I.
Rosalie made her way up to her room without speaking to any of her siblings. She made her way out to the balcony, resting her forearms on the top of the railing, her hands clasped in front of her. She sighed, looking up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. She heard a knock at her door. "Come in." She said quietly.
The door opened slowly to reveal Emmett, who made his way out to the balcony with her, his back leaning against the railing, arms folded. He had a silly grin on his face. "Have a good night out Rosie?" He asked. Rosalie rolled her eyes at the nickname. Emmett was the only one she allowed to get away with calling her that. Anyone else that had tried had found themselves very close to losing a limb.
"It was… passable." She said slowly, running through her memories of the night. The appealing campfire scent. The strange orange eyes. The red glow. He turned around, putting an arm around Rosalie's shoulders. The blonde stiffened a little but forced herself to relax. This was Emmett. He wouldn't harm her.
"Excited for another riveting year of school to start tomorrow?" He asked, seemingly picking up on the fact she did not want to discuss what exactly had occurred during her outing. Emmett had always had a knack for being able to read her very well.
"Ecstatic." She drawled sarcastically. Another year of being around teenaged humans. There was always at least a handful that humiliated themselves by asking her out each year. She turned them down every time. Every school, she knew she had a reputation. Ice queen. Head bitch. Whatever the title was, she was not fussed. It kept the humans away from her for the most part and that's what she wanted.
"Hey, at least we're seniors this time. Only have to suffer through one year." He tried to point out the upside. Rosalie just scoffed.
"Sometimes I don't understand why we don't just go to college instead." She said. While she had her fair share of completed degrees, high school was always just a drag to her. She'd much rather be working on her cars in the garage.
"It's important to Carlisle and Esme," Emmett said. Rosalie glanced at him with a small smile, before turning back to the stars, nodding.
"You're right." She said. "It doesn't mean I have to like it." She said. Emmett just chuckled.
"C'mon Rosie, think of all the humans you get to torment." He said in an attempt to cheer her up. Rosalie chuckled.
"I suppose." She replied, nudging her brother with her shoulder. Emmett grinned.
"Come play video games with me?" He asked. Rosalie rolled her eyes, shaking her head, but still smiling.
"I'll watch, but that's it." She replied Emmett pouted.
"But-" He tried but she gave him a withering look that made him stop. "Fine, just come spend time with the family." He said. Rosalie sighed but nodded, following her brother to their living room to spend the rest of the night, mechanics magazine in her hands, multitasking in watching Emmett swear at the TV each time his character got killed and reading up on some of the new models that everyone was waiting in anticipation for.
II.
The first day of school went just as Rosalie expected. Every time the Cullens started a new school, there was always a certain amount of whispering about who the new kids were, how hot they were and everyone speculating who was single. It made Rosalie sick.
She had already been asked out by Eric Yorkie, Mike Newton, and Tyler Crowley, all of whom she had turned down, rather ruthlessly. By lunch, everyone knew to leave Rosalie Hale alone and she didn't have any more guys actually approach her, though there were certainly a large number of people whispering how hot the blonde girl was and how they'd kill to get a night with her. It disgusted her. And clearly disturbed Edward, who growled to himself every so often.
"What's with the stick up your ass Eddie?" Emmett asked at lunch as they all pushed the food around on their trays.
"Don't call me Eddie," Edward snapped. "If you knew some of the vile things people think about us." He said, turning to his brother. Emmett laughed.
"Hey man, it's not their fault they can't stay away from these babies." He said, flexing his arm muscles and kissing his bicep. Rosalie shook her head in amusement.
"Do try to control yourself, Emmett. You wouldn't want Lauren Mallory or Jessica Stanley getting the wrong idea." Rosalie said with some disinterest. Emmett shrugged.
"That Stanley girl seems to have more of a thing for Eddie here." He said, slapping his brother on the back. Edward grunted, glaring at Emmett who just laughed loudly in response. Alice and Jasper sat close together, watching their siblings in amusement. Jasper always found high school tough, his empathy feeding off of all the variable and constantly changing emotions of hormonal humans. Alice was his anchor, to keep him from going insane.
"Crowley still seems to think he has a chance with you Rosalie," Edward said. Rosalie raised an eyebrow.
"Was his humiliation not enough for one day?" She asked. Edward shrugged.
"His thoughts indicate that he's going to wait a couple weeks for you to get used to the school and then try again. He thinks that it's probably just nerves as to why you wouldn't agree to go out with him." Edward said. Rosalie scoffed. As if she'd ever entertain the idea of hooking up with a human. Or god forbid, dating one. No, relationships, love, sex. None of it was for her. Not with her history.
"Don't think like that Rosalie," Edward said. "You'll find someone eventually." Rosalie glared at her brother. She knew he couldn't turn it off, but she hated it when he just spoke out loud about her thoughts like he was having a conversation with her. And she promptly began singing in her head. Edward just put his hands up in surrender.
The bell rang not long after, all five of the Cullen kids throwing away their untouched lunches and heading to their next class. Edward and Rosalie happened to have AP biology together. Despite their grade difference, this class was typically a mixture of juniors and seniors. The two sat next to each other, being assigned each other to be lab partners, much to the dismay of their teacher.
"He really seems desperate to separate us, " Rosalie said, so low that only Edward could hear her. He nodded.
"He's already in on the gossip about the private and outcast Cullen kids. He thinks he's doing us a kindness by trying to assign us someone from outside the family." He replied. Rosalie snorted.
"Right." She said, before turning her attention back to Mr. Banner. Class was over quickly. The first day typically always being about getting to know the people sitting next to you and going over the class syllabus.
Rosalie went to the rest of her classes for the day, Art and History before she went out to the parking lot to meet up with her siblings. She met Alice and Emmett next to her cherry red BMW, her pride and joy. Generally, Carlisle wanted them to remain as much on the down low as possible, but Rosalie would not be parted from her car. So when students that morning had seen Rosalie and Emmett step out of her car, there had been a lot of envious whispers.
"So, how was your first day, Rose?" Alice asked.
"Manageable." She said curtly, unlocking her car, getting into the driver's seat, Emmett getting into the passenger's side. "I'll see you at home." She said. Alice nodded, going over to Edward's silver Volo where he and Jasper waited for her. Rosalie backed out of the spot she was in, driving off, not giving any of the students of Forks High School a second look.
"How was it, really?" Emmett asked once they were on the road, speeding at least 20 miles over the speed limit.
"It's just more of the same, Emmett," Rosalie replied. "Hormonal teenagers, classes that I'm sure I could actually teach and a full day of pretending we're humans." She paused. "I just want to get home and spend some time in the garage." She said. "Alone." She added. Emmett just nodded, picking up on her stress levels. Despite not being mates, Emmett was more in tune with Rosalie's feelings and mood swings than anyone else in the family, except perhaps Jasper. Though his gift gave him an edge. Something that Rosalie appreciated about him. He knew when to stop. Most of the time.
Rosalie drove in silence back to the Cullen home, pulling into their driveway. She got out of the car, Emmett shutting his door very carefully. He had once accidentally scratched the paint on Rosalie's car and he still shuttered at the very imagery of things Rosalie had threatened him with. She grabbed her bag from the backseat before making her way up to the house.
"Rosalie, how was your first day?" She was greeted by Esme, who pulled the blonde into a hug. Rosalie, who generally avoided physical contact always made an exception for the montherly vampire.
"Like any other first day of high school Esme," Rosalie replied, extracting herself from Esme's embrace. "I'll be in the garage," she said, dropping her bag on the table and disappearing into their garage.
She shut the door behind her, sighing and walking over to her project car, a 95' Jeep Wrangler X. A project she was working on restoring for Emmett. She gathered her hair and threw it into a ponytail before opening the hood, bending over to inspect the work she had already done on it. The car had been mostly totaled when she got it, and it definitely would have been cheaper to just buy a 95' Wrangler X in good condition, rather than restore one, but she wasn't worried about what was cheaper. It was all about the experience of fixing the damn thing.
She was currently in the processes of fixing the transmission, but she was waiting on a few parts before she could fix it completely. She sighed, instead, getting down, grabbing a flashlight and getting under the car which was propped up on a couple of ramps, a jack holding up the other end. It's not like a car falling on her would actually do her any damage, but she could probably undo all the work that had gone into the car if it did fall. Looking up at the bottom of the car, she sighed, grabbing a wrench from the floor, looking back up at the wheel axles, loosening a bolt.
III.
Rosalie's life for the next few weeks followed this pattern. Evenings were spent engaging in her hobbies; reading, working on the Jeep, listening to music, hunting. Days were spent at school, avoiding all the humans as much as possible. Word had spread like wildfire and by the end of the first week, the gossip about the Cullens was in full swing. Rosalie hated it.
It was always about how weird the Cullens were. How gross it was that Alice and Jasper were dating, despite living together. Speculation about which of her brothers she was dating, which Rosalie found absolutely disgusting. Why they never seemed to eat. Why they kept to themselves. Why they never seemed to socialize with others. And most of all, why they were always missing on the few sunny days that graced Forks' sky.
Luckily for her, the humans left her alone. After she had snarled at Tyler enough, almost making him wet himself in the third week, they all finally seemed to get the hint. That she was not going to entertain their whims and that she would make them cry if necessary. It wasn't that she took great pleasure out of doing so, though she did admit to herself that it made her feel a bit better. Ever since her evening in Seattle three weeks prior, she had felt grumpier than normal, her temper being set off at the smallest things. Even Emmett had commented on it.
"Rose, you sure there's nothing wrong?" He asked her one afternoon on their way home. She shook her head.
"I'm fine Emmett." She snapped. Emmett recoiled slightly, not bringing up the subject again in the following weeks.
One evening, Alice got a faraway look in her eyes when they were all gathered in their living room. It wasn't a common event for all of them to be in once place, but the family tried at least once a week. Edward's head shot towards Alice, frowning.
"What is it, Alice?" Carlisle asked curiously as she came out of the vision. Rosalie, for her part, didn't even look up from the magazine she had in her hands.
"We're getting a new student at school tomorrow." She said, both Edward and Alice looking at Rosalie. The blonde felt their eyes on her and looked up.
"What?" She asked as the rest of the family looked at her. She glared at all of them. "What are you all looking at?" She insisted.
"The new student's name is Bella Swan."
I've never really written Rosalie as a character before so I'm still trying to get into the groove of characterizing her properly. I've had my fair share of experience with Bella (especially with the kind of personality I'm writing her with in this particular story) and then reading about Rosalie/Bella but it's still a new experiencing to actually write Rosalie. Especially trying to capture her past properly without going in too deep this early.
Anyway, I'm glad that ya'll are excited about this story. I know I'm hype about it. We'll be getting to know Bella a little bit better in the next chapter, so that will be exciting.