Bella PoV:
Cogitant High School: Great engineering program, high-tech science labs, top of the line teachers, and the producers of the number one School Newspaper in the Nation.
Located in the heart of America
In the city that never sleeps
In the BIG apple
The Newspaper was critically acclaimed for its originality and liberal views. It was an example of the first amendment at its finest. Every Ivy-league editor was an alumni from Cogitant High School. Every Editor-In-Chief from C.H.S had published a socially altering piece before graduating.
It was my turn.
It all started on a Friday afternoon.
It was the last Friday of the school year, the last Friday of my junior year, the last deadline I would have to deal with for the next 3 months.
It was hell on Earth.
It was the Reign of Terror replayed.
It was me on a power hungry violent craze.
5 of my editors and I were inside the first floor library doing last minute corrections before our 4 o'clock deadline. I was determined to leave off the year with the best paper we have ever published. And that included adding a 10 page extension to include my story on summer projects going on in New York City.
Everyone sat in the large round rosemary wooden table in the middle of the study-section, with their laptops out in front of them. Our eyes were straining to read and our fingers ached to correct every mistake of our reporters and writers. Everything had to be perfect.
Have to be perfect.
We had to represent the number one newspaper in the nation.
We would not slip.
Not as long as I, Bella Swan, was in power.
Everything had to be perfect. And I definitely didn't care that I was keeping my editors after school, on a Friday night, before the biggest parties of the year. It was New York City, the biggest party of the year was every other day.
This, however, was my resume, my soul, my identity. Every issue reflected me. Every article demonstrated my abilities. And every single word had to be in place.
"Angela." I said lifting my brown eyes from my screen and looked at the coy chestnut haired girl sitting across from me. "Page 3, the ad for the after-grad party needs 2 more centimeters around the boarder. Also I want to move the ad in Block C-4 to Block O-2."
Angela nodded as she straightened her glasses on her nose and concentrated on fixing the layout.
I returned back to the screen and opened up Elle's files. "What do we have Ells?" I asked demandingly.
"Fixing up Justin's conclusion and it's good to go."
"How many words?" I asked angrily. Justin's paper should have been fixed hours ago.
"One thousand and and and…twenty….two. I might add or take out some." Elle sighed as she brushed her jet black hair out of her face.
"Tell me when it's uploaded on the server." I checked the time on the bottom right hand corner of my screen. "Come on people. Twenty more minutes."
The sound of dancing keys increased.
"I need the budget story 10 minutes ago Joseph." I said closing Elle's files and scrolling down the newspaper layout to the blank space on page 25.
It needed to be filled.
Nothing could be blank.
Everything had to be perfect.
"Jeez, Bella lighten up." Jessica said twirling her finger in her big black curls as her finger clicked the down arrow to scroll down the page.
Bitch.
I ignored her. "Kiran, can you increase the pixel count on the prom pictures?" I asked the Photo-editor who was busy placing the tennis court renovation pictures up on page 32.
"I'll see." She replied exiting her old work and bringing up the prom pictures in Photo-shop.
"Yo Stalin." Tamiala said addressing me. "Front page story Ka –ching – ching !" She let out a squeal. "I am effing done for the day! See ya losers!"
"Wait! I need to check it." I said searching the school server for Tamiala's files.
"Trust me sugar, it's perfect. And if not you can bitch at me till your heart's content Monday. I have a party I need to get ready for."
I heard what she said and did, but it didn't actually register in my head, since I became absorbed in reading her work. I muttered to myself as I typed in a few more metaphors and fixed the minor grammatical errors. It was an excellent piece, but excellence is a step before perfect.
And we couldn't have just excellent...
"Budget Story fixed. Sounds like the bullshit our econ teacher would say." Joseph said staring at me but I was ignoring him. I had to make sure the front page story was perfect. It had to be perfect. Everything had to be perfect. I had a reputation to live up to.
He sighed and uploaded his story onto the school server. "I'm done peeps. Catch you all later." He closed his laptop and pushed his seat in while taking out a cartoon of cigarettes from his bag on the way out.
When I finally looked up, "What the hell happened to Joseph and –"
Elle interrupted her. "Their stories uploaded…and." She clicked her mouse. "So is mine. See ya Bells. I'm done."
"Did you include the quote by Coach Toms?"
"Yes."
"Did you change the third paragraph into imperative instead of indicative?"
"Yes."
"Did you end the conclusion with a metaphor on the war?"
"Yes."
"Did you relate it to Civil Rights Act?"
"Yes."
"Fine you can leave." I said satisfied and then added. "Monday morning your turn to hand out papers."
"Aye aye crazy lady. See you guys later."
"Kiran how's the pictures coming?" I asked checking to see if any pictures were uploaded on the server.
None.
"Still working." Kiran said leaning back in her seat.
"Work faster." I demanded.
"All the ads are in place and I made page 9 font smaller to accommodate for the wrap around from page 2." Angela said.
I looked at the clock on my laptop; 10 minutes till deadline. My eyes rolled back to Joseph and Elle's files for final skim. They were great writers, but I just couldn't trust them not to make human mistakes. A simple slip of the finger – adding a coma where there shouldn't be…that was unacceptable.
"Done." Kiran said looking at me but I wasn't paying attention to reality. Kiran entered the school server and uploaded the new pictures in place of the old ones for me.
"What's another word for shy?" Jessica asked tapping her fake nails on the table impatiently.
"Coy, bashful, humble, reluctant, reserved, demur, sha—"
"Thanks Angy." Jessica interrupted and resumed her typing.
"I'm off, see you guys next year." Kiran said placing her laptop in her bag.
"Not coming to class on Monday?" Jessica asked as her fingers danced across the keyboard.
"It's the last day of school. What tard would?" Kiran said pushing her chair towards the desk.
"Hush, don't speak so loud, Curella de Vil might hear you."
"Peace." She said walking down the aisles of books towards the exit.
"Done." Jessica said kicking me under the table. My head shot up and I gave her a death glare.
"What?" I said in a harsh tone.
I hated her.
A lot.
I wanted her off the damn paper.
I wanted her kicked out of the school.
Last year she stole one of my practice articles and made it under her name in hopes of getting the position of Editor-In-Chief. The teacher picked me over her anyway, and I didn't turn her in. Instead I assigned her the worst possible stories that no one would read every single issue and she had to do them like a good little girl because her acceptance to N.Y.U depended on her participation.
"Done."
"Bye." I replied coldly as my eyes returned to the screen.
"Grinch." Jessica muttered as she uploaded her work on the school server.
Angela remained patiently waiting for me to finish my final corrections.
"Done with 40 seconds to spare." I said with a soft sigh, as I clicked the Download button. A pop up came up;
Your files have been received! Thank you.
You should receive an email of confirmation within the next hour.
"Good job." Angela said encouragingly as she took off her glasses and placed them in their respective black leather case.
"You look so different without glasses." I commented examining Angela's round soft freckled face.
She looked angelic and innocent without her glasses. With them she seemed stern and looked as if she knew too much for her own good. Or maybe I was reading too much into it.
"Is that a compliment?" She asked me.
"Sure." I said closing my laptop. Angela did the same. "How's Ben doing?" I asked flipping my messenger bag open that doubled as my laptop case.
"Alright. Can you believe he hacked into Harvard forums?" Angela said standing up and pushing her chair in. Obviously waiting for me.
I took a deep breath, letting all my bitchy editor persona wash away from me. The deadline was complete; I didn't have any heads that needed to be bitten off.
"Harvard has forums?" I asked standing up.
"Yes, I wanted to tell you about them earlier." Angela said clearing her throat. "There's a section on you."
"Oh really?" I was intrigued. Harvard wasn't my first choice for colleges.
"They were talking about what you'd write for the Welcome Back issue."
"Oh." I said grinding her teeth side to side as I slung my messenger bag over my head.
And I thought they were talking about my already written works…but no. It was about THAT article. It was always about that article. No one cared about anything else BUT that article when it involved me.
Every year, the Editor-In-Chief wrote an article for the first paper of their senior year. A contribution to civilization, so to speak. Every year for the past 43 years that article was featured in Time Magazine, CNN, and local news stations would cover it in extensive details for months after it was published. And New York City local news really meant National News.
It was my turn now. It was now my turn to defend the reputation of the school and create the footprints for my own reputation. I had 3 months left to write something that would either open doors to a bright future or slam them shut in my face.
No pressure…
"Do you know what you want to write about?" Angela asked pulling me out of my worrying.
"No idea." I said walking beside her.
"Sam's piece last year is going to be hard to beat." She said holding the door for me.
"Don't remind me. Who the fuck knew that they misclassified species of coral fish?" Last year's article was STILL being talked about by everyone from scientist to historians. And with Angela talking about it, my nerves sparked and my blood boiled. I was a damn good writer, I was a damn good editor, but I had no idea how to write something like what was expected.
Misclassification of species, finding mistakes in Newton's formulas, discovering a D.N.A deficiency within sea otters, finding plagiarism within the Victorian Era of writing, uncovering government secrets in the Iraq war, and finding new psychology theories. And that was only in the last 6 years....
How the fuck am I going to manage?
And they all had the same amount of time as I did.
"I'm so sorry Bella. I didn't mean for it to sound like that. I'm sure you'll do better." She said trying to be encouraging.
"Heh, thanks Angela." I said fumbling with the strap of my bag. I wanted her to change the subject.
"You have three months." Angela tried to sound supportive but it only made me feel worse. It sounded more like, "You have three months till your funeral. Promise to attend!"
"I'm going to the Auditorium." I said patting Angela on the back. "See ya."
"Tell Alice I said hi." Angela said waving goodbye. I waved back.
I walked down the wide hallway towards the auditorium entrance where the ballet team was having their last practice of the school year. I smiled at the security guard who was reading a newspaper and didn't even notice me walk by.
I feel so safe.
I entered the dim lit auditorium and looked around for Rosalie – the stunningly beautiful goddess sat in the very back with her nose in a book. She was still wearing her track uniform and her face glistened with old sweat.
Yet she still managed to look magnificent.
I envied her ability to look so beautiful even after running 10 miles in the scorching heat.
"Alice you're up next!" Screamed the Dance instructor walking across the stage waving her arms around as if she was swatting flies from the air. "I want to see excellence! The best! Leave off with a bang! Make me proud ladies and gents! Come on move it! Alice! Stop playing with your hair! Show business waits for no one! Let's go!" She clapped her hands over her head repeatedly.
I took a seat next to Rosalie, she leaned in and placed a kiss on my cheek, I did the same to her.
Even after running 10 miles she smelled like sweet exotic flowers.
"What are you reading?" I whispered as I looked out onto the stage to see, Alice's small petite body dancing and jumping into a graceful split in midair. Her beautiful long brown locks danced around her as she landed on her toes with her hands positioned at her hips and her legs entangled in one another. The black leotard looked amazing on Alice. It was as though her body was made to wear leotards and built to dance.
She was a professional at only 17.
"The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir." Rosalie mumbled grabbing my attention.
"You need to hop off this feminist craze of yours." I whispered back watching another girl in a matching black leotard join Alice in their ballet dance.
"Alice head back! Good! Chrissy right foot left, jump! Excellent." The Dance teacher screamed from backstage.
"I refuse to. Virgina Woolf and Jane Austen have captivated my soul." She replied returning to the text.
I sighed and opened the flap of my bag and fumbled inside till I found my notepad. I flipped it to the next clean page and grabbed the pen that I had behind my ear. I clicked it and scribbled, "Feminist" under 4 other words; "Global Warming", "Economic Patterns", "School Education in U.S", "Dependency on College Education". Then with a grunt I scribbled out the word "Feminist" and let out another sigh.
I needed a better topic.
I needed to change the world.
I needed to do something unexpected.
Then I crossed out everything else on the list.
I looked back at Alice's graceful performance. She looked like a peaceful river in the Amazons with the elegant flow of her dancing.
"Good job Alice! Spin spin spin!" The teacher shouted as Alice did 5 spins in the air across one side of the stage towards the other and landed on one foot while the other leg was raised up behind her head.
Flexa-fucking-ble.
Then she slowly leaned down keeping on leg in the air and touched the floor with both hands.
"Perfect perfect Alice! Good job! Okay. Maxim and Sashé next. I want to some rhythm! And flow! Left foot! Good turn! Touch and excellent!"
I watched Alice dance off the stage and rush towards us in a skip.
"Hey!! Oh my god! Last day!" Alice squealed grabbing me into a tight embrace.
"Monday." I reminded her.
"What tard's going to be in school on Monday?"
The last paper comes out on Monday…
"Whatcha reading Rose?" Alice asked leaning past me to give Rose a hug.
"Femmy crap." I replied before Rose could answer.
For my answer Rosalie swatted me upside the head.
"Owie. Not very effing nice." I said tossing my notepad in my bag and standing up.
Rose gathered her things into her bookbag and handed Alice a pink t-shirt that she threw over her body and it looked more like a nighty than a shirt on Alice. We all walked out back into the school's hallways and this time the security guard waved at us. We smiled back.
"So, guess what! We need to celebrate! Junior year is over! College applications are done! No more rehearsals! No more practices! 3 months of doing absolutely nothing." Alice said bouncing up and down in her walk.
"Haha, you'll be shopping every other day." I said.
"And you both will be coming with me." Alice replied tossing her hair behind her shoulders.
"Yea right. I plan to do some more research on the woman's movement in France." Rosalie said.
"And I plan to dig my own grave." I said.
"You guys are boring!" Alice said pouting as she danced around us like a little fairy. She really needed wings.
"Let's at least have a movie night tonight?" She begged with a twirl.
"Iron Man" I said opening the door and holding it for them as we stepped outside on Broadway and 43rd street.
"The Dark Knight." Rosalie said.
"Well aren't you two comic book savvy. I say Sex and the City the movie!"
Rosalie and I exchanged looks.
"No." Rosalie said.
"Please no." I said.
It was enough that we actually lived in the city. We didn't need to watch woman at 40 failing and falling in and out of love. It was like it foreshadowed our lives.
We sucked at love.
We sucked at romance.
We were single for a reason.
Rosalie was the best track runner in the state, and that intimidated the guys…add to that intimidation her love of art, photography, and her new attraction to feminism, she was what guys avoided. Rosalie stood up for her beliefs, and damn anyone who stood in her way. She was out on a mission to prove herself.
Alice was a Juilliard bound dancer. She loved fashion and loved to shop. She would stay up late knitting and sowing; creating her own clothes during all her free time. Alice walked to the beat of her own drum, guitar, keyboard, and orchestra. That's a turn off to most guys. No one was secure enough with themselves to be able to handle Alice. Even Rosalie and I could barely handle Alice's insanity sometimes.
Me? Well, I don't do relationships. End of story. My mom's enough of a screw up for the both of us. And at 17 I doubted I would find anyone worth throwing my life away for. I had two of the best girlfriends on the planet, why would I need a crummy boyfriend? Besides, I had an earth shattering paper that needed to be written or my own grave that needed to be dug.
"Come on; let's get on the trains before rush hour." I said as we rushed past the annoying crowd of tourist.
It's a tall building.
Big fucking deal.
We headed down to the sleazy underground train station that smelled of vomit and piss. After we swiped our student metro cards, we were lucky enough to catch an arriving D train and rushed inside the air-conditioned box. The cart was nearly empty and we all sat in the middle next to each other.
"Oh! Watch this!" Alice sang as she hopped to her toes and gripped the pole with both her hands and lifted herself up with her legs spread out into a split.
Rosalie gave a "woooo!" and I giggled while clapping.
Alice squealed as she crossed her legs on the poll and ungripped it with her hands and fell backwards slowly into a handless handstand.
We clapped laughing at Alice's sexy poll dancing demonstration.
She did a sit up back up and grabbed hold of the poll with one hand and swung her body around the poll while using her momentum to slide down circling it till her butt touched the ground.
"Soooo sexy!" I said as Alice got up and bowed at us as we clapped.
"Dis-fucking-custing." A low voice murmured under his breath.
We turned to look in the direction of the voice. There was a man in a black Versace business suit with leather shoes and a pink napkin in his pocket. He probably thought he was worth more money than all of us combined.
Douche bag.
"Come on, our stop." Alice said tugging our hands. I could see Rosalie getting ready to attack the man with words deep enough to scar but she refrained for Alice's sake and we walked out of the train peacefully.
But I couldn't stop staring at the man in disbelief.
Did he have any idea that Alice might become a famous dancer and he would have to pay 500 dollars just to be able to see her perform? Or that Rosalie might become an Olympic gold medalist in track? Or that I might be able to write something incredibly profound and life altering?
No.
"I cannot believe the gall of –" I began as we got out of the subway and onto the street. We were in front of Central Park.
"Oh! Today Mr. Ross showed this video on American politics." Alice began as we crossed the street.
She knew better than I did. It took a lot for Rosalie to walk out without saying anything and the only reason Rosalie behaved was because she loved Alice. I let Alice continue explaining the details of the video that no one really cared about but we listened anyway.
Once we arrived to my parent's townhouse, I opened the door and we were greeted with an empty home.
Surprise.
My parents were…somewhere. I just wasn't sure if it was in this state, or even country. At least I could say they were somewhere on the planet. I sighed.
"Let's make cookies!" Alice squealed.
"Associating baking with woman is degrading." Rosalie spat as she took off her shoes in the hallway. She didn't mean it, but Rosalie needed to say something to get the frustration of the man on the train out of her mind. I could tell by her fidgeting that she wanted to go running.
"Oh shut up Rose. I vote for peanut butter cookies." I said kicking off my shoes.
"Macadamia." Rosalie said.
"Okay. I'll check your fridge." Alice said dancing through the long corridor, through the large living room and into the ivory colored kitchen and out of sight.
I was pretty sure the housekeeper had bought groceries yesterday.
"We have everything!" Alice shouted from the kitchen.
Rosalie and I took our time arriving to the kitchen and made a stop in the living room so could Rosalie toss her bags behind the couch and I could toss my messenger bag onto my favorite chair.
When we entered the kitchen, Alice had already placed the ingredients and was trying to reach for the orange bowl in the top cabinet. Rosalie walked over to help short little Alice.
"Thank you." Alice said going on her tippy toes and placed a kiss on Rosalie's cheek.
I went into the fridge and took out the eggs.
Alice danced over into the living room and turned on my complicated entertainment system that I still didn't have figured out. She turned on the radio for some estrogen filled alternative music and we began to sing along.
Rosalie had the best voice but Alice did the wildest dance steps along with the music. I just went with the flow and made a fool of myself in front of my friends.
When we finished our masterpiece, we had two trays filled with chocolate chip and macadamia nut cookies that were all formed in every shape but the conventional circle.
As we waited for them to bake in the oven we returned to the living room. I grabbed my bag from my black overstuffed chair and sat down cross legged with the bag on my lap. Rosalie sat on the couch that was directly in front of the T.V with her legs up on my coffee table.
Alice walked towards the stereo and turned it off as she tossed Rosalie the remote.
"Drinks ladies?" Alice asked.
"Coke." I said.
"Water." Rosalie said.
Alice skipped out of the room and Rosalie turned on the T.V with the remote and flipped to the news channel.
"Thankfully only 3 people were injured in the explosion." The anchor paused for a moment. "In other news, a small town in Washington has become the center of much controversy. Fork's own Twilight High School has become the 'it' spot for protests this past week when the principle released a statement saying that they have no future plans to create a co-ed environment for the all boys' school. Here is a clip with his official statement." The screen turned into an elder man. The name "Principle Laurent" appeared under his profile. After a moment he began speaking, "Our school has no future plans of allowing females into our prestigious institution. We have kept our standards above the average, and have no intention on lowering them."
Rosalie cut off the rest of what he said. "It's fucking pigs like that that make it impossible for society to move on. Placing all this crap in other people's heads. Men are not fucking better than women they just happen to be different. Men aren't woman and women aren't men. Fuck."
I looked at her face beam disgustedly at the television. Rosalie was a track star and the runner up for valedictorian and she had faced the most prejudice for being accused of being a jock. No one could accept that she was smart, beautiful, and fast.
"You're over reacting. It's probably just some hick school down south. No one really cares."
"Bella, you've never heard of Twilight High?" Rosalie turned her attention from the screen.
"No?" I said and Alice danced in with a tray of tall glasses. "Water, Coke, and Lemonade." She bent over and placed them on the coffee table.
"Alice do you know Twilight High School?" I asked watching her do a twirl before she sat on the couch next to Rosalie.
"Yeah who doesn't? They have the absolute cutest boys ever."
Rosalie groaned. "Ugh, Twilight High has been ranked one of the top ten schools in the world. It also has the second best student run newspaper in circulation. And has state-of-the-art athletics programs."
"So?" I asked.
"It's a private school and is closed off to females." Rosalie continued. "They actually believe that females lower the standards for society. Like men are better off without them."
"So they're all gay." I concluded.
"No, they're all probably homo-fucking-phobs."I raised my eyebrow at Rosalie and she continued talking. "They produce the men who go into business school and law school and get a trophy wife and 3 girlfriends. They produce the cocky jackasses who think they can get away with anything. Their alumni's end up being the absolute worst human beings on the planet. They are the scum under the scum of the earth." Rosalie said hotly. I could feel her blood boiling with anger.
"Come on Rose, you're exaggerating." Alice said stealing the remote from her.
"My father and grandfather graduate from there." Rosalie said crossing her arms and looked back at the screen.
I glanced at the T.V but it was on commercial break for some useless cream that wouldn't help with acne. I looked back at Rosalie who looked as though she was about to start trembling from all the bottled up anger. She needed to go running.
"So, so so what movie? Sex and the City? Please!" Alice begged.
"Dark Knight." Rosalie sternly.
Alice turned to me and I nodded in agreement. Alice mumbled as she changed the channel to "On Demand" and clicked the "Action" tab.
"Rosalie, tell me more about this school." I asked.
"Google it." Rosalie said coldly.
I reached into my bag and brought out my lap top. I opened it.
"Not now! Movie time now!" Alice squeaked pouting.
"I'll be quick." I said flipping the screen of my laptop over and turned it on.
A warning sign popped up; 8 percent battery life left.
The previews for the movie started but I ignored them as I decreased the graphic settings.
I opened up Google and typed in; "Twilight High School".
I clicked the first link that was to their homepage.
It was as if the school was located on an island in Wonderland. There were pictures of crew competitions, students building a real life pirate boat, swimmers in an Olympic sized pool, dorm room buildings that looked like castles from the 16th century, and amazing wild life all around its gorgeous forest perimeters. I fell in love.
"This is beautiful." I muttered to myself as I read the school statement, and then clicked the classes that were offered in the school.
I was blown away. It was everything my very own dream school would have and more. It was perfect.
Another warning message came up; 3 percent battery life left. I shut off my computer and joined my best friends in watching the best comic-book-based movie known to mankind.
20 minutes into the movie, a loud beeping echoed throughout the house.
Alice paused the movie with the remote and ran into the kitchen to get out the cookies.
"You okay Bella?" Rosalie asked.
"Yea."
"You look out of it."
"I was just thinking…Twilight High School looks so perfect, but it's held off from females. That's just not fair. I mean…you know what I mean, right?"
"Yea I do. I mean I understand all boys' and all girls' schools. That's fine. But they refuse to let woman in there because they think it will lower their standards. It's sick." Rosalie was able to keep her composer while talking this time.
Alice graceful walked back in with a big plate of the cookies we made.
"Smells great." Rosalie said grabbing our tray of drinks and moving it to make room for the cookie plate.
"Mm hmm!" Alice agreed.
Then it hit me.
A/N: I hope you like it so far :) Let me know what you think! Thank you for reading! :D
