Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight, but I wish I did.
I'm…dreaming of a whiiiite…Christmas…
This chapter has been revised! Big changes here. A whole new conversation added in. Be grateful, this is now a better story than it once was. Hoorah!
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The weekend passed by faster than Aubrey had hoped. She didn't do much. Worked on her homework, Google'd a few people at random, checked her email about five hundred times every hour. All in all, she was extremely happy when she walked out of her front door on Monday. Jack had been off work all weekend, but he hadn't done much besides laze around the house. Laze meaning sleeping in for the majority of the day. Jack could never really laze. He slept, ate, and went off to work on a new desk he was building in the shed next to the house.
Aubrey grasped her jacket closer around her. It wasn't raining this morning, but it was cold, and a cold Washington wasn't the same as a cold Arkansas. The good news was that her sneakers had finally dried out and she was able to wear them without fear of hypothermia.
There were only two minutes left before the bell rang once she arrived at Forks High School. Aubrey sprinted along the sidewalk to the Trigonometry building, flinging herself inside and diving into her desk just in time. A few people stared, but Aubrey disregarded them. She brushing her hair out of her face and looking up at what Mr. Varner was now writing on the board. The class was for the most part surprised with a short, but important, test that Aubrey had completely forgotten. The students remained on edge for the rest of the class. Wearily, as the bell rang, they all emerged from the classroom into, not rain, but snow.
"Yes! Snow!" exclaimed Aubrey, looking up at the sky ecstatically with her tongue stretched as far as it could.
"I see you're happy," noted Angela.
"We never get snow in Arkansas!" said Aubrey. She paused. "Besides the ice storm and like three days every two years." She looked down at the considerable amount of lovely white ice from heaven that laced the ground. Bending down, she scooped up a handful of it and searched for a potential victim.
Bingo.
"Shh," Aubrey hissed to Angela, nodding across the lawn at Mike who was walking a short ways away with Bella. She crept along the wall of the building, waiting for the opportune moment. Her target's head turned away suddenly. Eric had pegged him with a snowball from the opposite direction. Aubrey took advantage of his distraction.
"Ack!" Mike yelled as her snowball hit him in the back of the head, dripping down his collar.
"Bullseye!" cried Aubrey, punching the air in triumph. Mike turned around, dropping to the ground and loading up on cold ammo. Aubrey quickly ran behind Bella for protection. "Hide me!"
"Don't attract them to me," exclaimed Bella twisting away from Aubrey. "I don't want cold wet slushy junk all over my head."
"You don't like snow?" asked Aubrey in shock.
"No," said Bella, wrinkling her nose.
"Poor, poor child," tsked Aubrey, shaking her head. "Well, see you at lunch."
The snow kept up all through the morning classes, resulting in spontaneous snowball wars in between. Aubrey leapt into battle gleefully at each opportunity. She was so swept up in the winterwar wonderland that she completely forgot what was coming.
Aubrey skipped into English feeling the post-excitement from the snowy battles outside rush through her. She dropped into her seat, unbothered by the fact that the desks were still placed in pairs, as they had been the day before. When the bell rang, however, her comfort was interrupted as her angel of a partner dropped into the seat next to her.
"Some weather," he said, shaking his hair out. Aubrey remembered to jerk out of her frozen stupor this time and answered.
"Yeah...it's great..." She felt her ears glowing.
"Were you in a fight out there?" asked Marek, pointing at the door.
"Yeah. I was a lone sniper," said Aubrey, smiling.
"Just never get in the way of one of Emmett's snowballs," said Marek. "Feels like a cannonball."
"Who?" asked Aubrey.
"Emmett. You know, the big, strong steroid-pusher," said Marek. Aubrey laughed.
"Really?"
"Kidding," said Marek. "It's easy to believe though."
"Yeah..." said Aubrey, staring at him. B-e-a-uuuutiful. It was then that Mr. Mason decided to start the class. The partners were supposed to write about their first date.
"Well get to it!" commanded Mr. Mason. If Aubrey had been embarrassed at the beginning of class, it was nothing to how she felt now.
"So, Aubrey, what is your ideal date?" Aubrey nearly melted as he said her name. She turned to meet his butterscotch gaze.
"Well...you go first," she said. He raised an eyebrow.
"My ideal date would be one where my girl is happy," he said. Aubrey's heart seemed to skip a beat.
"Oh..."
"So what would make my girl happy?" asked Marek, leaning in. Aubrey tried to look away from his eyes, but they held her gaze with surprising intensity.
"Dinner, I suppose..." she said quietly. "And a movie."
"A horror movie?" asked Marek. Aubrey thought, and then nodded. "What if it was a real haunted house instead of a movie?"
"Know of any?" asked Aubrey. Marek shrugged.
"We're imagining," he said.
"Sure."
"What would we do there?" asked Marek. Aubrey paused.
"You tell me," she dared to say. The familiar smirk that made Aubrey go weak at the knees stretched the corners of Marek's mouth before he answered.
"The door shuts on its own behind us, adding to the fear. We search the ground floor first. You jump at every creak of the floor and squeal at the thunderclaps," he started.
"I resent that," said Aubrey with a frown. Marek went on.
"You're cold, so I give you my jacket to wear. It's dark outside and we both have flashlights. We clear the ground floor and start up the stairs. Each step creeks. Your heart rate increases. We reach the top and move into an abandoned and dusty old bedroom. The furniture is covered in sheets. There's a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder and you grab onto me in fear."
"Now you're just being arrogant," laughed Aubrey, but she was entranced by the vision he painted.
"We're supposed to fall in love on this date, so please, let me finish," said Marek. Aubrey held up her hands innocently. "I hold you back. We look into each other's eyes and our faces move in to kiss..." His smirk returned. "But suddenly, the closet doors swing open of their own accord. It's a ghost! Its long, bloodied arms are raised in anger and both fists are clenched around the long, wooden handle of a bloodsoaked hatchet!"
"Oh come on!" exclaimed Aubrey, laughing and rolling her eyes.
"Miss Neils," came the disapproving voice of Mr. Mason from his desk. "Are you and Mr. Rhodes working on the project?"
"Yes," said Aubrey, glancing at Marek. He was sniggering at her. Aubrey sighed in exasperation. "So we kiss and go home. Then we kept dating until you popped the question. The end."
"Beautiful story," said Marek, clapping and pretending to wipe away a tear. Aubrey rolled her eyes.
"Write down yours. I have a feeling that's the one we'll be using," she said. Marek complied, jotting it down speedily.
The bell rang. Marek stood with his things and gave a short wave as he walked out of the classroom. Aubrey felt her mouth twist up in an involuntary smile. She got up and walked out with the remaining students. Outside, she loped along through the raging snow wars, ducking inside the safehold of the cafeteria.
Aubrey walked over to the line where Mike, Jessica, and Bella all stood. Mike and Jessica were discussing the wars outside. Bella listened calmly. Aubrey eagerly joined the conversation, her emotions still at a high after the experience in English.
"Hello? Bella? What do you want?" asked Jessica. Aubrey glanced at Bella. She looked a bit green. Her face looked upset about something.
"What's with Bella?" Mike asked Jessica.
"Nothing," said Bella suddenly. "I'll just get a soda today."
"Guys, the line," said Aubrey. They moved up to fill the empty space between them and the end of the line in front of them.
"Aren't you hungry?" asked Jessica.
"Actually, I feel a little sick," said Bella, looking at the floor. Mike, Jessica, and Aubrey all took trays, heading back to the table. Aubrey kept her concerned eyes on Bella.
They reached the table and carried on with normal conversation, but Mike stopped once or twice to inquire as to how Bella felt. Aubrey casually started on her lunch, biting into an apple as she stared around. After a second of mental debate, she chanced a glance back at the Cullen table.
Marek was smiling and talking animatedly to the other Cullens. But across from him was a boy Aubrey hadn't yet seen. He had the same eyes as the others, the same skin, and the same perfection. He wasn't as big as Emmett or as tall as Jasper, but he had a stronger build than Marek. His hair was a reddish brown, silky, and in delicious disarray. He sat, not directly across from Marek, but across and on the opposite end. His eyes weren't fixed on his family, but instead gazed directly at Aubrey's table.
"Edward Cullen is staring at you," giggled Jessica in a low voice.
"He doesn't look angry, does he?" asked Bella. That explained whom he was staring at.
"No..." said Jessica hesitantly. "Should he be?"
"I don't think he likes me," said Bella in a whisper.
"Why wouldn't he like you? Do you have a class with him?" asked Aubrey.
"Biology. He's my lab partner," said Bella.
"The Cullens don't like anybody. They think they're high above the rest of us. He's still staring at you, Bella." Jessica was having a grand old time in Aubrey's opinion.
"Stop looking at him!" hissed Bella. Jessica snickered.
"They don't like anybody?" repeated Aubrey, frowning. "What about Marek Rhodes?"
"Oh, he smiles more than the others," said Jessica," but he never talks unless he has to."
Aubrey looked at her apple. She couldn't believe that. He definitely talked to her enough. He seemed very comfortable with it too, as if he talked to strangers all the time. Jessica must have been wrong...or else Aubrey was the first exception to Marek's social policy.
Lunch ended and, in enough time, French did too. In Gym, Bella seemed more distracted than usual as they played through two games of volleyball. It didn't help her athletic disability any. She nearly decapitated Aubrey with one out-of-control serve. It was the first time Aubrey had had enough sense to duck as the ball sailed towards her face. From then til the end of the class, she kept her mind safely off of Marek Rhodes, even though he stood only several feet away on the other side of the net.
When the students walked out into the parking at the end of school, they found the lot flushed with rainwater that was washing the snow away. This was met with a chorus of groans. As Aubrey crossed the road, she spotted Bella nearly back out into another car.
An unfamiliar, silver Volvo turned out of the lot. It passed Aubrey as she strolled along the shoulder, but when she glanced into the front seats, she met the golden stare of the mysterious Edward Cullen from in front of his sister Alice in shotgun. Unlike the warm gaze of Marek, Edward's seemed cold, angry about something. The moment passed and the Volvo was out of sight in a second. The red convertible was absent that day, but the blue-green Trans Am, like the day before, was there, turning out of the parking lot, and, like the day before, it slowed as it passed Aubrey.
"And how is the lone sniper without any ammo?" he asked. Before Aubrey could answer, he had thrown a large ball of slush, hitting her in the face. His laughs echoed back from the speeding Trans Am as she shouted threats and curses after him.
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