Imprinted: A Jacob Black Fanfic

Chapter 1: Jacob

Margaret Skilling leaned back in her chair, chugged her third diet coke of the day, and really contemplated how much she needed this job. She'd wanted to be a teacher since middle school. Now she had a classroom of her own. She was also really questioning her career choice. The kids of La Push High School were ruthless. Today she accidentally used the formula for the circumference of a circle instead of the area of a circle in front of the class. She had a sinking feeling she wouldn't hear the end of that any time soon. The students did not hesitate to point out her mistake. They never seemed to remember formulas on a test, but when their teacher made a mistake they could remember every detail they'd ever been taught.

But it's fine, she told herself. Was today a good day? No. Was it better than yesterday? Not really. But was it worse than yesterday? No. But that wasn't saying much. Yesterday she spilled water on the floor and her class decided that her water broke. And Margaret found that joke about as funny as you'd expect.

But, the week was finally over. All that was left to do was go to the fundraiser for the football team then get out. The hardest part would be not stopping at the liquor store on the way home. So Margaret picked herself up, packed her things, and made her way down to the cafeteria. When she got there, tables were set up with baked goods and homemade crafts for sale. At the far end of the room, people were already lining up for Billy Black's famous fried fish. Margaret wasn't surprised, it smelled heavenly.

"Hey, Ms. Skilling," Margaret heard someone shout behind her. She turned to see Ms. Hastings, the principal, smile and walk towards her. "How was class today? Are the students getting any better?"

"No." Margaret didn't have the social skills to sugarcoat anything. "But, I think I found a way to make sure they memorize their formulas."

"And how do you do that?"

"Give them the wrong formula during the lesson so they can correct you then never let that mistake go ever."

"Oh yes, that would be effective."

"Yes. It has been very effective. But at what cost," Margaret sighed as they jumped in line for Billy's fish. "Also, I had another student hit a growth spurt. Daniel Collins was sick for two weeks then came back two feet taller." Boys at the school kept getting sick for a few weeks and showing up again nearly twice their original size. None of the younger teachers knew what to do about it. Not that they could do anything about it. It was just difficult because the boys also came back with an attitude.

"You know how fast young boys grow," Ms. Hastings laughed.

"Yes, I do know how fast young boys grow. What I don't know is what y'all are putting in the water to make them grow even faster. And it's like they're forming some secret society. I always hear them whispering about running around in the woods, wolves, and some boy named Jacob Black. It sounds goofy when I say it out loud but something is going on with these kids."

"I wouldn't call Jacob Black a boy, he's 26 and seven feet of pure man," the principal began fanning herself.

"I'm concerned about the well-being of my students and you want to talk about how tall some random dude is?" Margaret rubbed her temples. She'd had a constant headache for the entire week. She kept reminding herself that it was Friday. It didn't make it better.

"Don't worry about it," Ms. Hastings said as they finally made it to the front of the line. "Just get some fish. And here, ask Billy. He's Jacob's dad," she gestured to an old man sitting behind the table. "How's Jacob? Is he still looking out for the young ones around the reservation?"

Billy gave Ms. Hastings a weird look. "Yeah, what've you heard about it?"

Margaret knew this conversation was supposed to make her less nervous, but it didn't. Not in the slightest. So she just grabbed some fish and went to sit down. The teachers and parents around her talked and laughed. The older teachers tried to assure her that it gets easier as you get older. teaching is just difficult right now because she looks so young. Margaret refrained from saying that it was also difficult because her students keep randomly growing two feet and joining a gang that doesn't believe in wearing shoes. Instead of restarting that argument, she went in search of another diet coke. There weren't any in the coolers, so she headed back to the teacher's lounge.