First things first:
THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH FOR ALL THE REVIEWS/STORY ALERTS/FAVORITING STUFF THAT YOU GUYS HAVE DONE! GRACIAS!!
Second:
Thanks for sticking with me. This had been a long time a coming. As always, enjoy and review!
"You what?"
Kaitlin held up her hands, widening her eyes to try and appear innocent. "Whoa girl, retract the claws."
My jaw dropped, and I glared at her, knowing that silence was key. Kaitlin had a retort for everything, so just glaring at her would be more productive than getting in a screaming match with her.
She sighed, her shoulders slumping as she dropped the feigned innocent expression. "I made Jared talk to me," she mumbled, staring down at my bedspread.
"I…you…stupid…why…fuck…shit…you…" I couldn't even string together a freaking sentence!
She looked up at me pleadingly. "Kim, please, you were suffering so I had to do something, so I did."
"You grabbed Jared out of the hallway and shoved him into an empty classroom and forced him to tell you what was wrong by blatantly threatening him?" I asked, my voice growing louder with every word.
"Yes," she said in a very small voice.
I glared at her.
She tried to smile at me, but the expression fell from her face when she saw my expression.
"Kimmy-"
"Kim."
"Kim, look, I can't handle this anymore. All you do is mope. Yeah, the boy was a dick, a complete ass, but everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days. Everybody knows what I am talking about, everybody gets that way."
I scowled at her feeble attempt at lightening up the situation.
"Sorry," she said quickly, apologizing for her Hannah Montana stint. "But the lyrics ring true and magically rhyme at the same time—everybody does make mistakes, and believe it or not, I am totally convinced that the kid loves you."
"Do you even know what he said to me that day?" I asked.
She shook her head no. "When I talked to him, he said that what he told you that made you angry had to remain a secret."
I snorted. "Please. He told me he was a werewolf. I mean, how ridiculous is that? Does he think I'm an idiot? It's just some stupid fucking ploy he's doing with his friends because they probably enjoy messing with me! God, it's so fucking messed up! I mean…" I trailed off when I realized that I for once was doing all the talking, and that Kaitlin was completely silent. "Kaitlin?" I asked.
She had a troubled expression on her face, her forehead wrinkling almost like she was doing complicated math.
"Kaitlin?" I repeated.
"It makes sense," she whispered, not meeting my eye.
"What?" I asked. "Be kind; rewind."
"It makes sense," she said in a louder voice, meeting my gaze. "The werewolf thing."
"WHAT?"
Is she fucking bananas?!
"Well, I was doing some research for that history project, the one with Andrew," she explained, her expression looking dreamy for a second before she shook herself and continued clarifying. "And I found a book about Quileute heritage. Apparently, we've descended from wolves, which you already know from the legends, but do you know about the cold ones? Vampires?"
I nodded. I knew the legends by heart.
"Oh, well, you know that vampires kind of…stare the wolves, like, spur on the transformation. And I'm sure you've heard the rumors, the ones the Cullens."
I nodded again. People here were convinced that the Cullens were vampires, though I didn't believe them at all.
"Well, yeah, if the legends and the stuff that I read is true, and if the Cullens, are well, vampires," she whispered the words. "Then the fact that they reside near La Push would mean that…some of the boys would be…let's call it changing into werewolves."
I stared at her for five full minutes of complete silence before finally saying something.
"Kaitlin, are you okay?"
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying that maybe you should let him explain himself."
"Are you telling me that you think that Jared Haida is a werewolf?"
"I think it's a possibility," she amended with a grimace on her face.
"My own best friend turns on me," I muttered mostly to myself, falling back in my bed and placing the pillow over my face.
"I'm not turning on you," she disagreed, and I could feel her lying down next to me. "I'm just telling you what I think, and you know, you should trust the doctor's opinion."
"That makes no sense," I said, my voice muffled by the pillow.
"Well, you know what my mom does for a living, so I am just going to consider myself your doctor. And I am telling you to talk to him and let him explain things, so you should do it."
"Bossy bitch," I muttered, thinking that she wouldn't hear or understand me.
But she did, of course. "You know it," she said. I could hear the smile in her voice.
~~ -- ~~
I found the first rose on my doorstep.
The second was in my locker.
The third taped to the desk of my first period class desk, which had a typed out card that said "To: Kim—Sorry".
The fourth was waiting for me at the lunch table.
The fifth given to me by Paul, who smirked at me and then walked away.
The sixth and seventh were in my locker.
The eighth was somehow sneaked into my backpack during gym.
The ninth Kaitlin had, which she gave to me outside my last class, the one I had with Jared. The butterflies were frantically flying through my stomach, crashing into each other and creating more nerves.
"From Jared," she said in a sing-song voice and tucking it into my hair. I sighed and grabbed it, adding it to the bouquet I've had to carry with me all day, much to my embarrassment. "He says he's sorry."
I glared at her. "You talked to him again?"
She held up her hands for mercy. "Retract the claws please," she said.
I sighed. "Sorry," I muttered. "I blame it on stress and embarrassment."
"It's alright," she said, awkwardly patting my back. "It's romantic though, isn't it?"
I shot her a look.
"Look, even though you say that you don't like him anymore, that doesn't mean that you can't say that it isn't romantic, because damn girl, it totally is. Nobody here has ever done this before."
"Yeah, 'cause it's freaking embarrassing," I muttered, dipping my head a bit so my hair fell out from behind my hair, hiding my face from the curious glances coming from the other students and even teachers at my school.
I heard her sigh, and then, probably because she for once didn't really know what to say, Kaitlin opened the door for me, allowing me to walk in and take my seat, where I promptly found yet another rose.
That makes number ten.
I sighed, adding it to my bouquet. I knew that Jared wasn't here yet, so I subtly lifted the bouquet to my nose, not resisting the scent of roses. They were one of my favorite scents, despite being overly clichéd.
I stiffened when I heard the chair beside me being pulled out, making a grating sound on the tiling of our classroom. I quickly laid the roses down on my lap, knowing that my cheeks were burning as I felt a pair of eyes on me, specifically his pair of eyes.
Fortunately, before I could blurt anything to completely embarrass myself, Mrs. Smith started the class.
"Alright everybody. Today, tomorrow, and Thursday will be your last days to work on the research and write up of your project. You will get Friday and the weekend to work on presenting, and the presentations begin on Monday."
Somehow, Jared and I were already finished with the research of the project, though I don't know how, and we only needed to work on the final draft of our write up. Unfortunately, this meant talking.
Crap.
"So you all need to get to work. This project is a large part of your grade, so get cracking." She smirked at us all and returned to her desk, looking over some paperwork. I sighed heavily and refused to make eye contact with him, slowly placing the roses on top of my backpack and staring at the tables that we used as desks.
"You want to get started on our final?"
I resisted the automatic urge to flinch at the sound of his deep voice, choosing instead to nod my head.
I did jump, however, when I felt his fingers lightly grip my chin, turning my head so I looked him in the eyes. We seemed to share an immeasurable moment, just staring at each other. His brown eyes were filled with such depth—I couldn't look away, although my instincts were yelling at me savagely.
Finally though, my nerve seemed to leave me. I laughed a bit dryly, sounding slightly hysterical and looked away, causing his fingers to drop from my face. I found myself missing the warmth his fingers brought, no matter how crazy and ridiculous that sounded.
"Lets get started then, huh?" I grabbed a slip of paper and began writing quickly, keeping my eyes trained down.
Surprisingly, we worked well together. He never crossed anymore lines, which I didn't know whether to be thankful or happy about, and we finished our draft as the bell rang. We could proof it and type it up tomorrow or Thursday.
"Hey Kim?"
I turned automatically at the sound of my name, my eyes widening when I saw that Jared was holding another rose.
"This is for you," he said softly, not seeming to care that now everybody knew that it was him giving me the roses, and that since this school was so small, our reservation was so small, that everybody would soon know what he's doing.
"Thanks," I squeaked lamely, holding it in my hand. I couldn't help but notice that all the thorns seemed to be gone, as they were on all the other stems. That was…nice, thoughtful even.
He nodded, making an expression that it appeared like he was hesitating to say something, but then he was gone.
I sighed, looking down at the rose for an extra second before adding it to the rest and gathering them all in a pile.
That's eleven.
"Miss Chehalis, may I speak with you?"
I looked up, nearly knocking over my chair since I was in mid swing of putting my backpack on.
"S-sure," I stuttered, immediately nervous. I've never been talked to by a teacher before, because I was Kim; quiet, reserved, smart, shy, and overall a good person.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
I turned to look at Kaitlin, who had heard the whole thing, with a panicked expression on my face.
"I'll, uh, be outside," she said, giving me a half reassuring smile half worried smile before heading out the back door, leaving me alone with Mrs. Smith in the room.
I slowly turned to look at her with wide eyes.
Unexpectedly, she smiled kindly at me, looking the nicest I've ever seen her, and spoke in a warm tone, like she was my mother or something, which was extremely suspicious and creepy, all at the same time.
"Kim, you don't need to worry about anything. It isn't a bad thing that I've asked that we speak about."
Is it a trick?
Like she could read my mind, she quickly shook her head. "Teachers can be nice, you know. Sit down, please."
I immediately fell in my seat.
Mrs. Smith slowly stood up, meandering her way over to where I was and unexpectedly taking a seat at the table next to mine.
"Kim, I want to talk to you about Jared."
"What?" The word was out of my mouth before I could control it.
She nodded. "Yep. We're going to talk about Jared. Now I know that your mom probably doesn't approve of dating, because, well, this is La Push, you can't really hide things. So you most likely don't have anybody to talk to about this, unless you feel comfortable enough to talk to your sister about this?"
I shook my head.
She chuckled lightly. "I thought so. What do you think about Jared?"
"I…uh," I gulped audibly. This was really awkward.
"I won't tell anybody," she reassured me. Think of it as doctor patient confidentiality. Nobody will know what transpired today. And please don't feel weird about this. I know that you probably talk with Kaitlin about all of this, but I thought that you would maybe like the opinion of somebody much more…let's call it mature, shall we?" Even I chuckled at that; I could see her point. "So talk to me, Kim."
And I did. Because to tell you the truth, it was nice to just get it all out. To just speak and let somebody who didn't know my history and my full personality, and let them take their view in my "situation". And Mrs. Smith was a good listener—nodding occasionally at what I said and just letting me get it all out of my system.
There was an awkward silence, however, when I finally finished, about seven minutes later.
Wow, way to keep it bottled up Kim. That flowed like extremely carbonated soda out of a shaken up bottle.
"Kim. You love him. He loves you, obviously. I honestly don't see the problem. You are the one running and keeping both yourself and Jared unhappy, and you are the one who won't allow him to explain himself. You are as responsible for this as Jared. And, you shouldn't be so self conscious. You're a beautiful girl Kim, and I know that weird to hear from an adult, a teacher no less, but it's true, and you shouldn't have such a low self esteem. Right now, what really only matters is what Jared says, and you can't listen to what he's saying if you keep running. Running isn't going to get you anywhere, no matter how much sense that makes."
There was another awkward silence.
"I really do think that he loves you. In all my years, I have never seen a boy work so rigorously to get his girl," she added thoughtfully, smiling slightly at me. "Just give him a chance, okay?"
I nodded, still in too much awe to speak.
~~ -- ~~
I found the twelfth rose on my doorstep. It had a note attached to it, with Jared's writing on it. It looked to be a torn piece of blue construction paper.
Kim,
So there's this bonfire coming up that I'm going to with the guys.
And I was wondering if you'd like to come. With me.
I'd really like it if you came, although I know that you already know the Quileute legends,
it'd be awesome if you came.
Tell me what you think at school tomorrow.
Always,
Jared.
I held the note up, reading and rereading several times.
"Just give him a chance, okay?"
Alright then.
Sooo, hit or miss?
I know that I'm probably messing up this whole timeline thing, and that the bonfire should probably come later, like, during the summer, but I'm trying to speed things up.
Review with your thoughts!!
