Disclaimer: All characters, places, and anything familiar from the Twilight Novels belong to Stephenie Meyer and Summit.
She's Always a Woman
"She can kill with a smile
She can wound with her eyes
She can ruin your faith with her casual lies
And she only reveals what she wants you to see"
"Lauren honey, breakfast is ready," her mother screamed from the kitchen. She was almost done getting ready for the first day of school after winter break of her junior year.
"I'm almost done mom!" she yelled form her bathroom. She tied her hair in a loose ponytail and looked at herself one last time in the mirror. She was wearing a dark green sweater, jeans and chocolate-brown knee-high boots. Seeing everything in place she went to grab her bag from the second floor library and headed downstairs to the kitchen.
She kissed her mother good morning and sat down at the table while Annie, their cook and housekeeper laid a plate with waffles on the table.
"Thanks Annie, this looks delicious," she told her with a small smile.
"Eat everything Christie, you still look too thin!" she said on her way to the kitchen. Annie Wilkes had lived with them since her mother bought the house after moving out of her grandmother's. Annie took to calling her Christie after her mother yelled at her for something she had done and used her full name. Christie was actually her mother's maiden name — her parents had decided to use it as her middle name so she would carry both their surnames — though she rarely used it. She thought Lauren was more than enough.
After she finished breakfast she said bye to her mother and Annie, picked her schoolbag and went to the foyer taking her cream colored coat and a scarf from the closet, she grabbed her car keys while she donned the coat and closed the door behind her.
She texted Jessica to let her know that she was on her way to pick her up. She arrived 10 minutes later honking twice. After a moment Jess came out and climbed into the passenger seat.
"Hey Lauren," she said hugging her. "How was your Christmas break?"
"Same as last year," Lauren always tried to keep details from minimum to nonexistent, "Yours?"
"Same as always, we all went to Seattle to visit some of mom's relatives," she told her while fixing her hair in the car mirror.
"So, did you hear," she said turning to look at Lauren, "Chief Swan's daughter is starting school today."
"Really?" she said with faked interest, "Why in the middle of the school year?"
"I don't know, though I heard from my mom that she arrived a few days ago."
"Well, lets hope she's really ugly or all the guys will be fawning over her," Lauren told her with a serious look on her face, "Who am I kidding, even if she's horrendous she'll get all the attention because she's new."
"You got that right," Jessica said with a slight hint of jealousy, "Either way I think being friends with her could be… beneficial."
"Oh, I have no intention of being friends with her, and after the fiasco with the Cullens a year and a half ago, you shouldn't either," Lauren said with a pointed look.
"How was I supposed to know that they were all a bunch of stuck-up anti-social freaks?" Jessica whined.
"Yeah, but you kept pestering them until they told you to leave them alone," she said laughing, "Just leave it alone Jess, in a month or so nobody will even remember her name."
"How do you know?" Jessica said, "For all we know she's like super model gorgeous and all the guys will spend all their time drooling over her."
"You're so melodramatic Jess," Lauren laughed.
"Said the drama-queen!" Jessica all but screeched.
"I'm so not a drama-queen!" she said with a loud cry. They kept arguing playfully until they arrived at school.
She parked the dark blue mustang in her usual spot and killed the engine. Getting out she closed the door and opened the back one to take out her bag.
She began walking towards the school building. She wasn't planning on talking to the new girl. She would be getting enough attention as it was. Not talking to her didn't mean not talking about her. She knew she sounded petty and mean, but she wasn't a friendly sunny side up kind of girl. She was a bitch and everyone knew it, and she wasn't planning on changing anytime soon.
She and Jessica walked to English and hung their coats on the hooks beside the door. She noticed that Mr. Mason was already in the classroom. They headed to their usual seats chatting while the classroom filled. When everybody went quiet Lauren looked to the front and there she stood, the new girl.
She didn't look like anything special to her, long dark brown hair, brown eyes, and pale almost translucent skin. Plain. And what in the world was she wearing? Even so, that didn't stop the curious glances.
The new girl walked down the row of desks and sat in the back, trying to lose herself in her desk. Mr. Mason started talking and Lauren immediately zoned out and started doodling in her notebook. She was startled when the bell rang and everybody stood and headed towards the door. Lauren grabbed her coat pulling it on, dreading going outside to de cold and humid weather. She heard Eric Yorkie ask the new girl what class she had next. Lauren didn't catch her response. Oh how she hoped she wouldn't be in her next class.
As it turned out she had another class with her before lunch. The teacher asked her to talk about herself in front of the whole room. Super embarrassing. Lauren didn't envy her one bit at that moment. Talking about herself in front of a crowd made her want to puke, and it probably wouldn't be a pretty sight.
The bell rang signaling the beginning of lunch hour. She got out of the classroom and headed towards the cafeteria. Everyone had the same lunch hour being as it was a small school. She wished there were different hours because right now she wasn't really hungry.
As she went in she noticed it was really crowded, as usual. She looked at one of the far end tables, there they where, the Cullens, sitting together with the tables that surrounded them empty, no one wanting to sit close to them.
At the beginning of her sophomore year when they were new, everyone wanted to go and talk to them, but at the same time nobody really dared. It was as if they repelled people, which was quite strange. They all had this mysterious air around them and all of them were excessively attractive — like supermodel kind of attractive.
It became a scandal when the student population found out that they were together as in couples, it took forever for people to forget or talk about something else. Just one of them was actually single and every girl in school, hell every female in town for that matter learned quickly that he didn't date, well everyone except Jessica. If he did indeed date, it wasn't with anyone from around Forks.
Lauren located her usual table and pulled a chair sitting next to Mike. He started telling her something about History class that she had no interest in but still tried to look like she was listening.
After a few minutes Jessica walked in with the new girl. Jessica introduced her to all the people that were sitting at the table, but it looked as if she was really uncomfortable and wasn't even making an effort to try and get to know them. Still all of them were giving her their undivided attention. Lauren gave her a curious glance. She was really strange for a girl who said that came from Phoenix. Not that she'd ever been there, but she obviously knew that it was sunny and warm. Yet the new girl looked as if she had yet to meet the sun.
Lauren heard her ask about the Cullens and snickered. Here we go again. Jessica told her all the 'sordid' details as if it were a secret or something. Lauren thought that it was just going to make the new girl more curious, plus Jessica made it sound like they lived in a hick town where everyone gossiped about everyone and everything. Well it actually was a hick town she laughed to herself.
And then the strangest thing happened. Mr. I don't date looked at the new addition. Wow, that's never happened before. It looked as if he knew that they were talking about him when he smirked slightly. Weird.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. Lauren had Biology and then Gym and she would be finished for the day. During Biology, Bella, as the new girl liked to be called, almost fell in front of Lauren's desk. She let out a giggle. Talk about two left feet. It didn't surprise her that she got to sit with Edward Cullen. He was the only one in the group without a partner.
When the bell rang he was the first one out even though he was sitting in the back of the classroom. Hmm, she wondered what had the new girl done to the poor guy? No matter, not that she actually cared.
She walked to gym with Jess, went to the locker room and changed into a pair of red shorts and a white short-sleeved shirt. She thanked whoever was up there that the school's heating system was working. Mr. Clapp made Bella sit the class out saying it was a one-time thing. They played a few games of volleyball until the bell rang. She went to the locker room and changed back to her regular clothes and told Jessica that she'd wait for her in the car.
Lauren started the car as Jess climbed into the passenger seat and drove out the parking lot.
"So…" she said looking over at Jess. "What's the verdict on the new girl?"
"So far nothing special, she seemed kind of fake to me," she said.
"How so?" Lauren wanted to know if she noticed the same things as her.
"Well I felt like I was talking to myself half the time and the only moment she looked like she was actually listening was when she asked about the Cullens. I felt like she was judging me as if I was dumb or something. I mean I tried being nice to her because she's new and doesn't know anybody and what do I get? Ignored and judged. I really, really don't like her," Jessica finished her tirade with a huff.
"Told you so," Lauren said with a smug grin on her face.
"Don't be such a bitch Lauren!" She half screamed half laughed.
"That's nothing new," she snorted.
"But seriously, she looked like she didn't want to sit with us, or anyone for that matter. It looks like we got ourselves another anti-social," Lauren said in a slight singsong tone, "Just let me know how it goes with the stuck-up part."
"As soon as I find out I'll let you know," Jessica assured her.
"Good," Lauren laughed to herself.
She thought that even if Bella didn't want to be Jessica's friend she would still try to attach herself to Bella. It was her freshman year all over again, when Lauren was being mean to everyone, Jessica was the only one that pestered her to the point that Lauren became fed up admitting defeat by letting Jessica hang out with her. The same thing happened when the Cullens arrived, although that went a little different. It was still a sore subject for Jessica.
After dropping Jessica at her house, Lauren drove straight to hers. When she arrived she saw that her mom wasn't home yet. Sometimes she would come home early but normally she pulled extra shifts. She knew that she didn't have to work, but she liked to keep herself busy most of the time. She'd been thinking for a while about what she was going to do after graduation. Cornell was her first choice, she thought about majoring in government and then head off to Law school. Her grandfather had been a very good lawyer up until he retired and he and her grandmother moved to Forks. It was a good thing that she kept her grades up and took several AP classes, even if she didn't advertise that she did indeed study.
She went up to the library and dropped her bag. Then headed to her bathroom to take a shower. She liked gym class, it gave her a good workout, but she hated sweating. When she got out of the shower she wrapped a towel around herself and brushed her hair. After applying her favorite lotion she went to her closet and pulled a pair of yoga pants and a sweatshirt, finished drying herself off and got dressed.
After that she went downstairs to the kitchen. Even though she missed living in her grandparents' house, she found that this place felt like home. It was a Queen Anne style house that her mother had bought after it was renovated. Lauren had to admit it was quite large even though only her mother, Annie and her lived there. It was surrounded by forest and didn't have any close neighbors for several miles. Her mother had made sure because she loved her privacy oh so very much, not that it actually bothered Lauren. It was really peaceful out there.
Her room was on the second floor; it was decorated in ivory white with the wall behind her queen-sized bed painted a deep red with dark hardwood floors. She had ivory white nightstands beside her bed and a matching white rug underneath it, there were also two olive green stuffed armchairs and a small white end table between them near the bay window that overlooked the forest. The horizontal blinds in the window were the same olive green as the chairs while the drapes were the same shade as the walls and furniture.
At one time her room was decorated in different shades of pink, everything was pink, from the drapes to the bedspread, which was now cream with green pillows. She had redecorated when she came back from Appleton two and a half years ago. While at some point in time pink had suited her personality just fine, she was in need of a change and her mother had paid for everything that she had wanted — spared no expenses — as some sort of apology for dragging her back to Forks.
When she arrived at the kitchen Annie was nowhere to be found. She wondered where she'd gone this time. She found a plate of food in the fridge. Oh thank the gods. It was always the same; her appetite peaked every time after taking gym class. She took the plate out and set it on the microwave. After it was heated she grabbed a bottle of water and went to the living room, sat on the floor and turned on the TV. She surfed the channels for something to watch, finally settling on a Friends marathon. She ate between laughs, trying not to spill anything. After she finished she headed back to the kitchen, left the plate on the sink and went to the library to work on her homework.
This was pretty much her routine on weekdays. Wake up, get ready for school, have breakfast with her mother, school, eat dinner alone most of the times, homework and finally going to bed. Sometimes she would jog through the trail in the woods behind her house, but only when she needed to clear her head. It was kind of boring, she knew. But it was heaven compared to what was waiting for her.
