Rubatosis - (n.) the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat
000
The night before school, Bella dreams. She vaguely knows that she's dreaming because she's just going along with whatever her brain has in store for her. Nonetheless, she dreams. And like most times, there's a 50/50 percent chance that she'll remember her dream the following day.
Come morning, she did not remember. In fact, the only thing she could remember was a nice, pleasant feeling. A warm feeling even. Moments after waking up, she laid there in bed, thinking, wondering if the warm feeling was due to the all the covers or if it was just her.
All she knew was that waking up was not particularly hard that morning. Then again, it could be because she was finally allowed to sleep in. For once in her life, she had gone to bed at a reasonable hour, set her alarm for a reasonable hour, and went to sleep for a reasonable hour (most likely).
The more awake she became, the more she became aware of her surroundings. Like the fact that beyond her own breathing and the sounds of the outdoors, no one was home. Besides her and Spoons anyways.
And speaking of Spoons! She turned her head and was met with a wall of black fur. "Thanks buddy," she quietly spoke, her voice muffled by his mass. She got a high pitched meow in return. She could feel the minor vibrations against her neck. Maybe he was the warm feeling!
But now it was time to get up. Sadly, unfortunately. So she began by sticking one leg out of her covers. Then she placed her arm above the covers, followed by the other leg. She released a huff and lifted the covers with a sudden movement from her other arm.
She stared at the ceiling. She felt Spoons' soft paw come to rest on her forehead. She hummed in response, as if to say, what? She got her answer when he started pushing slightly. She wouldn't quite call it kneading but it was pretty darn similar. She got his point though.
"Alright, alright. I'm up," she mumbled in a throaty voice as she did, indeed, get up. Just in time too. Her phone alarm started ringing and she shuffled to turn the offending abomination off. She made a mental note (that she would almost certainly forget) to turn down the alarm volume. Or at least change the sound.
She figured she would still have enough time to eat some breakfast and make it to school relatively early if she got dressed quickly. She was a timely person. For the most part. She loved routine because it contained the instructions to life. Though some might argue that DNA did that. Either way, she usually arrived at places intentionally early. This way, if she did get overly distracted or invested in some project or book or whatever, she still had some hope of making it on time.
Somehow, she found some motivation and quickly got dressed. She turned back around to check on Spoons and found him curled up in a small indent-like cave that her form left behind. It probably still retained some warmth.
"Enjoy it while you can."
She walked down the stairs in her slippers. As she did so, she could feel more of the weather's effect. The house wasn't overly cold, though it wasn't overly warm as well. She would have to ask Charlie what he usually kept the temperature at. Back in Phoenix, her mother would occasionally lower the temperature on the ac unit for a few hours before returning it to its original setting. There was even one of those SRP stickers that foretold when it was best to use machines (ac, washer, dryer) and when not to. And in the winter? Why heat up the house when there are perfectly good blankets laying around? That's not to say that the house wouldn't be warm. It just wouldn't be hot.
She got to work on preparing her breakfast. Ah, cereal, breakfast of champions. She quickly works her way through it so it doesn't turn soggy.
She made another note to search around for a jacket before heading out to school once she finished with breakfast. She had packed her backpack the day before with fresh notebooks and lead for her mechanical pencils. Only the thinnest lead would do for her scraggly and indecipherable handwriting. She's currently locating all her needed materials and moving them to the counter. Backpack. Wallet. Phone. Headphones. She picks up her house keys and truck keys before she remembers that she's still wearing her slippers. She heads back up to exchange her fluffy slippers for a pair of sneakers.
She heads back down and mentally checks that everything is in order. On that note, she turns a faucet from the sink so her cereal bowl is submerged in water. Now she's all ready. Bella adjusts her bag from between her shoulder, slips her keys in her hoodie pocket and she's out the door. School starts at eight exactly, on the dot. The clock hands on her smooth wristwatch point to seven twenty-five. She does some calculations here. It'll take about five to ten minutes to get to school, depending on either the traffic or her speed. And then she'll still have somewhere between fifteen and twenty minutes to wait for class to begin.
She unlocks her truck and settles into the driver's seat. She shuffles her bag off of her shoulder and onto the passenger's side. She likes this time frame that she has given herself but continues to ponder it, all the while her hands are going through the motions of driving. Seatbelt. Would she be able to stop for a morning snack if she woke up earlier one day? Key in the ignition. What if she procrastinated and desperately needs to study one cloudy morning?
Turn.
The engine startles to life, loudly. Bella waits for it to warm up a bit before she does anything. While waiting and looking this way and that, her umber brown eyes settle upon a sticky note on her dashboard. Eyes narrowed, she picks it up with two fingers and gingerly pries it open from its sticky corners.
She recognizes the handwriting almost immediately. It's a note from Charlie about gas money. He had accurately thought that Bella would most likely grumble and mumble about money if he gave it to her outright. Smart man, she chuckles to herself in the car. She reaches over to the passenger's side compartment and opens it to find a few bills rolled up in a rubber band.
Well, that's fair. Or dirty even. Still, she has no choice but to accept it and thinks about loosening her stance on finances. Loosen being the key word. The last sentence in the note tells her to have a good day and to kick ass in school. She send off a quick 'thank you' text to him, though she knows he won't see it until later.
With that done, she finally moves the gear from park to reverse to back out of the driveway. She moves it to park and halfheartedly plays around with the nubs on the radio for a moment. Jacob was right, it's spotty. Bella frowns. She would've liked to play some music in the morning before hell. Err.. School. Same thing. Either way she leaves the spotty radio on in hopes of recognizing some words through the static. She'll just have to set up her phone somehow next time.
Bella enjoys school for the most part. She's not too keen on being dubbed the new student. And since it's a small town, she'll probably (unfortunately) be the biggest news for a long while.
She takes another left and marvels at the school. Marvel might not be the right word but she's still.. Impressed? With the size of the buildings. And the parking lot actually. It's slightly bigger than her old high school. Bella idly wonders if the underage people drive. That would account for its size right?
There's no way there's that many students here. If she had anyone to bet against, she would put her money on less than 800 students. Maybe 800 if faculty were to be included.
Gays can't math, she reasons, and drops the thought as she quickly scans for a good parking spot. By good, she means capable of providing a quick getaway. Or even just slightly out spaced away. And she finds it. She has to parallel park, but she just sees that as more practice. She is parked on the outskirts of the parking lot. She can see a trail from the passenger's side window. Down the little hill.
It's a nice secluded spot. As secluded as it can be anyways. She can see the cars coming in and out, and can even catch a hint of the people walking up the stairs to the building. She assumes the first building that she can actually see is the office and she decides to make her way over there.
Of the few people that are residing in the parking lot (early risers, Bella thinks), one of them mutters,"Nice ride." Bella isn't sure if whoever said that is being sarcastic but she mumbles a thanks that she hopes they don't even hear. She just keeps walking, not bothering to deal with it.
As she's ambling over, she realizes what makes this school so different. There's no fucking fences. Bella looks this way and that and is oddly ecstatic to realize this. It's not like she skips class; she's a good noodle. But the knowledge that fences are nowhere to be seen is odd and powerful. She could have lunch outside if she wanted to. She could read outside or something. Then she wonders how many students are so inclined to skip.
Before she knows it, she's in front of the door to the office. She knows it's the office because there's a helpful sign on the wall proclaiming that the office is just inside. There's even a small red arrow pointing to the door.
She opens it slowly and enters quietly, leaving the door to gently close between the small distance. Her backpack scraps against its glassy surface for a moment before she moves forward again, this time in the direction of an older lady behind a receptionist desk.
"Hello, I'm here for my schedule?" Bella starts off rather quietly and ends her sentence in an uncertain question. She doesn't wanna assume that they'd have things ready or that they would immediately recognize her. She's sort of hoping to blend in. Ms. Cope, the name tag on the desk reads.
This goes entirely out the window with the lady's, Ms. Cope's, next words. Scratch that, it's completely shot out the window with a slingshot or some other projectile. Complete with broken glass too.
"Oh, yes! You must be Isabella Swan, the chief's daughter. We've been waiting for you, here's your schedule dear. And a map. Let me point out a few of the buildings," she trails off while turning back around to her desk in search of a pen.
Bella stands there awkwardly for a moment until Cope turns around and begins marking up her map with mild explanations about each red drawn circle. Bella nods and makes noncommittal noises to show that she is absolutely paying attention and is not at all wanting to make a run for the door the next time Cope turns around.
At last, her explanations are done and Bella is free to go. She walks through some door opposite from the one she came from. She roams about, looking at the buildings and keeping a mental checklist of which buildings she's come across and where they are in relation to other buildings.
She's in the middle of reviewing her schedule when she hears footsteps from behind her. It would be easy enough to dismiss these as the footsteps of everyone else milling about but these are determined steps. Bella barely has time to think, oh god I've been spotted before someone's at her side, keeping step with her.
"Hey, new girl! You're Isabella Swan right? I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place," the boy begins. Eric, she mentally repeats so as not to forget his name. She's terrible with names. His long black hair is almost covering his eyes. She finds herself admiring his black button up, she's been meaning to buy more button up shirts. And flannel once it gets colder.
She's got slightly wide eyes the whole time he introduces himself. It's weird. It's so unusual to her that she's easily outed as the new girl with absolutely no effort (small town she reminds herself but still). But people approaching her out of the blue is new, and she finds that she doesn't quite like it.
She is brought back from her thoughts when he starts to speak again, "I'm anything you need - guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on." Bella blinks in thought at his words. Frankly, she's not very impressed with his little spiel. In fact, there's a silence that's a second too long in which she thinks it's her cue to say something, to respond to the genuinely friendly words.
His smile is too bright as he either doesn't notice the awkward silence or willfully ignores it. "Oh um.."
Another pause as she thinks of something that's enough drop a hint. "I'm more of the suffer in silence type," she lamely says with a shrug.
"Suffer in silence," he repeats after her, holding both hands up as though he's imagining some sort of sign. "That's a perfect heading for the school newspaper, and you're front page, my friend!"
Well fuck. He's in the newspaper stuff. Her brain has a split second of curiosity as she wonders if it's a class or a club. Then she panics mildly. There goes her chances of blending in. Unless she can talk him out of it.
"Oh, god no. Please don't, I'm just trying to blend in. You know, silently infiltrate the school and lay low until I graduate."
To her credit, he laughs. "You make it Forks High School sound like some sort of spy movie. I get it though, no editorial, don't worry about it. Can I walk you to your first class?"
"Sure. Yeah. I've got English first."
"With Mr. Mason? He's chill, or so I've heard."
Eric isn't too bad actually. Probably like everyone else here, which is interested in the shiny new toy.
Almost everyone, somewhat unbeknownst to Bella.
They talk about the teachers and what their classes are like, or going to be anyways since Eric got most of his information from current seniors. He even tells her that he knows people from which to buy their old books from past English assignments, which Bella can appreciate to some extent. Though she prefers to have her own impressions first and then discuss possible perspectives.
Thankfully they get to Bella's English class relatively early. Eric waves goodbye as he leaves for his Newspaper class. He mildly laments that he has English next and that's basically double English according to him. There's still some minutes left before the school bells will start ringing. Thankfully, because Bella transferred before the school year started, she doesn't have to get teachers to sign some sort of sheet. Another way to blend in, she ponders happily.
Mr. Mason is neither surprised nor not surprised with her punctuality. He merely musters up a smile and tell her to pick a seat wherever. He doesn't do assigned seating, he tells her. She likes this class already.
She doesn't know how permanent these seats are going to be. Semester permanent or quarterly permanent? Nonetheless, she weighs her options carefully. Front desks are quieter but the teachers are often in the front for most of the class. Middle desks are alright. Back desks are either loud or quiet. It's hit or miss with those. Though Bella notes that Mr. Mason's desk is in the back. She suspects most teachers' desks will be in the back.
Thus, Bella wisely chooses a seat in the back portion of the class. On the right side closer to the door, but she's seated on the aisle chair. This way, in her mind, she doesn't have to get stuck in traffic with everyone else hoping to escape the room as early as possible. The aisle provides easy access. Satisfied, she plops her backpack against one of the legs of the table and rests her head against her arms. She supposes she can stay in this position until the class actually starts.
It'll probably all just be syllabus stuff that she can space out in class and read at home.
000
The Cullens get to school a few minutes before the bells are set to ring. They all know the first week is more or less pointless but they have to attend anyways. Thus, they're a bit reluctant to leave the house early for no reason. This early in the semester anyways. They split up between Rosalie's vermillion BMW and Edward's argent Volvo.
They all walk in pairs to a mildly secluded spot under a tree. They compare schedules, working out when to pair back up and when to find each other should anything happen. Nothing will of course, but back up plans are important. Edward nods sagely at Rosalie's last thoughts and Jasper glances in her direction in appreciation of her determined feelings.
"That's that. Let's go Jasper!" Alice breaks their low chatter cheerfully. She links arms with Jasper and they walk together to their math class. It's technically classified under 'Trig/Algebra II' in their schedules. And so, she's stuck with Emmett. They're going to walk to the same place anyways so it doesn't matter much. She lets his idle talk occupy the air, filling in the blank space with her opinion on the occasion.
As they are walking to their first and only shared class, Emmett's discussing what to cook when they get home. She rolls her eyes at the fact that he will take any excuse to celebrate with some big dish but nonetheless provides him with some options. He shoots down a couple of her suggestions and she shoots down some of his in return. With so many options, he needs some help eliminating a few.
All too soon they reach the entrance to their English classroom. The door is propped open by a door stopper and they both passed the threshold at the same time. Immediately, something caught their attention.
"Is that...?"
"Indeed, it seems to be," Emmett thoughtfully comments.
There's a moment of silence as they continue to stand there. In a quick second, Emmet's sky blue eyes met Rosalie's own narrowed cornflower blue. A burst of sudden movement from both sides. They split up, Rosalie taking the outer aisle and Emmett taking the inner aisle that separates both halves of the classroom. Rosalie is careful to keep eye contact with her brother the entire time.
Naturally, she arrives at her destination before Emmet does. Had the floor been made of linoleum, the chair would've squealed against the surface from the speed at which Rose pulled the chair and sat down.
"Hey Bella!"
Emmett quickly takes a seat at the neighboring row, with a face. Rosalie sticks her tongue out at him in triumph after her too quick greeting towards the sleepy girl.
The sudden movement and noise is enough to rouse the figure under the soft green hoodie. It's Bella, which Rosalie almost did not recognize at first when they initially got to class. To be fair, Bella had been wearing a blue hoodie when they met. She's not even close to breaking a sweat or out of breath but her heart's racing all the same. Rosalie blames it on Emmett and his impromptu competitions.
Bella unfurls her arms and looks to her left. She sees Emmett and beams at his friendly wave and sheepish smile. He looks as though he sat down in a rush. She wonders why. She pulls the thick hood down and turns to her right while doing so. She regrets pulling the hood down because she kind of wants to curl up in a ball and hide. She has no idea why.
Instead clears her throat before responding to the other girl's earlier greeting, "Hey, good morning."
Her hands, which had finished lowering her hoodie, are now placed on the table, though Bella is wishing that she had a pencil on her desk to play around with.
She sees Rosalie open her mouth to say something but the bells begin to ring at that exact moment. Rosalie closes her mouth with a sort of annoyed look. Bella starts laughing but she can spot hints of a smile on lipstick red lips. Bella has absolutely no idea what shade it is (between apple red and burgundy) but she thinks it's a lovely deep color.
Darn her appreciation of color, making her notice all these not-so-useless details.
Belatedly, she realizes that the school's bells aren't so hideously sounding to her ears.
Then, "Mr. Cullen, why don't you take a seat in the back? There isn't anything to grade at the moment."
Two sets of eyes look on as Emmett relocates to a seat in the very back, closet to Mr. Mason's desk. He pulls out a book to read and ignores the rest of the class coming in and their curious eyes. Bella spots white clouds against a blue background amongst a few trees in the cover of the book before she faces forward again.
Grade. Nothing to grade. This is what Bella picks up on and correctly deduces that Emmett must be a TA, a teacher's assistant. And since this is a junior class, he must be a senior.
Movement catches her eyes and she is pleasantly pleased to see that Angela has taken the seat in the row in front of them. "Good morning Bella, Rosalie," she begins and offers out her hand to Bella in a greeting. Bella lightly slaps the offered hand and they fist bump to finish it just as the teacher walks by their aisle to get to the front of the class.
Two students stumble in right before the final bell rings, a blond boy and a dark haired girl. Bella wonders how far they had to run while advises them to get to class earlier. The boy takes a seat near to what Bella thinks is one of his bros. They're all smiles and quiet laughter until the table in front of them shushes them.
The girl on the other hand has wide eyes as she looks behind the occupied tables to Emmett sitting in the back. Her light eyes flick over to Rosalie before comically widening a bit more as she spots Bella. There's an unoccupied seat in the front and she takes it before Mr. Mason can make another comment.
Angela twists around in her seat to tell Bella, "Those two that came in, that's Jessica and Mike." She faces forward again when is done writing on the board and is now handing out papers.
Oh. That makes some sense now, Bella supposes. Bella feels like she sort of knows these people due to Angela's many stories. She's heard of them but she has yet to actually meet them. She's a bit relieved to see that there's three rows between her and this Jessica girl.
Chatty, is the word that often cropped up in their conversations that sometimes regarded Jessica. Eager was the word to describe the flaxen haired boy, Mike.
For the most part the class is quiet. She occasionally glances over to observe Rosalie (subtly she thinks but probably not). She finds her in a relaxed but attentive position, a direct contrast to Bella's own slouched over form. She sits up instead. She pokes her neighbor on the shoulder and whispers to Rosalie, "Remind me to ask him for a reading list."
The rest of the class goes by in a similar manner and she ends up getting her reading list after Rose had poked her with her own pencil, hard. Thankfully it was the eraser end. This time. Mr. Mason had muttered there's always a few when he handed an additional page to Bella, and Rosalie, seeing as she was waiting for Bella.
"What's your next class?"
"Oh, uh…" Damn her stuttering! "Biology," she says much too quickly before continuing, "Why?"
"Can I walk you?" She had expected maybe Rosalie telling her what her next class was but she sure as heck wasn't going to say no.
"Of course."
They get to biology fairly early, courtesy of them taking the less populated route. They chat about how boring the first week usually is. Bella takes a seat towards the front of the class this time, with Rosalie sitting down next to her. Bella is a bit confused by this point. Back in Phoenix, she would sit down with her buddies between classes before going off to her own class or her own seat.
She wonders if her friend is just there for now or for the class. So naturally, her inquisitive nature takes over and she asks, "Do you have biology too?"
An arched eyebrow and an amused lazy smile greet her, "Yes, Bella, I have biology."
Students file in, taking no notice of them sitting together, unlike Jessica earlier. Bella keeps an eye out for her. Feeling silly, she retreats into her hoodie a bit, much like a turtle. Her hoodie is green after all.
"In fact…-"
Bella jerks suddenly, facing her companion at her soft words. "- I think Edward does as well." And sure enough, amongst the last students to come in is a gangly bronze haired adolescent.
Edward makes it a point of either getting to his classes as late as possible or as early as possible. This early in the year, he opts for the former. This way, the back seats are usually unoccupied, leaving him free to do what he wants. Unfortunately, seeing as how biology is a required science, every seat will be occupied. He learns this as he sits next to a girl he vaguely recognizes as Jennifer Ford.
At least she's quiet, observant like him. He closes his eyes and instead focuses his attention on her. Sometimes he wonders why he was cursed with his gift. It's useful, sure, but has too many downsides. Like this one. He discovered early on that it's better for him to try to focus on one mind at a time instead of allowing everyone else's thoughts within his immediate radius to barrage his brain.
So he places his cheek on an enclosed fist and pretends to be bored. He's watching Jennifer keep track of the other students. He feels bad for her (and everyone else's) lack of privacy but figures that most people will never know.
She scans from left to right, back rows to front rows. Huh, that must be the new girl. What was her name? Something Swan… She's obviously spotted Bella up in the front. Then she sees her lab partner and Edward has never wished he didn't have his gift as much as he does now.
God, I want her to raw me...
Thankfully, it's just a disinterested and pensive comment but it's enough to send him in a coughing fit. Loud enough that a handful of students turn around towards the source of the noise, Rosalie and Bella included.
It's always the quiet ones!
He shakes his head frantically towards her cocked eyebrow. She's curious, extremely so, but wary about asking. She's thankful she isn't privy to such unsaid conversations. Jennifer startles next to him and wonders what is up with him.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he preemptively waves off her unvoiced concerns. He leans over and grabs his water bottle to take a couple of sips from. He debates about who to tell about this particular comment. Should he at all? He is quite attached to all of his limbs and he was sure this would get out before the next decade. His mate first or last? Emmett and Alice would find humor in the crudeness of it. Alice and Jasper could keep a secret, and if anything, Jasper would find a more tactful way to break the news to Rosalie, should the topic come up. Which it probably would, given his random coughing fit.
Perhaps he would keep this to himself a while longer. With that thought, he focused his attention back towards the front of the class, mentally repeating the teacher's words to have something to distract himself.
000
The class ended far too slowly. But now it was close to over. Bella packs her things quickly and stands impatiently, apparently going at such a fast pace that Rosalie decided to comment on it.
"Running away from me already?"
Laughter burst out of Bella at the unexpected comment. "Ha! Hardly! Not from you anyways. Yet. I'm just trying to avoid Jessica's cross examination before she finds me."
The bells ring and "Ah, look at the time. Goodbye fair maiden, I bid thee adieu!" She dramatically stage whispers to Rosalie, not looking back as she practically flees.
There's a multitude of thoughts flying around in her head at the moment. She is vaguely concerned about running into Jessica but she also didn't want Rosalie to be late for her next class if she had walked beside her again. Gym is a bit far. Bella needs to find her US History class. She has a rough estimate of where it's supposed to be so she heads off in what she assumes is the right direction.
Their proximity, or lack thereof really (they had to lean in to keep their clandestine conversations quiet), leaves her a nervous wreck. That damned and deaf, squishy red organ pounded against her ribs, lessening for a few minutes, and then restarting suddenly in class. She was washed over by a wave of paranoia, wondering if Rosalie could hear how hard it was gushing.
History class is a blur and all she knows is that she sits next to Angela. It's the one class so far that has assigned seating but it works in her favor, this time. She's hungry now. Cereal, the breakfast of hungry champions, is not enough to last her very long and she realizes she forgot to pack some snacks when she reached into her empty backpack side pockets earlier.
Thankfully it's lunch time. Bella and Angela immediately hightail it to grab a bite, the former pulling the latter, despite having little to no idea as to where the cafeteria is. Bella isn't particularly fond of cafeteria food but she deems the hamburgers there worthy enough. She's hungry enough to ignore the fact that it's most likely fake meat or something.
The last thing she wants is for Angela to make some joke about needing a Snickers bar and how you're not yourself when you're hungry. They pick a decent table that allows for easy access to the door. It's also excellent for people watching, according to Bella.
They sit. And they wait, with Angela explaining things to Bella.
"So we usually sit here, though they've moved the tables a bit.. Anyways, there's Mike and Jess from earlier. Lauren, though she's...bitchy. And there's Eric, he's on the newspaper with me."
"Ah, okay." Bella smiles and nods as though she knows these people. She will now, she supposes. It seems as though the rest of the table got their lunch as a large group because there's suddenly familiar and unfamiliar faces sitting down.
"Burrito, my friend?" Mike, she remembers, offers food to Eric, newspaper boy from earlier.
"Hey, hey, Mikey! You've met my homegirl Bella." Homegirl? Like friend or close friend? She's not entirely sure what to think of it considering that they only met this morning.
"Oh, your homegirl?" Mike asks a bit loudly, mouth open and eyebrows nearly up to his hairline. Loudly enough for another boy to declare, "My girl," pressing his lips to Bella's cheek while simultaneously pulling out Mike's chair. Bella freezes, and like earlier, her shoulders stiffen and the expression on her face is something else.
She vaguely hears some sort of rumbling in the distance, though she has no idea from where. Oddly enough, a chill runs up her spine and the hairs on her arms raise up in solidarity with her goosebumps.
Her expression comical enough that Angela shouts "Turtle!" in lieu of 'cheese' as she snaps a photograph of Bella with Mike running after Tyler in the background. "There, now we have a picture of your first day!"
She sounds way too happy about the photograph but Bella lets her have it. They only have summertime photos after all. Still, she relaxes now that all the excitement is over. She takes a large bite of her meal and continues to chew and takes another bite. She wipes her cheek discreetly, passing it off as a scratch.
"Well, you seem to have the entire male population of the school wrapped around your finger."
But not the female population? Bella thinks sarcastically.
This must be Lauren, she guesses correctly. Angela's words from earlier echo back to her and she even admits to herself that Lauren looks...well, bitchy. She's got a nice enough face but Bella can detect a not-so subtle bit of disdain. She looks like one of those stereotypical popular mean girls. She wonders if Mean Girls is still on Netflix. She has a sudden urge to watch it now.
Shaking the thought of movies from her head, she mentally follows the trails of thoughts that she had before she thought about movies.
Oh, right. Even in her thoughts she isn't sure if she meant something gay or just the ironic situation that her sardonic thought provided. Because clearly Lauren and Jessica want to learn the secrets of attracting the schoolboys.
Certain ones if Bella wanted to give more thought to it. But she didn't.
"Unfortunately," Bella at last responds, around the time that Eric (surprisingly) decided to chip in his two cents with, "What about the Cullens?"
"They don't count." Came Jessica's slightly too quick reply. Bella shifts slightly in her seat to catch a glimpse of the people in question, sitting in their 'designated table,' among the throngs of students. Her reply had been louder than Bella's own "Why?"
Bella's comment is again ignored as Lauren replies with, "Really? Because they've been glancing this way repeatedly." Bella steadfastly remains seated in the same position, doing the opposite was probably expected of her from the others as the new student.
Instead she plays dumb, asking to the table, "So who are they?" She wants to know what they think of the Cullen group, wants to know how the girls gossip about someone, how they react to new gossip. Eric wisely chooses this time to let the girls gossip and joins the other students in the lunch line.
Jessica eagerly opens her mouth to speak but Angela beats her to it, wanting to give Bella the full story.
"So a while back Dr. Cullen got a job at the hospital and he moves his entire family here right? That's his wife and all their adopted foster kids." Bella takes this moment to steal a piece of chicken off of Angela's salad. She half heartedly slaps Bella on the arm after she popped the piece into her mouth.
"They all come from Canada!" Jessica stage whispers.
"They're all together, like together together," Lauren sneers.
"It's not like they're related." Bella sternly puts a stop to Lauren's vein of conversation. She knows exactly where the other girl was going with that little tidbit of info. Angela agrees with her and Lauren quiets down.
Jessica tactlessly picks up right where they left off. "So anyways, the one at the left end of the table is Jasper. He's always so stiff and looks like he's in pain. He's with Alice, the short girl next to him." Now is when Bella glances over, and she sees exactly what she's describing. Now that she thinks back to the blur of history, she thinks it's quite possible she and Jasper share that class.
Bella knows all this so far. She just had not known the last two brothers. And now she does, thanks to Jessica's monologue. The other one she doesn't recognize must be Edward, though Rosalie had pointed him out earlier. To be fair, she didn't catch a good glimpse and she had walked off to History before the classroom was even empty.
"She's very… bubbly, too happy almost. The one next to her is Edward. He doesn't date, so don't bother. He's awkward when you talk to him sometimes. The big guy next to him is Emmett. He's muscular but he never joins any of the sports teams. Weird. And the girl at the end is Rosalie, but you already knew that didn't you? How was sitting next to the Ice Queen?"
Rosalie arches an eyebrow at the comment as she and Bella hold eye contact. The last comment causes her to break that contact, and she turns back to face Jessica.
Ice Queen? Bella scrunches her eyebrows in confusion briefly before smoothing them out. "It was fine? She was very chatty."
She deadpans the last bit but her tablemates don't seem to catch that fact. "What, really?" comes the incredulous voice of Jessica.
"Pfft, no!" Bella's scoff turns into gleeful laughter. "I'm kidding! She's very quiet, polite."
Clearly, it's not what Jessica and Lauren were expecting to hear. They almost look disappointed. At least they didn't ask her about how her day was and how she was liking Forks so far and how different it was from Arizona. Bella can occasionally hear the slivers of conversations people have when she walks by and most are too shy to directly ask her.
She checks her watch and thinks it's almost time for lunch to be over. She turns to Angela and leans in so she can hear her over the din of the lunchroom. "I've got study hall next, what does that mean?"
"Oh, free period, study period kind of. You can go to the library or sit down in a hall, or even sit outside on the benches. If anyone asks you can just show them your schedule, though I doubt anyone will. C'mon I can walk you to the library so you know where it's at."
Both girls stand up and gather their items. While Jessica and Lauren don't really question it, the former does wave goodbye at least. They wave in response and leave to their destination.
000
Merry Christmas! I meant to have this out earlier but I went out, only because I really wanted to try some ponche Navideño! I think I wrote most of this within the last few days. I've been distracted by AC Odyssey, reading, and sleeping. I've been thinking about my writing style recently but y'all seem to like it so perhaps I'll experiment another time... This chapter was getting long and I wanted to post today so here's this.
Anyways, college is great and I thank you all for your kind words. Be sure to leave reviews, they make me happy! Merry Chrysler and have a great new year!
Starfire624 - What led you to that conclusion? Wondering if anyone else agrees, and feel free to take some guesses!
Guardianmazur - I can't believe you noticed the aglets. I had to read that chapter again. Then I showed this comment to friends and most of them quoted Phineas and Ferb? Amazing.
BEFORE I FORGET, I SAW THIS ONE POST ON TUMBLR AND I SAID I WAS GONNA WRITE IT IN SO I DID. ENJOY! :)
Let me know about any mistakes, I've already caught a few and I keep uploading again. EDIT Turns out the mister/miss without a space after the period deletes it...
