A/N: Disclaimer: SM owns everything.
Nothing could ruin Kim's spirit of elation, it seemed, except for her sister. Sisters have a spectacular ability to ruin good moods faster than a blink; especially if your sister is popular, beautiful, confident, and just an all-around bitch who enjoys meddling in your nonexistent love life. Like her sister, Laura, was doing right then, after Kim's third period English.
"What's this I've heard? I just got a text from Sabrina Carlton that you and Jared Cameron were going at it in the supply closet!" Laura held up her crappy Nokia phone and jutted out one of her hips to show that she did not approve of what this rumor implied. Kim's mouth dropped open.
"People are really saying that?" Kim asked, incredulous.
"I know, right? Supply closets are, like, such a90s fad. What is this, My So-Called Life? Everybody knows you should use Coach Richtner's office during third period, duh." Laura said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. If Kim hadn't been blown away by the speed at which gossip travelled in a school as small as La Push was, she would have corrected Laura's subpar knowledge of 90s TV shows, and then asked her, pointedly, how on Earth she knew what was the 'in' hotspot for skipping class to 'go at it'.
"Gross, Laura. Besides, I thought you didn't talk to me in public?" Kim said, noticing the strange looks people were giving them.
"I don't, and you should never act like we are on more than a you-give-me-the-popular-senior-your-math-homework-and-I-acknowledge-your-dorky-junior-existence basis, ever, or else. You aren't very noticeable, Kim, and you know I mean that in the kindest way possible, and having you actually get picked up on Sabrina Carlton's gossip radar, like, super unusual. So I had to check it out, duh. I would totally lead you somewhere private, but then there'd be rumors about me and you in an incestuous lesbo relaylay and your chances with Jare-Bear would be zero to zilch." To emphasize the zilch, Laura made a motion with her hands to indicate a flatline. She glared at Kim, "and I need your math homework."
Kim sighed; it was always good to keep the peace with Laura, just because Laura always got her way. Pulling her blue math notebook covered with doodles of Mrs. Kim Cameron out of her bag, Laura continued her interrogation. "So…did you?"
"Did we… what?"
"Go at it in the supply closet?" Laura looked at Kim like she was the one who sounded crazy.
"What? No! Jeez, Laura, what kinda girl do you think I am?" Kim asked, her mouth falling open again. Laura shrugged, taking the math notebook with her manicured nails.
"I don't really care enough to stick around to find out. Just, stay away from Jared, 'kay? You're not his type, and I mean that in the kindest way possible. I'd hate to see you get hurt," Laura smiled a sickly sweet "mean girl" smile at Kim.
"Did you bang him?" Kim lowered her voice considerably. Laura snorted.
"Freshman year? He was all skinny and lanky and gross; I dumped him for that guy from Forks," Laura said as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "It was freshman year, anyway; we were more friends than boyfriend-girlfriend. All we did was peck and hold hands. What a waste of two weeks. But like I said, you're not his type." Laura made a peace sign and walked away, her high-heels click-clacking on the cheap linoleum floor. Kim stared after her sister, wondering if perhaps one of them was secretly adopted. One thing confused her about Laura's speech, however: if Laura and Jared had never been precisely serious, then why the hell had he been invited over for dinner, twice? Wasn't meeting the girlfriend's parents sort of a serious thing? Even if Jared hadn't been into their actual house; they'd eaten at the outside patio, enjoying a brief spell of good weather. And beyond that, Kim's mother rarely allowed anyone to come to the house; presumably because she was so ashamed of the relative state of destitution it was in, and because the family black sheep/self-proclaimed "free spirit Aunt Renata had lived with them at the time; not to mention their bat-shit insane Grandmama, who liked to throw pots out the window. It just wasn't a place to make good impression. Kim had known Natalie for nearly two years before she was allowed over; Seth Clearwater, her brother's absolute best friend, had been hesitantly invited over after Alex nonchalantly mentioned that Seth had never been over, and it was being to make them seem rude. Which made it doubly strange that Jared had been invited over after only two weeks of "Junior High dating" with Laura.
These thoughts had only just been plaguing her for a few moments when an annoyingly familiar voice sounded in her ear, making her jump.
"Did she really just use 'incestuous' and 'relaylay' in the same sentence?" Natalie asked, popping up next to Kim as they made their daily course to the school's cafeteria/gymnasium/auditorium/study hall.
"Uh…I think," Kim said, staring after his sister. It really was a marvel they were related. Natalie shook her head, and turned to Kim.
"Come on, you've scored a lunch seat with Jared freaking Cameron, and you don't want him to forget that he asked you. Oh, my god, maybe he'll ask for your number! Or maybe he'll ask you to Erica Stanton's party! Oh, wait, he already did, didn't he! Oh my god! Maybe he'll ask you to marry him!"
"Natalie, personally, I think the chances of him asking me to marry him are pretty slim," Kim told Natalie frankly. "Salad, please," Kim told the sour-faced lunch lady, receiving a glare and an old salad Kim had absolutely no intention of eating.
"Just like the chances of him asking you to eat with him?" Natalie smirked at Kim. "Same," Natalie told the lunch lady. The lunch lady grumbled, taking a scoop of grayish-purple mush and dropping it onto Natalie's tray with a disgusting glopping noise. Natalie wrinkled her nose and followed Kim away from the lunch lady. It was Kim's turn to smirk at the disgusted look on Natalie's face.
"That's what you get for getting old Sour Face fired," Kim said, causing Natalie to glare.
"That was Junior High, Kim, and you promised you'd never bring that up again!" Kim's smirk deepened at Natalie's slight blush.
"Kim!" They both turned around to see Jared calling from a table on the far side of the cafeteria, surrounded by a tray piled up with food that wasn't the gruel Natalie had been served. Paul Lahote—Kim guessed that the weird friendship between Paul and Jared must have happened in the two weeks they had been absent—sat next to him, chowing down on at least five different lunches. How odd, Kim thought; usually, Paul sat with a group of loud, slutty girls, where he was fawned over constantly, and Jared usually sat with the popular kids; he usually sat with his current girlfriend, Sloan Hammond. Paul's girls and Jared's friends were all eying the strange alliance of Sam Uley's new he-men with confusion, dislike, scorn, and even jealousy. Only Kim's sister Laura didn't care, because she'd already "dated" Paul (except this was Laura's version of dating, which involved no dates, no talking, and just sex) and had always been sort of on a friendly basis with Jared. Probably since they'd freaking dated in freshman year!
"He remembered your name!" Natalie hissed to Kim, causing Kim to blush wildly. When Natalie began to detour towards their usual table in the back, Kim made a strangled noise of fear.
"Where are you going?" Kim whispered, hurrying to catch up with Natalie. She cast Jared and Paul's table a few nervous glances. To the passive observer, it would appear that Kim didn't want to eat lunch with Jared; however, Natalie was easily able to tell that Kim wanted to eat with Jared, but was simply being her usual shy, self-conscious self, and was apprehensive at the thought of approaching Jared without her slightly less socially awkward friend.
"Over to sit at our table. I wasn't invited, remember?" Natalie smiled slyly, nudging Kim in the direction of Jared's table. "Go on. Go."
Kim cast Natalie a look of hopelessness and trepidation as she walked carefully, but deliberately, towards Jared. Natalie noticed the way his eyes locked on hers, unwilling to look away or to even blink—as if Kim were a hallucination that would disappear suddenly if he did.
"Hi, Kim," Jared said, smiling widely at her. Kim smiled her own shy smile in return, tucking her hair behind her ear nervously. Natalie rolled her eyes; Kim needed to grow some balls or something and stake her claim on her man (okay, so Jared wasn't Kim's 'man' yet, but it was technicality easily ratified once Kim grew some serious balls and acted like her normal self, already!)
"Hehfjkimm," Paul greeted through a mouth stuffed full of food. He swallowed audibly, repeating himself. "Hey, Kim." Turning to Jared, he added: "Say something, dipshit. You look so dumb."
"Oh! Um…sit here!" He stood up from his seat so fast he fell onto the ground. Natalie snickered to herself as Rory joined her at their usual table, Jared and Kim's conversation fading out as she put some distance of loud, rowdy high school cafeteria between them. She watched in amusement as Jared's dark skin turned redder than Quileute skin should have been able to go while he scrambled to cover up his moment of awkward idiocy in front of the girl he apparently liked—yeah, Jared liking Kim in reality? Natalie was more than a little surprised, too.
"What are you—that isn't Kimberly with Jared Cameron?" Rory always tried to sound as smart as she was so people would take her seriously; really, it made her sound rather pretentious, like she was rubbing her superior intellect in their faces.
"Yup. Weird, huh?" Natalie murmured, not looking up at Kim's little sister. Rory had always been a bit of a tagalong; too smart for children her age, and still too childish in the eyes of adults for them to bother with taking her seriously, Rory had never really been able to make friends. Kim had always privately confided in Natalie that she suspected that Rory was thoroughly lonely most of the time, simply because people rarely bothered to talk to her. Rory could be rather intimidating, Natalie supposed; she wasn't plain by any standards (Kim called Rory a "diamond in the rough", simply because Rory was rather pretty and an engaging and fiercely loyal individual but was so socially awkward, intimidating, and blunt to the point of rudeness that people never really bothered to look past her stony exterior), was smarter than the entire teaching staff and honor roll students put together, and always had a gave off a stuck up impression. In her earlier years, Rory had followed her louder, social, attractive, charismatic twin and his smiley best friend around. Of course, Alex had objected vehemently to this; he and Rory had never gotten along, and Alex was never willing to share Seth with Rory. Seth himself had always been friendly, but he had never really noticed when Rory had stopped following him and Alex around and started following Kim and Natalie around.
"Just a bit," Rory answered, staring at Jared and Kim at their table as Jared vehemently attempted conversation with Kim; unfortunately for both Jared and Kim, Kim had gone into "turtle mode": essentially, Kim (the turtle) sensed that she was leaving her comfort zone and speedily tucked her head back into her metaphoric "shell" and became basically unresponsive beyond feverish blushing and stuttering.
"He asked her out in History today," Natalie remarked as Rory settled some extra work out on the table for her to do "for fun" (honestly, Natalie thought, what's fun about quadratics?). Rory looked up through her coke-bottle glasses in surprise.
"Really?" Rory asked, looking extremely surprised at that bit of knowledge.
"Your faith in Kim is astounding, Rory,"Natalie said sarcastically, pushing at the mush on her tray with her plastic spork.
"Don't pretend you aren't surprised, Natalie. A sudden interest in Kimberly from the practically lifelong object of my hapless sister's affection is very improbable. Unfortunately for Kimberly, the likelihood of Jared Cameron being legitimately interested in her are tragically slim. I predict a practical joke to be the cause. Perhaps he has placed money on winning her affections with his odious companion. He certainly picks poor company in Paul Lahote." Rory stated matter-of-factly, as if Kim's impending heartbreak was as trivial as the weather.
Natalie rolled her eyes. "English, por favor?"
"I. Think. It's. Unlikely. That. Jared. Just. Suddenly. Likes. Kim. So. It's. Probably. A. Joke. Or. A. Bet. With. That. Slimeball. Paul. Lahote." Rory said, annunciating each word painstakingly slowly for Natalie's benefit, as if Natalie was two, or at least significantly stupid.
"Jesus, Rory, calm down, okay? Oh, and, by the way, Seth Clearwater is staring at you from your stupid-ass brother's table. In case you were wondering." Natalie snapped at Rory; Rory whirled around at Natalie's last statement, towards the obnoxiously loud table of the popular freshmen where Seth (the object of Rory's own hopeless fantasies) sat dutifully with her brother. He wasn't looking at her; she should have known. He never looked at her. She was the sister of his best friend; the freak genius; the fly on the wall. He was Seth Clearwater. There was never a chance for them, but at least she wasn't moping over Seth like Kim was over Jared; Rory knew that there wasn't any chance between them, and that there never would be no matter how long she pined over him.
Rory had always hated how people went on and on about her "gift", and how lucky she was that she was so smart. But really, to her, it was more of a curse; she would have given anything to be normal. It didn't really seem worth it, to be so smart that you alienated your family, you intimidated your peers, outsmarted your teachers, and freaked out any boys who may have been interested in you. Rory felt like she had always been an adult; certainly, the expectations placed on her exceeded those placed on any adults she had encountered; and yet, she was treated as a precocious child. She would have given anything to be average. Maybe achieving A's, but certainly not exceptionally smart as she was. Maybe Seth would notice her the way she wanted him to if she weren't so smart. Maybe he'd look at her like she was a girl and he was a boy instead of she was the weird sister and he was the best friend.
"You're terrible," Rory whispered to Natalie, blushing slightly. Natalie looked a bit ashamed, mercifully changing the subject back to Kim.
"Kim's actually made it to words now…definite progress…" Natalie said. Indeed, Kim was talking with animated vigor, gesticulating wildly. Clearly, Jared had hit upon a topic she was semi-passionate about. Jared himself seemed pleased at this new development, as he watched her with an air of someone lost in the Sahara chancing upon an oasis.
"He certainly is a good actor." Rory admitted, observing them like she would an amoeba under a microscope.
"Agreed," Natalie said, watching as Jared's eyes lit up when Kim smiled. It must have been faked; though Jared could no doubt win an Oscar for his acting—Natalie could quite literally see the devotion in his eyes.
"I kind of feel like we're feeding her to the wolves," Rory said, looking slightly uneasy.
"It's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all," Natalie told her, and Rory's worries looked slightly mollified.
"I hope you're right."
"I hope so, too."
A/N: Review! Happy Saint Patrick's Day!