Wow!! Thanks for all of the great reviews, I am honestly thankful that you took the time to write to me and seeing as I have had a great response I thought I would thank you all by getting the next chapter up quickly!
As always….I own no characters in here, all the praise goes to Stephanie Meyers – she is surely a genius! Please review!!
Chapter Two - Invitations
Alice's POV
As we left the cafeteria, Rosalie stalked past us and stormed down the corridor, she hated not being the centre of attention, but Emmett the eternal big brother that he is, put his arm around my shoulders and with a gentle, reassuring squeeze and a rumbling laugh said that he was glad that I had finally found someone. I smiled at his sentiment and he ruffled my short hair as he lumbered off after his now highly irritated wife.
Edward and I headed silently for our next lesson, I had Biology and he had Algebra. At the end of the corridor we headed our separate ways, my classroom was around the next corner, his was in a different block of the school entirely. Of course we had covered the material a hundred times over throughout our existence, High School was bland at the best of times but when you had pretended to be a senior countless times over, you learned to switch off into your own land of thoughts to escape the boredom and monotony.
As I rounded the corner and entered my class I sat at my familiar desk, most students had gathered at their normal seats already, my desk, as usual, was empty. From the first day of starting at this school none of my family had made any friends with the humans, they were all too scared to talk to us, and rightly so, to them we were a threat, something about us told them unconsciously that they should stay back, away from the danger that lurked at every moment. Sometimes I hated being a vampire. I did not choose this existence, it was forced upon me. I was a 'vegetarian' for goodness sake I wouldn't intentionally hurt them! I smiled at our families little in-joke about not drinking humans blood, the thirst was always there, but we controlled ourselves around humans and only ever drank the blood of animals. Sure I loved my family, but sometimes I got lonely, I wished more than anything that I could just be normal and have friends to chat with and have fun. Whilst I sat dwelling on my isolation a slightly familiar scent assaulted my senses, my smile instantly grew for I had smelt that delicious strawberry and jasmine scent once already today during lunch. I quickly decided that it was good fortune that I had a space free on my desk…it was the only free seat in the room and I was about to get to know the beauty from the cafeteria a little better.
I dared to cast a glance in her direction. She was stood talking to Mr Banner, passing him a slip of paper. The teacher hardly looked interested and instead of greeting her warmly he simply pointed in my direction and instructed her to take a seat. At that moment she looked over and our eyes met once more. She blushed and looked down and as she crossed the room towards my desk she stumbled over her own feet and her blush deepened. The rush of blood to her face should have stirred the beast within me, I instinctively grabbed the side of the desk readying to stop myself from the familiar need to pounce, to drink, to kill………it did not come…and before I knew what was happening to me and what this meant, she was there, sitting beside me awkwardly, looking like a goddess. This was going to be a good hour, a very good hour indeed!
Bella's POV
My heart sank as I watched her walk through the cafeteria doors. It was a strange and unfamiliar feeling to behold. I hadn't even spoken to the girl yet, I didn't even know her name, and yet here I was longing to be by her side. The bell signalling the end of lunch rang loud and clear and brought me back to reality. I hoped that no one had noticed that I had not been paying any attention at all to their conversation. A quick glance from behind my hair told me that no one was looking at me quizzically and I assumed that my lack of attention had gone unnoticed.
As we all stood to leave I discovered that I was not the only one to have Biology with Mr Banner next period, Jessica would be there too – great! I desperately hoped that there would be free desks at the back of the class were I could sit on my own and avoid further stares. I really did not like all of the attention that was being forced upon me today!
I followed Jessica silently through the doors, down the corridor and into the class room as she talked incessantly about how we would no doubt be wonderful friends…to be honest, in the little time I had spent with her I guessed that the only reasons she wanted to be friends with me was to try and grab some of the spotlight that was on me (hanging around with the new girl was bound to get her noticed) and also to make sure that I did not steal Mike from under her nose. There was a part of me that was glad, I could use her as equally as she was using me, she could take all of the limelight and she could definitely keep Mike as her own – there was a place that I definitely would not be going!
As we entered the room Jessica pointed to Mr Banner's desk, gave me a half-hearted smile and went to sit at her own desk, I silently thanked my lucky stars that she already had someone sat next to her. I turned to face the short, curly haired teacher and passed him my arrival slip – apparently I had to get one signed by each of my teachers and pass it back to main reception at the end of the day so that they could make sure I wasn't skipping any classes.
Mr Banner took my slip, signed it, passed it back to me and lazily pointed to the right hand side of the room. He told me to find a seat and take out my books. I turned in the direction that he pointed and instantly saw golden eyes. There, sat in all her beautiful glory was the pale girl from lunch. Her smile lit up the room; I blushed and looked at my feet embarrassed by the focused attention being lavished on me. I tried to take a step towards her but in my usual 'Bella' manner got my feet tangled together and tripped. I caught myself just in time and managed not to fall on my face but I felt the familiar warmth of a deepened blush, why must I be such a klutz, and in front of her as well! I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me, and with my head down I hurried into my seat and hoped that she wouldn't think I was a total idiot!
As soon as I sat down I stole a glance at her. She was still looking at me, her smile just as wide as it had been before. She held my stare for a few seconds and then opened her mouth to speak. Her voice sounded like singing angels as she introduced herself. 'Hi, my name is Alice Cullen; it's a great pleasure to meet you'. I tried to organise my thoughts, think Bella think!!! You're not saying anything; you're just staring and looking like an idiot – AGAIN! The little voice inside my head was screaming at me to say something, to say anything! Alice raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and spoke once more, 'this is the part were you tell me you're name' she said and finished with a wink. Suddenly my brain commenced work and I was finally able to reply. 'Hello Alice, my name is Isabella Swan, but everyone calls me Bella. It's nice to meet you too'.
Alice continued to look at me and said in a hushed voice 'Bella, I have something very important to ask you'. She could have asked me anything in the world and I would have said yes, as when she said my name out loud it sent shivers down my spine. 'Go on' I said in my hideously scratchy voice, I mentally kicked myself for sounding so ordinary and dull next to her angelic sing song voice. 'Bella……..would you like to spend some time with me after school? I could show you around Forks, be your tour guide'. She looked unsure of herself, as if I wouldn't want to spend time with her! I wanted to scream yes at her, of course I would Love to spend time with her, but in a rare moment of control I simply smiled and said 'yes, that would be lovely'. She practically jumped off of her stool and squealed in delight and the entire class silenced at the sudden noise. All eyes were adverted to us and we both quickly dropped our heads to look at out text books, we looked at each other and giggled, at that point I thought my heart would stop beating, she was just too cute! I could feel Jessica's eyes boring a way through my skull. She would surely bombard me with questions after class. But, I couldn't care less, I was going to spend the entire evening with Alice Cullen and I couldn't wait!