RHYTHM BLOOD AND SOUL

Three AM

Chapter One: The King and Kim

xxx

One would've thought the ideas coming to my eternally charged brain were weird as hell. Like how it sucked so hard to be pretty and popular – and no, not because I was envious of them, it's because I think it's awfully terrible to grow that jaded before marriage. Or how wrong the people were if they think the sun was the most powerful heavenly being created – come in La Push and you'll find out that the holy sunlight could be defeated by the endless blanket of thick heavy clouds, many times. Or how Mr. Spoons, our Advanced Literature teacher, looked eerily like Professor Snape from the Harry Potter movies. Or maybe how my seatmate was acting terribly…

Weird would not be enough of a word to describe his actions for the past few days. Suspicious maybe. Or like he sniffed a whole bottle of cough syrup before going to school (not that I know the feeling but…).

I frowned.

One would think I would be elated now that the day I've been waiting for since my freshman years has come. The day that the Jared King finally finally took a notice of meek me.

You see, I've had this… little crush on Jared (or T.K., short for The King – of my life. Lame, I know.) since I set sights on him on my first day here at the reservation's school three years ago.

Three years ago, I didn't know a single soul from this little town, except of course from my family. First day of school and I was a bundle of unlit firecrackers – full of nerves and tense energy – until I saw him, Jared King, walking on the opposite direction of me in the busy hallway of the school. Of course, the natural klutz that I am, I stood frozen in the spot as I stared up at him, the gap between us slowly slowly shortening as he continued to walk towards me. And then as if Fate's hands directed his face towards mine, our eyes met when he was at an arm's length away… and then he smiled.

I was gripped.

Or maybe because I consider him as my first ever "friend" that I made in La Push, that's why I felt connected to him somehow.

Okay, so that's pretty pathetic. The first person to smile at me when I was new in town and I consider him a friend whereas I wasn't even sure if he knew my name back then?

Stupid, right?

I was born and bred on Los Angeles in our huge and warm house… although, I guess, huge would be an understatement. I admit that our family could be considered sitting in one of the top chairs in the high-class society (though I never bragged about it, as our parents taught us), what with our family inheriting my father's parents' multinational corporation in the shipping industry. At first, my grandparents were totally against the idea of my father and mother falling in love and getting married (eloped more like). They even had my Dad banished from their manor, resulting in my parents to start living with practically nothing but their clothes. I had to owe it to my parents. They were very hardworking and never held a grudge against my grandparents. But when grandfather was diagnosed with brain cancer, my grandparents then decided to hand over the whole shipping business to my Dad, their only son and heir. Then my grandparents passed away (grandmother following her late husband a few months after), and we never set foot again on our rented apartment. I guess, everyone who heard of our family's sob story would say we're pretty lucky.

But I would have to disagree.

If we were that lucky, Dad and Mom wouldn't have died in a car crash three years ago. Two of my eldest brothers, William and Anthony, wouldn't have to fight the government's social services for the legal guardianship of us minors back then. (How could we starve when each of us Connweller kids inherited a large sum of money from our family's luxurious business?) And since Will and Ant were already living in La Push, Washington when all that jazz happened, (why were my elder brothers living so far away from us in LA? That's another story for another day, I think) they decided it would be best for Adam and I to move from Los Angeles and stay with them in our house in the reservation so the social services could "shove all their crap in their asses" (Adam's words not mine).

That, plus the fact that we knew our parent's death was no accident. Up to now, three years after, their case was still open and pending in the Supreme Court. And really, who could assault us in this tiny, almost ignorable town?

All of those summed up was probably the biggest turmoil our family had to face.

See? Even people who were more financially blessed than most had their own set of problems too. I couldn't see why most people here could easily judge us just because of our social standing.

The school bell rang signaling the end of third period. Lunch time next. I wonder if he would ask me again—

"Hi Kim," a familiar voice said to my right. Without even looking up, I knew who it was. "Can I join you for lunch?"

I slowly put my things in my backpack, thinking of a new excuse to say this time. Yesterday, it was a research in library. The day before that, I lied that I had stomach flu so I rushed to the ladies' room. What now?

"Uhm," Jared stuttered. Unsurely, I looked up at him. "You probably have other things to do, right? I could… uh, join you. Or keep you company… or… something," he trailed off, giving me a hesitant and expectant look. Only he could pull something so cute like that.

'Ack! No Kim! Focus!'

I stood up and was about to pull up my bag when he instantly grabbed it from me. "Here, let me help you," he said.

"No, it's okay!" I exclaimed, surprised. "You don't have to—"

"But I want to."

"What's up with you?" As soon as I blurted out, I clamped a hand to my mouth and stared up at him with wide eyes. I could feel my blush creeping to my face. Oh shit.

"What's up with me?" he repeated my question, not seemingly offended by my outburst. In fact, he shouldered both my bag and his own on one side and I immediately worried about its weight. I mean, I have Physics next after lunch and I already have my thick as encyclopedia textbook in my bag.

"I can carry my own bag, thanks," I said as I reached to get it but he quickly grasped my hand.

'Oh. My. GOD. TK is holding my hand everyone!'

"It's fine," he said, smiling, his dimples deepening. Oh fudge oh shoot he was still smiling at me. And he' still holding my hand. OH MY –

"Why? Any treasures in here? Or are you hiding something illegal?"

"What? No," I quickly answered. Me? Doing anything remotely illegal? My brothers would kill me first. "Please, you don't need to do that."

"I can't believe we're arguing about your bag," he muttered, almost rolling his eyes, but I heard it anyway.

"If only you'll give it back then we won't be having this conversation," I inserted.

Then he looked at me, AGAIN, straight in the eyes, his brown ones darkening. Suddenly, I couldn't seem to breathe anymore.

"No conversation?" he asked, oh so softly. "Are you sure about that Kim?" And I noticed his eyes deliberately looking down from mine… and into my lips.

I gulped.

"Yo Jared!"

xxx

I whipped my head away from my imprint and saw my pack mate, Paul Kane, standing in the doorway with a questioning look on his face.

I decided to ignore him and turn my attention back to the girl in front of me.

Kim.

Just the sound of her name echoing in my head sent something like a big rush of energy pulsing from my head, down to my heart and then all over my body. It was the strangest feeling… like this intense electricity making my heart beat so fast and strong. And at the same time, it was like a gentle wave of soothing water, calming the monster in me down, blissfully at peace. Ugh, it sounded so weird, yeah?

And so fucking gay.

But I swore it's all her so don't blame me.

I looked down at her and couldn't help but smile. She wasn't really petite, but compared to my humungous built, the top of her head only reached up to my chest. I couldn't explain in details what she looked like, but if you'd ask me, she's completely beautiful. I could easily tell anyone that she had perfect eyebrows, pretty grey eyes (I would have loved staring at those eyes for hours), impossibly long eyelashes (hah! I knew the girls here in campus envied those), cute nose, and those lips… I felt guilty, but I have to admit I've had the most pleasurable fantasies about those double-curved lips of hers.

'God I wanna kiss her.'

She also got this long dark hair which was so straight and smooth it reminded me of satin sheets. And her skin… she had light brown complexion, unlike the usual dark tone most of us locals have, which made me think she's not purely Quileute. But the more important thing was, her skin reminded me so much of caramel that I wanted so badly to reach out and… (this would be weird) just lick her. From the distance that I always thankfully could manage, she always smelled to me like strawberries and… yup, you guessed it, caramel. I guess it was no surprise why I find myself always craving for her.

'Jesus I'm such a pervert.'

And as if whatever heavenly being above heard me, something hard smacked me, on the back of my head. Growling, I turned and saw Paul with the same irritated look on his face.

"What the fu—up," I coughed. "What's up, Paul?"

Said "friend" raised his eyebrow at me. I discreetly tilted my head towards my imprint and he immediately got it as he smirked at me. Bastard.

"Hey Kim." I watched as he nodded towards her.

"Hi Paul," her soft voice greeted him back then shyly ducked her head, but not before I caught her smile briefly at him. I frowned. Why did he get a smile when I, who had been trying to talk to her for days, never got one?

"I hate to break your little secret meeting–" (Kim blushed, how cute.) "—but Jared, we gotta go," he said.

'Huh?'

"What? Go where?" I asked, not liking Paul very much right now. First, he got a smile from my imprint. Then now he wanted to take me away from her? No way dude.

He huffed, clearly annoyed. "Just come with me, man."

"No."

"What?"

"I don't want to," I answered, then quickly turned to the girl staring silently at us. I smiled. "So Kim, lunch?"

But before she could reply, a hard shove pushed me on the shoulder, causing me to stumble a bit backwards and a chair to fall off. "What the hell dude?!" I screamed at him, shoving him back. Another chair and this time, a table, screeched against the floor. I winced at the piercing sound.

"You're asking me? What the fuck is your problem?!" he yelled. He was starting to shake a bit and instinctively, I moved in front of Kim shielding her from him.

"Dude, fine, sorry. Just chill alright?" I said, trying to silently tell him to calm the fuck down.

He seemed to get it because suddenly, he stopped. Then, rolling his eyes, he exasperatedly said, "I hate this as much as you do, okay? Tracey is waiting for me in the girls' locker room at the gym and you know I never turn down a free meal. But boss just called a few minutes ago and we need to meet up with him. Now."

I narrowed my eyes and gritted my teeth. I should have known this was Sam's fault. Stupid Alpha.

Sighing heavily, I turned to Kim, who was now staring at us with wide eyes. I could hear her heartbeat beating fast and I grimaced. It didn't take a genius to feel that she's quite upset. I didn't want to dwell on what she must think of me—of us—right now. Fuck. So much for first impressions.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly reached toward her. When she didn't step back nor flinched away from my stare, I finally grasped her shoulder. I tried to smile, hoping it would placate her.

"Sorry Kim," I said, hoping she'd get my sincerity. "But I need to go. Guess we'll just take another rain check on that lunch, huh."

She bit her lip and I immediately got drawn. I wanted to cup her face and touch her lips…

"It's okay," she said. I blinked. "I think you really should go. You might get in trouble at work if you don't."

I felt something not so pleasant tug in my chest. I didn't want to leave her. But… maybe if I could get a goodbye kiss…

"But," she started and my eyes widened, hope flaring inside me. 'Maybe she feels the same way as I do…?'

"I need my bag," she continued. 'Oh.'

"Oh," I said, stupidly. "Right. I… uhm…"

"What the FUCK is going on?!?"

xxx

I was running late.

And starving.

Me late for my food was never a good thing. People here at school always knew to make a path in the hallways for me, but whenever I got extra cranky, they better stay out of my fucking way.

I heard my stomach growled and I cursed inwardly. Damn that shitbrained McGallagher. I already passed my freaking essay last Monday (I even had my sister typed it out for me on Sunday night -- all three pages) but no, mister-know-it-all bastard kept on insisting that I never handed out a single paper and even threatened (he fucking threatened ME of all people!) a detention if he didn't have it by tomorrow. Hah! Well fuck him and his amnesia – I wouldn't give him a single scrap until he finally burst a vein and have a stroke. Hell, this whole damn school would probably even owe me for that.

My stomach complained again. 'Yeah yeah, we're on our way. Now shut it.'

I turned a corner, hitting someone in the process. But I barely cared (he, or she, should have known better than to stand in my way) – and continued walking briskly. I passed by a room, its door opened and at the corner of my eye could see a few people still in it. As I was just about to take another step, I froze. My brain quickly recalled the images in the last three seconds.

Kane.

King.

Kim.

'Wait what?'

It took me three steps backwards. Two seconds to reach the door. And one big breath to yell.

"What the FUCK is going on?!?"

xxx

Promise, I didn't intend that small KKK on purpose. Honest!

So. Heeeey. It's been a long time since I wrote another fanfic. I was hesitant to write a Jared/Kim story but I've been quite obsessed with this couple for a while. So little was given to them and I think it'd be fun to create a new world for them. So I decided to give it a shot.

This is un-beta'ed so I'm sorry for any grammatical errors or whatnot. Anyone interested in beta-reading for me, just pm me or something. I just need someone to check my grammar and minor stuff. :)

Reviews are very much appreciated! :D