Her Probation / Paul Lahote

THIRTY TWO

"Come on, Fern! Time to warm up!" Samantha called out and gently slapped her back, breaking Fern out of her trance. Her mind had drifted off again to his face, his tobacco breath and his cold voice.

"I'm all you have, baby."

"I'll be there in a second." The locker rooms emptied quickly as Fern took a deep breath, pushing him away, as well as the memories of the other night, and Nate's terrible news.

What she hadn't fully expected was for Paul to be so supportive and show her such care. For the last couple of nights he'd come over for dinner and stuck around until late hours, either watching TV downstairs or working with Seth in the garage. He'd also spent a lot of time with Fern, watching movies with her and lying on her bed napping while she did homework. He often picked her up from training and took her to her community service. Most of the time Paul would come an hour or two early and sit around in the common room, interacting with the seniors. His presence was very calming and brought that familiar security to Fern, that made her feel like she could breath whenever he was around.

She wasn't always too sure if it was because of that Imprint bond that she always felt such a pull to him, but either way it comforted her. There was a sliver of fear that followed this thought. That fear being that the Imprint bond would sever eventually or he'd grow tired of her relentless nightmares. Fern often attempted to hide the fear, but sometimes it was as though he could smell it on her—and maybe he could (he'd admitted that when he concentrated he could hear her heartbeat). Fern had found herself still asking questions about their abilities and trying to understand the strange phenomenon. She hadn't run in with any of the Cullen's since Alice and Jasper had picked her up in Forks a couple of weeks ago, but she was glad, they had unsettled her.

Fern released a deep sigh and turned away from the mirror, pushing open the heavy door that led to the gym, where the volleyball court was set up and the players were stretching on their respective sides. She glanced over at the bleachers and smiled when she locked eyes with Paul. Beside him sat Collin, Leah and Sue; her little family. Fern turned her attention to her teammates and stretched along with them.

The first round proved to the La Push team that they were up against good competition, however they had started picking up on weak points. Samantha had whispered to most the girls that one of the girls in the backline had poor digging technique that resulted in consistently bad outcomes (she was hitting the ball at the wrong angle of her thumbs). Upon the beginning of their second round, the La Push girls established that they were playing against an overzealous spiker; that couldn't distinguish between opportunity and an ordinary hit. But on the third round, the competition got relatively stiff and this influenced the seriousness of the game. The La Push girls became more focused and more determined than ever to win each point. However, a majority of the round was neck-to-neck.

"Mine!" Fern yelled, squatting her knees and jutted her hands out to dig the ball, as it came barrelling over the net. With a low grunt of effort, Fern allowed the ball to rebound off her thumbs and direct it towards the spikers to then push back over the net. Samantha hit the ball up and allowed Emerald to jump into the air to push it harshly back onto the court. Fern let out a cheer as the ball hit the court. Samantha and Emerald high-fived one another before moving back to high-five Fern. She grinned back and found her position again. The ball was given back to La Push High's server, who took the ball and rolled it back under the net.