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"Hi, Jacob." Alissa Tanning greeted me, shyly.

"Hey, Alissa. Ready for the audition? I've heard that you'll have no match this year…" I answered, happily; I really liked Alissa, she was a very sweet person.

"Yes, I've heard that, too. The lack of social life has to serve you for something, Loserissa," interfered Laurie from the other side of the room.

All kids that were in the locker's room area stopped messing in their lockers to look at poor Alissa, who became almost purple with shame. Some of them started laughing with the awful cheer leader from hell, but most of them just shook their heads in disguise, and continued doing whatever they were doing before.

I really hated that stupid friend of Nessie. She was still trying to affect me because I refused all her invitations and insinuations.

First, she had convinced Nessie that she couldn't have lunch with me; it would be a gossip reason to the whole school if we hang out too much, and Nessie was avoiding all things that could lead to gossip. At least, that was what she told me when she explained why we couldn't hang out anymore. Then, she introduced that unworthy peace of garbage to her.

Lately, she discovered that she could make me mad putting the delicate musician from my Science class down due her infatuation on me. So she had used all the opportunities to deprecate Alissa knowing that it would annoy me.

The shy girl never once tried to hit on me, she just liked to be around and talk to me when we were in class or having lunch, and I liked having her around. She was exactly the opposite of Laurie. She was nice, discrete, honest, and Edward said she was a good musician, too – he had watched her last guitar recital at the school.

"Come on, Nessie," Adam Rottwer called, distracting me from the little drama.

I looked at them just before they turned around, and went shocked by a mocking smile playing on Nessie's lips. For a moment that vision made me so frozen that I couldn't think about any good reply to Laurie's teasing.

In the last three months I tried my hardest to be patient and understanding about Nessie's erratic behavior, but I never thought that I would see her smiling that kind of smile some day.

When I told her that her parents had allowed her to join the cheer leaders as long as she could keep a low profile she had been thrilled, throwing herself at me, and kissing me all over my face which made me laugh. I was always happy to see her happy.

But I was noticing little changes on her personality, bad ones. For example, she started to hang out a lot with the humans. It wouldn't be a bad thing if she wasn't with the cool kids, the ones that were mean to the rest of the school, and considered themselves above everybody else.

I tried to talk to her a few times about this, but she just shrugged, saying that she was adapting to human interactions, and that I should be glad that she was doing so well. I told her about my concern of her being not so much friendly with the kids that her friends didn't consider worth, and she looked confused and hurt, telling me that she would do better, which she did. For about a week.

That was the same time Laurie introduced her to the football team's captain, the little brat Adam. Laurie was mad after my refusal to kiss her in a party after the team's victory in the regional finals – the team would try interstate after that – and she thought that making Nessie date some random guy would be a good revenge. And she was right.

At first I thought that my girl wasn't interested on him; she had already refused a lot of date's proposals, and I wasn't too much worried about Adam. Maybe that was my mistake because I didn't try to tell her what a bad person he was – always making fun of the students that had scholarships, and making the younger kids trip down on the cafeteria – and she accepted.

I spent the night trying to calm my nerves waiting for her to come back, and when she did it was only to announce that he had asked her to be his girlfriend.

"Jake, come on. I don't wanna be late," she complained, pulling me out of my deep thoughts in the car.

"Sorry, Ness. Don't you have practice today?"

"No, we cancelled so the girls would have more time to get ready for the party tonight."

"Another one? Don't they get tired of getting wasted?"

"Whatever."

It was true. Every time they threw a party it was the same thing. Just a bunch of kids drinking theirs minds out. I usually went just to make sure nothing happens to her, but I was getting tired of the whole getting drunk, and vomiting routine.

She flew out of the car without looking at me twice, locking herself in her room, probably getting ready for the stupid party.

I knew I would eventually follow her scent there to check on things, and make sure she got home safe and sound, but I needed some time alone to think. So instead of going to the house I went to a quick run.

It was very difficult to phase in the area, but I always managed to stay out of human sight due to my inhuman senses. It was a little risky, but I had to keep phasing to prevent aging. Plus, it was so much better thinking on wolf form. It seemed that it was easier to organize my mind as a wolf than as a human.

It was raining heavily and most part of the city was desert, everyone hiding from the bad weather which made my run very easy, and I ran freely during quite some time. I wasn't ready to go back home just yet.

Going home those days was equal having to face an angry Nessie and I wasn't in the mood for a fight. But I started to get hungry, and the night had come a while ago so I just called a night, and went back.

Bella was on the porch waiting for me with a worried face.

"Jake, is Nessie with you? She had an argument with Edward and disappeared from her room a couple of hours ago," Bella asked me as soon as I stepped on the front yard.

"What? You're vampires, Bells. How the hell did she managed to pass for you without getting noticed?"

"Edward was upset and Bella was trying to calm him down, mutt. Carlisle is in the hospital and Esme, Alice and Jasper went to the airport to pick us up," Rosalie said from the living room.

"Nice to see you, too. Hey, Blondie, do you know why blonds like BMW´s? Because they can spell it."

"I've heard that one, too."

"Can you both stop? Jacob, do you know where Nessie is?" Edward said in that hurried voice that he only used when he was very worried.

"She said she had another party tonight. Maybe that's where she went."

"Yes, that was the argument subject. I tried to reason with her because tomorrow it's school day, and I didn't think it was a good idea to sleep late," he explained, sighing.

"Don't worry, I'll get her. I have a pretty good idea where the party is."

Bella handed me the key from Edward's navy blue Aston Martin, and I headed to Adam's house. His father was a sales representative in a big cosmetic company that travelled a lot, and his mother was a hostess in a fancy restaurant down town. Therefore, the house was pretty much clean of adult supervision the most part of the time.

I could hear the loud music two squares away from the house. The porch and yard were full of teens, all of them with cups in their hands filled with liquids illegal to their age. Most of them were already too drunk to tell me if Nessie was there, but it didn't take long for me to pick up her scent.

I follow it to the large kitchen were she was in a circle of boys and girls, sitting in one of the guys lap. One that wasn't her boyfriend. And by the way, the moron was no were to be seen. Right when I entered the room she kissed the random guy full in the lips. Apparently, they were playing true or dare, and she was just dared to kiss him.

A rush of wrath sent shivers through my body, and I felt it starting to shake. Even today I can't exactly describe what happened next.

I just remember having jerked her off the guy's lap in a harsh movement, knocking him down in the process – he was very luck of only falling on the floor, hitting his arms in a way that would leave some bruises, but nothing serious – and cared her to the car, throwing her in the passenger's seat while she screamed and thrashed.

But I didn't care; I was too enraged to pay attention. I had suffered seeing her kissing Adam, but, at least, for that I was prepared. She was his girlfriend, and kissing him was only natural. But seeing her kissing a guy just because she was dared, acting like Laurie and her sluty friends was beyond my patience.

"You're just jealous because no one wants to be with you besides that insignificant Alissa Tanning," she yelled, outrageous, her cheeks colored in a deep red.

"No, I'm not. I don't have the slice amount of jealous of you and your snob friends. And Alissa is insignificant only for Laurie and her gang. One day she'll be a great musician, even Edward said that," I yelled back, hitting the gas so hard that we were already close to our house "And what about your boyfriend? What do you think he would do if he saw that?"

"He is not my owner, it's not like I'm gonna marry him, anyway. I can't marry a human, remember?" she replied, getting out the car in the second I stopped the car, slamming the door on my face, and running to her room.

"Jake, what happened?" Bella came to me with a stunned face, after Nessie had shouted to leaver her alone.

"Not now, Bells, please. I found her and she's fine, just upset because I crashed the party. We talk tomorrow, okay? I need to sleep." I pleaded, sighing in frustration, and went to my room.

I couldn't sleep all night, thrashing on my bed, trying to figure out how I could solve this issue. I went alone walking to the school the next day because I wasn't in the mood for another fight with Nessie or having to face her precious friends. I was starting to question how really happy I was living with them.