JPOV:

Why am I here? Why are we doing this? It's so damn early. I slumped against the door of Jake's Rabbit and my face pressed against the window. My eyes fluttered shut. The rumbling of the car's engine was kind of soothing. The vibration from the bumps in the road was…very nice….so…sleepy….

"Aren't you guys excited for the first day of school?"

My eyes popped back open. That damn Quil. Stupid pup couldn't stop jumping up and down in his seat. I punched him in the shoulder. "Cut it out, man. No one's excited but you."

Embry and Jake grunted in agreement from the front. Embry turned in his seat, "Dude, Quil it's lucky that you imprinted on a two year-old because you fucking act like one." Quil kicked Embry's seat.

"I do not," he whined, "Jake! Tell him!"

"You just totally proved his point, idiot." Jake muttered, rolling his eyes, "And how many times do I have to tell you guys, feet off the interior!"

Well, that shut Quil up. For five minutes. He was bouncing and babbling about something again, but I don't think any of us listened to him. Embry would yell at him periodically, for getting over excited and kicking his seat. Embry deserves it though, jackass. It's his fault we're back on the road to that cement block of hell they call high school. If he had just been more careful when he got back from patrols so his old lady didn't wake up and catch him, she would never know that we'd stopped attending school. And now, because the Elders say so, we all have to go back to school. I mean, yeah, I felt bad for the whole situation Embry's in, what with his father abandoning them and his mom trying to scrape together what she can, but really? Do we ALL have to go? Isn't protecting the rez from bloodsuckers a little more of a priority?

"For the last time dude stop kicking my chair I will beat the living shit out of you. Dammit Quil, why the hell are you so excited to go back to school anyway?"

"Well….I get to see my friends…"

Jake snorted from behind the wheel, "Quil, you don't have any friends outside the pack. None of us do."

Quil crossed his arms defiantly, "Nuh-uh. Just because you guys don't have any other friends doesn't mean that I don't have any. People love hanging out with me."

I scoffed at the idea of Quil having any friends apart from the pack that weren't the age of children young enough to play in ball pits. Oh god. Quil and ball pits. Last time, when he went in after Claire…well let's just say we weren't allowed back in that particular McDonalds anymore. "Friends, Quil? Really? Like who?"

For once, Quil seemed at a loss for words as he struggled to remember a name, any name, of someone who went to our school. The three of us exchanged knowing glances, smiling triumphantly.

"AHA!"

Dammit.

"I do know this one girl! Her name is Kim. She works at the ShopRite. We're great friends. She'll be happy to see I'm back at school." Quil leaned back in his seat, smugly.

Embry looked back at him disbelievingly, "Quil, you have an imprint. What the hell are you doing messing around with high school girls?"

Quil shot him a look of disgust, "Ew. I said me and Kim are FRIENDS. Not…not dating."

"Well then….is she cute?"

Jake slapped Embry upside the head.

"Ow, Jake! What the hell, man?" Embry rubbed the back of his head, glaring at Jake as he pulled in to the school.

"The last thing we should be doing is dating girls. Keep your damn hormones in check. We have a duty to the tribe. Sam will be pissed if he finds out you're spending time with some girl rather than being on patrol."

We all grabbed our bags and got out of the car. Embry slammed his door, "Like you're one to talk, all you ever think about is that Swan girl."

Quil and I moved faster than you could blink, restraining each of Jake's arms as he lunged at Embry.

"Don't you ever—" Jake started.

"Embry, stop being a jackass. We don't need this right now, especially in front of the school. Look none of us want to be here right now, so we're all a little uptight. Just forget it, okay?" I growled, securing my grip on Jake.

Embry was the first to recover. Taking deep breaths, he looked Jake in the eye. "Sorry man, Jared's right, I was totally out of line. We cool?"

Jake wrung his arms free from Quil and my grasp and nodded curtly at Embry. "Yeah, just give me some space to cool off."

Quil and I exchanged looks and he bounded ahead of me to keep Jake company as Embry and I brought up the rear.

As soon as we approached the school gate, the familiar feeling of people blatantly staring at us settled in again. We could hear them whispering to one another.

"They're back."

"Oh my god, they're dreamier than I remembered"

"Bet you it took some serious roids to get like that. What tools."

I smirked. Jake rolled his eyes, and whispered lowly, "The idiots don't even realize we can hear them. Welcome back to high school." The rest of us snickered. We approached the tree that we used to hang by just outside the school before the bell rang for homeroom. Embry and I flopped down at the base, stretching out, determined to relax a little bit before the dreadfully boring day of classes began. Quil, naturally, was too excited to sit down. He threw down his bag and immediately began surveying the crowd of students in the yard, like an alert puppy looking for the source of a sound.

"Looking for your 'friend'?" Embry teased. Jake and I laughed.

Quil spun around and put his hands on his hips, frustrated, in a manner eerily similar to Claire, "Yeah. I am. I didn't make her up. She's real. And she's going to be my best friend because you guys…you guys just suck." He stuck out his tongue, before turning back around and scanning the crowd again.

Then, he found her.

"KIM!" He hollered, waving like a buffoon, "HEY KIM!"

We followed his line of vision to a group of girls hanging by the steps in front of the school. From my viewpoint on the ground, I couldn't really make out any of their faces, but one girl had definitely turned around avoiding Quil.

Embry and I snickered as Jake looked at him sympathetically, "Oooh. Sorry dude, you just got shut down."

I laid back against the tree and shut my eyes, trying to maybe nap a bit before class, still chuckling at Quil's idiocy.

"No, look! Look, she just waved at me! HA! I'm going over there to say hi." I didn't open my eyes.

"Sure, Quil," I called back disbelievingly. "Whatever, man."

"I better follow him," Jake muttered, before bee-lining after Quil. I opened one eye and looked at Embry who was up and rapt with the current situation.

"Did she really wave back?"

Embry nodded, chuckling, "Yeah, and he really just went over there and is totally embarrassing her."

I sat up and directed my gaze to the group of girls by the steps. Quil had his back to us and his arm around the girl we presumed to be Kim. He was talking animatedly, not surprising at all, till Jake grabbed his collar and began dragging him to the school.

"But no! Jake! Wait! We should be friends, Kim. Can we be friends? Jake, stop pulling so tight. Yeah, Kim, let's be friends, you were totally right about the Blues Clues thing, by the way. Since we're friends, can I get discounts at the store now? That's would be totally off the hook—"

The doors slammed behind them. Embry and I roared with laughter. When Quil was annoying you, it was just tiring, when he was annoying someone else, it was hilarious.

"Dude, I don't know about you, but I'd say this was the best first day of school ever." Embry wheezed, clutching his stomach from all the laughing.

"Yeah, doesn't get better than Quil making an ass out of himself." I agreed, gasping for breath. "Let's go after them, Jake probably needs help."

We slung our bags over our shoulders and walked through the doors, easily spotting Jake, restraining a still squirming Quil.

"Jake, this isn't fair. You're just jealous because I have a new best friend. Let me go." Quil whined, fighting against Jake's restraints.

"Quil, you were embarrassing her, leave her alone."

"If I leave her alone, will you let go?"

"Do you promise to leave her alone and act as normal as possible?"

I scoffed, "Quil acting normal, yeah that'll be the day." Quil shot me a glare.

"Yeah, I'll be good, Jake." Jake nodded and let go of him. Quil, smiled, relieved to be free, then gave Jake a knowing wink, before dashing down the hallway. Jake looked at us exasperatedly.

"Sorry man, you're the one in homeroom with him. I'm clear on the other side of the hall so…see ya!" I smirked as I walked down the hall to my classroom.

As I walked through the door, again I felt all of the people inside stare at me. I scowled at them, settling on a seat in the back corner, and putting my head down to avoid eye contact with any of them. What was I, a freaking circus sideshow?

After everyone had filed into the classroom, Mrs. Everett began to distribute schedules, lucky for me, my schedule was on top. As soon as I received my timetable I left. Walking down the hall, I glanced at my class line-up. First up was…Literature. Great. Again, why the hell was I here? Is Shakespeare going to help me when I have to tear a bloodsucker to shreds? I dragged my feet to Mr. Wilson's classroom, and still somehow managed to get a seat in the back next to some idiot carving his name into the desk, and a girl with her head down on the desk. Perfect. It didn't seem like either of them would be staring at me or wanting to start a conversation. I sat down just as the bell rang for the start of class.

"Alright class, so we have a very fun year ahead of us, but before we get started on the good stuff, I need to assess your writing level." The class collectively groaned. "I know I know, but I need to make sure that you all did the summer reading and there's really no other way to do it. So, I'd like you to all write in blue or black ink, the prompts are coming through your rows now." Mr. Wilson turned away to write the time remaining on the board. I dug through my bag, pulling out several sheets of paper, before I realized that I'd forgotten to pack a pen. Way to go, Thail. I looked to my left. Crazy carving dude was already hard at work…sketching a design for a tattoo on his hand. Yeah. No thanks. I tapped the shoulder of girl on my right as she was reaching down to withdraw her materials.

"Hey can I borrow a pen?"

As she looked up, the world seemed to fade away. Nothing else mattered but her. The fact that she was here. That she was near me. That she was safe. She had the most beautiful, warm chocolate brown eyes, her lips were soft and pink, and god she was too good to be true. She was everything to me now. I didn't care that we were in a classroom full of students and that I had to write an essay. Writing an essay would require me to look away from her and I would never do that willingly ever again. She held something out to me and spoke. The sound of her voice was like more entrancing than any music I had ever heard. What I'd do to hear her speak again. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. I couldn't get enough of her. She placed the pen on my desk and turned away from me and started to write. Still I could not look away. It could have been minutes or hours, the time that I spent admiring her, all I remember was her glorious soft lips whispering something to me before she turned around and started walking away.

Then everything started dimming. The world was dark and cold and all I could feel was dread with every step she took away from me. I tried to speak, to tell her to wait, to come back to me, but the words wouldn't come. She was gone. An angel had walked into and out of my life in an hour.

And I didn't even try to stop her. Internally, I was tearing myself into shreds.

I didn't even know her name.

A/N: Oh my god guys, I'm so sorry. Finals were a little harder than I expected, but it's summer now, and just to prove how sorry I am, I will post twice this week. This counts as one, and I'll have another one up before Friday. Jared was actually pretty fun to write till I got to the imprinting, I had a lot of trouble kind of describing what I believe the imprinted mindset is like so, I'd love to hear what you guys thought of that bit especially. I hope you guys like Quil, because he's just a blast to write. He's kind of what I'd want my brother to be like if I ever had a brother.

I love all your reviews, and I'm keeping all your advice in mind. It makes me so happy to know that some of you really like this story because I never expected anyone to read it, let alone like it. MY REVIEWERS ROCK. Keep reviewing, and I'll keep on posting! Happy Summer!