Ch. 2
With a resigned sigh, Bella settled into the cab of Ol' Red. She had thought about calling it Rust Bucket, The Thing, or Gramps, but she did not have the heart to make fun of her truck to that extent. Turning the key, Bella winced as Ol' Red roared into life and headed towards school. She really would have to pick up a set of earplugs to drive this monstrosity.
After Jake and Billy left with her father, who took them home in the cruiser, Bella had taken the opportunity to give her truck another test drive. She had learned to drive when she turned sixteen, thanks to Renee. Unfortunately, she was rather rusty. After all, besides driving to pick up groceries on the rare occasion, Bella really did not have that much practice over the past year. If she was going to drive it to school, then she might as well begin now.
In a matter of moments, however, Bella quickly discovered two other things. Besides the fact that the truck was loud, it was rather easy to stall. Secondly, it attracted a lot of attention. Because of that, Bella decided to spend that last weekend of freedom practicing her driving skills.
By Sunday night, Bella had driven her truck up the numerous hills that Washington had to offer or found flat roads to practice shifting gears. And every time the truck slowed to a crawl, stalled, or both, Bella would once again question why she wasn't still in Phoenix. As for attracting attention, well, the only way Bella figured getting around that was running Ol' Red off the road somewhere and letting nature stake its claim to the ancient beast.
Much to Bella's dismay, that wasn't an option, especially as she pulled into the school's parking lot that following morning.
As Bella rounded the speed bump and made it up the slight incline, Ol' Red decided to emit a loud, almost belching noise out the tailpipe. Mortified, Bella pulled into the nearest parking space and quickly killed the engine. Resting her head on the rim of the steering wheel, Bella closed her eyes while silently wishing she could redo that morning.
Lost in her thoughts, Bella squeaked moments later as a loud knock rattled her driver's window. Jolted from her self-wallowing, Bella winced in pain.
Ignoring the sensation as she glanced at the source of the commotion, Bella couldn't help but blink in surprise. There, with his face almost pressed against the window, stood a gangly, Asian boy who was waving rather too energetically for it being so early in the morning.
Instead of opening the door and hitting the kid, Bella reached down and manually cranked the window down. "Yes?"
"You're Isabella Swan, the new girl," the boy began. For being so aware of who she was, he was rather oblivious to the grimace on Bella's face.
"Bella," the brunette corrected while refraining from covering her ears to protect them from the high pitch in the kid's voice.
"Hi! I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place," Eric explained. "Anything you need, just hit me up. Tour guide, lunch date," Eric explained, ticking the list of suggestions off on his fingers, "shoulder to cry on-"
Blinking as the boy rambled on, Bella finally interrupted Eric as she realized it would be the only way to gain a peace of mind. "Sorry, but I'm kind of the suffer-in-silence type."
"Oh! That's a good headline for your feature!"
"Headline?" Bella nearly squeaked, suddenly distracted from the boy's voice.
"Yeah, I'm on the paper," Eric beamed. "And you're news, baby. Front page."
Registering what the boy had just said, Bella suddenly blanched.
"I-no, I'm not." Bella stammered in a growing bout of hysteria. She did not need to be attracting even more attention. Sure, she had the first day jitters and her truck sounded like it had gastric bypass issues, but that wasn't it. If Eric pushed on the paper, and if people started to take an interest in her, she could kiss her normal teenage experience goodbye. "I-please don't. I'm, seriously, not at all…Please-"
"Whoa, chillax." Stepping back a pace as he finally noticed the girl's frantic expression, Eric held his palms out at Bella, as if that would keep her from exploding. "No feature," Eric quickly reassured.
"Promise?"
"Yeah."
"Cool." Slouching into her seat, Bella rubbed at her temple while discretely lowering her hat. "Thanks," Bella added as an afterthought.
Figuring the scene was now safe, Eric moved back to the window. "You okay?" Eric inquired.
"Yeah. Just, first day jitters, you know" Bella lied. "Could you give me a few?"
"You sure? I don't mind showing you around," Eric offered. Even if he didn't get an article about the new girl, he'd still be the latest rage for the day. He was already the first to talk to the new student, now if he could just ensnare her into hanging out. She was cute when she wasn't freaking out.
"I'm positive. Thank you. I'm going to just relax for a moment," Bella replied. "I'll see you inside." Without waiting for a response, Bella rolled the window back up. She didn't mean to be rude, but she couldn't get out of the car just yet.
Waiting for Eric to walk off, Bella rested her head back down on the steering wheel. This was a bad idea. She nearly got caught at her old school, where over 700 students, in her junior year alone, practically ignored her. How did she expect to go unnoticed here? It was a vastly smaller school, with barely 350 bodies creating the entire student population. To top it off, she was fresh meat; fresh meat that almost made the front page.
Closing her eyes, Bella focused on her breathing rather than the people milling about outside.
It was no time to worry about the others, what she did need to worry about was the tail that she was painfully sitting on and the ears that threatened to push the ball cap off the top of her head. Despite putting her hair up in a ponytail to anchor it down, in her alarm, a set of rather large feline ears had nearly sprung free.
Counting to ten, Bella concentrated on making the ears and tail disappear. She had thankfully opted for loose cargo pants for the day. Unlike tight jeans, the baggier material would hide her tail if it happened to appear during class. Unfortunately, there was no way she would be able to get away with the hat. Even with it on, her ears would still be rather obvious if they were to appear. Thankfully, Bella had been in the truck at the time so the shadowing and the angle of the cab door blocked Eric's view.
As her ears transformed from a pair of furry, chestnut points into the soft, pale lobes that humans were normally associated with, Bella reached up with both hands. Checking to make sure they were normal, Bella then removed her hat with one hand and the elastic band holding her hair with the other. With a quick shake of her head, Bella allowed for gravity to take over as her long, chestnut locks tumbled down to settle around the middle of her back.
Double checking her appearance in the rearview mirror, Bella let out another sigh.
She was the new girl from the big city. She was a curiosity to this town, a town where the grandparents knew one another since their diaper days. And to top it off, she was a freak. Maybe if she looked like a girl who had actually resided in Phoenix, then it wouldn't be so bad; she could play off that. Unfortunately, she had burgundy hair, not blonde; brown eyes, not blue; and ivory skin, not a sun-kissed tan one typically expected from a girl who lived in the valley of the sun.
Although she had good traits as well, Bella knew that she would have to refrain from exposing them; it would simply draw too much attention if people found out. Just like at her last school, Bella knew that she would have to hide the fact that she had a grace and poise unique to most humans, and that beneath her baggy exterior, she was rather athletic in appearance and function. With a sigh, Bella fixed the mirror back in place and grabbed her bag. She would have to become the school's klutz all over again.
As she slid out of the truck, however, that plan went right out the window. In her distracted state of mind and her haste to shut off Ol' Red, Bella hadn't realized where she had parked. Unfortunately, as she stepped out of the truck, Bella became very aware of the puddle residing beneath her driver's door. Without a moment's hesitation, Bella dodged almost daintily over the water. Landing a few feet away from her truck and the harm of getting her shoes wet, it took another moment before the realization kicked in.
Not even twenty seconds out of the vehicle and she was already drawing attention to herself; not only with her odd behavior towards getting her shoes wet, but to her uncanny, agile abilities.
Sure enough, when Bella glanced up, multiple pairs of eyes were watching her from various spots in the parking lot.
Biting the inside of her cheek, Bella refrained from cursing herself out loud. So much for being known as a klutz. If she wasn't careful, people would grow suspicious of her, just like they had in Phoenix. On the positive side, if they remained oblivious, Bella would then have to bat them off in trying to coax her to join their sport teams.
Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do at the current moment but to try harder to control herself, water or no. With a sigh, Bella closed the driver's door and headed towards the school's double doors.
It's stunts like that that will get you in trouble, Bella. Mentally berating herself, Bella stuffed a pair of ear buds into their respective ear. Once satisfied that they weren't going to fall out, Bella fiddled with the phone inside her jacket pocket and blindly guided her fingers to unlock the screen.
As the music snaked its way out of the wires and into her skull, Bella skittered yet another puddle and dodged around the swarm of students that continued to stare at her. As the more daring of the bunch tried to greet her, Bella used her music to drown out the people around her. Subconsciously, Bella realized that she wasn't making a very good first impression, but she couldn't help herself. It was wet outside and she was now cold and miserable.
Sadly, it was only the middle of March.
Why do I have such a glutton for punishment? Bella grumbled as the skies opened up and the drizzle returned before she made it to the doors. Of all the places she could have moved to, she had to pick one of the wettest areas on Earth. Pulling the hood of her black jacket up over her head, Bella picked up her pace and blended into the crowd.
As Bella stepped into the building, she breathed a sigh of relief. Having the foresight to swing by the week before while the school was empty, Bella was able to bypass the registrar office. Not only did it save her time, but she had also taken the opportunity to scout out her classrooms while there.
Unable to resist glancing through the windows as she passed the door to the registrar, Bella looked into the small office. Beneath the fluorescent lighting, Bella easily picked out the padded folding chairs, the orange-flecked commercial carpet, and the notices and awards that cluttered the wall. Bella was glad she didn't have to sit in the waiting area that morning. The big clock hanging over the reception's desk had been rather loud the last time she was in there.
Even in the hall, with the door shut, she could hear it ticking along. On top of that, the place smelt weird.
The numerous plants that littered the office held an odd musk; which didn't help the claustrophobic sensation Bella experienced. Between the cluster of bright colored flyers that were scattered about the office and the clutter of wire baskets, each mounded with reams of paper, Bella wasn't sure which was worse. Along with the decorations in the scant space, Bella had also been slightly off put by the woman who manned the front desk. What was her name again?
As hard as she tried, Bella couldn't remember. All that she could recall was the purple t-shirt that had appeared out of place for an office setting, the same shirt that had clashed horribly with the woman's bright red hair. Perhaps it was because school was in limbo, but Bella had felt rather overdressed in the woman's presence, and that was saying something.
Continuing past the office, Bella turned her attention back to her schedule as she pulled it out of her pocket. At least the woman had been kind enough to go over her classes and the best route to each one.
Let's see. First stop, English with Mr. Mason.
Figuring her way around the campus was fairly simple, which thankfully helped to counter the butterflies that were currently residing within her abdomen. As she spotted the large black 3 on the side of a particular building, Bella angled her way over and followed behind two other students. As they removed their coats, Bella realized that both of her peers were female, and to top it off, they both had a similar pale hue to their skin.
Perhaps it won't be so bad here after all, Bella hoped as she mimicked their actions and hung her coat up on one of the numerous hooks.
Glancing around the small classroom, Bella quickly spotted the teacher. Remembering that she had been directed to get a signature from each of her professors, Bella moved over the desk.
"Excuse me," Bella whispered, not wanting to disturb the tall, balding man. As Mr. Mason glanced up from the stack of papers in front of him, Bella held out the slip. "I just need to get this signed, since I'm new."
Bella wasn't certain why the instructor sat there gawking at her, but she was rather relieved when he dismissed her without making her introduce herself to the class. Resisting the urge to give herself a pat down, Bella waited patiently for the professor to return the slip and fetch her a list of their current readings. Unfortunately, it allotted the students ample amount of time to study Bella.
Grabbing the papers, Bella quickly made her way to the empty desk, ignoring the fact that each and every student had turned to watch her as she walked past them. On the upside, the location of the desk forced many of the students to turn around after a few moments. As for those who continued to stare, Bella simply plucked a book from her bag and used it to ignore her peers until the class began.
Having covered the material at her previous school, Bella simply skimmed over the assignments, and realizing that she still had a majority of the work saved on her computer, put the list away. Thankfully, the class passed fairly smoothly after that and before Bella knew it, the bell rang. Released, Bella grabbed her bag, and with a quick check of the map, headed to her next class.
The rest of the morning passed in a similar blur with first Trigonometry and then Spanish. In each, she gave the teacher the slip to sign, waited for her books, then she found a seat to call her own. Once settled, she spent the remainder of the class trying to block out those around her. For the most part it worked, but by the third class period, Bella was beginning to recognize many of the faces from her previous two periods. One in particular was a quiet girl by the name Angela. She was tiny; several inches shorter than Bella's five feet, four inches, but her wildly, curly, dark hair made up for a majority of the height difference. On top of that, Bella actually didn't mind when the girl prattled on about the various teachers and classes. She was the first to treat her like a normal peer, not some new specimen.
Try as she might, however, Bella couldn't get away from the continuous swarm of her other peers.
Curious about the mysterious girl that hardly spoke, the bravest of the lot would introduce themselves and ask questions. Typically they ranged over the same few topics: How did she like Forks? Was it very different from Phoenix? How was she liking the rain? And her personal favorite: Why did she move here, of all places?
Remembering that she had moved here to start anew and be a normal teenager, Bella smiled and answered each question as diplomatically as possible. Regretfully, Bella quickly learned, however, that if she gave an inch with her answers, they would take a mile into prying with more invasive questions.
By the time gym rolled around, Bella wanted to ditch the class and hide somewhere quiet, like the library. Unfortunately, Bella knew the routine.
Slipping into the locker room, Bella quickly found the coach and after getting her assigned locker, disappeared into a bathroom stall to change. It wasn't that she was embarrassed about her figure, but followed the notion of: less questions asked, the less answers she had to give. The first step to her madness was to make sure no one realized she was rather fit for her age. That meant changing in secrecy.
Slipping into a baggy pair of sweats and an oversized t-shirt, Bella put her sneakers back on and made her way into the gym. When she stepped onto the court, Bella sighed. Volleyball, great. She was rather good at the sport. Sadly, she knew that she would have to down play herself during this class.
As the girls were split into teams, Bella watched as the gym was divided as well. Along with half a court full of girls, the other half was occupied with boys' basketball team. Returning her focus on the game at hand, Bella put her all in avoiding the volleyball like it was a radioactive time bomb waiting to explode.
"Block it, Chloe! Yeah! Good attack!" the team captain cheered.
Having grown distracted by watching the boys run drills, Bella realized at the last minute that the volleyball had been directed back towards her instead of over the net.
Without much time to react, Bella simply smacked the ball away from her face. Altering the projectile object, Bella watched in horror as the force of her open palm caused the ball to fly off the court only to bean one of the basketball players in the back of the head.
"Ow!"
Wincing as she watched a blond, spiky haired boy turnabout while rubbing his head, Bella quickly hurried over.
"I'm so sorry!" Bella apologized, rather embarrassed. "Are you alright? I warned them not to put me in."
"It's only a flesh wound." Dropping his hand, the blonde boy grinned in recognition. "Hey, you're Isabella, right?"
Smiling in relief at not being yelled at, Bella decided to reply. "Just Bella," she corrected for the umpteenth time that day.
"I'm Mike. Mike Newton."
Before Bella could reply, the team captain suddenly appeared at her side. Moving to step closer to Mike, the energetic and athletic girl subtly, but rather possessively nudged Mike. "She's got a great spike, doesn't she?" the girl interrupted.
Bella got the hint rather clearly. Granted, she could admit that the kid wasn't bad looking, and was rather affable, but he definitely wasn't her type.
"Um," Mike began, taken off guard. "I guess, Jess."
Turning her attention to Bella, Jessica quickly bombarded Bella with the next question. "So, you're from Arizona, right? Aren't people supposed to be, like, tan down there?"
Blinking momentarily at the obvious jib, Bella merely shrugged. If that's how it was to be, Bella could play. "That's why they kicked me out."
As the crickets chirped once, twice, three times, Bella realized that clouds and humor did not mix well. About to sigh, Bella felt the corner of her lips quirk slightly as Mike laughed, quickly followed by a forced chuckle from Jessica.
"That's so funny."
"Anyways, sorry again about your head," Bella said to Mike, ignoring Jessica for the moment. "I should go get changed. Lunch, and all." As she spoke, Bella slowly began to back away from the pair.
"Wait!" Mike called, stepping forward to close the distance once again. "Why don't you join us for lunch?"
Taking in the glare from Jessica, Bella bit her bottom lip as she debated. Quickly, she decided against the invitation, friends be damned. "Sorry, I can't," Bella began, only to stop as she saw the rejected expression on Mike's face. Bella felt like she had just kicked his puppy and tossed him to the curb. Sighing, Bella came up with a better excuse, "I already promised I would sit with this chick, Angela."
"Oh! Weber? She's part of our group!" Mike suddenly beamed. "See you at lunch!"
Rubbing her temple, Bella followed a silently fuming Jessica back to the locker rooms for her apparent lunch date. Hopefully Angela wouldn't mind that Bella invited herself.