Perhaps you'd like some Filling?

A/N: Well, it has come to my attention that everyone seems to think that Thomasina is either eccentric or a stalker. She is actually neither of these, and the chapter after this one will make all that unpleasant confusion go away. Also, a couple mistakes from last chapter have been fixed, so... yeah.

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Collin often felt a little left out of the group. He wasn't the youngest of the pack, not anymore. He also had Brady, who was as close to a real brother that he would ever get. But Brady... fit. He fit with the others. He was loud and tough and liked to fight over random things. Collin was not sophisticated by any means, not even compared to the rest of the pack, and he wasn't refined. He could certainly hold his own with almost all of the older guys, too. He was closer to being as fast as Leah than anyone else, nearly as good at phasing as Jake, and had beat Paul's ass into the ground on more than one occasion.

But... it still remained. Collin didn't fit as well. He felt just as welcomed as all of his brothers, knew he was as cared for as the rest of them. He just... did his loner thing. Kind of like Paul, but Paul had his imprint. And he was one of the original three. Collin was also freakily wise beyond his years. He was only just barely 18, in his final year of high school, but whenever any of the pack wanted advice on something, something that they didn't want to immediately let their Alpha know that they couldn't figure out themselves, they went to Collin. Collin always had an answer.

So when the Beta of the pack had stared at the napkin with his imprint's number on it for a collective ten hours (two hours after he had got back from the leech scare, then three hours when he should have been snatching sleep, another two hours over at Sam and Emily's place, one half while he was showering (perhaps that one didn't count, since he just closed his eyes and saw it floating there... perhaps that was why he had taken such a long shower...), and the last two and a half when he was supposed to be checking over Brady's homework), he knew that he had to ask Collin.

Collin laughed at him for almost 15 minutes straight. All he'd done was ask him when he should call her...

Collin heard him approaching, long before his heavy footsteps sounded on the porch. He wondered what his Beta could possibly want - they'd just come from a meeting.

"Door's open!" he called when he heard Seth hesitate in front of the door.

It banged open, making him cringe, maybe there wouldn't be a mark that he'd have to explain later, if he was lucky that day.

"You always do that, it creeps me out."

Collin opened his mouth to point out the obvious, even going to far as to make a pointing gesture, when the taller boy interrupted.

"I know, you can hear me coming - I could hear you breathing, you know - but at least have the decency to let me knock and feel normal before screaming at me..."

His Beta had a far off look again, one that he'd worn all through the meeting.

"Dude, are you still freaking thinking about ways to talk to Thomasina Anne Sykes? Jus-""I talked to her yesterday." Seth said suddenly, not seeming to notice that he'd cut Collin off.

Collin heaved a sigh of relief, "Oh, fina... wait. You didn't call her Her. What's up?"

"I met her. I just... I felt kind of like a stalker if I used her name and stuff before I actually met her, and she told me herself. Well, more of a creepy, 'I'm-a-normal-human-and-am-watching-you' kind of stalker."

The younger boy nodded, "Alright, that makes sense. If you would have just said that, or even thought about it at the right time, none of us would have ragged on you about using her name, you know? Now why the hell are you interrupting my vegging time?"

"She gave me her number, when should I call her?" he said abruptly, without any preamble whatsoever.

Collin stared at him for a moment, blinking, before erupting into loud, raucous laughter. After a minute of this laughter, Seth began tapping his foot. After four minutes, he sighed loudly. After a full ten minutes, Collin stopped laughing, looked at him straight in the eye, pointed at him, and began laughing even harder. Seth endured a good five minutes of one of the lower ranking wolves pointing and laughing at him. He knew damn well that Collin wouldn't tell him squat if his eye was swollen shut, his nose possibly broken, and blood was trickling out of his mouth.

"Alright!" Seth yelled, finally having had enough. Still chuckling, wiping tears from his face, Collin sat back up from where he'd fallen over earlier.

"Okay, okay... but... did you seriously just ask me that?"

"Yes Collin, yes I did. And if you do not intend to answer me, I will go ahead and grind you up into little itty-bitty Collin-bits."

Collin sighed, and considered how to best answer his Beta. The wrong answer would probably get him a broken nose, and if the right answer didn't work, that he'd probably get a broken arm. Hmmmm... what a conundrum...

"Listen, did she seem really excited to give you her number?" A slow nod. "And when did you get her number?"

"Tuesday at noon. That's when she always comes into the shop..."

"Okaaayyy... going to ignore the creepiness of that statement, and move on. So, you got her number yesterday at noon, and it is now Wednesday at 3:30 in the afternoon. It's been barely over 24 hours, so not quite yet. Since she has school in the morning, I'd say call her tonight instead of tomorrow. Probably around... oh, 5 or 6."

"Why shouldn't I call right away? To show how interested I am?"

"Noooo way, No, capital N. That's a little bit on the desperate side, calling directly after school lets out. No, 5 or 6 shows that you're very interested, since you called the immediate day after, but you do have a life. Wouldn't want the girl to think you do nothing but think of her all day long, now would you?" Seth gave a long, drawn out sigh before flopping on the couch next to Collin. "Annnnd now I have nothing to do until five thirty. Fantastic."

Collin stared incredulously at Seth for a moment, before flopping back down as well, not being able to stop one thought from worming to the forefront of his mind. 'Annnnd now I have a nervous wreck of a Beta on my couch who expects me to give him imprint love advice until five thirty. Fantastic.'