A/N: Chapter two here. Still some flashbacks, but then we catch up to "the present" and the imprinting. Please review if you have any thoughts to share?


FALL, JUNIOR YEAR

Jared was her assigned seat partner in Spanish III. On a paired assignment in November, he forgot to finish his part of the assignment, resulting in a C+ for their final grade. He groaned, and said, "Fuck, my parents are gonna kill me." She blinked at him, expecting him to apologize...but he didn't. He just leaned across the aisle to complain to a friend.

A week later, he seemingly didn't notice her immediately behind him as they exited the building in mass exodus after school. He was arguing in a low voice with Amanda Harjo, his girlfriend. She looked annoyed, and Jared looked frustrated. Kim made a point not to listen in. She'd overhead enough about Jared to last her a lifetime.

As they came upon the exit, Jared shouldered his way out the door, Amanda's fingers entwined in his copper hand…. and let the door close right in Kim's face. When she made a sound of surprise and caught it, he spared a glance back.

His brows rose slightly with surprise when he met her gaze. "Shit. Sorry Kate, didn't see you there."

Ouch.

Amanda's face cracked into a laugh, and she mumbled something to Jared. Is she telling him he got the wrong name? Jared's brow pinched as she whispered in his ear, and then he rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It doesn't matter." Then off they went.

Good thing Kim was over him, right?

Still, it stung.

She was sort of vindicated when shortly after, as she was eating breakfast one Saturday morning with Tina at the local diner, Jared and Amanda had a very embarrassing public breakup. They were arguing in low voices, when Amanda suddenly shrieked, "You are such a bastard!"

She flung a full cup of Pepsi in his face, causing Jared to sputter and jerk backward in his chair. Amanda fled in a barrage of vicious tears.

"What was that about?" Kim whispered, stunned.

"Maybe she finally found out about Miss Forks," Tina said. "The latest Miss Forks, I mean."

"Oh, God." Kim had gotten better at ignoring the sinking, deep disappointment that such rumors always brought on, but it was there- muted, soft and in the background- nonetheless.

"He's pretty hot, but...wow." Tina sucked noisily on her orange juice. "Besides, this is like, Breakup #4 with those two? At least Mallory isn't caught up in it this time."

"I can't even imagine," Kim said. "They must love their dramas."

"Must be. Can't wait to get out of here."

"I'm mad you're leaving me behind," Kim sighed. "And for Minnesota? Really?"

"You can always join me after you graduate!" Tina suggested happily. "You and Sarah both should."

"Nah, I'm staying around here." For whatever reason, Kim actually loved their area. She couldn't imagine living elsewhere. Despite the Rez being small, she felt like she...belonged there somehow. As everyone expected of her, she'd go off to college- she was pretty set on Western Washington University- but she planned on coming right back after she got her degrees. "Either come back for the Library or...I don't know, I've been thinking about optometry, lately. Means more school and tuition, and having to do a couple years in Oregon...but I find it really interesting lately. And Dr. G out in Port Angeles says I can shadow him this coming summer, when I'm not working at the Library. Decide if I like it or not."

"Yeah. And Library Science usually takes grad school too, so...girl, I think no matter which way you slice it, you're looking at extended programs. But you're smart in every subject so you'll ace it. And consider- vet school in Minnesota. My roommate. We play hard and work hard."

Kim rolled her eyes, but they drifted back to Jared, who was wiping off his face with a napkin and an annoyed expression. He threw the sopping napkin on the table, along with a twenty.

Tina whistled low. His head whipped toward them. "What are you losers looking at?" he asked, voice full of spite. His ears were turning pink.

Kim wanted to kick Tina under the table. But, tongue-tied, she simply stared at him with wide eyes as he shoved his chair back.

The diner's entry bell clanged as Jared left the diner, and the two girls dreamed of their next chapters.

OCTOBER 23, SENIOR YEAR

Kim had done a pretty decent job of getting over Jared Cameron, even if she still had to force herself not to care, and not to watch him from the corner of her eye. She'd luckily kicked the habit of idly doodling his name in her notebook, which was good.

They sat next to each other- again- but it was only in English. Kim couldn't afford to be distracted in her Science courses, and luckily, Jared didn't qualify for the AP Science credits she was in. She needed to cram in as much Science as possible, if she was going the Optometry track- and after her admission to Western at the start of October...she was determined to graduate with top AP scores. She couldn't afford to be distracted in those classes.

A few more months in English, though, next to a guy who didn't even know her name and rarely deigned to talk to her...well, that was manageable.

Especially when he stopped coming to school just after the September Homecoming.

At first it was a blessing and she refused to acknowledge it as anything but.

Then...she began to actually feel worried. It was stupid, and she knew it was that same deep-down feeling she'd always lived with, that always fond feeling she felt for Jared no matter his transgressions...she could bury it, and ignore it, but it was still there. As much as she hated to admit it, and refused to ever speak it aloud to anyone.

At 10 days, she was concerned. At 17 days, she was very unsettled.

Was he okay?

She asked her mom- who hadn't spoken much to Mrs Cameron since she'd completed her decorating project two years before- if she heard anything. No word there.

Kim's friends and basic acquaintances didn't indicate any insider-knowledge, and Jared's clique didn't loop her in, obviously. The general story among the student body was that Jared had a horrible case of strep that turned into mono. He wasn't seeing any of his friends while ill; even his latest Forks girlfriend hadn't seen him. He was totally off-the-grid.

However, she did hear that Paul LaHote was taken ill by a similarly-horrible bug.

As far as she knew, Paul and Jared weren't terribly close- they were both athletes who partied, but ran in different circles otherwise- so Kim thought that was a strange coincidence.

Finally, at 19 days...Jared Cameron made his return.

And caused an absolute uproar upon his return.

She caught sight of him across the parking lot, and nearly shut her hand in the car door by mistake. Did she need a new pair of glasses?! She squinted, her heart in her throat...but there was no mistake.

He was like a magazine-version of himself- his previously boyishly handsome features were now devastatingly handsome, and he walked with a sleek, primal confidence that made every girl on the property- from age 14 to 44- stop and notice. His hair was cut shorter than ever before, and his body was now lithely packed with muscles that could make Hollywood drool. Even the faculty's jaws dropped as Jared made his entrance.

"Who's that man?" Kim overheard one of the secretaries whisper to the assistant principal. She stared after him in wonder.

"That's- uh," the AP coughed, her voice squeaky, "that's Jared Cameron. The senior on the Football team."

"You're shitting me!" the secretary blurted out, before the AP shushed her.

Well put, Kim agreed. It was almost unbelievable, if Kim wasn't witnessing this with her own two eyes.

Mallory Peters and Amanda Harjo were struck dumb by the sight only for a minute, before both literally dove in for the kill. Mallory, who was always touchy-feely, and Amanda, who clearly felt some semblance of familiarity after their many on-again-off-again interludes, joined him on either side and began to question him.

Kim shook her head in disbelief and went to her first class. If ever there was a grander cosmic reminder of the chasm between Jared and her, this was it.

Everyone talked about him non-stop in her first-hour Spanish class. Same for AP Chemistry, and for third-hour Sketching class, and then in FST Math. Finally, her math teacher threw down his text book and demanded that the class "work in total silence, if it didn't know how to conduct itself under the return of a classmate."

Perhaps it was Kim's contrarian nature, but all this petty phenomena really got to Kim. She thinned her lips, and began mentally tearing apart his new appearance. He looked 25, not 17. That was not a good thing. He'd age terribly and regret all this working out/steroid-popping someday. Such an extreme change was not sustainable, she reasoned.

She thought over her fondness for Jared. That dimple; his sweet earnestness from back in the day (which, as far as she knew, had long since expired even before his Transformation-to-Teen-Demi-God). Now he truly was almost unrecognizable.

En route to Lunch, she passed Jared flirting with a Junior girl.. Oh, there it was. That dimple. Kim steeled herself against the power of his smile. It was less powerful from a distance. She resumed her intent to convince herself that Jared was actually less attractive when he looked like a 25-year-old GQ model, rolling her eyes when he flexed his arms and gave the little blonde Junior a smoldering, cocky smile.

The Junior girl giggled and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. Jared's face darkened for a moment, before a wave of devilish glee slid over his features. He leaned down, murmuring in her ear as she nodded enthusiastically. She scribbled her number on his hand. He winked at her, then turned and made his way to the Cafeteria.

He was at it again. Kim had to give Jared credit for bouncing back so quickly after such reportedly horrid illnesses. In the Caf, Mallory was draping herself across the table and Jared's attention kept wavering between her and- well, if Kim wasn't mistaken- Paul LaHote, on the other side of the room.

Kim's brows scrunched together.

Damnit. She was slipping into her loser-stalker mode again. She quickly shoveled in the rest of her yoghurt and hurried off to the Library for the rest of Lunch. Her fifth hour was English, where she sat next to the man-of-the-day himself, and she needed to mentally prep herself. A perfect distraction was organizing shelves for Mrs. Tumms until the bell rang. As she sorted, she kept reminding herself- she barely knew Jared before, letalone now. Who cared if Jared banged a hundred more girls and collected a thousand more numbers before the end of the week? Didn't make a difference in Kim's daily life. She needed to stay strong and let her infatuation continue its gradual death. She'd been in the peripheral of this guy's life for a decade, and it was clear that their worlds were not meant to collide.

Kim entered fifth hour English with a sense of tranquility and objectivity. Let the others twitter among themselves and lose their minds to the petty drama of the day. She was a footnote in the chaos of La Push's teenage population, and she'd take comfort in that rather than bemoan it.

She was fishing out her copy of Heart of Darkness when she heard Jared's deep (deeper) laugh out in the hall. She swallowed, straightening her glasses and running a quick hand through her hair- only to remember that she didn't care. Let him see her big cheeks, her limp black hair, her faded lipstick from three hours before. He was too busy to notice her presence on even an average day- nevermind a day when he was being worshipped with every breath from all females in a 3-mile radius.

The only variable Kim had to be bothered by was her own weakness.

She huffed out a breath and pulled out her notebook, just as Jared flung himself into the chair beside her with a bored sigh. The ink staining his palm still clearly read that Junior Girl's number. Kim resolutely kept her eyes forward.

It was fifteen minutes into class when it happened.

"What's the difference between a theme and a motif?" Mr. Banks asked. "Using Conrad's work, please discuss with your partner."

Kim's spine shot straight- it was now time to prove to herself, to God, to the universe at large- that she was over Jared.

She turned toward him, just as he groaned and tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. His dark eyes were fixed upward. In a clipped voice, he said, "I haven't read any of it."

"...Oh." Kim glanced down at her own copy in her hands. "Well, do you sort of know the basics behind it?"

"It's basically Apocalypse Now, right?" he asked. She wasn't sure if his tone was irritated or tired.

"Sort of. I never saw it. But the book is good so…"

He snorted in a way that made her realize he didn't care about this book; he didn't care about class, and he certainly didn't care about any intellectual discussion with her. Kim wet her lips, sighing, and said, "Look, if you want…"

Jared turned to give her a lazy scowl as she spoke...but something else happened. Time seemed to crawl in slow-motion as the usual sardonic twist of his features melted into a slack-jawed expression of awe. He sat forward, and Kim watched his pupils blow-wide. He exhaled, but didn't say anything.

He. Just. Stared.

She couldn't remember what she was going to say. She was so taken aback by his expression that every previous thought died out and fizzled. Never before had she seen an expression like that on a person's face...let alone a face as scientifically perfect as Jared's. Kim felt herself almost hypnotized by the dark pools of his eyes.

Until she realized, No no, this is exactly the opposite of what you were supposed to do, Kim! She was literally falling right into Jared's sweet trap.

She blinked, ripping open her book and trying to focus on one of the words printed there as she gathered her wits. A copper hand slid into her vision, right over the pages, coming to rest there. Her head jerked up, only to find Jared's face closer as he leaned forward.

"Hi," he said, voice soft and in a tone she'd never heard from him before.

"Hello," she replied by default. She swallowed, and suddenly remembered what she was going to say. Get back on track, back on track. "If you want, I can just tell you some motifs to look out for as you catch up."

"Huh?" He looked dazed. His hand on her book, on her lap, didn't budge.

Her eyes drifted up his extended arm; the tightly corded muscles there. She forced herself to look at his face. "Motifs. The assignment. One is inferring truth without conversation."

His gaze softened even more, like liquid gold, and a slow grin spread over his lips. "What?"

She croaked out, "Truth without conversation. Marlow gets most of his information by eavesdropping. You can see it early on, but if you keep an eye out, it gets super obvious-"

"So, uh, I hate to interrupt..." He was grinning, and staring at her with warmth that made her heart jump to her throat. He was now fully angled toward her. The hand on her book slipped away to rest on the back of her seat. Jared studied her face, roaming over every inch with an attention that left her breathless if she thought about it too much.

Then he said, in a voice smooth and deep, "I'm Jared. Are you new here?"

Her heart came to a stuttering, shrieking stop- like scraping knees across concrete. Her lips parted. "What?" He- he really just asked her that?

His smile flickered, and his eyes sharpened from soft caramel to a keen alertness. "Uh, I mean, I'm- glad we're partners-" His gaze snapped to her desk, searching for something. He didn't find it. "I haven't read this book yet, uh, but- I promise I will-"

She glanced at her desk, and seeing nothing but her notebook with the word Motifs scrawled across the top, and a pen...she realized...is he looking for a piece of paper with my name? Somehow, Kim deep down just knew that was the case. Her heart felt sluggish, as if the spongy tissue within had actually suffered a blow and was recovering itself to resume its standard rhythm. Her cheeks heated. Wow. Just, wow. She glared down at her book for a second, trying to recover what small shred of dignity she had left.

At least she'd gotten over him, right? It felt like a slap in the face: incontrovertible evidence as to why she should get over him, and dreadfully obvious that she hadn't been entirely successful at that. Or otherwise, the reality that he didn't have a clue as to who she was...that reality wouldn't sting so bad.

"Irony," she breathed on her next exhale, in such a low voice that her mouth didn't move and she knew it was inaudible to any human ears other than her own. She wanted to disappear.

Jared leaned forward, face next to her elbow, eyebrows pitched upward in such a worried expression that it caused her to jump. "What's irony?"

Her face melted into an expression of horror. All these years- he barely said a word to her, or even could stand a few sentences to her, and here he was dogging her every utterance with a creepy alien-like sense of sound. Kim's mouth felt tacky with humiliation as she whispered, "Nothing."

Jared wasn't appeased. He sat back but was clenching his hands together; his leg jiggled like he was restless. If he wanted to leave, he should just leave, Kim thought spitefully.

Another minute passed. Around them, classmates were discussing in a general muted din. Jared cleared his throat. "Listen, I- I think I offended you, which was not what I meant to do at all, so let's just start this over, if that's cool?"

"That's cool," she replied back flatly, hoping her cheeks weren't bright scarlet but was pretty sure they were. And unfortunately for her, if her cheeks colored- it was positively unmistakable. Damn her stupid, huge dumb cheeks! She straightened her glasses, took a breath, and opened her book again-

Jared's hand moved directly into her line of vision.

Her gaze shot to his. He looked sheepish, but smiling. "I'd like to start over. Jared." His hand bobbed, palm open for a handshake.

She sighed. She was being petty. If he really mattered so little to her- which he totally did because she was over him- then she could move past this if only to make her life in English class more manageable. "Okay. Fine." She inserted her hand into his, and gave it a firm clutch. "I'm Kim."

Instantly, his fingers tightened around hers, sealing their grip. His skin was so hot! It was like he'd just been holding a hot ceramic mug of fresh coffee or something. "Kim," he breathed out, almost...dreamily?

Kim shook herself. She tried to end the handshake (handclutch?) but Jared held firm. His eyes were fully dilated, and studying her face again. There was something distinctly wonderstruck in his expression.

Is he...mocking me? Kim's brain was short-circuiting. None of this was making sense. He'd never done this before, even when they were partners for their ill-fated Spanish III assignment last year. If she remembered correctly, he didn't even address her with a name during those class periods. And of course, he had talked to her directly, looking at her face, on a number of occasions. But he'd never stared at her with such intensity. Like he was cataloguing every feature. She thought maybe someone might study another this way if they were trying to place a face from a long-ago memory; it might be exhilarating if he was merely a handsome stranger she'd bumped into on a college campus. But with Jared, who had known her her entire life and had made it clear many, many (many!) times since second grade that he found her presence unremarkable...it was unnerving. Like she'd missed a joke or something.

"Please, uh." She swallowed and gave her hand a jerk.

Jared looked surprised, and exclaimed, "Oh, sorry!" He released it immediately. "I'm sorry, Kim."

Kim's brows knit together when she realized there was an imprint of black on her hand- a faint black 204, written in handwriting that wasn't her own.

Oh. Was there any way she could feel shittier, than to have the former (SO VERY former!) object of her affection treating her like a rare and unusually fascinating specimen of insect on the day that he shows up looking like a Hollywood Star, and get the damn phone number of his skinny little Junior conquest stained on her palm? What was next? His current Forks girlfriend was going to come in and pull up a chair, want to borrow a stick of gum and talk about first kisses? Kim smoothed her now-hot palm down her thigh, trying to subtly rub out the stain from her skin and onto the denim of her pants.

Jared didn't miss the action, and sucked in a breath as he jerked his palm back with a horrified expression on his face. "Jesus! I don't know what- oh."

"You might want to write that down on a piece of paper," Kim advised tonelessly. "You won't be able to read it by the end of the day.

Bizarrely, Jared was already trying to rub it out himself, jerking his opposite thumb over the phone number roughly. He kept shooting anxious looks at her. He dug the pad of his thumb over the numbers again and again. "No, no, I didn't mean to!"

Befuddled and at a total loss, she responded, "It's okay! Here-" She went to rip out a piece of paper for him.

"No, I don't even want this! Seriously." He expelled a heavy breath, looking miserable. "I don't even know her, Kim. I don't want her number."

Liar. Certainly not how it looked earlier. Kim's expression must have read as much, because Jared leaned forward again, eyes shining earnestly.

"Seriously," he said in that low, soft voice. Her heart did a funny flip. He was so entrancing.

Entrancing- and he knew it. Which was why he was getting numbers from other girls when he was supposedly involved with a girl in Forks. And was clearly trying something on her, although it wasn't exactly charming and seemed uncharacteristically bumbling. What was he playing at? Something hurt and snide was crawling through Kim's chest, so she met his eyes and said, sharply, "Good. You shouldn't want her number, because you have a girlfriend, Jared. That's a pretty sleazy thing to do."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she wasn't sure if she wanted to curl up and die, or stand on the desk and roar in triumph for finally proving that she had a spine. She settled for watching him with wide-eyes, unsure of his reaction.

He, on the other hand, looked positively sickened.

They didn't budge for a full minute.

Then, just because she felt like an empowered, snide Frau Badass, Kim said, "Let's just hope Mr. Banks doesn't call on us. We don't want a repeat of Spanish last year."

If this whole exchange wasn't proof that she was totally over Jared Cameron, then what was?

Only it didn't feel as triumphant as she thought it would. As class resumed, and Jared remained slumped and defeated in the corner of her eye, Kim found her stomach in knots.

What a day.

When it came time to pack up, Kim expected Jared to get out of there quick. Most days, he was out the door and snickering with a friend before she could even zip her bag. Instead, he remained in the seat beside hers, staring hard at the front of the room.

She slipped off to her next class, feeling an impossible tug in her chest. Sarah asked her if everything was alright- and, without a word to describe the strange heaviness weighing on her heart- Kim assured her it was. Her last class of the day passed by in a slogging daze.

Kim was leaving through the Main Doors when she spotted Jared, leaning against a column and fiddling with his car keys. She assumed that one of his girls would be around in short order.

"Kim!"

She whirled around in surprise. "Huh? Yes?"

Jared jogged over to her, running his hand through his hair. "How was your day?"

The heaviness in her chest abated for a second, and was replaced by a strange fluttering. "It was pretty good. Yours?"

"Good! It was good, thanks. Um." Jared swallowed.

"Hey. Earlier. It wasn't any of my business, and I was rude." Truthful, but rude all the same.

"But you're right," he said. A group of giggling sophomores divided to walk around them, passing obvious glances at Jared. He didn't seem to notice. His attention was zeroed in on her. Kim shifted under the weight of her backpack. "I got it off."

She squinted with confusion. "What?"

He held up his clean hand. No numbers. Not even a trace of ink.

Kim supposed that was a good thing. He might be loyal to the current Miss Forks. An improvement of character, if it lasted. Kim nodded, approvingly. "Well, good for you."

"Right." Jared lowered the hand. His face seemed to flush a bit.

She couldn't believe she'd actually reamed Jared Cameron so hard that he was now acting so- so un-Jared-like. Reflexively, she dragged her hand through her hair and pulled it to the side, over her shoulder. Jared's attention didn't waiver, but he seemed oddly distracted by the movement. Probably anything to avoid her eyes, after the way she'd treated him. She should at least acknowledge it, as her mom always advised in the wake of a mistake.

She said, "Listen, Jared-" just as he said, "Kim, I have to-"

They both halted, blinking at the other.

"You first," he hastily invited.

"Well," she said, softly, "I just wanted to officially apologize. The way I talked to you earlier. It was snippy and I'm not. If you knew me, you'd know that today was so, so out of character for me. Sorry."

Jared sucked in a quick breath, and meeting his eyes was a dangerous invitation that Kim found herself already softening toward, out of an instinct that sat low in her belly.

"That's just it, Kim," he said, in that deep voice that curled through her bloodstream like smoke, "I really, really would like to know you."

And, for the second time in less than five hours, Kim felt slapped in the face. She blinked at him, utterly perplexed. "Huh? You- you literally just got that girl's number off your arm-"

"I meant what I said, Kim- I don't want it!" He held up both hands, as if saying, I have nothing to hide.

"You have a girlfriend!" Kim stepped back. This was the most completely baffling day she'd ever had. She wasn't sure if the feeling coursing through her was anger, suspicion, thrill, or disappointment. Maybe it was a strangely grueling cocktail of all four. "What are you playing at, Jared?"

"I texted her an hour ago," he said, confidently. "I told her we're through."

"Well that's your business." How gallant, she wanted to drawl. She never dreamed she'd be angry on behalf of any of Jared's Miss Fork-es over the years, but Kim found herself weirdly affronted by his lack of loyalty. Not even a phone call!

An expression of alarm washed over his face. "I can see you're upset with me again."

She bit the inside of her lip, taking another step back and attempting indifference with a shrug that made her backpack's interior clatter. "Jared, how I feel about it is totally unimportant."

His brows drew together. Fiercely, he told her, "That's not true."

"I think, for whatever reason, you and I are just crossing wires today." Kim heaved a sigh. She'd had her fair share of Jared disappointments over the course of her life, but this day was amounting to a compounded despairing confusion that sucked every last piece of energy from her. "Good luck with everything. I'll see you tomorrow."

Jared's eyebrows shot up. Kim took that as her opportunity to leave while her brain was still able to process everything. She slipped away and hurried to her car.

She ignored Sarah's calls as she drove back to her house, and headed straight through the foyer, into the living room, up the stairs and past Becky's room to her own on arrival. Her parents had recently redone Becky's room, and made it into a proper guest room trimmed in whites and pale greens. Her room, meanwhile, was decked out with watercolor flowers and other super-femme things she'd hung the past summer. She loved how girly it was, and how there were soft bursts of oversize florals everywhere she looked. Pretty much every surface was home to a stack of books.

Kim knotted her hair up, peeled off her jeans for a pair of faded, striped pajama shorts, and flopped on the bed.

Her phone buzzed. She ignored it.

Sleep claimed her within a few minutes. One hell of a day, was her last lingering thought.


A/N: Review? If there's anyone out there? :) I appreciate it.