Chapter Four

As it turned out, Kim was not in Jared's next class. Nor was she in either of his other two classes that morning. Jared wouldn't let himself be depressed by this, however. Even if they only apparently shared the one class period, everyone in the small school had lunch at the same time. He would see Kim in the cafeteria. Jared could barely contain his excitement.

She wasn't there.

"Where could she be?" Jared asked helplessly, scanning every face packed into the cafeteria for the third time in the past two minutes. "We aren't allowed to go anywhere else during lunch!"

"Calm down, man," Paul said, the voice of reason for once. "The bell only just rang; she could be running late from whatever class she just had. Or maybe you missed her—"Jared shot him a quick scathing look at this before returning to studying and then dismissing each face in the room "—Alright, so maybe you just can't see her then. Tell me what she looks like again?"

"She's beautiful," Jared said immediately, a sigh escaping his lips as his eyes glazed over slightly.

"O-kay," Paul said slowly and with a roll of his eyes. "Not the most detailed description, but I guess I can work with that…you said her name was Kim?"

Jared nodded happily and Paul frowned.

"I don't think I know anyone named Kim," He admitted.

"I…" Jared hesitated and his expression fell. "I didn't actually know what her name was until I found it in her notebook," He said, his fingers drumming restlessly on the aforementioned notebook, which was currently sitting on the table next to Jared's mound of untouched food and which he had been carrying around with him all morning. "And I…well, I know we must've gone to school together for ages, because once I actually thought about it a bit I realized that I do recognize her, but I don't actually remember ever talking to her before…"

"You'll make up for it in no time, I'm sure," Paul reassured him, in between bites of his sandwich, easily picking up on the guilt in Jared's tone. It's was all too similar to what Sam sounded like most days, though his guilt was for a different reason.

"Not if I never see her again!" Jared couldn't help but point out. "She had to leave class this morning because of an emergency. What if she had to leave school and she's never coming back?"

Paul simply stared at his friend for a moment before speaking, "If it's going to turn me into such a drama queen, I really hope I never imprint. It's bad enough with Sam constantly mooning over Emily not wanting anything to do with him. But now add you to that…I don't know how I'm going to survive."

"Sorry," Jared said immediately. "It's just…I can't help it…"

"I get it—or, at least, I will get it better once we do our patrol later," Paul amended.

"It's not like I fully understand it," Jared said ruefully. "You said you don't know her…I don't even know her, and I'm completely obsessing over her."

"Well, you know what they say," Paul said, digging back into his lunch, causing Jared to realize that he was incredibly hungry and he hadn't made a move to eat anything yet. "The first step towards getting help is admitting that you have a problem."

"It would help if I could just find her," Jared frowned into the bag of chips he had just opened.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for a beautiful girl named Kim this afternoon in class," Paul told him. "And I'm sure you'll do the same, which is the best we can do for now."

It was a sad day when Paul was the voice of reason, not that it matter since Kim was not in any of Jared's afternoon classes either. And to make matters worse, he hadn't caught even a glimpse of her in the halls. She really must have left school after History that morning.

As Jared leaned casually against the wall just outside of the front doors to the high school at the end of the day, waiting on Paul as usual, the only thing that could comfort him was the fact that at least Kim had left for someone else's emergency. She wasn't the one who was sick, or had been deathly injured, or—

"I found her!" Paul's excited voice rang in Jared's ear, causing him to jump slightly, as he had been distracted thinking of all of the completely horrible things that could be the reason he wasn't staring into Kim's beautiful eyes at this precise moment.

And then Jared actually took the time to process what Paul had said.

"What?" He questioned immediately, his expression brightening. "Kim? You found her? When? Where is she?"

"Well, kind of," Paul said hastily. "It was in my English class just now. There was a girl named Kim who was absent—and honestly, how many other Kim's could there possibly be in La Push?"

"She was absent?"

Paul nodded. "But I think I know the girl you're talking about now. Is she kind of quiet?"

"Er…sure…" Jared offered, trying to recall if he had ever heard the girl who sat beside him in History speak at all during class that year.

"But she always knows the right answers when the teacher calls on her?" Paul continued. "I'm pretty sure she aces all of the tests and homework, too."

"She was the first person to finish the test in History this morning," Jared said thoughtfully.

"Then we've found your girl," Paul said. "I'm sure she'll be back tomorrow and you can proclaim your undying love for her, and then you can introduce us. Now come on, let's go find Sam. I'm sure he'll be really interested to learn all of this imprinting business isn't as rare as he seems to think."

But Paul was wrong, Jared quickly discovered the next morning. Kim was not back at school the next day. All throughout History, Jared sat barely paying attention to the lecture, choosing instead to stare at Kim's empty seat, a torrent of thoughts running through his head. By the end of the class period he had made up his mind, and quickly made his way up to the teacher's desk as everyone was leaving the room for the second day in a row.

"Mrs. Reynolds?"

"Yes, Jared?" Mrs. Reynolds turned away from the chalkboard she had been erasing. "Did you need any help with the make-up work I gave you earlier?"

"No, I think I'm set with all of it," Jared indicated the rather thick folder she'd given him before class had started that day—when he'd gotten to the classroom much earlier than was necessary in the hope that he would get to see Kim. "I was just wondering if I could have another copy of today's homework? I was going to see if I could stop by Kim's house later today and maybe go over those notes she gave me, and I thought I could give her the homework, since she wasn't here."

"That's very thoughtful of you, Jared," Mrs. Reynolds moved over to her desk now. "And I'm happy to see that you're taking some initiative to catch up with everything you missed."

Once Jared had escaped her clutches—ahem, left the room with another copy of that day's homework, he went through the rest of the day with a single-minded focus. Obviously Kim wasn't able to come to him, so he was going to go to her.

"I know you guys are supposedly perfect for each other," Paul commented as they walked out of school together that afternoon, "But I'm starting to get the impression that this whole imprinting business is just an elaborate excuse to be a stalker."

Jared rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"But I guess some girls go for the whole creepy stalker thing," Paul continued with a shrug. "And I hope for your sake that Kim is one of them."

"I'm just bringing her some homework," Jared finally spoke up.

"Yes," Paul agreed, "You're bringing her some homework because you flirted her address out of the school secretary."

"Exactly," Jared said, "If I was a stalker, I'd obviously already know where she lives."

"You're hopeless," Paul informed him frankly.

"I'll see you later," was all Jared said in reply before the two parted ways—Paul to go run patrol with Sam and Jared to finally be reunited with Kim after the most agonizing thirty hour and forty-one minute separation of his life. A smile spread across his face at the thought that he would soon be face-to-face with Kim once more.

However, when he finally found himself in front of Kim's house, the smile slowly faded from his face. What if Paul had a point? What if Kim thought he was stalking her or something? What if she got so freaked out by Jared just randomly showing up at her house that she refused to ever see him again? What if—but no, he couldn't think like that. There had literally been nothing else on his mind all day but what he hoped to accomplish this afternoon. He knew what he needed to do and he wasn't going to back out now.

And so, firm in his resolve, Jared made his way to the front door of Kim's small house—the standard size of just about everything in La Push except for him and his two pack brothers—and knocked. And then he waited.

And waited some more…

And kept waiting…

With a frown, he knocked again, a bit harder this time in case no one had heard it the first time.

When his knocking continued to go unanswered, Jared started to get worried. What if the emergency with her sister had been really serious? What if it had led to something happening to Kim and that was why no one was coming to answer the door?

Frowning now, Jared knocked on the door for the third time. His hand was still held up in midair when the door was unexpectedly yanked open to reveal Kim standing there.

"Jared?" She asked, causing a wide grin to immediately split across his face. Kim knew his name. Needless to say, Jared was elated.

"Hey, Kim," Jared said happily, still smiling brightly at her.

She frowned slightly. "What are you doing here?"

She hadn't spoken in a hostile tone, but her words still caused Jared's smile to drop slightly. And why was she frowning like that at him? Did she not want him here? Should he not have come? Should he really have listened to Paul and Sam's advice and waited for her to come back to school?

"I…" Jared hesitated. "Well, I brought your homework."

Her expression cleared immediately, and Jared relaxed. Of course she had questioned him; it wasn't as if he had ever spoken to her before, she had no reason to expect him to show up at her house. But this was clearly a good place to start.

"It figures that the one day I miss school is the one day we actually get assigned some homework in History," She said with a wry grin.

"Oh…er…well, actually," Jared begin, unable to help squirming a bit under her gaze, "I mean, yes that did happen, but I…well, I brought you homework from all of your classes."

"But…you aren't in any of my other classes," Kim said now, and Jared winced. Okay, so he really was coming off as a ridiculous stalker.

"I asked around?" Jared offered.

"Well, thanks, I guess. I—" Kim stopped abruptly as another voice sounded from within the house.

"Kimmie?"

"Shoot," Kim muttered under her breath, hastily spinning on her heel and running in the opposite direction.

Making a split-second decision, Jared shrugged and let himself in, closing the door that Kim had left open behind him before following the sound of her footsteps through the house. He found her in a bedroom at the back of the house, just sitting down on the edge of a bed that otherwise seemed to be a pile of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. As he hesitated in the doorway, it finally registered in his mind that her hair was dripping wet and the only clothing she appeared to be wearing was a bathrobe that only hit mid-way up her thigh in her current seated position.

She was completely gorgeous.

"Is everything alright?" Kim was asking the pile of blankets in a soothing voice.

"You said you would stay with me," A small voice sounded from within the pile. Jared couldn't place the voice which probably meant he had never heard it before—a very good thing, as it probably meant he really hadn't ever dated her sister. Now that would have been awkward.

"I was only in the shower, silly," Kim replied. "Are you feeling any better? Do you think you want to try some food?"

"Yes," The voice said. "Could I have some more juice, please? I finished what you brought me earlier."

Kim's face morphed into a frown, which caused a pang in Jared's heart. Why was she upset? She couldn't be upset!

"You drank all of the juice we have, sweetie," Kim told her. "You're going to have to wait for mom to come home so that someone will be here with you while I go buy more."

"I could go buy you some," Jared spoke up without a second thought.

Kim jumped noticeably, causing Jared to wince again; obviously she hadn't noticed that he'd followed her…just one more thing to add to the list of reasons why he was a stalker. At the same time, the pile of blankets shifted to reveal a little girl now sitting up in bed. She couldn't have been more than about nine.

Well. Now Jared knew for sure he hadn't dated Kim's sister. Paul and Sam were never going to shut up about this when they found out about this later, when Jared would quite likely accidentally think about the incident after phasing. Damn.

"Who are you?" The little girl asked—hmm…Jared would really have to learn what her name was…

"I'm Jared," He told her. "I go to school with your sister."

The girl's eyes widened dramatically. "Jared?" She repeated. "Are you Jared Cameron?"

"I'll make you some soup!" Kim said suddenly, speaking quite loudly, for some reason that Jared couldn't determine. "You'd like some soup, wouldn't you, Kylie?"

"But your boyfriend said he'd buy me juice," The little girl—Kylie, apparently—protested, pouting.

She was kind of a cute kid, Jared couldn't help but think. And obviously Kim cared a lot about her sister, since she didn't appear to be sick and had stayed home with the sole purpose of taking care of the little girl that day. And if she was important to Kim, then she was obviously going to be important to Jared, too. And…hang on, had she referred to him as Kim's boyfriend?