A/N Hopefully this chapter is a little better than the last one. That was just to get acquainted with Lizzie. I don't think I have much to say this time I except 1) I still don't own Twilight or any quotes from it. Stephenie Meyer does. 2) Thank you to Da RaNdOm Person for the review. 3) I like reviews. No, I love reviews. Just letting you know *cough* hint, hint *cough*.
There are two people in the Front Office, one was the secretary. She was wearing a purple t-shirt and chubby didn't even begin to cover what was under it. She also had red hair that I was ninety-nine percent positive she dyed. Her glasses hung slightly down on her nose a she looked over them at the girl in front of her.
The girl wasn't beautiful, but not ugly either. She was just average. She had long, almost mahogany hair that framed a heart shaped face. And were those chocolate eyes? She was shorter than me, but she looked nice. Jace and I patiently wait our turn in line while she talks to the little secretary. It isn't a long affair, and soon the girl begins to leave.
"Hi," Jace saunters confidently up to the women. She doesn't stand a chance, and is instantly mesmerized by my older brother. "We're the Monarchs. I'm Jace." He motions to himself. "And this is Lizzie. I believe our father stopped by a few days ago and had everything arranged…?" He trails off into a question.
"Why yes, of course," the women splutters, barely glancing my way. She pulls out two stacks of papers and hands one to each of us. "These are your schedules and you'll need to get these signed by each of your teachers." She points to smaller slips. Then slyly adds, "I can show you the best routes if you want." Her eyes are only for Jace.
"No thank you," I say as I grasp Jace's shirt and tug him away.
"By the way," she stops us just as we are about to exit, "Are you by any chance related to the Cullens?"
"The who?" I ask raising my eyebrows. I've never heard that name before in my life.
"That's a band, sis." Jace rolls his eyes and we head out the door.
I stare at my brother across the lunch room. Everybody already loves him. Almost all the high schoolers in the lunch room flock to him. I sit at a table with some "friends" I've made myself. First off, there's Bella, the brunette I saw in the Front Office this morning. She's new here too, but she's got kind of a dreamy look on her face, and I have a feeling she's not paying attention to anything trivial. I had her in Trig and Spanish along with Jessica, a short, wild-haired brunette who's chattering away about all that is trivial. Then there's Eric, an Asian kid with sleek black hair. He's nice, but kind of creepy at the same time. Finally there was Lauren, an extremely blond girl, who currently alternates between death glaring at me and death glaring at Bella. I think she believes her bitchy popular ass is about to be dethroned.
I ignore most of the gossip that spills from Jessica's mouth (and the stares that are occasionally thrown towards Bella and me, though Jace is still in the spotlight). I personally don't care about Speedo padding on the swim team or the fact someone said that as Mrs. Cope and Mr. Greene are having an affair. I don't know anyone here; this info is useless to me.
All of a sudden, Bella has the urge to speak. "Who are they?"
She's staring over my shoulder. I turn my head to see, and when I do, I already know the answer.
"The Cullens." I can see why the secretary thought Jace might be related. They are beyond gorgeous. There aren't words to describe them, well except incredibly pale. Godly might work. Even Jace doesn't match their beauty.
There are four boys. The one that stands out most to me is the blond. Actually it's a bit more of a honey blond than a blond blond but I am digressing. He has a tall, lean, almost leonine feel about him. Not to mention it looks like he's in pain. His height is rivaled by two of the other guys. They are both tall and have dark brown hair, though one has curly hair while the other's is straight. The straight haired boy doesn't quite look American… maybe European. The curly-haired one is all muscle. It's very intimidating. The last boy has copper colored hair, and is less manly than the other three.
The two girls were just as good-looking as the boys. The one I liked better was the smaller one. She had choppy black hair that pointed in every direction, and reminded me very much of a fairy. She always stayed within in reach of the straight-haired tall boy. The other girl creeps me out in the extreme. She is past the reach of every male in this room, her beauty unrivaled. Her wavy blond hair flows down to the middle of her back, and something tells me that you don't want to mess with her when she's angry. To my surprise, the other tall boy wraps his arms around her waist.
"Yeah," Jessica replies to my answer, eyeing me warily. "How did you know that?"
"The secretary," I confess. "She thought my brother," I motion in Jace's direction. "Might have been related to them."
I risk a glance at the Cullen table, and find that the copper boy is watching our table; it seems Jessica, Bella and I in particular. He steers his eyes away, and Bella and Jess both look down. I am mesmerized by this strange family, and even though I caught a bit of the boy's stare, don't look down, even though I am embarrassed. The blond boy glances our way, at me individually. Then I lower my gaze.
"The little girl is Alice, dates the dark, straight-haired boy Rixon. Rosalie dates the other tall boy, Emmett. The blonde boy Jasper is her twin. The gorgeous bronze-haired one is Edward. Unfortunately…" Jess sniffs disdainfully, "none of the girls here are good enough for Edward or Jasper."
I snicker. Apparently someone got rejected.
"Which ones are the Cullens?" Bella inquires. "They don't look related…"
"Oh they're not. Doctor Cullen is really young, in his twenties maybe. They're all adopted, though obviously the Hales, Jasper and Rosalie, are related. They're like Mrs. Cullen's niece and nephew or something."
Jess's tone of voice says she doesn't approve. I disagree and am about to voice my opinion when Bella pipes in.
"That's really kind of nice- for them to take care of all those kids like that when they're so young and everything."
Jess pauses and says, "I guess, but I don't think Mrs. Cullen can have any kids."
I get the impression that she doesn't like Dr. and Mrs. Cullen, and from the glances she's shooting at their kids, I'd say she's jealous.
"Have they been here long?" Bella just wants to know everything about these strangers.
"No, they moved down from 'Alaska' two years ago." You can practically see Jess's implications in the air.
Jessica is really starting to irritate me, so I get up; mumble quick thanks for letting me sit at her table, and then head to Psychology.
When I arrive in the room, no one, not even the teacher is there. I pull out my current read, The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa, and nestle into a seat in the front row. Class doesn't start for another twenty minutes, which should give me plenty of time to finish at least two or three chapters. I start where I left Megan and Ash, but can't follow their story. The Cullens are on my mind. After a few futile minutes, I switch to writing my own story in my notebook. That is much easier, the words flow onto the paper and soon I entirely forget about the beautiful pale skinned people in the lunch room. Then the worst possible thing happens.
"Excuse me," a voice like wind chimes addresses me. "But this is my seat."
I look up and see no less than the face of Rosalie Hale. Pure beauty, glaring at me. Women like that are usually too cruel and too full of themselves to care for others.
"S-sorry," I stutter, and quickly relinquish my chair. I'm going to have nightmares about her tearing me to ribbons in the future.
Now that Rosalie has relieved me from my fantasy world, I check the clock and see that twenty minutes have passed and that class is about to start. I decide that it's a golden opportunity for me to get my slip signed by the teacher.
"Excuse me," I walk up to the squat man in the front of the room.
"Oh, hello, you must be Isabella Swan," he attempts to be friendly. It doesn't come across well; he has a loud, obnoxious voice. He also got my name wrong.
"Uh, no. I'm Elizabeth Monarch." Though I could understand if I got confused with Bella. We were both brunettes and both new students.
"Oh, yeah," realization spreads across his face. "I met your brother in first hour gym, nice kid." He smiles wistfully.
Gym would explain the voice, and the brother thing just came with the territory.
"Well can you sign this for me?" I ask, waving the slip in his face in order to avoid a rant about Jace.
"What?" he has no idea what I'm talking about until his eyes zero in on the paper. "Oh, of course, I'll just sign for seventh hour too, because that's when you'll be having gym." He swiftly scribbles his name on the paper twice. Coach Clapp. "Anything else I can do for you?"
"Yeah, where do you want me to sit?" I jerk my thumb towards the hoard of teenagers and desks behind me.
"Umm…" he scans the room and then flourishes towards an open spot with his pen. "You can sit in front of Mr. Hale."
I turn around and my eyes zone in on the seat in front of Jasper. It's going to be a little disconcerting sitting in front of him, but I perceive no alternate options. I sigh and start that way. My every movement is being watched by the whole classroom, because now that Jace is no longer present they have me to gawk at.
I sit down quickly and whip my books out of my bag, while venturing a quick peek at Jasper. He's looking straight at a wall. Weird.
I set my book on my desk and flip through the pages. I haven't heard of any of this. Ever. This is going to be my hardest class by far. I run my hand through my hair in frustration. We should have never moved here. I flip the clump of hair behind my ears and brace myself for notes as Coach Clapp starts talking.
All of a sudden, I hear an earsplitting crack behind me, and everyone in the room turns in the direction of the sound. Jasper Hale is on one knee, on the floor. His right hand is gripping a hunk of desk he ripped off. At first, he stares at the ground. Then his murderous black eyes look at me, filled with hate. His mouth is pressed into a thin line, like he's struggling with self-control.
Rosalie moves to her brother's side in an instant, gripping his arm tenaciously.
"Sorry, Coach Clapp," she says though her eyes, like Jasper's, are trained on me. "My brother has low blood sugar. He probably forgot to take his insulin this morning. Do you mind if I take him outside for some fresh air? We can run by the car and get his insulin."
Coach Clapp nods. He isn't focusing on Jasper; he's focusing on the desk. A whole third has been snapped off by Jasper's bare hands.
"Thank you." Rosalie heaves Jasper up, and walks him out of the room. He keeps his head down. I don't even think he's breathing. Rose whispers something in his ear, and glowers at me once more as they leave the class.
"Well," Coach Clapp sighs, "I'll have to file a report about this, so you can spend the rest of class reading pages 186 to 199."
I open my book, and hope no one else throws me a death glare today.
Sixth hour passes by quickly, and soon I'm in the gym with Coach Clapp and Bella. Bella is being hounded by some spiky-haired blond kid. I swoop in to rescue her.
"Hey, Bella," I casually walk over to her side. The blond walks away as soon as I appear. Apparently once the other new girl comes over it's not a party anymore. "How's the day going?"
"Huh?" She looks over at me. "Oh, hi. It's going well." Her face doesn't match her words.
"Are you sure? Because my day has been pretty crappy."
"Yeah." She doesn't know my name, I can tell because she did the same thing with Jessica at lunch. I doubt she even knows who I am.
"I'm Lizzie Monarch, by the way," I add, hoping to get her talking. "The other new girl?"
Bella becomes less uneasy when she hears this.
"In that case, my day has been pretty crappy too." She attempts a smile. "Apparently I magically stabbed Edward Cullen with a pencil."
I laugh. "That's okay. Jasper Hale had a diabetic attack in my Psychology class. He gave me the evil eye the whole time and his sister Rosalie looked like she could've ripped my head off.
"Really?" Bella asks. I think this is the first conversation I've actually seen her interested in the whole day.
"Yeah it was creepy. Jasper actually tore a piece of the desk off."
Bella's eyes widen. "That's odd. Edward Cullen spent the whole time in Biology class leaning away from me and giving me a death glare."
I shake my head. "They are an interesting bunch."
"Monarch! Swan! Get in the game." Coach Clapp calls across the gym. There are four volleyball games being played, and apparently we are supposed to join in. Bella shifts uncomfortably, but sighs.
"I guess we should play."
"Don't worry," I wink at her, obviously playing volleyball is what's bugging her. She doesn't give the impression of being a sporty person. "I'll cover for you.
Another smile touches her lips, and then we go and play. Sometimes we'll sub out and talk some more about different things, like our old homes. Hers is Phoenix, Arizona. She tells me that she moved away because her mom got remarried to a minor league baseball player. They travel a lot, so Bella couldn't go with her mom everywhere. So Bella came to Forks to live with her dad, Charlie. I tell her my circumstances, glad I found someone who can empathize. Bella and I could become very good friends if she gives me the chance.
I'm comforted when we arrive home. This was the worst possible first day at a new school. The only good thing that happened was meeting Bella. When my parents ask me about it at dinner I shrug and poke my spaghetti. Jace senses something is wrong immediately.
"Hey what's up sis?" He asks gently.
"The sky," I retort sarcastically. I'm not in the mood for a pity party. I just want to go home to Michigan.
"That wasn't the answer I was looking for." Jace is studying me now; he should be in psychology if he thinks he's going to get solutions from my face.
The whole family sits in silence for several minutes. Finally I can't bear it anymore.
"School didn't go great, okay? A lot of people are jerks and I'm pretty sure I've already got enemies."
Everyone looks at me bewildered. Normally I don't hate things this much. I continue my rampage.
"Why did we have to come to stupid Washington? There's nothing here for me. Why can't we go back to Michigan? At least I actually had friends there. This so stupid!"
I tear out of my seat and shove my dishes in the sink. Then I retreat to my room, where I type my story on my laptop until 1 a.m.