Chapter 2: Those Red Circles


"Kitten."

Gentle hands shook her, trying to wake her up in vain. No, she thought, I'm having a perfectly good dream. She tried to hold on to her slumber, tried to resist being pulled away from the land of dreams.

"Tabby-Kat, it's your first day of school."

Go away.

"Kitten, it's almost seven in the morning. Time to eat and, well, you know the rest," the voice sighed, suddenly ancient with worry.

That woke her up immediately. She shot forward, sitting up straight on her bed, giving her a headache from the swift movement.

"Damn it," she said, holding her head in her hands.

"Are you okay? Do you need anything from your emergency kit? Tabitha, are you dizzy?"

Tabitha groaned again, "I'm good, everything's fine, just moved my head too fast." She smoothed her expression and gave her dad a grudging smile. "Estoy bien, Papi." She looked at her father with a sad look on her face as he rummaged through her bag, looking for the supplies she needed at the moment.

She observed the crease his brow as it crinkled with worry, how he bit his lip when he was anxious – a habit she'd inherited from him. Were those worry lines already imprinted on his forehead? God, he was in his mid-thirties, he was young. Maybe she should have stayed with her mom after all. Three days and her dad had already started to age before her eyes.

Her thoughts were broken by the sensation of a package being thrown onto her lap. Tabitha stared at the small blue medical kit case before her, how she wished it would disappear along with the reason for her owning it in the first place. It's been months Tabitha, almost half a year, get over yourself and go with it.

"I'll be downstairs, kitten. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Three quarters of a cup of dry cereal, eight ounces of low fat milk, a small apple, a slice of cheese, that'll be all, gracias," she answered, giving her dad a smirk in the process.

Her dad blinked at the detailed request, "I'll eventually get used to this." He ruffled the loosely curled hair she'd inherited from him, "I promise. See you in a few; don't pass out on the bed, please."

He was met with a pillow to the face in response.

Laughing, because all he could was laugh in order not to let the morning start on a heavy note, he left the room off to play chef.

Tabitha's spirits lifted as she heard the sound and sunk again when she glared at the torture devices, as she liked to call them, that lay on her lap.

Let's get down to business.

"Let me drive you to school today, Tabitha."


"Quileute Tribal School is only a short distance away from here. I can walk, or ride my bike, caramba, I can even ride Michael's old skateboard if it's still here gathering up dust."

"It's your first day. Your mom will have my head if something happens so quickly. In fact I'll give her my head if I let something happen to you," countered her dad standing in the middle of the doorway leading onto the lawn, blocking her path.

Tabitha resisted the urge to stomp her foot on the floor in irritation like one of her little brothers when they had their temper tantrums.

"You promised that you weren't going to act like mami. I wanted a little bit of freedom when I got here," countered Tabitha, crossing her arms indignantly in the process, "Do I look see-through? Last time I checked I wasn't made of glass."

Evan Greyson pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Watch your tone, young lady. One week, it won't be the rest of the year."

Tabitha pressed her lips together, narrowing her eyes; arms crossed, deep in thought, "Compromise."

"Three days, no less."

"Deal."

As soon as the word left her mouth, she grimaced. This she could work with, lately her life was founded on deals and compromise, and one more wouldn't hurt. Well, at least no more than usual.


"I'm telling you Border Collie, I have a strange feeling about this girl."

"What's so strange about running away from you? The only thing that keeps me tied to you is that you're my cousin."

Tara slammed her locker shut, proceeding to throw a stick her tongue out at Collin. "Well I guess it sucks for you that you're stuck having a locker next to me, the fun-loving cousin, instead of your uptight girlfriend."

"She is not uptight!"

The only response Tara had was a raised eyebrow and a withering look. Collin threw his hands up in the air in defeat and sighed.

"Okay, maybe a little, but that doesn't stop me from loving her," defended Collin, getting that dazed look that wolves did when they spoke about their imprints.

"Oh, take your sap somewhere else before I gag."

Before the boy could retort, a pair of arms wrapping around his waist interrupted him. He turned around with a face-splitting smile on his face, instinctively knowing it was the one person who could make him happiest.

Tara felt a little sick looking at them, as she usually did when witnessing imprint couples display affection. The people closest to her were continually being driven away from her by finding their "soul mate" throughout the last few years. She turned her face away as Collin bent down to give his girlfriend a swift kiss on the lips.

"I think I just threw up in my mouth a little," she said, motioning throwing up inside her backpack. Collin backed away slightly from his girlfriend, all the while keeping contact with her by taking a hold of her hand. He gave her a sheepish look, but it was hard to ignore the wildly happy look in his eyes.

Tara groaned inwardly, Ugh, I'm turning into Leah. "Never mind, you can do the dirty in the hallway for all I care, although I do miss the days when you were much more of a prude, Skylar dear."

Skylar gave her an innocent smile, "Why only have your influences to blame." She snapped her fingers, remembering something at that moment, "Before I forget, we have a new student, a girl I think, in our grade arriving today."

"Ha, I found about the new girl before you! I saw her yesterday. Are you sure she's a junior like us? She looked kind of, I don't know, young."

The girl shrugged in response, "She's the only one Ms. Carroway mentioned. Which reminds me, I'm supposed to show her around when she gets here, better leave now and meet her at the office." Giving Collin a quick kiss on the cheek, she scampered off to her duties.

After Skylar was out of sight, Tara turned towards Collin who had a small smile on his face as he watched her leave. "You just had to imprint on the single most goody-two-shoes girl I've ever met. She's like a Native American Hermione minus the wildly curly hair."

Collin gave her a mischievous grin, "You know what they say about good girls."

"Gag me please."


"Are you Tabitha K. Greyson-Velasquez?"

"Si, I mean, yes Miss…"

"Carroway," the young secretary at the desk answered. "You must be Evan Greyson's daughter. I absolutely love his art; one of his paintings hangs on my kitchen wall."

Tabitha gave her a small smile, "I take it his last gallery in Port Angeles was a success?" She felt a surge of pride rise in her chest for her dad. Her aunt had been raving about how he was making the family and the whole of La Push proud to her the night that she arrived. She'd thought Tia Cassie had been exaggerating but apparently he really was known a bit around these parts. The thought fueled her desire to follow her own dreams too.

"-and this is the lovely Ms. Skylar Young. She'll be happily showing you around a bit before classes begin."

She quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and focused on the matter at hand, practically hearing her mother's voice in her head reprimanding her, don't be a dreamer like your father, Tabitha, focus. Tabitha shut up the mom-voice in her head.

Tabitha took a look at the girl in front of her who was currently examining a stack of papers in her hand. The girl, apparently called Skylar, had long braided black hair adorned with a headband, not a single hair out of place. She had big light brown eyes with a slight slant in the corners to them and the coppery skin that prevailed throughout the residents of the reservation. Skylar was wearing a pleated skirt, a collared button-down shirt, Mary-Jane shoes coupled with knee high socks. The style struck her as being very studious school-girl.

The girl finished shifting the papers, turning around to face Tabitha. She stretched out her hand to shake Tabitha's saying, "Good morning Ms. Greyson. Welcome to Quileute Tribal School, I'll be your guide to the school for the next few days. I'm also filling in for the Vice President of our class for now as he's sick with the flu; he sends his apologies since he was the one who was supposed to be here."

"You can call me Tabitha. Uhmm, I'm glad to be here, Skylar," hesitantly returning the handshake. You have no idea how ecstatic I am to be here actually.

Skylar gave her a bright smile, "All right then. I have here your schedule, your locker number, and a map of the school which I hope you don't mind if I already marked the places of importance." She leaned over a bit forward and pointed out with a flourish of her hand, "The places circled in blue are your classes, your locker is the one circled in green."

She looked at the map closely in confusion, "What are the red circles?"

Skylar gave her a sweet smile that contrasted greatly with mischievous glint in her eyes, "Those are the bathrooms, just in case you have a case of first day jitter-induced diarrhea."

She laughed heartily in response. At that moment, Tabitha decided she liked the preppy girl, considering there seemed to be a hidden layer of naughtiness behind the "I'm-a-good-girl-favored-by-the-faculty-here" frontage she had going on.

"I'll keep that in mind."


Estoy bien, papi. = I'm fine, dad.

Mami = mom/mum

Si = yes (What? Some people might not know.)

Caramba = slang, cleaner version of another word; think "dang," "darn," or "shoot" except heavier

So…penny for your thoughts?

What do ya think of the characters introduced so far? Bear in mind their quirks and personalities; Tabitha isn't the only important character here nor the only one with a story to tell.

Review if you liked it and tell me what you liked. Review if you didn't and tell me what you think could have gone better. It's my first story, so I know I've got plenty to learn.

Do the little bits of Spanish bother you? Are you cool with me leaving the translations on the bottom?

Ideas, predictions, and suggestions are also welcome!

Oh, and thanks for the review (if they're not anonymous I'll reply), alerts, and favorites! I squealed like a giddy school girl when the hit count went over 100 :D

Simply,

ThatOne