The two boys at the Cullen table looked up at that moment and laughed, and Bella felt ashamed at even being at the same table as someone like Jessica. She wanted to say something to Jess, but didn't know what, and she felt like a coward. Just at that moment the blonde haired boy, Jasper stared directly at Bella with a thoughtful look, and then seemed to smile right at her before he said something to Edward. Edward stared at Bella intently for an uncomfortably long moment before he frowned and seemed to say something angrily to Jasper and the girl Alice, who had her back to Bella.
Alice turned.
#######
Alice had been on edge since Saturday's vision. One moment she couldn't wait to see who this new girl was, the one who was messing up her visions, the next she was terrified of what she might find. Her constantly changing emotions were driving Jasper nuts. He was relieved when Alice locked herself in her room Sunday afternoon and wouldn't come out. Edward had refused to spend any time near her at all. He said her thoughts were all over the place, and claimed it was worse than that week she tortured him by singing the lyrics to Call Me Maybe over and over on repeat. They had almost made her take her own car to school Monday morning, but Carlisle had put his foot down about the yellow Porsche months ago. It was too ostentatious for school.
By the time Alice had arrived at school with her siblings she decided she would do everything she could to deliberately avoid the girl. It was a unique feeling for Alice, not knowing what was going to happen, and something in her wanted to draw out the suspense as long as she could. There were a few comical moments when she sensed the girl was nearby and Alice turned tail and almost ran in the other direction. Alice knew she would see the girl finally at lunchtime, and then everything would become clear. She was almost sad to think the mystery would be over by lunch.
All morning they'd overheard students talking about the new kid. Forks High was small and it didn't make much to become the number one topic of gossip. So far they'd learned her name was Isabella Swan, but she preferred Bella, the family had moved to Forks in the last few weeks, possibly from Arizona or somewhere warm, her dad was the new Chief of Police and her mom was teaching at the school, taking over Mrs Jackson's history classes. Someone thought they'd seen the girl sneak into school from the staff car park, so it looks like her Mom had driven her to school. Poor kid.
The general consensus was that Isabella Swan was sweet, shy but likeable. Not exactly the kind of personality traits that would make her stand out in High School, even one as small as Forks.
But there was something strange going on. Edward had been poking around minds all morning and had been bewildered to hear some of the thoughts from students who had come into contact with the girl. She was clearly pretty, perhaps even beautiful. Strangely pale (the thought "almost as pale as the Cullens" was repeated a few times). But instead of finding the usual cluster of disgusting hormone driven male fantasies, on the whole there were mostly just vague and wholesome thoughts of wanting to be nice to 'the kid'. And it was always 'the kid', even though they understood the girl was 17, a Junior and possibly quite attractive. Edward wondered if she might be a special needs student. It might explain Alice's haywire vision, if the girl's mind was wired a little 'wrong', and could be one reason why her mom was on staff at the school.
Similar to Edward's experience, Jasper kept getting feelings of general fondness from students who had come into contact with the girl, almost as though she had instantly become everyone's favorite kid sister. Decades of High School experience hadn't ever thrown up anything like that before, and Jasper was curious to see what kind of human could have endeared herself to so many students so quickly in the space of half a day, without appearing to be in any way exceptional.
There were a few startling exceptions, involving a small number of students who were notoriously mean spirited or nasty, but who had never quite stepped over the line into obvious perversity or evil. It was almost revelatory, how the girl's presence had exposed a few sick minds in the general student body. It seemed as though not even the vulnerability of a possible disability could stop a particular level of nastiness, and Edward and Jasper decided they'd keep an eye on those students whose starkly contrasting thoughts seemed to reveal their true nature that morning.
That brought them to Emmett. They knew he'd had a class with the girl this morning, but when they caught up with him in the minutes before entering the cafeteria he was singing the opening lyrics to Calvin Harris's Feel So Close over and over in his head and was physically vibrating like he was high. He seemed unwilling to talk to anyone about Isabella Swan, not even Rosalie (not that Rose had shown any interest whatsoever in the morning's events). She'd cracked him over the head and all he did was grin like a fool.
By the time the remaining four Cullens entered the cafeteria that Monday behind Emmett they were were expecting a massive anti-climax.
Jasper and Edward seated themselves so they had the girl in their line of sight across the cafeteria. They picked out a new voice softly asking who they were. It was pretty, warm and a little husky. Alice seemed to stiffen when she heard it and a look of concentration crossed her face as she listened in. Emmett was smiling, one elbow on the table, resting his chin on his raised hand, staring off into nothing, as Rosalie appeared bored (when didn't she?) and moved the cafeteria food around on her tray. Edward was relieved to find Emmett had stopped singing that damned song in his head, although now he seemed to be rapidly trawling through a list of possible games to teach his new 'little buddy', whoever the hell that was. Edward turned back to the girl just as Jasper was filling him in on her rather endearing reaction to Jessica's small minded thoughts, and asking him to read the girl's thoughts.
That's when it all went to hell.
Edward flicked his mind over to the girl. Nothing. He concentrated. He could feel her presence, but he couldn't get 'in'. It was though he was sliding off a slippery glass shield. He panicked.
"I can't read her."
"What?"
"I can't read her. I can't get anything at all. W ... we can't trust her. She's dangerous. I know it. We have to speak to Carlisle."
Alice stiffened. "Just because you can't read her doesn't mean she's dangerous. And of course she's human."
"You haven't even looked at her yet. How would you know? She's staring at us right now, as though she knows."
Alice turned.
Just as Bella turned away, blushing furiously at the thought of being caught staring.
Jasper spoke up. "I don't feel it. Not danger. She's embarrassed. That's all."
"Oh my God. Can you smell that? She's blushing. I can smell it from here. It .. it's amazing." Jasper tensed as he felt Edward's reaction. Both their eyes were black. Alice sniffed and caught a strangely familiar scent. It was divine, but that was no reason to react like an animal. She whipped her head back to stare at Edward and hissed at him. "Control yourself!"
She slammed her meal tray on the table and slid from her chair in one elegant motion, skipping over to the table where the girl was seated. As she approached all talking seemed to stop and she felt several sets of eyes staring at her as she looked at the back of the seated girl. She made a mental note of how gorgeous her curly mahogany hair was, and noted the slim but attractive feminine curves of the girl's body, at the same time critiquing the girl's obviously lacking fashion sense. 'She's dressed like a shy 12 year old. I wonder if her Mom buys her clothes? She needs a good fashion-savvy friend.'
Bella realized someone was behind her when everyone stopped talking and seemed to stare open-mouthed at someone just over her shoulder. She felt a strange trickle of electricity on the back of her neck, and slowly turned around to look up into the adorable face of the last Cullen.
"Hi, I'm Alice and I just wanted to ...". Alice froze, forgetting what she was going to say when she looked into the girl's huge soft chocolate eyes, and caught a more intense wave of that familiar scent. She squeaked. Stumbled backwards. And ran from the cafeteria.
Jessica snickered. "See, I told you she was weird. WEIRD."
