Chapter Four:

Bitter

Paul

"Paul! Paul! Earth to Paul!" Paige's voice barely reaches me.

I blink and turn to look at my sixteen-year-old sister. She has a concerned look on her face. "I've been calling your name for the last five minutes! Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry." I grab my sister's backpack for her out of habit.

"You don't have to keep doing that." Paige says with a smile. "My shoulder healed, you know."

"I know." I say, walking into the school. The school on the res has maybe two hundred kids. It's K-12 since there aren't that many of us.

"Paul!" Jared calls my name, gesturing for me to come over to where he and Sam are in a whispered conversation. I roll my eyes and hand Paige her backpack.

"Later, sis." And then I walk over to the other two.

"We're working out the patrol schedule." Sam says. "You've got Friday and Monday night. The woods near the Swan place."

"Fine." I say, rolling my eyes. I hate patrol.

The next few days go by in a blur. Tests, quizzes, homework, movie marathons with Paige, it all blends together. Until suddenly it's Friday.

As soon as I phase, I can smell the scent of lavender, peppermint and vanilla that is all her. It plain smacks me in the face. And before I know it, I'm following it.

I end up hiding in the small section of woods beside the library. Just close enough to catch a glimpse of her. Gods, I'm a masochist.

She walks out of the library a few seconds later, and the wind blows her scent into my face. She's holding her backpack loosely in one hand, her phone in the other. She has a slightly troubled look on her face.

She stops by a beat-up Lexis, slinging her bag onto the roof. She pulls out a mini bag of Skittles and proceeds to eat it before climbing into the car.

I force myself to patrol my regular area instead of following her. That would just be creepy; doing it once was bad enough.

It's not fair, I complain to myself as I walk back into the res. I don't like thinking while I'm in wolf form because the whole damn pack can hear my thoughts. I do my best to think of trivial things. But I'm not in wolf form now.

It's not fair, I repeat to myself. Why the hell did I have to phase? Why the hell did the Cullens have to move here? Why did I have to imprint on a girl I can't have? Why did I have to imprint at all?

I finally understand how someone like Leah Clearwater can be so bitter. Leah dated Sam for years; it was a very serious relationship. Then her cousin, Emily Young, came up to visit and bam! Sam imprinted on Emily and left Leah in the dust.

I can totally see how Leah is so bitter now. And that's yet another reason why I won't give this mystery girl any right to my heart; any chance to hurt me. I need to remember that.

It's the middle of January when I go for a pack meeting and find Seth Clearwater is one of us now. Seth's Leah's little brother, only fourteen. I hate that he has to join us in this shit show. He should be worried about passing his next prealgebra test, not where he should patrol for vamps and keeping his werewolf status on the DL.

"Okay, people. I traced the scent of a vampire in the area." Sam says, the voice of authority. "Split up and patrol the town."

It's as I'm doing this that I see her again. I'm patrolling the section of woods near Forks's miniscule downtown. She's coming out of Newtons' Olympic Outfitters with a huge bag in hand. She thanks Mike Newton, who follows behind her holding two other bags. Her voice is lyrical.

"No problem. You going to the beach later?" he asks. "It's too cold to swim, but we're having a bonfire."

"Can't. Sorry." she says with a slight smile. "I've got practice."

"Oh right. Softball right? They're starting early."

"Yep. Catcher. And it's just conditioning stuff. Indoors." The girl climbs into her car. "Bye, Mike."

"Bye." Mike waves as he walks back into the store.

Softball, huh? Catcher? Interesting.

At home, I Google Fork High's softball schedule. I'm kind of surprised Forks High even has a softball team. But they do, and they are decent, from what I've heard.

The next Forks High softball game is on April 19. I make a note of that on the calendar. I wanna see how good this girl is on the field.

"Whatcha doin'?" Paige. I slam the computer shut; if Paige saw this, she'd never let me live it down.

"Schoolwork." I lie.

"Mm-hmm. Then why did you slam it shut?" Paige's eyes glint mischievously.

"Shut up, Paige. Unless you want me pulling out the first name." I say. Paige's first name is Matilda, which she hates. She's lucky she likes her middle name enough to go by it.

"You wouldn't." Paige says, even though she knows that I would.

"No?" I ask, staring at my sister. She backs down.

Sometimes, I envy Paige. She doesn't have to deal with this shit. Yet, anyway. Hopefully, she'll never phase.

Paige rolls her eyes and leaves me with an "I don't even want to know." I know what she's thinking; my sister has a notoriously dirty mind, but I don't even bother correcting her. Easier this way.

I sigh and crack my knuckles. The pop of the joints is somehow so satisfying. My mom hates when I do it around her though; she says I'll get arthritis. That's just a myth, though; cracking the knuckle does nothing to the joints. But Try telling that to my mother.

My mind, as is so frequently does, goes back to her. The mystery girl. My imprint. The one my inner wolf has chosen.

I don't even know her name. I don't know how old she is, although she looks only a little younger than me. I don't really know anything about her.

I run through the list of things that I do know about her. She smells like lavender, vanilla and peppermint. She plays catcher on the Forks High softball team. She slept at the Swans when Bella disappeared. A friend of hers or a relative of the Swans, maybe?

That's it. But I want to know more. I want to get to know her. I want her to get to know me.

A/n: Hi, guys! I'm still blown away by the response this story has gotten. I am glad y'all seem to love this story as much as I do. Unfortunately, I have an illness that might be COVID; I haven't gotten my test results back yet. But each review is a cough drop for me. LOL. For real, though, I love reading your reviews. So please drop one. Okay. Enough begging. Thanks!

Later!

Lauren.

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Madi-Inuzuka: I agree; that is the best type of sisterly love. I'm glad you loved the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one, too; please review and let me know.