"First day of school, woohoo," I deadpanned. Emmett chuckled and Jasper rolled his eyes. No one was less excited to see this day arrive than I was. I wasn't a big fan of school the first time around, and now I had to go back? At least we were enrolled as seniors, I consoled myself. Emmett was technically 21 years old, and he was loathe to pretend to be younger for any longer than he had to. Which was fine by me; since I was loathe to endure this adolescent torture any longer than I had to.
"Oh come on, Rose," Jasper teased, "it could be fun. I'll mess with people's heads- make things more interesting for you."
"Hmmph," I scoffed. This was still a little bit of a sore spot for me. After Jasper woke up from the change, we discovered that had an extra-special little talent- he could sense the emotions of others and manipulate them as well.
"It's so not fair!" I had whined and pouted like a little child. "I want a super power, too!"
Carlisle had eyed our broken couch pointedly, and I amended, "Well, you know what I mean…" I trailed off because, yeah, I was being silly.
It kind of made sense when I thought about it, though. Growing up, he always seemed to be able to read me like no one else could. He always seemed to know when I needed to talk, or not to talk, or just blow off some steam and have fun. It was like he had some sort of sixth sense. Now, come to find out, he did.
We piled into Emmett's vehicular monstrosity, and I exhaled heavily. We had a competition the night before, to see who would get to be the one to drive their car to school the first day, and Emmett had won. One of these days, I swore to myself, I would beat him in an arm wrestling match…
The roar of the engine as we pulled into the parking lot effectively halted all conversations in progress, and earned us several open-mouthed stares. Fantastic. So much for blending in. For the rest of the day, all anyone talked about was the "new kids". 'Did you see that SUV?' 'Where did they come from?' 'They're freakin' gorgeous!' Blah, blah, blah. At lunch, we sat by ourselves and no one dared to approach, as was proper. We were scary. Sure, on the surface, they were attracted to us, and I heard many quickened heartbeats as they swooned over us, but there was an underlying fear that wouldn't allow them to interact. For this, I was very grateful. Humans seemed dreadfully dull to me now, even though I had been one not so long ago. I couldn't imagine the effort it would take to feign interest in any of their asinine conversations.
As I was zoning out, pretending to eat my salad, Jasper gave me a slight nudge. "Check her out," he whispered. I cocked my head at him, not sure I had heard him right. Was he seriously checking out a human girl? He sensed my incredulity, and rolled his eyes. "Just do it," he said, inclining his head in the direction he wanted me to look. I casually turned to the right, and saw her immediately. I couldn't miss her, really, because while all the other kids merely stole glances and looked away quickly, this girl was staring at us. Unabashedly.
I narrowed my eyes at her, my eyebrows forming a V shape, but she didn't blink. It was then that I realized that she wasn't exactly staring at us, per se, but at Emmett. He, of course, was oblivious, music blasting in his earbuds as he pounded out drum beats on the table with his breadsticks. I had never met someone who could so fully live in the moment like Emmett could. I looked at the girl once more, and then shrugged at Jasper. I chalked her staring up to the fact that Emmett looked ridiculous right now, and by the time the bell rang, she was gone, and I forgot all about her.
So imagine my surprise (and annoyance) when we settled down at our table again the next day, only to find creepy girl staring again. What was this chick's problem? "She likes him," Jasper whispered, as if answering my unspoken question. "She is feeling attraction, curiosity, and there's an undercurrent of boldness, though I'm not quite sure what that means…' he stated, looking puzzled.
"She likes him? You mean, likes him, likes him? Emmett??" I nearly laughed out loud. Oh, good luck, sweetheart. You have no idea what kind of fire you're playing with.
And then she did the unthinkable. She laughed and winked at her small group of friends, who were encouraging her, and she stood up and made her way over to our table. I watched Emmett register her presence as she came to stand beside us. His mouth gaped like a fish, and he grabbed the edges of the table as if he suddenly needed an anchor of some sort. Oh no…Carlisle had told us about this. How certain humans could smell much better to us than others, making it almost impossible to resist. I was sure this was what was happening to Emmett at this moment, and I panicked, my mind racing to think of a way to help him. The crazy, oblivious girl simply smiled at him, and gestured, asking, "Is this seat taken?"
"Yes!" I said, lacing my voice with as much venom as I could muster, as I reached out with my foot, grabbed the leg of the chair, and yanked it out from under her hand. She was completely unfazed. "Okay," she said brightly, "I'll just take this one." She plopped into the chair on the opposite side of Emmett, and leaned onto the table, propping her elbow up and resting her head on her hand. I stared at her, shocked by her lack of fear (and manners!). I started to rise from my seat, about to do whatever it took to get her the hell away from our table, and save Emmett from this horrible temptation, when I heard Jasper snicker quietly beside me. "Excuse me??" I hissed into his ear. "Are you enjoying our friend's suffering, you freak??"
"Oh, he's suffering alright, but not in the way you think…" he whispered back, as he shook with silent laughter.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I seethed, not in the mood for games. Jasper sent a wave of calm over me, and I gritted my teeth in aggravation. I hated to be manipulated.
"He's attracted to her, and it's totally freaking him out. She's so close, and she keeps touching him. I've never felt anyone as confused as he is right now…"
I swung my gaze back over to them, and sure enough, she was touching him! Whenever she wanted to make a point or tell a joke, she would reach out and touch his arm. He seemed to jump slightly every time she did so, as if her fingers contained electrical charges. I stared in amazement and pondered what Jasper had said… he was attracted to her. I looked her over, trying to see what he found so appealing, and failed utterly. She was just so…plain. Average height, brown eyes, brown hair, light skin, boring clothes… Seriously, what did he see in her??
As lunchtime was drawing to an end, I was actually looking forward to going to class, if you can believe it. This girl was seriously irritating me. She had babbled to Emmett through the whole lunch period, and even though he had barely managed to speak more than a handful of words, she seemed undeterred. When the bell finally rang, I stood up with a jolt, startling everyone at our table. Suddenly, the girl seemed to remember that there were two other people sitting at the table, and asked our names. I crossed my arms and raised one eyebrow at her. When Jasper realized I wasn't going to answer, he took up the slack. "I'm Jasper," he drawled, "and this here is my sister, Rosalie. Ignore her, she's just PMSing." I glared at my brother- he would pay for that later. But the girl actually laughed at his rude joke, and said, "I'm Bella."
I smirked. Bella? Meaning beautiful? Not from my perspective. But from the way Emmett was looking at her, with a dumbstruck grin, I could see he felt differently.
"Ugh, whatever," I huffed, "I have to go to class." And I turned on my heel and left the ridiculous scene behind me.