I'm glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you all enjoy this one too!

MM: I'll drop a hint here about Edward, its not much of a hint but! Remember he can hear thoughts. I'm glad her personality is coming through! :) Enjoy!


I began packing my things with the sinking suspicion the bell was about to ring, signalling the end of history class. We'd covered the first portion of the years leading up to the American Civil war, things like state issues and slavery were about it.

"See you in English, Miss Gray." My seatmate stood the second the bell rang, picking up his single unused notebook and turning to walk out.

I wondered about giving him his pen back but he'd already made it out of the door before I could actually make a decision. Oh well. He'll get over a lost pen. I watched his back until it disappeared out of the door way, wondering why nearly everyone in his family was cold feeling. It wasn't like I'd actually touched any of them.

I wondered down the hallway, not really paying attention to the people around me until I'd made it outside. It felt like someone wanted my attention, like they were running after me which forced my head to swivel around as I searched for said person.

"Naomi!" A feminine voice yelling from my left side startled me slightly. Angela. Shit. I forgot to wait for her, I'm really off my game today.

"Sorry, Ange!" I yelled to her with a sheepish grin as she slowed her awkward running when she caught up to me.

"Head in the clouds?" She panted, moving to a slow walk with me.

"Just a bit." I sighed, shifting the books in my arms to rest against my right side.

"Thats a rare sight...you okay?" She sounded genuinely worried.

"Yeah! I'm fine. Why you so worried?" I raised a brow, siding a glance at her.

"I think the last time you didn't know I was coming was in like...7th grade." She concluded slowly. It dawned on me that Angela was concerned for me and that was sweet, the idea made me smile hard.

"Well don't worry about me, Angie. I'm fine, I'm just tired. I got like...3 hours of sleep last night?" I shrugged, pushing the doors open to the science building.

"Fair enough. Must need a good amount of sleep to run that big brain of yours." She snorted, going past me into the hallway.

"I guess so." I laughed as I followed her in.

"See ya after school!" Angela yelled to me, starting for her own classroom as I stopped at mine. I went into the chemistry class and started towards my seat only to find someone sitting in it?

I had to force my eyes not to narrow into slits when I realised that Rosalie Hale was sitting in my seat. Sonvabitch. I know that we don't 'officially' have assigned seats but...a seat in the back row of almost classroom was mine. It had been since I started school in Forks. I continued my way to the back, ignoring the defiant stare she gave me the whole way.

This is fine. I can play this game, Rose.

I plopped down in the seat closest to her's, making sure to sling my backpack from my shoulder so I almost hit her. Just almost. I considered messing with her but decided against it thanks to my slightly irrational fear of being accused of either stalking someone or witchcraft. Instead I settled for just sitting in silence and trying to ignore the cold that kept trying to make its way to rest in my bones.

It felt like this was antagonizing for her, like she wanted to move as far away as she could but she didn't move a muscle. She didn't move a single muscle for the entire class and frankly, by the end of Chemistry I wasn't as irritated as I was impressed. She said nothing as she stood and left the room in a whirlwind taking that cold feeling with her...is it weird that the wave she left behind was oddly nice smelling? Like flowers?

I stood up and trailed out of the room, considering that peculiar factoid. It may have just been a heavy perfume but it didn't seem like one. Those usually had really chemical overtones in them.


"You're here early, Naoma." Mr Elliott greeted me as I came through the doorway. He seemed to have just gotten here himself and was currently stacking up papers on his desk.

"Yeah, just a bit." I nodded at him. I was actually early to English today and I almost regretted that I didn't take my sweet time to get here.

"I wanted to talk to you about your last essay, on Ophelia?" Mr Elliott dug through his paper stack. We'd done Hamlet before and let me tell you, she was just the depressing tip of the big depression ice berg.

"Oh?" I questioned him distractedly. I was glancing at the back-row as I stopped at the front desk and spied Jasper Hale in the back. He was sporting a smug smile but it wasn't obvious to the casual observer. I'd glanced at him for a little longer to determine the meaning of his smile, longer than one would normally and now I just felt awkward.

"Interesting spin on her being a strong character...you mentioned she was one of the only two females in the play." He was requiring more of my attention which I was happy to give at the moment, it meant I wouldn't have to think about the amount of staring I just did.

"Yeah. She is. I know she dies early on but, I wanted to go all out on the philosophy." I muttered, reading over the paper that had a big red B on the front of it. I had a lot of thoughts running through my head all the time and writing meant I'd get to put some down on paper...and they wouldn't sound as crazy.

"I can tell. I enjoyed it but I wish you wouldn't have rambled so much about her name?" He pursed his lips. I sided a glance at him, getting the feeling that he really wanted to like it but found it difficult to really understand. I had ideas and feelings but I didn't have a great way of communicating them which was a lifelong issue.

"I got it. I'll try to fix that next time." I nodded, taking the paper he'd handed to me. I could smell the cologne he put on this morning but he smelled more like paper to me. His left hand had ink smudges along his pinkie and wrist, and he was missing a cuff link on that side. He was busy this morning, I guess, but I had the feeling he'd been dealing with some personal problems.

"Looking forward to it." He sounded genuinely excited for that, making me smile but also feel a bit sad for him. What was going on in his life that meant a student's paper was that much fun?

I nodded at him again with a small smile and made my way towards my customary seat in the back, there wasn't any backpacks to trip on this time around which was lovely. I think I might actually snap at this guy if he got a kick out of me almost busting my ass again.

"Miss Gray." I almost snorted at him this time around, the man acted like he was 90 instead of 16 or 17 with that line. I mean I know I'm only 16, I don't have as much experience as my mom to understand people and the feelings I got from them but I still had them.

"Jasper." I greeted him by first name, almost challenging him to say I'd overstepped whatever odd boundaries his sensibilities had. His face didn't change which was irksome. If anything, I felt like I'd amused him somehow.

"Did you read last night?" He was making conversation again, forcing me to pay attention to him.

"Yeah." I elected to give him one word answers, mainly because I was still a little irked about him not believing me earlier. I really just wanted to know how his brother figured me out. It seemed like there was something else going on with the family and out of the two of us, I was the more truthful one here.

"Thoughts?" He leaned on his palm, watching me with muted interest.

"Its sad." I responded shortly as he nodded slowly.

"Isn't that the point though? Whole story is there to remind you of one thing." He retorted with a slow voice, which was slightly irritating. It felt like he was playing on my emotions somehow, like he knew I was irritated but interested and wanted to exacerbate that.

"And pray tell, o-wise-one, what is that one thing?" I raised a brow, waiting for him to crack or something. I had nearly nothing to work on here and he didn't seem like he was about to actually tell me what he meant.

"These violent delights have violent ends." He countered with nothing more than a deeper voice that I was expecting. It was emotional but I couldn't get close enough to his head to get what emotion was clouding his words exactly. For all I knew, he was just passionate about Shakespeare.

"Good to know, Friar Tuck." I cracked a small smile, attempting to dispel his seriousness with a bit of humour.

"Alright, turning to Act I. Lets start off with some characters, Naoma?" I felt near panic settle in my chest as I realised that either Mr Elliott didn't call roll or I was too absorbed with my seatmate to realise he had...and that he was calling on me for an answer.

"...Alright...How about Romeo? Whats your impression of Romeo, Naoma?" Mr Elliott raised a brow slightly at my silence and continued on. I knew I had to answer but all I could feel was everyone's eyes on me. Some were teasing, others were curious, and the two guys in front of me were seriously hungry for entertainment.

"Hes...impulsive. Young. In love." My voice was quieter than I liked but Elliott ran with it nonetheless.

"Are those good qualities? Or are they flaws?" Elliott turned his back to me, writing on the board now.

"They're his tragic flaws. They'll be the death of him." I concluded out-loud, feeling a bit of relief as everyone seemed to lose interest in the back-row freak-show.

"Correct. Theres actually a term for what he is exactly but we'll get to that later." Elliott resounded, finished writing the word 'ROMEO' and all of the flaws I'd listed above.

"Alright, Jessica, another character please." I breathed out a small sigh of relief as the classroom's attention turned to Jessica Stanley now.

Bless.

Jasper leaned towards me which made me still for a second. I had just relaxed for a second and now I was waiting with anticipation for what that meant. I kept having to stop myself from getting a little too curious. When that happened, I'd end up knowing a lot more from a conversation than the other person meant to tell me.

Jessica Stanley wanted to ask me about a dance one time when we were younger, she did, but she also dropped a few hints that she'd felt fat. So fat that she'd started making herself throw up meals once a day. I'd asked if she felt well, or if she'd been throwing up when I got the image of her vomiting and she got really snippy, really fast. Whoops?

"Good job there." He whispered into my hair, not getting close enough for me to even feel his breath but he disrupted my thoughts. I appreciated the space, I wasn't one for getting close and personal with people, I figured out too much that way. Generally I just picked up little bits of information but if I really focused down, I'd get snippets of images and those weren't things I was meant to see. I mean thats how me sneaking around in the girls bathroom rumour got started up, I had Jessica to thank for that.