Chapter 9

All I can think about is ways to approach my imprint without seeming weird or creepy.

I didn't want to freak her out with the whole wolf and imprinting thing right away.

That might send her into shock or cause her to call the psychiatric ward on me.

My friends met me at the door anxious to see how I was going to handle things with my imprint, with the exception of Leo, he's still out of the loop on the whole wolf thing.

Sometimes it seems as though he drifts in and out of the group because he feels we keep so much from him.

He's often asked us why we miss so much school and why we are always so busy after, but we can't tell him the truth.

My heart begins to race as I approach her locker.

She glances at me out of the corner of her eye, but then seems to be organizing her books.

"Hi Mason." Some random girl says twirling her hair and smiling leaned up against her locker.

Suddenly a bunch of other girls who I've never even seen before, but they look to be seniors are smiling and waving as they pass by me.

I just try to keep my focus as I make my way over to my imprint.

Two girls are staring at me and walking until they hit each other head on and stumble off embarrassed.

Jack and Henry make themselves visible taking some of the attention off of me.

They stand by some lockers and begin talking to a group of girls.

Their eyes stay focused on me, showing which conversation they're most interested in.

Finally I take a deep breath as I get beside her locker.

She hasn't even noticed I've walked up; her head is still stuck inside her locker.

"Hey ummm… I'm sorry about what happened the other day. If he messes with you again you can tell me and I'll take care of it."

Startled she drops her books from her locker and her cheeks turn bright red.

I bend down to pick her books up for her, but we bump heads and she falls flat on her back in the hallway.

"I'm so sorry; please let me help you up." I say extending out my hand.

She springs up off the floor on her on and runs to class leaving her books on the floor.

In anger at myself I turn and instantly punch the locker next to hers.

The locker door flies off the hinges showing a clattered mess on the inside.

I pick her books up and go to put them in her locker, but I see it's locked so I just keep them with me with intention to give them to her in person.

This will give me an excuse to talk to her again.

I look over and see Jack and Henry holding themselves up on the locker with tears coming out of their eyes from laughing.

"Not a word from you two!"

This just made them laugh even harder.

"I found these books in the hallway. I'm not sure who they belong to, but I would like to return them." I say to Mrs. Newton in the office.

"You can just leave them here and we'll get them back to the owner."

"That's ok I can do it, I'm just not sure how to find them."

"Well you could start by looking at the inside cover, maybe there is a name in there."

Of course, all I had to do was look in the inside and I would know her name.

How did I not think of that?

I open the book and see what it says.

"Can you tell me what time Grace Warren goes to lunch?"

"She goes to lunch at 11:30."

If she goes to lunch at 11:30 this means she's in 8th grade which is a grade below me.

I skip my fourth period class and go to the lunchroom to meet her.

She wasn't hard to find, she was sitting shyly at a table all by herself reading a book.

"Hey Grace, I wanted to return your books. You left them in the hallway and your locker was locked so I figured the least I could do was bring them to you after I acted like an idiot."

"Thank you." She says putting her nose back in her book.

"Do you mind if I eat with you? I'm pretty hungry and I don't get lunch until 12."

"Sure go ahead." She says never raising her head up from her book.

I go and get my lunch and awkwardly set beside her with my full plate.

"So if you have 8th grade lunch, then why are these 9th grade books?"

"I am in 8th grade; I just take a couple of 9th grade classes."

"So you're like really smart. Maybe you can help me with my work sometime."

She doesn't respond and just keeps reading her book.

The bell rings and she closes her book and quickly gets out of her chair and leaves the lunchroom leaving her books once again.

It's obvious she's not into me at all, but at least I got another excuse to see her again.

This time I wait until the end of the day to return her books.

"You forgot these again, so I thought I'd make sure you get them to your locker this time."

"Thank you." She says and begins walking off.

"Hey wait!" I run to catch up with her, but she doesn't stop.

"Let me walk you to your car. Craig could be out there or something."

I continue walking beside her not really sure if she wants me to or not.

"Do you see your ride here yet?"

"I actually don't have a ride, I walk, it's only about five minutes from here."

"Let me walk with you and keep you company." I plead.

"You actually want to be seen with me?" She asks confused.

"Why wouldn't I? You seem pretty cool to me."

She nods her head over towards a group of people laughing and pointing at her.

She can't hear what they're saying, but I can and it's definitely not polite.

"They're idiots and I don't value their opinion. I still want to walk you home."

"If you're going to play a prank on me then just do it already." She says in frustration.

"I'm not here to play a prank. I just want to get to know you."

"Please, just leave me alone." She says walking off.

Naturally I follow her command and I am forced once again to watch her walk away.