Animals in a Cage
Annaleise Marie
Chapter One: Fair Warning
AN: This chapter is mostly an introduction to the characters and their present state. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for continuing to read! Love to you all!
X
APOV
"It is a privilege to meet him. And that member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle-" Rosalie said in a ridiculous British accent, rolling her eyes.
"Kelvil, my love, Kelvil," Emmett interrupted with a smirk.
"He must be quite respectable," Rosalie continued. "One has never heard his name before in the whole course of one's life, which speaks volumes for a man nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a suitable person."
"I dislike Mrs. Allonby," I said, trying not to laugh. "I dislike her more than I can say."
"I am not sure, Miss Worsely, that foreigners like yourself should cultivate likes or dislikes about the people they are invited to meet," Rosalie admonished, shaking her finger at me comically. "Mrs. Allonby is very well born. She is a niece of Lord Brancaster's. It is said, of course, that she ran away twice before she was married. But you know how unfair people often are. I myself don't believe she ran away more than once."
The three of us couldn't contain it anymore and burst out laughing, Emmett guffawing so hard that he was hunched over in his desk, pounding the surface with a huge fist.
"Would you three please control yourselves?" Ms. Floyd broke through our laughter. I rolled my eyes. I really don't understand why this woman became an English teacher. She really has no appreciation. Maybe years of hearing students butcher Wilde has jaded her beyond repair.
"It's a comedy, Ms. Floyd," Rosalie drawled.
"Do you even understand why it's funny?" Ms. Floyd asked. Rosalie's eyes narrowed, all trace of humor gone from her perfect features. I held my breath. Rosalie has what most teachers generously refer to as an "attitude problem" and the rest of us call, "uncontrollable nuclear fucking rage issues".
"I don't think it's very funny," Mike Newton piped up helpfully. Emmett laughed harder. I wondered if he would fall out of his chair.
"Mr. Arbuthnot is very charming," I said pointedly. Rosalie scoffed, turning away from Ms. Floyd and looking back at her book. Jasper wiggled his eyes at me from across the room and I twisted my lips to keep from laughing again.
"Ah, yes! The young man who has a post in a bank," Rosalie sneered. Jasper flipped her off and Rosalie rushed on before Ms. Floyd could lose her mind. "Lady Hunstanton is most kind in asking him here, and Lord Illingworth seems to have taken quite a fancy to him. I'm not sure, however, that Jane is right in taking him out of his position. In my young days, Miss Worsely, one never met any one in society who worked for their living. It was not considered the thing."
"In America those are the people we respect most," I said, waving my hand dismissively. Ms. Floyd rolled her eyes. I'm sure that an English woman at the time would have been more quietly sarcastic, but fuck that I was reading an American's part.
"I have no doubt of it," Rosalie muttered contemptibly.
"Mr. Arbuthnot has a beautiful nature! He is so simple, so sincere!" I started and Emmett laughed.
"So, so stupid!" he added.
"Stick to the play, Mr. McCarty," Ms. Floyd snapped.
"He has one of the most beautiful natures I have come across. It is a privilege to meet him," I said pointedly. Rosalie snorted.
"It is not customary in England, Miss Worsley, for a young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person of the opposite sex," Rosalie said. "English women conceal their feelings until they are married. They show them then."
"In America we show our feelings to the opposite sex first chance we get," I said. Jasper and Emmett both started laughing again. Jessica Stanley shot me an appalled look. "Please, Jessica, like you're not constantly shoving your feelings at Edward."
Jessica threw her pen at me and I caught it, eying the metallic purple gel in the casing.
"The play, Miss Brandon," Ms. Floyd snapped again.
"Fine, fine, let's see..." I said, scanning the page for my line. "Do you, in England, allow no friendship to exist between a young man and a young girl? Jeez, what a sausage fest."
"That's it, all of you to the principal," Ms. Floyd said, slamming her copy of the play down onto her desk and motioning towards the door. "Now!"
As we filed out of the room I slid the purple gel pen into my pocket.
X
EPOV
"How are you guys not suspended yet?" I asked. The guys had just turned up at lunch after their third consecutive day of being kicked out of English.
"You know, I don't think it's really our fault, man," Jasper said with a slow grin. "I think Oscar himself would have appreciated our commentary."
"Oscar," I said dully.
"Wilde," Alice supplied. "We're reading A Woman of No Importance this week."
"Are you gonna eat that?" Emmett asked, grabbing my bowl of mashed potatoes from my plate.
"Man, fuck you, Emmett," I said. My throat felt tight as he shoveled the potatoes into his mouth. I imagined them sticking like glue in my throat, suffocating me.
We're a messed-up group I guess. The administration gently labels us as "troubled", but it's their politically correct way of saying "will probably be dead before their class reunion". I don't know, we work together.
Emmett and Rosalie are a fucking match made in hell, I'm telling you. They're fucking insane. Emmett developed this weird adrenaline addiction sometime around middle school, after he went cliff-diving in La Push and nearly died. Rosalie, though, she's something else. She's a fucking rage junkie from hell, and always has been, as far as I can remember. She broke a kid's nose in elementary school because he took her red crayon. Now she fights anyone. She can kick your ass easily, but she seems to take personal delight in reducing people to tears with a few choice words.
They feed off of each other, Rosalie's anger fueling Emmett's antics, and vice versa. Last year Emmett joined some local Fight Club ripoff and it's just been non-stop shit since then. They'll kick the shit out of each other if they get bored enough. Weird thing is, even though she's half his size, Rosalie usually wins.
"I'm full of hate and I fucking love it," she told me once.
"Anyway, you'll never guess what we found out," Alice went on, picking up my iPod and scrolling through the menu. I held my hand out and she put it back, smiling sheepishly. Alice is a fucking klepto. I say that in the clinical sense, not to insult her. She's known pretty well as a thief but I don't think that's necessarily fair. "Thief" seems to imply malice, and that's not Alice. She just kind of fucking squirrels shit away that interests her. She doesn't even realize she's doing it half of the time. But I've lost two iPods to her already and I'm keeping close watch on this one.
"What's that?" I asked, only half-interested. Alice knew everything about everyone, and I wasn't even half-interested in most of it.
"There's a new girl," she said. "Just transferred here from Arizona. She was registering while we were waiting to see Mr. Greene."
"So?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't you find it a little interesting? We almost never get new students because no one in their right fucking mind wants to live here," Alice pointed out. "Plus, she's really pretty."
"Ah," I said. It made sense now. Alice had declared at the beginning of the year that she intended to help me finally fall in love. Like it was already a fucking goal of mine or something. All it had led to so far was an increase in Jessica Stanley's determination to hop on my dick.
"Don't worry, I'm sure she's already been warned to stay away from the bad kids," Rosalie said sourly. I rolled my eyes. It was a constant cause of ire for Rosalie to be labeled that way. She maintained that she was only seen as a problem rage case because everyone around her was causing problems.
"We'll just have to fix that," Alice said cheerfully.
"All you know about this girl is that she's pretty," I pointed out. "Why are you so determined to befriend her?"
"Because she's new and shiny," Jasper said with a chuckle. Alice glared at him.
"Anyway, of course that's not all I know about her," Alice said, reaching into her purse and pulling out a manilla folder. "I borrowed this from the secretary," she said.
"Borrowed," Emmett snorted.
"Her name's Isabella Marie Swan," Alice started reading from the file. "She was last enrolled in Desert Vista High School in Phoenix. 4.0 GPA, school newspaper, transferred for 'personal reasons', and had a standing weekly appointment with the guidance counselor that she plans to continue with a counselor here."
"Sounds like she may fit right in," Jasper conceded.
"It's not a fucking club," Rosalie said. She had a point.
"I wonder what she was seeing the counselor about?" Alice said, shifting through the file. "There aren't any details."
"They wouldn't be kept with her main file, they'd be sent directly to the counselor," I said.
"It's probably some pussy thing like anorexia," Emmett said. I threw my water bottle at him. It bounced off of his shoulder and hit the ground with a thud. "Maybe if you ate a fucking cheeseburger once in a while I would've felt that."
"Fuck you, man," I said again. Emmett didn't actually bother me. He was pretty much the only person who would even talk about my "issues". It made most people uncomfortable, a guy with an eating disorder.
"One way to find out," Alice said, ignoring us. "Isabella!"
A girl who had just exited the lunch line whipped her head up, looking around in surprise. Alice waved her over to sit with us and she hesitated, looking confused, before slowly making her way over to our table.
"You're not seriously going to just ask her," Jasper muttered. Alice shot him a look that clearly said, bitch, please.
I glanced down at the table and saw that Alice had whisked the file out of sight.
"Welcome to Forks," she chirped as Isabella sat down between me and Emmett.
"Yeah," Isabella said, looking grim.
"It's pretty much crap," Rosalie added, making a toasting motion with her milk carton.
"Yeah, but my dad lives here, and I decided to move in with him, so..." Bella trailed off, shrugging. "It's pretty different from Phoenix."
"Who's your dad?" Alice asked. We all had a pretty good idea, but then, we weren't supposed to have seen her file.
"Charlie Swan?" she answered hesitantly. Emmett laughed. "You know him?"
"Yeah, we know the chief," Jasper said. "He and I had our differences a couple years back."
"I don't really know anything about it..." she said, looking questioningly at him.
"Jasper Whitlock," he supplied. "And to get all of the introductions out of the way, this is Alice Brandon, Edward Masen, Emmett McCarty, and Rosalie Hale." He pointed to each of us in turn.
"Bella Swan," she replied. "Just Bella."
"Sorry about that," Alice said, wincing.
"It's been happening all day," Bella said dismissively, twisting the stem on her apple absently. I saw Emmett eyeing her tray, which held just the apple and a bottle of lemonade from the vending machines. He looked pointedly at me and I rolled my eyes.
"Not hungry?" he asked and Bella looked at him, startled. I wasn't surprised, people tended to get nervous when Emmett addressed them until they got to know him.
"Emmett, if I have to tell you one more time to shut the fuck up," I warned. Bella shook her head.
"No, um, it's just that I'm a vegetarian," she explained. "Your cafeteria isn't really veggie-friendly."
Nothing too weird about being a vegetarian. Emmett grinned at me.
"Yeah, Edward's one of those, too," he said. Bella turned to me, her eyes lighting up, and I suddenly saw what Alice had meant. She really was pretty. Her hair was shiny and rich, falling down around her shoulders in a full cloud. She had full, rosy lips and pale even skin, huge dark eyes setting a sharp contrast. And she was thin. Healthy thin.
"Really?" she asked. I couldn't take that fucking look she was giving me. I stood up, pushing my tray towards the center of the table and grabbing my bag.
"I've got Chem," I muttered before stalking away from the table.
"Hey, Newton's tonight!" Emmett shouted and I threw up a hand to show that I had heard him but didn't stop to respond.
X
BPOV
That was odd and abrupt. I eyed Edward's tray, wondering what had ticked him off about our discussion of eating habits. His tray was empty, but I noticed that Emmett seemed to have two of everything. Maybe he was a vegetarian and the lack of lunch made him irritable? But then why wouldn't he pack a lunch? That was what I was planning on doing after today.
"Is he really a vegetarian or where you just fucking with him?" I asked. Emmett looked thoughtful.
"Edward hasn't eaten meat in nearly a year, to the best of my knowledge," he said, nodding.
"Don't mind him, it's a touchy subject for Edward," Alice said kindly. I was still confused, but decided to let it go.
"Were you talking about Mike Newton?" I asked. "Is there something going on tonight?"
"Yeah," Rosalie said. "I doubt it's your thing, though."
"What is it?" I asked. She grinned, the friendly expression not quite reaching her eyes.
"You'll just have to see it, won't you?" she asked as the bell rang. "We'll pick you up tonight."
"Don't you need my address?" I asked as everyone started gathering their stuff and heading for the door.
"Don't worry, darlin', we know where the good chief lives," Jasper said, shooting me a wry smile. Alice gave me a small wave and then linked her arm with his, following Emmett and Rosalie out of the cafeteria. I pulled out my schedule as the crowd thinned, finding my third block class.
Chemistry. Well, this should be interesting.
X
Of course the only fucking open seat was next to Edward fucking Masen. I was still confused by his sudden departure from lunch, and now, a half hour into our lab, I was almost positive that it was because of me. He hadn't looked at me once, and hadn't spoken unless it was completely necessary. Anything I asked him was met with a grunt that had either a positive or negative tone that I guess I was supposed to interpret as yes or no.
"So you're going to Mike's tonight?" I finally said in a last-ditch effort to make conversation. "Rosalie invited me, so I thought-"
"You shouldn't go," he said shortly, not looking at me. I gaped at him.
"What?" I asked.
"Rosalie and Emmett get off on fucking with people," he said. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay home. Besides, it's not the type of situation the Chief of Police's daughter should be caught in."
The longest sentence he'd said to me, and it was basically to tell me to stay the fuck away from him. Fantastic. The only people who had been nice to me so far in this god-forsaken place, and he was basically telling me they were just messing with me.
"I don't think it's really your business where I go," I said stiffly. He made that grunting sound again and I let out an irritated sigh. "I'm going," I told him.
"Fine," he said. Don't say I didn't warn you."
I decided then and there that I would not be talking to Edward Masen again. Likely forever.
X
JPOV
After school found me curled up on the couch, my head on Alice's lap, my eyes screwed shut. She was making these little shushing sounds and running her fingers through my hair, her nails running lightly across the scalp.
"Don't you have anything for this?" she asked.
"What they prescribe," I said. "It doesn't work. And I can't get hold of James."
Washington doesn't have dispensaries. Washington wants me to suffer.
I lurched up suddenly, barely finding my footing and skidding all the way to the bathroom, making it just in time as the contents of my stomach evacuated. I groaned, bracing my forearms on the toilet seat. The only good thing about this was that the nausea usually went away quicker when I vomited.
"At least you didn't lose your hair," Alice said when I came back into the living room. I sat down, groaning again.
"That's a pretty fucking bleak silver lining you've got there, darlin'," I said. She shrugged, looking apologetic.
"Are you sure we should go tonight?" she asked. I nodded.
"Not going to feel any better just sitting around," I said. "Besides, don't you want to see how Bella handles it?"
"I think she'll do fine," Alice said, grinning. I couldn't help but smile back at her. Alice was fucking ridiculous about this shit, and the second she saw Bella she decided they were going to be friends. I hoped she was right. It was hard making friends when we were this fucked up.
I hadn't told many people about me. I don't want them to know. They don't need to know. But that means that the general opinion of me is that I'm a pot addict and a truant.
Alice stood up and made her way to her parent's liquor cabinet. She pulled out a bottle of Jack and sat back down, taking a swig and then holding it out to me. I shook my head. I couldn't drink when I was like this. I had read that it could actually help with the side-effects of chemo, but I just couldn't stomach it. But Alice never went to the gatherings sober.
X
BPOV
"How was your day, Bells?" Charlie asked when I arrived home. I shrugged. "Meet any good people?"
"A few," I said, shrugging. I was thinking about Edward, and how he probably didn't fit into the category or 'good people'. "I got invited to hang out with some people tonight," I said. I practically saw the wheels turn in Charlie's head as he tried to decide what the parental thing to do would be.
"Who?" he finally asked.
"Rosalie Hale and Emmett McCarty," I said.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Bells," he said slowly. "Those kids... they're bad news, you know?"
"Could you like, turn the cop mode off?" I asked with a groan. Charlie shook his head.
"At least once a month those kids are into something, those two and their friends," he said. "Damned lucky they're too young to be treated as adults, and no one's decided to press charges on them yet."
"Dad," I said, rolling my eyes. He was prone to exaggeration.
"What are you guys going to be doing?" he asked.
"We're hanging out with Mike Newton," I said. "You like Mike," I reminded him quickly. He was quiet for a second as he seemed to consider it.
"Mike's a solid kid," he finally said. "But I don't want you running around with that group alone."
"Right," I said. "I need to go change."
"Be careful, Bells," he called after me as I headed up the stairs.
"Right," I called back, trying not to think about Edward's warning about tonight. Maybe it was a sure sign I shouldn't go.
In the end, I decided to ignore it, though, and I was ready and waiting when a large white Jeep pulled into the driveway and honked the horn.
X
AN: A few things: The first part of this chapter, the characters were reading from a play called "A Woman of No Importance" by Oscar Wilde, which I highly recommend. Also, the line, "I'm full of hate and I love it," is attributed to Eric Harris, one of the Columbine shooters. I'm not hyping up the Columbine Massacre or glorifying the killers in using the line, but it just fit so well with my idea of a rage addict that I had to use it for Rosalie.
So, largely an introductory chapter, but what do you think? I'd love some feedback! Thanks to everyone who chose to read, and I hope you'll continue! :D