Mister Varner held Jules back longer than she expected with a droning lecture on respect that had her biting her tongue the entire time. She didn't have Mister Berty this year and she desperately wished to keep her Uncle from having to make a stop at the principal's office for once. She knew they wouldn't keep letting her off the hook for being new this year, but she couldn't help it.
Unfortunately, staying back as long as she had to let to Jules freezing with her hand on the door that led out to the parking lot. Rain was a common sight in Forks, it had rained earlier in the day and she knew Forks had a habit of interrupted showers- but this was a torrential downpour.
Jules loved storms like the one she was facing. On most days like this, she would be curled up in her bed against the window amongst the warmth of her duvet and her pillows, reading a book or working on a new sketch as she listened to the raindrops thudding harshly against the glass panes. By every account, she should've been home by now doing exactly that. Instead she had her skates over her shoulder, blinking owlishly at the unexpected obstacle.
Merde.
This was not the first time Jules had gotten trapped at school by the rain. She would usually get a ride from Ella and her mother, or more often than not with Leah and Sam. She knew they would be done with school earlier than her, and she knew they would be happy to pick her up- but Jules didn't want to call them now. She didn't want to hear about whether they were going to invite this person or that to the wedding, or all the plans they were making for the small house they would fix up together. Jules needed a break.
Jules surveyed her options. The parking lot, from a distance, appeared empty save for the cars she recognized amongst the teachers area. No chance of that. A shiny, brand spanking new silver Jeep Wrangler remained in the students area, closest to where Jules was at the doors atop the stairwell that led down there. Jules squinted at it suspiciously. She was a self-proclaimed connoisseur of anything on wheels, she would have noticed a wrangler model that new in town. The wheels were gigantic and heavy duty, definitely intended for extreme off-roading; thus, the kind of person Jules would have adored to befriend. Either she had missed someone at her school who shared the same interests as her and who had been able to afford such a magnificent ride, or- The Cullens.
Why would they still be in school on their first day? I got out of here as fast as I could.
Dismissing the notion, Jules twirled on her foot, deciding at last to remain at the library until the rain passed instead of risking hypothermia. She knew she would have no issues skating through the rain when she could stop herself from falling, but she also knew she couldn't exactly keep herself from getting drenched. Questions over the theoretical reach of whether or not she could somehow keep the rain from hitting her drifted through her mind, not for the first time.
The first time Jules became aware of her gift was a memory she did not enjoy reliving, a direct result of her anguish at the passing of her beloved grandmother. She knew how things usually went in the superhero movies and the comic books she'd occasionally pick up and glance through at flea markets, but Jules had never been the kind to desire being extraordinary. She was very aware of her limitations, and she knew she wasn't saving anybody's life any time soon. Jules was perfectly content to live out her small town Americana life because at least this way she remained alive.
The prickling of goosebumps erupting on her skin alerted her once more to the presence of the newcomers as she entered the library, jostling enough to show as she faltered in her stride. Jules felt her jaw set and her eyebrows furrow as she scolded herself for being ridiculous, trying to ignore the buzz in the pit of her stomach as she made quick work going to the other side of the decidedly small library, ignoring the librarian as she passed his desk.
Jules had never held a fondness in her heart for libraries. The air was too silent, too still- a room where uncomfortable silence was a mandatory requirement. Whenever her assignments required any reading material she would do her best to buy her own copy, or borrow one and evade the premise as quickly as humanly possible. Now, out of the sheer willpower of her own stubbornness, she chose to sit at a table pushed up by a window where she could watch the rain and leave at the first sight of it letting up.
Out of her peripheral vision, she could see the three of them sat at a table on the other side, barely visible through the aisles. The curly haired one and his tiny girlfriend, and the ever-so-glorious teen heartthrob himself- Edward Cullen. Jules knew she was being silly, pulling her homework out so she could at least get rid of that while she waited.
It felt like the prelude in a horror movie. She was all alone here, save for the remaining teachers and the librarian. In her mind she could picture them following her out of the library when it stopped raining, corner her while she tried to skate away and flee. Dump her body in the woods where it would get mauled by wild animals until she was impossible to identify. Jules knew she was being ridiculous, but she couldn't shake the ominous feeling. Jules could feel eyes on her, whipping her head up as fast as she could- but Edward Cullen was busy with his head ducked low writing out notes.
Why do I feel like they're waiting for something?
Jules felt twitchy. She felt like her skin was crawling, like she was about to break into a sweat. She pushed her chair back abruptly, standing up to nearly rip off her blue coat, sweeping it dramatically like a matador's cape as she set it over the plastic back of the seat next to her. She moved her backpack into the seat, effectively making a barricade between herself and the Cullens, sandwiching herself between her bag and the window like that would give her some strange false sense of security. It did not. Instead, Jules felt eyes on her again, and looked up once more to find nothing. Her anxiety spiked more.
And suddenly, nothing. Jules felt the calmest she had ever felt in her life, as if she were just on the precipice of sleep. Her restlessness had evaded her body with a sharp resounding twang, and it made her freeze. What. The. Fuck? Her confusion did not linger, fading off with the same cotton wool feeling in her brain, the tips of her fingers and toes buzzing electric. It felt like sedation, it felt so right and so soothing, but it felt foreign. It felt wrong. Abruptly once more she was storming out of the door, her things gathered in a mess in her arms in her rush.
The feeling of being smothered left her the more and more she walked away, her head clearing. Jules' heart raced. What the hell was that? Her rational mind could not figure out her absurd experience, and she began to wonder if she had hallucinated or if it had been some bizarre mood swing. Jules' thoughts raced ahead as she pulled her coat back on and untied the skates from where she'd knotted them to her backpack.
Come on Leah, pick up pick up pick up. Her impatience grew as she paced on the tin roof shaded front steps of Forks High. The silver wrangler remained in the parking lot, but Jules didn't plan to wait for the strange owners. She was thoroughly and effectively wigged out, and she planned to avoid the Cullens no matter how irrational she might actually be behaving. She scowled as she got the busy tone, the first time Leah had ever ignored her call. Jules had never in an entire year heard the tone of Leah's voicemail.
"Hey, it's Leah. If I'm not answering my phone right now it probably means I've got better things to do, sucks to suck. Leave me a message!" Jules huffed in indignation at her best friend's chipper snark. She would've spent far more time fixing up her truck over the summer if she thought she would be left stranded at school.
Fuck it, I've had it.
Jules dropped down to sit on the top step unceremoniously, starting to swap her boots for her skates. It took a while, she wasn't very focused as annoyed as she was in that moment, and she wasn't going to wait around to hitch a ride with the strange stalker siblings. With her backpack secured over her shoulders, she glanced around, making sure she wasn't seen before she focused on her favourite trick.
With her palms flat down towards the ground, Jules pushed upward, grinning goofily to herself as she floated just mere centimeters off the concrete steps. Not high enough to look odd, but high enough that she didn't have to slip on the wheels of her skates down two flights of steps. She kept pushing, kept focusing until she was securely down on the pavement of the car park, in the rain. And then with a twist of her fingers she was propelling herself forward like a motor on the back of a speedboat. The rain felt frigid on her skin, drenching her clothes in a matter of seconds from the hard pelting the opposing force of her motion created. Jules didn't care about the momentary discomfort, the relief and the rush flooding her veins as she laughed airily, jetting down swiftly around the corner and out of sight.
By the time Jules got home, she resembled a drowned rat, and the squeaky sneezes began the moment she entered the heated warm air within. Charlie wouldn't be home for a few more hours, plenty of time for her to get rid of the evidence she'd skated home in the rain- the last thing she needed was him worrying about her transport to school and Jules absolutely refused to go to school in the cruiser. Jules wasn't stupid, she knew she was likely about to get herself sick from her reckless split decision- and she was already racing through all of her options on remedying her mistakes.
When Charlie did finally come home Jules was still in her bedroom, the door wide open so she could hear him enter. She was in bed like she'd longed for, bundled up in an oversized, thick fleece-lined green jumper under one of Charlie's flannel shirts, her hands wrapped up around her second mug of hot tea while she read her grandmother's dog-eared copy of Murder on the Orient Express. Charlie alerted his presence as he always did with the clang of his keys, appearing moments later in her doorway with wet hair and shoulders and a grimace.
"Hey." Jules greeted her Uncle, sipping more tea.
"Hey- did you get caught in this? Came outta nowhere." Charlie gestured at the outside, taking off his gun belt and the rest to hang up on the hooks above his roll out desk.
"A little." Jules answered vaguely. "You're later than usual."
"Yeah, went down to the rez. Apparently the Quileute kids are boycotting the hospital, one of them got into a motorbike accident and refused the EMTs from taking him there." Charlie seemed angry, and it was only at his surprisingly long response that Jules looked up fully and noticed with a furrow of her eyebrows. "Billy's behind it. The elders are telling all the kids to steer clear of the Cullens."
Jules' heart sunk. "What?"
"It's bullshit." Charlie gruffed, the most pissed off Jules had ever seen him. "You know, you'd really think with all the things they have to deal with on the discrimination side of things, they'd be a little more considerate about new folks in town. I mean this kid could'a been real hurt here, and what, you could be dying and you'll still not go just 'coz he's the chief doctor there?"
"And you know what? Doctor Cullen's a good doctor. We're lucky to have him. I bet he could'a got a job anywhere but his wife likes small towns so we're lucky we have him. If I hear anybody's giving 'em a hard time I'm not having that. I'm not." Charlie shook his head, taking his jacket off as he lumbered off, seemingly glad to have gotten his frustrations off his chest.
Jules blinked owlishly at the space her Uncle had thrown a full fit in. Well then. She felt a little guilty over her own suspicions about the Cullens, wondering if she'd just let her mind get carried away from her. It doesn't make sense, none of it does.
She still couldn't shake the feeling she'd narrowly escaped death, but she knew she was being ridiculous- they were teenagers.
