Thankfully, Stefan sat beside me for every lesson and despite a couple awkward greetings from some male students nobody had really approached us. I never got approached by guys in my previous school, maybe human Bella wasn't good enough in their eyes. It's not like I've changed much physically, I guess I do look a bit more mature in my figure and my childlike round cheeks have become less pudgy and more chiseled, along with my round face now narrowing into a more oval shape. But the point is I still feel like the same boring brown haired, brown eyed, pale girl I was before.
Lunchtime rolled around with the bell tolling so obnoxiously loud it left a ringing sensation in my ears for a few seconds after it ended. Something I'd have to get used to I guess, just like I'd have to get used to this mondaine routine for the second time in my life.
"Stefan?"
"Mhmm?" He hummed a response back to me, his focus seems to be elsewhere as we entered the cafeteria, which was full with the entire three hundred and nineteen student body.
"How long are we planning on staying here in Forks?" I questioned, not bothering to hide the desperation in my voice.
"We just got here Bella," He said with a slight chuckle, joining the end of the lunchline.
I followed behind him, copying his every action like I was learning how to be a highschooler all over again. "I know, its just I don't want to get comfortable here if were just going to be moving on in a couple of weeks," I explain.
That was a small part of the truth, the reality was I already hated high school and the few lessons I'd had today didn't make me change my opinion. Not to mention my hunger kept on spiking at random moments, like when someone walked past I would get the sudden urge to lunge at them and sink my fangs into there skin, even the teachers fell victim to my hunger fantasies during classes.
"I'm not sure yet, but you know you can leave whenever you want Bella. I'm not holding you here against you will,"
"I know, I know. But I want to be here," I lied. In all honesty, I don't know what I would do without Stefan by my side, he's all I've got.
"I appreciate it, Bella, thank you." He told me, patting my shoulder, then continuing on to load up his tray with food.
I follow along knowing I won't be eating a lot of the food anyway. Being on an animal diet my body doesn't function as well as it could, I can still eat human food and do all the same functions a human does, but it does take a toll on my body, and after a while, I just start feeling sick. I don't know how Stefan has managed to do it for so long, it just proves his willpower is stronger than mine.
We paid the dinner lady and with our trays full, swiftly glided through the crowd with ease to an empty table near the center of the room. Not the best place to stay out of peoples line of sight, but it was the only free space available.
I bit into a pizza slice, not the best pizza in the world, but I'd certainly had worse. While I chewed the empty seats at our table suddenly were being filled by three girls and one of which I recognized as the girl Stefan bumped into, the others I couldn't remember seeing yet today. A boy followed sitting in the seat next to me and to my dismay I recognized him to be one of the boys who had approached me.
His hair was cropped, a mess of ash blonde spikes that matched his baby blue eyes perfectly. His skin fair which I found comforting that the entire student body seemed to be on the same level of paleness as myself, and his features very round, childlike and boyish. He seemed like a nice enough guy, maybe even on the overly friendly side. LikeI said I wasn't used to boys paying much attention to me.
"Nice to see you again Bella," The boy beside me said with a cheeky smile on his face. I'm sure he told me his name I just don't remember.
"Uh, hi."
"I'm Jessica Stanley, this is Angela Weber and Elena Gilbert, you must be Stefan and Isabella Salvatore, recently moved down from Illinois to live with your uncle to finish high school right?" The bubbly girl who said her name was Jessica introduced and I was taken aback, she knew more of our backstory then I did.
"That's right," Stefan replied for me, I didn't miss the way his eyes lingered on Elena for a beat longer than necessary.
The boy next to me coughed capturing Jessicas attention who huffed and rolled her eyes in fake annoyance in response. "And that's Mike Newton."
Right, Mike, the name does seem to sound a bit more familiar now, I glanced at him again and his smile seemed to get impossibly wider. I looked away at once not wanting to give him the wrong impression. He smells delicious.
"So how are you liking Forks so far?" Jessica questioned and it seemed clear by her dazed gaze solely directed at Stefan that I wouldn't be needed to participate in this conversation.
My eyes began to drift around the room in curiosity at the small student body, I'd have to say Mystic falls had a large student body then here.
"Were enjoying it so far thank you. I have to apologize for this morning, I'm sorry if I caused you to be late," I heard Stefan apologizing.
"It's fine honestly," The girl, Elena responded.
"Oh, what happened this morning?" Jessica questioned, a bit of bitterness now melting into her tone.
My eyes fell back to the woman in front of us and I took in their different features. Elena was naturally beautiful with a slim build, long silky dark brown hair, tanned skin and big doe brown eyes. Whereas Jessica was more full in her build with a perky smile, beautifully curled brown locks, with fair skin and brown eyes. Angela was more the type of person I could see myself being friends with, her skin a dark mocha color, and her hair jet black tied up in a ponytail, her dark eyes hidden behind a pair of rimmed glasses. She noticed me looking at her and flashed me a friendly smile, she kept quiet, and it almost reminded me of my human self.
Elena giggled and Stefan laughed in response as the pair tried to explain the events from this morning. I drowned them out letting my eyes flitter to the back of the room and that was the first time I saw them. Five of them sitting at a table each looking in different directions, not eating, not talking, not doing anything at all. But this wasn't what drew my attention to them each somehow looked similar yet completely different at the same time.
There were two girls, one a long-legged blonde who belonged on the cover of a swimwear magazine, the other was shorter with short and spiky black hair who reminded me of a small pixie due to her size and smile. The three guys were also very different from each other, one having sandy colored hair, slightly curly and coming down to his shoulders, by the expression on his face he looked like he was suffering from some kind of internal pain. The boy beside him was more of a man, with a very tall and muscular build and short black hair, he was the kind of person you would not want to be in a fight with. The last was certainly the most good looking out of the group in my opinion, he was not a muscular as the others but something about his chiseled jaw and auburn hair made him seem more alluring to me than the others.
Despite all these differences, there were all exactly alike. All extremely pale, maybe even paler than me and that was really saying something. Each had dark circles under there eyes and from this distance, I could even see the color of there eyes they were on the verge of being black with how dark they are. And lastly each one was so inhumanly beautiful, I immediately grew suspicious. There was no way that there were five human beings so perfect, I couldn't wrap my head around the idea, I knew there must be something supernatural going on.
"Hey, Mike?" I turned the boy next to me whose eyes grew wide as I said his name.
"Yes," He responded, eagerly.
"Who are those people over there?" I asked him, looking over at the table.
He followed my gaze and before he could even say anything, the boy sat on the end, the one with auburn hair turned in our direction. His gaze fell on Mike for a second before drifting over to meet my gaze. I didn't look away, and neither did he, the more he stared the more frustrated he began to look, eventually, he snapped his gaze away from me and I felt like I was freed to finally look away from myself.
"That's the Cullens, their kind of loners around here," Mike gave a very vague response, then shrugged his shoulders.
I pursed my lips in response taking another glance at them.
"There Doctor Cullen and his wives foster kids, moved down here from Atlanta a year ago. The blonde girl and the guy who looks like he's in pain that's Jasper Hale and Rosalie Hale. The other girl is Alice Cullen and the tall muscly guy is Emmett Cullen," Jessica spoke up, it seemed like she enjoyed dishing out as all the juicy information she manages to find out about people.
"What about the other guy?" I asked, more curious about him, he didn't turn around again like before, he kept his eyes on his family in front of him.
"Oh that's Edward Cullen, but don't get your hopes up, apparently no girl around here is good enough for him." She said and it made me curious as to how many times exactly had she been turned down by him.
I was going to comment but decided against it, no need to make enemies on my first day. Watching Edward it looked like he was smiling, I wonder what he's laughing about. I was transfixed throughout lunch by the curious table at the back of the cafeteria. The little pixie-like girl, Alice, was the first to get up and dump her full tray of food in the bin, the way she moved was so subtle and swan-like, it just added to the not-so-human theory I was developing inside my head.
The bell rang and all of the Cullens rose without speaking to each other and left with the same grace as Alice did. Stefan gripping my forearm shook me out of my dazed state and back to reality.
"You okay?" He questioned worried, finally taking notice of me.
"Um, yeah I think so," I mumbled, standing up alongside him. "Did you notice them too?"
"Notice who?"
"The Cullens." When he gave me a blank expression in response I realized he wasn't listening at lunch. "Keep an eye out for them," I advise him, walking forward blindly, I didn't even know what lesson I had next let alone where it was.
"Why?" Stefan was very confused by this point.
I dumped my tray of food into the bin then stood aside for Stefan to copy me. "Becuase there's something not right with them, I can't explain it right now, you'll just have to see for yourself."
