Summary: Jaded teen Edward Cullen moves to the small town of Forksand discovers something he never thought he'd find. B&E.
A/N: So this is my first Twific. Hope you like it.
Scratching The Surface
Part One
"So this is Forks High school?" I ask, looking around at the surroundings with little effort to hide my distaste. Having been born and bred in Chicago, the idea of moving to a small town is an absolutely horrifying prospect that has turned into an even more disturbing reality. It seems that my Dad needed a change of pace – to get out of the rat race of the city – so we up and moved to the smallest Podunk town he could find. Needless to say, Alice and I were not impressed.
"Maybe it won't be that bad," suggests Alice as we walk together towards the front office, about one hundred or so pairs of inquisitive eyes trained on us.
"Won't be that bad? Please," I snort. "With that sort of attitude you'll get stuck here, marrying some inbred halfwit, having twenty of his kids, while he goes out drinking every night. And every day, while the kids are at school and he's out getting plastered, you'll be sitting in your weatherboard house, bored out of your wits and wondering how it all went wrong."
"Cool story bro," replies Alice with a yawn, completely unimpressed by my long spiel.
"You scoff now, Alice, but one day you'll look back on this conversation and wonder why you didn't take me seriously at the time."
"Would you chill the fuck out?" Alice laughs as I push through the front door of the office, holding it open for her while she follows behind me. "Granted, this place is far smaller than Chicago, but there has to be something worth doing around here."
"And if there isn't?"
She inhales sharply, pondering on the question as we wait for the red-headed receptionist to notice our presence. "Then our slide into insanity will be so swift that we'll barely notice it. And once we're insane, everything will be fun."
"Alice Cullen, the eternal optimist," I laugh as the receptionist lumbers her way over with what appear to be our schedules. Fantasmo.
A breeze at our backs lets us know that someone else has entered the small office. And if that didn't inform us, the loud, overly enthusiastic greeting that follows the woman's entrance certainly would have.
"Hello! You must be the new students, Edward and Alice Cullen. It's a pleasure to meet you. I met your parents the other day but I didn't get a chance to meet you," this woman says hurriedly, in one breath. "I know I speak on behalf of the entire school when I say that we here at Forks High are so excited to have you here and I know you'll fit right in straight away!"
We stare at this odd, somewhat hysterical woman blankly, having absolutely no idea who the hell she is. Alice and I exchange glances and I sigh when it becomes clear that Alice has nominated me to respond to this overbearing woman. "Uh, thank you for the warm welcome, Mrs...?"
She lets out a shrill bark of laughter and claps her hand to her chest. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Mrs Swan, the principal of this school."
"Ah," I say politely, not entirely sure what else I could say in response. There's a moment of prolonged, awkward silence and I realise that neither Alice nor I have any idea what to say in response to this strange woman. I take the time to pray to God that she's not the norm for people in this town. I don't think I could handle being in a town full of Mrs Swans.
"Anyway, I better let you get back to it. It's your first day, I'm sure you have tonnes of things you need to be doing. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask." She turns and strides out of the office, leaving us blinking in bewilderment at the strange turn of events.
"That woman was terrifying," Alice whispers to me as we watch her retreat. I find myself unable to do anything but nod dumbly in response.
Our first class of the day. Alice and I both go for the heads down, slinking in approach, hoping that it will lessen our visibility. Unfortunately, it does nothing of the sort. It's like we have a large target emblazoned on our chests, causing every eye within one hundred yards to come zoning in on us.
Frigging small towns. Don't they have anything better to do? I glance over at the one kid who isn't looking our way and he's picking his nose with gusto. You know what? If the alternative is digging for boogers, I'll take stares any day. I take a quick mental note of who the kid is and decide then and there to avoid him for the rest of my natural life. Nose picking in high school is not ok.
Alice and I make our way quickly to the two spare seats together in the middle row, relieved that we have at least have a couple of classes together. If we can split the stares between us as much as we can, it would be infinitely preferable.
"Hi, you're the Cullens right?" greets a gratingly bubbly blonde. She introduces herself as Lauren Mallory and within the next five minutes manages to convince me of her utter vapidity.
I roll my eyes at Alice as Lauren runs us through a list of who's dating who in this tiny, cloistered little slice of America. As if we knew any of the people she was talking about anyway. But Lauren apparently sees this as vital information for us fitting into this school.
Despite the fact that she mentioned her boyfriend within the first five minutes of meeting us, she has absolutely no compunction about flirting with me. Apparently fidelity isn't something she's familiar with.
She keeps up this annoying natter in my ear throughout the entire class, which is left unchecked by the teacher who seems content with a total lack of focus from the entire class, so long as he doesn't have to do anything.
I sigh in relief as she heads off in the opposite direction to her next class after History finishes, but not without one last look in my direction. I assume that the look was meant to be enticing, but after killing my brain cells for an entire period, her desirability to me is below that of blueberry scone. The chick is a complete moron. I just hope that she's not indicative of the entire schooling population, or I'll have some serious issues with Forks.
Apparently every Monday after lunch, the school has an assembly. My new BFF, Lauren, made sure to remind me three times about it, so now I know that I'll never forget it. Luckily we both manage to ditch her before the actual event, due to some strategic manoeuvring through the crowd of bustling students by me.
Alice and I file into the school hall with the rest of the school and sit down in the scungy chairs as the principal makes her way onto the stage. She waits for a moment until we're all seated and then starts off the ceremony with the usual rigmarole.
It's typical boring shit that you'd expect in any school, except here everyone seems to know everyone.
"And here to give us the report on the recent swimming carnival are Isabella Swan and Tyler Crowley."
Swan? As in Mrs Swan's daughter? Judging by the size of this town, it's highly unlikely that there's two families with the same last name. I can see a bit of resemblance actually, though her daughter doesn't seem to have the same look of insanity, rather a look of boredom and impatience.
He reaches the podium and I tune out for the majority of the uninspiring speech by Tyler, who merely retells the actions preceding the meet and then rattles off a list of people I've never heard of and couldn't care less about who apparently won ribbons. He then finishes with a completely unbelievable declaration of how much fun they all had and how they can't wait to go back and thrash their opponents next year.
However, my attention is quickly piqued by the look of amusement on the other presenter's face as she steps to the microphone. "Thank you Tyler for that illuminating report."
I snort at the complete lack of sincerity in her tone, she was as bored as I was. She clears her throat, a mischievous twinkle in her eye before she begins. "You know, when approached by our esteemed director to give a speech on the recent school swimming carnival that I was forced to attend, I didn't know what to talk about that wouldn't bore the lot of you. But when I asked our fearless leader what I should talk about, she told me that I should elucidate you all on the aspects that I enjoyed. So here are my top ten moments that I really enjoyed whilst at the interschool swim meet." She smiles enigmatically at us all, shooting Mrs Swan a sly look before she continues. I shift in my seat, waiting with anticipation to see what she has to say. "Number one; watching Tyler Crowley make out with Jessica Stanley behind the change rooms where they thought that they couldn't be seen, despite the fact that Tyler's dating Lauren and Jess is her best friend."
A shocked gasp ripples around the auditorium from the audience and all heads turn in the direction of Lauren who is looking absolutely murderous, her eyes fixed on Jessica's face who is quickly turning the colour of a beetroot. "Number two; watching Eric take sneaky pics with his camera phone down girls' swimsuits. Number three-"
"Thank you both," grunts Mrs Swan, wrenching the microphone out of Bella's hands before she can continue with what would have been a very elucidating speech indeed. "I'll speak to you after the assembly, Bella."
Bella merely shrugs at the hissed threat and wanders off towards the edge of the stage with a carefree smile on her face.
I lean back once she's out of sight and smile to myself. Looks like Forks just got interesting.
I bite back the laughter I feel coming on when I catch a glimpse of my mother storming towards me, her face like a thunderclap. Instead of slowing her pace when she reaches me, she simply grabs my arm and drags me down the hallway into an empty backroom.
As soon as the door is shut, she whirls on me.
"Do you have any idea how much of a fool you just made me look with that speech?" she demands as I roll my eyes.
I sigh unaffectedly and study my nails. "Mom, do you have any idea how foolish it was to ask me to make that speech in the first place? What did you think was going to happen?"
She huffs in frustration and crosses her arms. "Bella, I asked you to give a report on the swimming carnival. Instead you gave us all a run down on the school gossip. Very inappropriate school gossip too, I might add."
"It wasn't gossip. It was fact."
She looks shocked at my declaration. Shocked and a little bit intrigued. "What, even the bit about Tyler and Jessica?" She shakes her head roughly at herself and then turns back on track, angered that I've appealed to her gossiping nature. "That's not the point, Bella. I told you to tell us about the swim meet not who was hooking up with who. I wanted you to recount the races and tells us about the excitement of watching and competing in them."
"Ok first off, you should have been clearer about what you wanted from me. Second of all, Tyler already said everything about them anyway and thirdly, there's nothing exciting about a swimming carnival."
Renee groans in frustration, raking a hand through her hair. "Bella, all I want is for you to become more involved in the school community. Is that too much to ask?"
I curl my lip up in disgust at the mere idea of it. "What community? They're a bunch of shallow dicks."
"Bella," Renee hisses, her short temper already at breaking point. "You will become more involved within the school, you will make an effort and you will never ever embarrass me like that ever again. Do you understand?"
"Sure thing, Renee," I reply bitingly, knowing how much it pisses her off when I call her that.
There's a long silent moment after my angry reply and I can tell that she's debating in her head whether or not to chastise me on the disrespectful use of her first name or to just let it go, considering the semi-victory she just had. In the end she decides to let it go and I smirk in triumph. Congrats Renee, you just lost.