"I'd say so much to you..."

{{ Dead in the Water; Ellie Goulding }}

I can't tell if this puddle just ran deeper than others or if I'd stepped down harder than normal, but whatever the reason, the bottom part of my right pants leg is soaking wet now. The heavy moisture is drenching my skin, too, and making the material of my jeans stick uncomfortably. Sighing, I hang my head in defeat, grumbling curse words under my breath.

"Come on, Blair. We're going to be late for class!"

"My pants are wet!" I whine.

A snicker is what I'm met with and I glare at Sadie.

My friend is nice and dry underneath the shade of a big umbrella, her rain boots keeping her own jeans from getting drenched like mine had. I wish I had remembered to stash mine inside my car last night, but I'd gotten in late and my mind had been full of thoughts that hadn't centered on proper outerwear for rainy days.

"They'll dry faster inside," says my friend. "Mr. Holtmen is going to put us in detention if we're late again."

Begrudgingly, I trudge up by her side, sending her a grateful smile when Sadie shelters me underneath her umbrella too. She just chuckles over at me before nudging me playfully with her shoulder.

We manage to make it into the front entrance without further incident with the rain and are met with a pleasing kind of warmth that envelops me comfortingly. I sigh as Sadie closes her umbrella, helping her stash the wet thing in the plastic bag she'd brought to prevent her book bag from getting any water on it.

We're trying to shove the whole thing back down into her book satchel when someone bumps into me harshly from behind. Gasping in alarm, I grasp Sadie's shoulders as we both go stumbling forward, not managing to do anything but hit my head on an open locker and get my feet tangled up with hers.

"Oh, shit!"

"Dude…"

The two voices sound from behind me and as I manage to untangle myself and blink through the stifling headache now pummeling through my brain, I gather that one of them was probably responsible for this accident.

I detach myself from Sadie carefully, then gently push a hand against my forehead before turning to see who'd stumbled into me. A glare transforms my features at the sight of two members of the 'Uley Gang' and I scoff while shaking my head (which, a few seconds later, I find to be a bad idea).

"Pricks," I mutter while turning away from them.

Sadie, though, seems to have different thoughts about the two boys. She's grinning prettily over at them and at the sight of her batting her eyes, I just scowl more. When I go to edge her back down the hallway, she seems content on staying exactly where she is, rooting herself to the scratched floor underneath us.

"Sorry," comes one of them. "Paul threw a long pass."

"That's alright," Sadie says, smiling bigger.

"Didn't hurt ya, did we?" comes the first boy again.

I turn then because I feel like my head is splitting and all I want to do is go sit down in my desk. I want to find the rest of our friends and get away from these two because they make me severely annoyed.

All I can think about as I glance over at the first who'd spoke—Jared, I think—is how they keep staring at Jacob, Embry, and Quil, as if they're considering inducting them into Uley's little gang too. They're obnoxious and annoying and slightly scary, and I just want to get as far away from them as possible.

"Yea," I jeer. "You did. I feel like my head is splitting open."

Sadie turns her attention to me then, a deep frown settling onto her features. She grimaces as she looks me over and I deduce that there's probably some kind of mark on my forehead now. Great, I think, now I'll have to walk around with what looks like a pimple on my forehead all day.

It just makes me hate the two boys standing in front of me even more.

"You don't look so good, Blair. Maybe you should go see the nurse," Sadie quips.

"I just need to sit down."

The second boy, the one who'd remained quiet and rather rude during this whole exchange, scoffs as he leans down a little in order to see me clearer. His brown eyes swivel over my forehead quickly before slithering down to quickly look over the rest of me—at least, that what I think he means to do, anyway. I don't really know because the boy stops at my eyes and stares into them so long that I can't see anything but the different specks of brown and golden hues flecked in his irises.

For a second Sadie fades and I-Think-Jared does as well, both molding into the blurred background of the busy hallway.

I want to think that I've hit my head and am becoming really disorientated, and that's why I'm getting so lost in trying to figure out the different shades of colors locked into the orbs of this extremely tall boy. However, as I stare longer and longer and sort of lean into the warmth that's radiating off him and seemingly trying to envelop me, something is whispering in the back of my mind that hitting my head has nothing to do with why I'm suddenly so absorbed in him. It's trying to explain what's really happening, that little voice is, but a pang erupts through my head that garbles the words and I jump a little at the feel of an ache pulsing through the front of my brain.

I have to pull myself out of the strong hold his stare has me in, then, because I've started to tilt too far forward and end up stumbling into his friend. I-Think-Jared's hands are a little sloppy as he catches me and he barely touches my form as I try to stumble my way back over to Sadie.

"Jesus, Blair," murmurs Sadie. "You really should go see the nurse. I think you hit your head harder than you think."

She helps me keep standing when I stagger into her, though she, too, almost slips from the weight of me.

"Fine," I grumble. "Help me down there."

I sling my arm over her shoulders, shift my book bag higher up on my back, and start to shuffle away with her aid. I think to glance behind me in order to get a last peek at the two boys who'd so rudely careened into us, but fight against the urge—only to lose moments later when I feel as if someone is staring at us.

I-Think-Jared and Caramel-Eyed-Boy are, in fact, staring at us. Actually, only Caramel-Eyed-Boy is staring and his warm gaze is only locked on me. His jaw is set in a way that I think looks to signal that he's now a lot more upset than when one of them went falling on top of me and I-Think-Jared is trying to talk him out of something by the looks of how fast his mouth is moving.

Without being able to help it, I flick my gaze back up to his dark honey eyes, searching for something that I can't really place at this time. But they've transformed into a look that makes them cold and narrow in warning. I cower into Sadie a little at the sudden change in his expression, trying to not feel afraid but not being able to help it as the emotion courses through me.

It's not until I nearly stagger into someone and Sadie calls out for me to pay attention that I manage to turn away from his cool stare.

Three hours later and Sadie and I are trekking to lunch. My pants leg has dried, my head was patched up with some Aleve that my mother had worriedly brought up to the school, and I hadn't seen Caramel-Eyed-Boy anywhere, nor his friend, I-Think-Jared.

Despite the horrible start to this school day, it had turned out to be quite decent so far.

During second period, Jonah Lachlan had leaned over to ask me what happened to my head and I think he was really worried. That's what Sadie said, anyway, when I gave her a play-by-play while we were in English together an hour later.

Then, Jacob and Quil had offered to help me roll I-Think-Jared's and Caramel-Eyed-Boy's yards in order to get revenge (but we were shut down by Sadie exclaiming that the whole thing was an accident and that she didn't want us ruining her chances with the 'hottest boys in the whole school').

Now Sadie and I are heading to the cafeteria to take advantage of our lunch period, lost in the throng of other students who also have lunch this period. I'm crossing my fingers in good faith that the line won't be too long because I'm starving and I want to get the good green jello before someone else does.

"I hope we're having soup," Sadie grumbles as we huddle together and jog through the brief period of rain that we're exposed to thanks to the unsheltered part of the walkway we have to take. "I need something warm right now."

"Sadie, that stuff they serve isn't soup. It's mush," I scoff.

It's true; our cafeteria food is just as bad as any other high school in the country, maybe even worse because we were a lowly reservation school and came in dead last to the other high schools in our area, which meant that we got the sloppy leftovers that no other wanted. Sometimes I wasn't even sure if what they slapped down on our trays could be considered as food and not as science experiments that the small Biology department would love to study.

"I don't care. If you add enough salt to it, it tastes fine. And I think Quil still has some hot sauce."

"Quil still has what?" comes a voice from behind us.

A form barrels into us, just catching my shoulder as I skip over my feet, and snickers into my ear. I send them a glare, only easing up when I notice it's the hot sauce holder himself.

He sends me a wink and settles with his arm around Sadie, the latter not seeming to mind Quil being so close to her.

"Herpes, Quil, that's what you still have," says Jacob.

He appears on my left and I laugh as he sends us all a big smile. We crowd together on the walkway as the two continue with us to the lunchroom, taking up most of the space and forgetting about the light trickle of rain that was dribbling down.

"That's so funny, Jake," Quil mocks. "Ha, ha, ha. You should be a comedian."

"That's what I've been telling him!" I exclaim.

Jacob laughs heartily at that, clapping me on the back as Quil rolls his eyes. Sadie, too, is cackling with laughter and I notice how Quil just smiles rather adoringly down at her.

Their relationship is something that Jacob, Embry, and I had all speculated about but never come right out and asked after because both of them were rather shy when it came to crushes on the opposite sex. Of course, when we were alone, I'd always try to get Sadie to confess that she liked our friend as something more but she'd always just turn really red and tell me to shut-up.

"Quil, do you still have some hot sauce? We're probably going to need it for lunch," asks Sadie.

"Jake tipped it all into Mr. Lawrence's drink last period. Sorry, Sade. But, hey! I might have some soy sauce somewhere."

I snicker at that. "Jesus, Quil. You got a pizza slice lying around in your locker too?"

"I might," he shrugs. "I think I brought one to school last semester and… Well, I don't know what happened to it."

"That's disgusting, man," cringes Jacob.

"You'd still eat it and you know it," says Quil.

Jacob concedes with a shrug of his shoulders and a big smile that he shines down at me and Sadie when we let out a whined sound that vocalizes just how gross that really is.

"You'd eat it too, Blair. Don't try to deny it!" he chuckles.

"No, I would not! That's just… You could get some kind of disease from that, Jake!"

"He's already got a disease," snickers Quil. "Go ask Hannah Elliot who gave the clap to her and see what she says."

I stare over at Jake in horror for a split second before he rolls his eyes and yanks Quil away from Sadie. He stuffs our friend underneath his arm while furiously rubbing his fist through Quil's black hair.

"That's so gross, man! The clap? Really? And I never did anything with Hannah but kiss her one time!" exclaims Jacob.

We fall into the cafeteria like that, with Jake wrangling Quil underneath his arm while Sadie and I chortle at their behavior.

People are lined up to get trays and we take a spot near the back (crossing my fingers didn't work at all!), behind three tall figures that stop me from being able to peak up ahead in order to see what we were having today.

I don't realize that two of them are I-Think-Jared and Caramel-Eyed-Boy until Sadie is clearing herself a way around them. She blushes so red that I know it can't be anyone else but them.

"Hey there," says I-Think-Jared to her.

Quil and Jacob stop rough-housing at the sound of his voice, fixing their clothes and sweeping their long hair over their shoulders as they peer at the two imposing figures.

I'd told my friends about the little run-in Sadie and I had with the two of them this morning, so I expect this not to go well, even if Jacob and Quil are marginally shorter and smaller than the two Uley Gang boys.

Taking a few steps forward, Quil grabs ahold of Sadie's elbow and tows her back to our group, sending I-Think-Jared a glare as he does. This causes both him, Caramel-Eyed-Boy and the other tall figure who'd been standing with them to turn, and the first where's a grin that seems to nearly burst from his face while the second appears to still be sulking like he was when I left him this morning. The very last one, though, looks slightly aghast as he faces us.

My eyes widen as I take in Embry. He's like a carbon copy of the other two and if it weren't for his light brown eyes then I don't think I'd be able to differentiate very well between him and Jared (because, no matter how hard I wished I couldn't, somehow I could expertly pinpoint Caramel-Eyed-Boy).

"I'm Jared and this is Paul," comes I-Think-Jared—I mean Jared. "You guys know Embry."

"Nah," starts Jacob. "not anymore we don't."

And with that, he lets some people who'd been waiting behind us to go ahead, putting at least five or six freshmen in between us and the Uley Gang.

Embry looks hurt by this and when he turns his gaze onto me, I am at a loss as to what to do.

For weeks he hadn't been to school or even picked up the phone when any of us called. He'd been so sick that even his mother was worried, having phoned us all separately and asked if he'd started doing drugs or drinking. And so, as he stares helplessly over at me, like he's begging for one of us to try and smooth things over with him, I can't do anything but hang back with Sadie as Quil and Jacob take a stance in front of us.

There's another person staring at me too, I notice when Embry eventually turns, and it's even more numbing than my old friends look. Paul is regarding me in a way that makes no sense: his eyes are flashing between a series of emotions that makes Jared clap his hand onto his shoulder and pat it a few times before urging him to turn around with him. Paul does, but not before sweeping me with a look that dusts away the emotionless feeling I'd previously been coated in and overrides it with one of heat.

It's just heat that I feel for a second—nothing else, just heat. The hot, fiery sensation is eating me up from the tips of my toes to the top of my head and I know that I'm blushing fiercely now.

I scowl before scooting up farther in line, set on pushing all thoughts of Paul and the rest of the Uley Gang (including its new initiate) out of my mind.

Authors Note: This is a new story that I'm really excited about! I love Paul and I think he's so freakin' hot, so it only made sense for me to write a fanfic about him. However, I've got a Jacob fic in the works too, but it's in the very early stages of being rewritten and heavily edited, so you won't see it for quite a while (if at all).

I've already gotten four or so chapters written and edited (all except the fourth one), so their should be steady updates. And... I hope you all enjoy!