I knew they could all see me curled up. They were probably wondering what the matter was, but I didn't care. I took a few deep breaths before turning the music off. I had to face my fears, I was going to talk to them, find out what there problem with me was. Especially that Edward. But when I got out of the car, they were gone. They wouldn't have gone far, but they had all disappeared as far as I could see. I wasn't about to chase them around though; if they didn't want to talk to me then they wouldn't let me.
I locked my car and walked towards the buildings. I reached the science lab and leant against the wall, wondering where they were, when Angela, from Spanish was walking past.
"Hi," I said to her, needing a distraction. She looked shocked to see me talking to her.
"Oh hi, Bella is it?" She asked me, in her quiet voice. I liked her.
"Yeah, I was wondering if you could help me, I don't know where my next lesson is." A complete and utter lie, but like I said, I needed a distraction.
"Um, sure. Which room is it?" She asked
"It's in room 12. Sorry about this, I'm not very good with maps." I smiled at her, and she returned it.
"Ok, follow me." We were walking for less than 10 seconds when the Pixie girl came up to us. I looked at her, puzzled as to what brought her here. She didn't look at me, but smiled straight at Angela, who seemed as confused as me.
"Hi Angela, I was wondering when the chemistry homework was for. I have completely forgotten," She laughed, and it sounded like a tinkling of a bell. Angela took a second to recover before replying. I was suspicious now, as to why she was with us, she didn't forget, I was sure of it.
"Oh, it was for tomorrow. I haven't done it yet." She replied in her quiet little voice.
"Neither have I. I had the whole holidays to do it as well. I think I will have to ask Edward about it, I was totally confused. I don't understand ionic bonds." At the sound of Edwards name I grew furious and balled my hands up into fists. That calming feeling came over me again though. What was with this feeling?
"Oh, don't you? I can help you now if you'd like. I can explain while I walk Bella to English."
"That would be great! I'm in English next too. Room 12?" Angela nodded. She was asking Angela rather than me. I was convinced they sent her along, to make sure I wouldn't drain her on the way or something. The idea made me laugh, attracting Angela's attention. I avoided her gaze though, so I didn't have to explain myself to her.
They talked all about the homework they had on the way to the classroom. When we reached it, I thanked Angela and moved to hug her as a thank you, knowing it would give Pixie a heart attack. I put one arm around Angela and she did the same to me. Pixie just looked away, as if it didn't bother her one bit.
It annoyed me that she didn't get all worried, so I stormed into the classroom. However we were about 5 minutes early, so no one else was in here. I heard Pixie asking Angela more questions about the homework, before Angela said that she really had to go, so that she wouldn't be late.
The door opened then and I didn't look up, I already knew who it was. Even without the sweet smell, and virtually silent footsteps. I was sat down on the front desk, now knowing where I would be sitting. I heard her cough behind me.
I turned to look at her; she was smiling awkwardly at me. I raised an eyebrow at her, trying to keep my calm. She took a deep breath.
"I am so sorry about this dinner. I shouldn't be speaking to you, because Edward is going to be furious with me. I really didn't want to do the whole following you thing, but Edward and Rosalie insisted. I knew you wouldn't do anything, just like I knew you wouldn't with Angela, but Edward said we had to be careful…"
"Edward said?" I asked, getting very annoyed. "What would Edward know about me? If he had even tried to bloody well to speak to me, to get to know me, before he judged me, maybe he would realized that I'm not the kind of person who preys on innocent people."
"I know he should have tried to do that. But I can only say sorry for myself. And I want to ask you to meet up with me and the rest of my family after school. They want to speak to you." She said to me quickly. They wanted to speak to me? It seemed to me that it would be more like a court trail, my life, being debated over. But this would come sooner or later, so I suppose it was best to go voluntary.
"Sure, where and when?" She smiled, seemingly relieved.
"Why don't you follow our car after school, you can come back to our house. Don't worry; we just want to talk to you." She tried to reassure me, though I was past that point.
"Ok, which car is yours?"
"It's the Volvo, but I'll meet you outside your classroom. You'll be in chemistry, with Edward actually, but I don't think he will be all for talking to you at the moment, so I'll show you to our car…" She seemed to be more talking to herself than me.
"Wait…How did you know I was in chemistry?" I asked, confused as I hadn't mentioned that to her.
"Erm…" She faltered, "You're always in the same science groups and Edward mentioned that you were in his group," for some reason I didn't believe her. I didn't push the matter though, because a couple more people came through the door just as the bell went. I turned away from the pixie, but realized I didn't know what her name was.
"Alice," She said behind me. How did she do that? Could she read my mind? I shuddered, but didn't turn around. The teacher presently walked in. He looked at me puzzled at first, but then he understood.
"You must be Bella, the new girl. I'm Mr. Berty, the English teacher. Now where can we sit you?" He said to himself. He looked around, before seeing the empty space next to Alice. He pointed to it.
"You can go sit next to Alice." I sighed lightly, so he wouldn't notice, and walked over to my new place.
I sat down and pulled out my things. This term, we were told, we would be continuing Romeo and Juliet. I smiled at this; I loved the play and had read it many times. Alice laughed lightly to my left, but I didn't ask her what was funny.
"As revision, I will give each pair a scene from the first two acts of the play. You are to practice the scene and will perform it to the rest of the class on Wednesday." He started handing out scripts to us all. Alice turned to me, smiling widely. We got our script.
NO! How typical, we get the balcony scene.
"Oh, good. I love this scene! So, are you going to be Juliet, and I Romeo? Or the other way around?" She asked, but I couldn't be bothered deciding.
"You decide," I mumbled.
"Ok, you can be Juliet. So let's practice," She took a copy of the script and held the other one out to me. I took it and looked at. The entire first bit was just her.
She spoke her lines so melodically, that all the pairs around us had stopped to listen. Mr. Berty noticed and told them to get on with their work, but he himself seemed mesmerized. When Alice had finished her first bit, it was my first line.
"Ay me!" I said. As we carried on with our parts, everyone else around us became more and more interested in us, and Mr. Berty had to tell them more than once to get on with their work. We gave each other bits of advice, and started discussing the play, and the hidden meanings in the text. I was actually starting to enjoy myself when the bell went. I smiled at Alice before packing away my things.
"Can I walk you to your next class, Bella?" I was taken back by this, but agreed.
"Yeah, sure. As long as you won't be late for yours." She just winked at me and grabbed my hand. Her hand felt nice in mine, natural. She pulled me out of the classroom, and headed with me to the science block. We walked in silence, but it wasn't awkward silence, it was comfortable. When we got to the classroom, Edward was standing outside, looking furious. His hands were in fists at his sides, and his lips were a thin line. Alice didn't seem afraid though. She just looked at him. After a minute or so he sighed.
"We'll talk later Alice," He said. Wow, his voice. It was so…like velvet, so smooth. Even when he was mad. It was amazing. He stalked off into the classroom, without even looking at me, that threat sent shivers down my spine, even with his voice, but Alice seemed unconcerned. She hugged me.
"See you after the lesson, Bella." And she skipped off.
There was no one else around so I grabbed the box of contacts and changed the ones that were in .I took a deep breath, as a matter of preparation, and then walked into the classroom. The teacher was sorting through his papers. He looked up at me, as I made an effort to make noise as I walked. He smiled.
"Ah, the new girl, Bella." This whole new girl thing was getting tiring. I just wanted to fit in. "We have a seat free next to Edward, if you'd like to sit there." I nearly told him I wouldn't like to, but I held my tongue. I walked over to Edward, who was pointedly avoiding my gaze. I sat down and the lesson began.
Again we sat in silence. Both of us refusing to talk to each other. Boy, practicals were going to be difficult in the future. The lesson was boring, I had done it before. And when the end came, I was all too eager to leave. I quickly packed my bags and stood up to leave the classroom. Edward seemed to be taking his time as I walked away. As she promised, Alice was waiting outside the door, smiling at me. It felt strange for her to be taking me to the place where I would probably be discussing whether I am allowed to live or not.
"Come on. Let's go to the car park." We walked again in silence. When we got there she pointed out the Volvo I had seen this morning.
"That's our car, you can follow us. Actually, I might ask…"
"No! Alice, get in the car." came Edwards's voice, from behind us.
"But Edward, nothing is going to happen. I'll be fine." Alice argued
"You don't know that for sure."
"Edward. Are you betting against me?" Alice's voice was slightly mocking. I raised my eyebrows slightly wondering if Alice had some sort of gambling addiction.
Edward just stood there silently glaring at Alice. Alice didn't look scared, nor did she look away. The blonde guy walked over to Alice's side.
"Alice, come on. He's right." He said to her
"No, I won't Jasper. Not until he admits he is being over the top, as usual. What is your problem Edward? We will be right behind you, nothing will happen. I would know if it was going to wouldn't I? For goodness sake, get over yourself, and let me go with her!"
Wow, she really told him, and he didn't seem to appreciate it. He moved towards Alice, his fists so tight that his skin on his knuckles was really stretched. Suddenly that air of calm came over us all again, and Edward moved back and relaxed his hands, glaring at the one called Jasper. I saw Alice look up at Jasper appreciatively, and I became even more confused.
"Fine, go, it's your life." He said, and walked over to the driver's side of the Volvo. Alice turned to me and smiled. She walked to the passenger side, as I got in at the driver's side. I didn't bother to do my seatbelt up; it wasn't as if I was going to crash. I saw her looking at my stash of cds.
"You can put one on if you'd like."
"Thanks," She said and pulled one out, and put it on.
"You know, you should have just gone with them Alice, rather than arguing." I said to her over the music, as she hadn't turned it down from the volume I had it on at dinner. She shrugged.
"Edward needed telling. Plus I like you." I smiled at her. It meant a lot to me as no one had said anything so nice in a long time. The journey to their house didn't take long, because Edward drove so fast. I didn't have a problem with that though. When we reached the entrance to their driveway I thought 'Finally' but it was about a mile long. It was crazy!
When we finally reached the house I was amazed. It was huge and beautiful. We both got out of the car, but everyone else was already inside. I guess they didn't have to pretend here.
I followed Alice up the steps and into the front room. Everyone was sitting there watching us, some glaring. There were two more vampires here (how many more were there?). There was a handsome blonde male, and an older female. Not past her twenties when she was turned by the looks of things, same with the guy. They were both smiling at me. I tried to smile back but I was genuinely scared.
I was in a room with 7 vampires, who I didn't know, and I didn't know how they treated newcomers. Before today I didn't even know more existed! I looked around, keeping tensed and alert.
"Jasper," said the blonde male, and Jasper nodded. Instantly I felt relaxed and at ease. How could I feel this way in this kind of situation? The blonde male stood up and approached me. I took an instinctive step back, but he held both his hands up, indicating no harm. As he took a step forward, I stood my ground and looked him in the eyes; they were the same as the others. He held out his hand to me, and I cautiously took it, even if I didn't want to. His hand felt slightly warm in mine, like Alice's had, and natural. We dropped out hands.
"Hello, I'm Carlisle." He said to me
"Bella," I replied stiffly. Everyone else had stood up and were stood around me. I felt slightly surrounded, and took up a slightly defensive stance. Carlisle noticed.
"Move back a bit everyone, you're surrounding her." He told them. They all moved back and gave me some space. "I don't know if my family have introduced themselves to you but this is Alice," she waved at me, smiling, "This is Rosalie," he pointed to the blonde girl who was glaring at me. Someone said her name, chiding her. I think it was the older female. "This is Emmett, Rosalie's husband," He pointed to the muscular, black haired guy, who smiled at me slightly, "That's Jasper," Jasper just stared at me, as if he was trying to figure me out, "This is my wife, Esme," he pointed to the older woman. She must be the maternal figure of the family, and she smiled at me lovingly. "And finally Edward," Edward made no notion of greeting; he simply stared at me, seemingly frustrated.
"Hi," I said to them all quietly.