CHAPTER TEN:
Hermione's POV:
Dear Harry,
Merlin! People in this place seem to have nothing better to do then gawp at the new girl! Honestly, it's like being back at Hogwarts!
By the way, I was wondering whether you could send me all the books in the Black library at Grimauld Place on warding and vampires- don't ask, and don't worry; I'm not in danger. I promise I'll tell you if I think I am- scout's honor.
I promise I'll come visit this weekend, and I might bring Bella with me. She's begging me to let her meet you, after I've told her so much about you.
I love and miss you guys, so, so much.
All my love,
Hermione
Walking into the English classroom, every single eye in the room was immediately drawn to me, and everyone's jaws dropped open, including the teacher's- I wasn't sure if it was because I was new, I looked similar to Bella, or because my arm was still linked around Alice's, one of the 'snobby' Cullens.
Resisting the urge to sigh, I swallowed my nerves, nodded my thanks to Alice, and crossed over to the front of my room. I held my pink slip of paper out in front of the teacher and smiled at him, with as much warmth as I could muster.
"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger-Swan," I introduced myself, "I'm new and Ms. Cope said I needed to get all my teachers to sign this." The teacher shook away his shock, and smiled at me.
"Ah, yes, the newest Swan girl." He said, and he plucked the slip out of my hand, "I'll return this at the end of the lesson," he explained, before beaming, "I'm Mr. Varner."
"Nice to meet you." I said, automatically, unable to help my teacher's pet ways.
"Why don't you stand up the front and introduce yourself to the class." Mr. Varner suggested, and I bit back a smile, remembering Bella's letter complaining about how Mr. Varner was the only teacher who made her introduce herself on her first day.
I walked over to the front of the room and smiled at the classroom of students who were eying me with unabashed curiosity. "Hi, I'm Hermione, Bella's twin sister." I introduce myself, "I lived in London for the last eight years, and I've come here to Forks for my last semester of High School."
"Why?" asked one of the girls, a bleached blonde in the middle row. I was 60% sure that I recognized her as 'Lauren' from Bella's letters.
"Family matters." I tell the nosy girl, before turning back to face Mr. Varner, clearly dismissing all other questions. "Can I go sit down now, sir?" I ask, politely, and he nods.
"Of course. Why don't you sit next to Ms. Cullen, as you two seem to already be acquainted." He suggests. Alice is seated on the far left of the third row, and there are two free seats on her right, where nobody else has dared to sit.
She grins at me as I take the seat, directly by her side, and whispers, "You did much better then Bella on her first day- she was as red as a tomato!" I hide my grin as Mr. Varner starts his lecture, pulling out my notebook and pen. It feels weird using these, instead of parchment and a quill, I muse.
"That doesn't surprise me." I murmur, quietly, knowing that Alice can hear me just as well as if I was shouting at the top of my lungs. "I'm used to talking to crowds." I add.
"You become more and more mysterious every time we talk." Teases Alice, even as her eyes shine with curiosity. I hide another smile.
"How else am I supposed to keep you interested?" I return, playfully, and her eyes seem to glow for a second.
"Believe me, you don't need mystery to keep me around." She says, in a low voice, and I resist the urge to gulp, as I stare into Alice's darkening eyes. Okay, this was new.
"Ms. Granger-Swan, Ms. Cullen, something you want to share with the rest of the class?" Mr. Varner suddenly snaps, and I spin my head to the front of the classroom, to see Mr. Varner frowning at me.
"Sorry sir, Alice was just helping me with one of the theorems," I explain, "I haven't covered all of this at my old school." Beside me, Alice nods, her face the picture of innocence, nothing like the smoldering look she gave me before.
"Next time just raise your hand." Mr. Varner says, somewhat satisfied with our answer, before continuing with his lecture. I don't speak to Alice for the rest of the class, and just concentrate on my work.
Calculus seems similar to Arithmancy, in many ways, except a lot less complicated. I find myself enjoying the work, much to my pleasure, and am one of the first in the class to finish the set work.
The bell rings, and Alice smiles at me, as we gather up our things. "Ready for biology?" She chimes. I raise an eyebrow.
"Did you copy my schedule?" I ask her, only half joking, and she just shrugs.
"I guess you'll never know." I roll my eyes and hitch my bag over my shoulder and collect the pink slip, before following her out of the classroom. I don't really need her as a tour guide- after six years of having to navigate my way around Hogwarts, a high school as small as this is a piece of cake, but I'm finding myself enjoying her company too much to say so, and she scares away the eager students who keep trying to approach me.
Mr. Banner, unlike Mr. Varner, didn't try to get me to introduce myself at the start of the class, instead just quickly signed my form and shot me a smile. "If you're anything like your sister, you'll be fine in this class." He told me, and sent me to sit next to Alice.
"Are you partnerless in every class?" I ask her, amused, as we set out our notes. She shrugs.
"Nobody wants to sit next to us scary Cullens." She says, and I laugh.
"If only they knew."
The class is a Practical, giving us plenty of time to chat. "What were your parents like?" Alice asks, as she sets up the microscope, while I collect the slides. I stiffen slightly, then sigh, relaxing my body.
"Why don't we play a game?" I suggest to her, and her eyes shine with curiosity.
"What sort of game?" she asks.
"For every question you ask, I get to ask you one." I tell her, and she smiles.
"Deal. So what were your parents like?" she repeats.
"I miss them," I admit to her, "I mean, they weren't the best parents in the world, they were busy people, and were never around a lot, but they were my parents and I loved them. What about your parents?" Alice chewed on her bottom lip, which was adorable, I have to say.
"I don't remember anything from my human life," she says, "so I don't remember my parents. All I know is what I could find from birth records and death certificates. I know my dad had my mum killed, so I don't think I would have liked him very much, and I know that he had me admitted into an asylum. I was Turned by a vampire who worked there." Alice looks sad for a few moments, and the expression is so out of place on her always smiling face. "Have you ever dated a guy?" she asks, jolting me out of my musing, and I fight the urge to blush, realizing that I was staring at her face.
"Um, yeah, Viktor." I tell her, "I was fourteen at the time, and kind of experimenting."
"Did you sleep with him?" Alice asks, curiously.
"Yep. It was horrible," I shudder, "felt sooo wrong!" I then smile, "ha! That's two questions- I get to ask you two questions now!" Alice smiles back.
"That seems fair." she concedes.
"Okay, so have you ever slept with a guy?" I ask her, and she shakes her head.
"I've never had sex." She says, and I have the feeling that if she could blush, she would. I raise my eyebrows.
"Wow." She gives me a sheepish look.
"I've been waiting for my soul-mate." She explains, "I want my first time to be with the person I'm going to spend forever with."
"That's... that's actually really sweet." I tell her, feeling a little emotional from her statement. "Okay, my second question... what's your favorite color?" Alice shoots me an amused look.
"Really?" I shrug, a smile playing on my lips.
"I've got the advantage here- Bella's already told me lots about her best friend." I tell her, and Alice grins.
"Indigo." She answers, "what about you? What's your favorite color?"
"Red." I say, "or gold." What can I say? I'm a Gryffindor, through and through.
Our twenty questions continues through the rest of the class, and goes on through the next one. I learn that Alice loves to paint and to star gaze, that she loves squirrel blood best, even though there's only a mouthful, and that she loathes the game chess.
On our way to the cafeteria, I ask. "Favorite past time?"
"Ooh! Shopping!" She beams.
"Bella told me you loved shopping," I smile, "I love it too, except Bella is such a bah-humbug. She hates going shopping with me." Alice actually squeals in excitement.
"I'll take you shopping!" She beams, bouncing up and down on her heels, "I'd love to! When can you go? When do you want to go? Where do you want to go? Which shops shall we go to first?" I laugh.
"Slow down! I'm busy over the weekend, but Friday afternoon?" Alice's face shines.
"We can go up to Port Angeles, and maybe afterwards we could catch a movie!" She says, enthusiastically, as we line up in the cafeteria. I end up purchasing a pasta salad and apple juice, while Alice just grabs an apple, that will end up in the bin.
We find a table near the back, Alice's usual table I'm guessing, as the other students seem to have steered clear from it, and sit down. Bella enters the cafeteria a few seconds later, and makes a beeline straight over to us, sits down beside me, and helps herself to a mouthful of my pasta salad. I mock-glare at her and she widens her eyes, innocently.
"What?" she asks, "I'm hungry!"
"Brat," I mutter, before turning back to Alice, "As I was saying, before we were so rudely interrupted, that sounds like great fun."
"What does?" Bella asks, her eyes lighting up.
"Alice is taking me shopping in Port Angeles." I tell her, and Bella face-palms.
"Dear god," She mutters, pulling a horrified expression on her face, "she'll be unstoppable now!"
"Are you a shopper, Hermione?" Vampire boy... Edward... asks, as he slides into place, across from Bella. I roll my eyes.
"A girl's allowed to want to wear nice things." I lecture them, and beside me Alice nods.
"Absolutely," she agrees with me, "you should really take a few lessons out of you sister's book, Bella, you could learn a lot about fashion." She lectures my sister, as Bella takes another mouthful of my potato salad, before shooting the pixie vampire a cheeky grin.
"I'm not gonna lie, Alice- I'm psyched that you've found someone else to torture with playing 'Bella Barbie'." She tells Alice, who arranges her features into a heart-breakingly sad pout that immediately melts Bella's heart.
"You're saying you didn't like playing with me?" Alice asks, and an alarmed Bella quickly backtracks.
"Oh no, no, no!" she exclaims, "I love to, I just... I just..." as much fun as it is watching Bella stutter, I decide to intervene.
"She's teasing you Bella." I grin and beside me, Alice lets out a peal of laughter. Bella glares at us both.
"I should have never introduced you both." She grumbles.
"But then I'd make you go shopping with me this Friday." Alice says, in a sweet voice, and Bella visibly shudders.
"Fine, I'd rather take the mocking then the shopping." She tells us.
"Look! You're a poet and you don't know it." I tease her. She grins at me, and speaks in a sugary voice.
"So, 'Mi, how's your day going?" It's my turn to face-palm.
"Merlin, it's downright sodding crazy." I sigh, "whispers and staring everywhere I go! God, it's like I never left!" I exclaim, and she laughs.
"Gotta love Forks." She says, "small towns really are the best."
"Best my arse." I mutter.
"What have you got next?" Bella asks, eating another mouthful of my potato salad. I look down to see it's more then half gone and scowl at it, before shoving my plate over in front of Bella, and stealing Alice's apple- she's not going to eat it, so someone may as well.
"Double Sport." Alice answers for me, "I've got it too. Is Hermione any better then you?" she teases my twin, and Bella laughs.
"Hermione's definitely much fitter then I am!" That's true- my reflexes are outstanding, from all my dueling, both practice and during battles, and I can move quicker then most other people. And unlike my sister, I suffer no problems with my equilibrium.
Lunch is over before I know it, and Alice and I head over to the gym. The P.E. teacher, Coach Clapp, gives me a cautious look as he hands over a P.E. uniform. "So... you anything like your sister?" He asks, in a fake-casual voice. I grin.
"Don't worry, sir, I won't knock anyone out." I assure him, and he sighs in relief.
"Thank god, one Bella is enough." He says, before sending me off to get changed. Alice is chortling beside me, and I'm smiling with her until I recognize a significant problem- the P.E. uniform has short sleeves.
My gaze is instantly dragged to my forearm and I stare at the scarred skin, hidden under my jumper, with something abject to horror. "Damn it!" I hiss, and Alice looks at me, curiously.
"What's the matter?" She asks, and my brain scrambles for an excuse.
"I feel the cold really easily," I settle with, not able to come up with anything better, "I'm not to fond of the short sleeves."
"You can borrow my jersey." Alice suggests, and I smile at her, gratefully.
"I'd like that." I tell her, and she digs around in her bag, before pulling out a school jersey. Sighing in relief, I turn away from her to get changed as quickly as I can, making sure that my forearm is out of her view, and everyone else in the changing room's, at all times.
With Alice seemingly glued to my side, the other students have yet to bother me- it helps that Alice glares at them every time they try. Tomorrow, I decide, I'm going to cast a notice-me not charm over myself, vampires be damned.
In sport Coach Clapp sets us some warm up drills, that consist mostly of tossing basket balls to each other, keeping a careful eye on me, until he's satisfied that I'm not a danger to the class. Alice, who's partnered up with me, of course, finds this amusing, and giggles every time his eyes stray over.
I enjoy the sport, letting my body relax, and the tension drain out of my body as I participate in some fun competition. I prove to be quite adept at basketball, my reflexes, agility, speed and endurance playing to my favor, and Coach Clapp is suitably impressed, giving me a warm smile and clap to my back at the end.
Changing back into my jeans and sweater, I return Alice her jersey with a thankful smile. We both make our way to our lockers then to the cars, where Bella and Edward are wrapped around each other, apparently trying to suck the tongue out of each other's mouths. "See you tomorrow Alice." I tell the pixie vamp with a bright smile. She smiles back.
"Bye Hermione, bye Bella." I tap Bella on the shoulder, and when she just flashes me the finger, her mouth not leaving Edward's, I grab the keys out of her pocket, and step up into the old Chevy.
"I'll leave without you!" I yell out, over the roar of the engine as I start the truck, and a reluctant Bella releases Edward, whispers something to him, and climbs up into the passenger seat, pouting at me. I just grin and step on the accelerator, happy to drive out of the school in silence, reflecting over my first day.