Song for this chapter:

I'm on the edge and I'm screaming my name,
Like a fool at the top of my lungs,
Sometimes when I close my eyes,
I pretend i'm alright but it's never enough,
'Cos my echo, echo,
Is the only voice coming back,
Shadow, shadow
Is the only friend that i have...
Echo - by Jason Walker x

Crystal:

Today I was starting a new school; It's January start of the spring term. Everyone has already made friends, so I would be the strange new girl that everyone was going to be talking about. Lucky me.

Year ten was going to be difficult. Everybody else had had four years being with each other, many people would be alone maybe I could sit with one of them?

As I got off the bus, which was next to the entrance, I saw a boy who looked about the same age as me, which was fifteen. He waved and walked over to me, he smiled warmly and held out his hand. I shook it and as I felt his warm hands I clung on harder. He pulled back instantly, feeling how cold I was and raised an eyebrow. Remember that whenever I go to school next, where gloves. That way nobody would notice.

Yeah, I'm a sparkly vamp but when I first got turned one year ago, I realized that I didn't have to be the monster which my instincts told me to be. I could be whatever I wanted to. I remember it clearly;

I was surrounded by trees in a forest when I sensed that a deer was nearby. I could tell that I wanted to rip it to shreds. So I did. I carried on that way for a few more months, moving from place to place whenever the community was getting queries about the wildlife. I never had to kill a human in my life, it's wrong! Why would you even want to? Okay. Maybe I did know why. This human, who was standing in front of me now – was so...Warm and the blood which was inside him...Smelt sweet.

I live with my adopted mother who doesn't know what I am and she doesn't have any suspicions, we don't go out anywhere – thanks to my power. I can 'compel' humans to do what I want them to do. It can be anything. It's rather amusing most of the time.

I realised that once I got turned, I shouldn't go out in the sunlight. If I do then little diamonds would suddenly become embedded in my skin. Humans would surely notice that I was 'sparkling' so I wouldn't go to school when it was sunny.

I convinced my 'mother' to move to a town where it was darker and was covered with trees so I would be allowed to go out, I had lived in this small town for around two weeks, over the Christmas holidays.

I went out for walks and runs every night when it got dark and I walked all around town. I think I knew every alleyway by now.

I continued to hold my breath as this boy was relatively close to me. I could do this. I would not let my guard slip down now.

"Hey there, my names Will. Your new here right?" He said cheerfully.
"Er, hello." I said nervously. "Yes I am new, first day." I murmured,

"Do you know where to go for tutor?" I raised an eyebrow. "Do you know what tutor time even is?"

I shook my head and he laughed slightly and started to walk, gesturing me to follow him. I did and he continued to talk, explaining it to me. "Tutor time is a short period at the beginning of the day where students can study, talk or do anything really. There's also one at the end of lunch, they do a register whenever we're all together. So if there was a fire, they would know who would be burning or whatever." Burning...I flinched slightly and nodded.

My hands went to my bag and I was about to take out a map but he put his hand over my wrist to stop me and my hands fell back to my sides again.

"No need. I'll be your 'tour guide'" I laughed nervously and if I was human then I would've blushed. I nodded and he smiled,

"Thank you."

"Do you know which lesson you have once tutor time is over?" He asked me, I searched through my time table which I had memorized in my head and answered him smoothly.

"Maths." He smiled wide and I raised an eyebrow. They had put me in the top set. After realizing that my grades were all A* standard at my old school, they moved me up to all the higher classes. I got my mind from my biological mother. She died when I was around the age of twelve, in a fire. We have no idea what happened to her but whoever did it, deserved to go to hell. I never had a father or any other family around me since then and I decided to go out on my own for a while.

When I ran out of food and because I was so young, I began to get frightened. I went to the nearest children's home and pretended to act clueless. They eventually hooked me up with a single mother ten months ago. She is a lovely lady and doesn't know anything about me and she never will unless it's an emergency. I see no reason to tell her.

"I have maths too! Come on, hurry up tutor time!" He grabbed my wrist and started to run towards a building which was covered in bricks. There was a blue door at the front which I opened effortlessly when he failed at opening it. It must've been heavy to him.

"Thanks." he laughed slightly.

"No problem." He walked in front of me now and there was five doors after a narrow hallway. He pulled me towards the one which was the furthest back on the right. He walked towards it and I followed him on his heels.

Once we walked inside it instantly went quiet and I bit my lip. There were four large tables inside this room and it looked like a science lab. I guessed that this was my new tutor room.

He sat down on a seat, which had an empty seat next to it, he patted on the chair and I walked towards it and sat down. There was a girl sat opposite me, she had dark brown hair and it was quite long.

"That's Jade." He whispered to me, "Don't get on her bad side." I nodded and looked down at my hands when she glared at me.

Someone poked my shoulder from behind me and I turned around and there was a tall girl who had bleach blonde hair. She had it in a messy ponytail and everything about her seemed flawless. But not underneath.

She was wearing a thick layer of makeup and fake everything. She had two girls behind her, they were both brunettes and had their hair in the same way, they were wearing similar outfits and the 'leader' was wearing a tight black dress.

"So you're that chick everyone's been taking about?" The girl at the front asked,

"Yes, I guess so." I replied quietly,

"There are a few rules if your 'friend'" She looked at Will and grimaced, "-May or May not have told you about." She smiled evilly at me and I looked at her with an emotionless face. "You do everything we say, or there will be trouble. Understand?"

I stood up from my seat and Will touched my shoulder and I shoved it off. I stared into her eyes and she stared back at me.

"And what would you do if I don't do as you say? It's just a question." The whole class made 'Whoop' sounds and her mouth fell open and her two 'friends' behind her were playing with her hair as if they were trying to calm her. I could break her in half. Snap her like a twig.

"Then as I said, there will be trouble." She glared at me and I said,

"You don't scare me." Of course she didn't scare me - nothing scared me apart from the idea of drinking humans.

"You haven't done any damage to me this time." She paused, thinking deeply. "But if mysterious happenings occur soon. You may want to check your back." I glared at her as she turned around and walked away swiftly with her friends behind her. I slumped back down into my seat and sighed, Will lifted up my arm and smacked it in a high five.

"That was legendary," He said excitedly, I rolled my eyes dramatically. I reminded myself not to lose my temper. If I did...I didn't even want to think about what would happen. Someone shook my shoulder and I noticed that my eyes were shut and I was shaking a bit, I opened my eyes and saw Will next to me, he looked worried and concerned.

"You al right?" He asked, I nodded, my hands were inside each other under the table, clenched into fists.

"Al right, register now guys." The professor spoke up, trying to get everyone's attention. "Zoe,"
A loud voice spoke back. "Yes Miss." I looked towards where the sound was coming from and she was sitting on the other side of the room and she had light brown hair and it was tight up in a neat ponytail.

"Amy," I didn't look to see who answered I put my hand against my face and sighed, I didn't breathe in case I slipped, I didn't want to kill anyone today.

"Crystal," Said the teacher I replied, "Yes miss." After I said that everyone turned to look at me, I looked down at the table and wished for them to turn away so badly.

The teacher continued to read out the register and I didn't give a care to listen and to turn to whoever was answering. I wondered how Maths would be until the bell rang. When it did I stood and threw my bag over my shoulder.

"Ready?" Will asked me,

"Yeah." I answered,

As Will and I walked to Maths together, he kept rambling on about teachers and stuff which I really wasn't very interested in. He kept looking up at me every so often and I smiled and nodded, I kept looking at people as they passed and nobody caught my eye, as me and Will walked past a building which was connected to another few buildings. I could see several medium sized, green huts.

Will waved his hand in front of my face and I concentrated on listening to what he was saying, he was saying;
"Do you do that a lot?"

"What?" I asked, completely confused.

"Do you stare into space and basically daydream a lot?" He laughed slightly,

"I guess so." I replied. I hadn't been around people my age for a while and it felt nice to finally have a decent conversation. I had spent the last God knows how long, talking to my temporary mother about life. Or myself – that happened a lot.

"How good are you at Maths?" Will asked me once we were inside the room.

"Pretty good." I answered and he smiled.

He left me then and walked into the far corner of the room and sat down on a chair next to a boy with dark (kind of long) brown hair. He was smiling at Will as he sat down next to him, now where would I sit? I searched around the room and everyone turned towards me and stared.

There were about twenty people in this classroom at the moment, I looked around the room and someone said "Excuse me" from behind me, I turned around and gracefully moved out of the way. It was a girl who had short dark red hair, which was tied up into a short ponytail.

She was wearing glasses and behind her was a girl who had pitch black hair and it was straightened down her back and she had a straight fringe going across her forehead.

They both walked past me and the one with black hair walked to the back of the classroom and sat down. The one with lighter hair followed a few steps behind her and they both stared at me for a few seconds.

Someone then barged past me and I moved a little so they wouldn't suspect that I was so strong. He was a huge with short dark brown hair, wow.

I held my breath so I didn't attack anyone in this room. I stared after him as he sat down in the left back corner, shortly behind him. A beautiful blonde woman, who was just over average height, went and sat next to him. He put his arm around her back, so I assumed that they were together and I sighed. I looked around the classroom and walked to the side of the room, so people could get through the door, without me having to move every time.

"Oh hello there, what's your name?" said someone behind me, I turned around to my left and saw the teacher behind me.

"My name's Crystal. I'm a new student here." I smiled as did she,

"Al right, I have a seat for you right here." She gestured for me to sit next to the girl who had red hair and glasses. I walked towards the table and sat down smoothly. As soon as I sat down the girl started to speak.

"Hey Crystal," I smiled slightly.

"Hello," I replied politely, trying not to breath as much as possible,

"Are you enjoying it here?" She asked,

"It's going okay." I said through my teeth,

"I'm Sam by the way and that is Khloe." She gestured her hand to the girl with black hair who was sitting next to her,

"Hi Khloe," I replied quickly, I looked across the other side of the room and realised that the huge male who was with the blonde, was staring across the room directly at me.

The blonde next to him pushed his shoulder and he turned towards her and forced a smile out. They both had pale skin like me and they had golden brown eyes, like me. W-were they vampires? They wouldn't tell my secret - would they? I looked over at Sam and asked,

"Who are those two, the blonde and the huge guy?" I heard a laugh across the room,

"The blonde is called Rosalie Hale and the other one is Emmett Cullen, they are like together. Adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife. They have three other siblings, Edward, Jasper and Alice. They are in the other classes, Alice and Edward are in my tutor class. Jasper is in a different one. Poor him...Alice and Jasper are together you see." I frowned slightly at that,

"Oh. How do you know so much?" I asked immediately and urgently,

"They joined on Friday and everyone has been gossiping about them all weekend."

"Oh, I see." The teacher started to talk about the work we were doing and gave us work sheets. I started the worksheet and when I was about half way through it Khloe asked me,

"How did you get that far, that quickly?"

"What to number twelve?"

"Yeah."

"It's easy." I shrugged my shoulders and I glanced over at her work and she was still on number two. Maybe I was working a little too fast? I looked at Sam's and she was on question five, that made me feel even worse.

The day went by too slowly, each teacher praised me for my speed and they immediately decided to take advantage of my grades. They gave me books which would help me catch up and I had four tests tomorrow where they would test me on how much I knew. These would be in Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. I decided to walk home and take a little detour to the library. I needed somewhere quiet. Somewhere where my Mother wouldn't ask me how my day when all evening.

~Amelia~ x