Look, I managed to post two chapters in a year! It's a quarantine miracle! This chapters took a lot longer than I thought it would because I have the attention span of a HAMSTER, but it's done and I hope y'all enjoy it! ~Shaymie

I picked at my lunch anxiously as I waited for Emmy to join me. Lunchtime had to be the worst part of school. The food sucked, and the cafeteria was so small that there was nowhere to hide. I stood out like a sore thumb. I could feel everyone staring at me, wanting to know everything about me. I'm not like Emmy. I'm not good with people. They terrify me. Every school we've ever gone to has been the same, and there was no reason to think that it would be any different here.

My sister was just too optimistic.

"How are you holding up, sis?" Emmy sat down next to me with a sigh, her tray loaded up with food. She ate three times as much as I did, which was confusing considering how thin she was. I know she goes on daily jogs in the morning-which worried me because of how thick the woods we live in are-but do they really require her to eat so much? I guess as long as she's healthy, I shouldn't worry about it too much.

"I don't like it." Emmy laughed at my pouty face and ruffled my hair. "I'm scared, Emmy. Something feels weird here."

Emmy immediately sobered up, her icy eyes growing cold. We were no stranger to weird things, and they never turned out well. It felt like our lives were just filled with weird things. Even after coming to a small, nothing town (no offense to Forks), trouble seemed to follow us. Everything seemed normal at first, but I couldn't shake the feeling of something following me, watching my every move. And it wasn't just everyone watching the new girl stumble around school. This felt more supernatural, and somehow familiar, though I didn't understand why.

"Is it hostile? Do you know what it is?" Emmy looked around the cafeteria with narrowed eyes, her hand curled around her plastic fork. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths. "Sierra, if you think you're in danger, just let me know and I'll get you the hell out of here."

"...I don't think it's dangerous-" There it was again, that feeling of being watched. My gaze fell onto a table across the cafeteria from us, where a group of people quickly turned away upon me noticing them. They had to be even paler than me, and that was saying something. How do you get paler than albino? They all looked different, but there were some striking similarities between all of them: the pale skin, the creepy gracefulness, the way they were all picking at their food instead of eating it... It was disturbing.

"Stay alert," Emmy said, focusing her steely gaze on me. I nodded, slightly terrified of the fire in her eyes. It wasn't often that my sister got serious like this. I didn't know if I liked it that much. I knew she did it to protect me, but I wish she didn't have to. It wasn't fair how she had to be so tough for me. Even when our parents were around, she fought to protect me from them. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't be here.

After gently urging me to eat and adjusting my arm in the sling, Emmy started digging into her own food ravenously. I rolled my eyes at the way half the cafeteria was staring at her. All I've been hearing the teachers whisper about all day is how they thought my sister was the picture of poise and grace. All the guys wanted to get with her and all the girls were jealous of her. Emmy was never one to be much of a lady, despite how much our mother wanted that for her.

It shouldn't have surprised me when we were joined by some of our fellow students. The only one of them I really knew was Angela, a tall, shy girl with glasses who helped me find my way to one of my classes. The rest of their names went in one ear and out the other. They had introduced themselves so quickly I couldn't keep track of who was who. Emmy managed to keep most of the attention focused on herself, but one girl, a blonde, kept glancing over at me. She looked kind of mean, so it was a bit of a relief when she didn't say anything.

"Man Sierra, you're so lucky you don't have to take gym," a girl-I think her name was Jessie-sighed, leaning against the table. "Maybe I should break my arm to get out of it, too."

"Jessica!" Angela hissed, glancing over at me. Emmy's eyes were practically slits as she stared down Jessica from across the table. I felt my face heat up as everyone looked at me, their eyes falling onto my arm. Even though it was in a sling and mostly covered by my sweater, the tips of my bandaged fingers were still visible. I couldn't take it anymore. I hated being stared at. With a mumbled apology, I quickly grabbed my things and left the cafeteria.

I didn't have a class after lunch. Emmy had managed to get me out of taking gym by having me help out in the library instead. It took me far longer than I would have liked to find the library, but at least it gave me time to clear my head. After sixteen years, I should be used to all the staring, but it always made me uncomfortable. Didn't people have anything better to do than stare at someone like a creep?

I got to the library ten minutes late, but thankfully the librarian didn't mind. Nobody really came to the library anyway. I set my backpack down near the desk and got to work. There were a few stacks of books that needed to be reshelved because the librarian (I should really start learning peoples' names) had been putting it off for so long. It was a bit difficult to move the push cart with one hand, but I managed to make it work. I'd take this over being in gym class any day. I wasn't the most athletic person, and my useless arm would only make it worse. If someone threw a ball wrong and hit it, I don't even want to think about what would happen.

A chill went down my spine. I was being watched again. I looked around the nearly empty library and saw one of the pale people from earlier sitting at a table. His hair was copper-colored and messy, like he'd been pulling at it a lot lately. He didn't have any books in front of him, so he clearly wasn't studying. Was he skipping class or something? I flinched when his face twisted into a snarl. The hatred in his eyes... It was almost exactly how my parents used to look at me. I turned back to the books anxiously.

I can't wait to go home...