My morning classes pass with their usual monotony. I conjugated en Espanol doodled my way through Calculus, and took too few notes in AP History. My coffee and breakfast bar were wearing thin by the time lunch arrived. Jasper and Emmett were waiting at our table when I walked into the lunchroom. Emmett is a year ahead of us and if you didn't know they were brothers, you'd never see the resemblance. Where Jasper is quiet (usually), Emmett is so physically imposing that ignoring him is impossible. He's also one of those people with a personality so large the air fairly crackles with it. "Silence" and "Emmett" do not belong in the same sentence (or the same room, for that matter). As different as they were, in some things they were the same. Competitive, sure. They are brothers after all. But also honest, kind, generous and fiercely protective of those they love. That includes me and Rose. Did I mention that Emmett is Rose's boyfriend?
We'd grown up together - Emmett, Jasper, and I. My folks were best friends with their folks and there was never a time when they weren't 'joking' about pairing Jasper and me, or Emmett and me. That stopped in the eighth grade when Roselie Hale moved in next door to me. She and Emmett took one look at each other and have been inseparable ever since. Emmett got a girlfriend, and I got a best friend. Shortly thereafter, Jasper decided that he should be my boyfriend since we all went everywhere together anyway. That was fine. I did love Jasper so it all made sense.
"Bella," Emmett hollered. "Grab me a slice of pizza!" I rolled my eyes and gave him a thumbs up as I shuffled along the counter, grabbing an apple, some yogurt, and Emmett's slice of pizza. I hadn't even settled in my seat before he grabbed it, folded it in half, and shoved it into his mouth.
"Fanks, Bewwa" he mumbled, his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk.
"No problem," I replied, leaning over to give Jasper a smacking kiss on the cheek. "How was class?" I asked, pulling the lid off the yogurt. "Heard from Rose yet?"
"English sucked. Pop quiz so be prepared." Jasper said. I nodded but I wasn't worried. We were reading Wuthering Heights, which is one of my favorite books, so I was confident I'd have no problem.
"Rosie texted me in second period. Her cousins made it in and they're going to get settled then meet us at the diner for dinner." Emmett added, before taking another huge bite of pizza. He swallowed that down and continued, "Rose wants us to help 'em out, show 'em around, warn 'em about the undesirables...you know, just help 'em get comfortable here."
I felt bad for the cousins. Rose told me that her aunt and uncle were having marital problems and they didn't want their children to be in the middle of it all, so they sent them here to Forks. Sucks to be them, starting a new school in the middle of the year. And since we were a very small town, with an even smaller High School, there was no way they would be able to blend in without notice. I was glad that we could help them.
