You can skip this if you want, but I have something to say. I've gotten a couple reviews on this, and it was the most wonderful feeling of my life. if my parents found out I'm doing this, they'd all laugh at me. the fact that people really like a story I made in my head to escape my life is just so amazing. I've never gotten such enthusiastic reviews, and reading them made me tear up. so from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone.
I stepped on Percy's foot and he saw the five of them laughing.
"Keep an eye on him in Bio, okay?" he said, worried.
"You think I was going to do anything else?" I rolled my eyes. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I mean, I've only been trained to kill since I was four. And I came to school practically armed to the teeth every day. I wondered what would happen if they installed metal detector at the entrances.
All of the people at the table were very excited for some sort of snowball fight that was going to happen after class in the parking lot. I, of course, took it upon myself to actually look out the window and saw that the snow had turned into rain. I smiled, happy it was not as cold as to cause snow anymore.
Lunch finished, and on the way out of the cafeteria, the boys groaned as they saw the snow turn into slush and melt away. Mike walked to biology with me, lamenting all the way about the lost opportunity for a snowball fight.
"Don't feel bad," I said as I walked into the classroom, "the snow wasn't the right texture anyway."
He seemed to cheer up as he walked to his table at the back of the classroom. The teacher, Mr. Banner, was distributing microscopes and slides to each table with the directions to identify which stage of reproduction the cell was in. I flipped open the textbook with the pictures of the example cells and then stared at the second hand move around the clock. The room was buzzing, many excited that they have a chance to talk to their friends instead of taking notes silently on a lecture.
Briefly, I worried about how to interact with Edward. I would have to talk to him, it was a partner activity. And if he tried anything, I could always stab him or shoot him. I closed my eyes and wished for the hundredth time that Percy didn't fail his intro to chemistry class last year and was here with me. I turned my thoughts to that gym I saw on the drive home from school, and if they would hire me as a dance instructor. I'd probably have to just teach the little kids instead of the more advanced ones.
The chair next to me scraped loudly, but I ignored it. Since he hated me so much, I'd have to ignore him as much as possible.
"Hello," a quiet voice said.
I opened my eyes and looked at him. He was beautiful, handsome, and gorgeous all mixed into perfection. I didn't like it. From my experience, the beautiful ones were the most dangerous. Spending any amount of time with the goddess of love and beauty could teach anyone that lesson.
"I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself last week. I'm Edward Cullen. And you must be Meda Jackson?" he asked.
"How do you know my name?" I asked. Charlie loved the sound of my full name, and would tell anyone who would listen that my name was Andromeda after that Greek princess.
"I think everyone knows your name, it's been the topic of conversation for weeks around here." He laughed almost musically.
"Oh. It's just that my dad calls me Andromeda behind my back, and that's what everyone knows me as. Please, keep calling me Meda," I said.
"Oh," he said awkwardly.
The class started at that moment, thankfully. Just labeling the cells. He pushed the microscope to me, saying, "ladies first?"
I'd done this once before with another class I had in Arizona. It took a bit of remembering before I correctly got the phase of the cell right.
"May I?" Edward asked after I wrote it down on the lab sheet.
"Sure," I said. I pushed the microscope to him and his hand brushed mine. I jerked it away.
It was cold, really, really, cold. Too cold. I've never encountered a monster that was pretending to be a human with cold hands before. Maybe he didn't have gloves. Maybe it was just bad circulation.
He labeled the other one quickly and pushed the microscope back to me to identify the next slide. And that's how it went, I looked at the slides, and he would check my work. I wondered if he'd done this before as well. After all of the slides were labeled, I looked at the clock and had to stop myself from hitting my head against the desk. That would probably not do so well for the desk. 30 minutes left to go in the class, and I was bored out of my mind. Ugh.
I felt eyes on me and looked at Edward. He had a look of confusion or frustration on his face. Then I spotted it. When he glared at me, his eyes had been dark brown or black. Now they were lighter, more gold than anything else.
"Did you get contacts?' I asked him. He looked confused.
"No, why?" he asked.
"Your eyes look different," I said. I was testing his reaction, and he looked confused still. I was 99% sure, but that 1% was still nagging at me. I needed to find out what he was, for my own safety and Percy's, but also for the world. I had to do that a lot, save the world.
The teacher took that moment to come over and ask us why we weren't working. I told him I'd done the lab before, in my other school.
"Well, it's a good thing you two are partners," he said, turning away. "At least the other kids will get a chance to learn something," he muttered sourly under his breath.
I laughed once quietly. So not only was he pretty, he was a genius as well?
"It's too bad about the snow, isn't it?" he asked me quietly.
Oh so now he was trying to be nice? Blech.
"Not really, I couldn't care less," I said, staring at him. Maybe it would make him uncomfortable and he'd shut up. He looked surprised by my answer.
"You must not like the cold or wet, though, coming from Phoenix. Is Forks a difficult place to live?" he kept asking me questions.
"Forks are a place like any other." I said. "It just rains more. Can't be helped."
"Then why come here?" he asked accusingly.
Fine. I'd humor him.
"My adoptive mother and biological mothers both got remarried. I thought I'd bring Percy over here so he can meet my adoptive dad and live happily ever after." I said. But there wasn't going to be a happily ever after. I knew, deep down, that my days were numbered. You can't be a child of the big three and live to see your kids grow up or something.
He looked surprised by my answer. Then he said something that surprised me.
"You put on a good show, but I'm willing to bet you're suffering more than you let on," he said.
I ignored that. Don't cry, I sternly said, trying to shut out the faces of all the people who died for me, because of me. All the people, my family, really, who died because I existed.
"Why does it matter to you?" I snapped at him. What was with the sudden therapy session?
"That's a good question," he mused to himself. "Am I annoying you?"
"Yes," I said. Leaving it at that.
Mr. Banner started the class again, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward leaning away from me, his hands clenched into fists. So I didn't just make up the thing last week. That was a relief, he was acting so much nicer today, and I thought for a moment that I had gone crazy. On the way to gym, I met up with Percy and mike. The class had switched to badminton. That was acceptable, although I thought of all the ways I could physically harm someone with the racket if I needed to. One thing I took real pride in was the ability I had to turn almost anything into a weapon.
The rain had turned into mist by the time Percy and I left for the parking lot. I handed Percy the keys while telling him in a low voice what happened in the class. He turned the engine on and I said that I was still sure he was mortal- not a problem for us.
I felt someone looking at me, so I turned around to look out the window, and three cars down, Edward Cullen was staring at me intently. I stared back. Was he trying to intimidate me? Then in that case, he was failing. Very few things intimidated me anymore.
Percy put the car into reverse and drove home. I pointed out the gym/dance studio to him and said one afternoon I wanted to go see if I could get a job or something. He congratulated
me and promised he would go with me for moral support.
"Yeah, and the fact that I'm the one with the car keys, jackass," I said.
That night, my dream was different. I was in the center of the room, and I was surrounded by multiple Edwards. I tried to escape, but they wouldn't let me. They kept coming closer and closer, and then they all opened their eyes.
They were all blood red.