Chapter Four:Information Travels Faster

'You wanted me to write you letters, but I'd rather lose your address
and forget that we'd ever met and what did or did not occur.'

Death Cab For Cutie - Information Travels Faster

The cafeteria was loud as Lucy drug her feet towards the table with her friends. Their class had been closer to the cafeteria and thus they had already gotten their food. Her stomach lurched ominously, almost daring her to eat. The fluttering in her chest, however, told her that eating may not be the best option. Rather than risk getting physically ill, she hit her head against the table. Rolling her head gently she looked up to Sam, a small trace of marinara sauce sat on the edges of her lip from her pizza.

"Am I boorish?" Lucy asked quietly, slightly grimacing as she awaited the answer. She knew that the answer was yes, it was clear as day, yet she hadn't wanted to hear it.

"No, you're too obnoxious. You're just a bit prudish and old fashioned when it comes to some things." Sam offered casually, sticking a large piece of pizza in her mouth. "You're too much of a smart ass to be boorish, you talk back to the teachers constantly-"

"They're wrong. If they knew their facts, I wouldn't have to correct them." Lucy muttered angrily under her breath. Though she realized that it only further proved the point in her mind.

"You spelled that word wrong, Ma." The small figure of a girl no older than 8 said with a grin. She wore a large dress of pale lavender, with long, puffed out sleeves. Her hair fell in ringlets down her back with a small cap on her head. The woman standing besides a chalk board turned to frown.

"Now Lucy, that is not important. You know what your Pa will think if he knows I've been teaching you." The taller, beautiful woman said, her full lips pursed slightly, though her pale grey blue eyes sparkled with enjoyment. Mrs. Merriweather had been the school teacher in town. Lucy always wanted to go to school, though she wasn't allowed. Girls her age were taught how to sew and to cook; Not to read and write.

"But it's wrong, Ma." Lucy said in a slightly whiny tone as she folded her arms, her quill lay forgotten on her desk. "You wouldn't make tomato paste with oranges, and you can't spell eloquent with an 'i.' It's not right!"

"Listen to me, child." Her mother said firmly, setting her pale fingers on the desk. Her hair was piled high over her head with ribbons in it. The resemblance between mother and daughter was striking, even at such a young age. "Women do not go to school, and we most certainly do not talk back to anyone above us; Who do we not talk back to, Lucy?"

"We don't want to look offish to anyone, so we can't talk back to any men, older women, or adults. It is unladylike to act so rudely, and no man will ever marry a girl with such a lack of manners." The small child drawled slowly, rolling her eyes as she spoke. She found it to be boring, she didn't want to be a girl; she wanted to be a boy so that she could do things.

"You can't go around correcting everyone, Luce. No one will like you." Sam told her with a slight laugh.

"You sound like my mother." Lucy grumbled under her breath; she looked up from the table to see the golden eyes of Edward Cullen's on her. She frowned; she had successfully ignored them for two years, but suddenly it seemed that she was unable to make a single movement without them being around the corner. Her eyes glanced at the siblings. Alice was missing, Jasper seemed to look more uncomfortable than usual, Emmett was laughing at something that no one could ever really know, and Rosalie looked irate. When she glanced back to Edward he was watching another table in the room. Her eyes followed his gaze; an average looking girl sat at the table with one of Edward's fan club members. She had reddish brown hair that was long, she wore typical clothes, and looked uncomfortable.

"Who's the new girl?" Lucy asked curiously; the last time new kids had come to the school it had been the Cullens, and everyone had known about them before they even arrived. Perhaps she hadn't been listening to the gossip enough.

"Oh, That's Isabella Swan. Chief Swan's daughter. She just moved here from Arizona." Sam answered noncommittally, shrugging her shoulders as she glanced to the girl. Lucy sat up and watched the girl curiously, her eyes looking over to Edward slowly. He was watching her, a look of interest and confusion in his eyes, his brow furrowed slightly. His gaze then moved; Lucy followed.

A blonde girl stood at the table besides theirs, her short sandy hair blowing in the wind as someone opened the door. Whitney Stuart, a pleasant sophomore. Her eyes turned to the table; Jasper was watching the girl his black eyes glistening with hunger. Lucy frowned, her brow puckering as she watched him; it wasn't a desirable look, it was a literal hungry look, as though he wanted to pluck off one of her legs and eat it for lunch rather than his untouched pizza. She saw Edward kick him from under the table; he looked up, almost shamefully. Whitney was leaving, though Jasper no longer looked at her. Edward moved his lips quickly, saying something. Jasper looked irritated as he spat back a response that Lucy couldn't hear from across the room. He glanced up at Edward before looking up, his dark eyes locked with hers. She froze.

"Lucy? Is there any reason you are staring at Jasper Hale?" Sam said with a giggle, Matt glanced behind him to see that his friend had, in fact, been locked in a dark stare with the blonde boy. She barely heard their words as she looked at him. He looked different. His hair was the same, his features were the same... yet his eyes were much darker, more sinister and shameful; his skin no longer looked tan; it matched the pale complexion of his adoptive brothers and sisters.

"Earth to Lucy!" Matt snickered, waving his hand in front of her. The girl jumped, her eyes wide with shock as she turned back to her friends.

"What?" Lucy looked at them confused; trying to recall what they had been saying. She knew they had been speaking to her, but there was something odd about Jasper that made it impossible to look away; something that made her wish to talk to him, to understand why he sat there rather than in a grave.

"What are you thinking about? You never mentioned fancying Mister Hale." Amber responded with a grin. Lucy grimaced as she glanced back to the boy; she had never thought she would wonder why someone wasn't in the grave. She had always mourned death, even in the slightest form; though she had grown jaded of it over the years; it was like something that was unobtainable; something she couldn't quite have, that everyone else got without questioning; yet she never got sick, beyond grief that is; she never really had any issues other than the fact that she wouldn't die; she didn't get old.

"Oh, I don't like him. He's just really weird." Lucy shook her head, glancing down with a groan as she realized that lunch was almost over.

"There's something off about their whole family, have you not noticed it before?" Amber laughed, turning slightly to look at the family. "They're all freakishly good looking, they don't talk to anyone outside of their family, they have nice cars, and they never eat food here."

"I never watched them that closely." Lucy frowned, wondering how she had been so oblivious to them before; glancing between them she noticed the similarities amongst them that she had somehow missed before; the paleness of their skintone, their golden eyes... they looked almost the same, yet they were obviously adopted. Edward seemed to look up from Bella to her, a dark look in his gaze.

"Though I don't see how it's a big deal that they're from a wealthy family and they think they're too good for forks. They probably are." Lucy shrugged casually, smirking at the thought of it. That was what she had always assumed before now, but it felt like there was something more there. If Jasper had lived for so long, maybe they had, too. Maybe they were all older; their names were definitely old fashioned, and they had manners that seemed unnatural in these times.

She frowned as she felt herself staring at them once more; even if they had lived forever, it still didn't make much sense. She clearly remembered Jasper looking differently, and yet she hadn't changed a bit since then. She looked exactly the same, down to her puffy cheeks that had earned her the nickname 'Angel' in the 50's when they thought their cherub like quality was something that belonged in an old painting. Her mother had had puffy cheeks as a child; it was a family trait, though in her early twenties she had grown out of it. Lucy had waited 140 years, and she still looked like a chipmunk. After the forth time in high school it had gotten to be annoying to find that she could still pass as a 14 year old easily; it was even more annoying when the children in 'her year' would try to flirt with her and ask her out. Yet to tell them the main reason why she wasn't interested would give away her secret.

Angrily she crumpled up a napkin from the table. She didn't even know her secret. She should have known why she was alive; she should have known what had happened. The only major thing she could remember was sleeping for nearly a month in grief after leaving her servant, Marietta, in New Orleans.

"Where is John Lewis?" The petite figure of Lucy Merriweather stood anxiously in the town center; she wore a clean pink dress, her hair pulled up neatly in to a matching bonnet. They had arrived back in town safely that morning; for three days they had traveled to return; three days she had spent with Jasper. "Where is Major Jasper Whitlock?"

"Lewis is visiting with his family; Major Whitlock hasn't returned to town yet. Were you close with him?" The man whom she spoke to asked. He was an older man, in his 40's perhaps. He was well decorated, though she wasn't sure what all of it meant.

"Yes, we were friends." Lucy frowned, holding his jacket in her arms, she glanced down. "He let me wear his jacket to keep warm, I would like to return it, sir."

"Why don't you just keep it, Miss. I'm sure if he comes back he'll want to see a pretty dame like you." The older man smiled warmly. Lucy looked up, feeling her heart break at the thought.

"Wouldn't it be easier to give it to you? Surely you can return it to him." She said politely, clutching the jacket so hard that her knuckles were turning white. The jacket looked dirty besides her pale dress; tears in places, dried blood, and dirt. The blues and reds had faded from sunlight. It was very obviously worn.

"I'm sure he would have wanted you to keep it. I've got to be going Miss." He tipped his hat politely. Lucy watched he walked away, her throat tight. The one man she had spoke to since Wilfred had died, and he had died within days of meeting her. The man stopped walking and turned to face her. She was frozen in her position.

"How about this; you give me your name, and I'll send him your way if he comes back." The man said warmly, pulling a small pad of paper from his jacket. "He never mentioned any family to contact, it's a shame; he was a nice young man. It's nice to see a young woman he knew."

"My name is Lucy. Lucy Merriweather." The girl said quickly, her hands wringing through the uniform. "I live in house number five-oh-six on Galveston Boulevard. You do think he is well, don't you? You don't think any harm has befallen him?"

"I can't be sure, Ma'am. He was a strong man, though the rest of our infantry returned over an hour ago, and he was not with them." The man said to her softly. "I should hope for you that he is well. I will be sure to send you notice if I hear anything."

"Thank you, Good sir. It is much appreciated." Lucy said with a slight curtsy. The man nodded before turning to walk; the knots in her stomach made the walk home difficult. She hadn't known him but three days, yet he had an enchanting charisma that made her feel instantly comfortable, as though the pain really would end soon; that everything would get better.

She had waited three days, watching out her window hoping for word from the strange man whom she had only just met. Her house felt empty; her mother had died earlier in the year, and her father was out at war. Her fiance had died, and his family had left town soon after his death. She was left to mourn in her house alone. She would sit quietly, refusing to speak or eat when her maids prodded her. Three days she had spent with the jacket clutched tightly to her chest, waiting desperately for a man who was as good as a stranger to return; she had always gotten attached to people too easily; all it took was a simple 'Hello' and she felt a need to care for them. It was foolish, and impractical to have such free compassion.

Finally, on the third day, a strange woman showed up. She wore a plain black and white dress, and her windswept hair was pulled up in to a bun. Lucy eagerly ran to answer the knock on the door, not waiting for Marietta or one of her other maids to get it. Hope swelled in her chest as she took a deep breath to calm herself and pulled open the door. Though as she answered it she felt her heart drop. Greying blonde hair shone in the sunlight, the woman's deep brown eyes brimmed with tears.

"Hello? How may I help you?" Lucy choked out slowly, she had never met this woman before, yet from her features it was obvious that she had somehow been related to the handsome young man she had met.

"Are you Lucy Merriweather?" The woman asked, her voice was strained. Her face was the same pale tan shade as his, her nose held the same pointed shape.

"Yes, would you like to come in?" Lucy offered politely, holding back a gulp as she tried to maintain a strong composure. The woman nodded her head before entering.

"Marietta, please prepare some sweet-tea for my guest and I. We will be in the parlor." Lucy said casually as a short, robust woman with braided black hair appeared.

"Yes Miss Merriweather." Marietta said quickly, bowing out of the room. As Lucy led her towards the parlor a few doors down the hall, she realized that she was still holding the jacket. Her hair must have looked like a mess as she had waited eagerly for word, refusing to move.

"You have a very beautiful house." The woman told her kindly as Lucy led her in to the room. She looked like the type of woman that looked as though she had worked outside a lot.

"Thank you, my father built it." Lucy bowed her head appreciatively in thanks. They had built it before she was born, when they first moved to Texas.

"Your tea, Ma'am." Marietta appeared in the doorway, holding a tray with a pitcher of tea, and two glasses. She set it on a small table that was covered in an ornate table cloth.

"Thank you, Marietta." Lucy nodded, granting the maid to leave.

"Thank you." Her guest nodded appreciatively. Marietta bowed slightly before exiting the room, shutting the door behind her.

"How may I help you?" Lucy asked, delicately pouring a glass for the woman, who thanked her quietly before taking deep sips. She must have ridden straight from wherever she had been to meet with her. Lucy felt her throat constrict.

"You do not know me, though my name is Elizabeth Whitlock. I believe you knew my son, Major Jasper Whitlock." The woman said quietly, Lucy froze still as she saw the tears brimming on the woman's eyes. "The man who sent word to me said that he had been close to you."

"I knew your son, yes." Lucy nodded, her words came out like choked, strangled attempts at saying something. It took her a moment to gather up the courage to ask her next question. "Is he well? Has any harm become of him?"

"He has... gone missing. They think that the union soldiers have killed him... He was such a warm hearted young man; he was a great leader." The woman choked out, her voice more mangled than Lucy's had been. Lucy felt her eyes welling with tears that threatened to spill at any second.

"No," Lucy shook her head, grabbing the jacket and clutching it to her chest. Her tone was quiet, disbelieving. In an instant she was sitting at the older woman's feet, clutching to her hands as she held the jacket on her lap.

"He can't be." Lucy said, unable to hold back her tears as she saw the older woman crying. She had never met the woman before, and she had hardly known her son; yet it felt as though her soul were being torn out; all of the pain that she had hidden for every death letter she had received, it all seemed to come out. Lucy realized she was being rude, and jumped up; she had no right to be so upset over the man's disappearance. Yet one look at the woman's face and she felt herself latch on to her in a tight embrace with no regard for social rules or expectations.

Lucy looked up from the crumpled paper in her hand. Sam and Amber were now talking about some boy, and Matt was texting on his phone. She glanced around the hall. Edward was watching her again, Jasper looked pained, Emmett and Rosalie were talking quietly. The way his dark eyes bore in to her looked almost as though he were reading in to her soul; as though he could see everything in her mind. He looked amused, and somewhat taken back suddenly.

"I'm going to class." Lucy grumbled, grabbing her back pack and tossing it lackadaisically over a shoulder.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look really upset over something." Sam said slowly, watching her friend cautiously. Lucy grinned, pulling her hair out from under the strap of her backpack.

"I'm fine, just one of those days." Lucy told her with a smile.

"Do you need a midol?" Sam asked her, reaching in to her purse eagerly.

"No, I think I'll be okay." Lucy said with a polite smile. In her day, women wouldn't have dreamt to say such a thing in public, especially around men. It only served as yet another reminder of how the times had changed.

"Women." Matt rolled his eyes, Amber hit his arm lightly with a frown as he laughed. Lucy laughed, shaking her head as she left; trust Matt to be able to lighten the mood.

"Hey Luce, Let's play chess." Lucy glanced up slowly from her notepad to see Emmett standing before her, a large box in his hands that she presumed was filled with a game of chess. She glanced to the front of the room with a frown. It was the Friday, before spring break, and they had a substitute. Worrying about Jasper hadn't been worthwhile, and the more attention she paid to his family, the more odd they seemed. It was strange to watch them; they had very peculiar habits when together.

"I'm not sure; I don't really play chess." Lucy shrugged casually, glancing down at the circles doodled on her page. It was, to be honest, boring. She had always enjoyed chess, she loved any strategic game, yet she had been playing for many years, and it often ended darkly.

"What?! That's absurd."

"Yeah," She said offhandedly, glancing at the chess set.

"We can play regular, plain chess. It's not that bad." Emmett told her, dropping the box on the empty desk behind her, before spinning a chair backwards to sit on.

"Regular chess is so boring." She frowned turning to face him, setting a pencil on her notebook. Jasper snickered, approaching Emmett as he opened the window behind him casually. Emmett glanced back, worry flickering over his features briefly, though before she could blink, it was gone.

"Good girl." Emmett said proudly, setting up the pieces, speaking as though she were a dog.

"Have you every played Ganymede chess?" She asked him curiously, it had been a fairly basic variant, involved more than one board, and a few extra pieces. He raised an eyebrow while grinning.

"Great girl." He said, folding out a second board, and pulling out pieces that were shaped and colored slightly different. Jasper took a chair from besides Emmett, sitting slightly closer to the window. "Though I must warn you, Jasper is the only person to have ever beat me; I am quite notorious."

"Perhaps I should play Jasper then, I'd hate to make a big bug like you lose to a little girl." She grinned cheekily.

"Oh? Care to make a wager on who will win?" He perked an eyebrow with a smirk.

"You name it." She said with a Cheshire grin. She was unable to hide her excitement at having someone to play that had known how to play; she was certain she would win, she had never lost a game of chess in her life. "Though I must warn you, I am very competitive, and never lose."

"Well get prepared." He laughed, his face brimming with excitement. Lucy glanced up at the clock, class was hardly a minute in.

"If I win, you have to answer my question from a few months ago." He told her with a smirk. She frowned

"What question?" She asked, her brows puckering in confusion. She knew what question it was, though she couldn't very well answer. It would make her look utterly insane.

"Your secret past." He told her honestly. Jasper was frowning at him. Lucy looked at him darkly, and leaned slightly over the table to talk in a quiet tone.

"If you lose, I expect your secret." She said quietly, knowing that no one else in the class could hear them. She hadn't wanted to share her secret, but if she could figure out their secret, maybe it would help her answer hers.

"Emmett-" Jasper frowned, though the larger boy had already jutted his hand out.

"Deal." Emmett said firmly, shaking her hand that looked like a child's in comparison to his. "You've got tiny hands."

"They wouldn't seem nearly as small if you weren't the size of a small army." She rolled her eyes with a laugh, the mood lightening slightly. Their game moved fast. Lucy had never played someone nearly as proficient as the game; it was thrilling; nearly as thrilling as having been able to talk for hours with Jasper about history.

Truth be told, Lucy had come to enjoy the company of Emmett and Jasper. They has visited her a couple of times out of school, and occasionally in the middle of the night, she would get a call that woke her up from Jasper wanting to talk about something he'd just read about some war. They rarely spoke at school, but it was as though they were not merely raised better than other kids; it was almost as though they had been raised decades prior. They were mature enough to be adults, rather than children. She had known something weird was going on in their family; Edward seemed to have been in particularly dark moods that rubbed off on to Jasper, and in turn Emmett. Rosalie had been even colder than usual, and Alice... Alice had seemed distant. Even Lucy was able to notice it. They moved their lips quickly whenever they were together; though she couldn't hear them, she knew that they were speaking. Alice was always distant; Jasper explained to her that it was because of her old friend arriving. She got the distinct impression that Jasper did not approve of her friend, or that he was perhaps jealous of him. He had never said expressively that he and Alice had been together, though the entire student body had assumed that they were. She could feel the eyes of the students in their class on the two as they moved the games, using both hands, going quicker than it should have seemed possible. She could see Emmett frowning, though she was too involved in the game to really look at anything else.

Suddenly, she fought back a smirk as she picked up her queen; one move and she would win. Her hand reached out boldly. The bell rang, and at the same moment she felt a pair of hands reach to her side. With a screech she jumped up, the piece dropping heavily, ending up right ways, on the wrong spot.

"Looks like you lose, little one." Emmett chuckled, standing up. Lucy stood still, her mouth gaping like a fish as blood rushed to her cheeks. She spun around, her eyes narrowed to the person who had touched her. Tyler Jones, a tall, lanky boy with waving black hair.

"You." She hissed angrily, pointing a slender finger in to his chest. He froze in his position instantaneously.

"Did I look like I wanted to be touched?" She spat out in disgust and anger at having just lost a game.

"I thought it would be funny. Lighten up." The boy said laughing.

"Yeah, Luce. Lighten up." Emmett chuckled, putting the pieces back in a box. Angrily she threw her notebook in to her bag and stormed out of the classroom before the three other teens. Jasper had returned to his rigid self, Emmett seemed far too amused to be bothered by Jasper, and Tyler followed after the shorter girl quickly.

"I'm sorry, Luce. I just wanted your attention." Tyler called out as she stormed quickly down the hall, her shorter legs going much quicker than he had wanted.

"Don't call me Luce. You have it, what do you want?" She asked, her arms folded coldly as she spun to face him. Emmett and Jasper stood behind him. She felt herself calm down slightly, and had to laugh as Emmett began mouthing something that looked inappropriate; Jasper silently laughed.

"Well Prom is next month." He told her slowly, walking towards her.

"Thank you for the reminder, though I've got a calendar for that." She said curtly. The boy laughed at her as though she had been joking. She frowned, her years of sarcasm had clearly caught up to her.

"I was wondering if you had a date yet, or if maybe you'd want to go with me?" He offered politely. She grimaced at the thought of spending the entire night with Tyler Jones. She had fancied him a bit during her first year there, and had foolishly told Sam; Tyler had found it amusing.

"No." She said, frowning deeply as she began to turn.

"Wait, No to which one?" He asked, calling after her as she walked towards her next class.

"Both." She said solidly, refusing to give him any more heed.

"But... It's Prom! You have to go." He told her, chasing in front of her. She could hear Emmett chuckling as he walked at a distance behind them, talking with Jasper, undoubtedly. "You'll never have another Prom; you only do senior year once."

"You don't know that. I might get bored and decide to come back later." She responded with a cheeky grin. He frowned at her joking; she laughed at his oblivious nature to the fact that she wasn't actually joking.

"You really won't go with me?" He frowned as she stood outside of her class.

"No, I'm sorry, Tyler. I'm really not interested in going with you. You're a horrible dancer, and you wear too much cologne. I feel like I'm going to have an allergy attack standing within five feet of you." She said with an innocent grin before disappearing in to her classroom. Emmett grinned as he took his seat besides her. The teacher had placed them together, though she hadn't anticipated any kindling of a friendship between the two.

"You should have seen his face when you left." Emmett chuckled quietly.

"High school boys never change." She said with a laugh, shaking her head. She felt slightly anxious; she had lost, and would now have to tell him her entire secret. In English they had to watch a movie; Romeo and Juliet, meaning she would have ample time to pass notes with him. She groaned, and pulled out a notepad. Carefully she began scrawling out quick sentences.

'I was born July 7th, 1845. My father was an architect, and builder until the war. His family was old money. My mother was a beautiful socialite; she died of pneumonia on January 15th 1863. My father was killed in battle on July 3, 1863, though word did not reach me until August 27th of that year. The photographs in my house are not of my great grandmother; they are of me, and my fiance before he left for war. He died July 2nd, 1863. I don't know how, or when it happened; I simply stopped aging, I eat, sleep, breath, dream; though I don't gain weight, I don't grow, and I don't age. I can't explain why it happened.'

With a deep breath she quietly tore the paper out and slid it silently to the boy besides her. She watched through the corner of her eyes as he read over the paper. Her heart racing at the prospect of having told someone.

'Crazy. How did you know Jazz?'

Lucy frowned, shaking her head with a dark laugh. She had already jumped off of the deep end, she may as well continue with her story to him. It did feel nice to finally tell someone the truth; even if they would find her to be ridiculous afterwards.

'He was in the regiment leading my town to safety during an attack. We met three days before he disappeared. He gave me his jacket to keep warm, and kept me company while we returned to Galveston. For nearly two months I helped his mother search for him, before she caught malaria in New Orleans and died.'

'Why did you help her?'

'We all lost loved ones in the war; I knew that I had no hope of finding my loved ones, so I wanted to help others find theirs. I had never seen more pain than in the eyes of the women after the war. They were dying of grief. Someone needed to give them hope.'

'How did you meet his mother anyways?'

'I tried to find him after we returned to town. To return his jacket. His sergeant explained to me that he had disappeared. I told him that was impossible, that he would return. The man took my name, and said that he would contact me if he ever found him. Rather than contact me, he sent his mother to my house. For two days she rode to my home, sobbing over her loss.'

'his mother went to you for his death? I thought you were with the one man.'

'I was, his sergeant had an active imagination, and assumed more than friendship was between us. I can assure you that there was not.'

'I'm sure there wasn't.' She heard him chuckling and glanced over to him darkly, folding her arms. He pulled it back with a sigh.

'Fine, so there wasn't anything there. But would you be that upset if I died?'

'Of course, I expect a rematch, and we can't very well do that if you're dead.' She slid the paper to him as the bell rang. He pulled it up and started laughing, stuffing it in to his pocket.

"You'll have to come by our house to play; Jasper and I have a large setup, with our own rules. No one else will play with us." He laughed broadly, she slipped her notebook in to her bag, shaking her head. "Though our matches usually take days, if not weeks."

"Where have you been all of my life?" She said theatrically in a quiet tone, clutching her chest as she grinned.

"Finally! I knew you'd come around!" He said in response with a laugh. She shook her head as they entered the cafeteria. It was still early, though her eyes fell on Edward and Bella.

"Edward and Bella seem fairly chummy lately." Lucy grinned as she walked towards the lunch line. Emmett walked behind her.

"Yeah, they're pretty enamored with one another." He shook his head.

"Can you not tell your siblings about all of this?" She asked him as she put an apple on her tray. "I'd rather not have everyone think I'm some kind of freak."

"I can promise that they won't think you're a freak." He told her honestly, she raised an eyebrow elegantly as she looked to him with disbelief. "Okay, Rose probably does. But she hardly counts as any judge of character. She doesn't like anyone."

"No, of course not. She's perfect, why should she like anyone that is anything less than extraordinary." Lucy rolled her eyes with a laugh. Suddenly a light went on in her mind as she paid for her lunch. Jasper and Rosalie had said they were twins, though they obviously were not. His mother would have told her, and he had told her himself during those three days that he had been an only child.

"I'll see you later, Em. Have a great spring break. Try not to get in to any fights with bears while you're out hiking or anything." She grinned cheekily as she grabbed utensils at the end of the line. "Not that a bear would harm you, heavens knows you're big enough to take out anything that so much as looked in your direction."

"Like a bear would try to mess with me." Emmett laughed in response. She scoffed, shaking her head once more at him. She was walking to her table when she stopped and turned; he was nearing his table, and his siblings, sans Edward, were all waiting for him.

"Hey Emmett, could you not, though?" Lucy called out to him, he was only a few feet away, but she felt the eyes of the Cullen children on her, Edward and Bella as well. A lump formed in her stomach. She looked at him, almost pleadingly.

"No problem, Luce." He grinned, making a motion as though to say his lips were sealed.

Lucy sighed with relief as she turned to her table, realizing that her table was also watching her, as were a couple of other students.

"She doesn't want anyone to know that she's got the hots for Jasper, here." She heard Emmett say with a loud laugh, she could hear him patting the boys back as he chuckled. She shook her head as she approached her table, awaiting the impending doom.

"You like Jasper? Why would you tell Emmett, but not us?" Sam looked deeply insulted. "We've been best friends since freshman year."

"I do not fancy Jaz-per." She said with a frown, realizing that she had almost called him 'Jazz', it was much easier than saying his whole name, though it definitely displayed a certain level of friendliness; you don't generally use nicknames for people whom you don't know very well, and she had been quite content upholding the image of not knowing them outside of school. She didn't need anyone to raise questions; everyone already thought Bella was weird and out of the ordinary for dating Edward; she didn't need that.

"What were you talking about? What can't he do?" Sam frowned, unrelenting in her curiosity as she drilled the smaller girl. Lucy frowned, playing in her food with her fork. It looked like some sort of alfredo concoction that smelled even worse than it looked.

"Since someone wasn't in U.S. History, I was forced to play a game of chess with him. Long story short, Tyler Lewis surprised me, causing me to lose." Lucy grimaced, still upset over having lost, and having to deal with Tyler. "Of course, Emmett found it hilarious, but THEN Tyler had the audacity to ask me to Prom, which Emmett found even more amusing. So he is trying to encourage the fool, which I will not stand for; I cannot stand Tyler Lewis."

"He didn't." Sam hissed, her blue eyes wide with disgust. "He is the creepiest boy in school, and he is encouraging it?!"

"I know, horrible!" Lucy cried out, throwing her hands out. "It will be the death of me!"

"We'll find you another date, you won't have to go with a sleaze-ball like him." Sam said in a reassuring tone.

"Really?! You'll find me a date!" Lucy said over eagerly, clutching her hands to her chest with her eyes wide in sarcastic gratitude. "That is so kind of you!"

"You hate dances anyway, why bother." Sam grumbled. "I don't understand why; you love dancing, and you love dressing up."

"Yes, I should love being in a crowded gym with a bunch of hormonal idiots who want to do nothing but shake their derriere's as though to flamboyantly exhibit their ability to reproduce." Lucy glowered with a drawl, disgusted at the thought of it.

"We don't want to reproduce." Sam frowned defensively, cringing her nose. "Just practice a bit, maybe."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Lucy felt her appetite disappear at the idea of going to a dance with the pure expectation of finding someone to sleep with. "You make a whorehouse out of a high school dance."

"Not everyone belongs in the 19th century, Luce. We're in the 21st century now, we don't have to be prudish anymore." Sam shrugged, taking a bite of a carrot, impervious to the disgusted, nearly sick, look that Luce was giving her. "You should really loosen up; you're almost 18; you need to get laid. Have some fun."

Lucy froze as she watched her bubbly blonde friend. It was nothing new to hear from her, yet for some reason, Lucy wanted nothing more than to scream at her friend for being entirely irresponsible and foolish; Sex was not something that you casually did with strangers, it was something you did to have children, that you did out of necessity, not out of pleasure. She realized that her morals were very much from her upbringing, though certain things were difficult to shake out; this being one of them. At least five minutes must have passed as she looked blankly to Sam, her eyes blinking automatically as she looked somewhat shocked. She couldn't even find the words to sputter a response.

"Lighten up!" Sam laughed out loudly as her friends all got a laugh at her appalled, shocked expression. "It's our senior year, at least try to have some fun."

"You want me to go? Fine. I'll go. Let's go to Seattle, you can pick out my clothes. Pick out my date. Whatever. I'll be more... liberal." Lucy said slowly, she didn't want to be more liberal, as she had put it. Though she had spent over a hundred years being a pent up prude, and it got her nothing. What harm could one night of recklessness do?

"YES!" Sam exclaimed gleefully, nearly jumping out of her seat in excitement. "We are going to make you so hot."

Lucy felt her stomach lurched at the wicked gleam in her friends eyes. Amber looked nearly excited as Sam had, they were exchanging looks as though Christmas had just come early. A wave of uncomfortable fear washed over her at the realization that she had just handed her life over to a couple of teenage girls who had thought that a 'sex ed' course taught them how to have sex, not about diseases. Girls who thought that dressing 'modestly' was more a suggestion than a necessity, and that miniskirts and low-cut sweaters were perfectly suitable for winter weather. She'd just given two of the most superficial girls in school the opportunity to make over their dorky best friend; Christmas had come early for them.

A/N: So I changed my mind about a couple of things in the earlier chapters; I wasn't sure if I said that Jasper's family had died or not, but I changed my mind, and his mother was alive; also, I said he had blue eyes, but I decided I wanted him to have brown eyes while he was alive. And Lucy and Emmett aren't going to end up together, or anything like that, more will be on it later, I just figured that Emmett seemed like he'd be friendlier with mortals than the others, and she needs her foot in the family.