Disclaimer- Alright, you caught me. I am SM and I just choose to waste my time writing fan fiction instead of working on my next multi-million dollar book. Happy now?

Chapter 8- You can't make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them & hope they panic & give in

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"Well, I gotta say; drugs are certainly looking like distinct possibility." Tiffany said, from her place at the foot of Ally's bed.

"Definitely." Sara agreed while she sat at the desk and picked at the remains of a turkey sandwich.

I had spent the last thirty minutes filling them in on every detail I could recall from what I was now referring to as 'The Jared Incident'. They all agreed that something was definitely up.

Well, they all agreed that after they stopped laughing at the part where I kicked Jared in the gonads.

Bitches. (How dare they laugh at my misery?)

"It was like….," I struggled to find the right words to define Jared's behavior while I stared up at the ceiling from where I was laying on the floor, my feet elevated above me and propped up on the edge of the bed, "he was in a trance or something. Just completely, I don't know, hypnotized."

"Drugs." Tiffany concluded while reaching in her bag for a magazine.

"Well, he has to be on steroids to have grown so much in less than two weeks." Sara pointed out.

"Maybe that's why he's acting so weird. Steroids are a drug." Tiffany supplied while reading '50 Ways to Please Your Man Using Only Your Tongue' in Cosmo.

"You know those are supposed to make a guy's You-Know-What shrink." Sara said.

This dragged Tiffany's eye's away from her magazine, "Really?"

Sara nodded, "Oh, yeah. Apparently it starts to get super tiny because it messes with their testosterone levels."

Tiff wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Ew! Why would anybody take them, then? Isn't that…area usually super important to guys?"

I sighed and swung my feet off the bed to sit up, "As lovely as the image of Jared's penis shriveling up is, and I can assure you that after today's events it is a lovely image, steroids normally don't affect you're mental state that drastically. Certainly not that quickly, either."

Sara said, "Well, it's definitely some type of drug. I can't see any other explanation."

"Hey, maybe he was gone so long because he was in rehab!" Tiffany squealed, her eyes alight with this potential new gossip.

"No," I said, flicking a stray sock at Tiff, "If he was in rehab he would be over it and wouldn't be tripping out in math class."

Tiffany deflated at having this precious piece of gossip ripped away from her and turned back to her magazine. Sara started to write her sandwich down into her 'food journal', a collection of everything she's eaten through out the day and an on going calorie count. The girl is obsessed.

You might have noticed by now that one member of our foursome was absent from this fascinating dissection of the inner workings of Jared's mind. Ally was sitting against the wall below the window, ignoring the open chemistry text book in her lap and watching me. She had been strangely quite since I told them about today's happenings.

Sometimes, I think that the whole thing with Jared in freshman year effected her more than me. Afterwards, she had forgiven me right away but it took a while to completely rebuild our relationship.

I had, after all, committed the cardinal sin. I had put a guy (a guy I barely knew, to boot) before my best friend of fifteen years. The only thing worse then that is sleeping with a friends boyfriend, or something. Since none of us had boyfriends that was pretty much the worse I could do.

So, while Tiffany and Sara took this with a large amount of surprise, a fair amount of confusion and very little concern I knew the opposite would be true of Ally.

But it doesn't matter. By tomorrow Jared's high will have worn off and everything will go back to normal.

Besides, even if it doesn't, I'm not one to be fooled twice.

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"Hey, Kim."

I turned around and started to walk the other way.

"Wait!" Jared yelled, "Don't…don't you need something from your locker?"

Damn him. I did need my stuff out of my locker. My locker, that a nervous looking Jared Ferdy was pacing in front of when I stumbled sleepy eyed through the double doors to the school, one hand holding my half drank coffee and the other fumbling for the books I was going to store in said locker until lunch.

I paused in the middle of the hall and wondered how much I needed my algebra book. Of course, I already knew the answer. Math was the one class that always used the book, every damn period.

Fuck.

I braced myself (Much like a soldier preparing for an intense battle against an enemy that far outnumbers him) and turned back in my original direction to make my way over to my locker. I kept my eyes firmly on the chipped yellow paint of the slim metal door instead of the hopeful looking boy next to it.

"Morning, Kim." Jared says, again with that impossibly hopeful tone. What he's hoping for I don't know. Maybe the drugs are making him think I'm Ed McMahon.

I spun the numbers into my lock and ignored him.

Unfortunately, it seems he couldn't be swayed, "How'd you sleep?"

I grabbed my locker door and pulled it open with a bit to much force causing the hinges to whine quietly in protest. Oops. I probably shouldn't pull a hulk in front of Jared. Although, maybe if I did he'd leave me alone.

Hmmm, something to consider.

"How do you know my name?," I snapped a after a moment of tense (But still hopeful, of course!) silence.

"You told it to Mrs. Paen yesterday, when she was writing the detention passes." Jared brightened considerably, apparently thinking I was talking to him now or something.

"Uh-huh," I said slowly while carefully positioning that damn hope of his under the heel of my boot and preparing to grind it to a messy bloody hopeful pulp.

Jared didn't seem detoured by small answers unfortunately, "Yeah, Mrs. Paen is the worst, don't you think." he paused for a moment before rushing on, sounding panicked, "I mean…I mean unless you like her, of course. Then I do to. She's really not that bad. On second thought she's great. The best teacher here, in fact. So..yeah."

Look, now he's searching for common ground. How cute.

"I wouldn't really know how I feel about Mrs. Paen, just yet. I mean, I am new here after all." I said flatly, flipping through the pages of my history book and looking for my homework that I wedged there.

Jared suddenly looked like I had just told him he had killed Santa and a whole group of abused orphans weren't going to have a Christmas this year, just because of him.

"Look, Kim. I'm really sorry about that, " I was about to cut him off, probably with a well-timed scoff, but he kept talking at such a rapid pace that I could hardly make the words out, "Like so so sorry. You can't even imagine how sorry I am. Like the sorriest I've ever been times twenty. But I'll make it up to you, I swear I will. I can carry your books for you, or buy you lunch, or do your chores, or walk your dog or do your homework. Yeah! I'll do your homework. I'm not very good at math but I'll study up on it some more. I guarantee you'll get an 'A'!"

I cut him off while he stopped for air, "Whoa! Down boy. I can do my own homework and my own everything else for that matter. In fact, I don't need you at all so feel free to leave me alone now."

With that I slammed my locker door shut and quickly sidestepped into the crowd of student so he couldn't try to walk with me to my next class.

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"Fuck." I glanced at my emotionally distraught friend, well tried to anyway. She was hiding in a tent of her own hair at the moment.

"Ok, just calm down." Ally supplied, one hand rubbing comforting circles on Sara's back, who currently had her head between her knees.

"I don't know why you're so freaked out by this. You knew he was coming back eventually." Tiffany huffed from her position next to me on one of the many cafeteria benches.

Needless to say, Tiffany wasn't exactly as comforting and understanding as the rest of us were in this particular situation. The fact that Paul was coming back to school tomorrow thrilled her to no end.

Which, of course, pissed Sara off to no end.

Tiffany and Sara were like the perfect pair of friends. One could tell what the other was thinking all the time. If Sara was happy then Tiffany was happy. If Tiffany was depressed then Sara was depressed. They had this amazing connection that never failed. Personally I was a lot more like this with Ally.

When Tiffany had come back to school the day after the party where she had hooked up with Paul only to find he wouldn't give her the time of day Sara had listened to her cry for days on end all the while being completely sympathetic even though she hated Paul and was pissed Tiff would lay a finger on him.

Despite all of this, the two had always clashed where Paul was concerned.

Clashed was really a mild word.

They went at it with a passion most usually reserved for major jihads.

"This is gong to suck." Sara declared, finally removing her head from the vice of her knees.

That's the spirit!

"No more than usual." I comforted…well, tried to comfort. Judging from the look Ally gave me I failed.

I've been told I come across as rather cold and unsympathetic in a lot of situations. I figured Ally had that whole touchy feely front covered. That was why we worked so well together.

Sara sighed and played with her carrot sticks for a minute, "I know, I guess I just got too comfortable not having him around."

"There's only half a year left with the bastard before he graduate, assuming of course he's smart enough. I, personally, am astounded they let him leave kindergarten." I supplied.

"Yeah, but half a year with Paul feels like a century stuck in traffic." Sara whined.

I had always felt bad for Sara. The whole Me and Jared thing was kind of like getting punched in the face. Sure, it hurts. But it's quick and it's over in a minute. Whereas the whole Paul and Sara thing was kind of like getting your arm pinched again and again and again in the exact same spot until you want to rip your entire limb off and beat the person pinching you with it until they stop twitching.

Paul worked his magic on Sara with a subtle wearing away of her confidence slowly over the course of about six years. It's not so much that it's huge, it's that it's constant. Every time she walked by him he'd just have to call her a name and once he even threw a rock at her and gave her a bruise on the back of her neck.

That, of course, never happened again because afterward I slapped him so many times it sounded like applause.

I'm fairly certain that it was the combined efforts of Paul and Sara's mother that made Sara the borderline anorexic she is today.

"Yeah, he's pretty much a complete ass." Ally agreed while forcing half of her sandwich onto Sara's plate.

This, it appears, was all Tiffany could take. I had been waiting for her to speak up.

We were, after all, dissing her man.

"Give it a rest, already! Jeez!" Tiff exclaimed in exasperation, slamming her coke can down on the table. "It's Paul, for god's sake. Not Mussolini!"

"Close enough." Sara snorted around a bite of Ally's sandwich.

"Paul is not that bad." Tiffany defended.

"Like hell he isn't." Sara huffed.

"Really, what has he ever done to you? So he makes a couple of Jack-ass comments every now and then. What teenage guy doesn't!'

"Well, that's easy for you to say! What does Paul do to you? Ignore you? Big deal! I would love it if Paul would just ignore me!"

Tiffany turned red, "You're too sensitive! I'm sure he only means the comments jokingly."

"Jokingly! That's funny! Last I checked, Satan doesn't joke, so I don't see why his son should either."

"You don't know what you're talking about! Just the other day I saw Paul helping an old woman with her groceries!" Tiffany shrieked.

It was a good thing the cafeteria was already so loud, if it wasn't we'd be stirring up quite a scene.

"Helping her! Hah! He was probably mugging her!" Sara shot back.

"Enough!" Ally, ever the peace maker for our little foursome, cut in, "We are all separate individuals and we can have different opinions on different people."

"Yes, I think that is enough," Tiff said while she collected her things, "I have to go."

Ally and I said our goodbyes (Ally without looking up from her textbook which she had turned her attention back to after the fight. I swear she studies as much as Eugene.) and Sara ignored her in favor of picking the meat out of her sandwich. They'd be ok again by the time we meet at the car after school.

This is just how we show our love in our sick and twisted little group.

"So," Sara tactfully changed the subject, "What's with you and Jared?"

It was around this time that I adopted my I-haven't-a-clue-what-any-of-you-are-speaking-of face. It never really works but I keep trying it anyway. No idea why.

"What do you mean?" I busied myself with cleaning up my lunch area and prayed that this would be the one time she'd just let it go.

I didn't feel like talking about Jared, especially in front of Ally. It usually put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

"Oh, don't give me that innocent act." Sara scoffed, ignoring my skillfully delivered back-off-or-I-will-hang-you-with-a-rope-of-your-own-intestines glare, "He's been staring over at you all lunch period. He even sat at a different table just so he could have a better view. Look at him! He looks like he just shot his oldest friend, for gods sake. Something is obviously up"

It was true that Jared had removed himself from his usual spot in front of the cafeteria doors, where all the popular crowd usually sat, (all the better to be seen, the little attention whores) and was now eating by the dumpster.

This spot just happened to have the best view of me in the whole room. And it just happens that he kicked three freshmen from this particular spot (not that he had to work much. He was, after all, still a god around here. Freshmen regularly throw themselves at his feet as sacrifices.) so he could sit there. And it just happens that I saw him standing by the back wall waiting for me to pick my seat before he picked his.

Despite all of this, I'm sure it's a complete coincidence that he picked that particular spot.

Well, that's what I'm going to tell myself, anyway.

If I were being honest I'd say I just cannot handle having the most popular guy in all of La Push turn stalker crazy on me. It just can't happen.

Not only do I now have to wait until the last minute to show up to Algebra (a class he's suddenly almost obscenely early for now days) so he won't have time to talk to me, effectively missing out on my preparation time. I also have to check around corners to see if he's there and if he is I have to navigate the quickest escape route. I've had to pretend I haven't heard him calling out to me in the hallway between periods three time's now.

As if all of this didn't suck enough on it's own the universe somehow pulled all of it's resources together to make my existence even more miserable.

Amy Fink knows.

I thought she was bad before. How naïve my little inexperienced brain was. We were practically the best of friends before when you compare that to the hell I'm currently living in now.

The sudden attention Jared was lavishing on me did not go unnoticed by our small school population. As suspected, this didn't please Amy. In fact she's been taunting me every chance she got. I don't how she can even think of things to say anymore. So far she's insulted my height, my clothing, my friends, my family, my lack of a love life and pretty much whatever else she can sink her perfectly manicured talons into.

Of course, she's done none of this stuff in front of Jared. Instead, when he's around, Amy just has to settle for hanging all over him (something he seems less than pleased with as of late) and glaring in my general direction.

I got to admit though, as much as this whole Jared thing annoys me I have been known to enjoy anything that can make Amy Fink miserable. So that's one good thing that has come out of this at least.

Amy, who had immediately moved her spot when Jared moved his, leaned into him and said something very close to his ear while rubbing her c-cup tits on his arm. Jared reluctantly tore his eyes away from their new favorite pastime (tracking my every god damn move) to look at her.

I figured this was as good an opportunity as I was ever going to get.

"I got to go, I'll see you all later." I whispered, as if Jared had bionic ears or something, and grabbed my stuff and bolted form the cafeteria.

Because I was certain that Jared would notice my absence and come looking for me, I ducked into the ladies room to wait out the last few moments of lunch.

All of this avoidance, however, would end up meaning nothing. I still had detention with the bastard in less than three hours.

That's right. Just Me, Jared and whatever unfortunate soul they send to chaperone us.

Yay.

A/N- I'm sorry if it seems like a long time since I've last updated, although it's only been a week. School just started so the updates will probably slow down a little bit but I will keep them coming as quickly as I can.

Reviews help encourage me to forsake my homework for the pleasure of fanfic writing.

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