Hey guys! So here's the next chapter. I'm so happy to see that people actually read this! Maybe it'll sound a little bit selfish but... Could you please try and leave a comment? You have no idea how much does it mean to me! It also gives me feedbacks about the story - Twilight is a very-very new thing for me, so I'm kinda clueless if I'm doing a good job or a sucky-one.

Please? Pretty please? :D

Anyway, thank you for your comments!

BlueDreamer31: You should see how big my smile is right now! :D Your comment touches my heart. It really feels good to know you like it that much! I won't say it's easy, especially since my native language is Hungarian so I have to translate every single word, think about it twice, and sometimes I'm still puzzled and unsure if what I mean is the same what I write. I just hope I dont mess it up x_X

Guest: Hehe, yes! :D Seth is a puppy. A really hot and cute vone... :3

Enjoy the chapter!

The morning of Thursday came earlier than expected. I spent the rest of the Tuesday's afternoon playing Halo with Kayla (she inserted a few bad words about my lack of normal clothes in her lines of 'DIE, MOTHERFUCKER, DIEE' which she shouted at the TV screen).

Her state in the case of my romantic relationship made me pore over the subject.

Maybe she was right.

Not that I think getting laid at the age of thirteen is completely acceptable – hell, no! Profoundly disgusting if you ask me. It's hardly to be expected that someone so young could have the mental and psychic state needed to work up all the things, actions, and consequences coming with coitus.

But she was dead on the fact that we've reached the age when we stand in need of romantic stuff like having someone to hug and kiss us and say charming pretty little words. I wasn't desperate about having a boyfriend but I wouldn't have minded having one. Though that was something I never thought about bona fide, not to mention telling it to someone.

Once again Paul was the one who turned out to have the unfortunate to have this conversation with me.

"Ya know the fridge never has an answer but it mesmerizes you with all the cold and glowing."

I jumped when I heard his voice and skillfully bumped the back of my head into the self of the fridge into what I've been leaning into. I took an upright position, stroking my aching skull with a pained expression.

"Do you think I'm overage?" Though it was my voice for sure it felt like belonging to someone else. I did not want to discuss this matter with Paul (Paul of all people, God's sake!) but the question slipped out of my mouth without hesitation.

He blinked at me, confused, for a moment. "Fooor… Looking into the fridge?"

"No! "Is hook my head not entirely in irritation. "For, you know… Not-dating."

"Not-dating?" he repeated with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged and nodded, looking at him more and more hopefully with every passing moment. Everyone knew he was a guy for flings and though he wasn't one giving good examples, he had experience, something which I lacked.

"Look, I know romance is no field of interest if yours, all I need is your opinion. Bearing of case is: I'm fifteen and hadn't dated yet but I think about it a lot lately. Also, all of my classmates go on and on about it, most of them have a girlfriend/boyfriend, sincere intention or not. You're seventeen and… well… According to the scuttlebutt you've gone around the block. So? What do you think? Am I too young? Too old? Old enough? What?"

Paul gave his head a scratch, an act of being put out of countenance. He wasn't unsure, though, it was just that the object was unusual of us. "Jinx, I don't think I'm the perfect person to correlate to. Neither is Kayla."

I gave out a repining sound. "C'mon, Paul! Who else am I supposed to discuss it with?"

"Your mom, your P.E. teacher, a teddy bear, Dr. Phil, I don't know! It's your problem, not mine!" Paul miffed, throwing his hands into the air.

I sighed fretfully and groaned. "I have no use of you."

I stepped back to the fridge and after raking the shelves I decided to warm up the spaghetti from yesterday. Paul was bending over the counter, leaning on his palms, making his upper arm tense. He had a strange grimace on his face, composed of irritation, impatience and cogitation. I knew he was dealing with the fact he's going to have a rather bothersome conversation with me.

I had time.

I put a plate of spaghetti into the microwave and watched it turning around slowly.

"Fine!" Paul yelled finally. I smirked in triumph. "I'm going to give you the bees-and-flowers talk."

"I've already got that five years ago, thanks," I rolled my eyes. "All I need is a simple 'yes' or 'no'." The microwave chirped so I went to take out my dinner. "My birthday is coming up!" I realized suddenly and desperately. "My birthday is coming up, and I haven't even had someone interested in me!"

Well, remember when I said I wasn't desperate to find a guy? Well, I was honest though I have to tell you that I was the kind of person who was able to go panicking anytime about basically anything. Right now, that thing was me getting old – I could already see my future, dying in the circle of twelve cat, sitting on a pizza box-throne. My body will be found after a week or so because the neighbors won't be able to stand the smell of my dry-rotten, dead body which the cats already started to eat. Yeah, that's going to happen.

Paul stopped me before I could've started panicking in deed. "Jinx! Your birthday is in August; it's only March. Besides, it's just your 16th birthday, not like the 50th one."

"It only means that I have five years left to be twenty-one, but since I'm precocious, I can add five more years which is twenty-six, which can be rounded to thirty, which is basically forty, which is closer to fifty than to twenty, so I should write my last will because I WILL FUCKING DIE!" I practically shouted the last part, much to Paul's displeasure. He backed a step thus keeping the enemy (me) in check and laughed malevolently.

"O-kay, sis, calm the hell down! You're making too much of your age. For the rest, if it means anything to you, I'll always be older than you."

"It does not!" I retorted harshly. "I mean… Men are like wine: as time goes by they become more delicious and of greater value. Have you ever seen Harrison Ford? "He gave me an 'are you for real?' look. Right. Star Wars was one of his favorite movies of all time. "Well, he was a sloppy boy as Han Solo. Then after a few years he started filming Indiana Jones and bum, band, getcha', he was freaking hot!"

"I can't have the floor on him. Not like that," He grinned cheekily. I spat.

"Just accept it. Now you see women are like bourbon after a time: they make you sick. For women it's going from Beyoncé to Whoopi Goldberg."

"One does not simply make fun of Whoopi, 'kay? Chick got her moves."

"And here I thought your genre is Jessica Alba!" I taunted, nearly all of the previous outburst's panic-like jangled-nerves gone. He shoot out his tongue and tugged at my ponytail as a revenge.

"On your age-issue… You're an idiot. "Yes, simply as that, he declared I'm an idiot, jumped off the counter and walked through the door.

"Thanks for the helluva talkin', you1re a crackjack!" I yelled after him, not really expecting an answer. He didn't give one but waved goodbye as he passed by the window, heading to the woods.

Well, he didn't give me a leg up.

"You shouldn't take Kayla's words as sacred writs," Gracie said the next day as we plod along the school's hallways. "In fact, you should do with them what the Jews did with the tabled of the law: put them in the Ark of the Covenant and never take it out."

"The Ark of the Covenant is not a proven fact, more like fiction, if you ask me. They had written memories about it but no one actually has seen and proved its existence."

"All the more it resembles Kayla's knowledge."

"Gracie!" I flicked her on the shoulder. Though I had to admit she was most likely right, Kay was still my best friend. "Look, okay, maybe Kayla is an extreme case but nevertheless I feel a bit behind-handed. I never had a guy telling me he likes me."

"Well, there was Jimmy…" she started but I intervened before she could finish.

"DON'T even mention him!" I felt a shudder of disgust running along my spine. It was a memory I would've been happy to forget. "Maybe I should do something feminine… What do boys think of as feminine?"

Gracie shrugged and turned a page. Sometimes I wondered how she managed avoiding falling down the stairs or smashing into someone. "Cheerleaders?"

I looked down on myself, giving extra heed to my baggy, gray hoodie once belonging to Paul. I tried really hard to find something cheerleaderly-pretty in or on me and when it didn't work, I imagined myself in one of those bitchy outfits they wore.

"Yeah... That's not going to happen," I stated after daring the inference and looked up at Grace.

"Well, you're part of the cross country running team and you can turn a somersault," Grace suggested somewhat at hr wits end.

"Really?" Tucker's face appeared above our shoulders. He was eating a particularly juicy hamburger so when he spoke it was equally disgusting and baffling. "You can? I don't believe you."

"You better do!" I proudly put my hands on my waist.

"Prove it!" He grinned defiantly, splattering crispy sauce-specks on Gracie who wiped it off her face without a word.

"Don't be stupid, Tuck, she won't be – oh my god, Jass!"

I was never one to turn down an opportunity to show one of my friends he was wrong so when Grace looked at me I was already sitting on my heels with my palms on the floor.

"Beware! Cannonball!" I shouted in order for the crowd on the hallway to make way for me. Most of them jumped aside forthwith, the rest did so when they realized what I'm about to do. Grace shouted something like 'you're an idiot', but I didn't listen to her and rolled forward.

After I gave the first momentum it came by itself after every roll. I don't know how many of them did I do but I'd say around seven or eight before I came in contact with something solid (a pair of legs) which took me out of my way. I had a dash at the wall, making me heel over like a tenpin. I satyed like that. Not because I was hurt or something but rather I heard Tuck laughing hysterically like one of those whistle dog balls and it made me laugh so hard I just couldn't get myself to stand up. Even my shoulder shook which could've been misconceived as sobbing in pain – and someone did so.

"Jass!" I heard Seth yelling my name wretchedly. Turned out his legs were the ones I bumped into. He kneeled down next to me and put one of his large and hot hands on my upper arm, slightly tightening his gentle grip after I didn't react straightaway. "Jass, are you okay?"

Grace and Tuck ran to me as well; the later still not suspended his heehaw-attack. "You're such a brat!" Grace told me, her voice contained much less worry than Seth's.

After a good minute of lying there shaking of laughter I managed to open my eyes and look up at Seth. Seeing my teary eyes his face first went into a horrified grimace but after he realized those were tears of joy he eased his features.

"Are you okay?" he asked again now with a small sanguine smile on his lips.

"Sure, it's… It's all fair and square," I affirmed him after I found my voice, though it faltered in the aftereffect of hard laughing sometimes. Seth sighed and closed his eyes for a moment before looking back at me.

Now that we were so close to each other, with me strictly speaking lying on the ground, leaning on my outstretched hand and him squatting right next to me, had I only realized how mesmerizing his eyes were. It had cast some kind of clogging spell on me – like the fridge. However, rather than cold, his eyes' magic lied in warmness. The glowing, I must say, applied to him as well though it was a rather inner-glow than an actual light-like thing. Had I been a poet, I'd have said his eyes were a real mirror of his soul and there was the gleam of his friendly warmth and love in those beautiful, dark, almond-shaped eyes of his. But I wasn't a poet so I just recognized that he had fascinating eyes. And basically every other part of his body was fascinating but that was something I kept for myself.

I must've been lost in my mind as I slowly became conscious of him talking (or more like gabbling). Not that it was surprising – he was always talking.

"…sorry! I did not mean to get you hurt, I just, I don't know, didn't see you coming, I mean, rolling towards me and when I did it was already too late, and… Huh. Are you sure you're okay? Are you in pain? Your head, shoulders, neck, anything? Should I accompany you to the school's doctor? You might have bruises or something…"

I bet he would've kept on truckin', but I interrupted. "Hey, hey, relax, Seth!" I chuckled and laid a palm flat against his rapidly rising-sinking chest. Okay, I must confess, I did so guided by a somewhat selfish desire rather than in order to clam his nerves down. But hey, don't judge – that guy was hot! And dang it, that chest…! I didn't know where Uley got his steroids but they were good ones. "Seth, I'm fine. Really! Though my head's starting to ache, trying to process all the stuff you say in barely one moment."

"Sorry," he hung his head low, "I've been told to shut up a few times already."

He was playing sorrowful pup again. Shit, why was he so unbelievably cute? "Aw, Puppy," I muttered unwittingly.

"What?" he looked up.

"Nothing!" I answered suspiciously hurriedly and looked around to find no trace of Grace or Tuck. They must've slipped by when I wasn't playing attention. The bell rang and I remembered I was supposed to already be at the classroom; I got up in haste. "I'm having physics right now so I must go."

"Wait!" he grabbed my hand and stood p as well. I looked at him questioningly. "I'm having physics, too."

I frowned in confusion. "No, you're not."

"Yes, I am."

"Weren't you attending chemistry?"

"I've ditched it," he explained with a bright smile. The idea of him actually ditching chemistry for me crossed my mind but I shooed it away. No, he just came round finally and realized chemistry is stupid.

"Okay, then," I looked to the side uncertainly then got going towards the physics classroom. Seth was next to me throughout, and seemed to easily pick up the pace which annoyed me given the fact I was one of the fastest runners on the team and he wasn't even straining himself to keep up with me. Nevertheless, he scampered like an overgrown puppy.

The physics classroom was in fact an auditorium with five lines of desktops, each offering seven seats, kind of unnecessarily large for a school with so little number of students. Surprisingly enough it was nearly always filled thanks to the fact that it was the least interesting course to most of the people and those who weren't fast enough to sign for something easy like American culture had to take physics in order to get the needed credits to graduate.

When we opened the door the teacher, Mr. Crabgrass was already writing a formula onto the big green board. Luckily for us, the door was on the other end of the room and he was showing his back to us so we had the chance to sneak in without him noticing. I crept along the edges of the desks, carefully bending down. When I passed by James Dogwood, I pilfered a chocolate ball lying unattended on the very side. He realized but said nothing; we were kind of friends (he was on the running team, too) so he grinned then turned back to copy what the teacher was writing. Finally I reached my seat and after slowly and silently lowering the folding seat, I sat down. Grace who sat next to me pushed my notebook and a pen to me. I descried gladly that she already wrote down everything to me.

Seth, on the other hand, was louder than me and when he tried to lower his seat hastily it whipped back with a loud knocking sound. All of the people in the room looked at him and he just stayed in squatter position with his eyes shut tightly.

"I suppose you finally decided to honor my class with actually showing up, Clearwater," Mr. Crabgrass said without turning backwards. That guy was one hell of a sharp-eared.

"I'm sorry, sir," Seth answered with his cheeks burning red in shame and finally took his seat. "I… I couldn't find the classroom."

"Dammit!" I whispered into the silence. Seth just saved my ass from being kicked out of the class for being late. Mr. Crabgrass had that thing for those being late, he just didn't accept explanations after a while and he was particularly biased with me. Not that I was always late but it happened… occasionally.

"Ah, Lockwood's arrived, too." He finally turned around and leant against the teacher's desk. He was in his late thirties with biceps as thick as my thighs. Not the typical physics teacher you would expect – add it to his piercing green eyes (he was only half-Indian, just like my father), short, shaggy brown hair and boyish face and you'd say he's a model.

He was the Satan himself.

"I don't know what you're talking about, sir," I responded unblinkingly. He raised an eyebrow and upended.

"The class's started seven minutes ago and you were late. Again. That means I can suspend you from class."

"I'm sorry but I must assert the contrary. I've been here all the time." I hated to lie (I was not brought up that way), but there was no freaking way I'd let him win.

Mr. Crabgrass raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Interesting. When I last turned around I was sad to find your seat empty."

Shit!

Think, Jasmine, think…

"My shoelaces got loose so I ducked under the table." Yes! I'm a genius!

"For seven minutes?"

… Or I am not.

"I guess I'm a gammy." Hah! I'm still shit hot at fabricating excuses. After all, Kayla taught me.

"And of course you also had time to write notes while under the table. Right?"

His voice was so pompous I had the urge to smash his face into the desk.

I held up my notebook (full of Grace's notes) and grinned smugly. "That's right."

He narrowed his eyes but since he had found no grip on me, he decided to let it sink.

In my case, at least.

"Clearwater!" I saw Seth raising his head very slowly, his eyebrows furrowed in despair.

"Yes?"

"Could you please tell me what do we see on the sheet?"

I haven't realized he had set up a small laser beam with a small slit and a screen till then. We were studying optics, more precisely the diffraction of light and I knew by instinct that Seth had no fucking idea about it – judging by the fact he looked like a lost puppy at the teacher's question.

"On the… screen?"

"Yes." Seth looked horrified.

"Uh… Uhm… Well, uh… I, uh…"

"Impressive, Clearwater. You clearly found the suitable course for you." Some people of the class laughed but after I sent them a hard glare, they had shut up. The impulse of killing Crabgrass grew with every passing moment – terrorizing poor little Puppy!

Seth blushed a deeper shade of red. "A play of light?" he asked finally.

"Yes, and the English Queen is a primate," Crabgrass grinned fiendishly. "Details, Clearwater. What do you see?"

Seth opened and closed his mouth, undoubtedly having no idea what was going on. Silence settled on the room, a rather awkward one – I guess the atmosphere similar to the execution's. I shifted uncomfortably; I knew the answer and I was dying to tell him somehow. How I wished I'd have telepathic thoughts!

"I don't know, sir," Seth said quietly after a minute or so.

"Excuse me?" Crabgrass asked, even tilting his head to the side as if he hadn't heard him clearly. Jerk, I narrowed my eyes at his delight.

"I don't know the answer, sir," Seth repeated louder and more embarrassed this time. The teacher smiled victoriously.

"Surprises, surprises..." He looked at Seth with a huge, predator-like grin before moving on his gaze, scanning the others. "Anyone else?"

"A kangaroo!" came the voice from somewhere back.

Crabgrass looked up at the ceiling. "Dogwood, shut up."

My time has come. "The diffraction of light caused by the light's waves bending around a barrier, the slit in our case. The light spots are the maximas, where the waves' interference is constructive thus the amplitude of the resulting wave shows positive growth."

Once again, there was silence – amused and eased one from the side of the class and a displeased one from Crabgrass.

I got you!

"That's right, Lockwood." Though in theory he was saying I was right, his face was twitching strangely, making it look like he was having a mild seizure. He turned around keenly and wrote another formula on the board. "Now, about the T representing the angle between the wave ray to a point on the screen…"

I was smiling to myself even when I was writing down the equation.

After class, I reached the door along with Seth, whose moves were slow and dejected. I unwittingly had to smile at him sympathetically.

"So… You're not one for physics, now, are you?" I asked him, the smile slowly turning to be teasing.

"It's not like that!" He tugged at the strap of his colorful shoulder-bag. "I was blocked by surprise. That's all."

"Tell that to the marines!" I retorted urgently. "Seth, why did you take physics? Why, at the end of the year?"

He hesitated for a moment and tried to speak a few times before saying, with an awkward head-scratch and a rather adorable (and hot) smile: "Would you believe me if I'd say because of you?"

I stilled immediately and looked up at him wide-eyed.

Did he just say what I think he said?

I was ninety-nine percent sure he did.

I felt my heart racing mad in my chest before it made its way straight into my throat, making me unable to speak. No, there was no way he meant it seriously. I was only me and I never attracted boys. Except for Jimmy, but it was different. I mean, he was Jimmy.

No. Seth Clearwater obviously weren't attracted to me, either, like the others.

"Yeah, sure," I smiled in disbelief and frustration. "I understand if you don't want to tell me the truth but you still suck."

He seemed to be about to disagree with me but he soon lowered his forefinger he raised up in resistance. "Yep, I guess I… I thought I'm smarter than I really am."

How could someone resist that sad tone?!

"You are smart, Seth!" Was I complimenting him? I guess I was. "You just need to get private coaching."

His eyes flashed with excitement and cheer. "Really?"

"Sure!" I looked at my watch which said I have barely five minutes to get my ass out on the field, change into sweaters and trainers and make up for the past days I've spent at home without training. "Look, I must get cracking to practice, but… Do you want to come over around five? I could tutor you best as I can."

If his eyes were flashing before they were now practically putting my eyes out with the aid of his bright and radiant smile.

"You would do that?" He stepped closer trustfully, the scent of him filling my nostrils. Gosh, he even smelled like chocolate! It made me wanna lick him… Which would've been kinda inappropriate.

"Of course." I boxed into his shoulder playfully. "We are friends, right?"

His smile trembled a bit at the term 'friends' but soon composed himself. "Cool! I'll see ya at five, then!"

I nodded and set off to the training fields.

I guess I had a date in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it wasn't the kind of date I've been waiting for.

Hey! So I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I would have one question towards you - I'm at my wits end at the question: should Jasmine be 'supernatural' as well? I don't mean like a werewolf or a vampire but something in relation with shamanizm... Would it ruin the story or would it be better? I'm planning to include her in the major events coming up, but I don't know which way would it be better (or which way would she turn out to be a Mary Sue).

Thank you in advance, guys!