Ash Over Seas

The next morning at school Atticus still refused to make conversation with the shape shifters. I just bid him a lazy goodbye and strolled over to the pack, who were all talking amongst themselves. I was guessing that Jacob had already told them all about who I was. I hoped they didn’t feel any different toward me.

“Hey, Cole!” Kim said with a kind smile as I neared.

I grinned back and took up a spot next to Jake. “Wotcher.”

They all stared at me funny and I began to feel a little uncomfortable. Maybe they weren’t so okay with what I was after all….

“What’s that word?” Quil asked finally.

"Wotcher?Just means hello,” I shrugged. And they all nodded in understanding as I breathed a tiny sigh of relief.

“Why don’t you just say hello?” said Paul and Jacob slapped him upside the head, earning a threatening growl.

“She can say hello however she wants.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “It’s fine, Jake. But thanks.”

He grinned happily and slipped his hand in mine. I tried not to let my surprise show as I felt my cheeks burning slightly. It was just unexpected, that's all.

“Come on, it’s time for class,” he said as he began leading me down the hall and away from everyone else. Kim and Embry followed with knowing smiles on their faces.

“Um…” the entire way my eyes kept darting to our entwined hands. Jake finally seemed to notice and dropped his grip.

“Oh—sorry, I just wanted to get going,” he said quickly, avoiding Embry and Kim’s sniggering.

“It’s fine,” I said lightly, able to breathe much better now that we weren’t in contact anymore. The four of us reached Calc just in time for the bell and I slid into my seat next to Kim, who was smirking happily. I ignored her as the teacher came in and told us to open our books to chapter one.

The rest of the block was filled with the rustling of papers and scratching of pencils, along with the occasional yawn from the partiers and slackers in the back of the room. I glanced sideways at Jake’s table, something that I’d been unable to refrain from doing all class. It was also something that was rather hard to do without getting caught, seeing as he was sitting to my right and two rows behind me next to that girl that had come up to us at lunch the other day. I vaguely wondered if he’d called her last night about the assignment, and if he’d taken her number down in his phone.

“I see you doing that,” Kim smirked, not taking her eyes away from her paper.

I scoffed, turning back to her. “Doing what?” I asked, trying to play it casual and failing miserably. Okay, so yeah I had a slight crush on him but it wasn’t anything serious. I mean, who wouldn’t have a crush on him, really.

“Looking at Jake. You like him, don’t you?”

I glanced over and if I didn’t know better, I’d say his ears perked up at this; his body seemed to tense slightly in anticipation. I knew the pack had good hearing, like I did, so I decided to play it cool.

“He’s a nice guy,” I shrugged, concentration on copying down my own equation.

“That’s not what I mean.”

I rolled my eyes and set my pencil down on the table as I looked over at her seriously. “I know what you mean, Kim, but I just met him yesterday.”

“So? You can have crushes on people when you first see them. I had a crush on Jared when I first knew him, before he became… a werewolf,” she said, whispering the last part.

“Ugh, Kim, I’m not—“

I was interrupted by the bell ringing and I let out a sigh of relief as I darted out of the classroom before Kim could bombard me with any more questions.

I nearly collided with Atticus as we both walked in the door to biology. This time, I made sure we chose seats far away from Tony, which placed us at a lab bench toward the back.

“What’s the rush?” my brother muttered as I slung my bag down on the table.

I sighed. “Nothing. Kim’s just on my case about Jacob Black.”

He raised his eyebrows slightly and glanced fleetingly at me.

“I don’t like him like that, Atticus.”

“You seem to be awfully worked up about it,” he replied indifferently as he pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his bag.

“I am not,” I huffed. “You're taking notes on that?” I asked, waving my hand at the paper.

He shrugged and I figured that probably meant he wasn’t planning on taking notes at all. I sighed and, once again, turned my attention to the front of the room. Ignoring Tony’s glance and wink from several rows in front of me. Atticus growled and I refrained from flashing him an inappropriate gesture as I began scribbling down notes from the board.

I could faintly hear one of Cammie’s friends—Andrea I think it was—on the other side of the room, gossiping away to a quiet brunette about the boys of the school.

“Yeah, no, Cammie’s totally got it bad for Black,” she whispered as she typed something into her phone and snapped it shut.

Her friend frowned and rested her chin in her palm. “Doesn’t he have a thing for that new girl?”

I heard Atticus snort next to me and I elbowed him harshly, receiving a glare from him as Andrea glanced in my direction.

“Who? Her? Please, she just moved here yesterday.”

The brunette shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s just what I heard.”

Andrea shook her head and flipped her phone open again, typing away and then snapping it closed once more. “No, Amy Sanders told me that they're like family friends or something. Besides, apparently he asked Cammie for her number yesterday.”

This time it was my turn to snort.

“Man, people in this school are ridiculous. I guess that’s what you get in small towns,” I said quietly.

Atticus just grunted as the bell rang and I headed off to Photo, where I was assigned my first project on depth of field. I knew no one in this class, though I recognized a lot of faces, including Cammie herself. I didn’t mind, though. My art was something I usually did in private, so I ignored the somewhat dirty looks I was getting from the jealous girl and focused on what ideas I wanted to do for my shoot. Of course, one kept popping into my head no matter how hard I tried to dispel it, so eventually I just decided I’d ask Jake tomorrow if I couldn’t think of anything else.

After class, I followed Cammie into the lunch line, somewhat curious about what she and her friends would be gossiping about now. It’s not that I really cared what they thought of me, I just happened to be a really nosy person.

I laughed to myself as I listened to them chatter about which boys they were clearly meant to be with. Apparently Andrea had a thing for a kid named Tom Jenkins and their brunette friend actually had a bit of a thing for Paul.

I decided to just pay for my food and head over to the table, opting for a spot between Atticus and Jake. I glanced over to see Cammie watching our table ‘casually’ as she talked with her friends.

“Hey, bloodsucker,” Paul teased as I took my seat.

I sent him a flat glare as Atticus bristled a little. “Not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

I just rolled my eyes. “Anyway, so what are you guys talking about?”

“They're trying to convince Kim to come to this party at Jason Hurley’s this weekend,” Embry said through a mouthful of peas. I nodded and turned my attention to the girl.

“I just don’t know…” Kim said hesitantly. “I’ve already got a lot of work to do for this weekend. I’m not sure I can do anything.”

Quil scoffed. “It’s the first week of school, you can’t have that much!”

“I—“

“Babe, it’ll be fine,” Jared said, wrapping his arm around the pretty girl and kissing her temple sweetly. “We can go to this thing Saturday night and then we’ll do our work on Sunday.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” he chuckled.

She sighed deeply. “All right, then. Yeah, I’ll go.”

I chuckled at how cute they were together and was going to ask more about the party but was briefly distracted as I felt a buzzing coming from my pocket. I frowned and pulled it out under the table, wondering who would possibly be texting me. I flipped it open, pressing ‘read,’ a lump immediately forming in my throat as I let out a harsh and frustrated sigh.

Hey babe. London is boring. You should come back soon. K. Love u –Cormac

I bit my lip and nudged Atticus to show him the screen. He let out a low growl, rolling his eyes and several faces turned our way.

“What’s that?” I heard Jake ask from beside me and I hastily flipped the phone shut, shoving it back in my pocket.

“Oh, um, nothing just a message from my Father,” I lied quickly, glancing at everyone to see if they bought it. They looked a little skeptical. “Um, so are you going to this party on Saturday?” I asked Jake, turning away from everyone and hoping to change the subject. It seemed to work and the group returned to their separate conversations.

He smirked. “I dunno. Are you going?”

I pondered it for a moment and decided I may as well live it up while I still could.

“Yeah, yeah I think I will,” I said smiling.

He grinned back. “Then I’ll be there.”

“Great,” I said, genuinely excited as I took a sip of my iced tea. “So… what are these parties usually like?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Typical high school. Underage drinking, people making out with random strangers, although no one’s really a stranger in this town,” he added thoughtfully. “But yeah, pretty much just an outlet for kids to make bad decisions.”

“Oh, really?” I asked, raising a brow at him. “And are you one of those kids?”

He smirked deviously and winked at me before replying, “Of course.”

I glared playfully and smiled, unsure of whether to believe him or not. Something about him was giving off the illusion of danger, and as I pondered it to myself, I realized that I couldn’t have been more attracted by that.