Imprinting? Isn't That What Ducks Do?

Twilight © Stephenie Meyer

Original Plot & Characters © little miss randomosity

Chapter Two: Men: Known to Cause Weird Dreams and Have Stare-Downs

My dreams are filled with 55/50 fractions chasing me through the school with Embry in their lead, cackling maniacally[1]. I wake up several times during the night and by the time morning comes around, my eye bags feel like they have eye bags, and I don't think my constant yawning will ever stop.

"Never getting caffeine before bed ever again," I mutter darkly, blearily blinking my brown eyes and running a hand through my equally-as-brown hair while surveying my room. Small streams of light are pouring through the blinds on the windowsill near my bed, and I pause in my ministrations, whipping my head around to stare at the alarm clock on my bedside table.

7:30 A.M.

Huh, whaddya know. It's a good thing school doesn't start until 7:00, or else I'd have-

...Wait.

What?!

The next few minutes probably look like something out of a cartoon: Springing off my bed, I run towards my closet, randomly pulling out a pair of jeans and a shirt before wiggling out of my pajamas and throwing them into a dirty heap of clothes on the floor. Pulling on my new clothes, I hop over to my bed, fixing the thing, and then hop on over to the bedside table, glaring at the alarm clock innocently displaying that the time is five minutes past seven-thirty. I frown before picking up the small machine and turning it over in my hands.

"Weren't you supposed to wake me up early today...?" As if answering my question, the clock in my hands begins to vibrate, and then-

BEEPBEEPBEEP! BEEPBEEPBEEP! BEEPBEEP-

"AGH!" Surprised, my hands release their hold on the clock, covering my ears instead. I get one, fleeting glimpse of it-suspended in the air, almost in slow-motion, yet at the same time, diving to the ground at a fast speed-before it lands and breaks, cracking into pieces and stopping the stupid beeping noise.

Here lies Sofia's clock number #2, a good friend, a terrible wake-me-up, and a really, really ugly mess on the floor.

Making a mental note to clean the mess up later, I slip on a pair of shoes, sling a backpack onto one shoulder, and hurry downstairs to the kitchen, almost tripping twice in my haste to get there.

"Morning, Sofia," my dad says to me as I pass him on the stairs. I call a hasty 'morning' over my shoulder and he chuckles.

When I reach the kitchen, I power-walk to the counter to grab an apple, and turn around, muffling a shriek when I see my mom standing there. Honestly, I'm starting to think all moms attend a school for ninjas before they become moms; where else would they learn to sneak up on people like that?

…

Well, besides a school for potential-rapists.

"M-mom. Er, hi?"

"Sofia Munro, why in God's name are you in such a hurry this morning?" she demands, jutting out her hip before placing a hand on it, a disapproving look on her face.

"Sorry Mom, late for school, can't talk right now-"

"Late? What are you talking about? It's only 6:40!"

I stare blankly. "What?"

She sighs. "I said its still 6:40. Did your dad accidently adjust your clock an hour ahead? I told him Daylight Savings Time wasn't over yet, and that he should set all the clocks in the house back an hour, but I don't think he got to yours yet—honestly, that father of yours, Sofia, I swear he can be so scatterbrained sometimes—"

"So, wait," I interrupt, grasping at strings, "I'm…not going to school yet?"

"No, and not for awhile you're not."

She sighs heavily again, this time placing a hand on my shoulder. Her next words are spoken in a serious yet gentle tone. "Look Sofia, I know how you care a lot about school and I just wanted to let you know that your father and I are very proud of you. And, well, I just wanted to tell you this because I'm a little worried about you overworking yourself—I mean, if this is about your sister—"

I stiffen. "No, it's not." We can both tell I'm lying, but we let it slide anyway, because acknowledging my lies would mean that we'd have to talk about it, and that's something neither of us wants to do.

She nods sadly, and that my insides squirm a little from guilt.

"…Sofia?"

"Yeah?"

"Your zipper's down. Go zip your pants up dear; I can see your yellow polka-dotted panties from here."

"…Right."

After that super heart-felt chat between my mom and me, which, as you can guess, ended with me turning around to awkwardly pull my pant's zipper up, I decided that as long as I'd gotten ready early I might as well head to school early instead.

So now, with Aria by my side, we walk to La Push Tribal School, enjoying the lovely (and unnaturally sunny) weather outside in silence.

"Aria, I swear I have to find out how the hell Embry keeps beating me!" Well, in almost silence.

Aria giggles. "I thought your crazy dream got you over this by now."

I gape at her in false surprise. "Over it? Why, my dear Aria, if anything that crazy dream just motivated me to create an even crazier dream with me beating Embry and forcing him to admit that I am in fact the ultimate Chemistry genius to ever walk the face of the universe!" [2]

She laughs even harder. "W-what? That doesn't make sense at all! Honestly Sofia, you get the weirdest ideas sometimes, I don't even know where to start! How about—"

But I never got to hear what Aria had to say about my weird ideas because next thing I know I walk smack-dab into someone's back, the force of which causing me to fall on my ass on the pavement. The guy I'd run into turns out to see who I am before rolling his eyes and muttering a 'watch where you're going,' and turns his attention back to something in front of him, not even bothering to help me up.

"Watch where you're going." Not one of my best comebacks, I know, but my butt's too sore for me to care right now. I turn to Aria, ready to tell her what a jerk this guy is, but find myself once again pausing at her expression.

Just like the one she had on yesterday, before I found out my grades, her expression speaks of apprehension and anxiety, yet, unlike the previous one, this one also shows fear, and a lot of it too. Puzzled, I get to my feet, surveying the crowd around us I hadn't noticed before. Just a couple of feet in front of us stands the school. Its entrance is blocked off by the masses of students crowding around there. I squeeze my way through to as close to the front of the crowd as I can get, and what I see manages to surprise me more than losing to Embry.

And believe me, that's saying something.

Five people stand on the entrance steps to the school, two on one side and three on the other. Two of them I can recognize as Paul Lahote and Jared Cameron, two people who are very unfamiliar to me yet who I know from being in a few classes together. The other three I can recognize even more easily—Embry, and his friends Jacob and Quil.

Paul and Jared stand on the right, their expressions impassive yet their postures tense, while Embry, Jacob, and Quil stand on the left, Jacob in the front, closest to Paul and Jared, with Quil and Embry behind him. The three of them are showing more emotion: anger, agitation, hostility. Out of all three, Jacob seems to be the most agitated; Quil the most hostile, with his arms crossed tightly over his broad chest; Embry the calmer one, yet his mouth set in a thin line of anger.

As I stand there watching their silent exchange of hostility, I can't help but think—just what is going on here?

[1] Haha, imagining Embry cackling maniacally got me giggling maniacally. …I should so not be writing this at ten o'clock at night. :D

[2] I'd like to think that, after the event that took place this morning (her mom mentioning her sister) which is a subject Sofia obviously isn't comfortable with at all, she would be trying her best to forget it by acting completely…well, as Aria puts it, weird. Also, I think Sofia is being a little truthful about this, as she does want to beat Embry and have him acknowledge her as better than him (at Chemistry at least).

Authoress' Talk:

I am so, so, so, so sorry for not updating this story in five months! A lot of things have been happening in my life lately and because of that I've been having an even harder time of managing my time. But things have cooled down a bit now, so I'll try to get this story on a regular update schedule of one chapter per week.

Aside from that, drama and unanswered questions are featured in this chapter; I'll try and get most of them answered in the next chapter. On another note, I really, really hope I didn't screw up my character's personality here! I haven't written in her POV—I haven't written at all!—for a few months now so I'm a bit rusty. …and I got lazy at the end too, so yeah... -_-"

So, since you've gotten this far…please review? ^_^