Chapter 4: The Voice Inside My Head

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"Hello there, the angel from my nightmare

The shadow in the background of the morgue

The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley. . ."

I Miss You – Blink 182

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Edward Masen Cullen sat idly in the cafeteria of Forks High School, an untouched tray of food perched on the table in front of him. The day stretched out ahead of him like every other day in this small town had. Nothing changed here that really mattered. There was a minor disturbance in the student body regarding a new student, but, from what he had seen in the minds of those who had met her, she was nothing if not ordinary.

The sheer novelty of a new face had sent most of the other students' thoughts running amok. Most of the male students already fancied themselves in love with her. Across the cafeteria, Mike Newton's thoughts were especially graphic as he thought of ways to insinuate himself into her day. He tuned Mike's thoughts out easily, more from distaste than a concern for Mike's privacy.

Edward stared at the cracks in the ceiling, tracing the spider web pattern they wound through the plaster to help divert his mind from the voices he kept trying to ignore. His brothers and sisters sat next to him unspeaking. He tried to give them as much privacy as he possibly could, but it was easy to hear what they were thinking.

Rosalie, as usual, was thinking about herself. Her appearance in the clothes she had so carefully selected today was forefront in her shallow mind. She had caught sight of her reflection in the plate glass windows in the cafeteria and was consumed by admiring her own beauty. Her face twitched into a barely perceptible smile when she thought of what a lovely figure she cut opposed to the ordinary human girls she was surrounded with on a daily basis.

Emmett's thoughts were as simple as Rosalie's were shallow. He was attempting to come up with a way to catch Jasper unawares in revenge for the wrestling match he had lost the afternoon before. It was going to be hard for him to wait until after school to attack. Emmett's character was such that whatever crossed his mind was usually put into speech or action nearly immediately.

Jasper on the other hand was struggling to maintain his composure in this room full of beating hearts. The sheer amount of blood that surrounded him was growing harder to ignore by the second. Edward felt his thoughts begin to betray him as a pretty blonde freshman walked too close and the heaters blew the scent of her blood towards his nostrils like a wave. Edward felt the burn of a doubled thirst, both his own and Jasper's. Because of the number of years he had been denying himself the blood of humans, he was able to withstand the flame, but it took all of Jasper's strength not to rise from his seat and take her now.

Edward?

He heard Alice think his name as clearly as if she had spoken it aloud.

Is he ok?

Edward frowned so slightly that no one who wasn't a vampire could even make out that his mouth had moved. Alice reached out, gently touching Jasper's arm, and he turned quickly to look at her.

"It's ok, Jazz. You weren't going to do anything," she spoke so quietly that no one but Jasper and Edward could hear her.

Jasper shrugged and looked away. Edward could feel the struggle he was going through on a minute-by-minute basis.

Jasper shouldn't go so long without hunting. I'll take him tonight.

Alice's eyes clouded following her decision. Edward saw an image of Alice and Jasper in the deep green woods quietly stalking a small herd of elk. They pounced, and a large bull fell beneath them. He saw Jasper lean down to begin feeding, and Alice's vision blurred. The scene changed to that of Edward sitting in Biology next to the new girl. Her vision shifted again, and he saw an image of the same girl driving an old red pickup truck at its top speed through the rainy night.

"What was that Alice?"

I don't know. It wasn't clear. Who was that?

Before he could answer her, his attention was diverted to a group of students near the entrance of the cafeteria.

Oh, God, she's staring at the Cullens. Well, good luck, honey. They think they're too good for the rest of us mere mortals.

The thought of his last name caught his attention as surely as someone yelling it out. He scanned the group and quickly found the source of the thought, Jessica Stanley. Her voice was exceedingly familiar to him. He had been subjected to many of her more indecent fantasies concerning him for quite some time. She was standing in the center of the group talking to a female student who must have been Isabella Swan.

No, Bella. She likes being called Bella.

He couldn't see Bella's face for himself because she stood with her back turned to him and his family. Her long mahogany hair curled softly between her shoulders. He could hear her heart thrumming nervously in her chest like a bird. He tried to discern what she thought of the Cullens, but was met with only silence, almost as if there were no one standing across from Jessica.

Jessica turned and walked toward the table that contained her friends, and Bella reluctantly followed. She sat down in a chair, still facing away from the Cullens. Edward was frustrated. He wanted to see this strangely silent girl's face for himself.

He heard her ask, "Who are those kids sitting near the front of the cafeteria?"

"Oh, them. Those are the Cullens." Jessica's answer was quick and nonchalant.

"They're a family? They don't look anything alike." He could hear the curiosity in her voice. Hopefully, it was only the product of being a new student, but Edward listened even more carefully to the remainder of their conversation.

"Well they're all adopted or something. Dr. and Mrs. Cullen kind of took them all in." Jessica provided the standard answer they gave at each school they'd attended in the past twenty years.

"They're not from Forks, are they?" Of course, Bella Swan would know that. Her father had been the police chief here since she was a small girl. He imagined she'd been to Forks several summers at least. This was the Cullens second year here in Forks. She wouldn't have recognized their family name from her childhood visits.

"No. They all moved down from Alaska a couple of years ago." Again, the ordinary explanation for their presence.

"Oh, well. They don't seem to fit in around here." Edward tried hard not to snort or do anything to betray the fact that he was listening in. That was most definitely an understatement.

"Well, I guess they just kind of keep to themselves. Apparently, they think they're too good for the rest of us."

Edward laughed to himself remembering the brief period of time when Jessica had imagined herself in love with him. He was listening to hear Bella's reaction to this conversation, but instead all he got was a replay of Jessica's memory of the only time she had ever gotten up enough courage to speak to him.

He remembered walking away from the conversation, his shoulders shaking with laughter. If only Jessica had known what it would really be like if his mouth got anywhere near her.

He continued to stare across the cafeteria hoping that she would turn so he could catch a glimpse of her face. If he could see her face then maybe he would know what she was thinking. The silence from her mind was infuriating. The only thing he could hear was the venom spewing from Jessica's mind.

She's not even that pretty. Look, even Edward Cullen is staring!

Edward felt the unfamiliar urge to protect Bella from Jessica. She looked so small and weak, like a bird perched in the plastic chair. The little bit of skin he could see peeking out from the collar of her shirt was pale. He could still hear her heart thrumming and her quickened breathing.

What is making her so nervous? Is she shy? That sounds like more than first day jitters. She sounds terrified.

"So is the new one afraid of us yet?" Emmett's question pulled Edward's attention back from its sharp focus on Bella Swan. It was almost as if the rest of the world had been put on hold for a few moments. Now suddenly, it snapped back to life, and the roar of sound from the rest of the cafeteria returned to his ears.

Edward simply shrugged. He had no other answer to give.

"I should get going. I'm going to have a pop quiz in Math today." Alice stood and gracefully made her way to the trash can, dumping the untouched food. She turned and nearly danced out the double doors to the courtyard beyond.

The rest of the Cullens sat quietly for a few more moments before Rosalie said, "Shall we?" The others rose and followed her lead out to the world beyond. They walked together until they reached the middle of the courtyard where they parted company. Edward made his way to his Biology class, entering the room unnoticed and finding his seat. He knew from Alice's vision in the cafeteria that the seat next to him would be taken today, so he carefully laid his bag under the table rather than in the chair next to him which was its normal home.

Bella entered the classroom a few paces behind Angela, the quiet mousy girl who sat one row behind Edward. She pulled the hood of her jacket off her head and shook the rain out of her hair. He saw her face for the first time with his vampire eyes. Human eyes had not done her justice. The first thing he noticed were her eyes. The color of them was like no other human's he had seen. Golden, nearly the same as his brothers' and sister's eyes.

How strange.

The door opened as another group of students entered the classroom. A breeze caught her scent and blew it toward Edward's waiting nostrils. His throat stung from the smell of the blood pulsing through her veins, but something in the scent wasn't right. It was different than that of any other human he had encountered before, almost as if it had been diluted with something strange. The smell drove him mad with curiosity.

First the silence, and now this? What is this Bella Swan?

She glanced around the room and caught his stare. He heard her heart begin to race when her eyes made contact with his. What was causing her to react this way? Did she know something?

He tried again to probe her mind with his, and in return received only silence. The girl looked around the room as though desperate to find another empty chair, but the only place to sit was next to him.

Should I try to talk to her? What is going on? I've never been blocked from hearing someone like this before.

Bella walked up to the teacher, Mr. Banner, and handed him a slip of paper. He spoke to her quietly, and pointed to the chair next to Edward Cullen.

"There isn't anywhere else I can sit?" Her voice was hurried and panicked.

"Sorry, it's the only one. Is something wrong?" The teacher looked at her a little strangely, unused to such distress at a seating assignment.

"Umm, no. I just don't feel comfortable sitting next to a boy," she stammered by way of an excuse. If sitting next to a boy made her feel that uncomfortable, she must have come from a convent school before this.

"Just try it for today, and let me know if you still want to switch at the end of class," Mr. Banner replied soothingly.

She doesn't want to sit with me. Edward was suddenly hurt. He had never cared what any of his classmates thought of him before now. They normally shunned him. Why should this girl matter more than any of the rest of them?

Bella shrugged her shoulders and slowly turned to walk towards the chair. She was careful not to look at Edward as she carefully arranged her things at the table they now shared. He heard the squeak of the chair on the tiled floor as she slid it as far away as possible from him before sinking down into it. She grabbed a pen and notebook and focused on the front of the classroom, her eyes never leaving Mr. Banner as the lecture began.

She waved her hair and wafted that strange scent towards Edward's nostrils again. The smell made him thirst but also made him afraid. He'd thought there was nothing he hadn't smelled before, until now. This was alien to him, and he was anxious to know the cause. He leaned in closer to her, nearly close enough to touch her, and tried again to hear Bella's thoughts. She was closer to him now than any still-living human had ever been, and still, there was silence. He wanted to reach out and touch her to see if it made any difference.

Bella sensed Edward's cold breath on her neck, and instinctively, she leaned her body away from his. He suddenly noticed his proximity to her and pulled back to give her the space she needed to feel comfortable. Slowly she settled back into her place in the chair. He felt ashamed to have scared her so unnecessarily.

"Sorry," he whispered.

She merely nodded, still not speaking. He sat and watched her write for quite awhile. It wasn't like he needed to pay attention to the class anyway. He had two graduate degrees in Biology, and the material covered in this class usually bored him so much that he wished he could sleep. She was so careful not to look at him. He could hear her heart beating so fast that it sounded like it might explode.

Is she just that shy?

Edward tried hard to come up with some explanation for the strange combination of traits he had found in Bella Swan, but no matter how hard he tried there was nothing that could explain all of it. The bell rang to signal the end of class, and as Bella reached down to pick up her bag her sleeve was caught on the edge of the chair. It pulled up, exposing the network of scars on her arm. Edward saw them and stifled a gasp.

Look at her skin! It's like ours. But she can't be a vampire, I can hear her heart. What's going on?

He looked up to her face, and for the first time, their eyes locked. He could see the fear in her face as she reached down to quickly pull the cotton material to cover her arm, and before he could say a word, she had disappeared. He heard the door slam, followed by the staccato beat of her footsteps as she ran towards the parking lot.

Edward stood and left the room as quickly as he possibly could without raising suspicion. He got out the door just in time to see Bella jumping into the same red truck from Alice's vision. Before he could get any farther, she cranked up the truck and pulled out of the parking lot.

Edward felt Alice walk up behind him. She whispered, "She's going to run. . . "

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A/N: Okay, leave me a review and let me know how you liked it. Next chapter is back to Bells!

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