Above the kitchen sink sat a small, single panel window. A small house plant sat on its ledge, its green leaves a far cry from the vibrancy of the trees that lined the small road in front of the house.
Typically, Kim went about whatever business she had at the sink, while keeping an eye out for Luca as he played outside with Kevin, but today, her eyes were stuck on the trees that stretched out before her.
Sometimes, she likes to imagine that when Luca has been raised and has his own life, she'll walk down River Song Road and disappear into the trees that surround it, their practically neon leaves swallowing her like an embrace. She thinks Luca will miss her in the beginning, but by then she will simply be a ghost ship in the sea of trees, and she knows he'll eventually be able to salute her from the shore.
A loud screech pulls her from her daydreams and her eyes fly over to Luca attacking Kevin with a large stick, instantly dispelling all thoughts of disappearing and never being found.
Hastily muting her ipod blaring "Summertime Sadness", Kim slides the window open and sticks her head out, squinting through the perpetual mist that clung to their village.
"Luca!" she shouts to get his attention. He pauses in raising his stick above his head as Kevin takes the opportunity to grab a stick of his own. "What did I say about playing nicely?"
Before Kevin can take a swig at Luca, she continues, "And Kevin! I know your Ma wouldn't approve of any revenge, now would she?"
Kevin sighs and lowers his branch. "No, Miss. Kim."
Kim can't help but crack a smile at how the duo hang their heads like scolded puppies.
"Alright Luca, it's dinner time," she calls out. "You should probably head on home as well, Kevin."
"See ya Luca!" Kevin waves to her brother as he runs off down the lane to his own house. Kim watches until she sees the door open and the younger boy is let in by his mother. Hearing the front door open, Kim leans back into the kitchen and slides the window shut again.
"Make sure you take your shoes off," she calls to him in the foyer as she shakes off excess water from her recently washed jar..
"First you drag me to your job where I have to stay cooped up with that hag watching the news, and now you stopped me from winning an epic battle!" Luca enters the kitchen with his list of complaints.
"An epic battle of sticks?" Kim asks with a raised eyebrow. She glances around him and finds his muddy shoes tossed off by the door.
"We were playing knights," Luca grumbles as he crosses his arms petulantly.
"Wash your hands," Kim instructs him as she steps into the foyer to put away his shoes. "There are plenty of games you can play that don't involve violence."
She turns around in time to see Luca squinting up his face and repeating her words in a mocking way. Ever since he's turned 9, he's grown more and more disrespectful towards her, and every day it grew harder not to lose her patience with him.
"I made your favorite, cheesy pasta," she tells him in an attempt to better both their moods. It works as he instantly perks up and rushes to set the table. Kim smiles to herself as she brings over the pot and sets it on the table. The kid still had some manners, it seemed.
As Luca practically inhales his food, Kim takes a moment to observe him. In her mind, whenever she imagined or dreamend of him, he was always a baby, but lately it was getting harder and harder to view him as one.
"So, are you excited about tomorrow?" Kim asks after taking a sip of water. "Fourth grade! That's exciting."
Luca pauses in funneling copious amounts of pasta in his mouth to glare at her.
"I'd be more excited if you hadn't given me this stupid haircut," he snaps around a mouthful of food.
"Maybe I wouldn't have had to cut your hair if you weren't always tangling it so badly," Kim volleys back with a raised brow.
Luca scoffs but resumes eating. Kim smirks at his defeat.
"What about you?" Luca asks once he's swallowed what looked like a lump the size of a baseball. "This is your last year of high school, and you still haven't had a single boyfriend."
Kim rolls her eyes and twirls more pasta around her fork. "Who said I want a boyfriend? Besides I have you, and that's more than enough."
"Eww," Luca groans. "That's gross, you're my sister!"
"I didn't mean it like that, doofus," Kim laughs, reaching over to gently flick his nose. He frowns and swats her hand away.
"I'm out of your league, anyways" Luca mutters, bringing his mouth closer to his plate so he can stuff more food into it.
Her smiles slips off her face as she thinks about his words. Out of her league, huh? There were plenty of people that qualifies as such. Particularly Jar-
Her thoughts are slam to a stop alongside the front door, and in walks their disheveled Father.
"Dad," Kim instantly jumps to her feet as he walks into the kitchen with his filthy shoes. "You're home...early."
"Isn't this my own fucking house?" Dad snaps as he slouches against the counter, grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl and prying the peel open.
Kim glances down at Luca, hoping she can tell him to go to his room with her eyes alone, but he's shrunk into himself; shoulders drawn and head down. At this moment, it seems Dad has finally realized Luca's presence.
"Why are you sitting like a pussy?" Dad demands, making Luca shrink further into himself. Kim instinctively moves over so that she's standing closer to her brother.
"Look at me when I'm talking!" Dad shouts angrily. Kim doesn't miss the tremors going up and down Luca's body as he turns his head up to look at dad.
"You see this banana?" Dad asks, holding the yellow fruit up. "With the way you're heading, you're going to end up like this."
With that, Dad tosses down the banana and savagely crushes it into the linoleum floor with the heel of his boot.
"Luca, go to your room," Kim says to him in a steady voice, hating herself for not saying so earlier. Luca practically bolts from his chair and out of his room. Once she hears his steps on the stairs, she turns to the drunk standing in her kitchen.
"Why are you so cruel to him?" Kim whispers, trying her best to hold her tears back.
Dad's blue eyes snap to her's. She's been told back when he was young, her Father was renowned around the rez for his unique beauty, what with half Quileute, half white heritage. Today his lighter features are shrouded with a darkness that seems to radiate off of him, and his once handsome face has decayed with the excess alcohol he consumes.
"Because you fucking spoil him," he practically snarls, pushing himself off the counter. "Where did he get that shirt? I sure as hell don't remember buying it for him."
You don't buy him anything Kim wants to scream.
"I bought it," Kim answers as evenly as she can. It was in moments like these the urge to disappear into the tree line was unbearable.
"Oh," Dad laughs barkingly. "I forgot, you cram shit into cans and then scam people into buying it."
"Good thing people fall for the scam, since we wouldn't be able to afford our bills without it," Kim hisses, feeling so angry that she wouldn't be surprised if her head blew up.
"You ungrateful bitch, you should feel lucky that I spend even a single moment working to raise you and that little shit!" Dad yells, waving his arms around drunkenly. "I've had it with you and your fucking attitude. Good luck raising that devil child yourself!"
Kim doesn't stray from her spot as she hears Dad storm out of the house and into his truck, the engine revving to life before he sped back to the bar.
If the situation wasn't so terrible, she would have laughed to herself. Good luck raising Luca? She had been doing that for the past 7 years, ever since Mom had gotten into her own car and drove off, never once looking back.
Forcing herself to move, she gets a mop to reclean the kitchen floor. Once she's done with the chore, she puts away the half-eaten dinner, knowing Luca's appetite has disappeared alongside her.
Feeling less emotional, she finally goes upstairs and knocks on Luca's door.
"What," is his muffled, monotone reply.
Kim cracks open the door and peeks in. Luca has sprawled himself across his bed, face buried into his pillow.
"Hey," she says quietly. "Do you want me to bake you a cake?"
"No," is his expected reply. She sighs and enters his room, sitting on the edge of his bed.
Luca rolls to her side and stares at her with a face too sad to be on a 9 year old.
"Why does he hate me so much?" he asks her in a tiny voice.
"He doesn't hate you," is Kim's immediate reply, even though she knows it's a lie. The truth is, she doesn't know why Dad hates Luca so much, only that he does. "It's just the alcohol. It makes him cranky."
"Well, I wish he would just drink himself to death!" Luca shouts, tears filling his light brown eyes.
"Oh, Luca," Kim sighs, pulling him into her embrace. She doesn't have the will to chide him, because frankly, a part of her wishes the same.
Luca burrows himself deeper into her arms and his tears wet her t-shirt. Kim feels so useless as she clings to her weeping younger brother. How could she claim to be a good elder sister if she couldn't protect her brother from such immense pain?
"Please don't leave me with him," Luca cries as he clutches at her tighter. "W-when you graduate, please don't leave, even though you can."
Kim pulls him off of her enough so that he can look into her black eyes.
"I will never leave you," she vows, leaning down to kiss his cheeks. "No matter what."
No matter how much the trees called to her.
On the days it didn't rain (or rather, rain too hard), Kim biked to school. The rez was too small for a school bus system, and she could take the single public bus that ran through their village, but she'd much rather save the bus fare for more important things, like the electric bill.
Rain or shine, however, she always biked with her deliveries, since she towed her red wagon to her bike where she loaded up her cans and whatever else was the seasonal sell.
The last thing she wanted to do one the first day of school was to wake up at 4 a.m so she could make a delivery to her top buyer, also her employer, Field's Grocery's, but August was plum harvesting season, and her preserved plums were one of her best sellers.
Once she's negotiated the price with Mr. Field's, she helps him load her cans onto a shelf essentially reserved for her items and bikes back quickly to home so that she can take her and Luca too school. For the life of her, she couldn't get that boy to learn how to ride a damn bike, no matter how much time she spent with him. It's like the configuration for the action simply did not exist in her thick-headed brother's mind.
Making deliveries on her bike had built up her muscles enough to bike both her and Luca, but her brother grew bigger (and heavier) every day, and by the time she reached the rez high school, which was thankfully down the street from the elementary school, she's exhausted.
Quite a start to the first day of senior year.
She barely makes it in time to her first period, history, but once she's settled in, the school day commences like any other: with her faded deep into the background as her peers intermingled and enjoyed their adolescence. As her teacher goes over the syllabus, she wonders how Luca is doing in his new classroom. Was his teacher nice? Were any of his old friends there? Had he made new friends?
Second period is theoretical physics, and to her great disdain, her lab partner for the year is none other than Paul Lahote, resident hot head. She had had to endure his presence last year in applied physics as well, and had quite nearly bit his head off when he had destroyed their model roller coaster mere minutes before it was due because the track was slightly lopsided. That was her life's first F.
Of course, a part of her empathized with him, as he was perhaps just as alone as her, and deep down she knew such emotional instability did not come with a happy life, but she knew that Paul wanted a heart-to-heart with her just as much as she wanted one with him, which was to say, not at all. Thankfully, he ignores her and for the 15-minute ice-breaker session, neither of the two say a word to each other.
Third period is her elective, anatomy. She's glad she has it right after physics; the course material is interesting enough that it lightens her mood after being stuck with Paul for an entire period.
Fourth period is economics, which is also an interesting subject to Kim since, like Anatomy, it isn't something she's formally studied before. The teacher is also interesting, and Mr. Jeremy Yagan has certainly caught the attention of her female classmates. Kim can admit he's fairly good looking, but unfortunately, her mind is too stuck on a certain boy she has been searching for in all her classes. She knows it's foolish, but she can't help but feel disheartened every time she searches a room and doesn't find him there.
Finally, lunch is awarded to her and she grabs her weathered lunch bag and makes her way down to the cafeteria, looking for her small- and only, group of friends
She's able to spot them because Zoey has decided apparently to dye half her head neon green, and the other half dark blue. Making her way to their table, she sits next to Tessa, who is flipping through a magazine. Beside Zoey, who is eating a salad with chopsticks is Mark, his head buried in his arms as he sleeps soundly despite the noise of the cafeteria.
"Kim!" Tessa exclaims, setting down her Cottage Living magazine. "I haven't seen you in forever, how are you?"
"I'm fine," Kim answers with a smile. "How are you two?"
"Yesterday I made the most bomb matcha tiramisu!" Tessa shares excitedly before growing sheepish. "I would have brought some but it's already finished."
"My frog breeding program is going splendidly," Zoey answers serenely. "Phase two should begin soon enough."
Kim knew Zoey well enough to know better than to ask what were her plans for her animals. The girl wasn't a sadist, on the contrary, she was pretty sure her friend loved animals more than humans, but once you engaged her regarding her experiments...it was difficult to shut her up
"That's nice," Kim says with a chuckle. "What's going on with your hair?"
"Here we go," Tessa says under her breath, picking her magazine back up.
"Humans are far too unaware of just how catastrophic the effects of global warming will culminate into!" Zoey exclaims, her already large eyes growing wider. "My hair is a statement, a reminder that our Earth was made blue and green, but if we continue, these colors will bleed through. Did you know that the E.P.A reported in 2012 that…"
Kim casually tunes Zoey out. It wasn't like she hated the environment, it was just that she had heart so many variations of this exact speech that she could list on her hand the order of points Zoey would go through. Glancing around the cafeteria, her heart skips a beat when he walks in.
He was effortlessly handsome. With his jet black hair and sharp gray eyes, he was a beauty unlike any other on the rez, but that wasn't what drew Kim into him. Nor was it his high cheekbones or chiseled jaw...no, it was something she couldn't quite name, but nevertheless there existed a quality in him that simply drew Kim in like spark to a fire.
Beside him walks Sandra Whitely, the prettiest girl in their grade, Clara Jergins, the second prettiest, and the Woodson twins, Austin and Andrew. The group was dubbed as the fantastic five.
It's only when she hears the general chatter of the cafeteria morph into laughter does she realize that Sandra has raised her arm to point at Zoey's hair, laughing. Kim's face burns like tnt set off, yet she can't turn around as she watches Jared lower Sandra's arm and shake his head. Almost immediately, the cafeteria stops laughing and returns to talking loudly.
She whirls around in her seat and ensures her mass of hair is covering her face almost entirely as Jared walks by. Eventually he reaches his seat, and it's like the surrounding mass of students melt away as she watches Jared laugh.
"You know," Tessa comments wryly. "If I had a crush on a girl, I would attract some attention to myself when she was near, not, you know, wipe myself out of existence."
"What are you talking about?" Kim gasps. "I- I don't have a crush on anyone!"
Zoey nods her head in agreement. "I agree. Kim has seemed to move on from her infatuation phase a long time ago."
"That's true," Tessa huffs. "You've had a crush on him since what, fourth grade?"
"Third," Kim corrects before she can stop herself. Slapping a hand over her treacherous mouth, she glares at her two friends who laugh at her misery.
Mark, bless his soul, decides at that moment to jolt out of his sleep.
"Wha's going on?" he slurs, wiping away his drool with the back of his hand.
"Why are you so sleepy?" Kim blurts before Zoey or Tessa can humiliate her any further.
Mark blinks his green eyes several times behind his large circular glasses before he's actually awake. Once he's oriented, he looks back down at the table and draws a random pattern on it with his finger.
"I've been working out lately," he admits shyly. "It's more tiring than I thought."
"Our champ here downed a liter of protein shake in two minutes and has been knocked out since," Tessa snorts.
"I believe Mark's quest in bettering himself physically is rather honorable," Zoey comments thoughtfully. "I hope you find love soon, Markus."
Mark splutters something unintelligible and Kim meets Tessa's equally amused expression.
"Say, what's your fifth period?" Kim asks Tessa. "I'll be the luckiest person during the baking unit if you're in my home ec class."
"Sadly I have home economics sixth period and freaking math fifth," Tessa answers with a pout. "What about you?"
"You have home economics sixth?" Mark asks excitedly. "So do I!"
"Oh, nice," Kim says with a smile. Turning back to Tessa, she finishes, "I have English sixth and a my seventh is a free period."
"What class did you sacrifice for a free period?" Zoey asks, tilting her head.
Kim shakes her head. "I completed my math credit in 10th grade, so I'm not taking math this year."
"What?" Mark nearly wails. "But last year in calculus, you...you said you would take university mathematics with me!"
Kim shifts uncomfortably and looks away from him his gaze. His glasses magnified his eyes, making the distraught in them even more obvious.
"I'm not college bound," she says with a shrug of her shoulders. "It makes no sense to push myself so hard. Besides, I heard calc 2 is extremely hard. Senior year is supposed to be fun right?"
"Fun?" Tessa echoes. "This is coming from the girl who chose anatomy and macro economics as her electives!"
"The pursuit of education is fundamental to a developed society," Zoey counters gently.
The rest of lunch passes in a similar fashion, though Mark does appear glummer after her announcement that she wasn't taking math.
The bell rings and Kim packs her empty containers into her bag. Mark appears by her side, and she notes that he does fill in his typical black hoodie more than he used to.
Together she and Mark walk to home ec, the conversation lighter now that Mark has gotten over his strange sadness. They're discussing what they hope will be taught this year in physics when they enter the home ec classroom, finding a seat in the back corner.
Mark is explaining the multiverse theory when Kim's attention is stolen away from him.
It's him.
She holds her breath as she watches Jared walk to the middle of the room, gracefully sliding into a chair before resting his feet on the table. Sandra slips into the seat beside him as if it were made for her.
Kim has to admit, the two of them make quite the striking image, like a king and queen on their throne.
She glances down at her hands, the skin hard and cracked from years of hard work. If this was a fairytale, a mouse would wave its wand, transforming her into a beauty that would finally catch the eye of Jared Cameron.
"I don't get it," Mark suddenly speaks up. Kim looks up at him curiously. His long hair covers half his face, but she can still see how his eyes are narrowed. "What is it about Jared that makes every girl lose their minds? Is it just his looks?"
"No," Kim answers immediately. "It's not."
Mark finally looks at her. "Then what is it?"
Kim looks away from him and stares at Jared's gray, cotton-clad back.
She remembers the very first time she had stared at that back. She had been 8, and brand new to La Push. Though both her parents were Quilete (well, half on her Dad's side), she had been born and raised in Seattle, where Dad had worked in her Grandpa's accounting firm.
Everything had been wonderful until the economy crashed, Grandpa had a heart attack, the firm went down, and they were forced to move back to La Push. She had had a difficult time adjusting to her new elementary school, and had more or less gotten used to spending every second at school painfully alone.
It was one of those rare days where the sun was actually shining, so of course, her third grade classroom had gone out for recess. The other third grade classroom was also out. That would be her very first meeting with Jared.
Due to their very limited contact, the two third grade classrooms of La Push elementary held a very bitter rivalry. This was usually expressed through turf wars on the very rare playground meetings.
She had been swinging alone when she had witnessed her first turf battle. Ms. Rice's class would be opposing Ms. Hayfield's in a classic game of dodgeball. From what she could see, it was all taken very seriously. One by one, third graders on both sides were knocked out ruthlessly with the bright red ball until only Jared and Joey stood on opposing sides.
At this point, tensions were so high that even Kim had paused swinging and had stood up to see what was going on better. She was pretty sure the two teachers were just as into it as they were.
"Give it up," Jared had called out to Joey. "We all know you're going to lose."
"Be quiet and throw the ball!" Joey had shouted back angrily. Jared simply shrugged and threw the ball. Joey had narrowly missed and Ms. Rice's class cheered loudly while Ms. Hayfield's groaned.
Joey went and retrieved the ball and took a few moments to simply breathe and stare Jared down. Jared had simply stood there. Kim couldn't see his face, because his back was to him, but she still couldn't take her eyes off of him.
Finally, with a battle cry that their ancestors would have approved of, Joey took a step forward and launched the ball with all his might. Jared caught it.
For those unfamiliar, the rules of dodgeball were quite clear: if you caught the ball, you automatically won.
The cheers that came from Ms. Hayfield's class was deafening. It was telling, that Kim had learned Jared's name by an adoring crowd chanting it. Similarly, Ms. Rice's class had surrounded poor Joey angrily.
She remembers that even though he was surrounded by admiring fans, little Jared seemed to care less as he watched anguished Joey being picked apart by his disappointed classmates. Then he did something she'd never forget.
He dropped the ball.
For those still unfamiliar with the rules of dodgeball: if you caught the ball but dropped it before the game was called, you were disqualified.
A silence unlike any she'd ever experienced fell over the playground.
"He won," Jared announced. "Are you happy now?"
There was no response from either class. Kim thinks it was shock.
"All of you also lost," Jared continued. "But Joey can't? That's pretty messed up."
"This is dumb," Jared declared, kicking the ball away from him. He shoved his hands into his pockets and walked away. After that day the rivalry between the two third grade classrooms disappeared. That was also the day Kim realized she could stare at his back forever. Looking back, what Jared did wasn't unworldly, but to 8 year old Kim, it was a display of heroship straight out of a fairytale.
"Kim?"
She blinks rapidly and realizes that Mark is still waiting for her answer.
"Nothing," she murmurs, ducking her head behind her hair. Mark sighs but doesn't push her any further. Maybe if that was the only anecdote she had of Jared's exceptionalism, she could have answered Mark, but the truth is, over the years she's watched Jared prove over and over again that he had a heart of gold. Sometimes, it made her all to aware of her own appendage, resembling lead more than any other muscle.
The rest of the period is spent with her pretending to pay attention to the teacher and looking over at Jared. He was doodling something on his notebook, but when Sandra tries to see, he shuts his notebook and spends the rest of the period on his phone.
When the period ends, Kim silently gathers her things and makes her way to leave when Mark stops her with a hand on her shoulder.
"I hope this is the year you find a guy that is worthy of you," he tells her solemnly, his braces glinting under the fluorescence.
"...Thanks," is all Kim can manage to say. Talk about random.
Technically her final class of the day, she walks into her sixth period, English.
On the board is written in all caps, SEATING ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY.
Glancing around at post-it notes with last name's on the desks, she finds 'Conweller' by the front and sits down. She's right by the window, so there's only one person sitting beside her. Curious, she leans over to read who will be sitting by her.
Her heart stops when she reads CAMERON.
Oh my God...I'm going to be sitting next to Jared. This has never, ever happened before. Oh my God. What if he talks to me? What will I say? What will I do? Oh my God. Is this a dream?
And in he walks. If Kim had any social skills, she'd wave him over so he'd know where he's seated, instead, she sits ramrod straight, all of her hair pulled over one shoulder to obscure every inch of her face. Jared pauses, reads the message on the board, and then begins searching for his name.
As he nears, Kim quite literally holds her breath.
"There it is," Jared says to himself as he stops in front of his desk. She has no idea if he glances over at her since she's looking down at her lap resolutely, but she feels him take a seat beside her. By chance, she glances up and finds Sandra watching her intently.
It was strange to think back when Sandra's hair was still black and her eyes never had blue contacts in them, the two of them had been best friends.
Sandra breaks their staring contest and walks towards Jared.
"Ugh, why'd it have to be alphabetical?" Sandra complains to Jared, resting her hip against his desk. "I'm stuck all the way in the back."
"At least you're by Todd," Jared says to her. "I'm all alone by myself up here."
Kim tries not to wince at that. Lana was right, she was born to die.
Sandra's response is to laugh. "I'll do my best to keep you company."
"Hey," Jared says, suddenly serious. "If we read Romeo and Juliet for the billionth time, I am not going to be Romeo again. Too many fucking lines."
Sandra rolls her eyes sarcastically. "O beloved, one day thou shall be literate."
"Don't hold your breath," Jared laughs.
Kim wishes she could tell Sandra that Jared has read the Grapes of Wrath several times, but there's no way of disclosing that without looking like a stalker, and that would also break her golden rule of never ever speaking in front of Jared ever.
This was going to be a long year...
Jared socializes with a few more of his endless friends before their English teacher, the ancient Mrs. Delosua walks in. Not once does he acknowledge her presence.
Delosua was renowned around La Push High. Not so much for her stellar teaching skills, but for her ability to fall asleep the moment things got quiet enough. Kim was fairly certain the older woman suffered from narcolepsy, but most people attributed it to be being bored as hell.
"Good morning children," Delosua croaks once she makes it behind her desk. She was exceptionally tiny, and over half of her is hidden behind the wooden table. "I hope we all get to know each other well and have a wonderful year."
A glimmer of hope begins to grow in Kim. Perhaps she would finally get the chance to speak to Jared, at least once before they graduated and likely never see each other again.
"To make sure we understand our source material correctly, we will begin our analysis from the very start," Delosua continues, her bright red nails reaching up to tuck behind her snow white hair. "Take out a pencil and paper. We're sentence diagramming."
Kim's hope dies.
The final two weeks of August pass by, and as the world approaches mid-September, Kim has reestablished her school routine. Wake up, make any needed deliveries, go back home, get Luca and go to school, sit in silence, frustratedly tolerate Paul, enjoy lunch, stare at Jared while trying to speak with Mark, stare at Jared in silence, go to work, go home, make dinner, do chores, do her homework, and above all, keep Luca as far from their dad as she possibly can.
It's frankly exhausting, but after so many years of doing things on her own, she's used to it. It's not like she has any other option when dad goes out and drinks away a third of his income.
There are a few things that keep her going, of course. Primarily, Luca. Underneath the preadolescent drama, he's still the goofy, sweet boy she's always known him to be.
Then is her trio of friends, with Tessa's steady flow of homemade baked goodies, Zoey's strange but lovable idiosyncrasies, and Mark's ability to always teach her something new, they almost never fail to cheer her up after a particularly nasty encounter with her dad.
Finally, of course, is the highlight of her days: observing Jared.
It's not just that she was lusting after his visage. While it was true he was almost unbearably handsome, whenever she watched Jared interact with the world, her heart felt light. He was just so kind. And while Kim knows he's no saint, to see someone so well-loved, so popular, so cool still remain so humble and never once use his elevated social standing to make someone feel lower than him...it was just so admirable.
And then he disappears.
A/N:
Hey y'all, it's me, writing fanfiction for a book I read a decade ago. If there's anyone that still reads twilight fanfiction, welcome! I know this was a very wordy first chapter, but I promise the pace will pick up significantly starting the next chapter where a certain werewolf imprints on a certain girl ;) Also, I realize the tone of this chapter is rather angsty, but rest assured, while there will be angst, there'll be plenty of humor too :)
Thank you for reading, and see y'all soon!