~10~

The rest of the day went by slowly, dragging on. I hardly paid attention to anyone or anything. During lunch, I sat at me and Alice's table in the far corner, alone. Aiden offered to sit with me, but I told him I didn't want to take him away from his other friends. The rest of the day after lunch went by just as slowly as the day before it. It all passed in a daze. The only one inkling of the day was Aiden picking me to be his partner for our Biology project, although I have no idea what the project is even on.

Afterschool, I went out to find Jasper waiting for me out front in the car. Snow was falling from the sky, making it wet and slippery as I walked to the car. It was hard living in a town where everything was so dreary.

Home wasn't much of an improvement over school. I went home and did my homework, ignoring Alice's pleads to let her do my hair or paint my nails. After that, I just sat and moped around, watching the moon rise up over the new fallen snow. In the distance, I heard wolves howling in the back, but I knew they were just wild animals. They weren't the wolves I was hoping to hear. I glanced at my ring remembering my friend. It had only been one day and I was already a wreck. What was I gonna do for the next few months?

I came to school the next morning with bags under my eyes, but of course, that's what you get for crying yourself to sleep and waking up every hour.

I was like a zombie in school, not able to think or feel anything. I wasn't just dead on the inside now, I was dead on the outside. If only Jacob could see how he was affecting my everyday life.

My life in the undead was finally interrupted by Aiden on our way to lunch.

"Hey, so when do you want to start working on this project?" he said.

I stared at him blankly, "What project?"

"The one for Biology that's due next week. We should start working on it pretty soon," he said.

"Oh yeah, right, I forgot. It must have slipped my mind," I answered back, trying to sound like I wasn't completely clueless.

"It was assigned yesterday," he said matter-of-factly.

"Right, so when do you want to work on it?"

"How about tomorrow? You could come over my house afterschool if you wanted. I'm going skiing this weekend so I won't be around."

"Sure, I'll go over your house tomorrow."

"Great, sounds like a plan!"

Well, at least something was in order in my life, even if it was just one Biology project.

"So, um, what exactly do we have to do for this project?" I asked tentatively.

He stared at me for a moment like I came from the moon and then laughed. "Boy you really are a zombie these past couple of days."

I laughed at myself with him, "You could say that!"

Aiden came to my table during lunch. It was nice to have someone to talk to, someone you could pretend to be normal with and care about school. We talked about the project and how we were going to build a model cell out of jello and candy. It definetly sounded interesting.

The next afternoon, I went over Aiden's so we could start working on our project. Alice was hestitant to let me go, but she was finally reluctant after I convinced her that it would take my mind off of what was going on back in La Push. The truth was, it probably wouldn't.

Afterschool, I took Aiden's bus home and we walked to the corner grocery store a block from his house. We bought ten packets of green and a variety of candy ranging from gummy worms, to twizzlers, to skittles. It was a hard walk back on the icey sidewalks trying to balance our bags stuffed with jello and candy.

Back at Aiden's house, we got busy setting the jello. We were having a great time laughing while mixing it together, that I didn't even notice my most precious ring slip of my finger while pouring the jello into a container.

While we let the jello set in the fridge, we began to clean up the dishes so his mom wouldn't kill him when she got home. I had never met either of his parents, so I wasn't sure if she would be mad about our jello mess or happy we were having such fun doing school work.

"You don't have to stay here you know to help pick up. I can handle it," Aiden said to me. He was washing the dishes while I was drying them.

"No, I want to. I helped make some of the mess, so I get to help pick it up," I said smiling at him.

"Alright, if you're sure," he answered back, mirroring my smile.

"Positive, besides, if I went home, I'd just have to face Alice begging me to let her give me a manicure, and let me tell you, that is not my ideal of fun. No, I'd much rather be here cleaning up jello."

"Well good, I'm glad you're here too. It makes this mess much more easy to pick up." We both laughed.

"So, where has your sister been lately?" Aiden asked.

That caught me off guard. I had never been asked by anyone, not even Aiden, about my family.

"Oh,uh, Alice?" I stuttered.

"Yeah, the one that usually sits with you at lunch. She hasn't been there recently," he said.

I quickly came up with an excuse, even though it was lame and wouldn't last. How was I suppose to explain Alice's absence for possibly the rest of the year?

"Oh, yeah, she's sick. She went hiking this weekend and must have caught something." I said worriedly.

"Well hiking in the dead of winter, it's no wonder she did," he answered back.

"Yeah," I laughed nervously.

Conversations with Aiden were so easy at times, but then they became so strained at others.

"Hey, is this yours?" I looked up to see Aiden holding a ring in front of his face. The ting wolf howling at the moon, glinting with green jello.

I just stared at it, nodding my head.

"That's neat looking, I've never seen anything like it before. It looks antique, family heirloom?" Aiden asked looking at me.

He handed it back to me. I felt the tears come to my eyes and the lump start to build in my throat as I stared at it. "You could say that."

Aiden saw my reaction. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't know it brought up a bad memory."

I didn't know how, but Aiden always knew exactly what I was feeling before I could even detect it myself. He knew the ring hurt me, and I didn't feel scared to let the tears fall in front of him.

They streamed down my cheek as I slid it back onto my finger. He put down his dishes and came over to me, wrapping his arms around me, "It's okay", over and over.

Finally, after a few minutes, I was able to calm done and breath in a few huge breaths. Aiden then stepped back to give me my space, knowing, once again, that that was what I wanted even before I did. I glanced up at his worried face and smiled to let him know I was alright. He returned the smile, but I knew it wasn't completely genuine.

After we cleaned up the dishes, Jasper came and picked me up. I waved out the window at Aiden as we drove away. I didn't know much about my life anymore, everything was just a blur full of confusion, but I knew for sure that I had just had the most fun in a long time with Aiden Montgomery.