When it came to small talk, Bree wasn't brilliant. If you were to bring up a topic about something ridiculous, like rather eating a leg or an arm, she'd be able to talk up the leg like there was no tomorrow. However, when it came to topics revolving around her, such as how her day was or what she had planned for her future, then she'd freeze up. She didn't understand why, nor how it came to be, but that was just a part of Bree.
Sitting in a car with a stranger, who she now came to discover was Bella's father Charlie, seemed like an opportunity for small talk to arise. She was literally on the edge of her seat; the fact she was cruising in a police car didn't faze her when it came to the possibility of small talk. She played thumb wars on her lap, just waiting for the moment to come. Dad's would usually try to force small talk, and that just made the matter that much more unbearable.
Thankfully, Charlie wasn't like most fathers. He kept himself to himself, eyes on the road, whistling a tune. After ten minutes of driving and not so much as a word being said, Bree was able to keep her thumbs still and allow herself to sink into the passenger seat. She began to let her mind unwind, allowing it to take in the situation a little more. Most people would kill to retreat to a world which belonged in their favourite books, even if it was just through a dream. For Bree, this was most definitely a miracle; the most her dreams ever amounted to was her being able to strength to an inhuman length, so she didn't have to get up in order to retrieve the remote. That was it, nothing as in depth as this.
The view was something else. Beyond the sheets of rain, there were forests that grew taller than towers; Bree was a city girl, so for her to see so much vegetation was quite a shock to the system. It was so quiet; if she remembered correctly there were only about 3000 odd people who populated Forks. Everyone seemed to interact on the streets as she passed by, which again, was something which she couldn't quite grasp. This dream took her somewhere completely new, and for that, she was pretty damn grateful.
The car pulled up on the side of the pavement, which bridged a path towards the local high school. She sighed to herself; maybe since she was in a dream, she didn't have to pay any attention? She had gotten pretty good at pretending she was listening, she was sure her sister could vouch for it.
"Right, I'll pick you up later then?" Charlie asked. He snuck a quick glance at her before returning his gaze to the road ahead.
"Oh, yeah, that would be good." Yeah, it would, Bree thought to herself; she had no clue where anything was. Books didn't exactly aid you with a map, she didn't think the authors first priority was to make sure they created a map to an imaginary world in case somehow you ended up there through your subconscious. Bree was sure Forks was a real place, and it wasn't exactly teeming with possibility; unless you took the trees into account, which she doubt anyone did. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to get from A to B.
With an awkward goodbye, Bree got out of the police car and allowed Charlie to head off. She slowly turned on her heel and got a good look at the place. It was a lot smaller than her own school, which made sense, and it didn't smell so bad from a distance, so that was promising. But it was still a school, a school where she knew no one, and even in the books, Bella was the newbie. Bree had never been a newbie anywhere, she always started from the beginning like everyone else. This was going to be a new experience in every way possible. She suddenly forgot how to breathe.
She shook herself out of it. She could do this, it was just a dream; if anything truly horrific happened, she would just wake up and it would all be over. Right?
Before taking another step, she quickly inspected herself. Bella's wardrobe wasn't particularly breath-taking, she wore it simple and casual. Bree didn't necessarily have a problem with it, but she, at least, wanted to add some colour to the scene, Forks needed a little cheering up. She was able to dig out a pair of yellow trainers that didn't seem to have gotten a lot of wear out of them. She hoped that wasn't a sign screaming that wearing them was a bad choice. She paired the shoes with a dungaree piece and a long sleeved light grey shirt, topped off with a dark purple jacket. It didn't seem too offensive to look at, that's the conclusion she came to as she began to make her way into the building.
As she reached the entrance to the school, it suddenly daunted on her that she had no idea where she was supposed to go. She shrugged the shoulder bag from her shoulder, hoping that it was already prepacked and had some sort of indicator of where it was she was supposed to go. So far she just found a couple notebooks and about five thousand pens buried in the bottom.
"Bella! Have you gone death? I've been calling your name for about five minutes!"
Bree got up from her knees and turned to see a girl who looked like she ran just to get her attention. She wasn't used to the fact that her name was supposed to be Bella, which was going to take some getting used to for sure.
"Oh, crap I'm sorry, I'm just, a little lost at the moment" she dusted off the remains of the step that she knelt upon.
"I guess that's what moving to a new school does to you" the girl laughed, and sewed her arm through Bree's so that they were linked.
"We're pretty much in all of the same classes, except for biology, you're on your own there, sister" she began to drag Bree along "well, I guess if you minus your new boyfriend." She gave Bree a suggestive wink, to which Bree's stomach dropped. Bree had crushes, it was always a given, but she'd never been in a relationship before. She had boys who were friends, but she never had anyone who stuck the two nouns together. She was only sixteen for Christ's sake (her father's words, not hers).
"Relax Bella! You look as though you've just been through hell and back" she wasn't sure if she should have taken offense to that or not "He seems really into you, and trust me, you had a lot of competition, so you must be doing something right."
After speculation, Bree finally realised that the girl she was talking to was called Jessica, and she really did have quite a gob on her. However, she needed to get to where she needed to be, so a little bit of commentary along the way wasn't going to phase her.
"Well, lucky me I guess" she tried to laugh off her doubts, but she wasn't doing a good job of it. Jessica didn't seem to notice, and soon the two of them ended up in front of a biology lab.
"Right, this is you, I'll swing by after and we can walk to gym together, kay?" Bree nodded and allowed the girl to bounce along. She seemed way too perky for this time day, Bree didn't trust people that high on life before 10 am.
She made her way into the class, slowly and apprehensively, like a dear approaching a road. She saw only a few people had already taken their seats, so thankfully there were enough left for her to get a spot by herself.
"Hey Bella!" or you know, maybe not. Bree's head clocked forward to see that a girl was waving her hand around at her. It would be rude if she didn't go over and sit next to her, so she did just that.
"Did you do the homework?" oh great, that just had to be the first question she asked, wasn't it?
"Oh well, I didn't even know that we-"
"Me neither!" the girl started laughing. Bree could get along with this one.
It felt like an eternity before Tyler got to school. A joy ride with the Cullen's was about the closest he got to experiencing hell; he thought that being forced to endure six seasons of Sex and the City with Bree would be the closest he would get to hell on earth. But no, he'd have that any day compared to this. There were two cars, the one car had the small spiky haired girl and her very constipated looking boyfriend. The girl seemed decent, but unfortunately, he had to be placed in the car with the blonde one who didn't seem to want to leave him alone, the one built like a truck, and the very much into his looks, could do with washing his hair, Edward Cullen.
Once they parked up, Tyler tried to mentally plan his escape route. From what he remembered from the film, these 'vampires' were able to travel at quite a speed. Hopefully, he would be able to outrun them, and from then on he could find a way to get the hell out of this nightmare. One by one they started to exit the car, and before Tyler could, Rosalie (he was finally able to put a name to a face now) was there to open his door for him.
"Don't even think about it" was all she said. She held his gaze in a deadly lock, Tyler was not prepared to feel her wrath if he attempted anything. He figured there was a better time and place. He would just have to swallow his pride, and endure the worst.
Once they were all out of the car, they followed one another two by two, as if they were about to board Noah's Ark. He imagined them wearing the blue coats and carrying the yellow umbrellas like the little girls in Madeline, and couldn't help but laugh imagining the one on steroids in a little hat.
Edward gave him a side glance, as if he knew what Tyler was thinking about. Tyler glared back at him, putting across his distaste from him as plainly as he could. Edward faced forward, quickening his pace so he didn't have to walk quite so close to Tyler. Good.
Walking down the hallway, Tyler couldn't help but notice a distinctive smell in the air. It was the oddest scent; it was a mix of something bittersweet, like iron and sugar combined. Even though the scent was odd to him, it made his stomach growl. He didn't know whether it was down to hunger or nausea, but he really wouldn't mind showing a bacon beef burger a good time. Yet, whenever food came to his mind, he wanted more than anything to just gag at the thought. How was that possible?
A girl grazed past him, and the odd smell grew stronger.
"Don't even think about it" blondie was at it again. What did she think he was going to do? Probably what he told himself he shouldn't do in front of all these people.
The crowd of Cullen's attracted quite a lot of attention. Tyler didn't mind being in the spotlight sometimes, but being in it by hanging around with the Cullen's was reason enough to stay far away from it. He tried to keep his head down as much as possible; he hoped the shades he found in the coat pocket would be enough to keep his identity a mystery, even though he knew no one.
He was planning to keep walking with the others until he could find a way to duck out, but Edward managed to grab his shoulder and drag him into one of the labs.
"You're going to pay for getting that close to me" he pulled himself away from Edward's grasp and went to go and find a seat as far away from him as possible. Edward didn't seem to care about Tyler's whereabouts, not when he walked over and decided to suck the face of some poor defenceless girl. Tyler was about to get up from his seat and pound the crap out of him, but it seemed like the girl wasn't kicking up much of a fuss, so he assumed that they must be an item. That means the girl could only be…
"Hey beautiful," Edward said after Bree's first kiss. She almost jumped out of her seat; his lips were so cold, as was his tongue that tried to enter her mouth. Thankfully her lips weren't willing to part for him to do so. She felt as though she'd just French kissed a slush puppy, so she tried to bit on her lips to get the feeling back into them. She smiled, knowing that Edward was supposed to be her boyfriend, and she was supposed to react well to the kiss.
"Oh, erm, right back at ya!" nice one Bree. Edward laughed and grabbed the stool in front so he sat directly opposite her.
"Sorry if I startled you" he began "I know how jumpy you can be."
Jumpy was an understatement for Bree. She was just about startled by anything as a mouse would be.
"No erm, that's okay, just, haven't quite woken up this morning."
"It's true!" the girl, who she found out was Angela, agreed "she's been completely out of it all morning." Least the girl was helping to defend her point. Edward then proceeded to stare at her intently; his amber stare shot bullets into her face, she didn't know where to look and how to hide, she felt completely exposed. She doubted this was the way you were supposed to feel when you liked someone, but how would she know?
"Hey dumbass, how about you face forward and stop creeping the girl out."
Bree knew that voice from anywhere. She grinned and spun around in her chair, seeing a boy dressed in all black, looking ridiculously miserable. She got up from her chair and took off the shades he was wearing, to see that behind them, was her best friend Tyler.
"No way! Tyler! You're here too? God, you must hate me so much-" but before Bree could continue, Tyler grabbed her wrist, with a shocking amount of force, and snatched the shades off her.
"There's only one thing you need to know about me, lady, and that's that you don't come within two feet of me, you got that?"
His eyes narrowed, so sharp that she felt as though she was being stabbed. How did he not see her? Was she just Bella to Tyler too? Why was he still Tyler? She yanked her hand away and sank back into her seat. She told herself over and over that this was all just a dream, this Tyler wasn't Tyler, none of these people existed. If that was to be the case, then why did she feel so hurt?
Edward was out of his chair and a few inches from killing Tyler so fast that it gave Bree whiplash. Tyler grabbed Edward by the throat, forcing him away to arms-length. "Don't even think about it pretty boy, you haven't got a-"
The door to the lab slammed so abruptly that everyone's head shot up like a dart to the front of the room. A man who looked like their teacher had entered and did not look the least bit happy.
"Cullen boys, out of here and to the office, now!"
It took Tyler a few seconds to release Edward's neck, and both stormed out of the classroom. Bree could see Angela stirring beside her "Jesus, what the hell was that all about?"
Bree couldn't find the words to answer such a question. Everything happened so quickly; her first kiss, seeing Tyler, not being seen by Tyler and Tyler on the verge of beheading Edward. The rest of the day went by in a daze, Bree was lost in a fog and wished more than anything for her alarm to go off at any second.
It's just a dream. It's just a dream. It's just a dream.
After half an hour of listening to a balding man go on and on about the consequences of violence, Tyler was just about ready to give up. He didn't catch a word the guy was saying. He was too busy plotting Edward's death to even bother pretending he was listening. He hoped he would have time to brutally murder Edward before he woke up.
After being handed a detention slip, Tyler evacuated from the building. He sat on top of the hood of Edward's car and waited until the school day was over. He tore apart the pink slip sheet and threw the pink confetti through Edward's broken windshield. After an hour or so of trying to cool off, he noticed that there was a blue van trying to back out of a parking space, but the rain that had mixed with the snow which bedded the ground didn't make the task very easy for the poor guy driving it. Tyler figured he didn't have anything better to do, so he carefully made his way over to the van.
"See you're having some trouble there." The guy in the van rolled down his window, looking like he was just about to give up.
"Yeah no kidding, I hate snow." the guy said, his attempts at reversing only fuelled his anger. Tyler could sympathise since he was just a big bowl of rage not too long ago.
"Tell you what, I'll try and clear some of this ice away" Tyler walked around to the back of the van, and began to shovel some of the icy sludge away with his feet. It didn't bother him that his shoes began to soak through with the freezing water, one of the perks to being a vampire, he supposed.
"Oh dude, thanks! Here, I'll come out and help you." The guy hopped out of his van and helped Tyler. "so, you're one of the Cullen's, right?"
"Definitely not, they're just my ride"
"Guess you're not that close to your family, huh?"
"They're not even my family, just…people I live with?" Tyler realised how ridiculous that sounded, but there really wasn't any other way of putting it.
"Oh…well, if you ever need a break, you can always come chill with me, dude."
"Thanks, but I don't plan on hanging around much longer. What did you say your name was?"
"Oh I didn't, but it's Tyler"
"No kidding, well, Tyler, I'm Tyler too…actually, I'd rather be Tyler-One, you can be Tyler-Two."
Tyler-Two began to laugh "I guess that's only fair since you're helping me out here man."
"I'd say so" the two Tyler's laughed, it was the first time in this dream that Tyler felt anything other than hate or hunger. God, he was still starving. The strange scent still followed him around. A herd of students began to disperse from the building, so that really didn't help with the smell.
"Okay, well, I think that's a lot of it gone." Tyler-One backed away from the van, inspecting the ground he shovelled "you should be good to go."
"You're a life saver man, I owe you." Tyler-Two got back into his van and began to reverse. It seemed after ten minutes of soaking his shoes through wasn't a complete waste of time, and at least now he has someone tolerable to talk to (who owed him a favour, which he liked very much). Tyler-Two waved as he drove on, and Tyler-One started to make his way back too, but, unfortunately, he didn't get far. He may have just tackled the ice around the truck, but he couldn't speak for the rest of the car park. Tyler-Two looked like he was struggling even more, and the fact that he started to up his gear wasn't going to help. Tyler-Two began to lose control, and the van began to slide all over the place. It was about to collide with the back of another car, but worst of all, it was about to turn someone into an American-styled pancake.
Tyler didn't really have time to think (which he probably should have done) and used his new unnatural speed to catch up to the person and knock them out of the way before the two vehicles collided. He and the person tumbled together, landing in quite an awkward and unflattering position. He was directly on top, whilst the other was lying face down on the ground.
He got off, and spun the person onto their back, so he could see if they were okay. He could have screamed when he noticed who it was.
"What happened to your two-foot distance rule?" the girl gave him a very forced smile, clearly she was in a lot of pain. He cursed himself for saving Edward's girlfriend. He noticed that a crowd was beginning to form, and decided it was the perfect time to run; it's not like he was leaving her alone or anything.
"Don't think you don't owe me for this" was all he said before he sprinted away.
His dad always taught him that he should never perform a deed for someone without expecting something in return. That way people would never walk all over you. Tyler made sure he got as many favours as he could, and collecting two in a day was definitely a stroke of luck for Tyler.