Stalker

6:45 PM. Fifteen more minutes and my mom would be here. I usually read my textbooks while waiting for her, but this Thursday night was a different one. Instead of reading, I kept on thinking of Jared all night. I know it's pretty stupid, knowing that he doesn't even know I exist, but I couldn't do anything about it. Each time I'd get started on Science, my thoughts suddenly lurk near him, and it was hard abstaining from that.

"Mom's here, sweety!" Dad ran down the stairs and raced for the door. I followed him. Who knows what mom has for me this time?

"Walter! Kim!" My mom exclaimed as she climbed down the cab.

"I'll help you with your luggage, hon." My dad raced down the porch and took the luggage out of the driver's hands. He was busy gawking at the beach ahead of him.

"Hi, love." Mom pecked my cheeks and hugged me.

"I missed you, ma." I kissed her back and looked at her. My parents always told me that I inherited her good looks, but I was aware that it wasn't true.

My mom is half Chinese and half Filipino. She was flawless. Her jet-black hair was smooth and shiny as silk, her small eyes allured every man in La Push, her small, pointed nose was perfect and her very red lips were as soft as cotton. She was slender, 5'8, but with high heels, she was a six-footer, which made people around La Push think that her marriage to my dad was ironic.

I was her total opposite. I was coated with pimples on my forehead and blackheads on my nose. My hair was quite past shoulder length and black, but not as black and silky as hers. My eyes were small too, but they didn't go well with my face. My nose was sharp, but it was too long, like it belonged to an older woman and my lips had nothing special about it. In medical check-ups, I was considered obese and I stand only 4'11 tall. Looking at my mom sometimes hurt me deep inside. I'm 16, and the leap of change that would lead me to look like her never came.

"Let's go inside. I have a lot for you." The sadness my low self-esteem brought was washed away by excitement. Having a flight attendant for a mother was interesting because of the loads of things she gets you from all around the world.

"Let's see. I bought you some chocolate, candies, shoes from Prada, some tops from D&G, bags from Saks and Gucci." I sighed. "What's wrong, honey?"

"Mom, I know those things are so high-end, but it would surely look cheap when I wear them."

"You are so negative! You just didn't mature yet. Hey, look at this. It's a sleeveless turtleneck I got you from the Philippines…and it only costs two dollars!" I looked at the turquoise turtleneck my mom was holding up. Wearing it would surely reveal my curves, if I had any.

"Ma, I'm too fat to fit in that. It would look better on you."

"I should stop getting you clothes. You get too pessimistic whenever I do. Here, I got you ten copies of Teen Vogue." That hit the spot. "Thanks, ma!" I threw my arms around her and carried the stack up to my room.

"Let's see." I jumped on my bed and started flipping the pages wildly. An article in the fifth issue caught my eye.

- - -

"No, Mark, you throw the football like this." Jared firmly placed the ball in his hands and spun his arm for two times. He thrust the ball out of the field with hot, intense eyes. I was going to melt any second.

"Okay, class. It's dismissal." Mr. Ramos shouted. I ran as fast as I could towards the benches to get my bag. It was hard squeezing in with the rest.

"Ohh, sorry." I hit someone while I was on my way to get my bag. I looked straight ahead and nearly trembled when I saw a sweaty chest right in front of my eyes.

"Aight." The voice from above was no doubt, Jared's. I looked up at his angelic face and smiled at him.

"Uhh, I'll be getting my bag now, okay?"

"Huh? What? Sure! Okay! Yes, sir!" What the freaking hell did I just say? Jared looked at me in a freaked out kind of way, and the way he raised his eyebrow was so irresistible.

Though I looked more stupid than before, I felt fulfilled. Striking a formal conversation with your crush was one of the tips Teen Vogue suggested to get a guy to notice you.

I pushed through the crowd to get my bag, and I didn't mind the offending responses they gave me. I had to get it as fast as I could, before Jared gets out of school.

"Let's go home?" My dad offered me his hand as I raced past the hallway.

"No can do, dad. I have a Social Studies project to do in my classmate's house. I'll be home before 6!" I'm sure he wanted to ask details, but that didn't matter now. All that mattered was being successful at stalking Jared so I could know what things interests him.

The heavens were one with me today. He was just standing on the sidewalk, talking to other boys who looked a bit like him. He bade them goodbye after a few minutes and walked to his house, which was just three blocks away from the school.

"Hey, mum." Jared kissed his old mother by the time he reached the old fashioned living room. I positioned myself outside the living room window and crouched down so he couldn't see me.

"I'm just going to do my math homework then I'll be going to Port Angeles with Jacob later." Jared climbed up the wooden staircase, perhaps to his room. There was no way I could see him now, unless I climb the tree that grew up to the second floor.

One more step and I'll be in heaven. I clutched at the tree branch and pulled myself up. Finally, after minutes of back pain, I made it to his window.

His room was big, but very cluttered unlike mine. Clothes were draped on every surface, including his drum set. Posters of bands covered the wooden panels of his room. Other than that, he was nowhere to be found in his room.

"Yes, Stacey. I'll fetch you." I suddenly heard his voice. He was on his bed; phone in hand, directly below the window that's why I didn't see him a while ago.

"I told my mum that I'll be in Port Angeles with Jake so we better stick to that. See you later, sexy thing." Sexy thing? I stomped my left foot and the branch I was stepping on snapped. Crap. I was hanging in mid-air, and my only hope to stay alive was the tree branch I was hanging on to.

"Damn Trig! I'm gonna rape whoever invented this wretched subject!" He stomped his way to his desk and scribbled stuff on his intermediate sheet. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" He threw his pen on the floor and shrugged his shirt off. It wasn't a big deal, I mean, I saw his chest earlier. He unzipped his pants after that, and pulled them off.

"Oh shit!" I shouted. I didn't notice that my palms were getting slippery due to my sweating. My hands slipped away from the branch and I fell on the rose bush below, my back hit some branches in the process.

"OWWWW!"

"Are you alright, child?" Jared's mother busted out of the door and rushed to help me get up.

"Back…. hurts. Thorns…on my b-b-ack." I moaned. She gently assisted me up and I felt so embarrassed. My weight was hard to pull.

"I think you broke some bones. Oh my! Your back is bleeding!"

"I-it's okay, Mrs. Wilson."

"Do you want be to bring you to the hospital?"

"Mom, what was that?" Jared called from inside.

"N-no. I better get going." I shrugged her hands away and limped for it. It was painful, for now it was more painful than having your father insulted. I could feel a bone protrude out of my skin and the thorns on my back felt like thumbtacks.

"Dad-eee!" I collapsed on the floor by the time I reached the house.

"Kim, what the hell happened to you?"

"L-long story. Please take me to the hospital." I told him breathlessly.