Chapter 2

Ana spent Sunday airing out the house and making it look liveable again. Hydro and water both came to connect her services in the morning and so to stay out of their way, she went to shop for her new school supplies, an appropriate wardrobe and of course, she needed to stock up the kitchen. How could she be a believable teenager if she didn't have snacks?

The town had one small grocery store and one small department store, so the trip did not take her long. She frowned at the cheap fabrics that were offered to her in the department store and frowned even harder when she picked at a loose thread in one shirt that almost unraveled the whole thing. She sighed as she picked out the least offensive pair of jeans she could find and a plain, long sleeved shirt; she already missed her leather jacket. She grabbed a few t-shirts as well as a black raincoat, piling everything onto her arm, wondering if she should do some online shopping instead. No, it would be better to wait and see how long this job would take before investing more money into her wardrobe.

She had deposited the money she had been given into a new bank account, as she liked to keep it separate from her own fortune, at least while she was still on the job. Even though she had lots of money to spend, she did not want to draw attention to herself in flashy clothes; she stood out enough as is. Being a new face in this town would likely draw crowds in itself, but with her long blonde hair, blue eyes and slim, lightly tanned, muscled figure, heads tended to turn. That kind of attention could be good or bad, depending on what the job entailed.

One thing she definitely enjoyed about her immoral life and that came in handy regularly, was her impressive strength; any man that dared think he could put his hands on her without her express permission was soon made very sorry.

Ana smiled, thinking about the last man she had thrown clear across a bar as she headed to the checkout with her new clothes. The cashier was a bottle blonde with oily skin who looked about 16; she looked Ana up and down sourly as she asked her if she had been able to find everything she was looking for.

Ana smiled at her brightly, affecting a wholesome, sweet persona. Time to start the small town gossip.

"I think so, thank you so much for asking. I'm new in town and I was just so happy to see that there was an affordable clothing store around here."

The cashier looked at Ana a little closer, taking note of her slightly dirty, unwashed hair, well worn jeans and scuffed boots. She looked satisfied, as if Ana's beauty was somewhat nullified by her obvious poorness. Thank goodness the water had still been off at the house this morning.

The cashier smiled now, more at ease with someone she could relate to. "Where did you move from?"

"California," Ana replied with another smile, although her last location had actually been in New Mexico. "My elderly uncle wants to sell his house so I was sent here to help get it ready for sale. He's moved to a retirement home already. My mother got sick recently, so my parents had to stay behind for now. They'll join me as soon as they can."

Ana let her bright smile slowly fade, as if she were sad to be all alone in a new town and worried about her sick mother.

"You poor thing," the cashier said sympathetically. "You don't look old enough to be on your own, are you even out of high school yet?"

"No," Ana sighed now, trying for more sympathy, "I'll have to finish my last school term here. I wanted to graduate with my friends, but oh well."

"Who is your uncle? Maybe I know him," the cashier asked, curiosity behind her dull brown eyes as she stared into Ana's lovely blue ones.

Ana gave the true name of the owner of the house, knowing that he had only lived here a short time before leaving town.

"It was supposed to have been his retirement house, so to speak, so he could escape his big city life and go fishing regularly. His health declined quicker than expected and he was advised to move to a warmer climate. He wants to deal with all his loose ends now, you know?" Ana added.

The cashier nodded her head sympathetically, saying that she did not recognize that name. Ana had figured as much from the start. Time for the money shot.

"Hey, I'm looking for some good hiking boots. Do you guys have any here, I couldn't seem to find them?" Ana asked, trailing off and looking around with a confused expression, as if she were hoping she wasn't missing some obvious display of boots.

"No, we don't have any here unfortunately. You'd have to go to Newton's for that," the cashier seemed truly sorry.

"Newtons?" Ana questioned.

"Yeah, it's a family owned sporting goods store just outside of town, right off the highway heading south. You can't miss it."

"Ok, thank you so much," Ana replied.

The cashier quickly rang up Ana's items but as Ana turned to leave, the cashier spoke up again.

Ana rolled her eyes briefly in annoyance before turning around, smile back in place.

"Are you related to anyone else in town?" The cashier asked hesitantly.

Ana was genuinely puzzled. "No. Why?"

"Oh, you just remind me of someone from school, that's all. She graduated last year," the cashier seemed uncomfortable now and would no longer make eye contact.

Ana frowned, glancing down at the cashiers name tag for the first time. Kelly.

"Ok, well, thanks Kelly. I guess I will see you at school." Ana said.

Kelly's eyes snapped up in surprise at the casual use of her name. Ana glanced from her name tag to her eyes so that she would understand. Kelly looked down in confusion and then smiled in embarrassment. She was still looking down when Ana left the store.

Ana roared up to school bright and early Monday morning on her motorcycle. Her bike was not new or shiny but still, it was loud and there weren't too many people brave enough to drive one over constantly wet roads, even though it was nice and sunny today. She fully expected the stares. She took her black helmet off, shaking out her freshly washed long hair. She thought she heard a gasp from somewhere in the parking lot as students paused in their step to watch her. Ana smiled to herself and tried to look unaffected as she strode towards the building labelled Office, hoping this school had a locker for her so she wouldn't have to carry the helmet around all day.

The school unfortunately did not have lockers and so Ana was forced to hook her helmet onto her school bag, letting it repeatedly bounce off her leg as she walked. High school was so irritating.

Her first two classes went by without her once seeing her target, Michael Newton. She frowned through them, wondering who had made this schedule for her. Without Michael, these classes were a waste of her time. It wasn't like she was actually going to do homework. She hoped this Michael was smart, as one of her plans to get close to him revolved around him tutoring her, preferably at his parents house.

Ana stopped outside of her third class of the day and clenched her first at the sign on the door, "Science lab". Even though she had been alive for quite a long time now, her PTSD never failed to flare up and punch her in the gut when she least expected it. Ana took in a deep breath and tensed her body, fighting internally with herself. This was no time to panic. She had a job to do and nothing would stop her from doing it. Besides, mad scientists were a thing of the past. This little high school teacher couldn't hurt her. She was too strong now.

Ana took a deep breath and walked through the door and right up to the teacher, letting him know she was new. The teacher barely glanced at her and nodded towards the only empty lab table in the room, which happened to be in front of one Mr. Michael Newton. She had studied his picture so often now that she would have recognized him anywhere.

Ana smiled to herself as she walked over and sat directly in front of Michael, throwing a shy smile towards him as she set her bag down, before turning her back to him. Finally, her performance could start.

The class passed quickly and Ana could feel Michael's eyes on the back of her head the whole time. She leaned back in her chair and twirled a strand of her hair now and again, occasionally running her hands through it so that the long strands would just touch the edge of Michael's desk. She could hear his lab partner complaining about it to him.

"Stop staring at her."

Ana heard the female voice whisper behind her.

"What? Oh, sorry Jess. I wasn't staring, I was just thinking," Ana heard Michael mumble back, shamed.

"Yeah, thinking about the new girl. This is so last year Mike." Jess's voice hissed. She kept up a steady string of complaints to him.

Ana smiled to herself. This would be easy.

The bell rang, signalling the end of class. Now was her chance.

"Any chance either of you need a lab partner?" Ana asked innocently, turning around to speak to the two people at the table behind her, knowing perfectly well that everyone but her was already partnered up. Jess stopped speaking, her mouth stuck open with the last words of her complaint to Mike hanging in the air.

They both just stared at her so Ana stood up from her desk and gathered her books.

Jess recovered first, "Sorry, everyone has been partnered up since the term began, two weeks ago."

Jess seemed torn between curiosity and jealousy. Ana could see that this little human girl couldn't tell whether to befriend her or ice her out now. Ah, teenagers.

"Some girls have all the luck," Ana said softly as she passed them by, glancing at Michael.

Mike's mouth dropped open as he stared after her in shock. Had she just said that to him? Mike grabbed his stuff and followed her eagerly as she left the room, ignoring Jess's glare as he went, wondering wildly if there was any way he could change lab partners now.

Mike caught up to Ana right outside of the door.

"I didn't get a chance to introduce myself, I'm Mike Newton," Mike held out a shaky hand to her.

"Hi Mike. I'm Ana," Ana said, shaking the slightly sweaty hand lightly.

"So, where did you move here from?" He asked, desperate to keep her attention. He knew that if he ran out of questions for her, he could always resort to commenting on the weather. It had seemed to work well enough for Edward; after all, he got Bella right after a stupid conversation about weather. Mike didn't have to like the guy to respect his game.

"California," Ana lied easily, smiling at him, jarring him out of thoughts of the last girl he'd made a play for. Jessica didn't count.

"Oh wow, no way! Me too!" Mike exclaimed, heart beating excitedly against his chest.

Ana smiled, hearing it.

Mike asked her why she had moved and she gave him her cover story of having to sell her uncle's house.

"Why did you move here?" Ana asked him conversationally, after letting Mike fawn over her for a minute, telling her what a good person she was for helping her family like this.

"Oh, I was about 10 when we moved. My dad worked for some tech company but my parents apparently weren't happy in a big city. One day everything was normal and the next they were packing up, telling me we were moving. Now they own a sporting goods store," Mike shrugged, still mystified about why anyone would move to Forks by choice.

Ana silently filed that information away. A sudden move and a child not knowing why. Very interesting.

"Are you related to the Cullen's?" Mike asked suddenly, breaking into Ana's thoughts.

Ana frowned, "Sorry, I don't know them."

"Oh, it's just that you look exactly like one of them that graduated last year. Well not exactly, but super close. You're much more tan." Mike stumbled through his explanation.

"Oh," Ana recalled the cashier from the previous day saying something similar but let it drop as they walked from the science building.

"Who, uh, who are you sitting with at lunch?" Mike asked, nervously smoothing his blonde hair back.

"I don't know anyone," Ana said, looking up at Mike and smiling sadly.

"Let's change that," he said to her with a smile.