Chapter 4: First Day

*Note: I realize that this chapter is freakishly long, and I apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort this may cause.

The following week passed in an excited blur. Alice took me shopping, Carlisle (under the name of Charlie Wolfe) applied for a job at the hospital, and we went over the cover story a thousand times, until, finally, it was Monday morning.
"Nessie, wake up." My mother gently squeezed my shoulder. It was then when I realized what day it was.
"It's Monday!" I squealed, beaming. After getting dressed in my Alice approved outfit and letting my perfect brown curls fall over my shoulders, I walked into our small living room, beaming.
"Aww! You look so cute!" My mom snapped a picture with the digital camera my dad got her for Christmas. I rolled my eyes, but kept grinning. I just couldn't stop being happy! Jacob, however, wasn't as excited.
"I can't believe I have to do this," he complained.
"You don't have to! Really, it's ok. I have Alice!" I pressed. He looked confused, but I knew my plea wouldn't change his mind.
"Come on, Alice is almost ready," my dad said.
I sighed, gave my hair a final toss, and ran out the door behind my parents.

* * *

Arriving at Forks High was both nerve-wracking and exhilarating. I had goosebumps, and Jacob, thinking I was cold, rubbed my arm. I didn't mention that they were from my nerves and not the temperature. We pulled into the lot for the Main Office, and I got out with big eyes, taking in everything around me.
"Cool, isn't it?" Alice grinned as she slowly walked around the car to me. It took me a millisecond to remember why she wasn't moving at her normal speed. I nodded as we walked into the building.
"Hello, dear. What can I do for you?" The kind receptionist asked with curiosity.
Alice gave her a gorgeous smile. "I'm Alice Wolfe. My sister, cousin, and I just moved here. It's our first day, and I was hoping you would have our schedules." She raised her eyebrows.
"Oh! Yes, yes, I remember seeing your registration forms." She dug around in a file cabinet for a moment, and pulled out a few pieces of paper. "Here are your schedules and a map for each of you. You will need to park in the student lot to the left," she smiled.
"Thank you very much." Alice said as she took the papers from the receptionist's hands, being careful not to touch them.
Once we got to the student lot, I stepped out of the car to one hundred pairs of eyes on me. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I turned away to wait for Alice and Jacob to get to my side of the car. As we walked for what seemed like an eternity to get to the building, I breathed, "Why are they staring at us?" So low that only Alice could hear.
She breathed back, "Well, I don't mean to sound like Rosalie, but, we are gorgeous, especially compared to them. And we are new, so they are bound to be curious about who we are, where we are from, why we our clothes are so ah-mazing, thanks to me." She held back a chuckle.
I nodded slowly in understanding. So we would be the center of attention all day. Great. If you knew my mother at all, you would know why this fact would be so discomforting to me.
When we finally reached the doors of building four, whispers began breaking out in the parking lot. One conversation, close to the door I guessed, stood out.
"Who are they?!" One voice, male, whispered with excitement and curiosity.
Another voice, female, answered, "They're new. My mom said she saw their registration forms. Apparently they are from some special Alaskan school. Those two girls are step sisters or something, and I think the boy is their cousin." I inferred that this girl's mother worked in the main office, considering the large amount of information she knew about us. Wasn't that supposed to be kept confidential? Jacob, speaking for the first time since we arrived, stopped my train of thought.
"What's your first class?" He asked.
I unfolded my schedule and searched the tiny print. "Ooh! Trigonometry!" I grinned at my favorite subject.
He looked at me like I was insane, which probably wasn't very far off. "English." He said in his husky voice. "Where is that, Alice?"
"Building three, right next to this one. And trig is in here, Nessie." She replied.
Phew. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to go back out there. "What do you have, Alice?"
"French. It's in this building too." She smiled at me as she saw my face wash over with the relief that she wouldn't be too far.
Jacob grunted. "Well I guess I better get over there," he muttered.
"Meet us in the cafeteria for lunch. It's in building two." Alice said matter-of-factly.
He nodded, squeezed my arm, and walked out the door.
"My parents are going to be listening to us the whole day, aren't they." It wasn't a question.
Alice didn't answer. "Let's go find your classroom." She said, cheerily changing the subject and pulling me down the hallway.
A few kids were already in there when we made it to the small room. Alice stopped me before going in.
"If you need anything, just say you need to go to the bathroom and come find me. My classroom is the last one in this hallway, okay?" She raised her eyebrows at me.
I nodded, too scared to see if my voice would give away my nervousness. She pecked me quickly on the cheek, and fluttered down the hall. I took a deep breath, hiked my designer tote bag onto my shoulder, and walked into the classroom.
The teacher looked up at my entrance. "Hello," he said, looking a little confused.
"Hi. I'm Renesmee Wolfe... it's my first day." I replied sheepishly.
Recognition flickered in his expression. "Ah, yes. Welcome. I'm Mr. North." He handed me a textbook and a syllabus. "Why don't you sit in the last seat of this row." He pointed to the middle of the classroom.
"Okay, thanks." I said quietly as I filed towards my new seat. Kids had started filling the room, and they all were either whispering and staring, or just staring at me. I pretended to be focusing on reading my syllabus and I could feel my face getting hot.
When the bell rang, Mr. West got up from his chair. "Good morning. As you may or may not have noticed, we have an addition to our class." He gestured to me, "Would you like to introduce yourself?"
My eyes got wide, and every eye in the room was on me. I swallowed loudly and stood up. "Hi, um... I'm Renesmee. I'm 17, and I just moved here from Alaska..." I didn't know what else he wanted from me, so I sat down.
"Welcome." He smiled at me, and began with today's lesson, but no one turned to look at him. They all stared at me.
Finally, when that horrible forty minutes ended, I shuffled out the door. I walked as fast as I could without looking like a vampire towards Alice's classroom, and she met me halfway.
"What's wrong?" She asked, concerned. I then realized that my expression most likely looked traumatized and confused.
I quickly composed myself and said, "Nothing, really. Humans just stare a lot."
She giggled and rolled her eyes playfully, "tell me about it."
"Where am I going?" I asked, suddenly scared I wouldn't be able to find my next spot. Alice circled my next three classes and the cafeteria on the map.
"I'll meet you in the cafeteria, okay? Don't worry; everything is going to be great." Her eye sparkled and she walked towards building three.

* * *

I walked quickly to my French class and my teacher directed me to my seat. Only one more period until lunch, I told myself with relief. As other students straggled in, a short boy with light brown hair sat down in the seat next to me. I glanced at him and saw that he was staring, of course. You would think that I would have been used to the staring after three periods straight of it, but I wasn't. I was convinced that it was something no one ever got used to, despite Alice's comfort.

"Hey," the boy said.

I looked up from my newly rebound French book, surprised. "Hello."

"I'm Brendon. Are you new here?" he asked.

"Yeah… I'm Renesmee, er... Nessie… I know that Renesmee can be kind of a mouthful..." I chuckled nervously.

"Oh ok, um, Nessie. So, where are you from?" He asked with pure interest.

"Alaska, actually. My parents, sister, cousin and I just moved here." I explained the false story. I felt bad lying to him, so innocent and cute.

"Oh! How cool! Does it rain a lot there, too?" He grinned.

"It rains, but definitely not as much as Forks." I grinned back. The teacher then began the class, rattling off in French about the day's lesson. I was fluent in French, but I thought I needed an easy, but still fun, class, so I signed up for French three.

After forty minutes of perfecting our verb forms, the bell finally set us free to lunch.

"Hey, Nessie," Brendon started as I was about to bolt through the doors, "Do you want to sit with me and a few of my friends at lunch?"

"Um, sure... as long as my sister and cousin can join us." I offered with the cutest smile I could work up. I just hoped Alice and Jacob wouldn't be mad at me for being the spokesperson in this instance.

He stared blankly, but with wonder at me for a couple seconds. Then he snapped out of it and replied, "Erm... yeah, sure." I wondered what his expression was about. Did he have some sort of strange stutter or something? I internally shrugged and decided it wasn't worth questioning.

Brendon and I walked to the cafeteria where I saw Alice and Jacob waiting outside.

When we approached them, I said, "Brendon, this is my sister, Alice, and my cousin, Jacob."

"Hi." He said tentatively.

"Brendon invited us to sit with him and his friends, what do you think?" I gave a pleading look to Alice, though I knew that she already knew the outcome. She sighed, and nodded. Jacob looked appalled.

Brendon led us through the lunch line and to a long table. In the lunch line, I grabbed random food, intrigued by the cool brand name stuff they had here. Don't get me wrong, I've eaten my share of human food, but we didn't go to the supermarket, and with good reason. Alice claimed she wasn't hungry, and Jacob grabbed a couple things. He had hunted last night.

A few kids had already congregated at the table when we sat down.

"Who are they?" I heard a girl whisper to her friend sitting next to her, a few seats down. She probably assumed that we couldn't hear her.

"Ask Brendon, he seems to know them," The other girl said with a jealous edge to her voice.

Then, louder, the first girl asked, "Did you make some new friends, Brendon?"

He grinned, "Yup! This here is Nessie, Alice, and Jacob." He then gestured towards the girls, "That's Kaylee and Marie."

"Hello," I said to them with a friendly smile as I sat down. Alice sat next to me and Jacob sat across from me.

"So," Kaylee started, scooting down so she was just one seat away from Jacob, "where are you guys from?"

"Alaska," Alice answered quickly. I felt annoyed that she thought I wouldn't deliver the story well enough.

"Oh." Kaylee replied, seeming almost disappointed that we weren't from somewhere cooler. Figuratively, that is.

Then Brendon, who was looking over at the corner of the cafeteria, had said, "They're selling popsicles over there, does anyone want one?"

Jacob and Alice both shook their heads. I didn't want to ask what it was, so I said, "Sure." It couldn't be worse than dry elk.

By that time, nearly the whole table was full. Brendon had introduced us to them all, but the only ones who had talked to us were Brendon and Kaylee.

"What's a popsicle?" I asked, so low that Jacob, sitting across from me, could barely hear me.

Alice fought back a giggle. Was it really my fault that I had never been exposed to this funny sounding word? "Humans seem to like them, I think you'll like it," she breathed back.

I shrugged as Brendon came walking towards us with two icy masses on a stick. I didn't quite know what to do with it, so I waited for Brendon to start eating it. He began licking it, and I did the same. It had many fruity tastes, but cold and ice-like. I was about to ask Jacob if he wanted a lick, but then I figured he would probably bite half of the thing off. Plus, it would melt if it got too close to him.

"These are really yummy." I said with sincerity to no one in particular.

Jacob and Alice grinned, and Brendon laughed. "I'm glad you're enjoying it."

I smiled. I really liked Brendon, he was nice and he seemed to have a good heart. I just had to focus on not accidentally touching him with my palm, because that might end badly.

"So what's your next class, Nessie?" He asked, glancing at my nearly finished popsicle.

"Biology," I took another lick.

Jacob's eyes lit up, "Me too."

I smiled hugely. "What do you have, Brendon?"

"English," he said with a sigh. The bell was about to ring.

"Well I guess I'll see you around," I said to Brendon.

"Yeah, see you." He replied as we all got up.

Jacob and I walked together towards the biology wing of building two. There were about a thousand class pictures on the wall, and a streak of pale faces flashed by in the corner of my eye. I stopped dead, but Jacob continued walking.

"Jacob!" I hissed.

He turned to see me staring at the class photo. He walked three long strides to reach me. "What?"

I pointed to a pale girl and a pale boy. "That's my dad! And Alice!" I whispered. It was a good thing that the picture was very dated and hard to see with human eyes, otherwise someone might recognize Alice.

Jacob's mouth grew into a smile. "And there's your mom." He pointed further down on the picture, near the S's. "Now come on, we don't want to be late." He pulled me away from the picture.

I entered the small, cold biology room with a feeling of nostalgia. "Can you believe this is the same place my parents met?!" I whispered to Jacob.

He rolled his eyes, but smiled. We approached the teacher together, explaining our case. He led us to an empty lab table near the back of the room, and began class shortly after.

The last three periods of the day were fascinating, but very easy material wise. I guess I shouldn't be surprised about that.

I walked towards the parking lot to find Alice and the Volvo, and Brendon caught up with me.

"Oh! Hey, Brendon!" I said with a smile.

"Hi! How did you like your first day?" He asked with a grin.

I nodded slowly. "It was actually pretty good."

"I'm happy to hear that." We had reached the beginning of the lot.

"Yeah, well I see Alice waiting for me, so I better get going." I said as I waved and said goodbye.

"So, how are you?" Alice asked when I reached the car.

I sighed. "It was a long day, but fun." I grinned widely. "How was yours?"

"Perfect." She flashed a smile. "Here comes Jacob." He walked towards us.

"Hi. How was your day?" I looked up at him and beamed.

He grunted, "Fine."

"Let's get going. Your parents are waiting, Nessie." Alice said.

I grimaced. "Great…"

By the time we had pulled up the driveway, I heard my parents speaking in whispers.

"But she dazzled him, Edward!!" My mother whisper-screamed, stifling a giggle.

I did what?

"Shh! Great, Bella, she heard you." My dad said.

She giggled again. "Oops."

I ran into the room. "What is 'dazzled'?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. Jacob and Alice joined us shortly after.

"Umm…" My mom pressed her lips together like she was trying not to laugh.

"Tell me!" I demanded, turning to my father.

He raised his hands in innocence. "Hey, I've only witnessed it in people's thoughts. Your mother is the one who has witnessed it firsthand, and she practically invented the term."

"Mom. Come on. Spit it out."

She laughed again. "Okay, fine. I use the term 'dazzle' to describe when a vampire, or in this case, a half-vampire, causes an innocent human to be temporarily stuck, due to said vampire, or half-vampire's, beautiful expression, usually a smile. Get it?" She raised an eyebrow in challenge.

My brows furrowed. "Sure… but when did I do that?"

She laughed hysterically now, turning to my dad, "She doesn't even know when she's doing it!!"

He rolled his eyes playfully. "I didn't know either, if you remember correctly."

"My human memories are foggy…" She pouted.

"Hello! Explain, please!" I said, as they had seemed to have forgotten about little old me sitting over here in confusion.

My mother faced me. "You know how when you were talking to Brendon today—"

"You eavesdroppers!!" I shrieked in anger.

She sighed, and continued, "When you smiled at him, trying to persuade him to let Alice and Jacob sit with you guys? And he looked all dazed for like a second?"

"Yeah…" I said, remembering more clearly now that I thought he had a weird stutter...

"Well, you dazzled him. There's no other way to put it." She seemed satisfied, even proud of me.

"You are crazy." I said plainly with a laugh.

"That's not the first time I've gotten that…" My mom said with a giggle. "So, how was your day?"

"Like you don't already know," I said coldly, angry that they had listened to my thoughts all day long. I sat at the other end of the wraparound couch in the living room. Jacob sat down next to me.

"Nessie," my dad came to sit on my other side. I scooted closer to Jacob. "We were just checking on you, we're worried about you." Alice and Jacob shot him glares. "Not that you weren't in good hands, but we don't like you to be away from us," he finished.

"I know, I know." I internally rolled my eyes. "But I would appreciate a little mental privacy."

My father nodded. "I promise not to intentionally read your thoughts while you are at school, okay?" My mother shot him a glance saying, 'are you crazy?!'

I, on the other hand, smiled at this promise. "Okay. And don't try to sneak around in my head, because I promise I'll figure it out eventually."