Characters: Jake, Bells, Embry, Quil, Charlie, Billy, Seth, Harry
Rating: K
Genre: Humor/Puppy Love
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
*Manikin: wiki/Manikin
No Dummy
Jacob Black was no ordinary boy.
He was a wolf.
And this was his pack.
He looked over the group as it assembled, noting the pack had grown bigger than ever recently.
Embry and Quil stood with him by the door, arms crossed over their chests, checking out the newbies.
They began all pack meetings pretty much the same way, scoping out the others and keeping an eagle eye on the kitchen for the announcement that snacks were ready.
A flash of green at the door caught his eye.
The brightest kelly green he'd ever seen.
Seriously, that was some blinding green.
Then he saw who was wearing it.
"Bells!" he called out, waving enthusiastically.
She smiled, hiding behind her long curtain of reddish-brown hair, and gave a little wave in return.
"Dude, play it cool," Quil ordered, elbowing him in the ribs.
But Jake had not an ounce of cool left when his Bells walked into a room.
Out it went, along with his self-respect and dignity.
Reaching up, he straightened his hat, folding the brim so it didn't look too new, and ran a hand down the front of his shirt.
Checking himself out, he realized his shirt was untucked, a button was missing, there was peanut butter smeared on his pants, and his fly was open.
The fly, he could fix, so that was something.
Zipping it up, he turned to Quil and Embry for one last look from his bros. "How do I look? Anything in my teeth?" He grinned, flashing the huge gap in his smile from his missing top teeth, turning side to side so they could check him over.
"Jake, relax. It's only Bells. You used to play with her all the time," Embry reminded him, reaching up to straighten Jake's collar and even out his neckerchief. "What's she doing here anyway? This meeting is only for Cub Scouts."
"It's Career Day. Her dad is s'posed to talk about shooting bad guys and eating at the diner, I think."
Eight year old Jake huffed with impatience as Embry fussed with his clothes, trying to tuck Jake's shirt in for him.
"Dude!" He slapped Embry's hands away. "I can tuck in my own shirt!" he hissed.
"Then do it already," Embry grumbled.
Quil snickered. "Watch it, Jake, he'll be tying your shoes and wiping your butt for you next."
Cuffing Quil upside the head, he stalked off, muttering, "Idiot."
Jake jogged across the council hall at the Akalat Center, stopping abruptly in front of Chief Swan and Bells. Tipping his head back, he looked up and up and up at Chief Swan, grinning his big toothless grin.
"Hey there, Jake. Big day, huh? Movin' up to Wolf Scouts?" Charlie asked.
"Yup! Me and Quil and Embry, too. You gonna show us your handcuffs?"
"Maybe." Charlie's mustache twitched. "You volunteering?"
"Maybe…" Jake pretended to think about it. "Will you tell us the story about the time you shot the bad guy?"
A sharp intake of breath grabbed Jake's attention. He looked at Bells.
She was looking at her dad. "Daddy … you shot a bad guy?"
Jake was afraid to look at Charlie. He thought Bells knew. Charlie told that story to his dad all the time. That was his best story! Why wouldn't he tell Bells?
Jake was about to ask when his dad rolled up, dressed in an odd combination of his Cubmaster uniform and Quileute garments made of woven cedar bark.
"Bella, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company tonight?" Jake's dad asked.
But Charlie beat her to it. "Bells is here working on her community service requirements. See?" He pointed to Bells' green sash as if it was obvious, like it said 'Miss Community Service' or something.
Jake cocked his head, looking her over.
She squirmed under Jake's attention, her explanation so quiet he almost couldn't hear. "I'm a Girl Scout Junior. I have to complete an hour of community service, so I'm helping my dad with the CPR demonstration tonight…" Her voice trailed off to a whisper.
"Say, Jake, maybe you could help with that, too," Charlie offered. He knew Jake had a crush on Bells.
Because his big mouth dad told him.
"Sure, Chief," Jake chirped. Hesitating, afraid of scaring her into total silence, Jake held out a hand—after he checked it for peanut butter. "Come on, Bells. You can sit with me and Quil and Embry until it's time."
She looked to her dad for permission before taking Jake's hand in a tentative grip. Butterflies had a tougher grip than Bells.
He swore, if it weren't for her pretty brown eyes and all those curls, Bells would just disappear into the wallpaper sometimes.
The introductions with his two best buds went okay. She sorta knew Quil, being distant cousins or something through his Gran Ateara.
At age eight, Embry Call was almost as painfully shy as a ten year old Bella Swan. Their meeting was even painful to watch.
Embry held out a hand to shake hers, whispering a quiet, "Hi."
Bells touched his fingers just long enough to be polite, hiding behind her hair when she whispered back, "Hi."
Jake rolled his eyes.
"Bells is gonna help her dad tonight, so she's sitting with us until he needs her," Jake explained, gesturing to his friends to take a seat.
Bells looked around for a chair.
There were no chairs.
"We sit on the floor for meetings, Bells. It's okay. It's mostly clean." Jake brushed off a spot beside him, thought better of it, then ran over to the coat room and hurried back carrying his raincoat. He shook it out, checking for more peanut butter, then laid it on the floor and patted it to indicate that she should sit.
Flashing him a sweet smile and bright pink cheeks, she toed off her rain boots so she wouldn't get his coat messy and lowered herself to the floor.
She had pink and purple-striped toe socks on.
While Charlie droned on about daily procedures and life-saving techniques, Jake kept one ear cocked for more information about how to turn on the sirens in the cruiser and watched those little pink and purple toes wiggle as Bells listened, stroking the tip of one neat fingernail back and forth across the edge of his raincoat.
Even her toes were cute.
Charlie's voice calling his name snapped him out of his trance. "Huh? Wha…?" Jake said, dragging his gaze away from Bells.
The chief smirked like he knew exactly what Jake was thinking.
Jake didn't even know what Jake was thinking.
Something about toes.
"Jake? I need two volunteers. You offered to help earlier?" Charlie reminded him, hands on his hips.
"Uhh…" Jake scratched his head, shaking it like a dog to clear his thoughts. "Yeah, um—" He looked at his friends. Embry dropped his eyes and turned his shoulders, using Quil as a shield, begging with body language that screamed for Jake to pick somebody else to be the center of attention.
Jake, always a good friend, obliged, thumping Quil's shoulder instead as he stood up, tagging-in his other best bud.
The walked to the front of the room to join Charlie who was calling Bells up to join him, too.
"Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to TAM and Pam." Charlie said to Jake and Quil, hauling a huge cloth-covered lump out from under the table at the front of the room. It landed in front of Jake with a gross thump. Tugging and pulling, he hauled a second lump out and positioned both of them in front of the room, several yards apart.
"Bells, grab that end," Charlie pointed and she scurried over to pull the cover away, revealing a clear, blobby thing that looked like a body underneath. Charlie knelt behind it, touching the odd, clear silicon casing in several places and making it light up.
"This is TAM, short for 'Transparent Anatomical Manikin' and this—" he crawled over to the other lump as Bells uncovered the flesh-colored dummy underneath, "is her sister, Pam. Pam's not an acronym for anything. We just felt bad that she didn't have a name, too."
Charlie's mustache twitched with amusement, but no one laughed.
The chief sighed at his underappreciated wit and motioned for Jake to kneel beside TAM, explaining to the rest of the scouts in the pack how the dummy worked and would respond when CPR was being performed correctly.
He had Bells mime for Jake how to perform one-person CPR, then directed Jake to assist Bells in showing how to perform two-person CPR.
Bella's skills were obvious to everyone and Jake glowed with pride when the lights on the Manikin lit up and the little bells beeped indicating she had done it correctly with his help.
Charlie moved over to the second dummy to direct Quil so the other side of the room could see while Jake and Bells went through the demonstration one more time for their side of the room.
A wave of laughter drew Jake's attention to Quil and Charlie.
Quil had accidentally ripped one of the arms off his dummy.
He looked at Charlie with wide eyes.
Charlie shook his head and told him not to worry about it, just go ahead and snap it back on.
Quil tried, but he had to lean over the dummy to do it and when he did, the air in the chest cavity compressed and Pam farted.
Quil lost it.
Charlie shook with silent laughter. His face turned bright red under his mustache.
Bells covered her eyes with her hands so she wouldn't have to watch the train wreck unfold.
Jake's dad called for order and reminded everyone they were there to learn.
Calling Bells to his side, Charlie instructed Jake and Quil to teach the pack what they had just learned while she went through another demonstration.
"Bells," Charlie clapped her on the back, nearly knocking her off her feet. "I got to choose my volunteers. Why don't you pick someone to help you with the next demonstration?"
Bells fidgeted, eyes sweeping the room and sliding away from an overly-enthusiastic Seth Clearwater who was practically leaping out of his dad's lap. His orange and blue Tiger Cubs hat fell off in the process and when he scrambled to grab for it, he knocked loose the little metal slide holding his neckerchief.
"SETH! Hold sti—" Harry tried to catch it and they both toppled over backwards on the floor with a flutter of orange and blue neckerchief as it unfurled.
Harry's belly laughs echoed in the council hall.
All the hubbub made for a very nervous Bells. She shuffled backwards until she bumped into her dad, scanning the room for someone she knew who wouldn't draw even more attention to her.
Jake felt bad for her.
Then she called on Embry.
Jake scowled.
Patient as a saint, Charlie explained one more time, "Bells is going to mime how this procedure works on a real person, then they'll switch and Embry will show what he's learned."
Embry's face turned ten shades of crimson under his dark skin.
Jake felt a little better.
At least Embry wasn't enjoying himself.
"Now remember Bells, this is just practice. If you were actually doing CPR, you would have to push so hard, you might risk breaking someone's ribs to save their life. Better a broken rib than the alternative, but for safety's sake, we're only pretending to do compressions today, okay?"
She nodded.
Tilting Embry's head back, she pretended to check his airway and listened for signs that he was breathing. She said loudly, "Embry, are you alright? Are you okay?" and tapped his cheeks gently the way Charlie instructed. Then she pointed at her dad and said in a loud and clear voice, "You. Go for help." She waited for Charlie to nod in acknowledgement that he was taking responsibility for getting help before she bent back over her task.
Pinching Embry's nose shut and positioning her hand under his neck to tilt his head back in the correct position, she—
Jake blinked.
She put her mouth on Embry's.
She gave him two quick puffs of air, felt for a pulse, then mimed chest compressions before repeating the process.
She put her mouth on Embry's again.
Jake blinked again.
She gave Embry two quick puffs of air, felt for a pulse, then mimed compressions before repeating the process.
SHE PUT HER MOUTH ON EMBRY'S AGAIN.
The room spun and Jake's vision went red for a second.
Then the nightmare began all over again when they switched places.
They switched places!
WOULD THIS TORTURE NEVER END?!
Unbeknownst to Jake, Charlie and Billy watched the whole thing play out, grinning like mad men.
Charlie Swan had Jake's number like no other.
Eight years old and burning with jealousy because Charlie's wallflower baby girl was practicing her life-saving technique on a friend who was so excruciatingly shy, he was practically disabled by it.
Jake pouted with his arms crossed over his chest the rest of the meeting, mumbling at the floor from time to time.
He ate his snack and drank his juice box in stoic silence, the occasional wiggle of Bells' pink toes catching his eye before he remembered he was mad at her and went back to mumbling and scowling.
When the meeting was over, he went to stand by his dad so he didn't have to stick around any longer than necessary to watch Embry gaze adoringly at Bells.
So he stood behind his dad's chair, pouting and muttering, watching them on the QT as they said quiet goodbyes to each other.
When Embry thanked her for helping her dad and hugged her awkwardly, she didn't punch him or anything.
She hugged him back.
On purpose.
Jake growled.
He saw her thank him for his help, scuffing her toe on the floor to avoid looking at him. She leaned over too far and tripped.
When Embry caught her, Jake saw red.
Lifting a foot to march over there and- and do something, Chief Swan gripped the back of his shirt, pulling him up short.
Quietly, so no one else could hear, he murmured for Jake's ears only, "Hold your horses, boy. He's being a gentleman, which you would see if it weren't for the little green monster in your way. You give her a minute, Jake. Hear her out." Charlie gave him a gentle shake. "And don't interrupt. It's rude."
Bells made her way over, side-by-side with the traitor.
She said goodbye to Quil and Jake's dad, saving Jake for last.
Standing in front of him, she had a worried frown on her face.
Jake felt bad. Bells was prettiest when she was smiling.
Truth be told, Jake was pretty sure she was frowning because of him.
If anyone was responsible for bringing her smile back, that was him, too.
Sucking it up, he blurted out the first thing he thought of by way of apology, "Thanks for teaching us CPR, Bells. You did real good."
He blew out a breath.
There. It wasn't pretty, but it was a start.
Bells swallowed, picking at her long white sleeves. She rocked with nervous energy—heel-toe, heel-toe, heel-toe—til she tipped forward and pecked him on the cheek.
Jake blinked in disbelief.
She kissed him.
On purpose!
Then she smiled, a real one, just for Jake.
Taking a chance, Jake leaned forward and pecked her on her other cheek.
Quil gagged and Embry blushed, hiding his smile.
Bells' smile flashing over her shoulder as she stepped out of the building lingered in Jake's mind long after she left.
Jake was no dummy. Two kisses was better than one hug any day.