As we started unpacking the house after our most recent move dad pulls me aside to predictably warn me yet again off standing out, telling me to just blend in.
"We need to be more careful now Claire, we can't just call the Hattian whenever someone sees you heal and we don't want to have to restart again now" He'd told me, before handing me a set of car keys so I could drive Lyle and myself to school. He also reminded me to lock my doors.
Forks was a lot different from the bright and sunny places I've lived in. Instead of the warmth, I got in Texas and California I now get rain and moss. It also means I'm living on the opposite side of the country from my bio dad, my uncle and my grandmother which is yet another dreary fact.
It's difficult for me to relate to people my own age. Hell even to most people, period. What am I going to say? 'Hi, I'm Claire Bennet, I heal really quick and can regrow limbs. Also, there was this psychopath who decided to scalp me and play with my brain not long ago and now I can't feel pain'. Yeah, that'd go over really matter how hard I try I can't be normal and I have no clue how my dad thinks I'll be able to jest blend in with a bunch of teenagers with next to no life experience.
Sleeping was hard that night. Sleeping had been hard for quite some time seeing as every time I closed my eyes I'd relieve that dreadful experience. The addition of constant rain and wind didn't exactly help my predicament either. But eventually, I somehow managed to get some sleep.
The thick fog that covered the town could be seen the entire morning from when I got up, got ready and urged Lyle that it was time to leave. It was even Lingering as I walked to the office to sort out my schedule as Lyle went on his own to the middle school.
The office was brightly lit and quite warm in comparison to the outside. There were potted plants scattered all over the place as if there was not enough greenery outside. A red headed woman sat behind the counter with all sorts of paperwork around her.
"Can I help you?" The woman asked me.
"I'm Claire Bennet" I informed her, and saw the instant recognition in her eyes. I expect in such a small town the fact that an entire family had moved was a topic of discussion to all.
"Of course," she said. She dug through a riskily stacked pile of papers on her disk till she located the ones she was looking for. "I have your schedule and a map of the school here for you. You'' also need to get your teachers to sign this slip and hand it in here at the end of the day" the woman explained while giving me a bunch of papers. The woman pointed out my classes and highlighted on the map the easiest ways to get to them.
As I went back to my car I moved it so that I was with the rest of the student's cars. Most of the cars looked quite old and my Nissan Rogue was a new looking Volvo. Basically, it seems I'm already sticking out, for one being new and for two having a new car.
As I parked once again almost everyone's attention was on me. Quickly looking at my schedule I see that I have to go to building three where I have English with a Mr Mason. Getting into the class I see that he is a tall, balding man who decided it would be a grand idea to gawk at the new girl from further south.
Although I wasn't the only blonde in the room I was certainly the most tanned making me stick out like a sore thumb. I got Mr Mason to sign my slip and got a book list from him finding some familiar books that I'd read at my last two schools which was relieving. I probably even had some of my old essays stored somewhere that I may be able to reuse.
After the bell rang signalling the end of my first glass a greasy haired boy comes up to me.
"You're Claire Bennet, right?" he looked like the overly helpful chess club sort.
"Yeah" I answer, critically aware of a large amount of people with their attention on me.
"Where's your next class?" he asked.
I check my schedule. "Building six" I respond, unable to look anywhere without meeting the curious stares of my class mates.
"I could show you the way, I'm headed to building four" he offered. "I'm Eric" he added.
"Thanks but I should be able to find it," I tell him, heading off before someone else could confront me.
The rest of the morning passed in the same way, people staring at me as I went along to my classes. My trigonometry teacher even had me introduce myself. I don't think he was Impressed with me when I just explained how I'd just moved from California because my dad's company had transferred him.
After a few classes, some faces were becoming familiar, one girl who talked almost non-stop had sat next to me in Trig and Spanish and had all but dragged me along to sit with her at lunch. Turns out her name was Jessica and she had a large group of friends who seemed impressed that she'd managed to snatch up the new girl.
Everyone was introducing themselves to me and trying to get more details about why I'd moved and what it was like living somewhere where it was actually sunny more than twice a year. I was avoiding answering apart from telling them we'd moved because of my dad's job and how it was a big change going from leaving in the sun to now living in this constant rain.
People eventually got tired of asking my heaps of questions and I was able to just look around, search for exits in case I had to leave in a rush so that my freaky healing factor wasn't discovered or one of the various people who'd love to get their hands on me tried to capture me. It was then that I noticed a group of five people, 2 girls and 3 boys sitting at a table, detached from everyone else. There was almost an aura surrounding them that was repelling everyone from them. If only I had such luck.
One of the girls was short and pixie like while the other was a tall blonde. The three boys were also all different with one being bulky with dark curly hair, another was taller also with blond hair and the last was lanky, and less bulky than the other two and had untidy bronze hair. While they all were different they were also very similar. None of them were touching their food, they all had very pale skin and were all extremely beautiful.
As I observed them the pixie-like one stood up, discarding her untouched food and left the cafeteria, her movements quite graceful, almost as if she were dancing. The other thing that caught my attention was the fact that she did this faster than one should be able to with such fluid movements.
"Who are they?" I asked Jessica, wondering what she knew of the group of students.
She looked over to the table, without even asking who I was talking about. It seems she'd been expecting me to ask about them. While she did so the bronze haired one who seemed to be the youngest looked over as if someone had called his name. He looked at Jessica for a brief moment before his black eyes flickered to mine. Our eye contact lasted only seconds before he looked away. The way he'd looked over and looked away so quickly was as if he'd already decided not to respond to the person calling out to him. It was as if he'd looked over on instinct, without making any conscious decision.
Jessica giggled in embarrassment at the fact we'd been caught looking at the table.
"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr Cullen and his wife." She said this under her breath.
I glanced at the table from the corner of my eye this time to see the one who caught us looking picking his bagel apart, his mouth moving rapidly while the rest all looked away. Despite this, it felt as if they were having a conversation.
"They're all " I pointed out trying to prompt Jessica to tell me more.
"Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all together though - Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they live together." Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. But, if I was being honest, I had to admit that was different, even in my strange life.
"So which ones are the Cullens? They don't look related" I say to keep Jessica talking.
"Oh, they're not. Dr Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They're all adopted. The Hales are twins, they're the blondes and they're foster children"
"That's great of Dr and Mrs Cullen, taking in so many kids"
"I guess so" Jessica reluctantly admits. It seems as though she is jealous of the family. "Jasper and Rosalie are 18 and have been with the Cullen's since they're parents died or something when they were 8. And the rest, well I don't think Mrs Cullen can have kids"
"Well it seems they've made a family anyway. Until my younger brother was born my parents didn't think they could have kids and so they adopted me when I was a baby" I say, not exactly truthful but I felt the need to stick up for the family.
The table quieted down and Jessica looks a bit uncomfortable knowing she'd offended me. The strangest part was how the 4 Cullen's and Hale's all seemed to look at me as I stood up for them. It was as if they knew but no normal person would have been able to hear from the other side of the room.
Jessica and the rest of the people avoided directing conversation at me for the rest of lunch which was relieving. One girl at the table did smile at me though, perhaps she didn't quite like how everyone treated the family either.
The girl it turns out was named Angela – Not going to forget that name quickly I thought – and she offered to walk with me to biology, a class we seemed to share.
"So the Cullens, have they always lived here or are they newcomers too?" I ask her.
"They moved here from Alaska a couple years ago," She told me.
"And they're still a topic of discussion?"
"Well, they tend to keep to themselves" She explains.
"Oh, ok" I respond, ending our conversation as we finish walking to class.
When we entered the room Angela went to her seat and I noticed that the only available seat was next to the Cullen with the bronze hair. I went and introduced myself to the teacher, had him sign my slip and he instructed me to go sit next to Edward Cullen.
So the Bronze haired one is Edward which means the bulky one should be Emmett, I logged mentally as I walked to the empty seat. As I walked closer I noticed that he wasn't as slight as he looked beside his brothers. As I assessed him, he, in turn, assessed me with curious eyes which I was growing used to people using on me today.
As I got to my seat his entire body went rigid and his stare turned from curious to hostile, to furious. This shocked me, his eyes showed a hunger that I'd only seen one person use before. A hunger I'd only seen as Sylar killed Jackie, as he'd stalked me down, as he scalped me and messed with my brain. This resemblance caused me to flinch, the memories being to clear in my head.
His eyes were pitch black and I couldn't avoid the hostility in his stare as I sat in my seat. I noticed his hands grab the edge of the table and all of his muscles seemed to lock. It didn't even seem as if he was breathing.
I tried to focus on the lesson instead of the glare he was giving me but unfortunately, the lesson was on cellular anatomy, something I was all too familiar with.
In my experience, unpleasant experiences seem to last forever and this first biology lesson next to Edward was no exception to this fact. Throughout the entire class, I kept glancing back at him and he never once relaxed from his position apart from when he stopped gripping the table and just clenched his fists after a soft cracking sound came from the desk. It also still seemed as if he wasn't breathing. I had no clue what was wrong with him. Is he a special like me? If so, hell even if not, what has caused his intense hatred of me? He doesn't even know me from Eve, how can he glare at me with eyes full of such revulsion?
I was relieved when the lesson finally ended and Edward made his exit faster and more graceful than humanly possible. Something told me this small town wasn't as peaceful as my father hoped.
As I packed up my stuff ready to go to the gym a blond haired boy that reminded me of a golden retriever came up to me.
"Aren't you Claire Bennet?" He asked me.
"Yeah"
"I'm Mike," he said.
"Nice to meet you," I told him as I began walking to my next class.
"Do you need help finding your next class?" He asks.
"Nah I should be fine, I'm heading to gym"
"That'd my class too, I'll walk with you," he tells me, seeming thrilled to have yet another class with me.
Mike was yet another chatterbox, this school seemed to have a heap of them. He told me how he'd also lived in California, but only until he was 10. When he asked me about my life in California I withheld a shudder of the memories of my recent trauma and told him how I'd only lived there for a few months and had originally lived in Texas.
As we entered the gym he asked, "So, did you stab Cullen with a pencil or something? I've never seen him act like that"
"I didn't even talk to him, I think he may have been feeling under the weather or something" I supplied.
"Yeah, maybe," he said. "He looked as if he was in pain or something."
I shrugged at him before walking over to the gym teacher, Coach Clapp who gave me a gym uniform but informed me I wouldn't have to play today. This gave me time to sit back and think about the mysterious Edward Cullen and attempt to figure out why he hated me so much while the rest of the class played volleyball.
When the final Bell rang signalling that the day was finally over I felt relieved knowing I only had to drop my slip into the office, find Lyle and go home. As I went from the warmth of the gym to the cold outside and then into the warm office I found Edward already in there, almost causing me to up and leave and just drop the slip back in the morning.
As I waited for the receptionist to be free I caught what he was arguing with her about. He was trying to move out of biology into anything else. I really had no clue of the cause of such a dislike of me and just wanted to get out of here so I just walked up with my slip, dropped it off and left only to hear him tell her not to bother as I exited the door and went to my car where Lyle was luckily already waiting for me.
As I drove home I decided I wouldn't tell dad about the strange Cullen family, fearing he'd go all out research on them or he'd up and move us all over again.