Chapter 2

What the fack is imprinting?

What the fuck? What the fuck? What. The. Fuck? I repeated this phrase over and over in my head until another voice interrupted my mind swearing.

*Calm down dude* Jacob said.

*Calm down? Calm down? Do you have any idea what just happened to me in there?* I shouted.

*Actually yes, we do.* Came a voice I didn't recognize. *It's Quil*

*Oh, hi Quil!*

*Hi.*

*How are you doin'?*

*I'm doing pretty good man. I won't bother to ask how you are, I can probably guess. How was you're first phasing?*

*Guys!* Sam once again, spoke where he was not wanted. *Excuse me?*

*Nothing!*

He sighed. *Now, if you're willing to phase back we'll gladly explain to you about what happened.* I didn't want to phase back so instead I just poked around in everyone's mind.

*What's imprinting?* I asked, having found that word pop up the most.

*What just happened to you. Now I know this is confusing to you, so this isn't an order, but if you want to understand more clearly I suggest you phase back.* I sighed, caving, and looped around a group of trees a few hundred feet away and headed back. *We'll meet at my house* Sam said and I could feel him disconnect from my mind. Weird. The others eventually left too and I felt relieved. I slowed to a walking pace and continued my nice quiet alone time.

Eventually of course I came to the edge of the trees and I had to phase back. I found a pair of track pants waiting for me by the trees leading to Sam's backyard. I slipped them on and went to meet everyone on his back porch. I recognized most the faces, but a couple were new to me.

"'Bout time you got here." Paul said, "I'm starving" everyone rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Alright then" the one I guessed was Emily- because of the scars on her face- said. "Dinner is ready anyway. Eat now, talk later." the word dinner instantly made me happy and a couple seconds later we were all crammed into Emily's small kitchen. The house was filled with the aroma of spaghetti sauce and my tummy grumbled.

After 3 servings of spaghetti, and Sam helped Emily do the dishes, we were all squished into her cozy living room. Everyone's eyes were on me, Emily and another girl's filled with happiness and awe while everyone else's with, well, amusement. Something told me I'm not going to like this.

"So," I started out awkwardly. "About earlier... anyone want to explain to me what happened?" No one said anything for a good ten seconds, then Emily elbowed Sam in the ribs and he cleared his throat.

"You, um , imprinted."

"I imprinted? Really? You don't say... That's just great! One small thing though, what the fuck is imprinting?" The girls slightly cringed at the tone of my voice and Jared and Sam both growled at me. Well rawr to them to, at least they imprinted on the right gender.

"Imprinting," Jacob explained "is the most powerful thing that a werewolf could ever experience. It's a person who not only controls most of your life, but is the reason behind your existence, the only person you really live for. It's a stronger commitment then marriage, although now-a-days marriage means almost nothing to people. This is because the bond you two share can't be broken, even if the other person doesn't share the same feelings." I tried to absorb all this information, but I was still slightly confused. Sam noticed this and put and arm around Emily.

"I imprinted on Emily and I am now hers. Jared imprinted on Kim and he is now hers."

"I see. So you're telling me I'm about to become someone's bitch? And even worse, a dude's bitch?"

"No no no no" He interjected "not necessarily. You've got Quil who imprinted on Claire. She's only two-"

"What?"

"Let me finish. You see, Quil doesn't have those kind of feelings for her yet. His mostly revolve around being more like a big brother and pleasing her by, let's say, giving her a cookie when she's crying. You don't have to have a physical attraction to the person, the feelings can be of the friendship type. As long as you're with him, and you can make him happy, you'll be happy too." Everyone was really quiet as I took in this new information.

My memory flashed and I remembered Brandon's face, his tousled long black hair, dazzling smile, and tight white spandex football pants... "You guys are wrong." I finally stated. They all stared at me confused and Sam opened his mouth to say something, but I held up my hand to stop him and continued. "What I mean is this sure as hell ain't fucking friendship I'm feeling for him. It's so much more." I actually flushed with embarrassment and Emily got up from her spot on the couch to wrap her tiny arms around me.

"Don't be embarrassed, this is something you can't control. Besides, everything happens for a reason. Maybe there's something for you to learn along the way." I sighed and let go of her.

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, maybe you're right. But I just don't get it, I'm not gay, I've never even checked out a guy before." I ran a hand through my hair and sat down on the floor cross-legged. "My god, what will the guys say? I can't tell them! And what am I suppose to do about Brandon? He sure as hell isn't into dudes with the kiss he gave that slut." I clenched my fists together to keep from shaking. Jacob put a hand on my shoulder.

"I don't know what to tell you dude. But I suggest you try talking to him first, then worry about telling your friends. If they don't accept you, you still have us." he said. I put my hand over my heart.

"Oh Jakey, you have no idea how much that means to me." I said, pretending to be touched.

"Shut up." He smacked me over the head.

"Sorry. Seriously though, thanks." he rolled his eyes dramatically.

"No problem."

After that, conversation was light, and no one mentioned my imprinting issue again.

I went home around 11, my mom and Leah were already in bed so I had a quick shower and climbed into bed myself.

XXX

The next morning I woke up and went straight to the bathroom like always. After doing all my business I stared at myself in the mirror feeling suddenly plain. I mean, through anyone else's eyes I sure as hell wasn't, but I couldn't help feeling like I was.

I messed around with my hair, parting it differently so more hair was to one side of my face. I left the bathroom and snuck into Leah's room to "borrow" her straightener. I wasn't quite sure how it worked, but I was pretty sure I wanted to start by plugging it in and turning it on first.

When the light stopped blinking, I clamped it down on my hair and fried it straight. Sorry hair.

Never in my life did I think my hair could be this straight. I mean yea, my hair is naturally thick and straight, but not like this. If only this little contraption could straighten out people the way it did hair... I snickered at my stupidness and went back to my room.

I opened my dresser and raided my clothing. I wonder what gay guys wear? Though Brandon, or anyone else for that matter, probably wouldn't appreciate it if I came to school looking like Chris Crocker. So flaunting my new discovered sexual orientation to the extreme was out of the question. I settled on wearing a pair of navy blue track pants and a white t-shirt.

When I got into the kitchen I saw my mom doing a crossword puzzle in the newspaper. "Morning" I said "where's Leah?" I put four waffles in the toaster and got a bowl of cereal.

"Sam called this morning and asked Leah to go for a run." She said, not looking up from her newspaper.

"I see." Something told me it was going to be about my imprinting. Oh god, she was never going to let me live this down, which is probably going to be a long time since the legends say we don't age.

I scarfed down breakfast and grabbed my wallet so I could buy lunch. "Kay, I'm heading out mom, see you later."

"Bye sweetie, love you."

"Love you too." I got my bag and slung it over my shoulder before I left.

I got to school early thanks to my abnormally fast paced walking. I put my books in my locker and took out the ones I actually needed. As I shut my locker and headed to my first period class I heard a group of guys laughing loudly and stampeding down the hall. One boy stood out from all the rest, grabbing my immediate attention and holding it. Brandon's head was tilted back, his mouth open, laughing freely with his friends. He ran a hand through his hair, a dazzling smile on his lips.

His eyes then flickered to my face, as if sensing my gaze, then he looked away. It was only then I realized I had stopped walking. I watched him walk by me (could I get anymore creepy?) and right to the classroom I was headed to as well. He waved bye to his friends and went in. I followed hesitantly.

When I got into the class I tried to keep my eyes down cast, I really did, but that mother effing force like strings attached to my head made me look up. I scanned the class and spotted him sitting in the seat in the back corner of the room. My assigned seat.

I contemplated whether or not to just pick a different seat and risk having someone who had the balls to ask me to move, ask me to move, or go and tell my imprint to get the hell out of my seat. Well, the second option would give me a reason to talk to him, and I so badly wanted to, therefore the latter option is the one I went with. I slowly walked up to my desk.

"Um, excuse me." I said quietly. He looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeeeees?" he asked in an unintentionally sexual voice. When we locked eyes, I heard his heart pick up speed, but his face remained calm.

"You're in my seat." I said stupidly.

"Oh, seriously? Sorry dude, I didn't know this class had any assigned seats. I just transferred classes yesterday, but I had football practice for the game so I wasn't here. Wait a minute. Weren't you there? You ran into the forest..." My eyes widened and I felt my cheeks heat up.

"Er, yeah, that was me. Seth Clearwater, total freak." He laughed, and something inside me burst with happiness at being able to make him produce such a beautiful sound. He did something completely unexpected and held his hand out, so I took it.

Thousands of pins felt like that had just been stabbed into my skin at the contact. "Nice to meet you Seth, I'm Brandon. And don't worry, I don't think you're a freak." He let go and got up, but I stopped him.

"Sit, don't worry about it. And thanks, it's good to know someone thinks my size isn't freakish." he smiled and shook his head. I took a seat beside him.

"Nah, there's this other big group of guys who are said to be on steroids. Now they'refreaks. Did you know they call themselves the protectors? Looooosers." He laughed to himself, but I couldn't bring myself to laugh with him, those were my friends he was making fun of.

"Yea actually, I did know that. But they aren't on steroids. They're uh, my sister's friends." I half lied.

"I see. So Seth, how'd you get to be so strong and muscular?"

"Uh, I went to Canada for a while? They have some um, pretty intense exercising stuff."

"How long have you been working out?" what was with all these questions?

"About a month."

"Are you serious? Wow, I've had to work a couple years just to get like this." He hinted to his arms and I finally caught on. I glared at him.

"I'm not on steroids if that's what you're getting at." I grumbled. He looked offended.

"Oh no, no, no, no! I'm just saying you're lucky you can get fit so easily."

"Lucky." I echoed sarcastically. "Right." he stared at me confused, then opened his mouth to say something but the teacher chose that second to enter. He leaned across the isle toward where I was seated.

"Why don't you come sit with me and my boys at lunch today?" he offered. I literally felt my heart contract and I was sure I was hearing things.

"O-okay." I stammered. The teacher hushed us and continued his lesson. I saw Brandon smile crookedly at me from the corner of my eye, then face the front of the class.

It didn't surprise me when whoever sat in the seat I was occupying didn't come and make me move. All through class I couldn't concentrate on my work. I blamed Brandon of course, since it was his fault for being so damn distracting. When the bell rang I got up and left as fast as I could, being the first the one out.

I was also the first one to math class so I took my seat near the middle of the room. "Excuse me Seth." Mrs. Chander said.

"Mhm?"

"Could you move two seat to the back please?" she asked, giving me an apologetic smile.

"I understand." I smiled back and moved.

When the lunch bell rang I was up and out of my seat faster then I was in English. I through my books in my locker and got my wallet for lunch.

"Yo Seth!" I heard Derek call from behind me. Any other day before yesterday I wouldn't have minded him delaying me for anything, but now I wanted him to fuck off.

"Heeeey Derek."

"Dude, what happened to you yesterday? You just bolted into the forest and didn't come back out. We went after you, but we couldn't find you. Patrick thought he saw a giant bear dog thing and got freaked out so we left." I mentally cursed and came up with something believable, but stupid.

"Uh, yea. I threw up and decided to go home." very convincing Seth! Dumbass.

"Oh. But you're okay now, right?" I nodded. "Good. So, coming to lunch?" I smiled sheepishly and shook my head. "Why not?" His eyes narrowed. He stared me down into submission.

"Brandon West asked me to have lunch with him and his friends!" he looked honestly surprised.

"Why?"

"How the hell should I know?" I honestly didn't know, but I wasn't going to get all cynical an insecure about it all of a sudden.

"Okay, well see ya 'round." he waved bye to me and headed to the exit to, what I guessed was, have a cigarette. I went to the cafeteria.

When I opened the door I immediately scanned the room, finding Brandon seated with a bunch of guys in matching jackets, and girls in matching cheer leading uniforms. One was attached to Brandon's arm, smiling up at him while he smiled down at her.

Filled with a sudden burst of anger, I was about to storm out of the caf., I was even turned around, but a hand was on my shoulder. I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was.

"You're not leaving, are you? I want you to meet my friends." He sounded disappointed. I turned to look at him, then over at his table to see his girlfriend with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at me.

Now amused and a bit happier I smiled at him and his heart audibly started beating faster. My smile faltered. Did I make him nervous? Or scared? I definitely didn't want that.

"I don't think you're girlfriend would like that very much." I said with a light laugh. He just looked over his shoulder and shrugged.

"Too bad, she doesn't like a lot of things."

"Are you sure?" I asked, just to make sure, even though I told myself I wouldn't doubt him asking me to sit at his table. I was now more worried about him getting frustrated with me and telling me to fuck off then, but instead he rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Yes Seth ," The sound of my name rolling off his tongue sent shivers down my spine. "I'm sure."

"Okay. But first food!" He laughed and walked with me to the lunch line. I got 3 slices of pizza, 2 things of fries, 2 muffins, and a bottle of coke. Brian stared incredulously at my tray.

"You're going to eat all that?" he asked, looking up at me with wide eyes, a few strands of hair falling in front of his face.

"Well, yea I planned on it..."

"How the hell do you keep your figure?" What a womanly thing of him to say. I choked on my words, almost telling him it was because I was a werewolf, but I don't think that would've gone over well. Instead I said:

"No Idea. I guess it's all the running I do." He let out a loud breath as we approached his table.

Everyone looked up, but didn't make any comments. He sat down beside the slut and she immediately attached herself to him like some kind of leech. I nearly gagged. I took a seat on the other side of him.

"Hey guys, this is Seth. Seth, this is Chad, Jesse, Erik, Mac, Shane, and Anthony." They all nodded, not really acknowledging my presence. "And this is Brooke, Sophie, Rebbecca, and my girlfriend Melanie." The first 3 he named off gave me flirty winks and smiles, but Melanie just sneered at me.

"How nice to meet you all." I tried to sound sincere, but it came out slightly sarcastic. Brandon gave me a half smile to show he appreciated the attempt.

"So Seth," Skank bitch said. "I heard your mom is seeing Billy Black. Looks like it didn't take her long to get over your father's death."

"Melanie." Brandon warned her. She just looked up at him innocently.

"No Brandon, it's okay. Actually, they aren't together. Billy just helps her cope when things get hard." I told her.

"Or she helps him when he gets hard." She mumbled under her breath.

"Shut up Melanie." Brandon snapped, defending me. She raised a delicately waxed eyebrow in surprise.

"Excuse me Brandon? Is that really any way to be talking to your girlfriend?" He glared at her angrily, but didn't say anything. I wanted so badly to rip all her black hair out and choke her with it. I didn't like seeing Brandon in any mood other then happy, and she definitely took that smile right off his face.

"Look, if I'm causing any trouble, I can go sit with my friends." I offered, though I really didn't want to.

"Yea, maybe you-" Brandon cut skank bitch off.

"No, it's okay. Some people just need to learn manners." Melanie shrugged and popped a cherry tomato in her mouth.

There was an awkward silence until someone cleared their throat at the front of the table. I looked up and saw a guy looking down at me. I had no clue who he was, but I'm sure I was sitting in his seat.

"Mind if I have a seat?" he asked.

"U-um, sure." I moved down a little bit and he sat.

"Could you move over a little more?" he asked politely, so I did. An inch was all it took before my thigh brushed against Brandon's. I could hear a ringing in my ears and I thought I was going to jump the guy right here. While my heart was beating out of control his still seemed to be beating steadily. Though it didn't surprise me what so ever, why should another male arouse him?

I tried sitting still so I wouldn't have to move again but my legs and arms were beginning to stiffen.

Hesitantly, I shifted in my seat and this time my entire right side rubbed against him. I quickly looked over at him to see if he noticed. He was looking at me sideways too, a small smirk on his face. I could feel the intense amount of heat radiating off of him and his heart was hammering away in his chest. I did it again, I made him uncomfortable.

I looked at my empty tray for a second, suddenly sad that Brandon wasn't comfortable around me. Maybe not all imprints are meant to be together. I picked up my tray and mumbled something about Spanish homework before leaving.

"Hey wait!" Brandon called out to me. I looked back over at his smiling face and my heart stopped. I smiled back. "You'll sit with us again tomorrow, right?" he asked eagerly, or perhaps the tone was all in my head. Maybe I didn't make him as uncomfortable as I had thought.

"If you want me too..." I saw Melanie open her mouth, but Brandon spoke first.

"Of course. And I'm sure the girls would too." Brooke, Sophie and Rebbecca all looked away giggling, and waved shyly. I tried to smile, but I'm sure it turned out more like a grimace.

"I'm not sure if that's such a good idea." He looked at me sadly.

"Come on, please? The guys like you I'm sure, and the girls, with out a doubt , certainly like you. And if you're still not convinced, you have the captain's consent. That would be me. I think you should eat with us tomorrow." he flashed me a bright smile and winked. I made a big show of rolling my eyes, not being able to stop from smiling myself.

"Fine. I'll just let my friends know." That seemed to please him and he nodded before turning around and putting an arm around Melanie's shoulders. I scowled and went to drop my tray off.

So this is what imprinting is...

(: R&R beautiful people. AND go on youtube and listen to Jay Brannan. Best singer/songwriter/musician ever (and if it would convince you further, he's gay...), he deservers a bigger fanbase. x3