Everything belongs to Stephenie Meyer.
When Edward left during New Moon, Bella never found Jacob and never moved on. They meet again in Roberts High, Oregon, but Bella is now part of the Angels, a dangerous gang that strikes terror into the city and may be more than it seems.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
EDWARD
It was the first day of school. Again.
We had moved, again, never staying in one place for long. I didn't care. Time didn't matter, the place didn't matter. The world was dead to me.
She was gone.
Time passed, long, blanks of hours I couldn't remember, and agonizing seconds of pain. One being couldn't suffer this much torture, it was impossible.
Especially when he didn't want to try.
The lifeline was always tauntingly available, the plane ticket to Washington I bought then tore into shreds countless times. Her window was fixed in my mind, forever open. I just had to go back, scale the wall, and she would wake from her sleep, startingly beautiful.
I didn't care how many times we moved, how many schools we attended, how many identities we assumed.
Forks would always be my home.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Two males, who looked about twenty- strange, the oldest in high school was usually eighteen- blocked my way, and snapped me out of my reverie. They were both tall, one blonde and one dark. Both wore black clothing and silver jewelry. It was strange, how the rest of the students, hurrying, talking, laughing, parted as they passed the two boys in black attire, leaving them plenty of space. Strange.
I looked down, not looking at them, and continued on my way to the cafeteria, for another lunch where would I eat nothing, think of nothing, trying not to remember her.
They moved, stopping me.
My patience was used up. I lifted my head, glaring down at them. I didn't really care if I looked dangerous right now. I didn't really care if I scared them. I was beyond that.
It was startling when they didn't looked fazed at all at my angry stare, only smiled a little. I knew I looked dangerous when I let myself look like a vampire, I knew most people were frightened when that happened. Strange.
"I would advise you and your family to leave, and quickly. You are not welcome here," said the dark-haired boy, still smiling slightly.
I looked into his eyes, they were human, and he smelled like a human, appetizing with a strange tinge of something. He had a heartbeat. What was he talking about? I looked into his mind, but was met with drabble. I've got to get to lunch, I've got to get to lunch, I've got to get to lunch. Strange.
"Thanks for the advice," I said shortly. "We'll stay."
He smiled again. "It's your choice." He moved on, to the cafeteria, and the blond-haired one followed him.
I didn't like to be confused. I wasn't normally confused, except when I first found I couldn't hear the thoughts of- I cut that thought off. I didn't want to think of her, it hurt too much.
"I wouldn't get on their bad side," someone commented, from behind me. I turned around. It was a dark-haired girl, looking after the two boys. "They're part of the most dangerous gang in the city, The Angels. They pretty much rule it; everyone's frightened of them. You don't want to know what they can do."
My face stretched in an unnatural smile; I was so unaccustomed to having that expression since her birthday that it must have appeared more like a grimace. "I can take care of myself." That was the one thing I was sure of.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I don't like this school, Jasper thought, It's filled with fear, pure fear...
I shook my head slightly, trying to calm him down. The emotions he was picking up from the crowded cafeteria were spreading to the rest of family, and we had nothing to be frightened of. There was nothing in Roberts High, or the entire city of Salem, Oregon for that matter, that could hurt us. We were inpregnable. Indestructable.
I saw Alice hold Jasper's hand, stilling the wave of terror that was washing over us from his direction.
It was silly. I shook off the foreboding that clung to me like a cobweb. This was nothing, only a human problem.
If a large, potentially dangerous -to the humans- human problem.
I knew what was causing the fear to settle like a dark fog over the cafeteria, constantly in the thoughts of the students as they walked past their table with their food.
The Angels.
They were a gang, a group of six girls and five boys, that were more dangerous than they seemed. Thoughts swam up in the minds of people as they looked towards the table of all-black-wearing students, looking much older than the seniors they professed to be.
Walk by quickly, don't look at any of them, a curly haired brunette thought quickly, panicky, like a mantra as she hurried past their table, head down. I remember what they did to Sandra at night when she stared at them during lunch... Walk by quickly, don't look...
It was wrong, evil, that humans could instill such terror into a community.
Even the teachers were frightened. Don't want to get on their bad side... That girl dropped a wrapper on the floor, but I'm not going to ask her to pick it up... It's not right that a teacher should be afraid of an eighteen year old girl. It's like they're the ruling force at this school. Is she really eighteen? She's sure been held back a lot if she is...
I looked over at their table. Two girls were missing, but the rest were sitting there, either talking about something or staring darkly over the cafeteria. One boy was reading.
The clothes of the girls were pretentious- tight black tank tops and short skirts with silver, thick belts. They wore fishnet tights or high, kneelength black boots. Their bare arms, surprisingly, were muscular- not unusually, but it was obvious they could take care of themselves. The hair of all the gang members was dyed, black with ostentanious green or blue highlights. The males wore black shirts that hardly masked muscled chests, unrivaling Emmett, yet still extraordinary.
Every face was hard.
They wore individualized silver bangles, chains. However all of them wore a simple silver chain that held a piece of white rock; it might have been ivory, or mother of pearl by the strange sheen. Strange.
I looked into their thoughts, curious.
Why do we have to keep this facade of going to school? Only Matt and Anita haven't completed high school already. Most of us have our bachelor's degree already from correspondence school. It's so... monotonous... sitting there having those stupid teachers tell us stuff we already know.
Matt and Anita. Those must be the names of the two younger ones... the girl was leaning into the boy's side. Mmm... she thought, I can't wait till tonight...
I quickly blocked her thoughts. Ugh. I had enough of that from Emmett and Rosalie.
Then the two last girls walked out of the lunchline, and sat down.
My brain froze.
No.
No, it couldn't be her- that was impossible, why would she be in Salem, Oregon? And she wouldn't be in this horrible gang...
But, the smell, the face...
Oh, it was different. It was more mature, harder, and her once-warm brown eyes were cold, with a tint of silver. Dark eyeliner and mascara lengthened her lashes so she looked less innocent, less trusting. Her hair was no longer soft brown; it was dyed pitch black, and cut so that most of it was shoulder-length and the bangs were uneven, falling across her face defiantly.
But it was her.
Her clothing style was similar to the rest of the lunch table's- a short, black skirt, cut in strips that flared out as she walked, held by a thick, studded belt. She wore thigh-length black boots that molded themselves to her attractive legs, fishnet gloves that left her fingers free, and the same pendant the rest of the table wore.
It was strange, unnatural; whenever I imagined her over the last five years that- that we'd been seperated, I imagined her how she had been before. Wearing greens, blues, browns, light sweaters and shirts with her jeans. Bella. She wasn't... right like this.
She had changed.
My eyes tightened. I had wanted her to move on, yes... but not change from the innocent, loving, sweet girl that had made me, a vampire, fall in love with her. I watched her as she set down her lunch tray, laughing at something the boy next to her said. The laugh was dark and sarcastic. Nothing like the laughter I loved so much.
What had I done to her?
And who was she now?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What is it, Edward?
I flinched. Of course Jasper would feel my tension. I forced myself to relax, smiling and shaking my head, hoping to convey that I was fine.
He was not fooled, and scanned the room, eyes stopping at Bella, and they widened, shocked.
Bella! What... what is she doing... here?
What indeed?
"God!" Rosalie's imperious, scornful voice snapped me out of his thoughts. She was glaring at me and Jasper. "Do you know how irritating that is? To know you two are having a conversation, and we can't hear?"
"Sorry." I pulled my eyes back down to my uneaten lunch. "It was nothing."
She was not so easily fooled, and neither were Alice or Emmett.
"You're all tense. What did you hear?"
I sighed, and pointed with my eyes towards Bella's table. "Look."
They followed my eyesight, and stiffened as they saw what had captivated my attention.
"Bella," Alice breathed.
She then looked at me, gazing into my eyes with her ocher ones, conveying her thoughts straight into my mind. Edward, look, this only confirms what I've been trying to convince you. You're SUPPOSED to be together, even fate agrees with you. Of all the schools to move to, we picked THIS one, and so did she.
I avoided her eyes, looking back to her table, listening to the conversation.
"Bella? What time should we meet up after school?" The dark-haired male who had spoken to me in the hallway- the thoughts of the girl, Anita, named him Zac.
Her voice, still so clear, so beautiful, yet hardened, tinged with scorn. "I have detention for speaking up to the new teacher. She obviously doesn't know how things work around here." She laughed. "I'll skip last period, so I'll meet you at your place then?"
Alice, sitting next to me, drew in a breath.
Who are they? These new friends of Bella's? she asked.
I shook my head. I'd explain later.
Once I'd actually found out, myself.