A/N: This chapter is set early in Twilight, when Bella first moves to Forks.
Early morning was Florence's favorite time of the day. She always made sure to set her alarm for before dawn, as she loved to watch the sunrise. But even the sunrise paled in comparison to the blue-tinted glow that lit up the sky prior. She had moved everything off the center of her desk and was sitting on it, legs dangling out the open window, watching the sky lighten from deep black to purple. It was drizzling lightly, and since it was January it was still cold, so she had put on a sweater over her slip. Feeling the rain drops hit her feet felt nice.
Leaning backwards, Florence opened one of her desk drawers and fished out a wooden locked box and an empty ashtray. It was a simple box, with a gold latch and gold flower motif engraved on the top of it. They key to it hung around her neck on a long chain that usually hid under her shirt. When she unlocked it, she sifted through the box. Pushing past the weed pipe and joint papers, the folded up notes of information pertaining to the future, and the solid gold ring she'd gotten for her 14th birthday, she picked out the half-empty pack of camel crush menthols and her lighter.
She took one out, scooted a little further on the desk to sit further out the window, and lit it up. Grimacing at the taste, Florence inhaled as quickly as she could - the easiest way to get past the taste - and exhaled. She wished vapes were a thing already; if she was going to destroy her lungs, she wanted the product of her choice. Florence would make do, though.
The nicotine buzz was fairly quick, and she sat there for a good twenty minutes smoking and watching the sky turn a pale blue. The clouds in the sky almost made it grey but that was just fine. As she sat she thought about the upcoming day. She had a make-up test in biology today that she hadn't studied for, but she had looked over the failed test and was sure that she could at least get a passing grade this time. Aside from that, there wasn't a whole lot to do. Study French verbs, read a "classic," and avoid Lauren Mallory.
When her cigarette had burned to the butt, she stubbed it out in the ashtray and pulled her feet in from the window. She grabbed a ziploc bag from her drawer and dumped the ashtray into it and stuffed it back into her drawer, leaving the window open to ventilate the smell of cigarettes from the room. Then she withdrew another two cigarettes from the pack, putting them, the lighter, and the ziploc of ashes into the front pocket of her backpack that hung from her desk chair.
Crossing the room to her dresser, Florence picked up the candle on the desk and lit it. It was a sea-themed candle and smelled heavily of sea salt and ocean spray. Her second alarm went off on her bedside clock, signalling 7AM. Mike, she knew, wouldn't be up for another 15 minutes, giving her time to shower. Her parents didn't get up until 8:30AM to get ready for work, so she wasn't particularly worried about them smelling the cigarettes.
Once she had showered, Florence came back to her room and began picking out her outfit for the day. She could hear Mike's alarm clock going off - before it was shut off. Probably snoozed, really.
She found a long midi skirt in her closet, a floral mixture of burgundy and dark green, and a white, v-neck, long-sleeved shirt. Putting it on, she grabbed her hooded, sherpa-lined jean jacket and tossed it onto the bed and then put on her socks and black boots. Sitting down at her desk, she pulled her things back into place, the curtains gently blowing back into the room from the breeze outside.
She looked into the mirror and tilted her head to and fro. Today she would wear two sets of earrings, a small pair of hoops and two small dangling stars. Once those were in, she selected a necklace to pair with the chain of her key, a chain of stars that sat at the base of her neck, just barely not a choker. Florence slipped on a wide-band gold ring onto her left thumb, and a dainty gold ring with a rose-quartz stone set into it on her right middle finger.
Then, she heard a knock on her door.
"Flo?" Mike asked gruffly through the door, definitely still half asleep.
"Up and ready," she called back, leaning over the desk to shut her window. "I'll get breakfast started."
"'Kay," he mumbled back and she heard him walk down the hall, towards the bathroom.
Florence blew the candle out, grabbed her backpack, and went downstairs to the kitchen.
This morning was just eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast. Setting her bag down on the kitchen table, Florence got out two cooking pans and set them on the stove to high temperature. From the fridge, she grabbed four eggs, the butter, and the bacon. They were cooking in the pan and half-way done when Mike thundered down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Morning!" he said, grinning brightly. He was always more awake after a shower. "Can you make mine scrambled?"
"Too late," she said, sprinkling some cheese onto the sunny-side up eggs.
"Damn," he cursed, and went to grab the plates.
Florence ate in relative silence, listening to Mike ramble on about his plans for the day. He was picking up Eric, Jessica, and Angela before school, they were doing something for the newspaper together, and they were all going to the diner together after school to do their homework. When prompted, she mentioned the make-up test and her shift at Newton's Outfitter's that night. Mike made a face at the mention of their family's business that they both had started at recently. Sure it paid well, but working with their parents was a drag.
Mike left first, needing to make his pick-up rounds. Florence rinsed the dishes off in the sink and left them for Matthew to do when he got up, before leaving the house. The driveway was packed with her parents' cars, so she had hers parked down the street. Pulling the hood of her jacket up, she walked to the car; it was barely drizzling anymore, but it would start up again soon.
Passing by their trash dumpster, she fished the ashes bag out of her backpack and tossed it in, shifting the trash bags to cover it.
The drive to school was infinitely boring, and the traffic light. She made it to school to a half-full parking lot and parked next to a new car in the lot - a rusted, dark orange Chevy pick-up. It was quite nice, she thought - and then noticed there was a girl sitting inside, so she stopped staring. Perhaps it was the new girl, Isabella Swan. Everyone knew she was coming to town, but none knew exactly when.
Instead of thinking more on it, though, she went straight to homeroom.
Florence walked through the halls of Forks High towards the lunchroom, following the rush of students and trailing towards the back. Behind her, she knew the Cullens were moseying their way towards the lunch room as well, but she didn't look at them. Numerous failed attempts to make friends out of the adopted siblings had turned her away from trying again, so she settled on treating them like almost everyone else in the school - acknowledgement but disregard.
She bought her lunch quickly, ditching the tray to instead carry the paper plate of food and water bottle, waving to Mike at his table of "populars" before heading out the back door. She always ate in her car, so that she could smoke a cigarette. Clay was already waiting at the Land Cruiser, leaning against the passenger door with a sack lunch in hand, hood up against the rain.
"'Sup, Ambrose," she greeted, unlocking the car with her clicker as she neared.
"What's good, Newton," he greeted as they hopped into the car.
They settled into the seats, putting their food up on the dashboard. She turned the car on and put the heat on, and unzipped the front pocket of her backpack. She handed him one cigarette and lit up her own before handing him the lighter. He didn't really need her's, he always had one on him, but it was nice to share.
They ate and smoked in silence. Nothing really needed to be said. He handed her a new pack of camel crushes, and she handed him the money, plus a few extra dollars.
"Need any skunk?" he asked.
"Not today," she said, "but thanks."
"Not a problem for my favorite customer," he grinned at her, green eyes glimmering. She smiled back. "How'd that test go?"
"Haven't had it yet," she told him. "It's next period."
"Good luck, then."
"How're things with you?" she asked.
He shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich; egg salad, she saw, on rye. "Same as yesterday. I ripped a hole in my jeans, though, think you could patch it?"
She nodded, taking a bite of her apple. "Bring them by tomorrow."
"Will do," he replied.
Class was going to start soon. They both knew it. Still, they finished their lunches slowly before parting ways to separate buildings.
Biology hadn't begun yet, thankfully, when she got there. Mike waved at her from his seat, and she nodded back, distracted. There was someone sitting in her seat. A girl, a bit on the short side, with long brown hair and a pretty face. Isabella Swan, most likely. Florence made her way down the middle aisle and stopped at the table. Edward Cullen glanced at her silently, a pained expression on his face as usual. She wondered what crawled up his ass today.
"Excuse me," she said to the girl in her seat. "We've got assigned seating. You'll have to ask Mr. Banner where you'll be sitting."
"Oh," she said, blushing bright red, startled. She pushed her stool back and grabbed her things from the table. "Sorry."
"It's chill," Florence said, as they swapped places. The girl wandered back up to the teacher's desk, and Florence started to unpack her bag.
Edward had relaxed minutely as the girl walked away. Florence glanced at him for a moment before shrugging her concern away; it's not like he would tell her what was wrong, after all. She'd tried talking to him before, and their conversations were always lackluster.
The rest of the class was doing anatomy practice, but Banner came by with her test soon enough.
The next day at school, Edward Cullen was missing. Not particularly unusual, but the weather wasn't sunny, and all his siblings had been there. She'd seen the volvo in the parking lot, had Alice in French 4; there wasn't some Cullen family hiking trip today. He was probably sick.
However, that meant she had a free seat at her table in Bio today. Florence had been looking forward to spreading her books out, but Banner smashed that dream with a hammer. He'd placed Isabella Swan at her table that day.
"Isabella, right?" Florence greeted as she sat down next to the girl.
She looked up from her book. "It's Bella, actually."
Florence nodded. "I'm Florence Newton, Mike's sister. I take it you're friends with him?"
He'd talked about her all last night, almost irritating her. He wouldn't shut up about the pretty new girl who sat at his lunch table and had joined his table for Bio.
Bella nodded minutely. "He's nice."
"Annoying, more like." Florence grinned as Mike shot her a glare across the room, clearly listening in. "How are you liking Forks so far?"
"It's very… green." Bella stumbled through the sentence like she seemed to stumble through life.
Florence nodded encouragingly. "Yeah, it is. Wet, too. My family moved here back in '95 from Sacramento, so I get what it's like being new here."
Bella finally looked her in the eyes. "I used to live in Riverside as a kid. California is nice."
SoCal, huh? She thought. "And you moved here from Arizona, right? What was that like?"
"Dry," she replied. "Warm."
"Tan?" Florence asked with a small grin. Bella grinned back.
"Quiet," Banner called to the students from the front. "Class is beginning."
The bell rang, and Florence opened up her textbook, Bella doing the same next to her. They shared another glance as class begun.
A/N: Anything y'all want to see? I'll take requests into consideration. Leave a review on your way out.