5. Paranoia

I sat up straight and tried to look confident. This could not be happening. The table of gorgeous figures hated me. I could tell by the unsure look on Bella's face that she hated me with the rest of her table, but Edwards was still different; completely understanding and tolerant in everyway like at lunch earlier. I saw Bella pull him over and mumble something quickly into his ear before she moved swiftly across the room to Mr. Shore's desk.

She showed off an elegant smile to Mr. Shore and asked to go to either the nurse or the office. When she started through the door, she flashed a pair of smoldering, black eyes toward me, and strutted off.

My jaw dropped. Why did she hate me so much? I hadn't even spoken one word to her! How could sweet, sensitive Ronan be blood relatives with a girl who had eyes full of hatred?

"Hello, there. Ava, is it?" a smooth voice asked from behind me, making me jump as I came out of my deep thoughts.

He immediately noticed the surprise he gave me. "Oh, I'm sorry to startle you. My name is Edward." He looked me over and smirked, as if remembering an inside joke.

His face was even more beautiful close-up. "Nice to meet you. You're Ronan's brother?"

"Yes, that's right." He smiled.

"Yeah, he mentions you a lot. And I might as well add that he doesn't like Forks no matter where you take him sight seeing."

He looked down, smirking. "Yes, unfortunately he despises my home town. So many memories are buried in the earth that lies here for me. I'm just trying to make him love it as much as I do here. He loves the sun, though. It pained him incredibly when our family dragged him to one of the cloudiest places in the United States."

Just by those few things he shared with me about his life, I liked Edward already. He was one of those people I felt like I've known my entire life even though I hadn't even spoken for more than ten sentences with him. Like a distant relative whose face is barely recognizable that knew me when I was young, one who knows my name but I can't put a finger on theirs, but when you start talking to them, it's like you're back where you left off all those years ago.

"But his two sisters love it here?"

"Yes, they feel as if they belong here as much as I do. Like the ground they walk on here was meant for them… you know? Ronan has been very negative about it, almost depressed. My parents are doing the best they can to change his perspective, but its just not working. There's just something missing…" He stared off into space, thinking.

I completely understood how Ronan felt. "He just can't find home here. I've felt like that my entire life. My family, we move probably every two to three years… it's hard."

He looked at me with pained butterscotch eyes. "I just wish there was a way he could find home here."

"You really care about him, don't you?"

Edward put his fingers through his bronze hair. "Yeah, he's like my little brother. He's only a year younger than me, but he's been through too much for his age. And Bella, oh Bella's a wreck. She's his triplet, but she acts like a mother to him. She knew we had to move here… because of my father's job and all… but it kills her to see him this distraught."

That brought Bella's abrupt absence back into my mind. "Where is Bella, anyway? Is she alright?"

Edward's eyes became angry when the words left my mouth, and I regretted my actions immediately. The last thing I need is another Swan-Mason hating me.

"Oh, no need to worry about her. She's just a bit under the weather is all. The rain's taking a toll on her, too."

The hint of doubt in his tone was not easy to catch, but it was there. I knew for a fact that wasn't at all the reason for her quick escape of the room that I was present in. But I went along with his excuse anyway.

"Well tell her to feel better. Hot tea and soup will help." I replied exuberantly, trying to play as dumb as best I could.

"Yes, something like that will bring her health back to normal." He said in a slightly sarcastic voice, a smirk rising up on his lips.

Okay, what's that supposed to mean?

I knew he could see the suspicion in my expression when he quickly added, "We should probably get started on this project. Seems pretty complex if you ask me."

Yeah, complex if you're a fourth grader. What was up with this guy? He seemed incredibly smart…

"Of course, I can bring it home and get the poster started if you would like. I'm sure my older brother wouldn't mind putting his two-sense in."

"Are you sure, Edward? I can bring it home until Bella is better…" Just then the final bell rang loudly, causing my muscles to flex.

"No, Avs, don't worry about it. I'll bring it back tomorrow. It was nice meeting you."

And with that, he gracefully made his way out of the room, while I sat there completely baffled and tears filling my eyes. He called me Avs. Avs. There was no way he knew my nick name. Absolutely, positively, no way. The only person in the world to ever call me that before Edward was my favorite and most down-to-earth family member I knew, my Grandpop.

When I lived in the suburb next to Chicago where he lived, we would do everything together. He'd sneak me out to a middle-class neighborhood and bring me trick-or-treating every Halloween because the snooty neighborhood I lived in didn't have the "time" to deal with annoying little kids running around in costumes, and my parents agreed. He'd bring me to incredible local orchestra concerts that my parents would never settle for unless they were professional. And my most favorite thing about my Grandpop? He was the most honest person I knew. No lies, no secrets, no false affection. He was my escape from that at home. But, like everything for me, it came to an end one, excruciatingly painful day.

The day he was coming to pick me up for a day at the park was the day of the fatal Magno-train accident in Chicago, and he happened to be on one of the four trains that collided at an intersection due to some drunken idiot tampering with the system and costing hundreds their lives. Including my Grandpop's.

I had known Edward for merely thirty minutes. How would he know my horrendously abnormal nickname that my beloved grandfather gave to me? It was like he knew my past or something…

Okay. I am being completely paranoid. It must have just been a coincidence. Maybe my mother and Edward think a like. Who knows? Maybe he just had an impulse to call me that because it felt right.

Doubts still in my mind about my reasonable explanation of my past nickname, I realized Cindy and Max waiting for me.

Max bent down and began reaching for my laptop on my desk. "Need help?"

"Sure." I mumbled dizzily, I had to go home.

As I was walking out of the building with Max and Cindy, I was hoping the sun would appear like it always had in Honolulu, hit my face and numb my now nagging head ache, but when I looked up, a vast, thick cloud that spread down to the horizon blocked my usual treatment.

I groaned loudly and began to fumble through my backpack for some Relief, and popped two in my mouth unwillingly.

I was taking a sip of my water bottle and listening to Max and Cindy's conversation when I glanced quickly at my car and noticed two figures standing next to the yellow porsche.

I practically spit the water out of my mouth as I whipped my head back to my car, but the two figures were gone. I shook my head and said goodbye to Cindy and Max who were now gawking at my car. When I got in and took off in the old car, my head started spinning with the same unanswered questions that came up today. The pictures fitting Max's grandfather's story. Edward knowing my long lost nickname. Why the Swan-Masons hated me so. Why Ronan and Edward were the only ones who were sympathetic to my being. And why, at that moment, I felt like someone was listening to my exact thoughts.

I pushed that haunting thought out of my head quickly.

Stop being so paranoid. I tell myself. You're head hurts, you're exhausted, you need some sleep. Stop the pondering. Start focusing.

My old yoga teacher always swore on internal pep talks being the superior way to get rid of paranoia, but I'm beginning to question her degree. It's most definitely not working.

I'm almost half way back to the house when I realize I have to pick up the twins. Well, that just fills my day with rainbows and butterflies.

"Dammit." I mutter to myself before turning around.

Luckily, my head ache is gone by the time I'm at the middle school, but if it wasn't for the Relief's intense pain-barrier, it would've came back from what I saw.

The twins are sitting at the top of the stairway to the school in their new matching pea coats and they each have about three pod phones in each hand while the girls on the steps below them are smiling ear to ear. I see the twin's mouths moving in unison, recording their pod numbers into the small ear pieces, and handing them back to their rightful owners like queens. They don't even bother to return the goodbye waves they receive from their wannabes, and I can feel my face get more and more crimson with every pod phone they hand back.

Finally, after about three more pod phones, they finally see my strikingly obvious, bright yellow porsche in the drive way and act all surprised to see that their ride is here. They get up from their thrones and strut toward me, their glossy dark brown waves bouncing with each step they take. I see the girls who now worship them watch them walk off wide-eyed, just gawking at how "cool" they are. Ha. Try being their sister.

When they get into the back seat, Alicia snaps, "Ava. New 180." With a snap of her fingers like I was her servant.

"Nice to see you, too." I mutter angrily under my breath, putting on her preferable radio station.

While we pull out of the driveway of the school, they don't even bother to return the waves of their new wannabes. "Ugh. Did you see the shoes Lexie was wearing? Gawd! It was like her mother sewed her cat to her feet."

Allison's cackle filled the car. "I know, seriously! I would probably be sympathetic if she didn't talk my ear off in home room today. She, like, told me about her summer in Paris the entire time, and I wanted to be like, 'Just shut up! I've been there like ten times'!"

Alicia nodded in agreement. "That girl needs some serious help. Look at her waving to us. What a complete low-life." I caught Alicia gave a half-hearted wave to the blonde-haired freckle-faced girl with furry boots through my mirror.

At that point, I couldn't take the twin's nasty comments about the cute little girl anymore, so I took out my pod phone and blasted some unpopular New York City originated band in my ear, trying to block every thought out of my mind. I just desperately needed to get home.

When I finally found myself easing up the long driveway, I breathed a sigh of relief. I parked the car in the garage and practically flew into my room while my sisters were stopped by my parents to be interrogated about their first day of 8th grade.

I threw my back pack onto the floor, ripped out my blaring pod phone, and jumped onto my bed. I could just fall asleep right then and there if the thoughts of today weren't still ringing through my head. I also felt sticky and cold from the heinous weather of Forks, so I decided to take a shower.

I quickly pressed the jet system to high, closed my self in, and felt the massaging jets begin to beat water into my back, then softer on my head, then into my legs. I hit the shampoo button about seven for the soft massaging rollers to lather the shampoo into my hair and then detangle it with the combs before I felt clean enough to ease myself out.

My muscles felt like gelatin desert from the long amount of time in the hot water, and I fell asleep to the mystery Cullen's compositions before dinner. However, this didn't stop my mind from conceiving a concoction of Cullen-related dreams during this long night.