Nic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trillianastra) wrote2008-10-22 10:26 pm
trillianastra) wrote2008-10-22 10:26 pm
Entry tags:
Project: Rewrite Twilight
Well. I said I was going to try and rewrite Twilight, with the aim of making it... well, into something resembling a decent piece of writing.
Tonight's news is: Chapter One... is now done. I think it's a pretty good opener, but then I would think that, wouldn't I?
Anyway. Chapter One is under the cut, check it out if you want. Concrit is appreciated.
October 5, 2005
Well, here I am. Renee’s gone off travelling with Phil, so she sent me to live with my dad, Charlie. Who lives in this tiny little town in Washington, called Forks if you can believe that. He’s the police chief here, so at least he can afford a nice house and decent stuff.
Charlie’s all right, I suppose. I haven’t really seen much of him before now, he came down to Phoenix a few times when I was little but he and Renee don’t get on too well. He always sent me birthday presents and christmas presents though, so even if he doesn’t get on with my mom at least he cares about me. And I have my own room, instead of having to share with Phil’s daughter like I did before.
Forks, though, is the most depressing town ever. There’s nothing to do if you can’t drive, and it rains like, all the time. Seriously, I looked it up and apparently Forks is one of the rainiest places in the whole WORLD.
Typical, huh? I move from Phoenix, where it’s really sunny, to one of the wettest, most depressing places in the world. Just my luck.
Anyway, I’m starting school tomorrow. At least then I’ll have something to do. And Charlie said he’d look at getting me a second-hand car, so I can get around easier. I guess with my own transport I’d have more freedom.
I gotta go now, Charlie’s calling me. Some friend of his came ‘round for dinner, some guy from the reservation near here… apparently he has a son who’s about my age. I guess this is Charlie trying to help me make friends.
Dinner time!
Bella.
Chapter One
“Bella! Get down here, I’ll be late for work if we don’t leave soon!”
I sat at my desk, checking myself in the mirror, and trying to quell the butterflies in my stomach. Starting high school back in Phoenix had been bad enough, and then I had known most of my class from middle school. Now I’d be thrown in with a crowd of kids I didn’t even know.
“Bella!”
I sighed, and grabbed my new school bag before heading downstairs. “All right, Dad, I’m coming.”, I called out. Charlie was at the bottom of the stairs by the door.
“Don’t forget your jacket. You’re not in Phoenix any more.”
“And don’t I know it.” I picked my jacket off the coathook, slipping it on as Charlie opened the door. The cold breeze made me shiver as I stepped outside into what I gathered was a typically overcast Forks day. Charlie held open the passenger door of his car for me, and I got in quickly. He sat in the driver’s seat. “I’m sorry we have to go so early, but I need to get to work… hopefully we’ll get you your own car soon, so this shouldn’t be a long-term arrangement.” He smiled apologetically.
“It’s all right. Renee always used to just put me on the bus, back home.”
Oops. I think that might have been the wrong thing to say. I know Charlie wants me to think of Forks as “home”… but I’ve only just moved here. It still feels like I’m just visiting my dad on vacation, not like I’ve moved up here permanently.
I looked over at him. He looked kind of upset – Renee told me that Charlie couldn’t hide his feelings well, and I was starting to see that she was right.
“Dad, I’m sorry… this is home, it is. It’s just that I only just moved up here, so it’s going to take a while for me to get used to living here instead of Phoenix. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t, Bels. I know it’s hard for you, adjusting like this.”
“Yeah. I’ll get used to it.”
The rest of the drive to Forks High passed in silence. Outside the school, Charlie hugged me and wished me good luck, then I waved as he drove off to work. I watched his car disappear into the distance, then looked at my watch – it was 8 a.m, and classes weren’t due to start until 9. I sighed, and went inside to find the school office.
Charlie had already registered me as a junior at Forks High, and I had a class timetable, so all I needed to do was tell the school office that I was here and give them my portfolio from my Phoenix high school. That only took a few minutes, so I went to look around the school a bit. I found my homeroom, the library and the cafeteria easily enough, and I figured that any other classrooms I could just follow other students.
I looked in through the cafeteria doors, and saw that there were a few kids already there – clustered around one table was a group of boys, all with dark hair and olive-coloured skin. I recognised one of them – Jacob, Charlie’s friend’s son, and he waved me over when he spotted me in the doorway. I went over hesitantly, seeing as I didn’t actually know any of these boys.
At their table, I pushed my hair back. “Uh, hi, Jacob.”
“Hey Bella. This is your first day, right?”
“Yeah. Charlie had to get into work early, he dropped me off on the way. What are you guys doing here so early?”
“We have to come over from the reservation every day… usually there’s more traffic than today.”
“Oh.”
“So… you want to sit with us until classes start?”
“Sure. It’s not like I know anyone else.”
Jacob pulled out the chair next to him, and I sat down quickly. “Guys, this is Bella. She’s Charlie Swan’s daughter. Bella, this is Quil, Embry and Seth. Seth goes to the middle school next door, but Quil and I are juniors and Embry’s a sophomore.”
“Nice to meet you all.” I smiled nervously, as the three other boys all said some variant of “hi”. “So… you all live on the reservation then?”
Quil nodded. “Yeah. We’re Quileute.”
“Cool. There wasn’t a reservation anywhere near Phoenix, where I used to live.”
Jacob smiled. I wondered if his dad had told him to make me feel welcome, as a favour to Charlie. “Well, it’s a pretty cool place, actually. Charlie comes out all the time to see Dad, you should come with him sometime.”
I found myself smiling back, almost unconsciously. “I’d like that.” Suddenly I felt a lot more comfortable sitting there with the four boys. I realised that I’d been gripping my schoolbag tightly, and released it, putting it on the floor under my seat. “So, is there anything I should know about Forks High? What are the teachers like?”
For a second, it felt like there was something the boys weren’t telling me. It was barely noticeable, just their smiles faltering for a microsecond. Then the moment passed, and they launched into a lively explanation of the little community of students and teachers that made up the school. I hardly noticed time passing, until I realised that the boys were getting up, pulling on jackets and slinging their bags over their shoulders. Jacob turned to me. “Bella, we have homeroom soon, are you coming?”
I blinked, thinking that he must have thought I looked so stupid just sitting there. “Oh, yeah. ‘Course I am.” I grabbed my bag and stood up, following them out of the cafeteria. When we compared timetables, we’d found that I was in a different homeroom to Jacob and Quil, though the rooms were at least on the same corridor. Before the boys went into their classroom, Jacob caught the attention of a smiling girl with curly dark hair.
“Hey, Jessica, come over here.” She hurried over.
“Hi, Jacob. What’s up?”
“You’ve got Mr Forman for homeroom, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. Uh, this is Bella, it’s her first day here. She’s in the same homeroom as you, can you look after her for a bit?”
“Look after her?” From the look on her face, it was like Jacob had asked her to clean out a pigsty rather than just show me around.
“Yeah, just make sure she doesn’t get lost or anything.”
Jessica hesitated. “Uh, well, I guess I could.”
“Thanks. I’ll owe you one.”
She smiled in a way that I, personally, found quite worrying. “I’ll remember that, Jacob Black.” Then she turned to me. “Come on then. It’s Bella, yeah?” She started to walk away without waiting for an answer, so I had to rush to catch up to her. I turned and smiled to Jacob, then hurried after her.
“Uh, yeah. Bella Swan. Well, Isabella really, but everyone calls me Bella.”
“Great. Jessica Stanley, by the way. So, this is your first day?”
“Yeah. I just moved here to live with my dad. Before now I lived in Arizona.”
“Your dad? Oh, Chief Swan, yeah? You’re his daughter?”
“That’s the one.”
She shrugged. “Cool.” We’d stopped outside a classroom that was now steadily filling with students. “This is our homeroom.” She went in, and I followed her to the back of the room. Jessica looked around. “Hmm, where can you sit… oh, there’s a space.” She pointed out an empty seat. “There you go. I’d get yourself settled now, Mr Forman will be here for rollcall soon.”
With that, she sat down in her own place, then turned to talk to the blonde girl next to her. Feeling distinctly lost, I sat in the place Jessica had pointed out, looking around at the other students.
It wasn’t long before the teacher came in. He went through the rollcall, pausing when he got to me. “Now, we have a new student with us today. Isabella Swan, where are you?” He looked around, and I raised my hand slowly. “Here.”
The teacher smiled kindly. “Welcome to Forks High, Miss Swan. How would you prefer to be addressed?”
“Uh, just Bella is fine, Mr Forman.”
“Excellent.” He made a note in the register before moving on to the next person.
After that, there were a few notices to read out, mostly about ordinary school things, though one was about the school holding a social for Halloween. That started everyone whispering, until they were hushed by a sharp word from the teacher before he dismissed us so we could get to our classes.
I’d studied my timetable so much since I’d arrived that I practically had it memorised, so I knew that my first class of the day was Biology. I followed Jessica to the classroom, trying to make a note of the right way while trying not to get lost at the same time, and by the time we got to the biology lab I was relieved to have got there in one piece.
Everyone else found their seats, while I went over to the teacher and explained that I was new. The teacher nodded, and explained that I’d be assigned a lab partner. She also said that there was one student who currently didn’t have a lab partner, so I’d be working with him. She pointed out the workstation where my new partner was sitting, and I saw a brown-haired boy sitting there, and smiled to him as I went to sit down. As the teacher started to address the class, I whispered to him.
“Hi. I’m Bella.”
He turned to look at me, and I almost gasped when I saw how pale he was. I knew this town didn’t get much sun, but he was much paler than anyone else. He whispered back. “Edward.”
That was all he said to me, after that he spent the whole class period listening carefully to the teacher or concentrating on reading his textbook. It was almost as if he was deliberately ignoring me, though I had no idea what I could possibly have done to upset him.
After class, everyone packed up their things and left. On the way out, Jessica and the blonde girl caught up to me. Jessica linked an arm through mine. “Hi Bella. This is Lauren, by the way. Lauren, this is Bella Swan, she just moved here from Arizona.”
Lauren smiled coolly. “Nice to meet you, Bella.”
Neither of us had a chance to say much more, because Jessica was still chattering on. “So, Bella, I saw you got partnered with Edward for Biology.”
“Uh, yeah. He didn’t really say much to me, other than his name.”
“Ah, well, he is our year’s resident mystery. He doesn’t really speak to many people at school. Except for his sister, of course.”
“He has a sister?”
“Yeah. Basically, this couple, the Cullens, adopted a bunch of kids from all over. All teenagers, which is a bit weird, but then maybe they didn’t want to be bothered with changing nappies or whatever. Anyway, Edward and Alice, that’s his sister, are the youngest. There are three older ones, but two of them are off at college most of the time, and the third one is in senior year.”
“Oh… that doesn’t sound so mysterious.”
“They all live in this big old house right on the edge of town. And then there’s the fact that whenever we get a sunny day, Edward and Alice always skip school.”
That was odd. But then, if I’d lived in Forks most of my life I’d probably do the same. “I dunno… maybe they just want to make the most of the sun?”
“Every single time, Bella? I know we don’t get much sun here, but that’s a little extreme.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Well, you’re his lab partner now.” Jessica grinned wickedly. “Maybe you could get him to tell you why.”
“I… I couldn’t do that! He might want to keep it private. Maybe he’s got one of those diseases that makes you sensitive to sunlight, I doubt he would want everyone to know.”
“Bel-la. You wouldn’t have to tell everyone. Just me and Lauren.”
If she thought I was going to buy that, she must have thought I was a complete idiot. I’d had enough experience being the shy girl who gets taken advantage of back in Phoenix, and I’d promised myself that in Forks things were going to be different. So I smiled and nodded. “Well, if he does tell me, I’ll be sure to let you two know.”
That sounded so false, even as I said it. But apparently Jessica bought it, because she smiled back. I needed to get out of there, so I was actually glad when the bell for the next period rang and I had to get to my next class, History. That actually went okay, but maybe that’s because History is one of my favourite subjects. After the class finished and the teacher gave us all a load of reading to do for homework, I realised that the next period was for lunch, which meant I could go and find Jacob and his friends and spend the lunch hour with them. I found them in the cafeteria, sitting at the same table as they had been that morning. The only difference was that Seth wasn’t there, and obviously there were other students in the cafeteria now. I went over, feeling more confident now that I knew them a bit better. “Hey Jacob.”
He grinned when he saw me. Not a fake I’m-smiling-but-I-don’t-really-like-you grin, but a real, genuine one, like he was really, truly, pleased to see me. “Hi Bella. You joining us?” He pointed out an empty chair at the table.
“Sure.” I sat down, then pulled out the sandwiches I’d made myself that morning.
“So, how’d your first classes go?”
“Oh. They were okay. I have a lab partner in Biology now.”
“Yeah, everyone’s got one. Who’d you get?”
“This guy, Edward… uh, Cullen, I think.”
The second I said Edward’s name, Jacob went pale. Not as pale as Edward himself, but definitely noticeable. “Jacob? Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, Bella, I’m fine. Just… Edward Cullen isn’t a guy you should be spending too much time with.”
“But… he’s my lab partner, I’ll have to.”
“Yeah, I know… just don’t get too close to him. If you have to work with him, I guess that’d be fine, but don’t spend any more time with him than you absolutely have to.”
Now I was really confused. “Why, though? He can’t be that bad, can he?”
Jacob looked at me, and I knew he was serious. “I can’t explain it any better than that. Just be careful around him. And try not to be alone with him if you can.”
I frowned. “Well, I guess… if you think I should…”
“I do. And I promised your dad I’d look after you.”
I smiled despite myself. “You did?”
“Yeah. He wanted to make sure you’d be okay. I guess Charlie trusts me to keep you out of trouble.”
“He probably does. Anyway… I’ll be careful when Edward’s around. If he tries to do anything to me I’ll… run away as fast as I can. Okay?”
He smiled. “It’ll do.”
“I’ll want to know why I have to be careful, though. Eventually.”
“I’m sure you will.”
~~~~~
So.... thoughts? Concrit?
Tonight's news is: Chapter One... is now done. I think it's a pretty good opener, but then I would think that, wouldn't I?
Anyway. Chapter One is under the cut, check it out if you want. Concrit is appreciated.
October 5, 2005
Well, here I am. Renee’s gone off travelling with Phil, so she sent me to live with my dad, Charlie. Who lives in this tiny little town in Washington, called Forks if you can believe that. He’s the police chief here, so at least he can afford a nice house and decent stuff.
Charlie’s all right, I suppose. I haven’t really seen much of him before now, he came down to Phoenix a few times when I was little but he and Renee don’t get on too well. He always sent me birthday presents and christmas presents though, so even if he doesn’t get on with my mom at least he cares about me. And I have my own room, instead of having to share with Phil’s daughter like I did before.
Forks, though, is the most depressing town ever. There’s nothing to do if you can’t drive, and it rains like, all the time. Seriously, I looked it up and apparently Forks is one of the rainiest places in the whole WORLD.
Typical, huh? I move from Phoenix, where it’s really sunny, to one of the wettest, most depressing places in the world. Just my luck.
Anyway, I’m starting school tomorrow. At least then I’ll have something to do. And Charlie said he’d look at getting me a second-hand car, so I can get around easier. I guess with my own transport I’d have more freedom.
I gotta go now, Charlie’s calling me. Some friend of his came ‘round for dinner, some guy from the reservation near here… apparently he has a son who’s about my age. I guess this is Charlie trying to help me make friends.
Dinner time!
Bella.
Chapter One
“Bella! Get down here, I’ll be late for work if we don’t leave soon!”
I sat at my desk, checking myself in the mirror, and trying to quell the butterflies in my stomach. Starting high school back in Phoenix had been bad enough, and then I had known most of my class from middle school. Now I’d be thrown in with a crowd of kids I didn’t even know.
“Bella!”
I sighed, and grabbed my new school bag before heading downstairs. “All right, Dad, I’m coming.”, I called out. Charlie was at the bottom of the stairs by the door.
“Don’t forget your jacket. You’re not in Phoenix any more.”
“And don’t I know it.” I picked my jacket off the coathook, slipping it on as Charlie opened the door. The cold breeze made me shiver as I stepped outside into what I gathered was a typically overcast Forks day. Charlie held open the passenger door of his car for me, and I got in quickly. He sat in the driver’s seat. “I’m sorry we have to go so early, but I need to get to work… hopefully we’ll get you your own car soon, so this shouldn’t be a long-term arrangement.” He smiled apologetically.
“It’s all right. Renee always used to just put me on the bus, back home.”
Oops. I think that might have been the wrong thing to say. I know Charlie wants me to think of Forks as “home”… but I’ve only just moved here. It still feels like I’m just visiting my dad on vacation, not like I’ve moved up here permanently.
I looked over at him. He looked kind of upset – Renee told me that Charlie couldn’t hide his feelings well, and I was starting to see that she was right.
“Dad, I’m sorry… this is home, it is. It’s just that I only just moved up here, so it’s going to take a while for me to get used to living here instead of Phoenix. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t, Bels. I know it’s hard for you, adjusting like this.”
“Yeah. I’ll get used to it.”
The rest of the drive to Forks High passed in silence. Outside the school, Charlie hugged me and wished me good luck, then I waved as he drove off to work. I watched his car disappear into the distance, then looked at my watch – it was 8 a.m, and classes weren’t due to start until 9. I sighed, and went inside to find the school office.
Charlie had already registered me as a junior at Forks High, and I had a class timetable, so all I needed to do was tell the school office that I was here and give them my portfolio from my Phoenix high school. That only took a few minutes, so I went to look around the school a bit. I found my homeroom, the library and the cafeteria easily enough, and I figured that any other classrooms I could just follow other students.
I looked in through the cafeteria doors, and saw that there were a few kids already there – clustered around one table was a group of boys, all with dark hair and olive-coloured skin. I recognised one of them – Jacob, Charlie’s friend’s son, and he waved me over when he spotted me in the doorway. I went over hesitantly, seeing as I didn’t actually know any of these boys.
At their table, I pushed my hair back. “Uh, hi, Jacob.”
“Hey Bella. This is your first day, right?”
“Yeah. Charlie had to get into work early, he dropped me off on the way. What are you guys doing here so early?”
“We have to come over from the reservation every day… usually there’s more traffic than today.”
“Oh.”
“So… you want to sit with us until classes start?”
“Sure. It’s not like I know anyone else.”
Jacob pulled out the chair next to him, and I sat down quickly. “Guys, this is Bella. She’s Charlie Swan’s daughter. Bella, this is Quil, Embry and Seth. Seth goes to the middle school next door, but Quil and I are juniors and Embry’s a sophomore.”
“Nice to meet you all.” I smiled nervously, as the three other boys all said some variant of “hi”. “So… you all live on the reservation then?”
Quil nodded. “Yeah. We’re Quileute.”
“Cool. There wasn’t a reservation anywhere near Phoenix, where I used to live.”
Jacob smiled. I wondered if his dad had told him to make me feel welcome, as a favour to Charlie. “Well, it’s a pretty cool place, actually. Charlie comes out all the time to see Dad, you should come with him sometime.”
I found myself smiling back, almost unconsciously. “I’d like that.” Suddenly I felt a lot more comfortable sitting there with the four boys. I realised that I’d been gripping my schoolbag tightly, and released it, putting it on the floor under my seat. “So, is there anything I should know about Forks High? What are the teachers like?”
For a second, it felt like there was something the boys weren’t telling me. It was barely noticeable, just their smiles faltering for a microsecond. Then the moment passed, and they launched into a lively explanation of the little community of students and teachers that made up the school. I hardly noticed time passing, until I realised that the boys were getting up, pulling on jackets and slinging their bags over their shoulders. Jacob turned to me. “Bella, we have homeroom soon, are you coming?”
I blinked, thinking that he must have thought I looked so stupid just sitting there. “Oh, yeah. ‘Course I am.” I grabbed my bag and stood up, following them out of the cafeteria. When we compared timetables, we’d found that I was in a different homeroom to Jacob and Quil, though the rooms were at least on the same corridor. Before the boys went into their classroom, Jacob caught the attention of a smiling girl with curly dark hair.
“Hey, Jessica, come over here.” She hurried over.
“Hi, Jacob. What’s up?”
“You’ve got Mr Forman for homeroom, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. Uh, this is Bella, it’s her first day here. She’s in the same homeroom as you, can you look after her for a bit?”
“Look after her?” From the look on her face, it was like Jacob had asked her to clean out a pigsty rather than just show me around.
“Yeah, just make sure she doesn’t get lost or anything.”
Jessica hesitated. “Uh, well, I guess I could.”
“Thanks. I’ll owe you one.”
She smiled in a way that I, personally, found quite worrying. “I’ll remember that, Jacob Black.” Then she turned to me. “Come on then. It’s Bella, yeah?” She started to walk away without waiting for an answer, so I had to rush to catch up to her. I turned and smiled to Jacob, then hurried after her.
“Uh, yeah. Bella Swan. Well, Isabella really, but everyone calls me Bella.”
“Great. Jessica Stanley, by the way. So, this is your first day?”
“Yeah. I just moved here to live with my dad. Before now I lived in Arizona.”
“Your dad? Oh, Chief Swan, yeah? You’re his daughter?”
“That’s the one.”
She shrugged. “Cool.” We’d stopped outside a classroom that was now steadily filling with students. “This is our homeroom.” She went in, and I followed her to the back of the room. Jessica looked around. “Hmm, where can you sit… oh, there’s a space.” She pointed out an empty seat. “There you go. I’d get yourself settled now, Mr Forman will be here for rollcall soon.”
With that, she sat down in her own place, then turned to talk to the blonde girl next to her. Feeling distinctly lost, I sat in the place Jessica had pointed out, looking around at the other students.
It wasn’t long before the teacher came in. He went through the rollcall, pausing when he got to me. “Now, we have a new student with us today. Isabella Swan, where are you?” He looked around, and I raised my hand slowly. “Here.”
The teacher smiled kindly. “Welcome to Forks High, Miss Swan. How would you prefer to be addressed?”
“Uh, just Bella is fine, Mr Forman.”
“Excellent.” He made a note in the register before moving on to the next person.
After that, there were a few notices to read out, mostly about ordinary school things, though one was about the school holding a social for Halloween. That started everyone whispering, until they were hushed by a sharp word from the teacher before he dismissed us so we could get to our classes.
I’d studied my timetable so much since I’d arrived that I practically had it memorised, so I knew that my first class of the day was Biology. I followed Jessica to the classroom, trying to make a note of the right way while trying not to get lost at the same time, and by the time we got to the biology lab I was relieved to have got there in one piece.
Everyone else found their seats, while I went over to the teacher and explained that I was new. The teacher nodded, and explained that I’d be assigned a lab partner. She also said that there was one student who currently didn’t have a lab partner, so I’d be working with him. She pointed out the workstation where my new partner was sitting, and I saw a brown-haired boy sitting there, and smiled to him as I went to sit down. As the teacher started to address the class, I whispered to him.
“Hi. I’m Bella.”
He turned to look at me, and I almost gasped when I saw how pale he was. I knew this town didn’t get much sun, but he was much paler than anyone else. He whispered back. “Edward.”
That was all he said to me, after that he spent the whole class period listening carefully to the teacher or concentrating on reading his textbook. It was almost as if he was deliberately ignoring me, though I had no idea what I could possibly have done to upset him.
After class, everyone packed up their things and left. On the way out, Jessica and the blonde girl caught up to me. Jessica linked an arm through mine. “Hi Bella. This is Lauren, by the way. Lauren, this is Bella Swan, she just moved here from Arizona.”
Lauren smiled coolly. “Nice to meet you, Bella.”
Neither of us had a chance to say much more, because Jessica was still chattering on. “So, Bella, I saw you got partnered with Edward for Biology.”
“Uh, yeah. He didn’t really say much to me, other than his name.”
“Ah, well, he is our year’s resident mystery. He doesn’t really speak to many people at school. Except for his sister, of course.”
“He has a sister?”
“Yeah. Basically, this couple, the Cullens, adopted a bunch of kids from all over. All teenagers, which is a bit weird, but then maybe they didn’t want to be bothered with changing nappies or whatever. Anyway, Edward and Alice, that’s his sister, are the youngest. There are three older ones, but two of them are off at college most of the time, and the third one is in senior year.”
“Oh… that doesn’t sound so mysterious.”
“They all live in this big old house right on the edge of town. And then there’s the fact that whenever we get a sunny day, Edward and Alice always skip school.”
That was odd. But then, if I’d lived in Forks most of my life I’d probably do the same. “I dunno… maybe they just want to make the most of the sun?”
“Every single time, Bella? I know we don’t get much sun here, but that’s a little extreme.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Well, you’re his lab partner now.” Jessica grinned wickedly. “Maybe you could get him to tell you why.”
“I… I couldn’t do that! He might want to keep it private. Maybe he’s got one of those diseases that makes you sensitive to sunlight, I doubt he would want everyone to know.”
“Bel-la. You wouldn’t have to tell everyone. Just me and Lauren.”
If she thought I was going to buy that, she must have thought I was a complete idiot. I’d had enough experience being the shy girl who gets taken advantage of back in Phoenix, and I’d promised myself that in Forks things were going to be different. So I smiled and nodded. “Well, if he does tell me, I’ll be sure to let you two know.”
That sounded so false, even as I said it. But apparently Jessica bought it, because she smiled back. I needed to get out of there, so I was actually glad when the bell for the next period rang and I had to get to my next class, History. That actually went okay, but maybe that’s because History is one of my favourite subjects. After the class finished and the teacher gave us all a load of reading to do for homework, I realised that the next period was for lunch, which meant I could go and find Jacob and his friends and spend the lunch hour with them. I found them in the cafeteria, sitting at the same table as they had been that morning. The only difference was that Seth wasn’t there, and obviously there were other students in the cafeteria now. I went over, feeling more confident now that I knew them a bit better. “Hey Jacob.”
He grinned when he saw me. Not a fake I’m-smiling-but-I-don’t-really-like-you grin, but a real, genuine one, like he was really, truly, pleased to see me. “Hi Bella. You joining us?” He pointed out an empty chair at the table.
“Sure.” I sat down, then pulled out the sandwiches I’d made myself that morning.
“So, how’d your first classes go?”
“Oh. They were okay. I have a lab partner in Biology now.”
“Yeah, everyone’s got one. Who’d you get?”
“This guy, Edward… uh, Cullen, I think.”
The second I said Edward’s name, Jacob went pale. Not as pale as Edward himself, but definitely noticeable. “Jacob? Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, Bella, I’m fine. Just… Edward Cullen isn’t a guy you should be spending too much time with.”
“But… he’s my lab partner, I’ll have to.”
“Yeah, I know… just don’t get too close to him. If you have to work with him, I guess that’d be fine, but don’t spend any more time with him than you absolutely have to.”
Now I was really confused. “Why, though? He can’t be that bad, can he?”
Jacob looked at me, and I knew he was serious. “I can’t explain it any better than that. Just be careful around him. And try not to be alone with him if you can.”
I frowned. “Well, I guess… if you think I should…”
“I do. And I promised your dad I’d look after you.”
I smiled despite myself. “You did?”
“Yeah. He wanted to make sure you’d be okay. I guess Charlie trusts me to keep you out of trouble.”
“He probably does. Anyway… I’ll be careful when Edward’s around. If he tries to do anything to me I’ll… run away as fast as I can. Okay?”
He smiled. “It’ll do.”
“I’ll want to know why I have to be careful, though. Eventually.”
“I’m sure you will.”
~~~~~
So.... thoughts? Concrit?
AWESOME
If she can get her crackfic published why not us eh?