The Forks Academy

Chapter Two

The Great Escape

It was early evening and Alice was bored. Bouncing on the edge of her seat, she looked to her right, outside the window. There was something beautiful about the immaculate lawns and twisting brick roads leading nowhere in the dark outside, all those little things people usually noticed about them veiled beneath shadows, flawless, with all the flaws hidden, like she wished to be. The stars and moon were concealed behind thick smudges of storm cloud overhead.

Suddenly she wanted very badly to leave the dimly lit cafeteria and wander into the night. "Everyone's really quiet today," she said softly.

"Yeah," Emmett replied, listless at the prospect of having to speak in front of Rosalie.

It was as though somebody flipped a switch from within Alice, and she was energetic again."You're reaaaaally boring, Emmett," Alice whined. "I blame you, Rosaliiiiiiiiiie." She was too bored to be tactful of the situation at hand, to notice the light and shadow flickering on the outline of the older girl's face when their gazes met. "And what is wrong with the cooks today? Fried eggs and bacon for dinner?"

Jasper lifted up a piece of greasy bacon with his fork delicately and said, "Nothing wrong with bacon."

"But for dinner?" Unable to raise only one, she raised both her eyebrows and prodded her eggs as though provoking a monster, unusually satisfied by the sight of yolk spilling over the egg whites like a acrylic paint.

"A conspiracy, I declareth!" he cried.

Alice heaved a long sigh as she answered, "These sad attempts at Middle English are becoming a long-running gag, Jas."

"At least they're not boring, correct?" His dark eyes were crescents of mirth when he lifted his head from his china plate. His face was a blurry still from a roll of film, unfathomable yet enough to express an entire world behind one look. Just to herself she wondered if it was the chemicals in her brain shifting in reaction to the older boy or something else that was trapping her in these odd feelings that cause her blood to burn in her ears. That was the Thing with Jasper, this spectacular, dazzling thing that he did to people's heads with an easy smile, a simple thought, and it was near impossible to tell whether the Thing was his special ability or just the effects of Jasper's own presence. Sometimes she couldn't tell whether he was even doing it or not.

"Ha, ha. I don't really think there're 'boring' bacon and 'interesting' bacon though… Like, would that be green or polka-dotted bacon?"

"That would be 'rotten bacon'," he told her. "Anyways, if you find everything around you boring, chances are you are boring."

"I am boring…" Alice gasped with no small amount of horror. Her fork dropped and struck the harsh white china, causing Edward to jump in alarm at the piercing sound and shake out of his reverie. You, m'dear, are pathetic.

"I resent that," Edward mumbled, yet she didn't catch the steely edge of his tone when she smirked.

"Eavesdropper," she grumbled.

"Fine, I'll pretend I didn't hear that," he snapped at her, anguish, sharp as a knife, cutting through his features. "I don't precisely ask for this, you know!"

"Edward—" Jasper began. Alice was oddly touched.

"Seeing this girl, it doesn't have to be this… hard. If I were you, I'd—

"How much do you actually know about being me?" And the Thing with Edward was, nobody actually truly understood him, given the nature of his ability and burden.

She winced painfully, stinging eyes lowered in shame and arms twisted tight across her chest. How dare I provoke Edward that way? She asked herself. Impenetrable, constant Edward who doesn't like dragging other people into things? She wasn't bored anymore, but this was far worse.

"You don't know anything."

Alice's fists hit the wooden bench abruptly. "That's right. I don't. Except that you're not even going to give this a try. You're too afraid of the outcome, no matter how brilliant it can be." He couldn't see like she could, that was a given, but it was too much for her to bear, watching him dismiss even the slightest chance at a happy ending that was possible.

"No, I cannot see. I cannot see how I can stop doing harm to the people around me, how a freak like me can possibly think to—I just can't. It is impossible."

"You are not a freak," Jasper said.

Her eyes watered but she simply did not care. The cafeteria was empty—most of the students, including Emmett and Rosalie, had exited the hall for their dormitories after finishing dinner, leaving behind a sea of silence that seemed to numb her heart. "No, you're goddamn impossible, Edward." She thought he could hear her thoughts and read her mind, so why couldn't he understand her this time?

"I'm leaving." He stood up immediately, his arms pressed against his side to release the tension from the arch of his back. He couldn't—or didn't want to look at them any longer, Alice could tell. It felt like more, more than a simple twist of the body, when he turned his back to them to leave as though he was never returning again.

Jasper too rose from his seat with an unseen resolve, his wide eyes completely focused on Edward. "Where are you going?" he asked calmly, and Alice finally remembered that he was not her age. Older. Way more mature than she was.

"None of your business." Anywhere from here.

Edward shot him a furious glare from afar but Jasper met it unflinchingly. "I am older and far more rational than you at the moment, so tough beans." Jasper didn't think that "tough beans" was a particularly threatening to say to Edward, who was acting like a wayward child, but the mixture of irony and menace in his voice and height hardened its effects considerably. Edward and Alice could be so stupid sometimes, even though he could tell that they were both hurting now, seeing the fire under their skin, the shadowy eyes that were too large on their faces, the slight tremor of bony shoulders.

He knew he should calm them down using his ability. He couldn't do it. It wouldn't solve matters for more than five minutes. The situation would become tangled in more knots than ever for they will both become supremely pissed at him. So useless without my ability. Edward's reply was soundless; he gave the boy a "what are you going to do about it?" look in his haunted black pupils. "You're not going anywhere without telling me." You little punk.

"Edward, can't you tell we care about you—omigod, that's so cliché—I mean, you don't have to run away for things to get better—you're not a freak," Alice stammered through hysterical hiccups. "Everything's coming out all wrong, like from some cheesy nostalgic Lifetime movie, but it's true. You're not a freak, running away is wrong, and we—or at least I care about you, if you don't think anybody does." A slight pause, and a moment of realization flitted through her features, a shooting star that couldn't be caught. "We'll help you. Whatever you want."

"I want to leave," Edward told her, enunciating every word painstakingly.

"Meet me at the school garage after ten."

---

The plan was simple. He knew what it would be before Alice did. There is no reason for the Plan to fail, Edward said to himself, taking a quick scan of the room he shared with Emmett and Jasper. The walls were painted a pale dusky color and the space felt empty, bare from the lack of clutter aside from a single wall covered by shelves and shelves of Cds. His feet felt unsteady atop the thick golden carpet as he picked up a plain black backpack and dropped a couple pieces of spare clothing into its depths. He as shaking from a shot of nervous energy, wanting to burst through the large window that was the far side of the room and breathe the fresh air of the night forest.

"You lunatic, Edward. You haven't even said a word to her and she's already got you twisted around her finger." Emmett was sitting on a black leather coach, waiting.

"That's coming from he who stalks Rosalie," Edward replied, bitter. "That's why I'm leaving, is it not?"

"The million-dollar question is whether that's your only reason?" Emmett was in a wise big-brother mood. God I hate that, Edward thought. And he knows it.

His stance shifted uncomfortably. "Yes that's all," he answered briskly. He thought about that Bella creature, and the way his gaze practically terrorized her. He couldn't see the thoughts behind that beautiful pale mask and the brown eyes but he wanted to, unknowingly. "Look, I do not know why she's doing this to me. Is it love at first sight? I don't know that, or if she even gives a whit about what I think of her at all. It is not a simple thing I can explain—her scent, her face—all of this is more complex, better, and infinitely worse."

---

"I saw myself doing this, you know. Ugh, stupid me—I walked right into my own vision," Alice groaned. "So. Do you have any idea what the Plan is?"

"Did you not tell Edward you already conceived it?" Jasper was slightly puzzled yet unruffled.

"The Plan was to have you get in here and help me plan," laughed she, eyeing Rosalie hopefully for aid. "Open discussion."

The golden-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Anything to rid Edward of this stupid infatuation." Jasper nodded his agreement.

"Are you kidding me?" Alice exclaimed, wondering how on earth could they both be so unfeeling. This anger does not, she thought, have anything to do with Emmett. "It might be his chance at, you know, love! And you want us to throw it away for him? Don't you know he can't hear her thoughts? It's perfect."

"Perfectly over romanticized," Jasper drawled while it was Rosalie's turn to nod. "These things do not occur like that. What is this, a romance novel?"

Alice was horribly tempted to lift a hardcover book from her shelf, toss it at his head, and show him what a romance novel is, though something told her that would be unwise. "Fine, we'll agree to disagree," she replied coldly. "It's about what Edward wants, isn't it? Well, he wants to leave, so let's just let him figure it out on his own that way."

"That's a stupid Plan." Stupid Rosalie. Stupid Jasper helping his sister. Why couldn't he just shut up, as usual?

"Got a better one, your royal highness? A tyrannical one that involves bullying Edward into submission?" she shot back, practically seething. She knew she would regret jilting the older girl later, when Edward would be gone and they were alone in the dorm room they shared. It was like the girl was destroying everything she believed in—Emmett, romance, and now Edward too. Not Jasper though; he was never hers to begin with.

Jasper blankly said, "Fine."

Alice sounded surprised when she repeated, "Fine?"

At last, Rosalie too concurred, "Let Edward decide. Let him drive god-knows-where. I can't believe I'm serious about this."

"That makes two of us," Alice said to her, overcome by a strange feeling. On her bed, she hugged her knees to her chest and braced herself for what was to come, watching wide-eyed as swirls of color swept away her present, the vibrant clouds parting like curtains to reveal. A dark Volvo speeding down the lonely gray road, slicing through the darkness with deadly urgency. Thick trees bushes pressed upon the low metal fencing and dampened the air. She saw the usual green road signs half-veiled in the night. She had met this sight before, many, many times and she wasn't surprised by Edward, whose hands gripped the steering wheel tight in a suffocating rage and whose sense of direction was still shockingly accurate.

Rosalie and Jasper were staring at her curiously, but they knew better to interrupt. "Alaska," she stated softly though she did not need to.

Jasper shrugged nonchalantly. "Better than running down to Mexico."

"What?"

"Why would Edward go to Mexico?" Alice said at the same time.

"My point exactly." He grinned, as if he had just untangled a series of intricate knots, triumphant. "Okay, as for the Plan… We should keep this simple. Our goal is to get to Edward's car, which is locked in the school garage, unnoticed. Now from what I've gathered, our dutiful School Head of Security possesses a copy the key in his office."

Her hands laced contemplatively on her lap, Alice smiled because this was definitely going to be an interesting account. "Your talent will come in handy, Monsieur Jasper. What if there is a mysterious intruder running around and making girls faint—"

Rosalie interrupted, "You're going to have to be the fainter. I doubt any authoritative figure will believe any tale you tell them."

Alice sighed most dramatically. "So be it. The sacrifices I'm willing to make for dear Brother Edward. Are you up for it?"

Jasper was frowning faintly, his lanky body slightly awkward leaning against the wall in the dim lamplight as he contemplated this. Alice knew he didn't like using his ability to manipulate people's minds easily any more than she liked picking up on the future, only she was the one who couldn't help doing it and he refused to wield his ability. Her nervous hands wrung her sheets, twisted into a shape as complicated as one's inner feelings, the kind usually hidden away from most people. Please please please, Rosalie pleaded with her pout. Finally, his head tilted back in exasperation and a faint flush that contrasted with his pale skin colored his cheeks. Fine.

"Oh yay!"

---

"Where're you goin'?" Emmett inquired tauntingly when Edward slung the full backpack over his shoulder a little awkwardly. Whatever he might be to the rest of the world, Edward did not seem like a backpack type of guy to Emmett.

The younger boy laughed uneasily and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. "They told me to meet them in front of the school garage after ten. It's all part of 'the Plan'." To further emphasize the point, he patted the backpack gently and looked back at his wall of CDs out of the corner of his eye longingly. "I couldn't get a very clear picture of the Plan from her though… Odd."

"I can punch a hole in the garage door for you if the Plan doesn't work out," Emmett offered hopefully, smiling at the thought of what hijinks Alice might as part of her Plan. "Infinitely more efficient than using a key, y'know."

"No, Emmett, no. And you call me a lunatic for avoiding the Bella creature? It would be very suspicious tomorrow morning when my car's gone and there's a hole on the side of the garage."

At the mention of "the Bella creature", Emmett began laughing hysterically. "What—the—hell?" he wheezed through choking laughter. Edward in turn looked unbelievably uncomfortable at his amusement, blanching until he was white as parchment. "Where are you going anyway, to avoid this—Bella creature?"

"Mexico," he deadpanned.

"Awesome."

"It's back to Alaska, actually," Edward told him, grinning a bit.

Disappointment made its way down his throat like burning alcohol and sank to the pit of his stomach. "Why not Mexicoooooo?" Emmett whined doggedly. "Dude, the Denalis are as fun as a pile of old books with the funny words scratched out. No fun whatsoever."

"That's an interesting simile. Now what time is it?"

"Nine forty-five," replied Emmett without glancing at the plain clock on the wall, softly ticking, at all.

---

"Don't look so grim," Jasper told Rosalie as the three of them snuck out of the girls' dormitory, the dewy grass beneath their feet whispering a warning. She glanced at the surface of her silver watch, cool around her bare wrist, glittering from the glare of her flashlight, and her reflection was a beautiful disapproving visage leering back at her. She shivered unpleasantly in the cold when her skirt fluttered from a northerly wind.

"How can I not?" she said bluntly, trying to make him feel as uncomfortable as she did. "Stupid damn cold."

"I'm kind of surprised you even agreed to it." Alice's voice appeared out of nowhere, like the pixie she seemed to be. She had an unearthly glow around her shock of white skin, almost magical while her choppy dark hair blew in every direction and she seemed a thing of the wild. Pity about the hair though.

"Well the two of you'll muck it up without me. Scratch the m and put an F and what do you get?" Rosalie didn't know if the two of them could see her smirk in the dark but it didn't really matter that much.

"Same difference," Alice retorted. "I'm even kind of surprised you're not having second thoughts about the Plan. It feels like we forgot something but I don't really know what." Though she would never admit it, Rosalie had the same feeling as she tread upon the moist grass, out in the dark when she should be resting, her blood surging when she should not care, ever, at all. "Gah!"

"Hmm?"

Rosalie wrinkled her brows. "Eww. That is so unbelievably disgusting I don't have a word for it."

"What she said," said Alice, taking several steps backwards in stride. "Oh my—"

Jasper flicked his flashlight on swiftly, shining the light on the spot. "Oh that?" he inquired, a wisp of a sneer inflecting his tone. The harsh light made sharp glimmers on the creature's brown shell, so strange nested in crisp not-too-tall grass on its side. One of its feelers was lopsided as if drooping in defeat while the rest of it practically sagged, limply, into the ground. "Well hello, Monsieur Snail," greeted Jasper.

"Shut up, ignore the thing, and let's go," Rosalie hissed, unnerved by the snail. What is wrong with my brother? It wasn't as if snails and slugs were particularly uncommon in this universe, and it did rain here at the FORKS Academy.

Alice's voice was high and strangled when she said, "Come on, Jas. It's a creepy snail. Ew ew ew."

"Does it frighten you?"

"Only to no end." Rosalie managed to keep most of the hysteria out of her voice, determined to keep her gaze on something other than the snail.

They kept walking until they reached the far end of the school campus. There was a dim light, diminutive as the luminance of a firefly, coming from a small window mounted on an office near the school gates—the Head of Security didn't leave campus until after eleven, because of course all the kids who'd wanted to sneak out would be asleep by then.

Jaspe unthinkingly picked a rock up off the ground, measured its weight in his hand, and threw it at the window. He saw the light bleed into the darkness after the glass shattered with a loud crack. "Yes!" he murmured in triumph, as Rosalie rolled her eyes, unimpressed by her brother's willingness to be impressed.

From faraway she could see the creaky wooden door of the office swing open, smirking when an angry man stormed out of the shack-like establishment with a flashlight. The unexpected burst of light stung her eyes, but she realized this was well worth the minor discomfort when Charlie Swan's complexion rose to a vivid sort of purple she liked in clothes. "Run!" Alice whispered fiercely, even though there was no way Jasper could have heard her anyway.

As Rosalie had suspected, rather than running in the direction from which Jasper had thrown the rock, Charlie Swan marched up to her and Rosalie instead. She began explaining before the man had a chance at interrogation. "Mr. Swan—Alice and I, we saw this weird guy sneaking around campus at night, so we just decided to follow him—he was going really slow at first and we had like no idea where he was going or if he's even a he at all—and then report him to you and stuff—"

It was Alice's turn to speak. "Then he came here, after circling the entire Academy really carefully, and…"

Mr. Swan nodded along impatiently and said, "Be careful and return to your dormitories immediately. I'll go after him."

"B-b-but… what if he decides to go after us?" Rosalie's lower lip trembled and she widened her eyes to innocent perfection, an abundance of laughter bottled up inside of her. "He's obviously very violent." And obviously Charlie Swan was unskilled at managing silly teenage girls.

The older man, a heavy flush still beneath his skin, looked so awkward Rosalie almost felt sorry for the hell he was going to go through following Jasper, who could probably keep the ruse up all night, leading the security guard to every corner of the Academy without revealing his identity. "It's… going to be, erm, fine. The intruder just broke a window…"

"Yeah, I'll protect you…" Alice reassured, snickering.

"F-f-f-fine," Rosalie stammered on purpose.

"I'll leave the two of you to it then." The uncomfortable man then left them in pursuit of Jasper and all they could hear were rapid footsteps rustling the grass in the dark.

Now it was their turn. The two girls, eyeing the open door to Charlie Swan's office, laughed in unison. "Mission accomplished."

"You didn't even faint," accused Rosalie, glancing at Alice, disgust and fondness mingling in her gaze.

"Didn't need to. I'm saving the fainting for another time."

---

The school garage was built from the same bricks that all the other buildings of the academy were made of. In the absence of light, the reddish brick walls seemed duller, closer to the quality of dirty prison barriers than building materials for a boarding school for rich kids. The metal gate, a mass of black, twisting, curling bars, kept all the students' cars within its confines at night, when all of Fork's teenaged students were asleep in their dormitories. Or at least all of Fork's teenaged students should be asleep.

Two boys that should be asleep stood outside the gates, peering wistfully at a sable black Volvo with sleek, elegant lines next to a Jeep. The taller one was humming incessantly, twiddling his thumbs out of boredom, while the other just stared ahead as his brilliant eyes darted back and forth in the dark space.

"Do you think they'll actually come?" Edward wondered, glancing back and forth from Emmett to the premise of the school garage. "It's getting late."

"Why Edward, are you afraid of the dark?" It didn't really surprise him that Emmett was going to make a taunt out of this.

He rolled his eyes dryly. "Why yes, you got me there. But seriously, where are they?"

Emmett shrugged as if he hadn't a care in the world. "No idea." He halted to narrow his eyes into a squint at the distance. "Wait… I think I see them."

Now that surprised Edward. Truthfully he didn't really expected Alice to come through with something like this. The keys jangled, tuneless but full of promise, and glittered like crumpled tinfoil as they flew from Alice's hands across the air and landed at his feet.

"What happened to Jasper—and aren't these Mr. Swan's keys?" He felt the words leave his throat before he knew fully what was happening.

"Yeah, well Jasper's keeping him company," answered Rosalie, knowing that she did not need to, really. An oddly comical and distorted picture of a golden-haired boy running at top speed and the older man going after him like a hound came to Edward startlingly. He couldn't resist a smile.

"Huh. Fascinating."

Alice furrowed her brow thoughtfully. I hope Jasper don't get caught or anything. Her concern made Edward feel more uncomfortable than he thought it would, because again he was trespassing into her thoughts, where he had no right to dwell.

Pick 'em up. He didn't know whose thought it was anymore. He had spent his life trying to live freely within the set of rules that framed his actions, torn from want and anger and need and music. Should he take them, take them and go to a place that would clear his thoughts regardless of the consequences? The night stretched on and the silence lasted and Edward did not know when all this would end.

In small, cautious movements, he bent down and held the keys in his hands…

The engine was purring smoothly when he fastened his seatbelt, gazing at Alice, Emmett, and Rosalie from the rearview mirror. They would be there when he returned, along with a whole crapload of troubles and consequences and that Bella-creature.. but he wouldn't think of that right now. The gates were as wide open, and smiling vaguely, Edward placed his hands on the steering wheel, driving through the imprisoning gates without stop.

---

Jasper ran slowly into the wooded area of the school until he grew bored of Swan never quite reaching him and wanted to watch from above in a tree to pass time. Could he?

He realized his overconfidence was catching up to him when he saw the security guard's bright flashlight shooting through the trees' dark forms, threatening to reveal his hiding place against the gnarled roots of a great tree. Jasper Hale, you idiot.

He had to make a quick decision. If he ran now, the light would touch him and show the man who this "intruder" really was. Oh damn, he thought as Mr. Swan suddenly ran closer and closer to his spot, shouting, "Come out here right this instant!"

Jasper scrambled to pull himself up a branch that swooped low from the trunk, then rising to branch after branch, level after level powered by adrenaline-fused agility. The security guard now knew of his position. He told himself he couldn't get caught. Anxiety made his limbs clumsy and slick with perspiration when he practically escalated within the tree. He reached out to get a grip on a thick branch nearby, at the edge of the tree, and as he began to lift himself up, it snapped in a loud crack.

Then he was in the air. For a couple seconds it felt like flying, this freedom of arms and legs and sight, but he knew he was falling, slowly descending in the darkness…

---