CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED IMPRINTING

By mzkittyy

Disclaimer: Refer to chapter one.

CHAPTER FOUR

The rest of the week passed by uneventfully. Ruby and her friends were loaded with homework including essays upon essays and pop quizzes so that took up most of her spare time. She barely had any time to do anything else besides study so it was a big relief when Friday afternoon finally rolled around. She could hardly wait for the weekend! Ruby and her friends were all going to spend Saturday down at First Beach as it was meant to be a rare, beautiful sunny day.

Saturday morning arrived bright and clear with not a single cloud in the brilliant blue sky. Ruby rolled over in her bed, enjoying the warmth of the sun through her bedroom window. She checked the time on her phone as she hopped out of bed. It was 8:30. They had all arranged to all meet at the beach about 10:00 before it got too hot. They had planned to mess around in the water for a bit, then have a nice little picnic lunch on the beach, and then spend the rest of the afternoon with the girls probably sunbaking and the guys surfing. Or at least attempting to.

Ruby decided to take a shower to wake her up a bit. Tasha was picking her up at 9:30 and she wanted to be ready by then as she hated to keep people waiting. She hummed quietly to herself as she stood in the shower, warm water pouring over her.

After her shower, she returned to her bedroom, trying to be quiet. Her dad, Anna and Madison all liked to sleep in on weekends and didn't normally get out of bed until around 10:00. When she got back to her room, she decided to wear her blue and white polka-dot bikini and chose a thin cotton wraparound skirt which was a similar colour blue to her swimsuit. Ruby didn't feel comfortable wearing only a bikini, instead choosing to wear either board shorts or a wraparound skirt and a bikini top. She was a little bit on the short side, and slightly pear-shaped, being quite slim from the waist upwards but slightly bigger on her bottom half. She quickly pulled a plain white singlet top over her bikini top and tied her strawberry blonde hair back into a messy bun. She grabbed her oversized black sunglasses (they looked like designer brand sunglasses, but they were from the local junk store and cost her only $10) and packed a towel, sunblock, her Ipod, and a magazine into her beach bag. Soon enough, she was ready to go.

She came downstairs into the kitchen, grabbing a banana for breakfast and sitting down on the kitchen chair. She peeled and ate her banana and just as she was finishing it off, she heard a car pull into her driveway. She tossed the banana peel into the bin, picked up her beach bag and walked out the door where Tasha's silver car was waiting.

"Hey Tash," Ruby greeted her friend as she hopped into the car.

"Good morning," Tasha replied, pulling out of the driveway. "How nice is the weather today? Perfect for the beach!"

"Yeah I know," Ruby agreed. "It's probably the warmest day I've ever seen here, and we have to make the most of it! I hope I get a tan! Maybe then I'll be able to blend in around here a bit more." Ruby wasn't pale or anything, her skin was a light olive colour. Compared to the rest of the La Push residents though, she looked like a ghost!

Soon they were pulling up to the small car park near First Beach. They were already a few other cars parked there as well.

"It'll probably get busy here today," Tasha commented. "We don't get very many days like this around here!"

"Oh look, the others are here already," Ruby pointed out. Their other friends had seemed to have just gotten to the beach moments before Ruby and Tasha, as they were unfolding their towels onto the sand. The two girls made their way over to them.

"Hey everyone," Tasha called out as they approached their friends.

"Hi," they chorused back.

"Pretty busy already, huh?" Tristan noted as he pulled off his white t-shirt.

Woah, Ruby thought, taking in the sight of him without a shirt on. His body was strong, lean and toned to the max, and he was hot. Ruby blushed as she realized she wasn't the only girl ogling him, and quickly averted her eyes. She felt a nudge to her side and looked up swiftly to find Tasha grinning at her as she cocked her head in Tristan's direction.

"I know," Ruby whispered to her friend.

"Damn that boy is fine," Tasha murmured back.

Ruby took off her singlet top, tossing it into her beach bag. She picked up her sun screen and began lathering it on herself.

"Oh great, you remembered sun screen," Gabrielle spoke up. "I totally forgot mine!"

"It's cool, you can borrow mine," Ruby offered.

"I'm just using tanning oil," Simone said. "I want to be more tanner."

"The only safe tan is a fake tan!" Tasha warned her, to which Simone replied by rolling her eyes and sticking her tongue out.

"Hey can one of you do my back for me?" Ruby asked her friends. "I can't reach it."

"I'll do it," Tristan spoke up, coming over to her and taking the bottle of sunscreen off her.

"Oh, um, okay," Ruby stammered, as he squirted some sunscreen onto his hands and began rubbing it into her back. She was blushing now, as her so-called friends winked at her and giggled amongst themselves. Ruby gritted her teeth and sincerely hoped that Tristan wasn't paying attention to her friends suggestive looks. But Tristan's hands felt so good on her back and she found herself relaxing.

"There you go," he said, when he had finished. "I think it's all rubbed in properly now."

"Thanks," she answered, a bit flustered now. She didn't know what was wrong with her, she didn't usually get all shy and embarrassed around guys.

"Ooooh check out the La Push gang," Gabrielle spoke up, cocking her head towards her left. Ruby squinted in the direction she was looking at and saw none other than Paul and the rest of his friends messing about near the water.

God he looks amazing without a shirt on, Ruby thought before she could stop herself. Oh my god, what the hell is wrong with me today? Why am I so boy-crazy all of a sudden?

"Well, they can't be that much trouble," Corinne said fairly. "I mean, Kim Connweller is dating Jared Thail, you know Paul's best friend? And she's a real good girl, like really smart and everything. I don't think she'd be hanging out with them if they were bad news."

"Well, I've heard that they go around calling themselves 'the protectors' or whatever?" Simone added. "Like, keeping the peace or something. They all hang out with that Sam Uley guy, the one who's on the La Push council."

Ruby leaned back on her arms, soaking up the sun and listening to her friends gossiping. She didn't really care about Paul and his gang of 'protectors'. Well, at least that's what she kept telling herself.

"You ready to go in?" Tasha asked, nudging Ruby. "I'm kinda hot now, I need to cool off."

"Sure," Ruby replied, getting to her feet.

"Last one in has to shout everyone an ice-cream later on," Todd called out as he ran towards the water. Everyone immediately jumped up and ran towards the water as well, shrieking as they dived into the fresh, cool water. Once they had all calmed down a bit, they all started arguing over who was actually the last one in, as no one had been paying much attention. Eventually, they just decided to let it go and buy their own ice-creams.

After a few hours of splashing around in the water, they all decided to get out of the water and dry off so they could grab some lunch. Ruby had had a lot of fun, although from time to time she could feel a prickling sensation on the back of her neck as if someone was watching her. She tried to shake it off and not pay any attention to it though. When she got back to her towel, she put on her white singlet top and wrung out her wraparound skirt to get most of the water out. Sitting down on the towel as the boys unpacked all the food, Ruby happened to glance up to see none other than Paul Meraz and Jared Thail accompanied by his girlfriend, Kim, walking over towards them. Ruby narrowed her eyes, taking out her sunglasses and putting them on. She then leaned back on her arms, trying her best to act indifferent, like she so didn't care that he was there.

"Hey Paul, Jared," Todd spoke up. "Kim." He nodded to each of them.

"Sit down, guys," Simone smiled brightly, her gaze directed at Paul.

"Are you sure we're not intruding?" Kim asked, chewing her bottom lip.

"Of course not!" Tasha answered back, flashing the shy girl a warm smile. "There's more than enough for everyone."

"Oh well, that's good then," Kim replied, returning the smile. "Jared and Paul here have the appetite of like, fifty horses."

"Typical men," Gabrielle said with a roll of her eyes, and the girls giggled amongst themselves while the guys just rolled their eyes.

"I hope you don't mind that Todd invited them to hang with us for a bit," Corinne whispered to Ruby. "He's pretty good friends with Jared."

"Why would I mind?" Ruby whispered back, shrugging her shoulders to show that she didn't care. When, in actual fact, she did. But no one had to know that.

It just so happened that there was an empty spot next to Ruby and she realised this as Paul moved towards her. Thinking quickly, Ruby called out, "Kim, come and sit next to me! I'm just dying to know where you got your swimsuit from." Satisfied, Ruby couldn't help but smirk a bit as Paul stopped in his tracks and Kim sat down next to the red-headed girl instead. Jared took a seat next to Kim and Paul sat in between his friend and Simone, who looked quite pleased with the seating arrangements.

"I just got it from that new swimsuit store that opened up in the La Push mall," Kim answered Ruby's question. "They have so many different varieties in there."

"Oh, well I'll definitely have to check it out then!" Ruby replied. "Chicken?" She offered her a plate of fried chicken legs.

Kim helped herself to a few and so did Jared. Ruby went to pass the plate to Paul and as she did, his fingers lightly brushed hers briefly, sending a chill down her spine and causing her heart to skip a beat. She pulled her hand back quickly, averting her eyes from him.

Lunch passed by rather quickly with a lot of chatter and laughter as the group of friends devoured every bit of their food. Ruby noticed that Simone was paying particular attention to Paul, throwing her head back and laughing at everything he said. Right now, for example, Simone was squeezing his bicep and going on about how toned and muscular he was and how many times a week did he go to the gym. She was flirting shamelessly with him and it bothered Ruby more than she cared to admit.

"You don't get along very well with Simone?" A soft voice spoke up to her left. It was Kim who had spoken.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, her face etched in confusion.

"Well all through lunch, you've been glaring a hole right through the poor girls head," Kim answered matter-of-factly.

"No, not at all!" Ruby quickly exclaimed. "I love her to death, she's a good friend." She flashed Kim a bright smile to prove her statement.

"Okay," Kim smiled back. "Although if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you have a little crush on Paul." The pretty black-haired girl grinned knowingly at Ruby.

"Uh, no, I don't think so," Ruby defended herself firmly. "He isn't a very nice person. I mean, that temper of his..."

"You know, you shouldn't be so quick to judge him," Kim replied. "When I first met him, I thought of him exactly the way you do. Then I got to know him a bit better and found out that he isn't actually that bad. He is a nice person, underneath it all."

"Yeah and he seems to have his heart set on me going out with him," Ruby added.

"Just give him a chance," Kim said. "Let him prove to you that he isn't who you think he is."

"I'll see," Ruby answered with a shrug of her shoulders.

After their conversation, both girls tuned back into the rest of the group. The boys had decided to try and surf and the girls decided to lay back and relax under the sun. The rest of the afternoon passed by uneventfully, and thankfully, Paul didn't try to talk to Ruby at all which made her afternoon a whole lot better. When the sun eventually started to set, the group of friends decided to go and get ice-cream, which they did, before deciding to go home. They said their goodbyes to each other, and Ruby managed to avoid hugging Paul goodbye, and then they each went home to their houses.

As soon as Ruby got home, she took a long, hot bath to soothe her poor sunburnt skin and the changed into her comfy pyjamas. No sooner had she collapsed on her bed that she fell fast asleep.

A/N: Oh god, please don't shoot me! I'm really, truly, sorry that I took so long to update! I had the dreaded writers block once again, it hits me from time to time and I hate it! Does anyone have any tips on how to beat it?

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I have to admit, it's not the best chapter and you may find it a bit boring. But from the next few chapters, things will really heat up between Ruby and Paul and they will have a lot more interaction and a lot more fighting and arguing! Also, I changed chapters 2 and 3 slightly, so I'd advise you all to go back and re-read them. I've decided to give Ruby a big reason for her move to La Push, besides her getting herself into trouble. Although, it is rather tragic and you won't be finding out until a bit later on in the story!

My authors notes always seem to go on forever...oh well a big thankyou to those who reviewed/added me to their favourite stories, I love you all so much *tear* and it's all because of you guys that I keep on writing. You are all my inspiration and I just want to hug you all to death! :)

xoxo -Kath-