edward groaned. I grinned. Jacob turned to him, "What?"
"Nothing. Seth just made a really bad pun."
"It's before nine, you can't expect quality jokes this early," I responded.
"We can't expect quality jokes from you anytime," Jacob retorted.
"Oh, like you're much better."
"Hey, I managed to get another over on Rosalie, yesterday."
"How many is that now? Two? That's not very impressive, Jake."
Edward cleared his throat. We were at the school. We climbed out of the car and started toward the building. Because we were late there was no one in the office; Edward dashed inside and grabbed our schedules for us. Isn't he nice?
"The history room is down that hall," he said, pointing. We turned to go our separate ways.
CRASH!
A flash of brown (hair?) smacked right into me, making me drop my books. It didn't hurt, but I still felt it.
"Oh god, I am so sorry."
Apparently it was a person. "Um, here are your books." The person handed me my books and took off running. "Sorry, again, for running into you."
In the background I heard Jacob saying "What was that?"
"Alex Walker apparently. The Walkers just moved to Forks," Edward answered, obviously picking up the information out of the kid's head.
Meanwhile, I was having an aneurism. Okay not really, but there was definitely something big going on in my brain. I think I just imprinted. Crap.
"Well, I have to go. Jacob, don't give Seth a hard time."
"What? Seth? Are you okay? Come on, let's get to class."
I shook myself, trying to break free from this… thing. Except I couldn't, because, well, imprinting is kind of permanent.
Seth, come on, find the classroom, find a seat, then you can think about this, it's not like you're actually supposed to pay attention in summer school, I told myself.
With great difficulty, I managed to force myself down the hallway toward the history classroom, which was in the opposite direction my entire being was telling me to go. I wanted so desperately follow this Alex Walker, but that would be bad for both of us because I really needed to work out some things. This whole imprinting business is rather complicated. It's not you see each other, BAM! Happily ever after. At least not for me. And if it was for everyone else, Fuck Them! Because I am going through an existential crisis here and it is not fun! At all!
Okay, Seth, breathe. Let's run through The Unofficial Guide: How To Know If You've Imprinted! just to be sure.
"You are constantly pulled in her direction. It's like she is gravity. Sometimes it's almost painful … but in a good way." –Jacob.
Check. I am in a lot of pain right now. I think that walk down the hallway was a good indicator.
"She completes you. There is nothing without her." –Sam.
Yep. Even though I never said a word, Alex Walker is all I can focus on.
"She makes you want to smile 'just because'. You'd do anything for her." –Quil.
Yeah, I'd do anything.
"You just feel compelled to touch her, simply because she's the most beautiful person in the world. It doesn't even have to always be romantically, although there is a fair amount of that too." –Paul. "Yeah, same for me." –Jared.
I think it is amusing to point out that Jacob threw a plate at Paul's head for this comment. But, yeah, wanting to touch. There's definitely that. God, that brown hair looked so soft. I just want to run my fingers through it. And those eyes and that mouth…
Focus! Back to the checklist!
"It's like, you find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person will still think the sun shines out of your ass." –Leah.
Um, I'm pretty sure Leah hasn't imprinted. And I'm pretty sure this is a quote from that movie Juno, you know the one about the pregnant chick.
…Yeah. I don't know what that's doing in the Guide.
So, it looks like I've imprinted, except there's one tiny problem— Alex wasn't my type. At all.
"And you in the back, who just came in late, when was the storming of the Bastille?"
I realized the teacher was talking to me and jerked out of my reverie. "Um, July? ish?" I guessed, looking sheepish.
Her eyes narrowed at me and snapped, "Well, at least you got the month correct." She turned back to the board, muttering. I'm pretty sure I heard the word "miscreants" in there somewhere.
Jacob was giving me a sidelong-look. "Are you okay?" he said lowly so no one else could hear.
I took a deep breath. "I… yeah, I'm fine." I couldn't tell him yet. I had just only accepted it myself. Wait, what?! When did I accept this?! I took another deep breath.
My name is Seth Clearwater, and I have imprinted on Alex Walker.
I took a moment of mental silence. Then exhaled.
Admitting it felt good, even if it was only to myself. A huge weight lifted off my chest, just from accepting it. I knew I was grinning stupidly, but I didn't care. I have imprinted. I finally let myself feel it. I loved this person. I loved this mysterious Alex Walker more than anything or anyone in existence. It was a good feeling, albeit a little weird.
"Are you sure you're all right, Seth?" Jake asked again.
I grinned at him. I just couldn't stop. "Yeah. Great, actually. Um, I think I just imprinted."
Jacob looked surprised, then smirked "I'd say congratulations, but summer school does not seem like the optimal place to find your soul mate."
I jabbed him in the ribs. He winced. His faced softened into a real smile.
"Congrats Seth. So, who is she?" he asked surveying the room.
I shook my head; I didn't want to drop everything on him at once. He got the hint and leaned away from me, back towards his book. I glanced down at my own desk. I probably should be taking notes or something, it would be horribly embarrassing to fail summer school. I flipped to the part about the French Revolution; at least I knew the topic.
Staring blankly at the page, my mind wandered back to Alex. How to start a conversation… because despite everything you can't just go up to someone and say "Hey, by the way, I imprinted on you, which means I love you unconditionally for now and forever, let's go start a life together."
That's when I noticed a small book that wasn't mine, underneath my textbook. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I laughed at the title, appreciating its irony at the moment. I flipped open the battered cover to look for a name and, low and behold, there was "Property of Alex Walker" written in pencil. What a perfect excuse to talk.
The bell rang then, signaling the end of class. I jumped up from my seat, gathering up the books on my desk with Good Omens on top, eager to get out the door. Jacob and I went to the lobby of this building. Quil was already there. We went over to join him.
June 30- Alex
Okay, find Random Hallway Guy, apologize, move on with my life. I felt that these were reasonable objectives. I figured the best place to look for him would be the entrance hallway. When I got there I didn't even have a chance to look around, he was already coming towards me. I stopped walking; my memory did not do him justice.
Smiling, he said, "You dropped this, this morning," and handed me a book. It was my copy of Good Omens, my favorite book and I hadn't even noticed it was gone. He held out his right hand and said, "My name's Seth Clearwater."
"Alex Walker," I said as I took his hand with my own. It was like touching a white-hot, electric fence. A very nice white-hot electric fence.
What possessed me to do what I did next I have no idea. Without dropping his hand, I stepped closer to him. Somewhere I noted in the back of my head that he was only a few inches taller than me. I placed my left hand on the back of his neck and pulled him closer. And then I kissed him, on the lips, in the middle of the hallway. I was kissing some guy I didn't even know in an unfamiliar hallway and it felt so completely right.
And then he kissed me back. It was like the sun exploded behind my eyes. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. We just stood there kissing in the hallway.
June 30- Jacob
Quil and I were comparing classes when Seth said, "Hey, I'll be right back. I just have to return this." He held up a battered novel.
We nodded and I turned back to Quil. "So what class do you have next?" I asked looking at my schedule.
Quil made a choking noise. I looked up to see his surprised countenance.
Before I could turn around to look, he asked, "Uh, Jake, why is Seth kissing a guy?"
"What?" I turned and right across the hallway there was Seth, kissing Alex Walker. "I guess that's what Edward meant earlier, about not giving him a hard time," I managed weakly, right before I fainted with shock.
~FIN