Saya

After my odd confrontation with Jasper, I hoped that I would be able to avoid him for the rest of the day, only to find that he apparently had multiple classes with me, which wasn't really so surprising, considering that I was in the advanced core classes that the school offers. Luckily in the classes that I had with him, the teachers had an alphabetical seating chart. Occasionally I would notice him watching me, particularly when I was leaving.

A few times, I considered talking to him, if only to ease the guilt that I felt for my tirade against him, and sometimes because I wished, if only for a few seconds, that I might be able to really put some faith in what he had told me earlier. When would I learn that trusting other people, especially men, was a bad idea?

At the end of my European History class, I had to practically run from the room before I could do something foolish. When I was finally out of sight of the building, I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that I was finally away from him. While there was no guarantee that I wouldn't see him later, I had Pottery next, and somehow Jasper Hale didn't strike me as the sort to enjoy making a bowl out of clay, so hopefully I'd get a brief reprieve if nothing else.

What I didn't expect when I walked through the door was to see Alice Cullen, my other concern, to be waiting by the doorway. As soon as she saw me her face lit up and I couldn't help but wonder if I'd have to treat her the same way that I did to Jasper to get her to leave me alone. It was bad enough to do that to him, but somehow doing it to both of them made it feel like my heart was breaking.

Seemingly not noticing the worried that had come up in my mind, the pixie nearly bounced over to give me a hug. "Hi, Saya."

I muttered a quiet "Hi" and walked to my seat, hoping that that would be the end of it. But with my luck, of course things wouldn't be that easy as the teacher pointed to the seat next to mine after Alice finished speaking with her. As soon as she sat down though, the teacher began to go over what was expected of us this month. Yesterday, she had explained that we would be expected to turn in at least one project every month which she would dictate to us, but that we could hand in multiple projects either for extra credit, or if we were uncertain about how our first one had come out.

Idly, I considered dropping the class since I had really only taken it so that I wouldn't have two study halls. While the idea of using one of them to relax would be tempting, in the end I decided against it because I really didn't like being idle for a long time and having almost an hour of idleness every day would probably really irritate me.

Sighing, I remembered that the other reason I took the class was because I'd always liked making things, and as I began to work on the bowl that we had been told to make, I realised that that hadn't changed, even after all these years. For a few moments, I held onto the hope that Alice would have heard about what I said to her boyfriend, or so the rumors called him, and would ignore me.

Those hopes were dashed when I heard her quietly say, "You seemed to really be enjoying that."

Reluctantly, I turned towards her and said, "I like making things, even stuff like this."

"So you don't think that bowls are important?" she asked curiously. Trying to figure out if I should just nip this conversation in the bud, I hesitated but was saved from doing so by her saying casually, "You know, you don't have to be so guarded around us."

Shocked, I stopped working on my bowl to stare at her, something which caused her to look up from her own bowl to meet my eyes. "Jasper and I talk, and I know that you are scared of associating with us, for whatever reason. And I won't try to talk you out of that fear, but don't you think that we at least deserve a chance to explain our side of things, Saya?"

Swallowing, I realised that she did have a point. I hadn't really let them explain themselves to me, the same way that the town hadn't allowed me to explain myself. Despite that minor epiphany, I still said, "And what happens if you get that chance and I find out I was right all along?"

"Then you find out that it was a mistake to give us that chance. But you might also find that you are wrong about us and that we can help you."

"Well, I'm sorry if I am wrong, but I don't think I can give you that," I said, surprised that my words are actually true.

"Is it because of your children?" Alice asked me quietly. At my surprised look, she explained, "You looked as though you were considering it for a moment, but then you said no, so it must have had something to do with something that you remembered."

"You shouldn't believe rumors," I told her sharply, for some reason it bothered me that she would assume that they really are my kids.

"I don't, but Jasper and I saw you getting them from your neighbor when we dropped you off last night and we didn't see any cars that might belong to your parents at your home," Alice explained. After a moment, she said, "Saya, you seem to think that we would try to harm them, but I can assure you that we would never do hurt children. We certainly don't want to hurt you, either. Can't you, just for a little while, talk to us and then decide if you'll let us be your friends?"

I noticed a slight hesitation before she said that last word, making me worry once more about what they might be planning, but I couldn't help but be drawn in by the idea of having someone who wasn't in elementary school in my life, someone who I could really talk to.

While I was hesitating, our teacher seemed to realise that we were talking instead of making bowls, and snapped at us to get back to work. As I turned back, I decided that as long as I didn't get too involved with the Cullens, it wouldn't hurt to talk to them, just for a little bit and I murmured, "Okay," even though I didn't expect Alice to hear me, though her bright smile assured me that she had.