Chapter 2: Princess themed humiliation

After that day at Sam and Emily's house, my life went like this: patrol, school, patrol, visit Makah to see Claire, go to Sam and Emily's for an hour, home and bed. I did the same thing every single day (except weekends which I spent down Makah making sure Claire was safe). I felt like a personal stalker.

I tried to just go by with the reassuring of Emily that Claire was okay, but by the end of that week Emily was almost pulling her hair out with my constant questioning and even threatened to shoot me with her dad's rifle, so I went back to my routine. It bothered me that I was stalking a two-year-old, but I couldn't do anything else without it causing me some kind of metal and physical pain (called the "imprint pull") that was impossible to ignore. It was easier just to spend two hours down Makah and make sure Claire was breathing before coming home than staying up all night worrying like an over-obsessive mother and not being able to get through the first three periods of school without falling asleep on Embry's shoulder.

The good news was that we had caught the redheaded bitch that was roaming around town. Edward Cullen (the mind reader bloodsucker that was actually quite cool when you got to know him, though I never said that to Jake) had been the one to rip her head off, alongside the youngest recruit of the pack, Seth Clearwater. I had seen through Seth's mind Victoria (apparently, the thing had a name) being killed and, damn, it was awesome. It was also cool to see Jasper Cullen, another one of the allied enemies, snap off a newborns neck with a flick of his wrist and then stomp on the head like it was a cardboard box.

However, the bad news was that Jake (after being almost crushed to death by a red-eyed bastard) had run off into the country of Canada. Edward and Bella Cullen were getting married and Jake was (understandably) pissed off and ran into the woods in wolf form to never be seen again. We tried to connect with him through the mind link but he was so far gone none of us could really understand what the hell he was rambling on about. I felt sorry for him, I really did, he was my best friend after all, but he was being a dick by not talking to any of us. Embry was past himself about Jake being killed by a bear or something and it took me at least half an hour a day to convince Embry not to piss off into Canada with Jake. This conversation normally ended with me threatening bodily harm, but who's taking notice?

Since imprinting on Claire Emily had come to terms with everything and had actually helped me out a lot. Oliver and Jasmine, Claire's parents, were looking for a babysitter for "date nights" and Emily had convinced them to hire me. Emily had made up some sob story about me being broke and not being able to find work anywhere in Forks or La Push and I really, really needed to money to help out my mom, who had lost her husband in a freak boating accident. Devilish, but utterly brilliant. So now I got to baby-sit Nora and Claire about twice a month on Saturday nights while their parents went off to some posh restaurant and drank wine that leaked out of their pours the minute they walked through the door.

The only time I hadn't enjoyed being at Claire's house with her was on her third birthday, her Princess themed party. I had been invited and drove down with Sam and Emily for the day with a hand full of presents I couldn't really afford, but knew Claire would love. I had only been there an hour and was forced into sitting on a pink and purple plastic chair that was far too small for me whilst Claire prodding and poked my face with scary looking make-up brushes with frightened substances on the end. Emily had taken a photo after she was done, but I had yet to bare the horror of looking at it.

Oliver and Jasmine were off on a date night again so I got to go up to Makah and baby-sit for them. As I ran up to the reservation the theme tune to Barney ran through my head over and over again, thanks to Nora's obsession with the show.

Will you shut the fuck up? Embry grumbled through the mind link. You're almost as annoying as Seth these days.

You're just a little bitch, Embry, Seth's chirpy voice intercepted. I don't even think I've seen you smile since I joined the pack.

I'm going to kick you in the ass, kid.

Bring it.

I phased back to human form just as Embry pounced on Seth in, what I hoped, was a joking manner. I quickly laced up my sneakers and flatted down my t-shirt before I headed out of the woods. Wearing shoes and a top was weird considering I was so used to walking around half naked, but Claire's dad was already edgy about me (I heard him tell Jasmine he didn't know a sane kid that wanted to spend his Saturday nights with two toddlers) and I didn't think he would like me turning up in my usual attire. He would probably borrow his dad's rifle.

Jasmine answered on the second knock dressed in a loose fitting black dress, red heels and her dark brown hair was up in a messy bun. "Hello, Quil," she smiled, kissing my cheek. Unlike her husband, she actually liked me, finding me the perfect babysitter as I didn't complain once about her children or demand they come home early from their date nights.

Oliver nodded once at me as he fixed his red tie and sent me his signature 'I still don't trust you' look. He gave me that look every time I seen him.

"There's food on the counter," Jasmine said, grabbing her red purse from the stand near the door. "They've just been bathed so you don't need to worry about that. Claire should be tired in about an hour, and Nora has to be in bed by eight, at the latest," he waved her purse threateningly at me until I nodded. "Good. Night, Quil."

"Have fun, Mrs. Young, Mr. Young," I called as they got into their car. Claire's dad still didn't want me to call him by his first name and Jasmine was sick of telling him off, so she just went with it.

"Qwil!" Claire screamed excitedly as I walked into the living room. I scooped her into my arms and kissed her forehead whilst skilfully ruffling Nora's wild mane of black curls.

"Hey, Claire-Bear, Nora," I grinned. "How's it going?"

"I painted you!" Claire squealed, earning an eye roll from Nora as she turned up the television.

Claire shoved a picture into my face of what looked like a big blob of brown with a black streak at the top and a red, smiling face. I looked like something from a horror movie. "That's great, Claire-Bear," I smiled widely. "You're going to be the next Picasso."

I knew she didn't know who he was, but he smiled proudly anyway, so that was good enough for me.

"Mom's framed the picture of you with make-up on," Nora told me happily as I read a book to Claire. "It's in Claire's room."

Claire nodded definitely. "Qwil look pwetty!" she cried.

Humiliation bubbled up inside me but I bit it down and sent Claire a smile. From the constant teasing I had had from Sam since that day at the party, I was sure I looked like a deranged hooker. It had taken me three days to get all of the make-up off my skin (it was even on my legs, though I didn't know why) and I wasn't going to live it down for the rest of my life with the pack. Paul was still making period jokes when I was on patrol with him and Leah had laughed for an hour straight after seeing the picture and winked every time she saw me.

Nora joined in with the book after her show ended and talked about the woes of a six-year-old during dinner while Claire softly hummed the SpongeBob Square Pants theme tune. We settled down to watch the Little Mermaid after that and Claire fell asleep after twenty minutes and Nora was nodding off at around half seven. I walked Nora to bed and gently tucked her in before I settled Claire into her bed.

"Qwil," she muttered tiredly. "Read story." She haggardly picked up a book from her nightstand and handed it to me. It was the book I had bought her for her birthday that was a story about a friendly wolf that was best friends with a young girl after she moved towns. The pictures moved on some pages and the wolf's fur was always soft when he was drawn. When I glanced up after Claire's breathing became hard, I saw that she was snuggled into her wolf teddy-bear that I had also bought her for her birthday.

I kissed her forehead and began to walk out of the room to watch some manly football when something caught my sight. On the wardrobe was the picture of me in make-up. As I suspected, I looked worse than I thought, with bright blue eyes, bright pink cheeks and aluminous red lips. My arms were covered in muti-coloured paints and markers and my neck had a drawing of a green butterfly on. However, in the corner of the picture was a delighted Claire as she looked at me. Her lips were stretched into a wide smile, her hazel eyes were shining and she looked so happy, I realized something.

I would go through that humiliation every day as long as I got that smile from her. She was worth it.

Thoughts?

Sorry about the late update but my parents surprised me with a holiday and I had no access to the internet. Thank you for being patient and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Thanks for the reviews, favourites and alerts!

-Laylax