J X K

Baby Steps

Jared's POV

The moon is still in the sky when the first beams of sun begins to break through, lightening the pitch black over La Push into a clear blue. The reservation is silent and still. All the little houses are dark, there's not a single car on the road yet, street lights are blinking out the higher the sun rises.

It feels like everyone in the Rez but me is asleep. Except maybe Sam, whose beginning his patrol as mine comes to end for the night. I run my way home instead of pacing myself, ready to climb into bed and sleep through school if I can. Maybe just the first three periods so I don't get held back. Another motivator is Kim. She always gets to school early, even stays after school for tutoring sometimes. Seeing her is the only good thing about school lately.

The faster I go to bed, the faster I'll sleep and get up so I can see Kim. My paws pound down against the ground till clumps of earth jam in between my claws and get stuck in patches of my fur. Ignoring the sudden drops of rain coming down—the usual La Push rain—I put the last of my energy into my legs, and cross the last few miles in under two minutes. By the time I make it home my eyes are falling shut. It's tempting to just drop right here in my front lawn, curl up and pass out in the dewy grass. But I'm pretty sure a thousand pound werewolf would scare the mailman, and the rest of the reservation.

Instead, while it's still dark enough I push my body through the morph back into my human body. I don't even give myself a second for my spine to straighten out before immediately scaling the side of my house and making the two story distance in one jump through my window. How dim my room is is reliving, I'm glad I can get at least an hour of sleep till the sun finds its way in. I don't even bother with the mental debate about showering. Skipping the fight altogether I collapse into my bed, too tired to pull the sheets up to my chin and black out.

Did I sleep? Or did I just blink?

Opening my eyes, I'm in the exact position when I first lowered onto my bed. Groaning, I angrily twist around, the bed squealing and threatening to give out from under me. Just as I snap my eyes shut again in an effort to fall back asleep, I hear them.

I shoot up in my bed, my nostrils flaring up as I keep the growl threatening to sound at the back of my throat. I'm on my feet by the time the knock lands against my front door.

"Oh," I can hear the shuffle of my dad opening the front door. "Hi boys... Jared isn't home."

"Mr. Cameron?" I can hear the low squeal of the hinges of my front door trying to close. "We just want to talk to Jared. We thought we could all walk to school together."

"Sorry, Quill. Jared isn't here..." Managing to cross my room in two leaps, I sink low to look down at Jacob and Quill hovering at my front door from my window. They don't look the same. There's a bad taste in my mouth while I take them in. Jacob shot up a couple of feet, he's taller than Quill by two heads and both my dad and Quill need to lean their heads back whenever they have to speak to him. Meatier too. His clothes don't fit right. Quil's hair is longer, his face is longer, while he looks like he's growing normally compared to Jacob, we never know when the change can hit.

"Then where is your son?" Jacob challenges, his dark eyes stormy.

"He's at his mom's this week."

"We just came back from her house. She said Jared was here this week." Jacob doubles down.

"Shit!" I hiss quietly to myself. My parents are the worst at lying. It won't be me who gets myself exposed, it'll be my parents.