Chapter 10: School Begins
Three months later, it was the first day of school, and I decided that I'd stick with Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett to start off with.
The first class for the day was biology, and I was with Edward and Bella in there, rather than any of the other four.
After biology, however, I was with Alice and Jasper in trigonometry. I sat next to them in the classroom, when I noticed a boy looking in my direction. I wasn't sure if he was looking at me, but his eyes were almost certainly fixed on me. I sighed, trying to ignore his attentions. Vampires were naturally beautiful, designed to attract potential victims, so he was obviously only attracted to my looks, I told myself, thanking the heavens that I couldn't blush.
At lunch time, I sat with the Cullens, but the boy who'd spent most of trigonometry watching me was looking at me again. Again I tried to ignore him, but it didn't help that Edward kept snickering behind me.
"Edward, will you please stop reading my thoughts?" I said to him in an undertone, glaring at him.
"Sorry, but I can't resist. Your thoughts are so…interesting." He whispered, but I looked sternly at him, shaking my head, and he cringed, knowing that I could easily get him back at home. "Fine." He said unwillingly, but he focused on something else, and I could finally get some private thoughts through my mind, but then Alice suddenly burst into fits of laughter. I sighed exasperatedly, looking at her.
"What is it now Alice?" I asked her softly, but she only shook her head, waving her hand while she struggled to control her laughter. "Please control her so she can tell me why she's laughing so hard." I whispered to Jasper and the next thing I knew, Alice was no longer laughing, though the laughter in her eyes was still there. "Now why were you laughing Alice?" I asked her.
"Because I saw your future…heaps of things are going to happen, and you're going to end up in love with the boy that looked at you in trig." She said, beginning to laugh again.
"But I can change the future, can't I?" I asked her, but already knowing the answer.
"Yes, you can. It's based on the decisions you make." She replied.
"I already knew that Alice, it was meant as a rhetorical question." I said, laughing.
That afternoon, the last period of the day was geography, and again I was in the same class as the boy who'd spent trigonometry and lunch watching me. This time, there were no Cullens to protect me from his attentions. I sighed, sitting at the front desk of the classroom, and he sat next to me, obviously determined to speak to me. I looked straight ahead, hoping he wouldn't talk to me. I was still missing Derryn, and this would be pushing it way too far.
"Hello." He said nervously, and courtesy forced me to look at him and return his greeting.
"Hello." I replied, only at this distance realising that he was very attractive. His skin was slightly tanned, but still pale at the same time, and his hair was brown with a slight shade of red-blonde in it. He looked nervous to be near me, and I could tell that his natural instincts to avoid danger were trying to take over and make him run from me, but he wasn't entirely aware of the risk to him that I was, even if his heart was. I could hear it speeding up in my presence, smell the blood flowing through his veins, but even being this close to a human did not spark any desire in me to hunt at all. I was amazed; I'd expected that being within this kind of proximity to a human would spark a desire to hunt; to kill. But it didn't work like that. I was completely immune to the scent and the desire to kill a human, compared to most vampires, who would get a desire to kill the human that was close to them.
"Um, what's your name?" he asked me softly, gradually gaining confidence, but his heart still told him that I was dangerous, even if there was no real danger in a human being near me, because of my intolerance to human blood.
"Kristen. What's your name?" I replied politely, suddenly feeling eager to get this conversation going.
"Rowan." He said softly. "By the way, just out of curiosity, are you Dr. Cullen's daughter?" he asked me. I almost said 'no, he found me in Australia after I'd been attacked by a vampire' but I remembered just in time that I was talking to a human.
"Yeah. Kristen Cullen's my name." I replied.
"Oh. I'm Rowan Pisanda." He said, smiling at me. "So, did you just move up here, or something?" he asked me.
"Um, well I was born in Australia and I lived there for most of my life, but eventually my parents decided to move us back here, where most of my siblings were born." I replied nervously, trying to make it sound probable.
"Were your parents born here as well?" he asked me and I nodded.
"Yeah. They met and married here, having most of my siblings, and when the youngest of my older siblings was about one, they moved down to Australia, where I was born a year later. I spent most of my life down there, and only moved up here about five months ago." I replied, trying to keep the 'age' order to the order I'd been told that my 'siblings' had been turned, making Bella my youngest elder sister – and two years older than me!
"Wow, so you're the youngest?" he asked me.
"Yeah, but with siblings like those that I've got, it gets scary sometimes." I replied.
"Your dad works at the hospital that's nearby, doesn't he?" Rowan asked and I smiled.
"Yeah, but he didn't start working there until last month, once he was sure we were all settling back into American life nicely." I replied and he nodded.
"Okay, because my mum works there, and she won't shut up about how attractive Dr. Cullen is. She says 'I always get flustered whenever I'm near him, and my heart starts racing and everything. He's like a living god. He's gorgeous.' My dad and I can never get a break from her talks about him. In fact, I think my dad's dead scared that she'll try and run away with him." He laughed and I joined in, seriously doubting that Carlisle would even consider running away with Rowan's mother, let alone consenting to it.
"Don't worry, Dad's never shown any interest in any woman except my mother. Mum's the only woman that he's ever shown any interest in." I said and he laughed, nodding.
"Good, I'm glad about that." He laughed. "I'd hate to have my mother run away with a doctor she barely knows."
"Yeah, and I'd hate for my father run away with a nurse he barely knows." I replied, laughing as well. I was amazed that it would be so easy to get along with a human.
"I know it may seem a bit early for me to be saying this, and I only mean it as a compliment, but you really are very beautiful." He said, sounding almost exactly like Derryn when he said that. I sighed, trying to keep myself calm, but Rowan seemed to notice my expression. "Did I offend you or something?" he asked me, but I shook my head.
"No. Don't worry about it Rowan; I'd recently lost my boyfriend in a car accident, and I'm still mourning that." I said softly, trying to make it sound realistic.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He said softly, obviously unable to think of something to say to console me.
"That's okay; he just always used to say that to me, and when you said it, it reminded me of him saying it to me." I replied and he nodded, reaching out to place his hand on my shoulder. I held my breath, hoping that he wouldn't feel the cold of my skin through my shirt and jumper. His hand came gently onto my shoulder, obviously meant to comfort me, and he held it there for a moment, before he drew it back, with a faint sharp breath.
"Are you feeling okay?" he asked me, looking concerned. "You're cold as ice. Are you sick or something?"
"No, I'm fine. My skin's always like that." I replied and he nodded after a moment's hesitation.
"Are you sure?" he asked, obviously still concerned. "I mean, it just seems a bit strange that a person have cold skin."
"Nah, not with my family. Most of my family has cold skin, but we're all healthy as horses." I replied, shrugging.
"Alright." He said, taking a deep breath. I could hear that his heart still didn't want to slow down any, which was making his breathing shallow.
After class, it was time to leave and I farewelled Rowan as I joined my family.
"You actually started talking to that human, did you Kristen?" Edward asked me jokily, and I knew he already knew the answer.
"You already know the answer to that, Edward. So there's no point in asking me the question." I replied, and the memory of Rowan touching my shoulder floated to my mind. Edward gasped, clapping his hands to his mouth.
"He didn't…" he said to me, looking shocked and horrified. "Please don't tell me that he touched you…"
"Alright then, I won't tell you." I said simply and everyone gasped, looking at me.
"Did he feel the cold of your skin?" Rosalie asked me and I nodded slowly.
"Yes, but I just told him that my skin was always cold. I told him that I was born like that." I replied. "He didn't think much of it. Really, he didn't." I reassured them and they sighed with relief.
"I can't believe I didn't see him do that…but thankfully he didn't suspect a thing." Alice said as we drove home.