Bring It On: The Kicking Butt and Taking Names Edition

"Clara, put him down." Edward sighed, after getting over the initial shock being beat to the punch.

Let me just say, for the record, that I'm not a usually too temperamental person. Sure, I'm headstrong and biting some times, but not too angry.

But earlier, I was furious.
Angry enough to have the supposed-to-be-dead Ryan looking shocked and sickeningly gorgeous, slammed halfway into a tree by his neck, snarling.

"Clara," Ryan choked, "What the hell is your problem?!"

"My problem?" I yelled. "YOU're my problem! You leave and pretend you're DEAD, which is a whole other tree-slamming entirely, making my sister hurt so badly that right now, I don't think death would equal up to that!" I wasn't hysterical; I was fuming

"Clare, as much as Ed and I both think this is extremely cool of you and, of course, how we'd love to do that to him, too, put him down. Annora will have a cow." Jasper said, smiling grimly.

"Annora can have any farm animal she wants as long as I get to kill this asinine idiotic scum of the Earth."

Edward sighed again. He was getting pretty good at that.
"Fine. Just don't kill him and put him down before Annora sees. But while you're hanging there, you mongrel, you might as well tell us a few things."

Ryan frowned. "Like what? You won't believe me no matter what I say."

Zach came over and looked levelly at Ryan from beside me. "That's for us to know and you to assume."

Edward smirked. "First of all, why death and not just a note or something similar? Faking death isn't exactly subtle."

Ryan snorted. "I'm not you."

"Obviously." Edward said, and I could feel him inwardly cringing, though he didn't show it on the outside.

I tightened my hand around Ryan's neck. "Answer the question, and stop being the biggest jerk faced lying as-"
Jasper coughed, and gave me a look.
"Stop being yourself." I amended hotly.

Ryan looked exasperated.
"Look. I didn't mean to hurt her, or you for that matter, Clara, but I wasn't going to just leave her a note saying "oh, hey, sorry, but I have to leave because I've just betrayed you to the same vampires that have practically stalked you forever. Sorry!' And there's no way I was going to just leave and claim that I didn't love her. You should know better than that."

"You picked DEATH over a NOTE?" Jacob asked, looking horrified. "I knew you guys were off your rail, but that's... That's not even a little bit logical!"

"Yeah, well, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Besides, I did keep in contact through the LaPush notes."

Zach shook his head. "You're one retarded vampire. I guarantee you, if you ever get the urge to show up in LaPush again, you're going to end up where you pretended to be in the first place."

Ryan turned his sad eyes on me. "Let me go. I know I was completely wrong, and trust me, never again."

I grudgingly released my grip. As Ryan rubbed his neck though, he was slammed up against the tree again, by Edward.

"What about your 'people'?" he hissed.

Ryan coughed some more. "STOP SLAMMING ME AGAINST TREES! And what the heck do you mean? What about 'my people'?!"

"They're going to come at us harder now, because of you!" Edward's voice sounded so... deadly.

Edward dropped Ryan and turned on his heel, while pain exploded in front of my eyes. It was killing him to live on the other side of something so simliar to what he'd done.

I got home before anyone else that night, and went straight to my room and sat in the chair at the desk until Zach came over. He sat down on the couch and smiled at me sadly.

“I’m sorry.”

I glanced over at him. “What?”

“All of this freakish stuff is going on, and I can’t relate or help or even try to be considerate, just because of who I am. I can’t even talk right.”

I laughed. “You sound perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, but the other night, when I told you that I loved you... I don’t think it came out totally right, and I think it scared both of us.”

He looked over at me curiously, where I was frozen.

“I didn’t mean it like... that. Not yet, anyways, but that’s really awkward, so forget I just said that. I meant that I love you like... Like you’re my sister.”

“Are you lying?”

He smiled grimly. “Nope. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with you forever, though.”

My eyes grew wide. “What?!”

“NO! I mean, well, I’ve kind of already imprinted.”

I blinked, and said what I was thinking slowly. “...On me.”

“Right. But since I’m not totally Quiluette, it’s not a big deal. I just can’t leave you without getting worried sick.”

I kind of snorted. “And... Does Jacob know?”

He laughed. “Yeah, seeing as how we kind read eachother’s mind, he knows. And thinks it’s the dumbest thing he’s ever heard of. But still, he’s got no other choice but deal with it.”

“There’s just one problem.” I pointed out helpfully. “I’m not safe with you.”

Zach’s faced dropped. “Oh?”

“Not in the you-can’t-defend me way, since we’re both pretty much able to do that for ourselves, but my family is my backup, and Alice can’t see me when I’m with you...”

“...which would be always.”

“Exactly. She freaks out a little over it.”

He looked undecidedly down at the couch. “I don’t want to put you in any danger. That’s not what I’m supposed to stick around for.”

I had to smile. He thought that I didn’t want to be around him because Alice wouldn’t be able to see me. I walked over to the couch, and sat down in front of him.
“Zach, come on. I thought you knew me a little better than this.”

He looked at me, intrigued.

“Who said I didn’t want to have some fun in the way of danger? Plus, if I get to hang out with my best friend in the process, double bonus for me.”

He smiled and wrapped me in a bear hug. “You’re insane, Clara, and I’m so glad you are.”

So everything's good, and really, I'm glad. Even if the freaky whosit-purple-eyed things come back, I can't say I won't be ready for a good fight.

-Clara