Hi everyone! Thank you to all of you who have added this story to your favourites and followed! A big thank you to all of you who reviewed, I appreciate your feedback more than I can say. This is a bit of a shorter update but I wanted to get something out before I went under for a bunch of assignments. I hope you enjoy and please consider leaving a review, they're highly motivating.

Take anything you want, it's fine

Keep up the slow life for the night

Don't take it back, I'll just deny

This constant noise all the time

Even though you're the only one I see

It's the last catastrophe

Jenna wasn't sure whether she'd upset some sort of cosmic balance, wronged a vengeful spirit. She had to have done something, otherwise, it was ridiculous how she always seemed to be the only person to witness the return of the vanished.

It was a dull, grey morning. She was already running late, hurrying along the sidewalk, breathing a sigh of relief as she finally approached the school. She was so out of shape, this walk should not have been taking the toll on her that it was, lord almighty. She'd thought she'd made it when she saw him. Embry Call. He was just standing there, staring at the school building, his hands shoved into his pockets. His hair was gone too. Surprise, surprise. This much was clear, there was something going on in La Push. Something that, so far, seemed to be exclusively male, and involved remarkable physical change. In Paul's case, it accompanied reflexes that were too quick to be entirely normal. Without observing similar changes in Sam, Jared, and now Embry, it would be impossible to generalize the occurrence to fit the broader pattern. What could be generalized was the height, the hair, the body, and the disappearance. Yet, it took place at different times, different ages - in people with different families - what was the link? Jenna needed more data before she could reach any conclusion.

Embry Call turned to look at her as she approached, even though she was too far for him to have heard her footsteps. Unless… she wasn't. Unless the heightened reflex she'd seen in Paul extended far beyond muscle reaction time and had influenced the capacity of other senses? Oh, the tests she could run to test their function - the studies that could be formed. Jenna's mind came to a screeching halt when she saw the sadness on Embry Call's face. There was another link. That tired, sad, searching look. No tests needed to be done, she would devise no experiments in her mind. It wasn't any of her business anyway.

"Hi Embry," she whispered, a sneaking suspicion telling her she might not need to speak any louder for him to hear.

"Jenna."

He looked away from her, expelling a deep sigh as he ran a weary hand over his face.

"I hope you're feeling better."

Embry scoffed, a humourless laugh bursting from his suddenly humongous chest. "Yeah, Jared and Paul told me I could expect no questions from you."

So they were in communication then? Evidence that the physical change was accompanied by a new social bond. Very interesting. And they'd spoken about her? What could they possibly have been saying about her - obviously, nothing good.

"Yeah," Jenna shrugged, hoping she looked as devil-may-care as she wanted to come across. "I can't say I care enough to interrogate you."

"Charming, as always," Embry sighed, squeezing his eyes shut for a brief moment before he groaned. "Fuck, I don't want to go in there."

Jenna watched him for a long moment, feeling a pity for Embry Call that she never had before. "Think of it this way," she began, pushing her backpack further up her shoulder, "If Luke Skyrunner could… kill the space wizard, then you can get through a day at school."

Embry looked horrified, staring at her in a way that made him look like the boy he'd been just a short while before. "God, Jenna," he cried, "that was nowhere close."

"Well fuck, Embry," she hissed, pushing past him and stomping up the school steps. "At least I tried."

Jenna heard Embry following her inside, his newly long strides tempered to walk behind her. With the differences in their physiques made even more prevalent by his sudden transformation, she was acutely aware of her short legs. She probably looked like a penguin. Suddenly struck by the horror of Embry thinking the same thing, Jenna froze and glanced behind her. Embry had paused as well, looking at her like she was crazy.

"Why don't you go ahead?" She suggested, flattening herself against the wall and gesturing for him to move in front of her.

He stared at her before he sighed, walking ahead of her. "It's too early to deal with you, Jenna."

She made a face at him as he passed, letting him quickly overtake her. Jenna's heart dropped for him when he entered the classroom before her and a hush befell the room. She followed behind him, wincing when she saw the entire room's eyes glued to Embry. Poor boy.

Jenna squeezed past him, muttering an apology under her breath. Glancing at the room, she was shocked to find Jacob and Quil throwing hostility laden looks Embry's way. Now, this was an angle she had yet to have considered. Paul and Jared had already been friends - she'd never thought about the social ramifications of their disappearance. Embry, however, seemed to have entirely left his previous group of friends.

Jenna jolted in surprise when Jacob's angry glance switched from Embry to land on her. She slid into the empty seat beside him, figuring that Embry would prefer to take the one at the back of the room. She moved in slow motion, extracting her books from her bag, determined to make as little noise as possible. Jacob's eyes were boring holes into the side of her head, but she decided that she wouldn't look at him no matter what happened.

"Jennifer," he hissed, leaning towards her. She was struck by his familiar scent of cedar and the faintest hint of grease. He'd been working in his garage again.

Jenna ignored him, keeping her eyes glued to the blackboard. He was still looking at her. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, a glance downward telling her that his hand was on her desk and had balled into a fist. The tendons in the back of his hand flexed and Jenna knew he was furious, but he didn't try to get her attention again.

She suffered through the lesson in a tense sort of silence. Her heart was hammering inside her chest. Her palms were sweaty and she was sure her notes were barely legible. Every time she'd try to focus, she'd remember that Jacob was angry and just waiting for a chance to eat her alive. For the life of her, Jenna couldn't figure out why. What had she done besides walk into the classroom?

Mr Lowell ended the lesson and gestured for them to start working on the assignments. Jenna's heart sank. Immediately, she felt her chair being dragged around until she was facing a furious Jacob Black. Underneath her surprise, she was awestruck - how in the world had he managed to do that? Jenna was by no means a slender girl, what she lacked in vertical advancement her body had made up for horizontally. Jacob should not have been able to grab her chair, with her in it, and haul it around. Not without considerable effort on his part, at least.

"Don't ignore me," he growled, his eyes flashing at her.

"What is your problem, Jacob?" It felt like she was asking him that question more and more these days.

"What were you doing with Embry?"

What could that - this was what he was outraged about?

"I wasn't trying to steal your best friend," she snapped, trying to pry his hand off of her chair, where his grip seemed to suddenly be ironclad. "You're unbelievable."

"Stay away from him," he ground out, his other hand grabbing hers and holding it still atop his. "He's bad news."

Jenna froze, alarmed by both the feeling of his hand on top of hers and the intensity of Jacob's anger. "What do you mean by bad news?" She shook her head. "He's Embry!"

Jacob stared at her in silence, his eyes flicking away from her face to pin the object of their discussion with an angry look. "I mean what I said, Jennifer. Don't go near him."

She baulked at the order, turning slightly in her seat to glance back at Embry, who was staring firmly ahead with his jaw clenched. His hand shook slightly atop the desk before he balled it into a fist and took a deep, shaky inhale.

Jacob caught her chin in his hand, forcing her head back towards him. "Do not."

Jenna shoved his hand away from her face, glaring at him. "You don't tell me what to do!" She pulled at the hand he still kept imprisoned in his. "Besides, we were just talking."

Jacob glanced down at their hands when her fingers began to try and pry his open. Reluctantly, he released her hand. His own flexed for a quick moment before he pulled it back, resting it on his thigh.

"He should know better."

What the hell was that meant to mean? She would never understand boys. Jacob had spoken grudgingly like he was admitting something he'd rather not. Nothing about any of this made sense - what the fuck was Embry supposed to know? Why didn't she know it?

"You're insane," Jenna muttered, rubbing her newly released hand that felt like it had been electrocuted. She could practically still feel the pressure of his fingers around her hand, the weight of his hand on top of hers. She hated that she knew instantly that the feeling of his skin on hers was a memory she'd carry forever.

"No," Quil interrupted, breaking her from her reverie when he leaned around from Jacob's other side to join the conversation, "what they're doing is insane. Some sort of cult."

Jenna rolled her eyes, adjusting her chair so she faced the front again, determined to gain some semblance of control over herself. "No, the two of you are insane. Leave them alone."

She wasn't sure why she felt oddly protective over Embry. Maybe because he wasn't able to defend himself to them. Maybe because it was unfair that something had ripped him out of his normal life and thrust him into a new one and his friends were being so cruel. Something about his face when he'd heard Jacob's comments made her heart clench.

Jacob made a low noise in his chest, leaning towards her chair. Jenna made an answering sound of annoyance, shifting away from him. She couldn't afford to be too close to him, not with her thoughts and feelings so out of control the way that they were.

"Stop it, weirdo."

He ignored her. "I don't care if you think I'm crazy, Jennifer," he said simply, fixing her with that frighteningly intense look again, "but you need to steer clear of those guys."

Why!? What the hell was she missing that everyone else seemed to know? She hated the feeling of not knowing. It was a vulnerability that she was determined to shake.

"Steer clear?" Jenna cried, turning to throw him a mockingly despondent glance. "Oh, but I'm so madly in love with Embry."

Jacob looked like he wanted to strangle her. "Not funny."

"Oh please," she snapped. "You're just jealous that he's better looking than you now."

Quil made a low whistling noise under his breath, angling his own chair so that he faced away from her and Jacob.

"Excuse me?" Jacob said quietly.

"Now she's done it," Quil muttered.

Done what?

"What did you just say to me?"

"Here we go," Quil sighed.

Go where? Jenna stared at the pair of them.

"The two of you are dumb and dumber, truly." She made sure to enunciate each word, hoping it landed with the emphasis she intended for it to have.

The bell rang and Jenna leapt from her seat, forgoing her usual ritual of packing up in favour of escaping this terrible classroom as soon as possible.

"Jennifer!" Jacob growled, standing up with her. "I'm not done talking yet! Don't you dare!"

She ignored him, taking off for the door as fast as her short legs could carry her. Jenna could still hear him yelling after her, but she ran like a Shetland pony, short and quick. What a luxury it would be to have long legs. If she was a Shetland pony, then Jacob was … a regular pony? She wasn't sure what the appropriate comparison was supposed to be. He had longer legs than her at any rate, which was why she was disappointed but not surprised when he caught up with her.

"I thought I told you to stop," he snapped down at her, keeping pace with her quite easily.

"I thought I told you not to tell me what to do," she countered, glaring up at him. "Why are you such a freak? Go be weird somewhere else." She fiddled with her locker, struggling to pull the door open.

Jacob scoffed, shoving her hands aside and yanking the door open for her. Where on earth was this strength coming from? Jenna took a moment to attempt to discreetly assess him. He did seem to be filling out. Was he working out or was it puberty?

"Why do you care? See something you like?"

She blinked at him in confusion before she realized, with a crashing wave of horror, that she must have spoken aloud.

"No!" she protested, busying herself with her books, feeling her face flame. "You just look less like a loser than usual."

"Now, if I were to respond to that, I'd be an asshole," he muttered, shaking his head.

She froze, her hand stilling on the edge of her locker. What could he have to say about how she looked that would make him sound like an asshole? It wasn't hard to make the fucking leap. It felt like she'd swallowed a thorn, her chest squeezing at her brain's understanding of the cruel insinuation she'd never expected from Jacob.

"Why?" Jenna hissed, slamming her locker door shut and turning on him. He blinked, taking a step backwards.

"Go on," she encouraged, advancing on him, "say what you want to say. What do I look like to you?"

She wasn't an idiot. She knew, only too well, what the easiest insult a boy could throw at a girl was. Fat. It wasn't a bad word on its own. It was made worse by the way it was whispered in the shadows, sneered and simpered. Jenna had told herself that so many times and yet it never seemed to work to take the sting off. It would always hit a hollow part of her that wanted to remind her of all the ways she wasn't good enough.

Isabella Swan wasn't fat.

Suddenly wanting to cry, Jenna shook her head, swallowing the confusing swell of emotion.

"Whatever, Black." She yanked her backpack higher over her shoulder. "You're the asshole in general."

Jacob stumbled slightly when she shoved past him. She heard him beginning to protest, insisting that he hadn't meant that. Funny how he'd made that connection all on his own.

"Jennifer!" He called after her.

"Leave it alone, Jacob."

Jenna stopped, turning around to see who had spoken on her behalf. Embry Call stood between her and Jacob, facing his former friend. Embry stood over him by a solid amount now, but Jacob seemed determined to compensate for the difference in their physiques with pure rage.

"Don't interfere," Jacob warned Embry, his hands fisting at his sides. "I'm talking to her. You don't get to be in the middle of that."

Embry was silent for a moment, his calm all the more impressive in the face of Jacob's anger. "It doesn't seem like she wants to talk to you."

Jacob jolted as if Embry had hit him. He looked from Embry's impassive form to hers, standing there and watching this bizarre scene unfold in front of her. His eyes met hers and she held his gaze for a loaded moment before her treacherous brain served up images of him holed up with Isabella Swan in his garage. He obviously didn't think she was… unattractive. She tore her gaze from his, swallowing hard and turning her head away.

"Ah," Jenna heard him sneer in a tone she'd never thought him capable of, "I see." He laughed, a short, cruel sound. "Well, I won't bother you again, Coleman."

Her eyes snapped back to him, but he wasn't looking at her anymore. He was staring at Embry with a look of hatred she didn't think was possible. She couldn't see Embry's face. It didn't matter though, Jacob turned and left, storming down the hall with a finality that hit something deep and vulnerable within Jenna.

Embry exhaled, a rough and troubled sound before he turned to face her. "He doesn't - he doesn't mean that."

She stared at him in silence.

"You - you two have a weird thing going - he… he's just… pissed right now," Embry finished lamely, pausing throughout his explanation as if he were struggling to find the right words.

"He has a… thing going on with Isabella Swan," Jenna whispered, hoping she didn't sound as pathetic as she felt. "Not with me."

Embry looked like he wanted to say something before he swallowed hard and shook his head. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water before groaning.

"I don't know what to tell you," he finally said, throwing his hands up with a snarl of frustration. "I don't know what to fucking tell anybody."

And then he was gone too, leaving Jenna standing alone in the hallway.

Why did she feel like she'd accidentally drawn a line in the dirt that Jacob would never again cross? Even if that were the case, why did she feel like she'd lost something irretrievably valuable? Jenna sighed, forcing herself to be honest as she continued her walk down the hallway. She knew exactly why she felt that way.

The only problem was that he never would.