Chapter 2

The Cullens sat around their usual table, talking quietly and much too fast for anyone but one of their own to understand or even hear.

"I can't hear her." Edward murmured. His four siblings turned to him, all of them looking confused, and their thoughts expressing as much confusion as their eyes.

"Isabella Swan's mind is blank." He elaborated. They still looked vaguely confused.

"I cannot read her thoughts. She is silent."

All four of his siblings blinked in shock, before Jasper and Rosalie raised an eyebrow each, whilst Alice's eyes slowly went blank whilst she searched for a vision showing her what she wanted and Emmett barely caught himself from falling out of his chair.

"Not at all?" He asked incredulously. Edward shook his head, turning to look at the table the Swan sisters sat at with a group of popular Juniors.

"What about the sister?" Rosalie asked quietly.

"I can hear her, though its like a low buzzing. I can only hear them if I'm concentrating on them. It is also disjointed, as if she's hiding her thoughts from me." Edward said.

All of them unintentionally startled when the loud bell went of, and before they could split up to go to their separate classes, Alice said something.

"They are both in your Biology class, Edward. Be careful of Isabella."

. . .

Edward was in his seat, all of the things he could possibly need for the lesson spread out on one side of the desk beside him, when they walked in.

His eyes widened in surprise when a small breeze blew their scent over to him from the open door they had just walked through. He was quickly able to sort through the scents to realise which smells belonged to who.

He stiffened when he realized the one with the addictive scent was being instructed to sit next to him, her sister on the seat on the other side of the aisle.

One smelled of flowers. A mixed scent of freesia, roses and lilacs. It was addictive, and his suddenly black eyes observed the girl the scent belonged to. She was of average size, around 5'4, with long, mahogany brown hair to her waist with a bit of a widows peak. Her eyes were large and doe-like, a beautiful chocolate-brown. Her face was heart-shaped, with a thin nose and too full lips. Edward could now understand why over half of the male population of the school lusted after her. She was quite pretty. Her slender body, which held just the right amount of curves, was showed off by the slim jeans and well-fitted blue sweater she wore with worn out tennis shoes.

The other's - who he knew was the younger sister - scent was much, much different. She smelled of chocolate, rain and Earl Grey tea, though it was underlined with the sweet smell of lily's. Edward breathed it in, and his eyes almost widened in surprise as the instant blood lust he felt for her sister melted until it was just an annoying, but forgettable burn in his throat. Turning surprised eyes onto the extraordinary human, his eyes met scrutinising ones looked back at him.

The girl was tiny, smaller than Alice, he knew, so she must have been about 4'10. She was also extremely skinny, almost unhealthy, and more slender than her sister, petite curves in her form, all small limbs and a delicate air about her. This was showed off by the black ballet flats she was wearing, as well as the grey skinny jeans and dark blue, wrap around cardigan she was wearing, the short sleeves showing the light blue, long sleeved t-shirt she was wearing underneath. Her hair was an ash blond that fell on soft curls to her mid-back, side swept bangs covering her entire forehead and falling into her eyes, which were an amazing blue, an almost glowing electric colour.

He looked away when she passed him, only taking her eyes off him when she was sat in her seat, her partner staring at her dumbly.

Biting his lip when the eldest sister sat next to him, he held his breath, the annoying burning turning into a glowing fire in his mouth, causing him to snarl mentally at the monster fighting to break free from the restraint in his mind.

He was not attacking a human, no matter how much his mind was telling him to. His instincts were telling him to stay put.

. . .

Jasper looked around his current classroom when he caught a curious scent. It reminded him of someone, weirdly enough, and his instincts were screaming at him for a reason he didn't understand.

He listened to them, at least what he could understand. After all, instincts were a vampires best asset, and the only reason he was still alive - well, he supposed he was dead, so - the reason he was here today was because of his instincts both as a human and during the war he was in after he was changed.

His golden eyes flicked up when the source of the scent walked in, and he blinked when she sat beside him when the teacher pointed to the seat. He was sure she was too young to be in a class with him, so why was she here?

He paid half attention to the teacher, knowing that people came up with new things for this subject every day, so he couldn't just wing it with his decades old knowledge. The other half of his attention was fixed unwaveringly on the new girl, his eyes never leaving her even when she glanced over at him occasionally.

. . .

Bella met Artemis outside the office, panting slightly from the long walk from the Gym to here, after having been made to play badminton in her last class - which she was rubbish at, and was eventually asked to sit out of when her racket hit one too many people.

Her younger sister was leaning casually against the wall, purple back pack slung over one shoulder.

"I've already given my slip in. You should hurry up, we still need to go shopping." The blond said quietly.

Bella nodded, easily slipping into the office. The door had just swung shut when she realised she wasn't the only students in there, and she took a step back, intending to wait for whoever it was to finish with their business and leave, but stopped short when she saw who was arguing quietly with the administrator.

Quickly darkening amber eyes glanced over at her, before he turned back to the flustered woman behind the desk, saying hurriedly -

"It doesn't matter, don't worry about it." Storming past Bella, the tall vampire quickly wrenched the door open, stepping outside and closing the door behind him. He was prepared to storm down the hallway and to his car where he could just speed home and run, but didn't even get to move more than a few feet before he saw the small form of the younger Swan leaning against the wall across from him, eyes half closed and humming so softly that if he didn't have his advanced hearing, he wouldn't have picked up on it. He took a deep breath, instinctively knowing that her scent would calm him, especially after what he had picked up on in Biology.

It did, and as he walked past, the smell of Earl Grey tea was stuck in his senses as he walked to his car much more calmly then he thought himself capable a few minutes ago.

. .

Meanwhile, back in the office, Bella stood frozen beside the door, only moving when she saw Mrs. Cope giving her a concerned look.

"Sorry." She muttered, handing the older woman her slip, before outing out the door, not seeing her sister's concerned look, the imprint of Edwards Cullens monstrous face stuck in her mind.

As it was burned in to her mind, thoughts ran across it, ranging from 'Is he angry at me?' and 'How dare he look at me like that!'

. . .

They got to the grocery store quickly, taking a basket each and tearing the shopping list in half, splitting up to get what they needed faster.

As she walked into the sweet aisle, her last stop, Artemis hummed happily at the sight of all the sweets. Without sugar, she probably wouldn't be walking around or be awake before ten o'clock. Quickly picking her copious amount of sweets and chocolate, she smiled happily, and most probably quite insanely, at the large bar of dark chocolate in her hand.

"You're going to scare off all of the paying costumers if you carry on smiling like that." An amused voice sounded from behind her.

She spun around, arm coming up to punch the guy if the need arose, but blinked when she came to be eye level with a muscled chest. Her arm moved back to her side, knowing that even if she did punch him, it probably wouldn't do any damage to anyone but herself.

"They can go to a different aisle." She murmured, huffing when she was faced with yet another reminder of how tall she was. She hated her height, she really did - especially when it meant she couldn't reach something on a top shelf, most commonly chocolate.

They guy grinned down at her, Artemis only just catching it when she tilted her head up to see him.

"Kai Hart, nice to meet you." He was quite tall, around 6', with floppy light brown hair that fell into laughing dark blue eyes. He looked nice enough, with a wide smile on his face.

"Artemis Swan." He looked down at the small girl, his grin growing wider at the slight disgruntled expression on her face.

"You're the chief's youngest daughter, aren't you?" He asked, only allowing her to nod before he continued talking. "Heard you had an older sister, too, a few years older than you, isn't she? Isabella, I heard her name was. How old are you?" He asked, suddenly pausing in his weird speech.

"Fifteen." It was a cautious answer, and Kai grinned at the suspicious blue eyes glaring up at him.

"Well, I'm sixteen, so I'm older than you." He laughed shortly, quite liking the look of confusion on the younger teens face.

"Anyway, stop smiling like you were a few minutes ago, it scares the costumers." He told her, side stepping to move past her. "And feel free to find me again!" He called over his shoulder, winking.

Artemis blinked after him, feeling very confused with the situation. She didn't think she'd ever met anyone like that before, and she had met her fair share of strange people.

"That - was weird." She said to herself before yawning. She was tired, it had been a trying day, and her list was completed, all she needed to do was find her sister, get home, and she could collapse on the sofa or her bed until Bella woke her up and insisted she have dinner.

Yeah, that sounded like a good plan.