A/N: Hello! It's been many months since I posted, but I honestly don't have an explanation. The inspiration for this story disappeared, but it's back! Updates will happen, I'm not quitting yet! Please enjoy!

Ch. 4 Jimi

I'm taken away to the dark side, I wanna be your left hand man.

Vance Joy

Over the course of the next few weeks, Jimi spent a majority of his afterschool time with Jana. The worked on the project together, with Jimi typing up the written paper and Jana creating a beautiful presentation out of things she'd collected from the forest. They also did homework together. Jimi helped Jana out with her maths problem sets without so much as a teasing word. It felt good to have someone he could just be around, without being hyperaware of his every move. What Jana thought of him didn't matter, not really, not in the way it mattered what his classmates and father thought of him. It seemed that Jana thought in the same manner. She treated him no differently than she did her friends.

They sat together in Jimi's bedroom, putting together the final touches on their project when a thought occurred to Jimi.

"Why is it we always study round mine?" he asked. Never once had Jimi been to Jana's place, nor did he even have the slightest clue where she even lived. Jana shrugged her shoulders without looking up.

"Dunno, it's easier this way I suppose," she mumbled, hot gluing a branch to the poster's border.

"Still, I wanna meet your family," Jana looked up sharply at that and gave the boy a fierce glare he took to mean no.

"Why not? You've met my father." Qin-Gon had been rather taken aback when Jimi introduced Jana to him. The true surprise had been when he'd been impressed by the girl. He figured it had to do with Jana mentioning her love and aptitude for science.

"That was on accident. Besides, it's not like…" she trailed off, searching for the words.

"Like we're friends?" Hurt seeped into Jimi's tone, though he fought hard against it. Jana's expression softened and she sighed.

"You know what I mean," she turned away from him and Jimi schooled his expression into one of disgusted apathy.

"How could anyone know what goes on in your head, Jana?" he draw her name out rudely, making it sound like an insult. Jana glared at him, throwing down the hot glue gun and gathering her things. She paused for a nanosecond to snarl at him then left, slamming the door hard enough that it shook for several moments after.

One step forwards, two steps back.

Break

Jimi was pretty sure that even after he hadn't really done anything wrong, he had to apologize, which was horribly unfair. He got to school, already dreading what he had to do. Upon inspection, it seemed Jana wasn't even there, nor were her friends. He sighed. Maybe she'd forget about the next time he saw her and he'd be in the clear. All he'd wanted to do was learn more about her, though he wasn't sure why he wanted that. Suddenly, something attacked him behind and knocked him straight to the ground.

"Hiya!" Long red curls danced in front of his face and he groaned. How mad was she? Was it that serious?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to knock you down," She sprung up and hauled him to his feet.

"What's got you so bouncy," he asked, rubbing his elbow. Jana was indeed bouncing, sending her red curls in a spiral of movement. He watched them, entranced for a minute.

"Full moon tonight," she replied, tipping her head back and shaking out her hair.

"So? What's that got to do with anything?" Jana looked at him wide-eyed and guilty.

"Nothing I suppose," she told him, her playful mood dissolved.

"Do you still wanna come round tonight?" Jimi asked, unsure of how and why the mood kept changing.

"No, I've got things to do. And besides, the project is done," she sighed, stretching her limbs and rocking on her heels.

"There's a physics test tomorrow. Maybe we could study for that," This was Jimi's roundabout way of asking her to tutor him. He'd die if he had to say the words out loud. Jana stilled, deliberating.

"I suppose," She said slowly, "I'd have to leave early."

"Yeah alright," Jimi said, somewhat dejectedly. Then, Jana caught sight of her friends and ran off, leaping onto an unsuspecting Tom while the rest of the group laughed. Jimi smiled at their antics.

"So are you, like, dating Jana?" Jimi startled, turning to find all three K's staring expectantly at him.

"What?! No way am I dating that gypsy freak!" Jimi stumbled away from them, his face turning bright red.

"Well, you're always with her!" insisted Katrina. The others nodded.

"Did you lot forget the huge project we have for Jefferies? She's my partner," He explained, irrationally flustered.

"Well, my partner's Shannon, but I don't spend all day and night with her," Added Kara. Kay bobbed her head up and down, smirking at him.

"What's going on?" It was just his luck to have Sam and Liam walk up just now.

"Nothing, just the K's being dim as always," he shot them angry looks then ushered his friends away from the girls. Just then, the bell rang and Jimi was safe, at least for the school day.

After school, Jimi waited for Jana to meet him so they could walk to his place. He looked around, determined to not let what happened in the morning happen again. Thankfully, Jana seemed to lose some of her energy and walked up to him normally.

They walked in comfortable silence. Jana observed the trees they passed and the clouds passing above them. Jimi observed her. He noted how smooth the pale column of her neck looked. He carefully committed to memory the sharp incline of her nose, the soft look of her mouth, the way her eyelashes framed her big eyes. It wasn't weird, it was just… analysis. He told himself her felt nothing when he looked at her, that his observations were clinical. Amazingly, Jana never once noticed his scrutiny. The reached his house soon after, pausing only to get snacks on their way to his room.

"Right, so physics," Jimi started, though he had no idea where he was headed.

"It's not so hard. You don't have to think so much. Just use the formulas," Jana explained. Jimi huffed, annoyed.

"We still have to understand the formulas!" He snapped. Jana rolled her eyes and pulled the book into her lap.

"Okay let's start with this," she said, pointing to the formula for velocity. For the next hour, Jana explained distance, velocity, and acceleration in ways that unlocked the mystery for him. Quite suddenly, it was just math.

"Oh! Okay I get it! You just take the derivative!" he exclaimed when solving a practice problem.

"Yeah, only you can't exactly use calculus," Jana laughed. Jimi grinned at her.

"Easy enough," He finished solving the problem and handed it to Jana to check over. She pursed her lips, going over the calculations with her own calculator. After a moment, she passed it back to him, smiling.

"You solved it!" Jimi whooped in excitement and leaned over to engulf Jana in a hug. She stiffened automatically, so pulled back, looking at her hesitantly. Jana looked at the clock behind him.

"It's getting late, I've got to go!" she hurriedly threw her books in her bag and dashed down the stairs. Jimi scrambled after her.

"Wait! I'll walk you!" he called, but Jana was already sprinting away, cutting through the forest behind his house. Jimi stared after her.

One leap forwards, two chasms backwards.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you thought and give me your critiques and concerns in the reviews! Till next time!