When Two Are One
VarekaiSoleil
a.n.: Welcome to my freshest creation. Of the characters, I own only Skara, Aric, and Sean.
Bang. Explosions in my head that just won't quit.
A loud ringing sounded from every speaker in the room. She removed her left earbud.
"Good morning Forks High School! Here are your morning announcements…"
She replaced the earbud. She crossed her long legs into an Indian-style posture. The fluorescent lights of the front office burned her freshly-awakened pale gray eyes. Her hair was long, made of messy dark chocolate coils that were, for the most part, tossed up in a knot. A few hung loose around her face. She was plainly built, thin and average height, but with an exquisite face.
"Miss Hayes?" It was a woman in a dark gray suit jacket and matching skirt. "Miss Hayes?" She repeated. She touched the girls shoulder gently, causing a small but jolting reaction. She removed both earbuds.
"Good morning Miss Hayes, and welcome to Forks High School. Your first period is World Religions. There are two young men here from the class, come to escort you." The girl already hated this woman. She spoke like a machine. But she stood up, ignoring the robot-woman, and gathered her things.
Down the hall of the school's front office there was one "young man." Looked more like a boy, really. He couldn't have been older than fourteen. He was well-built, and well-dressed, for her tastes. His hair was an odd silver color, which did add to the years he appeared to have.
"Sean, this is Skara Hayes. She's in your first period. Skara, this is Sean Sullivan. Sean, where is Edward?"
Skara hated how he entered so perfectly on cue. But there he was, and on cue or not, she was glad he had entered. He stood without a word at first, his stature greatly surpassing her own, and even that of Sean. His hair was the color of the paint on a faded number two pencil. It fell to his shoulders in choppy yet stylish clumps.
"Edward, your hair has grown quite long," said Robot-Woman.
"Thank you. And this is?" He replied arrogantly.
"My name is Skara. You can call me Skara." She said, defying his arrogance. He stepped out from behind Sean, and she was taken aback by his size and musculature. Even the oversized band shirt he wore could not totally conceal his gym hours.
"I'm Edward Cullen. We should get you to class."
"Yeah, I'm ready when you guys are," responded Sean, as if he had been asked.
Edward glanced at her. Without a word, he took command of the room. As he turned to leave, Sean and Skara followed, obeying subconsciously. Skara's defiance of Edward had melted when she saw, as he turned to hide it, a mischievous smile gracing the corner of his perfect lips.
Back in the classroom, Skara took the empty seat between Sean and a stranger, who introduced himself as Artem. The teacher, Mr. Kroner, was a slightly portly man in his fifties or sixties. He spoke with a strong accent, from somewhere up north, and possessed friendly eyes protected by thick glasses.
"Welcome to the class Miss, ah, Hayes, is it?" He said. "We're just getting into some really interesting footage of the ancient Pagan villages of Scotland. I'll be collecting notes in two days when the film is finished."
She said nothing, only smiled softly in reply. The room darkened and the projector flickered on.
Just as the bell was about to ring, Skara woke up. The soft unsteady light from the projector had lulled her into a shallow sleep. She looked around, letting her eyes focus. She thought she saw someone looking at her, glaring at her. But just as he came into focus, Edward jerked his gaze away.
What's his problem? She speculated. He's creeping me out…
Skara flew through her next two classes on autopilot, her head in the clouds. Her math teacher droned on and on about trigonometric ratios, and in her art class, she merely doodled.
At lunch, she floated along through the waves of students funneling into the cafeteria.
"Skara!" She heard a familiar voice calling her name. She turned to see Aric Maeshowe, nearly drowned in the flood to the pizza line.
"Hi, Aric." She said plainly.
"Well what's wrong with you?" He asked, concerned.
"Nothing. I've just been thinking about this kid who's been creeping me out all day."
"Who? I'll beat him up for you." She couldn't tell if he was joking or serious. Probably both.
"Edward Cullen. Do you know him?"
"Yes… don't bother yourself with him. He has girls all over him all the time, or at least they try to be. His head's gotten nice and big... You don't want to contribute."
"Why?"
"Because you have dignity! Duh." Aric scoffed.
"I meant why does he always have girls all over him?" Stupid question.
"That's a stupid question," he replied, as if he read her mind.
She half gagged, half chuckled when the lunch lady dropped a mashed potato bomb on her tray.
Chemistry was her fourth period. Everyone had already donned their goggles for the lab assignment today. As she walked in, the teacher, Mrs. Clerk, giggled.
"Well hello there! You're new! Great!" Hooray, another bumbling idiot. "Welcome to Chemistry! Get yourself some goggles and we'll find you a partner."
The latter of these two tasks concerned Skara greatly, for as she scanned the classroom, there was only one person who had not been paired off.
"Um, can I work alone?" She saw, from the corner of her eye, that this caught Edward's attention.
"Well that's just not safe! Edward needs a partner. You're at station number six; he'll let you know what to do."
"Um, but…" Skara began to protest, but Mrs. Clerk herded her over to station six before she had the chance.
