The slow, timely music dance around Kimberly as she stood in a full-length mirror. Her hair had been brushed into a glossy shine that was twisted and wrapped to lay upon her head in an elegant fashion. A thin-netted veil with flowers weaved in its clip laid against her bare back. The dress she wore was bright white with pearls cascading down the bell shaped skirt in a graceful loop arrangement.

Kim beamed at the mirror image of the lovely girl and like a child, she spun around, allowing the hoop skirt to swirl around her legs to reveal her satin shoes within a low mist of vapour. Today her dream was coming true and she could not be happier at that very moment.

"Kimmy. It is time, doll." A husky voice whispered behind her. She turn, once more letting the skirt dance at her ankles, a smile beaming as she hooked her arm around her fathers.

With threaten tears swimming in his eyes, her father place a gentle hand over his daughters. "Are you sure? It is never too late to back out."

"I am sure, Daddy." Kim could not shake the smile off her face. She doubted the future would ever see a frown placed on her face again. "I have never been surer then I am today."

Her father could only nod his head, as he did not trust his own voice. He proceeded to walk her down the hall garnish with her family and friends with slow measured steps.

She stared straight ahead and only focused on her beloved, Jared Strom. He stood before her in black and white, tall, strong, proud and a smile to match her own. His friends stood beside him with their own smiles as they waited for her to reach the altar.

Once her father passed her to Jared, who quickly took her arm, they turned to recite their vows that would place them together for a lifetime.

The start of the ceremony was a dull thought, as she looked into Jared's chocolate eyes. She wanted to remember this day, to repeat it time after time and not forget the way Jared looked at her this very moment.

Jared carefully turned her hand in his so that her palm faced the ground. His eyes studied her hand as he focused on his vow. "I take you, Kimberly Hatch to be my lawfully wedded wife. Before these witnesses, I vow to love you and care for you as long as we both shall live. I take you, with all your faults and I…." He pulled his eyes from her hand to her face. "I cannot go through with this."

Kim smiled flicked slowly as her eyebrows etch together. "What?" She spoke with a whisper and confusion.

"I can't do this." Jared said once again with more force. "Look at you." He took a step back. "I can't marry you when you look the way you do."

Kim looked down at her now faded, dull, mousy brown dress. She shook her head to clear it. "No." Her voiced echoed her confusion. She took a stepped closer to Jared with her arm out to touch him, disbelief showing on her face. A mist of fog danced at her feet, growing but she ignored it. "I-I don't understand."

Jared laughed sarcastically as he took a step back from her again, brushing her arms from his own coldly. "What don't you understand?" Jared took a moment to look over his shoulders at his friends, who shared the same exact smile. "I am me and you…well, you are a nobody."

"I told you he wouldn't go through with it." Becky, who suddenly appeared out of the mist to stand next to Kimberly, spoke with an edge of smug in her voice. Her long dress hugged her well endowed chest and slim hips. "Look at you. There is nothing special about you. You are too plain to even be considered ugly. No one will ever remember you." Becky sneered as she seducible floated next to Jared, wrapping her arm and body around his. "You should rethink of changing your name to Kim Who."

The laughter of her guest rose from behind her and as she swirled around, she saw empty chairs. There was no one there after all.

"One must face who they are or who they are not. In time, you will get use to it." A solemn voice spoke behind her.

With confusion, Kim turned back to face what had been the alter. Now a coffin lay open upon the small raised floor and a single person dressed in black stood beside it, his face bowed as he looked down at the lifeless girl within the casket. "Some paths have no directions but one. That is your path. You will live a life of solitude." He turned to acknowledge her presence. "Look around you. Even after death, there will be no one to remember you. You will die the way you have lived, as a nobody anybody would never remember." He took a step down from the small platform. "Your life has no meaning other then the space you are taking up. The air runs through you with no course of direction. The blood that pumps through your veins will never blend with offspring of your own making. You will grow old and you will forever be alone."

Kimberly backed away from the man; her eyes darted towards the coffin. "No." She shook her head. "You are lying. He loves me!"

"You are delusional, Mouse." The man in black grinned but spoke to her as one would a child. "He loves you no more today then the first day you seen him. He will never love you. No one will."

"That isn't true!" Kim vision began to blur as her eyes watered.

"It is. It is but the sad, awful truth." The man titled his head. "Perhaps you should start living in the world of truth instead of this world of make believe, it will be easier for you. Accept it."

"Shut-up!" Kim screamed at him before turning away, her eyes darting around in a room that quickly filled up with rolling fog. "Jared!" As she called out his name, she quickened her steps that caused the fog to flow in an up swept breeze. "Jared!" She called out again.

"Stop fooling yourself, girl!" The voice echoed behind her once more. "Wake up and stop dreaming!"

"No! Leave me alone!" Kimberly felt her heart thudding as cold hands dug into her shoulders. She quickly turned to fight the person.

"Kimberly!"

As she blinked back the morning light, the blurriness started to focus. "Kimberly." The voice was gentler now as her father looked down at her. "Your mother had been trying to wake you up for half an hour."

"Dad?" Kim blinked up at him before glancing at the clock radio resting on the nightstand.

"You even slept through your alarm." He rubbed her shoulder endearing before rising from her bed. "You might want to consider skipping breakfast or you will be late for school." He spoke to her as he stepped out of her bedroom, his voice volume turn up for her to hear him. "If you hurry to dress, I can drop you off at school - but you do need to hurry."


Kim placed her textbook inside her locker but her eyes were locked to a small crowd outside of her next class that was diagonally across from where she stood. She realized many years ago that the small tribal village had it's own social steps just as any other school and she was not consider part of the crowd that stood near the entrance of Quileute Nation's Biology. This was an extremely small school with approximately one hundred students in its kindergarten through twelfth grade facility. Everyone knew everyone, unless you happen to be a nobody. Kim was the nobody. She sighed as she took her book from her locker and as silently as she could, she shut the locker. She had known Jared since they were in kindergarten. She knew everything about him, as he was her obsession. True that some might think it was unhealthy but every girl has her fantasy and for Kim, that was Jared. She cringed as she heard Becky's flirtatious laughter rise above the small group.

As on cue, Becky flashed a meaningless glance in Kim's direction. It was not always that way; there was a time when Kim was a someone. Someone that was a best friend to someone like Becky but that was before boys actually played a more meaningful part in their lives. Of course, Becky knew that Kim had a mild crush on Jared back when they were skipping rope and playing Barbie dolls. Then puberty hit with avenges and Becky morphed into a well-curved figure of a girl that was able to capture the attention of many of the boys, including Jared. It was not long into sixth grade that Becky decided that she was better off with out Kimberly as she embraced the more popular friendship of the tribal students.

Now they stood face to face. Strangers in a world they shared, a past they created and a broken glass of friendship they carefully walked above. Kimberly took a mousy step towards the crowd. She hitched her shoulders up to make herself small as possible in order to get between the bodies of her fellow classmates just so she could get into the classroom itself.

"Excuse me." She said meekly. The teens stepped mindlessly aside slightly to let her through but at the same time, not really acknowledging her existence.

Kim quickly found her seat next to Michelle, who promptly gave her a smile. "Ready for our trip?" Michelle asked, speaking of their field trip to La Push's beach for their marine study in biology.

Kim smiled and nodded her head. "A trip to the beach instead of being in school, how can one not be?"

"True. We should be leaving after roll-call." Michele politely smiled lightly and turned to speak with another student. Kim's smile faded with the silent she now had to endure alone. Michelle was a likeable student, a friend to all but not a close friend to Kimberly. She was the senior class president was well as chief editorial of The Killer Whale, the Quileute's School Newspaper. In truth, Kim had no friends. No one she could really lean on, to voice her thoughts and feelings. It was why she was so punctual to write in her diary every night. To get those thoughts out onto pages so they no longer lingered within her. To share her dreams, even if it was shared with an empty page.

The crowd outside hustled in, followed by their teacher, Mr. Sanders. "Hach chii. Ayasocha xaxiktiya?" He spoke as he walked towards his desk. Setting his briefcase on top of the smooth surface of the table, he stared at his small class and waited. Students quickly slid into their seats just seconds before a strangler waltzed into the room. "Vince?" Mr. Sanders called to the boy who rushed passed him, late.

"Uh." Vince found his seat and placed his book on top of his own desk. "I'm fine." He spoke with a smile that unsuccessfully struggled to stay hidden.

"Try answering in our Quileute language." Mr. Sanders walked towards the middle of the room.

"Oh." Vince cleared his throat and made a wincing facial expression. "Um, Yapotalli."

"You are feeling tired? Perhaps you should go to bed earlier then. You might be on time for class." As Mr. Sanders started to drone into his subject and what kind of behaviour he expected of them as they went to the beachfront that morning. Kim began to trance out of his voice's grip by scribbling Jared's name on the inside of her notebook. She adored his name with little hearts and arrows. Roses sometimes made an appearance with its thorny stem wrapping around his name and her own name.


Author's Note:

So on researching the Quileute, I found out that there is truly close to 100 students from K-12th grade. The Killer Whale is an actual school paper ran in the Quileute school. Though I could not get the proper symbols to appear these words are true Quileute words:

Hach chii (hah-ch chee-EH) Good Morning

Ayasocha xaxiktiya (uh-YAH-so-CHUH hah-HECK-tee-yuh) How are you today?

Yapotalli (yah-po-tahl-lee) I'm tired.