As soon as Alaina pushed open the heavy school doors the next morning, she knew the day would be chaotic. The buzzing vibration of yesterday's gossip was swarming around Alaina as she pushed through the crowds of people to her locker and the squeaks of hundreds of wet sneakers echoed across the hallway. She tossed her soggy jacket into her locker, grabbed her books for her English class, and slammed the door behind her. The sharp clang of the metal door caused a few faces to dart her way, one of them being Bella.
"Alaina!" She said, relief apparent in her tired voice. Jessica was standing next to her, still trying to pepper her with questions regarding yesterday's incident. When she saw Alaina, Jessica's beratement momentarily ceased, and Alaina couldn't help but to see a sense of annoyance flash before her eyes with the unwelcomed gossip interruption.
"Hi Alaina! So Bella, back to what I was saying -" Jessica said quickly, but almost immediately turned her attention back to Bella.
Alaina gave a small wave in return and walked over to Bella and Jessica. Bella looked physically and mentally exhausted, no doubt brought on by Jessica's hyperactive questioning more so than the car accident yesterday. Her deep brown eyes were framed by dark circles and her skin look dull and tired.
"Mornin' guys," she said, making her way to her two friends. "Bella, I'm glad to see you're still alive."
"Let's be honest, we all had our doubts," Bella laughed, shifting her long brown hair from her eyes. Alaina could see Jessica's mouth begin to open with another question, but Alaina cut her off.
"Hey, Jess, we are going to be late for English. Let's go," she said, motioning for Jessica to follow her. Jessica hesitated, but then nodded moving towards her. "See ya, Bella."
Bella mouthed a 'thank you' and Alaina and Jess walked away towards their English class.
"I can't believe Bella is back in school already! If I was in a car accident I would take at least a few days off to rest and catch up on homework and everything else that I have to do…" Jessica trailed off. Alaina nodded and made noises of acknowledgement at all of the right times, but Alaina was barely paying attention to her. She liked Jess well enough, but she knew she wouldn't never be that close to her.
They made their way to the classroom and opened the door just in time to hear the bell ring shrilly in their ears. Their English teacher, Mrs. Crawford, clapped her hands excitedly, her ever present scarf draped around her small frame. "Take your seats ladies and gentlemen, take your seats! We have a very exciting class today!"
Alaina couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. She reminded Alaina of her art teacher in Detroit: loud, bizarre, and eccentric, but full of love and kindness nonetheless. "Let's go, let's go," Mrs. Crawford said quickly, gently pushing Alaina towards her seat.
"I'm going, I'm going," Alaina grinned, walking towards her seat. She sat down and put her books on her desk. Looking up, she saw that Jasper had been walking behind her. He took his seat as well and gave her a polite nod, his normally golden eyes a dangerous shade of black.
Mrs. Crawford's idea of a very exciting class was reading a dramatic interpretation of Wuthering Heights outloud. Luckily, Alaina wasn't chosen to participate, so she put her head on her desk and tried to follow along but he quickly found her mind wandering to Emmett. She couldn't stop thinking of the encounter that they had the day before in gym, and Alaina's heart gave an uncomfortable jerk, filling her body with dread. She knew she would have to face him again in only a few hours, and her mind filled with anxiety.
She could feel a pair of eyes watching her, and she knew who they belonged to. For once, she wished Jasper wasn't there... Because if Jasper was in school, Emmett would be in school, and she wanted to avoid him at all costs. Alaina turned to Jasper and locked eyes with him, and she felt uneasy looking into his black eyes. Normally, she felt relaxed, even happy around him, but today she felt almost scared. He looked dangerous. She found herself being grateful that he didn't make his usual small talk. The class finished and Jasper was once again the first out of the classroom, but Alaina was quickly behind him to try to avoid of Jessica who was nipping on her heels.
As Alaina became used to the students and her new classes, the school day started to roll by smoothly and she started to fall into an easy routine. Even during lunch, which she normally dreaded, wasn't awful since she had Bella. The only issue that Alaina had seemed to be Emmett, and she couldn't figure out why.
Alaina liked to watch Bella and Edward interact during biology. It gave her an excuse to ignore Mike's annoyances. Although Edward was back to trying to ignoring Bella, she could tell that he was drawn to her by his body language. He always angled himself towards her and when she spoke to him, it was like no one else was in the room. He leaned in close and wouldn't break eye contact until she was done speaking. It was intense, but Alaina knew that Bella craved those interactions, even though they were subtle.
As Alaina walked to gym class, her mind wandered to Emmett and how he treated her. It was almost a complete 180 to how Edward treated Bella. Edward was engaged and interested in Bella. Emmett was cruel, dismissive, and even intimidating.
Alaina stood in front the gymnasium and watched Emmett, already dressed in his gym uniform, warming up. She bit her bottom lip and contemplated skipping class, when she saw Angela waving her over. She inwardly groaned and tried to smile back.
"You okay?" Angela asked, jogging over to her. Her normal smile was quickly replaced by a frown and she studied Alaina. "You look kind of upset."
Alaina pulled her books close to her chest. She was determined not to let Emmett bother her, or let anyone even know he bothered her. She walked into the classroom towards the girl's locker room. "I'm fine. It's been a long day. Save me a spot for the warm up?"
Alaina rushed into the gym locker room and placed her backpack in the locker. She grabbed her uniform and began changing, purposefully taking longer than she should have to prolong the inevitable. Taking a look in the mirror, she bit her lip, uncomfortable with what was staring back at her. She longed to look like the other girls the surrounding her at Forks High School: small, thin, beautiful. Alaina didn't think that her reflection would ever be that way. She was taller than almost all of her female peers, with thick, coarse brown hair and fell in waves passed her shoulders. Her curves were pronounced in what she thought were all the wrong ways; although she was curvy, her chest was small, so Alaina thought she bore a very strong resemblance to a pear. In short, she absolutely hated the way she looked, especially after…
A shrill whistle blew through the gym, jumping Alaina out of her thoughts and she quickly moved out of the locker room, jogging to take her place next to Angela to start the warm up. Coach Clapp blew his whistle once again to signal the start of the warm up, and the class began to run to the other side of the gym. Alaina kept up with the pack easier today, her athletic nature slowly returning to her. A final whistle rang and the class jogged over to where the teacher stood for directions.
"Alright guys," he said, clapping his hands together. "Same deal as yesterday. I'll break you up into teams and we'll go from there. Weber, Pawlowska, Jones, Miller, Williams, and Yorkie!" He yelled, pointing at each of the students. "You are on court one."
Alaina sighed in relief knowing she wouldn't be on Emmett's team today. She walked over to the court with Angela and she gave her a high five before taking her place, ready to serve the ball.
"Johnson, Brown, Davis, Cullen, Wilson, and Taylor, take your spots facing court one!"
Alaina kicked herself for allowing herself a moment of peace; facing Emmett probably would be even worse than being on his team. Coach Clapp tossed her the ball and walked over to the next set of courts where the other students were being divided into teams.
"Let's go Detroit! You got this!" Thomas Jones, another junior, yelled at her as she prepared her serve.
She threw the ball into the air and smacked it as hard as she could, causing it the soar over the next and into the back row of players. A few seconds later, the volleyball fell to floor, bouncing over and off of the court.
"Good serve!" Thomas said, pumping his fist into the air in excitement.
Alaina couldn't resist stealing a look at Emmett. His brilliantly pale face had a look of annoyance as he chastised his teammates for missing the ball. She smirked, and threw the ball into the air again. This time, she tossed it higher and jumped, making contact with the ball. Whipping through the air, the ball made contact with the other team. They attempted to pass the ball back, but because of the spin of the serve, the pass went into the bleachers.
Her team cheered her on as the ball was thrown back to her for her next serve. Alaina's team worked very well together; even when Alaina's turn to serve was over, they were absolutely crushing the other team, much to Emmett's increasingly vocal annoyance. When Alaina's team scored again, he groaned out loud.
"We need to get our shit together," he yelled at his team as they rotated positions.
"Language, Mr. Cullen!" Coach Clapp yelled across the gym, causing her team to snicker.
Tammy Wilson, a senior, was next to serve. The ball flew over the net easily, and was received by the other team. After two passes, the ball hung in the air, ready to be spiked. Emmett jumped, and hit the ball over the net. Two other players of Alaina's team tried to block the hit, but it slipped through their fingers and the ball headed straight for Alaina. She reacted and and dove to return the spike. She miscalculated the ball's trajectory and when she dug for the ball, she slid too hard, missing the ball, and brutally banging her chin on the concrete floor.
Angela was by her side in an instant. "Alaina! Are you okay?"
Pain rushed through her body as she pushed herself off of the gym floor. She winced as she rubbed her chin, but tried not to let it show on her face. "I'm fine, I think…"
Angela didn't look convinced. "Are you sure? I could hear your face hit the ground; you might have a concussion. We should go to the nurse."
"No, no, I'm fine. I swear," she said, trying to sound stronger than she felt. In reality, she was close to tears as searing pain rushed around her face. Luckily, the teacher interrupted their conversation with one final obnoxious blow of his whistle.
"Good job today, guys! Hit the showers - especially you, Jones," he yelled, and the students started to head to the locker rooms. Alaina was one of the first ones to change and dart out of the gym, and her only goal was to survive the rest of day.
The rest of her classes went by in a blue, a throbbing pain building in her body. She knew she would be incredibly sore tomorrow, but she didn't care. She just needed to get home: away from school and away from Emmett. The final bell rang and Alaina was incredibly relieved that her hell was over with… for today at least.
Alaina held her books tightly as she walked through the highway to reach her locker, the gym incident still on her mind. She wanted to feel mad, she wanted to feel embarrassed, she wanted to feel anger; she wanted to feel anything but the intense heartbreak that was sitting in her chest. She put her books in her locker and saw Bella. Trying to shake off her mood, she walked over to her. "How did you fare today, Bella?"
Bella groaned, slamming her locker shut. She turned to face her and Alaina could tell that Bella was just as exhausted as she was this morning. "If I have one more person ask if I'm okay, I'm going to lose it. I just hate this attention."
Alaina couldn't help but laugh. "I think you may be the only teenage girl in existence that hates attention." Alaina saw Jessica barreling down the hallway. "Hey, let's get out of here."
Bella and Alaina opened the school doors and walked out to the parking lot. Alaina could see the giant, old red truck parked near the front of the building.
"Did you drive today?" Alaina asked, raising her brow. After almost getting crushed by an old van the day before, Alaina was surprised to see Bella driving.
Bella nodded. "I know, I know… But my only other option was riding to school with my dad in his police cruiser."
"Say no more," Alaina laughed, holding up her hand to stop her friend. "I get it. Nothing like riling Jessica up by looking like you just got arrested or you have a police escort to school."
"Want a ride?" Bella asked as they reached her truck. Alaina started to shake her head no, but Bella interrupted her. "I really don't mind at all. It's nice to have some company that isn't so...annoying."
Before Alaina could answer, she heard a booming laughter ring through the parking lot and both Alaina and Bella glanced at the source of the noise, but Alaina already knew who it was. Emmett was standing at his car, surrounded by his siblings. He locked eyes with Alaina and let out another laugh. Alaina felt heat creep into her cheeks and Alaina could tell that he was laughing at her.
"I'm so tired of him being such an asshole to me," Alaina said to Bella, feeling her stomach drop. "I'm really, really over it."
Bella looked at her friend sadly. "He's normally not like this. I don't know him well, but from what I've seen, this is totally out of character. Why don't you say something to him?"
Alaina leaned up against the side of the truck, and closed her eyes, obviously annoyed. "No, I think that will just make it worse. I don't want him to laugh in my face even more than he already is." He's also massive, super intimidating, and could crush me if he wanted to.
She stole another glance at the Cullens and saw then in their car. A large red Jeep started to pull out of the parking spot, and Alaina could see it would drive past them.
"I'm actually going to take the bus today. I just… I just want some time with my thoughts." She adjusted her backpack on her shoulders and threw the hood of her jacket over her head. "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. I get it. Text me tonight, okay?" Bella said kindly, smiling at her. Alaina waved and walked quickly towards her bus, avoiding the large Jeep. She could feel more than a few sets of eyes following her but she tried to brush it off.
She walked even faster towards the bus, trying to will herself not to think about Emmett, but the more she tried not to think about him, the more he pushed himself towards to front of her mind. The wind started to pick up, blowing her hood off of her head and she groaned in frustration. She reached the bus just before the driver pulled the door closed.
"Rough day?" the bus driver asked as she walked up the bus steps.
Alaina tried to force a smile, but she could feel that it was more of a grimace. "You could say that," she muttered, sitting down in a seat towards the front of the bus. She took her backpack off and leaned against the window, shutting her eyes.
"People can be mean. Don't let someone control your day," he said, pulling out of the school. "I know it's hard; I see it every day. It doesn't get any easier, you just get stronger."
"Thanks Harry," Alaina said, her chest tight. She had been so overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity of the people she had met in Forks, but it was impossible for her not to let Emmett get to her. She was so frustrated with how mean he was to her for absolutely no reason, and it was like he knew exactly what to say to hurt her.
As the bus roared through the streets of Forks, Alaina couldn't help but to let a tear roll down her cheek.