"I don't suppose either of you know the square root of 26?" Jamie asked hopefully, looking over at Collin and Molly. She was sprawled out on her stomach on the living room floor, and Collin was sitting on the couch with his notebook on Molly's ankles as she rested her feet on his lap, leaning back against the arm rest.
Both of them shook their heads as Collin spoke, "Nope, not a clue."
Jamie sighed in mild disappointment. "Oh well, maybe Kori or one of the others will know."
The front door in the kitchen opened and closed and Jamie barely heard Emily say, "Hi Brady."
"Hey Em, hi Sam." he greeted in response as he headed toward the living room.
Jamie could've sworn she heard Sam mutter, "Good luck." when Brady passed, but she couldn't be positive. When he entered Collin smirked knowingly at him.
"Hey bro." he greeted, his smirk still in place.
Brady glared at him. "Hey." he muttered before looking down at Jamie, who looked back up at him with a smile, causing his face to soften with a gentle smile in return. "Hey." he whispered.
"Hey. Um, I don't suppose you know the square root of 26 by any chance, do you?" she asked, looking up at him pleadingly. It was the last question on her stupid math homework! She just wanted to finish!
Brady smirked down at her, not sitting down like she expect him to. "Are you really asking me for math help? Man, you really are desperate." he teased, causing her to pout up at him.
"Yes! I am!" she exclaimed, dropping her face into her math book, causing everyone to laugh.
Once the laughing subsided, Jamie looked up at Brady, seeing him extending a hand to her. "You wanna take a walk with me real quick?" he asked nervously.
Jamie looked past him into the kitchen, where she could barely see Sam sitting at the kitchen table through the doorway. He was almost always sitting there, mostly because Emily was always in there cooking. She wanted to make sure it was okay, since she was still grounded for a few more days. Sam met her eyes and nodded.
"You can go for a bit, Jamie, but not too long. And when you're back, maybe I can help you with your math." he finished with a teasing smirk.
Jamie stuck her tongue out at him. "Gee, thanks." she teased as she shut her math book and accepted Brady's hand to help her stand up. They walked out the front door, loosely holding hands as they headed towards the woods. Part of Jamie was scared to go back into the woods; after all, the last time she was in there she was almost killed by a vampire. But a larger part of her knew that Brady would never let anything happen to her.
When they were just out of sight of the house, Brady stopped them and sat on a large boulder, patting the spot next to him until Jamie sat beside him.
She watched him silently for several moments. He looked like he was thinking about what to say, his back hunched with his elbows on his knees, his hands buried in his cropped, black hair.
After awhile, he took a deep breath before speaking. "Okay, you took the whole vampire and protectors thing pretty well; but there's one more part of the legends that you really need to know."
Jamie tilted her head slightly. "If it's so difficult for you to tell me, why don't you just wait until the bonfire next week? I'll probably hear it then, won't I?" personally, she didn't want Brady to wait to tell her. She didn't like not knowing, especially since it seemed to be bothering him. But at the same time, since it seemed to be upsetting him trying to tell her, she didn't want him to get hurt somehow, if he really didn't want to tell her.
Brady nodded with a shrug of one shoulder. "Yeah, you'd kinda hear about it then, too. But…this is something I need to tell you." he finished quietly.
"Okay." she murmured quietly in response.
Brady sighed again, seeming to calm himself down. "You know the 'Third Wife' story?"
Jamie thought for a second before nodding. "That's the one where Taha Aki's wife saved him from a Cold One by stabbing herself, right?" Brady nodded. "Yeah, I love that story. What about it?"
Brady took a deep breath again. "Well, did you ever read or hear anything about what-exactly-the Third Wife was to Taha Aki?"
"Um…his wife?" she asked uncertainly.
Brady smirked weakly. "Yeah, that. But she was something else, too. See, there's this thing-this ability, I guess- that we gain when we phase. It's called imprinting. Basically, the Spirits set aside a specific girl-or guy-for each wolf. And when the wolf looks into his or her eyes for the first time after they phase, they imprint. Which basically means…they're…a perfect match. Almost like a soul mate, but stronger. And it's not necessarily love at first sight; the wolf would do anything, or be anything, for their imprint. The imprint's safety and happiness is all that matters."
Jamie nodded as she thought all of that over. "And how many members have imprinted so far?"
Brady looked up towards the treetops as he thought. "Well,…Sam was the first, and he imprinted on Emily." Jamie smiled at that, she could've guessed that one. "Then, Jared imprinted on Kim, Seth and Kori imprinted on each other, Embry imprinted on Liz, then, uh…Quil imprinted…" Brady trailed off as he looked down and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
Jamie narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, trying to guess who Quil had imprinted on, but she couldn't think of any girls Quil brought around all the time. Well, except for…
"No!" Jamie snapped in shock, making Brady wince and look at her guiltily. "Claire's, like, four! That makes Quil a pedophile!"
Brady sighed. "It's not like that, Jamie. Trust me, I've been in his head before, I know he doesn't see her like that. Do you really think Sam, or Emily, would let him live if it was like that?" Jamie eyed Brady doubtfully, knowing he was partially right. "Quil sees Claire as a little sister. Maybe when she gets older and if she wants more than friendship with Quil, then they could be more than that, but right now they're more like brother and sister."
Jamie sighed and looked at the ground. "Okay, yeah I guess you have a point. He doesn't look at her in a gross way. Anyway, who else has imprinted?"
Brady smiled, relieved that she took it so well. "Paul imprinted on Rachel, Jacob imprinted on Nessie, and I imprinted…" he finished slowly.
Jamie tried not to flinch when Brady said the last one. So, he had imprinted, too. For some reason, it kinda stung to hear that, but she didn't know why. After all, he was her best friend. She should be happy for him, no matter what.
"That's great." she finally spoke, her voice sounding weak and scratchy despite trying to sound excited for him. "So, uh, who's the lucky lady?" she tried to sound interested, she really did.
Brady looked over at her, caution clouding his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath, letting one word fall as he exhaled, "You."
Jamie's heart stopped. Then, it stuttered and started pounding in her chest, while a warm, bubbly feeling she didn't recognize erupted in the pit of her stomach. However, despite her body's reaction, her mind seemed to be a little more hesitant.
"You-you imprinted on me?" she repeated. Brady nodded in answer, watching her nervously. "Does-does that mean," her throat closed briefly as she tried to force the question out, "Does that mean that you only became my friend because the Spirits forced you to?" her voice sounded weak, pathetic. And she hated it.
Pain filled Brady's eyes as he looked over at her. "No. Absolutely not. The imprint doesn't force us to do anything. It points our other half out to us, sort of like a flashing neon sign. It gave me an extra push, that's all. Even without the imprint, I still would have cared about you. I mean, what about Collin? And Quil, and Jared? And all the other guys? None of them imprinted on you, yet they care about you, too. I swear, Jamie, the imprint didn't force me to feel anything."
Jamie eyed Brady doubtfully. But despite her uncertainties, she could feel a swirl of emotions in her gut, telling her he was telling the truth. Was that the imprint?
"Okay," she started slowly, drawing the word out as she looked up at him, "so, what does this mean? Like, for us?" she asked uncertainly.
Brady looked her straight in the eyes, all fear and nervousness gone from his dark eyes. "It means whatever you want it to mean. It's completely up to you, Jamie. If you want, we can just stay as we are, just best friends."
Jamie looked down, eyeing the brown, crumbling leaves beneath her tennis shoes. The sensible part of her knew that she was nowhere near ready for anything more than friendship, that she had enough problems with Rick and everything going on to focus on an actual relationship. However, the teenage girl part of her was sending blood to her cheeks at the thought of being 'more than friends' with Brady.
She cleared her throat, looking away from him for a moment before speaking, "Um, I think we should, you know, take it kinda slow?" she spoke uncertainly, looking up at Brady to see if he was upset. "Like, maybe just stay as we are for a while, and maybe date later on, you know?"
Brady offered her a small, warm smile; nodding his head in answer. "Yeah, that's probably the best idea for now."
She nodded with her own smile. "Okay. Friends it is."
XXX
Okay, I know I've been slacking off with updating, but I've been getting a little lazy lately, and I've been having a case of writers block. But I'll try to update more frequently. Promise!