Since I am a few chapters ahead of myself, I am going ahead and posting Chapter 2. Thank you for reading! Before we begin, a couple of notes:
Inspired by Ella Fitzgerald's "Midnight Sun," I am paying homage to her peers and times by naming my story and chapters after songs recorded by the great Frank Sinatra.
Also, all the characters and associated material belong to Stephenie Meyer.
Now to the fun!
We were last into the biology lab, and I could easily see which seat was mine as soon as Angela took her place. There was a single empty chair, and it was directly next to Edward the Freak.
Apparently, the universe hated me.
I had to pass my new, oh-so-enthusiastic lab partner on the way to get my schedule signed by the teacher, and I could see the boy stiffen as I passed. Instinctively, I checked his face; as if stung, I looked away again. No longer a look of bewilderment or disappointment, his expression had developed into one of blind hatred.
So my lab partner was a zombie or something, and he hated me. Evidently, I had quite an interesting semester of biology labs ahead of me.
After getting the required signature, I took my seat gingerly. The freak actually leaned away from me, as if I were the weird one. What did I do to him?
The glare he had shot me as I had passed the lab bench haunted me through the hour-long class. Deep, black eyes, illuminated by the depth of emotion behind them, burned through me. White, flawless skin crinkled like stone crumbling under great pressure. A dark, heavy brow furrowed over long eyelashes, like so many spider legs quivering in preparation to capture some prey.
The memory washed over me again and again, bringing chills and cold sweats with each new wave. Nevertheless, I tried and tried to focus on the lecture instead of the memory of the awful look from my lab partner, and, after a while, I succeeded.
Even so, I couldn't help looking at him every now and then during the lecture. Strangely, though not surprisingly, he kept perfectly still for the entire hour. No fidgeting, no weight-shifting, just tense stillness. He only looked at me one more time, and it was with such detest that I regretted having seen it.
Heat rose to my neck and cheeks. I had never been discriminated against that way before, and I resented it. Even being repelled by him as I was, I had the decency not to treat him like a flea-infested dog! Though, after this, I might be tempted to. I resented being made to felt like some repulsive thing. I was clean, competent and friendly; what was there to be repulsed by?
When the bell rang at the end of class, the freak made a run for the door. He didn't carry himself like a normal teenage boy. He sort of glided, a little too quickly for a regular person. What was with him?
My thoughts were interrupted by an introduction. A hand extended into my line of sight, searching for a handshake over my textbook. My eyes followed the hand up an arm to a face. Mike Newton was the boy's name, and he could hold a conversation mostly by himself, to my relief. He was friendly and good-looking, and he seemed interested in getting to know me past first-day courtesy, so I was appropriately flattered as he walked me to gym.
As far as gym goes, that first class at Forks High was relatively painless. I watched Mike play volleyball from my safe, little seat to the side. He was actually a decent player. Then again, compared to me, everyone is a decent player.
The end bell for gym was also the close of the school day, so I trudged down to the office through the rain. I hoped vainly that the weather was particularly dreary on that day and I wouldn't have to reexamine my sanity for deciding to move in with Charlie. I had almost forgotten about my awkward biology class until I entered the office. Of course, my luck couldn't allow optimism.
There in the office, the only student besides me was my pale, bewildered, angered and disgusted lab partner. He was arguing with the secretary to switch him to a different biology class.
I said a little prayer that she would do it. If only I didn't have to go through another class like that first one!
At that moment, another student entered the office, breezed past me to the desk, and left again. Edward Cullen stiffened and spun around, his dark, blazing eyes piercing through me so that my hair stood on end.
I was afraid for my life, afraid to move, afraid to breathe. The prickly feeling returned to my neck, accompanied by a cold sweat. A hard lump made itself at home in my throat. A desert, my mouth. I was unsure whether to avert my eyes in surrender or meet his gaze in defiance.
The freak turned away, muttered some words of defeat to the secretary, and tore past me, through the door without another glance.
I finished my business with the office and ran through the rain to my truck.
I tried not to think of Edward Cullen as I drove to Charlie's house, but I was unsettled by the way he had looked at me. There was something unnatural… something creepy about him. And he glared at me as though I had somehow offended him to his core. I thought of myself as a nice person. I wasn't used to someone hating me, even if I deserved it, and especially when I did not.
It was so unfair! I blinked back angry tears as I thought about the injustice of having been judged so strongly and so quickly. I hadn't done anything to him! Why couldn't the freak have chosen someone else to hate? What about Jessica? She clearly had some bitterness toward him for not being interested in her. Or what about Mike? He seemed like the perfect rival and antithesis for the freak's cold beauty and prideful attitude.
No, that wasn't fair. Jessica and Mike hadn't done anything either. They had reached out to me with warmth the freak could only dream of. As unjust Edward Cullen's hatred for me was, it was not for someone else to bear.
I would have to endure it.
The freak wasn't in school the next day, and I was relieved. I didn't want to have to face him. The idea of him sitting next to me for another biology class, staring daggers at me, gave me chills. As the week passed, I was able to enjoy day after day without feeling like my life was about to end at the hands of my lab partner.
I was, however, considering taking my own life if Mike Newton didn't tone things down a notch. He was nice-he truly was, and I appreciated it-but I wasn't really interested in dating him, and he was very obviously hoping to date me.
Jessica was almost as bad. She didn't crave my attention the way Mike did, but she knew I would get other people's attention, so she kept me close at hand. In a way, I could see how our friendship would be an easy one. Jessica loved to talk, and I loved to keep my mouth shut. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy listening to her endless babbling about boys and shopping and drama. Sooner or later, I would snap. Someone would probably lose an eye. That would really start some gossip.
Of course it made sense for Edward Cullen to come back to school. All his family had remained there, and he had certainly been there longer than I-and who was I to cause some guy I didn't know to leave his own high school? I was nevertheless shocked to walk into the lunch room the Monday of the first snow in Forks since my arrival and see that he had taken up his regular seat. I almost thought the whole issue had been my imagination, his absence had nothing to do with me and he had never looked at me as one looks at something squished under his shoe, but as I stood there in the lunch line, he merely laughed with his siblings and then glanced over at me with the old, bewildered expression.
Well, I guessed it was better than blind hate.
But what was wrong with his eyes? He looked like a different person, somehow. Still eerie. But somehow… less dangerous?
I was distracted, confused. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something definitely looked different about the boy. Something strange. I lost my appetite and, pushing my uneaten lunch to the side, I joined in Mike's conversation with Eric Yorkie about hiking in the mountains, an activity I was destined never to take part in, thanks to my morbid clumsiness.
