Chapter 2 – Purple People Eater

By the end of the week I'd settled into living with my dad. It wasn't that hard once I'd learned the routine. He went to work at about seven, got home around five depending on the day, went down to the diner for dinner nearly every night, spent most of his free time watching sports on TV and spent his weekends fishing. I enjoyed the freedom of living with my dad and the feeling of being needed, at least as far as dinner was concerned.

However, when my time off from school came to an end, I was not looking forward to the idea. I wasn't looking forward to being the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak, an outsider. Not to mention the fact that I had purple hair.

My first day- which was a month into the beginning of school- I pulled into the parking lot in my truck to find that nearly every single vehicle was shiny and new. I found this odd considering the houses around town weren't that spectacular and the only prestigious job in town seemed to be the local doctor.

I pulled into my parking spot as everyone turned to stare at my truck, soon turning their eyes on the sight of the purple haired new girl. Instantly everyone in sight turned and started whispering to each other, trying to pretend they weren't even though they kept pointing. I quickly locked up my truck and swung my backpack over my shoulder, booking it for the front office, making sure I kept my eyes down.

As I pushed open the office door I had the suddenly wish that I hadn't put my hair up in a ponytail. It would have made the perfect curtain to block the odd looks.

I entered the office to find the red headed thirty-year-old secretary sitting behind a fifteen-year-old computer, typing away as she did something very important. I doubted that it could be anything too terribly important since it was Forks, Washington. I walked up to her desk and stood silently until she looked up at me and smiled.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm the new student. Clarinda Swan?"

Yes, my name is Clarinda. My mom thought that it would be cool for her daughter to have one of those unique names so decided to mesh Clarice, my dad's choice, and Miranda, my mom's choice to make a whole new name. If only she had known back then that Clarinda was an actual name. I hated it too, hence the reason I had everyone call me Andy on pain of death.

"Of course," the woman smiled, the look of recognition coming over her face. "Here's your schedule and a map of the school,"

I took them, nodding my head. "Thank you,"

I quickly left, pulling my army jacket more tightly around me as I entered the cold morning air. I headed through the labyrinth of halls and ducked around kids, making sure that my eyes stayed glued to the papers in my hand as often as possible.

"You're Clarinda Swan, the new girl," I heard a voice say as I stepped around a corner, making me wince at the sound of my full name. I looked up to see an Asian guy walk up to me, his bangs sweeping across his forehead, the rest of his hair reaching his shoulders.

"Andy," I corrected.

"Hi, I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place," he greeted with a wide smile. "Anything you need; tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on…"

"Thanks…" I nodded sarcastically. "You'll be the first one I call,"

"Cool," he smiled, bobbing his head approvingly. "You see, I'm on the paper and you're definitely front page stuff, babe,"

"No, I'm not," I said immediately, turning to stare at him in utter fear. "I mean, please don't have any sort of-"

"Whoa, whoa. Chillax. No feature," Eric said easily, smiling brightly.

I sighed. "Thanks,"

Eric walked me to my first class, saying that all I need do was find him and he'd be there. I had smiled and went in, rolling my eyes at his sickly sweetness even though I appreciated the help.

I went through my classes easily, finding that the teacher, the class, and the people were all enjoyable until I got to one class in particular; PE.

PE sucked- I'm sorry, it created a vacuum, as my old science teacher would say- and I absolutely hated PE with a passion. It wasn't that I was bad at it, it was just that I wasn't good at it and that I was incredibly lazy when it came to sports and athleticism. If you wanted me to run a mile away from a rapist, just give me the rapist and the finish line and I'll do it. If you wanted me to beat Hitler to a pulp using kick boxing moves, just resurrect the dude and I'm good for it. Tell me to climb a rope because of a grade and you might as well just hand me some hedge cutters.

I stood as far back as I could as my class played volley ball. They were all pretty good at it, especially the part where the three girls that surrounded me hit the ball whenever it came near me. I appreciated that they got that I was bad at it and I didn't want to play. However, when they missed one, I made the mistake of taking a swing at it.

My hand throbbed as I watched as it go flying at a poor unsuspecting boy, hitting him right in the back of the head. I winced for him before jogging over as he turned around, glaring around the gym, trying to find the culprit.

"I am so sorry," I said immediately, hoping that he wouldn't yell at me or shove me into a locker on my first day… not that that had ever happened to me before. "I told them to keep the ball away from me or else bad things would happen though I meant it more as a witch curse and not as an accidently-hitting-someone-in-the-back-of-the-head thing,"

As he looked down at me, listening to my rambled apology, his face broke out into a dazed smile. I was beginning to think that I had hit him a little too hard when he started stuttering, but then I realized it was probably just a boy thing. I admit, he was cute in a baby-faced sort of way, his pale blonde hair carefully gelled into well-ordered spikes to try to give him more of a teenager look, but he was not my type.

After a few more stuttered out words, he finally began to speak in actual words. "You're Clarinda, right?"

"Andy," I corrected immediately, trying to keep the glare out of my eyes. "But yeah,"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm Mike Newton,"

"Nice to meet you,"

Then the girlfriend ran over.

"She's got a great spike, huh?"

The girl's smile was blindingly bright, her eyes dreamy until she turned to me. She did not look at all thrilled now that she thought she had competition for her man. I wouldn't have blamed her except that there wasn't any competition. I didn't want him.

"I'm Jessica, by the way. You're from Arizona, right?"

I nodded.

"Aren't people from Arizona supposed to be, like, really tan?"

I eyed her tanned skin that looked like a mixture of sunny vacations and tanning lotion before smirking at her. "Aren't people from Washington supposed to be, like, really pale?"

At that Mike started chuckling and Jessica just gave an uncomfortable smile.

"You're good,"

"That's so funny,"

After PE, Mike escorted me to the lunch room, chatting to me about random stuff as we stood in the lunch line. Again, as I had said before with Erik, I appreciated the help he was offering but I wasn't enjoying the appraising looks or the sickly sweet kindness. Jessica glared at me over Mike's shoulder as he led me to his table where his group sat, even pulled a chair over for me, which made me feel incredibly awkward. I ended up sitting directly beside Eric as Mike pulled up a seat on the other side of me, Eric cutting off whatever he was saying mid-sentence to throw an arm across the back of my seat.

"Hey, Mikey, you met my home girl Andy?" Eric smiled, leaning in close and making me shrink down into my seat to retain my personal space.

"Oh? Your home girl?" Mike smiled, a little bit of annoyance appearing on his face at his new opponent in the imaginary competition for me.

"My girl," a voice said in my ear before I felt someone kiss my cheek.

A second later Mike unceremoniously fell out of his chair and onto the ground.

"Sorry I had to mess up your game, Mike!" I heard the guy yell followed by maniacal laughter as Mike jumped up and took off running after him.

Now that guy I liked.

"Oh, my God," Jessica giggled awkwardly, scooting her chair towards me as I started eating uncomfortably, keeping my eyes on my tray. "It's like first grade all over again. You're the shiny new toy the boys are fighting over,"

"Smile!"

I ducked as soon as I saw the camera aimed at me, barely getting my hand in front of my face fast enough before the flash went off. Once it was over I peeked over my hand at the girl sitting beside Jessica, holding the camera, smiling at me apologetically. She was a small girl with nerdy glasses and dark brown hair put up in a ponytail, a girl that reminded me of every single shy girl I'd ever met.

"Sorry, I needed a candid for the feature,"

"The feature's dead, Angela," Eric bit out, getting up from his seat. "Don't bring it up again,"

At the look on the girls face I tried to start to explain but her but I was cut off when Erik patted me on the shoulder.

"I got your back, baby,"

I rolled my eyes at him as he walked away from the table.

"It's okay," I tried to assure Angela, trying to explain why her best guy friend had just tried to rip her head off for no reason. "I just don't want everyone knowing my favorite color. Not to mention if a person could be afraid of cameras, I'd be the first one diagnosed,"

"It's alright," she nodded to me, still looking disappointed. "I understand about the camera. I'd rather be looking through it than smiling at it,"

The loud and obnoxious sound of the cafeteria door opening made us all turn to see a group walk in together. There were three boys and one girl, all looking exactly the same but different at the same time, sort of like the way a biker gang or a nerd herd does. They were all pale with purplish shadows under their eyes as if they had never seen the sun or a pillow in their whole lives. Despite this however, they were all unnecessarily drop dead gorgeous, looking a mixture of underwear model and Hollywood actors all wrapped up in four people. I watched as, two at a time, they started to walk across the room with effortless grace, headed toward a table furthest from where the three of us sat watching them.

"Who are they?"

"The Cullens," Angela answered in a bit of a dreamy voice as her eyes trailed them. "They moved from Alaska a couple years ago. They're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids but all of the dark haired ones are actually related,"

"Alice- the little dark haired girl- she's really weird. She's with Jasper, the blonde who looks like he's in pain," she told me, pointing her fork at the couple walking past us.

The girl was pixie-like in every sense of the word; her body was graceful and compact, her inky hair was short and spikey up, and her smile was bright and mischievous. As far as the honey haired one was concerned, Jessica was right, he looked slightly tortured look to him, as if he hadn't gotten his fix of heroin or something today. He was tall, lean and he hovered over the pixie girl as if it were his job in life, to stay by her side and not let anything befall her.

It was cute.

"They're kind of a thing," Jessica continued. "I'm not even sure that's legal,"

"Jess, they're not actually related,"

"But they live together, it's weird," Jessica said, scrunching her nose up before she looked over her shoulder and pointed her fork at the next guy walking down the red carpet. "The big one's Emmett and…"

Emmett looked like a gigantic bear. Like the teddy bears you see in movies or at the fair. I seriously had the urge to run up and hug him and/or poke his stomach like a giddy little girl. He also had all of the signs of a jock; he was big, thick, and brawny, had all of the swagger and a sweet dumb guy look going on. He was a large, intimidating mountain of a guy, shining a smile that was as warm as the sun around the room as he walked.

He was definitely cute.

The next moment Jessica suddenly ducked her head as her face broke into a happy, dazed smile, turning to me as she said; "… and the tall, dark, and handsome one is Edward,"

This last one was the flip side of the handsome coin from Emmett. Whereas the first had been big, burly and handsome, this one was simply gorgeous. This one was probably the most striking, more boyish than the others, lanky, with untidy light brown hair that looked like he had ran to lunch for fear of being late. He also seemed inwardly turned and mysterious with all of the signs of a writer, as my old psychiatrist would say. This one reminded me of my version of the Dorian Gray from the movie… and hopefully far less disturbing.

"He's totally gorgeous- obviously- but apparently no one here is good enough for him," Jessica grumbled into her food.

I immediately wondered when he had turned her down. It was probably the most hilarious thing to have watched; her shyly asking him out in the best rehearsed speech she could think up and then him saying a flat and curt no before walking away.

I glanced up to see this Edward guy smirking to himself, as if he'd heard what she'd said.

"Anyway, don't waste your time,"

"Wasn't planning on it," I told her honestly, turning away from the group of Cullens.

After all, a lack of boyfriends in my past seemed to dictate the lack of boyfriends in my future.

The first boyfriend I had had been over text when I was fourteen. He asked me to go out with him and the next day he'd told everyone in our class that we were dating. After that day, we didn't talk until three weeks later when I broke up with him. The last boyfriend I had had been a guy who anyone would have deemed perfect for me; nerdy, sweet, polite. Unfortunately, the idea of kissing him made me want to vomit.

Not to mention, my currently dying of a brain tumor didn't seem like the best pick up line.

I glanced up and over at the Cullen table to find Edward staring at me intensely. I looked away as fast as I could, nearly whacking Jessica in the head with my ponytail, feeling really uncomfortable to have a boy giving me a look that said that he was trying to figure out something… possibly a murder plan.

After a minute of feeling his gaze burning into my back, curiosity still ate at me and drove me to look at him again. He indeed was still staring at me, now with a slightly frustrated expression that made me give him a questioning look before he huffed and turned away. I turned away as well, completely confused at his odd behavior. I didn't get to think about it long though, Mike, Erik and the boy that had kissed my cheek, Tyler, returning to our table and began talking as I supposed was normal.

When the bell rang we all dispersed, heading to our classes. Mike and Erik apparently had the same class as me- Biology- and took it upon themselves to walk me there, both of them trying to wrap their arms around some part of me as they walked. I eventually had to duck under them and walk really slow until they got the message. They both walked me up to the teacher's desk and introduced me to Mr. Molina before they were dismissed to their seats. Mr. Molina handed me a textbook and a few papers I would need to have signed before gesturing toward the class to have me take a seat anywhere.

The tables were set up so that there were two people to each table and much to my surprise the only seat left was by Mr. Edward Cullen. I went to smile at him before my body went cold and the familiar feeling of a weight dropping on my heart came over me. He was glaring at me, his body rigid and his knuckles white as they clutched at the sides of the desk, clearly knowing that the chair next to him was the only space left.

I dropped my eyes and reluctantly walked down the aisle, only looking up when I got to the table and only so that I could find my seat and discretely move my chair as far over to my side of the table as I could. I sat down carefully, placing my book down in front of me, setting it at the corner of the table like a perfectionist. I carefully glanced up at him again to find him giving me the most hostile look I'd ever seen on an actual person before, making me shiver as I turned away and scooted to the edge of my seat.

Again, I wished I'd put my hair down for this class. I also wished that someone would volunteer to sit next to this guy.

… Maybe I was right about the Dorian Gray thing.

After a minute, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Can you stop that?" I bit out at the table until I had the courage to look up. "I may look funny compared to everyone else here but I think you can get over your hate of purple haired people for one whole hour for five days a week,"

His glare seemed to turn even darker; his black eyes helping the dark glare considerably. He turned away though, scooting his chair away from me as far as he could, the way I had.

"Thank you," I smiled, using a sweet voice before turning away from him and paying attention to the teacher as he started the lesson.

It was awkward though. Edward Scissor-Eyes wouldn't stop glaring at me and he wouldn't ease up on his rigid posture either. He looked similar to how his brother Jasper had looked, though this guy gave it his own hostile twist and the phrase if looks could kill ran through my head a few times. After the long hour, the bell sent Edward jumping out of his seat and racing to the door, leaving me shocked and a little thankful.

"So, did you stab Cullen with a pencil or what?" Erik asked with a smile, seeming pleased with me as he threw his arm over my shoulder.

"I've never seen him act like that," Mike commented as he walked up beside me, taking my text book and backpack from me. "He looked like he was in pain or something,"

Unlike a lot of girls, it bothered me when people touched with my stuff, even if they just wanted to carry it for you to be nice. It also bothered me when people touched me without my permission, especially if they were poking or tickling me. All of this meant that I quickly shrugged Erik off and took my backpack and textbook back from Mike. This made Erik give me a disappointed look while Mike's little boy face come back with a frown. However, both continued walking beside me regardless.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "As soon as I sat down he started glaring at me and didn't speak to me the whole period,"

"He's a weird guy," Mike said with a shrug, as if that explained the whole thing. "But if I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would've talked to you,"

"Me too," Erik butted in with a smile, walking closer to me.

"That's sweet," I smiled at them, though on the inside I felt really awkward.

After my last class of the day, Mike found me again and walked me to the office to drop off some papers. He ended up giving me an extremely awkward hug before walking off with a childlike/spazztic wave. I waved politely back before I walked into the overheated office, but I almost turned around and walked right back out.

"There must be something open. Physics? Bio chemistry?"

"No, every class is full," the red headed receptionist was saying to Edward Cullen before she spotted me over his shoulder, giving me a small smile. "Just a minute, dear,"

I watched as Edward's back stiffened before he looked over his shoulder at me, glaring. I glared back at him, fear gone and replaced with annoyance and defiance. I hated people like this, people that belonged in melodramatic movies that were evil for absolutely no reason. Why the hell was this guy so hateful? Was he a victim of abuse or molestation? Was he so vain that he didn't want to be seen sitting next to the freaky new girl with purple hair?

What the hell?

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay in Biology,"

Seriously?! He was trying to get out of Biology because of me?

"Fine. I'll just have to endure it," Edward bit out as he stormed past me and out of the office, careful not to knock into me.

I growled deep in my chest, glaring over my shoulder at the door as it swung closed. I quickly stomped up to the secretary, setting my papers on her desk, and then walked right back out. I tried not to speed as I headed home, and tried not to give any angry or sarcastic answers on my homework. Once I was finished I was prepared to watch some cheesy movies to get my mind off of my day but my dad had other plans as he walked through the door. He decided to take me out to dinner as a celebration for my first day at Forks High School.

The two of us were sitting in silence when our waitress came over with our dinner; two Top Sirloins, both medium rare. Out of the few things that I had gotten from my dad, probably the most noticeable, was my appetite.

"When you're done, I'll bring your favorite desert. Marion berry pie, remember?" Cora asked with a big sunny smile that I had no choice but to smile back at. "Jeeves. I just can't get over how grown up you are. And so gorgeous. And I love your hair,"

"Thank you," I murmured shyly.

With that Cora left Dad and I to our dinner. There was a long awkward silence as the two of us began cut up our steak and going to work on eating. Dinner talk was definitely not either of our strong suits. We liked to eat and be done, not discuss the weather just for something to do. However, I couldn't help but break the silence just this once.

"So…" I began awkwardly. "Thanks for taking me to dinner,"

Dad just shrugged. "You've been making my dinner for a week now. Figured we could celebrate over something you didn't have to cook," There was another long silence but it was Dad who spoke up this time. "How was school? Meet anyone?"

I just shrugged. "A few people…" I didn't really want to go into detail but curiosity got the best of me, leading me to ask him about the Cullens.

"Are people talking about them again?" Dad asked abruptly.

"Not really… no,"

"Just because they're newcomers," Dad murmured, thoroughly annoyed as he stabbed at his poor steak. "We're lucky to have a surgeon like Dr. Cullen at our poe-dunk hospital, lucky his wife wanted to live in a small town, lucky his kids aren't like a lot of the hell-raisers around here,"

I smiled at how worked up he'd gotten and just nodded. "Okay,"

"I just don't like narrow mindedness," he finished.

I nodded again and returned to my food.