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"Since the day I met you

and after all we've been through

Still a dick, I'm addicted to you!"

Addicted

"Joel is here." Dad said as he shook me awake.

It was six already? Luckily I had gotten up at five and had showered, dressed, and then laid down on the couch for some extra shut eye.

"Mmm, tell him to go away." I groaned.

"You agreed." I heard Joel say from behind my Dad.

"Fine, but you better buy me some breakfast."

Both he and my Dad started to laugh as I sat up and slipped my shoes on. I had no idea what we were doing today so I dressed comfortably; a pair of jeans, t-shirt, zip up hoodie, and comfy shoes. As for my hair; I threw it up in a pony tail and called it good.

"Don't worry, I'm hungry too." Joel assured me as we walked outside and to his truck.

"Are you going to tell me what we're doing yet?" I asked.

"Nope."

"You suck."

"Hey, I'd watch it if I were you. This is the guy that's going to be feeding you all day."

That shut me up; I was one of those girls that actually enjoyed food. Diets? Excuse me while I laugh. I wasn't fat though; I ate whatever the heck I wanted but had learned at an early age how to control my portions.

After we stopped at a nice little diner on the highway and filled up on waffles and bacon we continued our drive towards Seattle. We chatted about my Uncle's upcoming wedding before I finally raided his CD collection in the glove box. Finally I found one I wanted and stuck it in the player.

"What did you put in there?"

"'The Imprinting Mix'." I laughed. "Who gave you that one?"

"Your Uncle." He shrugged as the first song came on.

I knew that I probably wouldn't recognize any of these songs since my Uncle had probably made this CD before I was even born, but I kept it in anyway. The rest of the drive was spent listening to music and singing to songs we actually did know and once we hit the limits of Seattle Joel still refused to tell me what we were doing.

"Remind me to do this to you one of these days." I pouted as he navigated the city traffic in his truck.

That was when I learned that I did not handle city driving well. Growing up where I had had kept me sheltered from big city driving and all the stopping and going was starting to make me feel pretty sick. Suddenly those waffles weren't feeling too great in my belly.

"I'm gonna be sick." I groaned.

"Just close your eyes and relax, we're almost there." Joel said gently as he yet again hit the brakes, only this time he was a lot gentler with the braking process.

I closed my eyes after that and after about what I guessed was a half hour or so I felt the truck come to a stop and listened as Joel turned it off.

"We're here."

I snapped my eyes open and looked out the windows and all I could see were cars in a parking lot. But then I looked a bit closer I noticed the sign.

"You brought me to the University of Washington?" I asked in amazement.

He smiled, "Yeah, I wanted to show you that it wasn't too far away and I thought you should see the place you might be for the next four years."

I didn't hesitate or over think my next move. Instead I unbuckled my seatbelt and launched myself at Joel. He laughed and wrapped his arms around my back as I clung to his neck the best I could given that we were in his truck.

"Thank you!"

"You ready to explore?"

"Yeah!"

At five we decided we better start heading home. We grabbed a quick dinner and then walked back to the truck loaded with UofW t-shirts, sweat shirts, and hats. All of which had been purchased by Joel despite my protests.

"So Joel?"

"Yeah."

"I just wanted to let you know that I've completely forgiven you. I've gotten to the point where I don't even think about what happened anymore. I'm ready to have a real friendship with you again."

We weren't quite back to the truck yet, but Joel stopped dead in his tracks, set our bags down and swept me up into his arms. After he swung me around a few times he put me back on my feet and picked the bags back up with a huge smile on his face.

"But we're not about to just jump into a romantic relationship." I clarified.

"I know that, Lala." He grinned. "I can call you that right?"

"Of course you can."

***

"Is it true?!" Dad shouted as he walked into the house, fresh from work; which meant that he stunk and was covered in a layer of dirt.

"Is what true?" I asked nonchalantly.

After our day in Seattle I had only told my parents and everyone else that he had taken me to see the campus. What I didn't tell them was that Joel and I had completely made amends…or well I had forgiven him finally. So, now it was Monday and I assumed Dad probably found out at work where all the former wolves gossiped like teenage girls.

"Sam says that Joel told him that you said you had completely forgiven him."

I had to hold back my laughter because he had just proved my point about the whole gossiping girls.

"Why are you so excited about that? You do realize that the next step in the imprinting books is a romance."

"Oh hell no, he doesn't. Joel and I have already laid out ground work on that front." Dad stated confidently to which I only quirked a brow at him.

"Nice to know you're controlling my life." I muttered.

He ignored me, "I'm only happy because you and Joel were such good friends and I was always sorry to see that friendship go to waste like it did. You two used to be inseparable; I guess I better get used to that again."

Was he getting all emotional on me? I looked a little closer at him and sure enough his eyes were glistening a bit. I knew better than to call him out on that though; Livy did it enough for all of us. Paul Mire may have been the former badass of his pack, but he was such a softie when it came to his wife and kids.

"Come here." He ordered gently.

"Why?"

"Just come here."

I stood up and edged toward him. He wasn't going to try to touch me when he was all dirty like that was he? Oh yes he was, but when I realized that it was too late; he had already grabbed me and hauled me into his big arms.

"I can't believe my baby is seventeen." He muttered.

"Dad gross! You stink!" I shouted, effectively ruining the Kodak moment.

"That's what showers are for, Lala." He smirked as he pulled back and placed a kiss on my forehead before he released me.

"Where's my kiss?" Livy pouted as she walked into the room with a cookie in hand.

"I'll trade you one kiss for that cookie." Dad grinned.

Livy just shook her head, took a bite of her cookie, and walked away.

***

I wanted to personally thank the school board for hiring Eric Reid. Not only was he great eye candy, but he sure as hell knew what he was talking about. He managed to get me excited about writing papers when before I had usually groaned and resigned myself to my fate. He also picked books that he knew both Sophie and I would enjoy. In a few words: he was a hot intelligent English teacher.

I'm sure Sophie was sick of me practically eye raping her brother day after day, but she managed to pay me back by doing the same to Joel whenever she saw him. But for some reason I wasn't okay with that as she was with me. Whenever I watched her eyes rake over Joel's body I stiffened and clenched my fists, but I wasn't about to tell anyone that.

"Alright, I think you girls will like this paper topic. Instead of analyzing a play, book, or short story, I'm just going to give you guys a topic and let you run with it." Mr. Reid smiled as he handed us each a paper with the assignment on it. "I want you to write about the most influential person in your life, but here's the catch: they cannot be related to you."

Well that certainly limited things where I was concerned.

"This is going to be a relatively short assignment as it is due next week and after that we're going to start writing our own short stories."

"Only a week?" Sophie cried.

"It only has to be four pages double spaced." He pointed out. "You two can do it, and in the mean time let's work on reading 'Purple Hibiscus'."

Who was the most influential person in my life? Normally I would have answered that one of my parents was, but since they were out of the question I had to think a little harder. Although I was close to Abby and Addy, they really didn't influence my life that much and that went for pretty much everyone else in my life except Joel.

The more I thought about it the more I realized that he really did influence my life the most. Not just now, but before any of the imprinting stuff had happened. He had completely altered the events of my life by breaking off our friendship seven years ago, and he had done it again when he imprinted on me. And not only did he do that, but he would also continue to influence the rest of my life. That would be hard to convey in this paper without spilling the beans on imprinting, but I would have to make it work.

Of course that was easier said than done as I continued to stare at my computer screen. My word document was still blank besides my name and date and according to the clock I had already been sitting here for fifteen minutes.

Brownie decided to make an appearance then, as he crashed into the room and immediately dove for my socks. I didn't know what it was, but he loved nothing more than to ruin my socks with his teeth. Before he could do damage to this pair I picked him up and set him in my lap.

"Not these socks, mister." I told him playfully as I scratched his velvety ears.

That's when an idea struck me.

I balanced Brownie in my lap and quickly started to hit keys on the keyboard.

'The most influential person in my life is more than just that. What kind of affectionate word is 'influential' to give to someone who obviously means a lot to me? That's why I'm going to just dive in and not give him any title besides his name. That amazing person in my life, Joel, bought me a puppy for my seventeenth birthday and with that puppy also started to buy my trust back.

Our story has a past, present and future, kind of like 'A Christmas Carol'. And just like we see in the story, my story has to begin with the past, which was sometimes pretty ugly.'

I spent the rest of the afternoon writing the whole entire paper; that definitely was a record for me. But I had been hit with a major dose of inspiration and I needed to get it all out. Of course I would go back and edit things, but for now I was pretty happy with what I had written. Brownie must have too, because he was fast asleep in my lap and every now and then he would twitch as if he was running after a squirrel in his puppy dreams.

"What are you doing in here?" Ian asked from the doorway. "Dinner is ready."

"Oh sorry, I was writing a paper." I replied as I saved my paper.

Ian invited himself into my room and grabbed Brownie out of my lap just as I was about to pick him up myself.

"Yes Ian, you may come in and handle my puppy."

"He likes me." Ian shrugged as Brownie woke up and looked up at him sleepily.

"Put him on my bed and let's go eat."

He did as I asked while I watched and together we left my room and headed down the stairs for the dining room. Mom, Dad and Livy were already seated and waiting for us anxiously; if Dad's sneaky fingers in the bread basket were any indication.

"Paul, hands off the food." Mom said as Ian and I sat down.

"Well let's get this prayer said and eat; I'm starving!"

One thing that never changed about retired wolves was their appetite, of course that meant that they actually had to work out unless they wanted a big belly. Dad had a little one, but for most part looked pretty good for being over forty; so did Mom.

"So I had a funny thought today in class after I threw up in the bathroom." Mom stated casually once the prayer had been said and we had passed around the food. "What if I'm pregnant?"

Four eyes snapped up to meet my Mom's twinkling dark brown eyes. Pregnant? What the hell? She was already forty one and that meant that I would be almost eighteen years older than any new baby.

"Natalie…"

"But I'm not; apparently the doughnuts in the teacher's longue had gone bad and I didn't notice." Mom laughed.

"That was not funny." Ian stated.

"I got all of you." She grinned and took a bite of mashed potatoes. "Don't worry; I'm not about to raise another kid. I'd be sixty by the time I finally got rid of it."

"Thank God; I love you Nat, but I doubt I'll be able to keep up with a teenager when I'm nearing sixty." Dad chuckled through a mouthful of chicken.

"Besides we'll have a cousin soon." Livy added happily.

"Yeah, a baby we can enjoy and send home at the end of the day." I grinned.

"Got that right." Ian agreed.

"I can't wait until you guys have children…well I can wait, but you know what I mean." Mom stated. "I don't want to be a Grandma for a few years, Viola."

"Whoa! I don't think you have to worry about that!"

Ian chuckled darkly, "We all know how imprinting works, Lala."