So this is my first attempt at a imprint story. I really hope you like the first chapter. This kinda came out of no where... well it came from my need to write a story about Paul! lol. For some reason I always liked his character. So here it is...
Please enjoy and review.
But no flames! Constructive critisism! lol
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Twilight universe.
"Can't you at least try to look presentable, Yasmin?"
Insult number four in the last two hours of this long, insufferable car ride.
"Fix your hair at least. You may have your mothers looks, but it doesn't mean you have to have her lack of hygiene too."
Insult number six directed toward my mother. He was on a role.
I watched my mother sink a little lower in her seat, brushing at the small crumb on her too tight jeans from the small cookie she had snuck in when my father had stopped at the gas station an hour earlier. Her other hand unconsciously sneaked to her soft, neat blonde curls, straightening out some imagined imperfection. This was what my father's comments always did to her every time. Even when she looked perfectly fine, he would always make her second guess herself. It had the same effect on me. I knew I didn't have a hair out of place and I knew my clothes were perfectly in order, but I smoothed out imaginary wrinkles and flattened down my straightened red hair. Just to make sure he wouldn't target me again.
But he always did.
I knew the reason for these insults. He was frustrated by the GPS leading us in circles as he tried to find our new home, La Push, Washington. It was a Native American reservation near Seattle, our new 'home'. It was more an exile for my father's poor choosing in friends at work...
"Damn piece of shit. Why the hell did you buy this thing, Sherry?" My father hissed, pushing a couple buttons on the touch screen of the GPS. I wanted to open my mouth and scream "Because you asked her to!" But I held my tongue, knowing it would only make him rear his ugly head even worse. I wasn't really concerned about myself, more my mother. All the insults built and built with her until she did something drastic. So I did all I could to keep her out of the fire.
"I think if you turn left here-" My mother tried in that small, soft voice, pointing her pale hand toward a small exit that my father passed without a thought.
"Did you even pay attention to the sign? Are you trying to get us lost?" My father snapped, making my mom drop her head, her blond hair falling around her face like a curtain as she wallowed in her shame. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to ignore all the tension in our tiny little car. It was suffocating and I was about to drown in it. "Ha!" My dad cried and I saw a toothy, smug smile spread across his face in the mirror. "There's the exit. Maybe if you paid a bit more attention Sherry." My father spat, turning a glare toward my mother. She turned her face away, her face crumpling a bit. I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I hoped to God we got to our new home soon.
My father had always been like this. It wasn't one of those, 'Oh, he's angry and he's just taking it out on them," kind of thing. It was an all around abuse the other family members thing around the Parker household. My father, for as long as I could remember, went around the house and took anyone who dared to defy him down a peg. It wasn't only when we argued or put up a fight. It was when we just sitting and watching T.V. too. My father found fault in everything my mom, my brother, Alec, and my sister Annabelle, and I did. Slowly over the years he had cut and broke us to bend to his "superior' opinions and ways. My father was ruler, king, and dictator. And he made sure none of us were strong enough to try to defy him. He was smart and the only escape was getting out of school like my other two siblings.
I had one more year. 365 days and I would be out away from him and his haughty insults and put-downs. I would get out just like Alec and Annabelle and then I would be free. My only worry was my mom. My job over this year was to help build her strength enough to leave him.
After another, (thankfully) silent hour we arrived at the painfully small town of La Push. The houses were small and crowded together while different russet skinned, black haired people walked about. Ah, so I would be an odd ball out. My bright red hair and pale, pale skin would stick out in this town. If there was anything I hated more then my father, it was sticking out. I tried my hardest to be invisible at home and I applied the same thing to life outside of the home. It gave me a very limited amount of friends, but I could deal with that.
We drove on winding roads until we were on the very outskirts of the town before we pulled into a long driveway. A new, pristine house was at the end. Of course my dad wouldn't buy one of the small, rickety houses on the reservation. He had to build a palace all his own. My mother probably had no say about any of the designs inside. As my father said, she didn't contribute to the income, she didn't really have a say. He never brought up the fact that it was his fault she quite college. He never mention the fact that he was the one who got her pregnant her sophomore year of college and demanded she drop out after they got married. But of course, when that subject was brought up it was always my mother's fault for letting her schooling go down the drain.
My father beamed when he slammed the car door, his eyes glittering as he took in the house. "I got most of the things unpacked at put into place." He said, twirling the keys around his finger. "Don't go in my office. I don't want anyone breaking my laptop again." He eyed me for a long moment, letting it sink in. It didn't matter that I was six and had come running to him with a bloodied knee. It didn't matter that it was an accident. He hadn't let me near one of his precious work laptops since. I kept my face perfectly blank as I grabbed a small bag of things from the trunk and followed him and my mother toward the house. It wasn't bad inside. Instead of the plain white walls and equally plain furniture I had counted on from my father, the walls were painted a warm brown and red, nice soft couches and chairs that matched. My father must have hired a decorator.
"Grab the clothes for the meeting and make sure they look alright. We've only got an hour before the thing with the elders." My father barked, grabbing his own bag and heading toward what I assumed was his bedroom. Emphasis on his bedroom. Him and my mother hadn't had a room together since I was 14 and Alec moved out.
I watched my mother take in the house for a moment, her lips pulling into a small frown. I knew why she was so upset. None of the pictures of my siblings and me were set up in the living room like she always had them. My mother may hate the life she had with my father, but she always, always loved her children. I smiled at her, reaching out and squeezing her arm. "I packed them up in one of the boxes for my room." I whispered, giving her a little smile. I knew my father would probably carelessly break one of the pictures or even forget some of them, so I had carefully packed them away and marked it as one of my room boxes. She smiled at me, giving a little sigh of relief.
I moved through the house, searching around until I found what I assumed was my room. It was upstairs, far away from my father. And it was how I had pictured the house to be. Plain, white. I sighed, opening my bag and getting my nice clothes out. Of course wouldn't spend money to decorate my room.
Just one more year.
It was a cook out.
This big meeting my father had made us all wear nice church clothes and shiny black shoes to was a freaking cook out.
The building the meeting was to be held in was slightly bigger then most of the houses but you could tell it was old. Pain chipping off, dusty windows. The only thing that looked cared for was a giant stain glass window that had a great black wolf on it, howling to the moon. We entered the building, only finding a few teenage Quileute girls in the corner, giggling over something. They glanced at us and held black laughter, as my father grew slightly frustrated. He stepped forward, giving his best charming smile.
"I'm sorry, but is this where the Elders are meeting for-"
"Oh!" One of them burst out, giving a annoying little giggle. "You must be the big business man that's coming to meet with the Elders. There all out back."
My father looked toward the door she pointed too, his jaw clenching. He was in a direct view of a long, plastic table set up with trays of food and paper plates. I saw smock billowing up from the side and from the sight of a large trey of hot dogs I assumed it was a grill. This definitely wasn't going to please my father.
Meetings obviously didn't mean the same thing here as they did in California.
I felt extremely out of place in my nice black pants and itchy shirt.
My father gave a tense smile toward the girls, thanking them. He shot a cold look toward both my mother and me; like it was our fault for this before he stalked toward the door and out into the large back yard.
Laughter, shouting, and people chatting happily reached my ears as soon as the door opened. My father stepped out first, looking around the area with his whole body tense. Tonight was going to be miserable.
The first person to notice us was a dark, older man in a wheel chair. He had long black hair streaked with gray and a kind, wrinkled smile. He wheeled over to us, his dark eyes twinkling kindly. He shoved his russet colored hand out, greeting my father. "Billy Black, I'm one of the Elders. You must be Carter Parker."
My father plastered on the best smile he could muster in his anger. It was still extremely convincing. He was a good actor. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Black." He chimed, slipping his hand away as fast as he could without looking rude. "This isn't… quite what I expected."
Billy chuckled, oblivious to the hard edge carefully hidden beneath the words. "We just wanted to welcome you the best way we knew how." Billy grinned. I could practically hear my father's thoughts. Best way? I saw his eyes move over the brown grass and the rickety lawn chairs.
"That's very thoughtful of you." My mother put in, giving a small smile. My father looked over at her, his eyes narrowing just a bit. My mother was there to look pretty and nothing else. Not that my father thought her beautiful anymore. Not since she had slowly began to gain weight and loose her perfect figure. She wasn't morbidly obese, but she wasn't the size two she used to be. I still thought her beautiful… but my opinion of her didn't really matter.
"You must be Sherry!" Billy smiled, extending his hand to her. My mother blushed a deep shade of red as she always did when people took notice of her. "And Yasmin?" Billy asked, extending his hand to me. I took it, shaking it gently. I couldn't help but smile a bit.
"Maybe I could meet a couple of the other elders?" My father prompted, irritated that Billy was giving so much attention to my mom and me. Billy nodded immediately.
"Of course. Jake!" He called, turning his head toward someone. I followed his gaze and my jaw dropped.
There was a huge group of them. They were all the same and different at the same time. All tall, muscled like an extreme weight lifter and unbelievably gorgeous. They all looked between the ages of 18 to 25, with the same black hair and perfect russet skin.
One of them, Jake I assumed, turned. He grabbed a little girl up in his arms before heading over toward Billy. The little girl was his total opposite. Bone white skin, curly red hair, twinkling brown eyes. And for a six year old she was unbelievably beautiful. She clung to him, her head lying against his shoulder as she yawned.
"Yasmin, this is my son Jacob and the squirt is Renesmee." Billy grinned, tickling Renesmee's small bare feet. She giggled, a beautiful sound, as she buried her face in Jacob's shoulder. "Jacob is about your age. He can introduce you to the rest of the kids."
My father clenched and unclenched his jaw carefully, weighting the pros and cons of letting me go off on my own. He always seemed to think I would go off and disappear or do something to ruin his reputation if I wasn't under his supervision. "Go meet the other kids Yasmin." He said, giving me a fake, twisted smile. It seemed he would take the chance here. I nodded, following Jacob and little Renesmee toward the large group of boys. I really wished for once, my dad had forced me to stay with him. I stuck out badly, with my itch sweater shirt and my pants. All these guys and the few girls that were with them were all in jeans, tee shirts or wife beaters. I looked like a complete idiot.
"Your dad really made you dress up for this thing?" Jacob asked, giving me a small lopsided grin. I blushed, ducking my head. Great.
"We weren't exactly aware that this was a… casual thing." I muttered, yanking on the bottom of my sweater. Jacob chuckled, but it wasn't unkind.
"We're not all to fancy up here. Most of us don't even dress up for church." He smiled, shifting Renesmee a bit. She was half asleep in his arms, her eyes drooping sleepily. She was too cute. "Yasmin was it?"
I nodded, feeling my stomach twist up nervously as we stopped in front of the large group of guys. Most of their dark, gorgeous eyes settled on me. Oh, I hated this… I hated this…
"Yasmin, these guys are Embry, Quil, Jared, Brady, Seth, Paul and Jared." Jacob said, jerking his thumb at the boy the name belonged to. I got different greetings from each one. Quil, Embry and Seth all gave me welcoming smiles, jerking out their hands to shake mine. I smiled back, shaking each of their extremely hot hands. Jared merely nodded; giving a hurried little smile before looking back down at some plain girl he had his arm wrapped around. Paul and Brady didn't even glance up from their cups, just raised their hands a little and went back to talking. I wasn't sure which reaction I preferred more. "The girls," Jacob continued, "are Kim and Alison." Kim, the plain girl in Jared's arms smiled shyly at me while Alison, the tall, lanky blonde next to Seth reached her hand out to greet me. Her handshake was just as strong as the three boys.
"It's nice to meet you." I mumbled, giving a small smile. Alison grinned widely, two dimples popping up on each cheek, immediately coming to my side.
"It's so nice to have another white girl around!" She cried, making me blink at her in shock. "They all go around teasing me and calling me a ghost." She giggled, waving her hand. She was far tanner then me, but nowhere near as dark as the boys. I couldn't help but smile at her.
"Or when she burns up in the sun, we call her a lobster." Brady chuckled, making Alison glare at him and slap him. He didn't even flinch, just burst into another fit of laughter. Seth glared at him, shoving him and nearly knocking him into Paul. "I'm kidding, jeez. So sensitive about the imprint."
I saw the whole group go a bit tense at the strange word. Brady seemed to realize he had slipped up, because he turned a bit red and looked around the group of boys nervously. "You're such an idiot Brady!" Alison sighed, giving another tinkling giggle. The group breathed a bit easier when I just blinked stupidly, not even sure what had just happened. "Come on, Yasmin, I'll introduce you to Sue and Emily. They wanted to meet the new girl." Alison smiled, grabbing my arm and dragging me toward some other people. My head was spinning with all these new face and people. I noticed Seth follow behind us, grinning was he watched Alison practically drag me across the yard.
"Calm down, dimples, before you break her arm off." Seth called, shaking his head at Alison. She stopped in front of two other women, dropping my arm. Seth came up behind her, chuckling and intertwining his fingers with hers.
Alison introduced to nearly everyone there within an hour tops. She seemed to know everyone and they all seemed to love her. She was bubbly and outspoken, just the opposite of my mother and me. I liked her. She reminded me of my sister. Despite my dad, my sister hadn't folded into herself like I. She made friends easily and was able to insert her self anywhere and win everyone over. She always tried to break me out of my shell, but it had never worked. And now she was gone.
"Um, Alison… I just… where is the bathroom?" I asked after about an hour of talking and greeting new people. I was tired and slightly sick of being the center of attention. I knew Alison was being extremely nice, but I couldn't help but feel extremely scared at all the focus being on me. So after Alison pointed to the direction I slipped away and headed toward the bathroom.
I saw my father off to the side, my mother at his side dutifully. He was chatting with a couple older men, his face clam and impassive. Ah, business talk then. Luckily he didn't catch me as I slipped away to the bath-
I slammed into a hard, warm wall. I stumbled backward, my ankle twisting slightly as my black heel got stuck in a small, muddy spot. I fell on my ass with an oomph. Beautiful.
"Dammit! Would you watch it!"
The wall seemed to be a person. One of the really tall, buff ones from before. Peter… or Parker… no Paul. He had turned toward me, a look of pure anger on his face as his hands shook violently. Jeez, I don't even think I had hurt him…
"I'm sorry," I muttered quickly, standing back up and dusting off my pants. If my father saw one grass stain he would go on about it for an hour. I hoped he hadn't seen me.
"Maybe you should have watched where you were going." Paul fumed, gritting his white teeth. I flinched back, immediately pulling into myself. Just like I did when dad started throwing darts at me.
"I really didn't mean to. I'm sorry." I repeated, daring a glance up at him. He was gorgeous of course, just like all the other boys. There was something different about him though. He was more… beautiful. Even angry his face was perfect, with high cheekbones and dark eyes framed by long black lashes. He had full, perfect lips and a strong jaw. I ducked my head, overwhelmed by the sudden burst of attraction I had for him. Why on Earth would I feel this when he was looking like he wanted to murder me?
"Aw," A girl next to him cooed, her face twisted into a mocking smile. "Leave her alone, Paul. Poor baby looks like she's going to cry." She gave a little giggle, her dark eyes traveling up and down my body.
Paul huffed, before he straightened out and slowly began to stop shaking. "Whatever." He snapped, still glaring at me.
"I-I…" I stuttered, moving to look at him again. His brown eyes met mine for the first time and I suddenly couldn't look away.
His jaw dropped, a look of wonder and amazement clouding his face. He just stared at me, blinking in disbelief. I felt my cheeks flame red as I ducked my head.
"Paul?" The girl snapped, clearly displeased at how he was reacting to me.
"DAMMIT!" Paul cried, making me take an involuntary step back and gasp. He shook even worse then before, his face contorted in anger and pain as he stared down at me. Several people had turned to look at us, my dad included. Now my night was going to be ruined once I got home. And I didn't even know what I did.
Paul threw his drink down, shoving past a couple people as he exited the back yard. I felt dizzy suddenly, completely overwhelmed by the sudden events. What had I done?
Alison was at my side suddenly, yanking me off to the side with Seth following behind us. "God damn Paul. He's so stupid." Seth mumbled, running a hand through his dark hair.
"I didn't mean to run into him." I stuttered, feeling tears fill my eyes suddenly. "He just-"
"It's not your fault. It's all Paul and his fucking temper." Alison sighed, shaking her head sadly. "It's okay, he'll come around."
Come around? Why would I want him coming around?
What the hell kind of town was this?
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