"...those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."

-George Bernard Shaw

Shay had just woken up and was checking the time on her phone when a message beeped its arrival.

Her heart jumped a beat when she saw Jacob's name. He hadn't put it under the Big Bad Wolf after all, just Jake, which she didn't even feel she had the right to call him yet. She bit her lip and opened it.

Hey, sorry I couldn't pick you up yesterday. Do you need a ride today?

The text message hung in blank space. She leaned against her headboard and thought of what to do.

If she accepted a ride from Jacob, one of the other guys might be there. And even though she wasn't fighting with any of them, it still felt weird. She didn't want to be in the vicinity of Kim, and Kim was so intertwined with the pack that just being around them was enough to feel awkward.

She'd been through a lot of emotions in the past few days, but she still couldn't believe that of all the people, Jacob was the one she was most comfortable with in all of this. Her relationship with him had always felt strained, and she could never guess what he was thinking.

But now he was being understanding and kind. If you told her three months ago that Jacob Black would be texting her first thing in the morning and offering her a ride, she would've asked how hard he hit his head.

He actually could have hit his head, she thought suddenly, in the accident...

She chuckled at herself and picked up her phone. She typed and deleted a few times before settling on what to say.

Thanks, I can drive myself. See you at school.

She didn't know why she felt a little sad as she started to get ready.

"So I'm absent for one day, and you've managed to drive Shay away?" Jacob angrily stabbed at his lunch, glaring at Embry.

"Hey, I didn't do anything. And neither did anyone else." He put his hands up in defense. "This is a total girl thing."

Jacob's eyes slid over to Jared and Kim, who were still on the lunch line. Kim looked a little more hunched than usual, almost curving into Jared's side.

"Also, you've technically tried to drive her away for months," Paul commented, shoving fries in his mouth. "So youf onf ta talk."

"That's attractive," Embry said, grimacing as Paul swallowed.

"So what happened?" Jake asked, trying not to sound like a whining kid.

"Jared just said her and Kim had a fight, and not to bring it up in front of Kim." Embry shrugged. "But they're best friends. They're bound to make up soon."

"I just don't know why Shay's avoiding us too." Jacob couldn't hide his whine now.

"So what, you like her now?" Paul asked bluntly, staring at him.

Jacob's eyes flew to meet his briefly before rocketing back down to his lunch.

"I don't...I never didn't like her—"

"Okay! Okay," Embry clutched his heart and laughed. "This boy has amnesia. He must be suffering from memory loss."

Jacob's sheepish look turned to a glare.

"Alright," he rolled his eyes. "Fine. Yes. I like her. I just want to be around her, I guess. Nothing crazy."

"So you're pretending that you just like her as a friend?" Paul asked.

"We are friends," he protested.

"Friends who love each other romantically," Embry added.

"I don't remember you always being so annoying," Jacob muttered, taking a swig of his water bottle.

"You're avoiding the question."

"I answered the question."

"So you don't have romantic feelings toward her?"

"I don't know. Everything you feel with an imprint is amplified." He rubbed his temples. "Bella's wedding is in a month. I'm running out of time with her, so it feels selfish to hang out with Shay. But I still want to get to know her."

"Simon Hote is getting to know her instead." Paul wiggled his eyebrows.

Jacob's eyes turned to stone as he white knuckled the table edge.

"Don't make him phase please, I want to finish my ham sandwich," Embry whined, patting Jacob's arm.

Jacob released his grip on the flimsy wood and did his best to calm himself down, despite the fact that he wanted to lunge at Paul, or Simon, or maybe both.

He didn't have time to do anything, though, because now Jared and Kim were joining them on one side while Seth came up on the other.

"What are we talking about?" Seth asked, settling into his chair.

"Taking chances," Embry said, winking at Jacob.

"With what?" Seth asked, but thankfully he was drowned out by Jared asking Paul about a car part.

"I'm not trying to annoy you," Embry said lowly to Jacob, hoping no one else was listening in. "I'm just saying, if your feelings have changed, you should do something before it's too late."

"What am I supposed to do?" Jacob asked.

"Throw your hat into the ring," Embry said simply.

"Throw my hat into the ring?"

"You know, put yourself in the game."

"I know what it means."

"Then do it." Embry grinned. "Can't win if you're not playing."

When Shay moved here, her mother thought she would hate school.

"It's much smaller than you're used to. You might...stick out."

Shay didn't know what she meant until she came here and everyone stared at her for three straight weeks. A bunch of kids talked to her then, but because she wasn't good at small talk, a lot of them gave up and took to giving her long glances and hushed whispers.

She knew now they were just curious—she was one of the first new kids in a place where people knew each other their whole lives. As time passed, and they realized she wasn't all that different or interesting, she blended in more.

But for some reason, the feeling bubbled back up in her when she didn't have Kim to walk the halls with.

She hugged her books to her chest and kept her eyes low.

It had been a few days since their fight, but Kim's words still kept echoing in her head. She wasn't ready to forgive, and she'd hardly spoken to the guys outside of class. While that would've once been normal for her, she now acutely felt the loss of being surrounded by so many voices and people.

It had been a bad week, to say the least.

And now she was standing outside for gym class, feeling vulnerable and exposed as the air nipped at her legs.

Simon was talking to Kala near the benches, and the guys were ten feet from her at the end of the field.

She was in for the fresh hell of softball today, and to say she was dreading it would be an under exaggeration.

"Okay, you have one minute before we're dividing into teams!" the teacher announced, clapping his hands.

She spotted Jacob staring at her from the edge of the group and he waved, giving her an almost sad smile.

She waved back before averting her eyes.

He shouldn't feel sorry for her. She was fine.

She had Simon, when Kala wasn't around. She had good grades to keep up. She'd just mailed in her official acceptance to attend Seattle University. Her life was going just fine.

Still, she avoided his eye the rest of the period.

She didn't need him seeing anything in her eyes.

Jake and Quil walked down the hall to English, their heads above everyone else's.

Jake noticed Simon Hote in front of him, his lanky arms swinging as he walked next to his best friend, Joseph.

He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but his hearing was pretty good, so he couldn't help but listen in.

"Why are we going this way?"

"I just wanted to see Shay before school's over."

"So you're dating now?" Joseph asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Well we've only been on one real date," Simon shrugged.

"She's been hanging out with us a lot this week."

"What, you don't like her?"

"I didn't say that," Joseph said, shrugging. "She's quiet. I barely notice her."

Barley notice her? Jacob never liked this Joseph kid anyway. He could probably fling him down the hall like a boomerang.

"She's just getting used to you. I'm going to ask her to go to the movies this weekend."

Jake's annoyance bubbled to the surface, thinking of how he'd barely seen Shay all week and now she'd be hanging out with this toothpick this weekend. He was having trouble with the actually being friends with her part when he couldn't actually be friends with her.

Since the vamp had shown up, his feelings of protectiveness toward her had tripled. The boys were still taking shifts every hour of the day to make sure everything was okay, but he felt disconnected if he couldn't talk to her every day, and she was making it difficult.

He'd thought about just sticking her and Kim in a room together until they made up, but Jared shut that thought down quickly.

"Movies, huh? A nice, dark place," Joseph said, nudging Simon in the shoulder.

Jacob's insides clenched and he decided yes, it would be very easy to knock Joseph down the hall and make it look like an accident.

"Shut up," Simon said, thankfully not mentioning anything else that would make Jacob want to explode.

Still.

He smelled Shay before he saw her, vanilla and berry and something floral. Before his brain had really formed a plan, he was bypassing the two idiots in front of him and heading for her locker in quick strides.

Shay just closed the door when Jacob materialized in front of her, breathing quickly.

"Hey," she said, "You okay?"

"I'm great," he smiled. "So my sister is coming home for her birthday this weekend. I really want you to come to the party on Saturday."

His words were a little rushed, and Shay blinked a few times before realizing he was inviting her somewhere.

"Oh, well it might be kind of weird, you know I'm not really speaking to Kim."

"Her and Jared can't make it," Jacob said smoothly, talking a bit slower now, but still seeming to want her answer. "So you're in?"

"Oh, um. Sure."

"Great!" He beamed, and she was suddenly glad she hadn't turned him down. "Now I also need to get her a gift. Since we're getting out early from the whale ceremony tomorrow, would you maybe want to help me pick it out? There's this store she loves about twenty minutes away that we can go to."

"Well I don't really know her, so I don't know if I'll be much help—"

"I trust you." He gave her puppy dog (baby wolf?) eyes. "Please?"

Her insides twisted and replaced her confusion with willingness.

"Okay, sure."

"You're the best. I'll see you then."

He patted her shoulder and left a warm feeling in his wake as Simon appeared from behind his big form and watched Jacob retreat.

"What was that?" Simon asked, as Jacob smiled at her and walked backwards, waving before finally turning back around.

"Oh, he just asked for my help with something," Shay said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "No biggie."

But honestly, she really didn't know what that was. And for some reason, she didn't feel like telling Simon about it.

"What was that?" Quil asked as Jake reached where he and Embry stood near Paul's locker.

Jacob's eyes shot to Embry, whose own eyes widened in delight.

"Did you do it?" Embry asked.

"Pretty much."

"He did it!"

"Did what? What happened?" Quil asked, eyes flicking back and forth between them.

"Our boy," Embry grinned, throwing an arm around Jacob's shoulders. "Finally threw his hat in the damn ring."

Ok, that was a pretty quick update for my standards. Are you proud of me? As usual, I accept thanks/thoughts in the form of reviews. Thank you! =)