SCHOOL.
Boredom. Purgatory. Misery. That's how I felt. This was the part of the day I wish I could sleep. I sighed. It's pointless, utterly pointless. Why was I eternally seventeen, stuck inside the teenage body that would forever be my tomb. I sighed again. I would be stuck with the same average body. I will never blossom into full womanhood, never enjoy a maternal body.
Lilly? Iris thought. I almost brought my head up as if someone had shouted my name. Iris and I were good at these little 'conversations'. We were all walking from Gym towards the cafeteria now, a few faces looked up to us but when one of us glared back they quickly dropped their eyes to the ground. I'm worried about Analeigh, Iris continued. She's, well... I rolled my eyes - why me? Don't be like that. She paused. Is she okay? Please check, I've been having nurmerous visions.
I agreed and brought my attention to Analeigh's mind. She was thinking about a boy that was walking besides us, only a few feet away; what on Earth was he doing? Nearly everyone at school ignored us, thankfully, but he was practically offering himself to us on a silver platter with an apple in his mouth. She was thinking about how she would kill her. How she would innocently and seductively make him follow him into the dark forest beyond the car lot and tease his human senses with a light kiss on her soft, blood-filled lips and then break his neck. I kicked her heel. She tripped only slightly and turned with a menacing look in her eyes but she then realised it was me and her milky, infuriating eyes soon looked at the floor in shame.
Sorry, he smelled so good.
I sighed. I have little codes for each member of my family and he knew that it meant I forgave her. Devon put his arm around her shouler. She forgave him too. In response she put her long arm around his shoulder and smiled half-heartedly. They kissed.
"It's okay. You wouldn't have done anything." Iris said, trying to comfort her. Analeigh only responded in a grunt. Both Iris and I knew that she would have done something, she would have followed through with her plan: Iris' power of premonition and my power of telepathy could easily see what she really wanted.
As we got closer to the cafeteria, I unfortunately heard a familiar 'voice'. It was Jackson Livingstone. Ugh. Pest. I thought with malice.
God this guy is BORING! He is so, so... annoyingly good-looking too. Oh well! I have no need to worry, it'll take him weeks to get to know all the girls here, and then find one he likes and then ask her out...
I tried to tune is relentless babble out by humming but instead it got me thinking, what guy is boring? Ah! Must be that new boy, Alexander Greene – I had read the secretary's mind earlier today. He was Police Chief Greene's son, from Florida - Alex. Great. Another childish moron joining the other predictable bunch of cronies of Forks High School.
We were just passing the little slot-like windows, when I began flipping through other people's minds to see this new boy, just so I could tell my brothers and sisters and then laugh together of how pathetically fragile and trivial his life is. He was tall, average-looking, blue eyes and had hunched shoulders; was he deformed?
We walked in as 'human' as possible; I was trying to fidget by playing with my nails and twisting my ring around with my thumb. I laughed to myself as Devon, my other brother pretended to drag his feet; a norm for teenage boys - he was a natural actor.
Suddenly, without realising it I was reading Hayely Williams' mind – everyone else at this school were judging his looks, likes and dislikes, choice of clothes and even his voice. Pathetic. But as I concentrated harder on Hayley's mind I saw how shesaw this boy, quite differently from Jackson and others.
My family and I sat down with our props, as far as I knew I had bought: two slices of chunky pizza, an orange, and a can of ice cold soda, diet of course, most girls bought food with 'diet' clearly advertised on the label.
Suddenly while Hayley gulped down her soda, she began a string of fantasies involving him, I immediately blocked her from my mind – it was getting easier to do now, thankfully.
Be human, kid! Devon said with his thoughts. His 'voice' was very annoying and easy to identify. It was then I realised that I was sitting perfectly still, just staring into space. I relaxed and picked up the orange and started to play with it slowly peeling it every now and again – to keep up the charade. You're so weird. Devon continued. I looked at him and smiled with my eyes. To him this was confirming his accusation. He laughed.
The lunch hour was passing too slowly. I starting to flip through people's minds again, out of boredom.
"The Vandervilles, they're not from around here. They moved her from Alaska , like, two years ago." I unexpectedly heard Jackson from the other end of the cafeteria – damn my acute hearing, I was already irritated by this child's thoughts but no, I couldn't just be left in peace: I still listened. I bet he's crushing on them. Wouldn't surprise me, nearly everyone does. He thought incredulously. I laughed loudly, but not loud enough for a human to hear me.
What is it? I heard five identical questions. I winced and shook my head loosely. It would hurt if too many people thought the same thing at the same time.
"Jackson Livingstone is giving the new boy the gossip... on us." I announced.
Anything good? Again Devon's cheeky voice made me roll my eyes.
"Not really," I said, genuinely disappointed, "no horror, no scandal, nothing. I'm rather upset that he forgot us."
What does he think?
"I haven't tried yet!"
Well... try! I ignored him.
C'mon, I wanna know, please? I sighed. Why was he so annoying?
I looked up to the ceiling and back down to my tray of uneaten food. This meant yes.
Yes! He thought, his mind full of victory. Devon was such a pain. I looked over to the new boy only to meet two Hessian-blue eyes, they startled me. They were wide and all-knowing. I looked down – I wasn't expecting him to be looking... damn! Of course after Jackson giving him a run-down on us all, I should have expected him to be looking at us.
I concentrated in the direction of where I saw the omniscient blue eyes, I remained there for a moment trying to search to his voice amongst the wide flock of infuriating thoughts.
There. Was. Nothing.
I couldn't find him. I looked up without thinking, his head was on the table and he was mumbling carefully – too himself, maybe. I felt my forehead crumple as I tried again to find his voice again; this time looking straight at him.
What's wrong? That was Analeigh's voice, she emphasized each word. She was the one most likely to over-react, out of all of us. I tilted my head and turned in her direction, I threw her a calm look by closing my eyes as slowly and gently as I could. She got the message. Analeigh was the most begrudging toward my power of telepathy, she didn't like all of her thoughts and judgements broadcast, so I tried to give her as much privacy as I could. But to me, she would always be my big sister who would protect me from harm, she was slightly tenacious but always put it to good use; but from me, there was nothing she could hide.
Analeigh and Iris stood up as uncoordinatedly as they could and picked up their trays– their props – Analeigh pouted slightly and walked towards the bins, she threw her un-eaten food away. Iris wasn't far behind and then dumped her prop too and headed to her next class I tried again, to read this boy's mind – to at no avail. I kept trying until I was rudely interrupted.
Well? What does this new guy think? Is he scared of us? 'Cause if he ain't... I can change that. At that moment,Devon was full of questions. Great. He was the most immature, the most annoying, why did he have to purposely inflict his thoughts too me at this precise moment. I already had enough of his childish thoughts for one day, and that was without him even 'speaking' to me.
"I can't read him." I admitted as casually as I could. Devon's face dropped slightly and he leaned closer to me and picked up my tray.
Oh! Well, it's probably because you are not familiar with him. Don't worry, 'kay? Dev threw me his puppy dog eyes. I looked at him - I nodded. Good girl. He picked up his tray and then left the table almost jogging towards the bins he quickly dumped the food and went towards the Physics building. George and I were left. I looked at him and smiled.
So, what's this new guy like? I bet he is influenced by that Jackson guy, yeah? He said while linking his fingers with his hands and looking at me with his bright eyes. I looked out of the window and then returned to the way I had originally faced. George knew that that was a 'No'.
Oh, so he isn't interesting at all... shame.
What? That was the thing with George, his thoughts were always cryptic and surprising. I had no trouble reading Analeigh's, Devon's and Iris' minds, they were my open books – and I loved them for that. But George; I loved him for a completely different reason altogether. He was my puzzle, sometimes I would think that I had finally solved him and then he would shock me to my core with a new thought that would lead me to a bunch of other thoughts that were just as unusual – he was unpredictable, or as unpredictable as one of us could be, and I enjoyed that. The bell for fifth period rang. George and I sighed in unison. School. Boredom. Purgatory. Misery. And that was how I felt.