The Outcome

I always loved the way wood smelled. Despite my recent stint in the city, I grew up in the forest. I slept on pine needles and climbed great oaks. I spent so many afternoons running through the trees; albeit much farther behind the boys who were destined to be wolves, but found freedom there nevertheless. Still, these memories were only minor reasons why my favorite parts of five day weeks were shop class. I enjoyed the conversations and the flirting. He was showing me what it felt like to be a normal girl, fluttering hearts and jumbled insides right out of a Taylor Swift song.

Today was no different. The moment I walked in, it was like Jacob had eyes in the back of his head. He turned towards the door and smiled at me. Full volume sunshine shown out of his face and basked me in a light glow. I slide onto the stool next to him and returned his smile, grinning too wide for my cheeks to rest comfortably; but I could never help myself around him.

“I see your feeling better. I missed you at the bonfire.” He grinned down at me.

“I missed you too. I just got sick out of nowhere. How was the bonfire?” I blushed back up to him.

“Oh, it was cool.” He said offhandedly, a quick shrug of the shoulder. “Same old thing as ever. What did you come down with?” he changed the subject quickly.

Now it was my turn to shrug nonchalantly. “Oh, some 48 hour bug I think. Nothing too serious.” I replied back turning to face the table. What was I supposed to tell him? I put myself into a temporary coma trying to defy an Alpha’s order. Yeah, no.

Jake seemed satisfied with my answer and turned to face the table as well. Our teacher walked in and told up to continue working on the carving project he assigned us last week. I was carving out a molecule chain I’d managed to memorize in inorganic chemistry. That way we it didn’t turn out to look like much, it would at least blend with science geek cover.

I hadn’t seen Jacob’s carving yet, but I was curious to see what it was. Whatever he had decided to make was pretty small so he had to use the small specialized knives in the back of the classroom; for safety measures. Today; however, he had earned the teacher’s trust enough to use the equipment up at the table with me. His huge body was curved over the table in concentration over what he have doing. It was almost funny how big he was working with such small tools, but the way he tugged his bottom lip between his teeth in focus didn’t make me feel like laughing. It made me want to know how soft that lip would feel in between my own teeth…

“Let’s see how much progress you’ve made, Mr. Black.” Mr. McDevitt said from my end of the table, successfully scaring the shit out of me. I openly jumped at the sound, but he only smiled at me and nodded for me to continue my work. I snuck a look at my partner’s creation as I got back to work.

It was a tiny, perfect, wood carved wolf; so small in size, but perfect in detail. Jake had already attached it to the silver chain and it hung down like the star item in a new Tiffany’s collection. Mr. McDevitt made a sound of deep appreciation, reaching across us to take into his hands; examining it further.

“This is amazing, Mr. Black. You have a real eye for detail, impressive talent really. Maybe you can help out someone else at your table.” He said, handing Jacob back hit charm and moving on to another table. I didn’t take the diss to heart; Mr. M was my favorite teacher at La Push High, young and funny, but still fair.

“Yeah, that is amazing Jake. I’ve never seen something so perfect that didn’t come processed from a machine. Why make a wolf?” I was laying on the playing dumb pretty thick today.

“There are wolves throughout the forest here and my tribe has a long history including them. I just think their really majestic animals, so pack oriented. Their a family that never breaks.” He explained to me, looking me deep in my eyes. I sat there for a moment gazing back, silently agreeing with him before I broke the contact.

“Is it for anyone special?” I asked him, slightly changing the subject.

“He looked down to the charm and put it in him pocket, shrugging his shoulders in that evasive way of his again. “It’s for no one in particular. Hey, you must have forgot what I asked you that night. When I was at your house.”

I had most certainly not forgotten about that night. “I remember. Not going back on your work are you?”

“No actually, what are you doing tomorrow afternoon. A few hours after school? I want to take you on a real date.” He said, looking at me through those long black lashes, a slight blush on his cheeks.

“Yeah, I’m totally free tomorrow. I’d like to go out with you Jake.” I grinned, willing to appear the cool New York city girl to maintain my heartbeat. The bell rang a moment after that and everyone began packing up their things.

“Alright, it’s a date then, I’ll pick you up tomorrow around 6, cool?”

“Yeah, cool.” We’d made it out the shop door to my locker by this point and he reached his long arms around me giving me a quick squeeze. “I’ll see you later, Macie. Don’t get sick on me again!” he yelled making his way down the hallway.

With no Erick around there would be no problem with that.