Heads up: Never read any of the books. Only saw the two movies and I was mildly interested--poor Jacob can't seem to win. Don't get up my ass about inaccuracies. What I know, I know from bits and pieces of exposure. Thank you. Promise to finish this one.

Only Human

Forks, Washington is the logging capital of the world. A sleepy, uneventful town resisting summer warmth, and drab gray climate with a drab, gray Forks High School as the center for some of the more colorful characters in town. At present, two of the brilliant personas were enveloped in one another's arms in the student parking lot, much to the amusement of their passing audience. Anything Edward Cullen did was worth the notice, though he and his company, the occasionally moody Bella Swan would much rather be as alone as they felt when they were together.

Bella had only ridden on the coat tails of the Cullen clan's popularity to an associative popularity of her own: Edward Cullen's—that mysterious, alluringly attractive recluse— girlfriend. And in some lesser known circles, the Cullen Clan's "pet." The last series of catcalls and whistling embarrassed her enough to pull herself away from the vampire's clutches, not without difficulty. She brushed her shoulder length brown hair behind her ears and looked away from him sheepishly, biting down on her bottom lip. Her sudden modesty amused him.

"Guess we'd better get to class," he mused, lifting her face to meet his. She never did feel the sting of his icy touch pressing into her warm flesh. She only felt him.

"Yeah. I guess so." She submitted to his desire for a parting kiss—a pop kiss she hastily planted on him before turning abruptly to catch up to her classmates. She felt his hands dragging off of her as she turned. A touch that would stay with her until they met again.

"See you later in class," he called after her. She looked over her shoulder to reply to him only to stare with some surprise at the spot he was just in not a moment before. At this point, she didn't know why anything he did was still so amazing.

She was barely out of the student parking lot before a rustle in the bushes caught her attention. Her name came sailing out in a whisper from between the parted shrubs.

"Jacob," she greeted with a wry smile.

A pair of hands spread apart the bush to reveal a handsome Quileute boy with smiling dark eyes and a mischievous expression. He was always glad to be getting any attention from Bella, even if his enthusiasm was not always equally met. This meeting was no different.

"What are you doing hiding out in the bushes?" She darted her eyes about to see if anyone had noticed her talking to a shrub.

His winning smile did not fade. He shrugged. "I came to see you."

A quick smile gave away her flattery but it was replaced by the apathetic expression she so often wore.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"I'm gonna go. What are you doing tonight?"

What was she doing tonight? Her tentative plans were the same everyday. Mull around until something came up, and if that something was Edward, it took precedence. The Cullen Clan took precedence. Jacob was in a tie for last place with everything else in her life. Admittedly, it was awkward playing switch- hitter between Vampire and Werewolf. And in another world, where Jacob wasn't a sworn enemy of her boyfriend, a few years older and Edward never existed, there would be no stopping them. She liked to play up those differences in her mind to keep her interest in him at bay. If only he hadn't have changed so much over the summer. She averted her attention and hugged her arms around her body.

"You know you didn't answer me…" Jacob reminded gently.

She fumbled for words. "Oh, um. Edward and I—"

His features morphed into immediate disappointment before she finished her statement. "Figures. You know we are still friends?"

"Yeah…"

"We should work on it a little more."

She felt a flush of red tinting her face. "I—I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." With that, she did an abrupt about face and hurried off to class to beat the last bell, pretending not to notice how Jacob's pitiable stare was burning into her back. She hated having to choose. But it would always be Edward.

And it would never be Jacob. Defeated, he backtracked the way he had come until he decided to detour through the forest and back onto Quileute territory on a whim. Naturally athletic, and suddenly "huge" from his devotion to weight lifting over the last summer, he shimmied up a steep incline and hoisted himself onto a cliff side boulder over-looking the beach where he had vaguely explained to Bella the war between his clan and the Cullens. No one had skipped school to surf its chilly waters and so, with his legs dangling limply off the side, he was alone to lick his wounds of rejection.

An unusual scent drifted up to him, carried by the wind ripping from the shoreline. It smelled like cherry blossoms. Too much like cherry blossoms, he decided, and made his way back down from where he came and easily followed the aroma to a small waterfall he would easily have missed just in passing, enclosed by plethora of trees and a sharp dip south into the cavernous arches of semi-formed cave. There, standing directly under the small stream of water was a girl about high school age, shamelessly washing her hair with her back turned to him, puffs of air vanishing in mists from her lips. She was understandably cold, and Jacob was understandably shocked.

He started to turn away without making himself known when he did a double take. She was wearing a yellow bikini top, tied in little knots in the back, and a pair of ripped boy shorts, barely covering her slender legs. He didn't look back because she was attractive, although she was, but he couldn't decide if he should know her or not. Was she Quileute? Her dark skin and raven hair tumbling about gave him that impression, but even so he would have known her. She was in admirable shape, well toned but indisputably feminine, and as Jacob was suddenly aware, appealing beyond logic. He continued to watch, mouth slightly ajar, taken with the mysterious girl washing her hair under a hidden waterfall. He felt invisible and inappropriate, the latter feeling for the moment overshadowed by his sudden interest in this stranger.

And she, no longer feeling alone, turned slightly and scanned the landscape for the pair of eyes she knew was out there, joining her in her clandestine bath. Jacob froze, hoping to blend in with his surroundings, although his jeans and blue long-sleeved shirt offered little camouflage. He held his breath when she glanced right over him, but as fate would have it, his boots betrayed him and he went sliding off the mossy precipice and into plain sight on his bottom, ten yards from the bathing beauty. She made little attempt to shield herself, nor did she seem disturbed by his intrusion.

He scrambled to his feet and stared back at her as if he was awaiting her discipline but she only greeted him pleasantly.

"Hello, Jacob Black."

He didn't seem to realize she knew his name when he went stammering though a pardon. "I wasn't spying or anything," he defended, pointing toward the precipice he'd just descended from, "But I was just taking a walk, when…Do I know you?" He quizzed, daring to venture closer to her.

She smiled warmly, a gesture that drew him even nearer. Even her eyes smiled.

"How do you know my name?"

She offered another smile, responding vaguely. "I know a friend of yours."

He stopped short and watched unabashed with his hands jammed into his pockets as she rinsed the rest of the shampoo from her hair.

"Who?"

"I'm kinda new around here. But I just started attending Forks High."

Jacob brightened up immediately. Bella must have mentioned him, if only in passing.

She offered him her hand. "Yuri," she introduced, apologizing for her wet hands. He dried it off by jamming it into his pockets again.

"Yuri…" he repeated softly, trying his best not to sponge in any more of her. It was an awkward and slightly inappropriate meeting, but he couldn't very well scamper up the incline again without looking like an immature peeping tom.

"Why are you washing your hair outside?" He gestured toward a shampoo bottle poised on a rock next to an oversized towel and a pair of slippers.

She replied as if the answer was obvious. "Where else?"

Jacob shrugged his bold shoulders. "I dunno. Like, the bathroom in your house. Where do you live anyway?"

She made a dismissive gesture toward a general direction that didn't offer much.

Stalemate. He had run out of conversation and places to avert his attention.

"Soooooo…I guess I'll see you around…" He parted, throwing up a limp hand to wave.

She nodded, watching him head back toward the incline.

"See you later, Jacob Black."

He gave her a nervous grin before making his exit. Now it was his turn to feel her eyes pressing into him until his was out of sight. It was most as if she could touch him from a distance.

Bella tried to mask her discomfort with having a newcomer joining her lunch table, but she was hardly given the attention of a fly on the wall with her friends fluttering around the attractive new student, male and female alike, being absorbed by the charm she so effortlessly seemed to radiate. Yuri batted off questions with simple retorts, smoothed over obscure transactions with an infectious smile all the while seeming in her own subtle way to be bored with the attention. Bella hated to admit that the prick of jealously had made her aware that she missed the attention she at one point pretended not to notice. Mostly, she wondered if Edward would be as enveloped in this Yuri as her friends seemed. She rolled her eyes, unaware that while Yuri kept everyone's attention, she kept Yuri's.

"Hungry?" Eric cooed, offering over his untouched bag lunch to Yuri, oblivious to how his obvert attraction came across. She glanced down at crumpled brown paper bag and a flicker of disgust took her, but she respectfully declined.

A little disgusted herself, Bella took up her books and left without pardon or notice. Edward would be waiting by his car in the student parking lot for her anyway. It wasn't often that she delayed meeting with him to work out a plan with her other friends, but see if she tried that again, the way they were acting.

She found him leaning faithfully against his car, his ashen features poking out just barely from underneath a hoodie to shield him from a glimmer of sunlight struggling through the clouds. It had been a little sunny these past few days, excusing the Cullen Clan from school on "family business." He met her eyes from across the lot and her lips shortly after, holding open the car door for her, forever the unfaltering gentleman. He picked up on her distracted behavior immediately and blocked her from getting into the car with his arm.

"What's the matter, Bella?"

She shrugged, trying to bypass his blockade but he held firm and hooked her elbow gently.

"Tell me."

She huffed. Part of her wanted to sic Edward on the stranger to dull her preconceived notions that she was too engaging to be human, and yet, part of her didn't want to risk making Edward aware of her.

She fought with herself only a moment. "I dunno." She glanced over her shoulder at the small cluster of moths, fluttering around Yuri. "You know that new girl, Yuri?"

Edward broke his attention from Bella to steal a glance at the center of attention but a firm smack brought it back to her.

"Don't stare!" She scolded. "I mean, don't make it obvious."

Edward didn't seem impressed. "What about her?"

"I just wanna know…is she…I dunno…like you?"

Edward risked another smack but looked back over at her for a tense moment. A scowl worked its way across his face slowly.

"It just doesn't make any sense why everyone is so attracted to her like that." She was talking into his chest, refusing to look back at her.

A second later, she was comforted by his reply. "Only human," he affirmed.

Her next question was more pointed. "Do you think she's attractive?"

Edward balked, unaware of her jealous tendencies. It amused him. Be bent and kissed her forehead reassuringly, lingering.

"I love you, Bella." He reaffirmed. "You're my own soul."

His statement brightened her up considerably, and she ducked into the car, satisfied that despite Yuri's sudden popularity, she was only human.