I felt bad for my very poor previous chapter, so I wrote this! It's still nothing particularly good, but I spent a lot more time on it, and at least it's a bit longer. I have three tips to make your life better, okay? Listen up. 1) Go hug your mom (or someone else, if that doesn't work) 2) Listen to Metric. And 3) Cry more often. Sorry, I'm really bored, and that's all, yay! I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight, then I would be Stephenie Meyer, which I'm not. That would be totally *whoa*.

Edward whispered something to Bella, and her eyes widened, before she turned to stare at me. Never before had I felt as much like a specimen as the small animal we were supposed to be dissecting today.

This feeling only worsened when, try as I might, I couldn't hear any more of Edward's thoughts. Of course, I could've taken this information and realized that Edward was about as normal as I was, but instead it just made me feel more alone.

I stayed quiet through the lesson, taking notes but not really digesting any of the information. Of course I should've tried harder, given that all of the stuff I'd be learning was going to be above my grade level, but I couldn't seem to focus.

Instead I busied myself trying to listen to Bella's thoughts, trying to make some contact with someone, anyone, whose thoughts I felt might not totally either bore or freak me out. That was when I heard him again.

Stop trying to read Bella's mind.

Without even thinking about it, I nodded, and stopped concentrating on the brown haired girl who sat in between Edward and me, holding his hand underneath the table. We were both freaks, and by being able to sit next to him, she was one as well.

How did you know…? I thought, hoping that he'd be able to hear my thoughts as well. I didn't want to add the other, ugly words that we both knew followed in my mind. How did you know that I could read their minds? How did you know that I can hear their thoughts? How did you know that I'm such a freak?

Come sit with us at lunch, he replied, not answering my question. I'll tell you more then.

It isn't a real invitation, and I don't feel by any means that I'm making a friend. I am being invited so that I will stop trying to hear his and his girlfriend's thoughts. So that I'll stop looking wide eyed around the room like an idiot, trying to figure out who's thinking about whom. That's not the case though, is it? It wasn't an invitation, it was a command.

I stayed quiet through the rest of biology and all of my other subjects as well. Not until English did I speak when the teacher asked me to introduce myself.

"My name's Juliet Ero, it's nice to meet you," I said.

"And where are you from?" the teacher, Mrs Claire, asked me.

"Australia," I said, grudgingly.

Someone mumbled something about that being a lie. I don't have an accent. But I do, and they can't possibly understand how much I wish that I could just abandon my fake American voice and speak with the accent that I was born with. That, however, would mean standing out, something that I cannot bring myself to do.

I hunched over in my seat over my paper, feeling naked as though the whole class could see right through me. I recognized a few of the students in my class from biology, and several of my other subjects. I guess it was a small town after all.

Try as I might, now that the wall in my mind had broken down, I couldn't help but hear everyone else's thoughts. They flooded my head, making it nearly impossible for me to focus on the grammar work we were supposed to be doing.

Imagine, for a second, being one of those people who can 'hear voices'. You feel that your head is about to burst with all of the disembodied people telling you to do things, and when you tell someone about it, they automatically think you're totally nuts. That's about how I was feeling.

I couldn't even begin to tell whose thoughts belonged to whom, which was frustrating, and a little scary. For instance, when from Australia? Please. What a freak. Guess I'll have to be nice to her though, if I want a shot at that good-citizen scholarship… came into my head, I was itching to whirl my head around and start searching the classroom, but I didn't want to give whoever it was anything else to think about.

"Mrs Claire?" I asked, shooting my hand into the air.

"Yes, dear?" she asked. So far, from what I'd seen, she'd been calling everyone 'dear'. It was nice, in a bit of a too-young-to-be-one-but-still-acts-like-a-grandmother kind of way.

"I have a really bad headache," I said. Wasn't that the truth. Luckily for me, someone dropped a book on their desk, making a banging sound and giving me the perfect opportunity to wince and illustrate my point.

"Oh, poor dear, well…" she began with a look of sympathy on her face. I guess Mrs Claire really was a good person. "…As soon as you finish your grammar, you can go." A good person, yeah, but still a teacher.

I nodded feverishly, and bent over my work. I only had two more questions to finish, and I did in near record time. Grammar never was my strong suit, but even I surprised myself with how quickly I finished, grabbed my stuff, and pelted out the door. Ok, bit of an exaggeration.

I made my way to my locker, not planning on finishing the rest of the day. I doubt I'd be able to, anyway. I put my books away and gathered a few binders and notebooks in my bag to try and get some homework done when I got back to Aunt Joan's house.

Pulling my iPod out as a second thought, I closed my locker and put the headphones in my ears. I turned the volume up nice and loud to drown out some of the thoughts, or to try to. I'd read about it in some book, and definitely hadn't thought that it would work, but it did help.

Somebody put me back in school, I forget everything.
I used to know how to leave the boy behind
without having to watch him go. *oh*
Infidel to die for what I am doing
will happen in the morning when the mirror won't recognize me.
He holds a certain gesture when we're lovin' to ask each other
"Do you want it?" "Do you want me?"
I want it. It is you. You are where I want to be

I pressed Shuffle, and hummed along to the song that came up. That was, until I walked directly into a wall, or something. Sure, I was new to the school, but I though, at least, that I pretty much knew where the walls were.

I looked up, and saw that it wasn't a wall after all, but rather a person. Edward. "What the heck?" I asked, more to myself than him, pulling my headphones out of my ears.

The thoughts that I'd managed to drown out came flooding back into my head. It was like being a baby again, and having strange words that I couldn't understand come into my head whenever someone came near me. I staggered a bit, before turning and sitting on the rather conveniently located bench against the wall next to me. I sat and put my head in my hands.

"It's pretty overwhelming, I know," Edward said, sitting down next to me.

"I have a headache," I grumbled through clenched teeth. "I'm going home sick."

He raised an eyebrow at me, and said, "You can't go home sick every day."

I fixed him with a glare that didn't really do anything. "You really should meet my family," he said quietly as a student walked by, sending me a jealous look. I couldn't blame them, Edward was obviously hot, but he was also obviously dating Bella. It wasn't that hard to tell.

"Yeah, I'll bet. I'm sure they'd have some interesting thoughts." I said with an edge of bitterness in my voice.

"In case you were wondering, you're not the only, er, abnormal one around here," he said.

"Someone in my Home EC class was planning to beat up another kid after school, with the knife they're hiding in their locker. I don't think about doing stuff like that, but because I know that other people do, it makes me just as screwed up as them," I said, glaring.

"You should come over for dinner, maybe tonight," he said, almost as if I hadn't said anything. "Bella'll be there, so at least someone will be eating."

"What do you mean?" I asked. First he could tell I could read minds, and now he didn't eat?

"We're uh, on a very special diet," he said, almost laughing at his own words. Before I could press him about it, a new voice came from down the hall.

"What are you two doing out of class?" it was a woman's voice, and, by the sound of it, a teacher.

"Miss Jacobs, I'm so sorry, but unfortunately Miss Ero here isn't feeling well, and got a little lost on her way to the office. I was just on my way to class when I stopped to

help her out." He spoke so smoothly without skipping a beat, that I almost believed him.

"Oh, my, well, I hope you feel better soon, Miss… Ero, was it? Well, have a nice day," she said, becoming flustered, and hurried down the hallway.

It appeared that no one could escape Edward's charm.

He shrugged, and said, "It comes in handy."

Almost instantaneously, he realized what he had said, and I realized what I hadn't said. "How did—" I began. Of course I wasn't as shocked as maybe some people would've been, as I could read minds myself, but it's like having a glow-in-the-dark nose, and then finding out that someone else does, and asking them how that's possible, even though you know it has to be, given that your nose glows in the dark as well.

Ok, bad example.

"I really think you should come to dinner tonight," Edward said, standing up as he said this, and beginning to walk away.

"But—" I began, standing up before realizing that he wasn't about to answer any of my questions. I slumped back down on the bench, and mumbled, "I don't even know his address!"

He stopped, about halfway down the hallway, and said, "That won't be a problem."

I stared at him, and continued staring as he made his way down the hall, and around a corner. While I had been talking to Edward, for some reason I'd been able to ignore some of the thoughts, and now I had to stuff my earphones back into my ears, and turn up the volume.

I looked around, trying to figure out where the office was supposed to be, and suddenly my thoughts turned to Seth. For some reason in that instant the color of the wall that I was walking beside looked exactly the same color as his unmistakable hair. The same color, I now realized, as the wolf I'd seen from the living room window…

Before I knew it, I'd signed out of the school with the secretary, and was on the phone, trying to get a ride home from my Aunt. Even though it was a small town, I was pretty sure I'd be able to get lost.

It rang once… I wondered what I'd do if she wasn't there. It rang twice… I wondered what I'd say to her if she was… Three times, and I heard my Aunt Joan's familiar warm voice come bursting through the phone. I explained to her what had happened, and she agreed to come and get me, before saying good bye and hanging up. I put the phone back on its receiver, and walked out the door, leaving the school that I'd only managed to deal with for half a day behind me.

Edward was right, I wouldn't be able to go home sick everyday. That reminded me about what I was going to be doing tonight. I was going to be having dinner with the Bella, the brown haired girl, Edward, the boy who could tell what I was thinking, and his family, who're all on a 'special diet'. And I was somewhat looking forward to it.

The song on Juliet's iPod is "The Twist" by Metric, hence my number two instruction, haha. Thank you for reading--or at least scrolling down!