Fat lot of good it will do to him, Mike went on.

He's really not that good-looking. I don't know why Lauren is staring so much...or Jessica.
He winced mentally on the last name. His new infatuation, the generically popular Jessica Stanley was completely oblivious to him. Apparently,
she was not as oblivious to the boy. Like the child with the shiny objects again.

This put a mean edge to Mike's thoughts, though he was outwardly cordial to the newcomer as he explained to them, Edward, Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie and Alice, the commonly held knowledge about my family of two. The new students must have asked about me.

Everyone's conversing with me today, too, Mike thought happily in an aside. I'm lucky Edward has already two classes with me...I'll bet Jessica will want to ask me what he's-
I tried to block the insane chatter out of my head before the petty and the trivial could drive me mad. Instead I focused my attention on the newcomers.
"She's pretty good-looking, I'd have her if it wasn't for my Rosalie." Emmett, the big,
muscular Cullen thinks. Like I'd accept that bag of rocks, I thought to myself as I moved on to the next one.

There was nothing, nothing, interesting in Rosalie's mind. All she had in her mind was jealousy and reminding to primp herself in the restroom after lunch.
Boring, I thought, as Jasper was completely engrossed in the baseball conversation with Ben and Mike, however, Alice's and Edward's mind were pretty interesting. "I wonder if I should go over and talk to her..."Alice's thoughts were focused mainly on me, nothing in her mind of a hint of jealousy or vain.
She was a nice, warm and gentle girl I concluded after listening for a few minutes.

I listened for Edward Cullen's thoughts or opinions on Mike's story. What did he see when he looked at the strange, chalky-skinned girl that was universally avoided? It was sort of my responsibility to know his reaction. I acted as a lookout,
for lack of better word, for me and Charlie, my dad. To protect us. If anyone ever grew suspicious, I could easily give Charlie the warning and give "them" an easy retreat. I, no, my dad Charlie, he wasn't a pale, super strong, having-a-venom coated teeth, thing, like me. In other words, he accepted I was a vampire and protected me instead of shooting me down with his town sheriff's gun.
In return, I did not drink human's blood. Of course I wanted too and was tempted,
but I restrained myself. I simply took a diet of drinking and hunting animals. It happened occasionally-- some human with an active imagination would see me as a character of a book or a movie. Usually they got it wrong, but it was better to move on somewhere new than to risk scrutiny. Very, very rarely, someone would guess right. We didn't give them a chance to test their hypothesis. We simply disappeared, to become no more than a frightening memory.
I heard nothing, though I listened close beside where Mike's frivolous internal monologue continued to gush. It was as if there was no one sitting beside him. How weird, had the boy moved? That didn't seem likely, as Mike was still babbling to him. I looked up to check, feeling off-balance.

Checking on what my extra 'hearing' could tell me-- it wasn't something I ever had to do,
I preferred using my mind reading ability since it told me the exact truth. Again, my eyes locked on those same wide butterscotch eyes. He was sitting right where he had been before, and looking at me, a natural thing to be doing, I supposed, as Mike was still regaling him with the local gossip about the Swans.
Thinking about me, too, would be natural. But I couldn't hear a whisper.
Red stained his cheeks as he looked away, from the embarrassing gaffe of getting caught staring at a stranger. It was good that no breeze passed his scent off to me, I could have resisted but I wasn't sure,
and I rarely took my chances. The emotions had been as clear on his face as if they were spelled out in words across his forehead: surprise, as he unknowingly absorbed the signs of the subtle differences between his kind and mine, curiosity, as he listened to Mike's tale, and something more...fascination? It wouldn't be the first time.

I was beautiful to them, my intended prey. Then, finally, embarrassment as I caught him staring at me.
And yet, though his thoughts had been so clear in his odd eyes --odd.
because of the depth to them; butterscotch eyes often seemed flat in their darkness--I could hear nothing but silence from the place he was sitting. Nothing at all.
I felt a moment of unease, I groaned in frustration. This was nothing I'd ever encountered before. Was there something wrong with me? I felt exactly the same as I always did. Worried, I listened harder.
All the voices I'd been blocking were suddenly shouting in my head ...wonder what music he likes... maybe I could mention that new CD...Jessica Stanley was thinking, two tables away -- fixed on Edward Cullen.
Look at her staring at him. Isn't it enough that she has half the boys in school waiting for her to...Lauren Mallory was thinking sulfurous thoughts, also revolving around the boy and apparently me.
so stupid. You'd think he was famous or something... Even Bella Swan, staring... Eric Yorkie was too jealous that his face, by all rights,
should be dark jade color. And Mike, flaunting his new best friend, What a joke.
Vitriol continued to spew from the boy's thoughts.
More and more thoughts about Edward, as I listened.
...tons left to do tonight! Trig, and the English test. I hope my mom...Angela Weber, a quiet girl, whose thoughts were unusually kind, was the only one at the table who wasn't obsessed with this Edward.
I could hear them all, hear every insignificant thing they were thinking as it passed through their minds. But nothing at all from the new student with the deceptively communicative eyes.
And, of course, I could hear what the boy said when he spoke to Mike. I didn't have to read minds to be able to hear his low, clear voice on the far side of the long room.
"So she sits alone everyday, never eats and has caught every boy's attention?" I heard him ask or state? Probably resisting the urge to sneak a look at me as he said it. Oh, good luck, idiot! Mike thought before answering the boy's not-sure-if-question-or-statement. "Yeah,That's Bella Swan. She's hot, of course,
but don't waste your time. She doesn't date. Apparently none of the boys her are good-looking enough for her." He actually sniffed after that. Well, one didn't know what to expect from Mike Newton, I thought as I turned my head away to finally hide my smile. Mike and his classmates had no idea how lucky they were that none of them particularly appealed to me.
Beneath the humor, I felt a sudden urge to go over and talk to Edward Cullen.
What is really wrong with me today, I asked as I thought over what I just had thought.

I stood up from my seat then, and dumped my untouched food from the tray in the trash can and

left for biology class, not knowing what was waiting to happen there for me.