"Hello-oo!" my mother calls from the front hall.
Jacob left a couple of hours ago, said if I insisted on not feeding him then he'd feed himself. I don't really want to know what he meant.
"Mom?"
"Yes Sara?" She comes into the room, her industrial-sized purse slung over her shoulder in such a way that it seems like she's expecting to be mugged. Yeah. In Montana.
Though I guess not for long?
"Uhm...Sam said we're moving. So..." I raise my eyebrows, my question going unspoken.
"What?" She sighs. "Oh, that boy. He wasn't supposed to say it like that."
"But...we're moving?"
"Well, I'd hoped to discuss it with you first, but everything is just about set." My mother smiles that little 'this is happening, Sara, and nothing is to be done about it' smile. Beautiful.
Hang on. This is the part where, if my life was a movie (which would require exciting things to happen), it would be paused and the narrator would go on a wee bit of a tangent.
WE'RE MOVING?! Gah! Sweet! Anywhere would be better than here! As long...as long as it isn't in the south, because I like trees and snow, and hopefully there will still be trees, but whatever, I'll take what I can get, WE'RE MOVING!
Maybe I'll go to a real school? I've never been to a real school! Gah! I wonder if it's anything like how movies and books portray it.
"So...where...where to?"
Mom's smile gets wider, and the next words out of her mouth make it sound like absolute heaven.
"Northern Idaho!"
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WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! I wait fourteen years to be let out of this place, and we move to quite possibly the ONLY place that is more boring? What's from Idaho? You know what's from Idaho? The only thing from Idaho?
POTATOES!! POTATOES ARE FROM FRICKIN' IDAHO!!
...GAH!
We were supposed to move to a...a sexy state and stuff! A big city like from Wicked Lovely! Or maybe to Europe! I'd love to be the foreign kid in Europe! IDAHO IS NOT SEXY! Come on, New York or Arizona or California or something. Even Boston. Even Florida! ARGH!
Okay, okay, look at the bright side: at least it's not Wyoming.
"...Idaho, huh?"
"Yes, your father got a job there as a dean at a university. We're moving to Coeur d'Alene. It seems very interesting. Why, it's even got the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation!"
END OF...PART ONE, OR SOMETHING. WHATEVER.
((-three months later-))
A/N: I'm not so much into the drawing out of things when I have stuff to do. DUDE. Hang on: I just came up with this from Seventh Sanctum in the random names generator: Prince Jc Meadows. Oh. My God. HA!!
"Wow. Um, high school. That's intimidating."
"Ah, relax, freshman year is easy." Jake grins at me from the window of my new room.
"It is?"
"Well, the first day is."
"But...I'm coming in in the middle of the year."
"Oh. Well, you're just screwed then, huh?"
"Shut up, stalker."
"I am not a stalker!"
"You followed me from Montana to Idaho. You're a stalker. A creepy stalker."
"I'm a devoted friend."
"Fine, you're a creepy devoted stalker with nothing better to do than to stalk teenagers." He grins, kerplunking down on the floor and crossing his legs.
So, guess what, I was totally right about Idaho. It's sunny sometimes, but it rains a lot, which is good, and it turns out that I'm not even close to the reservation and that there aren't any werewolves on said reservation. Jake checked it out while I was unpacking. If you ask my mother, Jake just so happens to live in Idaho. Very near us. Oh, what a strange coincidence that is!
I still don't actually know that much about where he comes from. Washington, yeah, on the coast. When I heard that bit, I asked him about the ocean. I've never seen the ocean. I mean, I've seen pictures, and movies, but I just can't fathom something so big you can't see the end of it, if it's on Earth. Something with absolutely no points of reference or anything, just a...well, a sea of flat. How strange.
When I told him I'd never seen the ocean, Jacob just gave me this blank look.
"You've...never seen the ocean?"
"This just in: Montana declared a land-locked state!"
"You've...never...seen...the ocean?"
"No, that's why I keep saying it."
"But...it's the ocean."
"Yeah, if you just keep saying that, that doesn't mean I've seen it."
That was a fun hour.
Sighing, I tug down on my shirt. There's just no fixing it. I'm a stocky, well-built person with a little extra padding, and a too-big chest, which is apparently something people want even though I can't see why because no clothing fits me. Today I've gone for a black t-shirt and a blue Henley thing over it. I guess, if I'm going for that human-log look, it's okay. I mean, my waist is partially visible, kind of.
Oh, jeez, listen to me. I'm turning into some appearance-obsessed idiot. AH REFUSE TO CONFOIM!
Erm.
"Uh...I hate to ask this, Jake..."
"What?" He stands up, being way too bloody tall.
"Do I...you know...look okay?"
He fakes a gasp. "Sara...caring about how you look? How completely un-like you!"
I groan. "Jake."
He comes over, crossing his arms over his chest. I regard myself in the mirror, and see his reflection come and put his chin on the top of my reflection's head. I feel heat permeate from his head to mine.
"You look fine."
"Promise?"
"Quit stressing."
"I've never been to school before! For anything! Ever!"
"Yeah." He snorts. "I wish I was going with you." He walks away, plopping down on my bed.
I wish you were going with me too. I need somebody I know.
"You...you still have to go back. Won't your friends be looking for you?" I sit next to him, place my hand on his. He looks at this for a second, my pale little limb on his huge brown one.
His eyes meet mine.
"Yeah. But...I don't really want to. Not yet. Not if...I can still smell them there."
Again, a pang of curiosity rings through me. Them who? One of them is named Edward. That's not really a clue I can base a lot off of.
Unexpectedly, and rather uncharacteristically for me, I lean in and hug Jake. He pulls me closer, wrapping his arms around me, and it feels like he buries his face in my neck.
"I can't face it yet. Can't I stay for a little while longer?" His voice is muffled in my hair, but I understand him well enough.
"Yeah, buddy. Yeah. You can stay a little while longer."
I think I'll need you for a little while longer.
XXX
Wow, school is weird. Coeur d'Alene High School is, I guess, no different than you'd expect a high school to be. It's made of brick, and is on the whole rectangular, with jutting edges and random squares poking off in unexpected places, the entrance guarded by a flat roof.
But the school itself isn't what interests me. The kids, by God! What are these people wearing? It seems like some of them have literally just rolled out of bed, mostly the girls. They wear pajama pants and these puffy, fluffy, sheepskin boots that look more like tall slippers, really. A lot of t shirts have witty little sayings on them, and most of them I don't understand. Things in rhinestone lettering like 'Saw It - Want It - Got It' and 'Whatever' are emblazoned on the fronts of some of them.
I see one girl wearing a light blue sweatshirt. I can't quite make out the embroidered letters, because the second word is in only a slightly darker blue than the garment itself, but the first word is 'baby'. The second word looks like 'oink'. Ha! Baby oink! Apparently this girl finds these t shirt sayings as ridiculous and conformist as I do, and has chosen to portray her view on our consumerist society by wearing-
Oh, wait, the second word is 'girl'. 'Baby girl'. Ugh.
The guys tend to either wear blank t shirts or ones with 'funny' sayings like 'I'm out of bed, I'm dressed, what more do you want?' Oh, yes, short little blond kid, that's absolutely HILARIOUS. I'm laughing. SO HARD. Truly, a reflection on the human condition.
"Alrighty then, Ms. Ellison." The secretary currently manning the office hands me a schedule.
"Now, you'll have a school guide for today. Just one of the kids. Uh..." She looks down at her computer monitor, clicks a couple of times.
"Tristan Webster. He's locker 162, that'll be on the second floor. Have fun today!"
Yeah, that'll happen. Great, of course I get the guy named 'Tristan'. Beautiful. How about a name that, I dunno, COULDN'T only belong to a knight?
XXX (A/N: Yeah, I know, something similar happens in Night Cycle, but it's NOT THE SAME THING!)
"Uh...look, I'm sorry, I don't mean to bother you..."
Tristan turns around from his locker. Well, I didn't expect that. He's got sort of a delicate look. A very pointed face, his nose and his chin. He wears sunglasses, and I don't think he has bad eyesight, so they must just be for show. I can't, however, see his eyes because of this, and it's very disconcerting.
He takes off his baseball cap, and I am surprised that he was ever wearing one, because he certainly doesn't look the type. He's pale and thin, almost gangly, but not unattractively so. He wears black jeans, and a white shirt, his shirttails hanging out and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows to reveal skinny, muscular arms. His hair is black and shiny, coming to little points all around his head the way that my curly hair forms locks. They look like arrows down his face.
"Yes?" I still can't see his eyes, but I can feel the heat of his judgmental gaze, and I resist the urge to squirm.
"You're...um, Tristan?"
"I am. Do you need something?"
"Yeah. I'm Sara. You're my...school...guide..." I trail off at the end there. I'm not in my territory.
Once again, here comes the shocking news: I've never been in a school before. And high schools are BIG. I kind of need this guy, even though he looks like he should be in an alternative rock band. Oh, yeah, I could swoon over how good he looks, but I've never been very affected by that stuff.
"Really?" He takes a step closer, a smile playing at his stone white mouth, his hand going up to perch on the arm of his glasses.
"Yeah. I mean, I just need you to show me..."
"Well that's interesting," he whispers, almost too low for me to hear.
I resist the urge to say 'no, not really'.
He pulls his glasses down so that they perch on his nose, and I can see his eyes.
I almost stop breathing.
He has long, thick, dark lashes, adding to his delicate quality, but that's not why. His eyes...
They're orange. Mostly red, but like someone added in a slap dash of gold in there. Like fire.
I can't say anything for a minute. Almost against my own will, I can't speak.
"What is it, Sara?"
I gulp. Fire. Just like fire.
He smiles apologetically, sliding his glasses back up his knows. "My eyes. Yes. It is a...genetic mutation." His smile grows wider, almost predatory. "It runs in my family."
"Your whole family has...has..."
"Well, my brother and I." He winks. "I never knew my parents."
This might sound ridiculous, but I feel my jaw start to quiver of its own accord, my legs bend underneath me.
"Come on, now, let's see..." he takes my schedule from my hand. "My goodness, it looks like we both happen to have physics for our first block."
He looks at me again, his long, white fingers playing over his glasses arm again, like he plans to show me his eyes. He seems to decide better. He lights his hand on my arm, a beautiful smile and a dangerous glint to it lighting his face. I'm so desperately in shock, his fingers feel as cold as metal in winter.
A/N: I know, I know, I know. Mock me at will, youngins. And older-ins.