I may have mentioned this before, but when I blush, it's quite unattractive. My mother and some of my friends say it's adorable but I see right through their little act. It breaks out first on my neck, like hives, and spreads to my ears and my cheeks. When my blush is in its full form, I imagine I look something like a five-year old girl that broke into her mother's rouge kit, or someone who's had a little too much to drink.

As I saw Quil Aetera waving at me, hollering my name across the yard, I felt the beginnings of that blush beginning to form, and I knew I was in trouble. I turned back to my friends quickly, already feeling my palms begin to sweat in anticipation of some sort of confrontation. They were all staring at me, gawking.

"Um, Kim?" Cassie began, "why is—"

"HOW THE HELL DOES QUIL AETERA KNOW YOUR NAME?" Lily cut in, gesturing wildly with her hands, as if her thousand decibel exclamation into my face did not convey the hysteria in her voice.

"There may have been an incident at work yesterday," I replied quickly waving the question aside, "The real issue is what do I do? I hardly know the guy! What do I say?"

"You wave back, dumbass," Lyn hissed through her tight smile, gently pushing my shoulder and nodding in their direction.

I slowly turned, and waved weakly. Quil beamed at being recognized, then turned to the other boys and said something before head over in our direction with Jacob. When he arrived, he slung his arm over my shoulder as if we were the closest of friends, as Jacob watched him smirking and rolling his eyes.

"Kim! It's so great to see you! Why, for a second there, I thought you were ignoring me! Me! Can you imagine?" Quil laughed dramatically as if that were the most ridiculous thing he ever heard. The girls giggled at him. I was so embarrassed I ceased to see the humor in the entire situation. I turned to look at Jacob, who seemed to understand my plight and gave me an apologetic look. He reached out and grabbed the collar of Quil's shirt.

"C'mon Quil, let's leave these girls alone and head to class now." He started dragging Quil away, "Sorry about him, ladies."

"But no! Jake! Wait!" Quil struggled against Jacob's tight iron grip, looking at us wistfully, "We should be friends, Kim. Can we be friends? Jake, stop pulling so tight." Quil babbled as Jacob dragged him closer and closer to the entrance to the school, "Yeah, Kim, let's be friends, you were totally right about the Blues Clues thing, by the way. Since we're friends, can I get discounts at the store now? That's would be totally off the hook—" The door to the school shut behind them.

As the door slammed shut, the attention was suddenly focused back onto me, and this time, it wasn't just my friends. I wasn't kidding when I said that Quil was loud, and it was safe to say that the entire school had seen the big commotion that Quil just pulled. Jenna turned to me, "What the hell just happened?"

I kept my eyes downcast, covering my scarlet face with my hands. "I have no idea. Is everyone looking? That damn Quil Aetera."

"Yeah everyone is definitely staring at you. Smile babe, you're on camera!" Lyn laughed as she snatched up my camera and snapped a picture of my humiliation. "Girlfriend, this is yearbook gold!"

"Is….is Jared…um…looking?" I stuttered hesitantly. The girls exploded with laughter.

Gasping, and holding onto Lily for support, Cassie turned to check, "They're laughing. Probably at Quil. So much for 'not needing a man' huh, Kim?"

"Oh shut up." I shot back, slinging my bag over my shoulder and gathering my camera from Lyn, "Do me a favor, let's just head to class to avoid the stares….and let's not mention this again? Ever?"

My friends gathered their things as well, and we head to our respective homerooms, promising each other to meet-up in the journalism room to discuss with the rest of yearbook committee plans for the coming year's issue. As I walked down the hall to my homeroom alone, I felt my confidence slip away with every step I took away from my group of friends. They were so much a part of who I was, and I felt safe around them. Apart from them, I was so much more aware of the stares and whispers that I got from the different people I passed. It was not a pleasant feeling.

I took the seat closest to the door to make a fast get away after our homeroom teacher dispensed our schedules for the day. I kept my head down, adjusting the settings on my camera and flipping through the pictures that were already on the memory card. I avoided looking up for fear of confirming my suspicions that all my classmates were staring at me, as this morning's incident was the first gossip-worthy story of the school year. I was so persistent, that I almost did not look up when I was tapped lightly on the shoulder. I set my camera down and looked up to see the smiling face of Embry Call. I groaned inwardly. Hadn't the evil gods of awkward situations cursed me enough this morning? First, Quil and now, Embry. What next? Was Sam Uley going to pop on by and offer me some of his magic, beefy-man recipe steroids? Suppressing my frustration at this bounty of bad luck, I smiled at him, "Yeah?"

He had been laughing. You could totally tell he had been laughing. At my expense, too. And now he was coming to smear it in my face? Jerk. "Hey, I just wanted to see how you're doing. Jake was a little worried because, well….you know how Quil gets…" He sat down next to me. I put my face in my hands.

"I'm fine." I mumbled through my fingers as I laid my head on the desk. Embry chuckled.

"Sure you are. Don't worry, Jake's already planning on giving him hell for doing that to you. Dumb idiot doesn't understand the concept of personal space..." He trailed off, as he sifted through the pile of schedules passed down the row and fished his out. "Here." He passed them to me, grinning.

"Thanks." I mumbled, picking mine out from the center and looking it over while I passed it to the girl next to me…at least I thought I was passing it, till I let go of them only to have them fall to the floor. I whipped my head around to apologize to the girl, only to see her drooling and gaping at the sexy piece of man sitting next to me. I rolled my eyes, getting up from my seat and gathering up the schedules, and passing it on to the person next to her. Poor girl. She probably had a big fat crush on Embry, but was too scared to do anything. I turned to Embry who was now doodling aimlessly all over his schedule unaware of his female admirer. Much like Jared and…

I groaned. Jared, again. Independent, Kim. You are a strong, assertive woman who doesn't need a man. I glanced at the girl again. Maybe, like me, all she needed was a little push. I turned to Embry, "Hey, are you seeing anyone?"

Embry raised his eyebrows, "Damn, you work quick. Shouldn't we at least get to talking for at least ten minutes before you ask me out?"

Oh god. Yeah, I could've gone through with this a lot smoother. "No, uh, that's not what I meant, there's this friend of mine—"

"OH! A friend of yours, huh?" Embry winked at me, "It's okay, you don't need to be embarrassed, a lot of girls want me."

"No no, that's not what I meant, ugh, why does everything I say sound so—"

Then the bell rang. I panicked, I had five minutes to clear up this mess I had created before my first class.

"I meant—gah—well you see-I don't, I mean, I didn't mean to ask you out, I was asking for that girl over there-" I stumbled over my words, starting to sweat, and again, that godforsaken blush was creeping up my neck. I turned to point at the girl, but, as my luck would have it, she was gone.

Embry slung his bag over his shoulder, "Riiiight. It's fine," he laughed " Quil's embarrassed you enough today, I guess. Besides, you have to buy a guy dinner before you get all up on this," he teased before he disappeared out the door.

I groaned. I had embarrassed myself twice today and it wasn't even noon yet. It's official, first day of school is no longer my favorite day of the year. I gathered my things, and walked to the first class of the day, English Literature. I walked in and sat in the back of the classroom, unwilling to participate in anything today, lest I risk embarrassing myself a third time that day. I slumped forward on the desk and buried my face in my arms, wanting to disappear.

The bell rang again, signaling the start of class. I lifted my head hesitantly. As our teacher introduced himself and announced that we would be writing an in-class essay so that he could assess our level to a chorus of moans.

"I'd like you to all write in blue or black ink, the prompts are coming through your rows now." He finished, turning to the board, to write the time remaining in class.

"Hey," a voice whispered from beside me as I reached into my bag to pull out paper and a pen. "Do you have a pen I could borrow?"

I looked up, and found myself face-to-face with the last person I wanted to see today, Jared.

After all the times that I had stared at him in class when my mind wandered and I couldn't focus, you would think that I would've been somewhat accustomed to his devastatingly handsome looks. But when I looked up and made eye contact with him, I was lost, completely lost in his eyes. I couldn't look away. I didn't want to look away. And he didn't either. Was I hallucinating? It was like those stupid romantic comedies you can't stop watching. Where the lovers' eyes meet and then time stands still. Everything, just everything felt right. It didn't matter what happened this morning with Quil or Embry or the fact that I was starting off the year with an in-class essay…the essay! I painfully redirected my gaze back to my bag, as I pulled out another pen.

"Yeah, um, here you can use this one." I held it out to him. He simply sat there staring at me.

"You may begin writing, now. "

I looked at him frantically, knowing that during in-class essays I always needed the whole class period. He kept staring at me. Now, it was a little unnerving, plus the added pressure of this essay. I could all ready feel myself internally hyperventilating. Was something wrong with me? Did I have something on my face? Oh my god, what if something was wrong with him? Or maybe this was some sort of practical joke! What if-Ugh, I had to stop speculating. I couldn't fail my essay. "Um…" I glanced around seeing if the teacher was near-by. "Are you okay?" I whispered hesitantly.

No response. Just staring. I sighed. Typical. What started off as a dream come true was quickly turning into a nightmare. I placed the pen on his desk the turned to my paper and began to write. Ten minutes went by. I looked up. He was still staring. Fifteen minutes. Still staring. Thirty minutes. Staring. I finished my essay at the 45 minute mark and put it down to stretch my fingers. I dared not to turn my head because I knew he would still be looking at me. By now, the blush was in its full form, and I just wanted for class to be over. I could always turn in my essay now, and leave class early. I weighed my options. Stay in class, and feel like a fool with Jared staring at you or leave class now and feel like a fool in the hallway as you bury your tomato face in a locker. Yup, the second option sounded much more appealing. Turning to get one last look at Jared and get my pen, I noticed that he hadn't written a single word on his paper. Had he been staring the whole time?

I looked him in the eye hesitantly. "Hey," I whispered softly, "You should write something before he calls time. You can keep the pen. I guess I'll see you around."

Then I left. Boy, was I going to have a lot to share when the girls reconvene.

A/N: So, two weeks this time. Not too shabby. I didn't like how the chapter ended, but I'm honestly just trying to hurry it along to the good stuff. This chapter is dedicated to JellyBeane and CassyKinz for being awesome and reviewing. This one's for you! As always, please review. I'm thinking about doing the next chapter in Jared's POV. I'll probably end up doing regardless of what you guys think, but I'd love some input on that.

Next chapter might take me a while. Finals coming up and all that jazz. No more than three weeks I promise.