There's a girl, who sits under the bleachers, just another day eating alone.
Alice lowers her eyes and walks into class, sighing and trying hard not to cry. It's her first day of eighth grade, and her big brother, Edward, had left to go up to high school, so Alice found herself all alone. She goes through the motions, raising her hand for the register and getting on with the work that's been set. Then suddenly a girl's voice is heard and she realizes she's actually being talked to.
"So, Mary, didn't the Cullen's adopt you?" A voice asks. Alice turns around and smiles weakly, nodding and wincing at her true name.
"Yes." She turns back around when she's tugged at. She flinches but composes herself.
"Haven't they got a hoard of other kids already?" The girl asks. Alice sighs, thinking longingly of her new siblings. They were in a different year as the twins, Rose and Jasper were fifteen, as was Emmett, and Edward was fourteen. She shakes her head.
"Only five. Including me."
"What are their names?" She asks eagerly. Alice hesitates, unsure whether to tell her, but continues seeing as this inquisitive girl was the only one to speak to her and it was forth lesson.
"Edward, Emmett, Jazzy-" Alice cringes, accidentally spilling her nickname for him, and goes on. "Rosalie, and me!" She smiles. The girl is looking confused.
"They named a kid Jazzy?" Alice turns crimson.
"Well, no." Alice stalls. "I kind of have nicknames for them all."
"Ooh, tell me."
"Uh, hmm," Alice looks around wildly for inspiration.
"Go on, tell me." The girl frowns.
"I don't know your name."
"Oh, I'm Kitty!" Kitty. What a strange name, Alice thinks.
"Is it short for anything?"
"No," the girls says, grinning. "I'm not like a cat though, am I?" Alice fought the urge to say yes, looking at her feline eyes and manicured claws.
"Of course not."
"Now tell me the nicknames. Jazzy is cute."
"Alright. Rosie, Em and Eddie are pretty normal though."
"What do you call your parents?" Alice frowns. Which ones?
"Who, Mr and Mrs Cullen or my birth parents?"
"Dr and Mrs Cullen, silly!"
"Oh." Alice had been with them a couple of months. She called her Mrs Cullen to start with, boiling down to Esme, and now to be frank, she called her Mommy mostly. It slipped out before Alice had a chance to think of a proper response, and Alice had clapped her hand over her mouth. "I mean-"
"You call her mommy?!" Kitty frowned. "You haven't known her two minutes."
"No, I mean..."
"Hey, Dolly, the new girl calls Dr and Mrs Cullen mommy and daddy!" Alice knuckled her eyes as the other girls snickered at her.
After that lesson, it was the last before lunch. In the grand total of an hour, she'd been called anorexic, titchy witchy, and a variety of words she didn't know existed until then, pushed into the table, and then to top it all off, a glob of glue was put in her hair.
When it was lunch at last, she sat by herself until the other girls from her math class sat down around her.
"Aren't you going to say hello?" A girl Alice couldn't identify rolled her hazel eyes. "You Cullen kids are so rude."
"Um, hi."
"No wonder your real mother didn't want you," the girl continues. "Calling another woman mom after like, a week." Alice, at a complete loss of words, saw it fit to tell a tiny white lie.
"My "real" mother is dead." Well. She is to Alice.
"Oh." The girls struggle for words for a little while but pick themselves up when one of the simpering silhouette's of the group whispered a
"I'd kill myself if I had to put up with wittle Alice." Alice had calmly stood, put her food in the trashcan untouched, and ran to the bathroom. Then she lets herself cry, because everyone's just being so mean to her and she doesn't know why. She calls Esme, but she doesn't answer, and she can't ring Carlisle cause he's in surgery, and she's sure he won't appreciate that. So she calls Rosie.
Rosalie practically lit up when Esme brought Alice home. She'd actually scared her with her enthusiasm. But then again, anything scared Alice. She came in clinging to Esme's hand, the first time when she was eleven, only coming up to Esme's waist. Rose had ran over, asking Esme all different questions such as:
Oh, how precious! How old is she? Seven?
What an angel, can I show her the house?
Can she share my room?
Why is she so little?
Alice however had just swung Esme's hand back and forth, backing up further and further. In her other hand, there was a grubby teddy bear named Captain Cuteness who badly needed a bath as well as Alice. Rose had just picked up Alice who simply looked around, bewildered, and carried her on her hip to her room. Alice's feet didn't even reach Rose's calves.
After a minute, Alice's head was on Rosalie's shoulder, sound asleep.
On the second ring, Rosalie's voice was clear. "Alice, what's wrong?" Alice only noticed she was crying then.
"The other...girls...are...being...so...mean!"
"Oh, sweetie, it's alright, I know, girls can be so mean sometimes. Okay. I'm at home. I'll pick you up."
"Thank you," Alice sobbed into the phone.
"Go to the nurse and tell her you have a dental appointment and forgot to say. I'll be there in five, okay? Hang in there, baby." Alice cleans up her face and composes herself enough to tell the nurse what Rose told her to say.
"Poor little lamb, are you afraid of the dentist?" Confused but willing to be led, Alice nods miserably. "It's not so bad." Alice sits and plays with her hands, her eyes always watching the window.
"My sister's here." Alice states, slipping out of her chair and to the window.
"Okay. Let her sign this and then you can go."
"Rose, you have to si-"
"I know, Alice," Rosalie says gently, signing her name at the bottom. She puts her arm round Alice and guides her out of the room. She drives round the corner and then pulls over. "Tell me all about it,"
"They were just so mean to me, Rosie," Alice chokes out. "One asked about my family, so I told her your names and accidentally said Jazzy instead of Jasper and she got all pushy asking everyone's nicknames and then asked what I call Mom and Dad so I said Mommy accidentally and they made fun of me and started calling me a freak and saying that they'd abandon me if I was their daughter and-"
"Alice, breathe!" Alice folded in on herself and started pouring tears. When she was finally finished, school was ending. All the kids were going out. A girl Alice didn't even know gave her a figure gesture that Rosalie repeated back at her viciously.
Rose took Alice home and all the family crowed her, asking her if she was okay. She knew then, even if she didn't have any friends, she'd always have her family.
She'd always have her sister, and that's all Alice needed.
But the next day, when Alice was prepared for teasing even more, she was surprised. A girl not much taller than herself approached her, saying hello and asking her name.
And one day, just the same as the last, just the days spending counting the time, came a girl who sat under the bleachers, just a little bit further behind...
A/N:
Based on Miss Invisible - Marie Digby. So, you know, hope you like it. I know it's boy on that last line, but Alice is only little, too young for Jalice and the thought of Alice and someone else is ugh, right :)