AN: While writing this fanfic I'll occasionally place links in my profile of related stuff in case you want to know e.g. what Vivian's car looks like, or see a map of the Forks area to get a better feel of the location. I like making fantasy more tangible,  but to each his own.

Chapter 2 – Have Pity on the Nose

As the Spider crawled over the 101 highway I tried to be positive. Today I'm going to be a girl with a sparkling personality; I'll be friendly to the girls and smile at the guys. I will try open up the human side of me as much as I can while hiding my wolf side. What an awful thought… having to hide my splendour. Are these meat people even worth it? Vivian, snap out of it. Today they won't be meat people, but hopefully individuals who can ignite a spark of interest in me.

A large sign saying Forks High School indicated that I had reached my destination. Its exterior was quite different from my previous school; my old school was one large block divided into classrooms. This school was a collection of matching houses built with maroon-colored bricks, like some random person woke up one morning thinking that this little neighbourhood would make a fine school. I had to admit, it did look more welcoming than previous schools I'd seen.

I parked in front of the first building in one of the three parking spaces, which had a small sign over the door reading FRONT OFFICE. I raised the hood of my raincoat to cover myself from the rain that was now gently falling and got out of the car. I followed a little stone path lined with dark hedges. I opened the door to a brightly lit, slightly humid, small office. On my right there was a small waiting area with padded folding chairs. Space that wasn't intended for walking was filled with plants. As much as I enjoy the green it always seemed wrong to me to confine nature to a pot.

Behind the front desk was a plump redhead woman with purple glasses and purple blouse. She was staring at me like I was the most peculiar thing she had ever seen. "Hello, my name is Vivian Gandillon. I'm supposed to start school here today." The woman composed herself and dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk till she found the ones she was looking for.

"Here you are Vivian," she said while handing me the papers. "This is your schedule, and here is a map of the school premises indicating which classroom is in what building, and this is the sheet you have to let all your teachers sign, at the end of the day you can bring this back to me." I smiled at the woman and thanked her. She wished me a nice day and I returned the favour.

I climbed back into my car and joined the steady flow of cars around the school to park in the students' parking lot. I was mildly stunned to see that most cars were old like my car if not ancient. The nicest car here was a shiny Volvo, and it stood out. I looked at it longingly for a second but redirected my eyes to my schedule; Math, History, French, Biology, Lunch, English, Art, PE.

Once I walked around the cafeteria, building four was easy to spot. Vivian, just be open and kind, I reminded myself. I saw a small group of girls walk towards the same building with the large black "4". I followed them inside and mimicked them by hanging my raincoat on a long row of hooks.

Their skin was pale, not that that surprised me with the lack of sun, but the dissimilarity with my golden nakedness separated me from them immediately. They looked at me with some hostile awe and took their seats. When I walked into view of the class it became silent for a second or two, the boys had lust in their eyes and the girls something more vicious. They should be careful, they haven't met vicious yet. I thought to them silently. After the two seconds of silence a gush of whispers blew over.

"Dang, she is hot." A male voice whispered from the right.

"Forget it mate, she is way out of your league."

A simultaneous whisper from the left snapped "She'd better stay away from my man or I'll kick her butt." Now that was funny.

"Do you think that's a natural tan? It's too smooth to be natural, probably a spray on," A blond girl with unnatural curls retorted. "Not that she would share her secret with me." I wondered if being open and giving smiles would help with those attitudes.

Ignoring the stares I walked to the teacher. "You must be Vivian Gandillon. Welcome to my wondrous world of Mathematics" he beamed. Pfff, one of those teachers. I smiled at him and handed him the sheet. "Take a seat Vivian." I took a seat in the first row next to the window, at least here I could pretend people weren't staring at me. The teacher started scribbling on the blackboard. When he turned he must have noticed that only a meagre few eyes were on him.

"Alright class, you forced me to do this," he took a dramatic pause. "I will have to use… my weapon of math-instruction!" He took out a pointer and started tapping at several equations on the board with a huge smile on his face. He tried too hard to be funny, but his enthusiasm was endearing. I paid attention even though I had covered the trigonometry before; algebra provides more of a challenge for me.

History and French passed in about the same fashion. Kids stared at me; the girls avoided me and the guys scanned my body. After History two brave boys called Taylor and Shady introduced themselves to me and escorted me to my French class. I guess they were mildly good-looking and deemed themselves worthy.

I now had to track my way to the Biology lab, room 12. I rummaged through my bag hunting for the school map. Great I lost it. I figured I'd take a chance with my social skills and ask two girls I recognised from Math; one had blond fake curls and was 5 feet tall, the other slightly taller with long black hair. They were having an animated discussion and didn't notice me approach.

"Hi," the girl startled when I spoke. "I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the Biology lab." She looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

"I'm so sorry," her hostility caught me off guard. I suppressed the urge to claw the sarcasm out of her. "We're late for class, come Yess. Oh, and you would do better to stay way from Taylor." The two meat-sacs marched off.

Feeling mildly angry and dejected I walked around until a large black 12 came into view labelling my destination. Thank the moon it was lunch after this lesson. At least then I could put my teeth in something bloody and familiar; my thoughts slipping to the very rare stake in my bag.

I was running late due to the unwillingness of those meat girls to help me. However, as I approached the biology lab the foulest smell pierced my nostrils. It was hard to describe, the closest match would be ice-cream that had expired a lifetime ago; sweet, cold, and ancient, yet not rotten. Moongoddess only knew what kind of experiments went on in these small towns. I was hoping the stench did not originate from the biology lab. My hope was in vain.

I paused outside the door. My final residue of optimism allowed me to hope that biology class would in some way bring some interest to my new life here. I took a deep breath – which I instantly regretted – knocked, and opened the door. All eyes were on me once again.

"No way." The voice reminded me of velvet. The fact that it was a whisper amplified the soft texture. I looked at the young man who uttered the words.

"Velvet, like I haven't heard that one before" the voice spat. "And this coming from a dog. Ridiculous. One mind I'll be glad not to pick."

I had registered only one voice, though the lips of the absurdly handsome boy didn't move after enunciating the first two words. The latter didn't come from his direction either, but… from within my head. I was too shocked to even absorb what the mental voice had said, something about velvet and dogs.

His pale face was straight, perfect, angular, and his body well built. His hair was bronze and in disarray. But what struck me most were his shocked eyes; they were black and fierce. He rippled his brow and twitched his nose upwards. Apparently I was not the only one who was bothered by the foul smell in the room. My, what I assumed to be always acute eyes, failed to focus on anything but him.

"You must be Vivian." I turned to see a middle-aged man called Mr. Banner look at me questionably. He obviously thought I was a low-neurological schizophrenic for being in such a stupor. I was probably closer to a high-neurological schizo for hearing voices.

"Yes, that's me." I handed him the sheet like I had to the other teachers. He pointed to the back of the class and told me to take a seat. As I was walking to the back of the class the stench of expired ice-cream intensified. It peaked at the first row where the fierce boy sat.

There was one single seat free at the back next to a slim girl with short brown hair styled in such a way that it emphasised her puffy cheeks. I sat next to her and whispered her a hello. Not expecting her to answer but being too confused to remember the show of hostility earlier today. She looked surprised but not unfriendly and gave me a "hi" back. Slowly sinking back to reality I glanced from her to Mr. Banner. He prattled on endlessly and was covering the blackboard with notes allowing me to talk to my neighbour unnoticed. I looked back at the girl, her face still shaped in surprise.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Am I that weird?" The latter question I probably directed more to myself.

"Nope, not weird. You're just erhm, a babe? People with your hot-rating don't usually tend to talk to us common folk." She explained with an amused look on her face.

"Oh." I so smartly replied and wondered who else could be high on the non-social hot-scale. "Well, then I'm glad you're not common. My name is Vivian."

"Bridget, nice to meet you." I'm not sure if she meant it but she seemed genuine. Perhaps this could be the beginning of my first human friendship. The thought of it relaxed me, perhaps Forks would indeed bring something new to my life that West Virginia hadn't before.

I tried to pay attention to the teacher to at least get some indication of what this lesson was about. Then my eyes fell once again upon the handsome but oh-so-smelly individual in the first row. My nose never failed on me, he was the origin from it all. His posture seemed slightly tense or perhaps annoyed I wondered what his mind was dwelling on. It must be the smell.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Bridget asked me.

"Do what?"

"Rub your nose like that." I lowered my hand, not even realising I was massaging my nose. The smell in the room irritated my nose slightly.

"It's because of this dreadful stench in the room." I answered honestly. "I suspect its coming from the bronze-haired boy. He or his old lunch is making my nose itch." Bridget once again framed her face in the shape of surprise.

"You can't mean Edward." The boy in question turned his head in a reflex and quickly redirected his gaze to the front again, like he had heard his name being called. However, we were whispering, no human ear could have heard that. Bridget blushed a little when she said "I've actually once gone to a perfumery wanting to find what cologne that guy wears coz dang, there is little that smells better."

Now it was my turn to be surprised. What was wrong with this town? "There is little I wouldn't rather smell! He stinks." I started tipping my chair balancing on the hind legs without using anything external for balance.

"An actual dog would have more grey matter than that bitch. Pointing out her abnormalities to the humans and involving me in the process!" The velvet voice snarled.

I wondered, if he would shower, would I get my sanity back? But if my subconscious was angry, wouldn't it refer to humans as meat-people? And as for calling me a dog… well that's so far off from my magnificence. I don't think any part of me could have referred to my wolf skin in that manner. Why do I keep hearing his voice?

Edward shot up and turned to face me, sending the desk flying foreword, slamming into the opposite wall missing Mr. Banner by a mere few inches. His actions were too fast and with too much force to be human. "Can you hear my thoughts?" the voice said.

Was he talking/thinking to me? This couldn't be true, I had to test this.

If you can hear mine stick out your tongue.

In a motion too fast for a human to see, he stuck out his tongue and retracted it. I was so stunned I lost balance and fell backwards banging my head against the floor.

Yes, Edward. I think I can hear your thoughts.

"Stagger to the front, tell the teacher you think you should go to the school nurse, I'll escort you. We need to talk."

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