Selcouth • J. Hale ✓

v.

Karina's outfit is above!

chapter five.

"Hey Karina, do you have your list?" Eric's voice called out to the girl as she was making her way to the cafeteria to meet everyone.

Karina seemed to remember and nodded her head with a smile. "Yeah! I worked on it last night before going to bed."

Eric smiled, completely relieved. "Thank god! No one's been so much of a help and although it's a month away, I like to be prepared." He explained and Karina hummed.

"Well, you're in luck, I love music so here you go." After finding the folded piece of paper, she handed it to Eric.

"Hey Karina?" He called out to her when she began to walk to one of the lines. "Can I ask you something?" Karina nodded her head and waited patiently for Eric to continue, "I was wondering if you had a da-"

Before Eric could finish his question, a practically bouncing Mike appeared. "Hey guys!" He smiled widely at the two and Karina could see the disappointment in Eric's eyes.

"Hey Mike, what's up?" She asked him, hoping he could hear in her tone to go away.

Apparently, he didn't because he wrapped and arm around both of their shoulders and dragged them into a line. "Nothing much, New York, nothing much."

Glancing at Eric, Karina mouthed 'I'm sorry' to Eric and the boy just gave her a forced smile. Tuning back into what Mike was talking about, Karina rolled her eyes when it was about something related to football, still she nodded her head and gave a hum when she deemed it appropriate.

As they sat down at the table, Karina couldn't help but look over at the Cullen's table and frown when she noticed that Jasper's seat was empty.

∞

Karina hated to admit it, but she was worried.

By the end of the day, she had realized that Jasper was absent from school. That shouldn't have worried her as much as it did, but Karina found herself chewing on her nails as she rushed out of the building in search of a certain Cullen.

"Alice!" Karina called out to the girl and Alice spun around, giving the girl a dazzling smile.

"Hey, Rin." Alice greeted and Karina smiled at the new nickname. "What's up?"

Karina suddenly felt extremely nervous, would Alice think that she's weird for asking about her brother? "I was wondering if Jasper's okay?" The question stunned Alice, though she had seen it coming, she figured that Karina would change her course. "I mean, I haven't seen him, and I don't know, I-"

Alice cut the girl off, "Jasper caught a bug." She lied flawlessly, not being able to tell her that Jasper had gone to talk to Edward, who was in Alaska and to hunt as well. "We had sushi last night and Jasper doesn't react well to sushi apparently."

Alice noticed the relief that crossed Karina's features, though it appeared that her lie didn't ease Karina's worried mind. "Oh, okay. Thanks." Karina then walked away before she could embarrass herself some more.

She didn't know why she was so worried, they had one nice conversation, two if you count the fact that they were partners in Biology, but still. Karina has always had a big heart, but this felt different. Sighing to herself, she headed to her car and quickly unlocked the door.

"Wait, Karina!" Karina spun around at the sound of Alice's voice again. The girl was approaching her with Rosalie right behind her. "Do you want to go shopping with Rosalie and I?"