HI! So, nobody answered my last little quiz, the answer was cactus. I promised the winner of the first quiz a part in the story and that will be in the next chapter. She will show up several times in the story, but may not be in every chapter! A round of applause to… JasmineMichelle! Her character will be called Jasmine! And sorry it took so long to update, I put the entire explanation on chapter 24 of Percy Jackson and the Dissipating Mist. It's not a happy explanation. So enjoy reading!
Chapter 3: Curious
After school, I had quickly packed my bags as fast as I could and left quickly so I wouldn't run into any of my curious new friends. Quickly dropping of the completed signature sheet and leaving. It was raining as usual so I had to sprint to my truck. I only slipped twice which was a miracle for me. I fumbled around with the cold wet truck key for a few minutes until I had the vehicle open. I shivered when I got inside.
Turning the heater on, I sat in comfort, waiting for my hair to get dry before I left. I closed my eyes and relaxed into the seat. I wasn't sure how long I sat there, but I knew that if I sat there any longer, I would end up falling asleep. I revved the truck and backed out of my space. I drove home carefully and immediately started making Charlie dinner. My homework could wait a few minutes.
Twenty minutes after I put the potatoes in the oven, a little light in the kitchen started blinking. They were doorbell lights, letting me know that there was somebody ringing the doorbell. Charlie had gotten them installed a week before I came. I went to the door and peeked through the window. There stood Jessica holding a bright pink square of paper in her hand. I opened the door and smiled.
"Hey."
"HI BELLA! So, my birthday is this weekend and I'm having a party in this place near Seattle. It's a teenage club and my parents managed to rent me the entire place! Everyone in the school is invited of course, but I wanted to deliver yours in person because you're my friend!"
"Really?" I asked in disbelief. I had never been called a friend before. Mostly weirdo or freak.
"Of course! I'm excited that you came in time for this!" She handed me the pink square of paper. "Here!" She exclaimed. I took the paper and smiled again. My first party. She waved a perky goodbye and left.
I closed the door and opened the card.
Hello,
You are invited to go to Jessica's AMAZING 17th Birthday Spectacular! The party will be at Teen Starlets' Club at 7 p.m. Saturday. The theme is night club, so wear something cool. There will be food, dancing and cake. Things that Jessica likes: Clothes, Jewelry, Music, Money…
I had to wear something cool? What did I have? I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb at the party! I dug through my closet for a few minutes before going to check on the food. It wasn't ready yet, so I went to go email my mom. She was starting to get paranoid.
Mom,
Things are going well here in Forks. It's raining of course, but I've made friends. I've actually been invited to a party on Saturday. But I have nothing to wear. You must think I'm going crazy right now, normally, fashion isn't something I worry about. I'll just have to go shopping later this week. I'll fill you in on everything soon. Love you.
-Bella
I went back downstairs to continue on dinner.
EPOV:
The new girl, Isabella, I had been hearing her name I the minds of the humans all month, when would she get here, what would she look like? I hadn't paid much attention to them until the new girl was actually staring us straight in the eyes. At that one moment in time, everything else had disappeared. She was breathtakingly beautiful, the way her mahogany hair flowed down her back, her deep chocolate brown eyes, the light blush on her cheeks, and the fact that she was devastatingly human. The world around me was silenced, from the sudden sight of her, or everybody had just died, I didn't know. I wanted to hear what this human girl was thinking, but there was nothing to hear. I wondered if my ability had suddenly stopped working, but it couldn't have.
I had tried breaking into her mind again, but to no avail. This is the reason my quiet barrier of the world was shattered. I couldn't read her mind. Why? Was something wrong with me? With her? Just as I was thinking this, she walked by and the monster within me was awoken. Her blood called to me. I had to have it, that delightful smell of freesia and strawberries. I didn't think I could stop myself. But she was a human, I couldn't. I was internally fighting back the monster inside, trying to hold him back. He was too strong. I started to get up when I felt a strong arm hold me down. Not push me forcefully, but just hold me to my seat.
I looked over to the place next to me and found Alice giving me a stern look. I was too focused on the girl that I didn't bother to listen to Alice's thoughts. She was getting irritated with me, so she spoke. "Remember who you are Edward. If you kill that girl, then everyone will see and then the Volturi will have to come. Do you really want the whole entire student body to be slaughtered in one go?"
I looked at her and swallowed back the venom. Then I shook my head. She nodded. I looked back to the place where the girl had been, but she wasn't there. Her smell still lingered in the air. Without bothering to glance at my family, I got up and went to the car. As I walked over there, I heard Alice's voice in my head, proving that in fact, nothing was wrong with me, it was the human girl. 'If you go to Alaska like in my vision, then Carlisle, Jasper and I will come up and force you to come home; so I suggest you stay.'
I sighed and got in the car and started the music. Clair de Lune started and I drummed my fingers in the dashboard. I had moved my piano into my room. Every day for the past 20 years, when I would come home from whichever school we were attending at the time, I would go straight to my room and then play my music or the piano. I knew that I was making Esme sad. I hadn't composed anything in years. I haven't spent much time with the family at all, the only time I actually saw them was when we went to school or when we went hunting. The most contact I had had with them was a shake or nod of my head or a groan when Alice tried to make me dress in clothes she picked out for me.
I heard the bell ring for next class snapping me out of my thoughts. I guess I wasn't keeping track of time very well. I debated on whether I should go to class or not. Go to class and risk seeing the girl again, or stay here and sit in seclusion? If I stayed here, then I would be berated by the thoughts of my family's worries. They worried about me being depressed. I wasn't depressed, I just felt out of place. They constantly tried to find me a mate, but I would always refuse, telling them I could live with it.
After thinking for a little while, I decided I would sit here for the next two classes then go to lunch. People wouldn't ask where I was, I ditched my morning classes a lot more than I should. It was just normal for me.
After listening to a few songs, the bell rang for lunch and I quickly got up and joined my family. Alice was looking at me with a disapproving face. I just ignored her and sat down at our table. The cafeteria was almost empty we were here early. Just our luck, Jessica came up and nervously started talking to Alice, who was apparently the easiest to talk to out of all of us, although I could hear her thoughts were revolving around me.
"Hi, um, kay, so my birthday is this weekend and I wanted to invite you guys to come. Cause you know, everyone's invited. Um, so, I hope you can make it!" She said. In her mind she added. 'Not only are they rich, they're hot. Hopefully Edward's going to be bored, then maybe I'll get two presents!' If I was human, I would have gagged.
Alice smiled an obvious annoyed and fake smile. "Thanks, we'll see if we have any plans for that night." Jessica, obviously blind to her own ignorance, walked out of the cafeteria, only to enter a few minutes later with a big group of kids. I noticed that these students usually didn't sit together and it didn't take long to understand why. Right in the middle of the group was the girl I had almost killed today. I saw through the eyes of jealous girls that to them, she was just a regular and ugly human girl that stole away the boy's hearts innocently. I saw through the boy's eyes the lust they felt whenever they saw her. The way they thought about this girl was horrible and disgusting. I wished that I could wipe the thoughts out of their minds.
I looked over to Isabelle and caught her staring at something, but at what? I read the minds of the person next to her who was unfortunately Jessica.
'She's staring at Edward! Ugh, of course she finds Edward Cullen attractive. Everyone does. But why would he say yes to her when he didn't even say yes to me? I'm much more attractive than this little creep.' She looked at me, and I heard her shock. 'NO! NO f****** way! He's staring at her! No! He's supposed to be mine! I'm going to have to invite her to my party and see how they act around each other. Great, another person I don't want at my perfect party…' I drown out her annoying thoughts and focused back on Isabella.
I pulled some more information about her from the minds of the people around her, she came from Arizona, and is the police chief's daughter. I realized that her looks weren't the kind you get with makeup and junk that girls put on their faces, it was all natural beauty. A.N.:(that's no offense to anyone who wears makeup. There is the junky kind and then there is the good, real kind. I don't like makeup and don't wear either of them so I wouldn't know.) I saw her blush a deep red when our eye met and she turned to face Jessica. "Who are they?" She asked. I caught a slight speech impediment, but her voice was beautiful none the less.
Jessica looked over at us and I made a quick motion to look away from them before she caught me still staring. "Those are the Cullens. Dr. Cullen and Mrs. Cullen adopted them when they were younger. The Hale's are twins, the ones with blond hair and the others are the Cullens. They moved from Alaska two years ago. The girl with blond hair, that's Rosalie, and she's dating Emmet, the big one with dark hair. The smaller girl is Alice, and she's dating Jasper, the one with blond hair. I think it's kind of weird because they live together."
I looked up to see Isabella's reaction to our cover story, would she buy it, but when I looked up, our eyes met and she quickly looked away blushing. Her cheeks becoming a beautiful crimson. "What about the boy with the reddish hair?" Me? She was asking about me? I heard Jessica choke on her drink, but Isabella didn't seem to notice. She just looked at Jessica undeterred.
'Good luck with that idiot, he doesn't date, and if he did, then it would be with me.' Jessica thought. But on the outside she was acting like Bella's best friend. "That's Edward Cullen. He keeps to himself a lot of the time. More than the others. I've never heard Edward's voice before. The teachers never call on him. In fact, nobody here has ever heard his voice before. His siblings talk if they have to, but he always refuses no matter what the case is. He's never replied to one of my questions before and I doubt he ever will. Sometimes I wonder if he's mute, but I see him whispering over with his family." 'I bet his voice sounds like an angels. Mmmmmm.' She thought.
What she didn't know was that I had more than what the vampire traits gave me. Vampires are supposed to have speed, amazing hearing, model looks, great sight and of course a seductive voice. But me, I have all of that and more. I didn't choose it, but my speed is faster than anybody's, some people think that I'm the best looking out of the family, and with my extra 'hearing' (mind-reading) I can hear anything within two miles. But along with that, I have a voice that can draw somebody in as if they were in a trance. I hate using it on innocent humans, because they are taken by surprise and they can't help but follow me around like a lost puppy. The only ones who aren't completely taken by it are other vampires. They think of it as nothing else but a voice. So I stopped talking in school or anywhere else around humans.
I looked back at Isabella and tried to break into her strong mind block, but I couldn't. 'Why do you keep looking at her?' I heard Alice say. At first I ignored her trying to read Isabella's mind, but still nothing. She turned to look at me and I turned away quickly to answer Alice. I had no choice but to talk this time.
"I can't read her thoughts." I whispered back. Alice's eyes widened in surprise then she smiled and giggled.
"And you think staring at her will let you?"
"Well, it was worth a shot."
She stopped talking for a second, sending Jasper a knowing glance, who shot one back at her. They were blocking their minds from me. 'Why don't you just talk to her, she has your next class.' She thought.
"She does?" I asked just as she showed me a vision of us sitting next to each other. "You know why I can't talk to her. There's more than one reason and you know them all."
'Just don't kill her, I just have a feeling that she'll be important one day.'
"I'll try." I replied and hot up to go to class.
I didn't need a book, so I just walked straight to class and prepared myself to not breathe the second she walked in. I waited for what felt like forever. I don't know why. But I was really anxious.
Finally, she came in with Angela. I watched as she her eyes swept across the classroom, finally settling on mine. I felt myself stiffen, her eyes were a unusually deep brown, letting me see into her emotions. I knew she was curious and nervous, but I also knew that she was hiding a secret.
That's when I realized I was still breathing. Her scent had already reached me but I had ignored it. Now that it was up front in my mind, I was having trouble coherently thinking; and the Bella fell grunting out of pain. I was the first to stand at my seat worriedly as the rest of the class all stood and made their way to encircle her.
Bella sat up and blushed a deep red when she noticed everyone looking at her. She stood and smiled reassuring everyone that she was alright. I sat back down and held my breath as she made her way over to her teacher. I quickly cleared off the other half of my desk since it was the only available seat.
It wasn't hard to notice when she took the seat. Her warmth engulfed me and I had trouble keeping myself from breathing. I managed to get all the way through the class. I was too distracted by focusing on not breathing that I only knew the bell rang because students were packing their bags and leaving. I pushed a notebook into my bag and stood. I was about to leave when I noticed Bella sitting there staring at her folder Didn't she hear the bell? Or the students packing up to leave. Angela and Mike came over to the table as well. She still hadn't noticed them.
"Bella?" Mike asked.
No answer. So Angela tried. "Bella, are you ok?" Still no answer. So I decided to get this over with and I waved a hand in front of her face.
She jumped and looked up at the three of us and she blushed again, looking at the table when she packed up her stuff. "Sorry, I was daydreaming."
Mike shrugged and the three of them walked out of the room, me following a safe distance behind them. I knew that whatever had happened to Bella back there it wasn't daydreaming. Daydreamers break out of trances when they see people leaving. There was something unknown about Bella, and I wanted to find out. I unconsciously followed Bella and Mike until they were entering the gym. I swerved and headed to my last class, Spanish. Maybe Emmet could help me stay focused on what I should.
OK, easier quiz this time. What does Bella keep her money in? I need answers. The winner will be reviewer number 4 as long as they have the right answer!
