Struggling between the facts and fiction I'm alone
But I'm alive
Everyone around me is trying to make a statement
Then there's me
I'm just trying to survive
-Disarray, Lifehouse
I sat perched on my roof like a massive gargoyle, watching the sun force its way through the clouds. From the looks of it, it would be overcast again by lunch, which meant that I wouldn't be able to relax in the sunshine like I had all of the previous week. I made a face, a bit put out that I would not be able to get a good dose of sunshine for who knows how long. From what I'd heard about this town sunshine was very rare, even in the summer, where it would just be vast amounts of humid, but not an ounce of sunshine. It could rain here for weeks straight, and it wasn't common for months to go by without a bit of sunshine to stop the gloominess from driving everyone mad. I was surprised by how well the people here seemed to manage without it, because I knew that if I was stuck here to long I would either become depressed or suicidal. But I guessed if this was all you'd ever known, then it wouldn't be too horrible. Can't miss what you've never had, eh? The sun managed to creep through the clouds now, as if to contradict my earlier thoughts, and danced across the dewy grass, sending it into a fit of sparkles and small rainbows.
I stretched out my wings, the gold tint revealing itself in the morning light and shone beautifully in the rays. After a moment of enjoying the weak warmth I shot a glance at my watch, which informed me that it would be a good time to leave for school. With a sigh I bid goodbye to the sun and made my way back to the prison I would be confined to for the next few months.
It had been a week since I had gotten here, and so Monday had rolled around once again. The initial curiosity that everyone had had dimmed by now, most of the girls who had always looked at me so strangely in the locker room before gym because of my backless shirts now had stopped asking why I always wore them and the boys stopped trying to talk to me. Yet there were some that still chased after me like I was a new toy, something that had yet to lose its initial interest. Mike was one of them, the silly boy with blonde hair who still had an obsession with trying to give the best golden retriever imitation, and I had yet to get the message through his head that I wanted him to just leave me alone. No matter how much I ignored him that first week, he would always come back to try and befriend me.
But it was a plus that he seemed to have his own friends at lunch, where Lauren sent me glares whenever I walked in and then continued to dote on Mike. I simply got my lunch and would retreat to the back table, where I could see everything that was going on in the lunch room and went largely unnoticed. No one had ever tried to sit with me, and I never attempted to sit with anyone else. This left me alone to my thoughts or unfinished homework, whichever I deemed more important at the time being. It took a bit of practice, but I soon managed to block out the chatter of the children around me and concentrate on my own thoughts.
Everything was going well in school, but one thing that still puzzled me was that the seat next to me in most of my classes still went empty, even when all of the teachers had said that my seat was the only open one in class, or that I would be sitting next to some boy whose name I'd already forgotten. I figured that he was probably some slacker who didn't think that there was anything wrong with skipping classes for weeks at a time, a habit I had thought about picking up. It seemed very tempting to just leave and skive off of all of my classes, but I did not want to go back through high school later in life, when I still looked like I was the same age as the others, but in reality was a good forty or so years older then they were. If I thought they were horrid little youngsters now, it would be all the worse later.
Which brought me back to the thoughts of the vanished boy who was supposed to be in most of my classes. I hadn't heard anything about him, so I suppose that disappearing for weeks at a time was normal for him. I wasn't complaining about his absence though, because if he was never there it meant that I always had an extra seat, and the additional room pleased me. I hated the feeling of being closed in, and when the school already felt like a prison it was nice to take comfort in the fact that I had plenty of space to myself while stuck there.
My first four classes passed without consequence, the desk beside me still empty and the teachers still a bit wary of me. The teachers had the sense to be distrustful, unlike the students who liked to spread rumors and tease me when they thought I wasn't listening. Their instincts had pretty much gone out the window, or perhaps they had just fried their brains because of all the television they watched and the horrid music they blasted straight into their ears. Anyways, the adults for once had the better instincts to be cautious, realizing that something was off about me. It made me feel better that they were nervous around me, that they somehow knew how quickly the tables could turn. I was still gloating at this fact, especially since the math teacher had given me such a fearful look before rushing out of the class, as I walked into the cafeteria.
I automatically knew something was off when I entered the room, my muscles tensing up and the hair on the back of my neck rising as I felt a slight pull in my chest. My eyes scanned the room quickly before landing at the table that I had sat at for the last week. I froze in shock at what I saw there, not at all expecting other Halflings to be going to this school.
For at the table sat five impossibly beautiful people, all pale white and almost radiating danger. Vampires. My senses screamed at me, telling me to head my earlier words on how quickly the tables could turn, how quickly they would be able to dispatch me in this state, and I quickly turned towards the doors that lead outside, my fight or flight instincts kicking in. I was about to dash towards my escape but realized that I would have to pass them to get there, and would only attract attention if I tried to head back where I came from.
So I decided that acting like I hadn't noticed them was the best plan of action. As I stepped into the lunch line my mind raced at the realization that I had picked a town that housed a coven of vampires of all creatures. I knew that they probably wouldn't recognize what I was since it had been a long time since there had been a war of the races, and that surely all the vampires who had fought then hadn't had the control to change others or pass on their knowledge. This should have relaxed me, but my hands still gripped the tray tightly as I exited the line. I tried to calm myself; the average human wouldn't react so strongly to the presence of vampires, especially when they were as far away as they were at the moment. If anything they might be uncomfortable when they were in close proximity to them, but never from a good ten meters away. My eyes scored the room for an empty table, and my heart dropped as I found it.
Karma didn't seem to like me at the moment, since the only empty table was a few down from the one where the vampires were seated, with one side facing a wall. To get there I would have to pass them, something I was not keen on doing. If possible I would avoid them, for I knew I was no match for five vampires, especially the ones who had the control to go to school with hundreds of human teenagers. Such control wasn't common, and I feared what type of damage they could inflict, especially since they were known as the most dangerous of our kind. They lived the longest, were the strongest, fastest, and hardiest of the species. Intelligence was another matter, since most vampires spent their time hunting down humans to slaughter, or vampires to fight. Considering I wasn't vampire or human I should have been fine, but I seemed human enough to not attract their attention. Theoretically.
With a sigh I walked towards them, keeping my head down as I passed them. Unfortunately my instincts started to kick in then, and my vision sharpened at the same time I felt a harsh tug in my chest. I looked up and met the golden eyes of one of them, the skinny male with messy odd coloured hair. My eyes returned downwards not even a second later, but I knew that he had seen my eyes, pitch black and wide with shock and confusion.
I still felt his gaze on me as I sat down at the table, back facing the wall, not wanting them, or anyone else for that matter, to be able to sneak up on me. There was another tug in my chest as I let my hair fall into my face opening my eyes and letting the bones in my face rearrange themselves slightly, and the beginnings of my wings strained against my baggy sweatshirt, my back safely hidden from view. My thoughts cleared as I registered that they weren't human hunters, but rather preyed on animals. There hadn't been any tales of a coven living on that diet for hundreds of years to my knowledge, and it was rather odd that this one hadn't been discovered by any of the Halflings yet. The only thing that could mean is that they had the knowledge and the resources to stay hidden easily, and that they were very good at what they did; where they hunted, when they hunted, and how to stay hidden and out of human suspicions. I had to admit that going to school was a nice touch; it gave them excuse to live here and arise to much suspicion.
I sent a glance outside, and sure enough the cloud cover was back. I remembered the sunshine that was barely there throughout the previous of week and realized why the vampires hadn't been there the week before. But how did they know that the sun wouldn't come back later that day? I pondered over this until they all got up to leave, and once they were gone I visibly relaxed. My instincts retreated enough to let me change back, and I wanted to scold myself for my lack of control. The un-dead had had more control then I had, which was an insult to say the least. They had never been known for their control, when my kind prided themselves on it.
The bell rang shrilly through the room, and I discarded my uneaten lunch and headed towards biology class. I was still lost in thought when I got there, automatically heading towards my empty lab table, not realizing that it was not, in fact, empty anymore until I was a few feet away. I stopped in my tracks, nearly falling over from the abrupt change in speed, and was stunned to find that one of the vampires was sitting in the usually empty seat, looking terribly bored. I wouldn't have been as worried if it had been one of the others, but this was the one that had undoubtedly seen my eyes. With a soft shudder I forced myself to walk forward and sit down.
The first thing I felt when sitting down was that the soft pain that had always been there, the one I assumed to be normal and had learned to ignore, vanished. That surprised me to a large extent, since the pain had been there as long as I could remember. It was an odd coincidence that it chose now of all times to leave, but it was gone now and I wasn't about to start complaining. It hadn't bothered me before, but it did feel nice to have that gone. By now I had completely forgotten the vampire next to me until he spoke, his voice smooth and formal.
"You must be Bella Swan." He said, and I turned to look at him out of habit, and I found my heart rate increasing as our eyes met. "I'm Edward Cullen."
"You've been gone all week." I accused him, forgetting to greet him like most humans would have at this point. He didn't seem to mind though, and answered easily and without hesitation.
"My family and I go on camping trips whenever it is nice out, which is quite rare here so we always take the opportunity when it comes." He explained, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. Vampires who went camping? The idea was laughable, and I knew that they had probably gone hunting or something of the like.
"Camping." I repeated, and he looked at me with his golden eyes, which revealed nothing but curiosity, which bothered me to no end. He should not be curious about me, and could not find out that I was a Halfling as well. Only bad things would come of it if he did, a war being the worst of it.
"Yes, camping. With tents and campfires?" He gestured with his hands and I glared at him. He had clearly known what I meant, but had chosen to tease me instead. Stupid little vampire boy, thinking I was just another dim minded human. Which is what I had been aiming for originally, but it was still an insult for him to think that.
"I know what camping is." I snapped, muscles tightening. Just because he was a vampire and older then all of us didn't mean that everyone else was stupid. Well, I couldn't speak for the humans, two of which were flicking rubber bands at the girl in front of them and laughing their heads off, but I knew that I was far from unintelligent. My brain may not work as fast as his, but I could get pretty close if I wanted too. I turned stared straight ahead, fuming silently.
"Then why the speculation?" He asked, ignoring my anger, and I stubbornly refused to look back at him as I answered.
"Because from the looks of it, you really don't look like the camping type." I replied stiffly, and before he had a chance to try and continue the conversation the bell rang and the teacher started class. I knew I had been childish in my responses, but at the moment I could honestly care less.
Throughout the lesson I felt his gaze on me, and I resisted the urge to squirm and tell him to keep his eyes to himself. I did not feel comfortable with a vampire of all creatures staring at me, especially when no one would notice if he decided to drag me off to the woods to kill me. If he did manage to get me into the woods he would be in for a surprise though; I doubt he would expect his seemingly human prey to take flight. I smirked at the thought, and when I let my eyes wander over to the boy next to me his eyes were filled in confusion. Ha, serves you right dead boy. I thought and turned my eyes back to the front of the classroom just in time to hear the teacher assign us a lab to do with our lab partners.
Groans rang out through the classroom, and I resisted the urge to join them and bash my head against the table. Instead I pushed my chair back and headed towards the front of the room to retrieve the slides we were supposed to be looking at without a word to Edward. I assumed he would use that high-speed brain of his and get the microscope himself, because I could not be trusted with heavy metal objects that could easily break my foot if dropped.
The walk towards the front of the room went fine and I had almost reached the desk without incident, which was when my foot caught on a backpack strap and I pitched forward, barely managing to catch myself on the teacher's desk. The girls behind me giggled and I blushed, snatching the slides and hurrying back towards the lab table, tripping a few times on the way in my hurry. So much for making an impression of not being weak.
"Quite a trip you had there." Edward said as I put down the slides. I glared at him, the red still tainting my cheeks as I sat down.
"I know I'm clumsy." I snapped, glad to see that the microscope was already there and plugged in. "And I've had worse falls." I handed him a slide wordlessly, and he glanced into the microscope for a brief moment.
"I'm sure you've had." He said, scrawling down something on the paper. "And it's metaphase." I grabbed the microscope, trying to prove him wrong, but found that it was, in fact, metaphase. I grabbed the next slide and put it under the microscope, identifying it as interphase. Edward pulled the microscope back carefully, and I saw him frown when he realized I was right.
"Smarter then you thought, aren't I?" I smirked, replacing the slide in the little box.
"I never said you weren't." Edward pointed out, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Just because one doesn't say something doesn't mean that they never thought it." I replied.
"You can't read my thoughts though." He answered, identifying another slide before sliding the microscope over to me with a pale hand.
"And you can't read mine." I responded, and when I looked at him I saw confusion and anger flit through his eyes before they returned to their normal state. His reaction confused me, why would be surprised by this fact, or even disappointed? It was a known fact that the thoughts of others could not be read anywhere but in books.
I shook my head to dispose of the thought and looked back into the microscope at the last slide. I told him the answer then dropped my head onto my folded arms, watching as the rest of the groups struggled with the simple activity. Some of the groups hadn't even started yet, and even more of them were still on the first slide.
The teacher came over to our table with a disapproving look, and without a word Edward handed him our paper. Glancing over it, the teacher nodded then gave him a small glare.
"You should have let Miss Swan do some of the work." Chided the teacher.
"Actually, I identified half of them." I told him, angry that he would think so lowly of my intelligence. Did I have a sign on my back that said 'Hello, I'm stupid', or did I just give off the stupid vibe.
"Oh, well then, I see that you two are well matched." He stuttered, stumbling off to another lab table, one where the students had a biology book open under the table. I dropped my head back to my folded arms, looking straight ahead.
"That was pretty impressive." Edward said from beside me. I turned my head to look at him, where I saw confusion and surprise in his eyes. It seemed to be a common expression for him, and I started to think that maybe he wasn't as intelligent as he looked.
"What was?" I asked, moving a chunk of hair from in front of my eyes. "Snapping at the teacher?"
"Most students aren't going to snap at the teacher for fear of being punished." He answered, and a smile flitted across my face.
"Unless the teacher is more wary of you then you are of him." I answered, causing Edward to raise an eyebrow at me.
"You've got more nerve then most then." He stated just before the bell rang, the corner of his mouth raising slightly as he fought off a smile.
"That or I was just born this way." I said before getting up and slipping out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway. The first thing I realized was that the second I had left the room the pain was back. I hadn't expected it to last, but I had hoped that it would have lasted a bit longer then an hour. The second thing I realized was the noise, something which had gone by completely unnoticed in biology. I took a second to adjust to it, then shouldered my bag and slipped through the hallway.
I made it to my next class without a problem, and wasn't to surprised when he came in and sat next to me. I ignored him and groaned as it started to rain, letting my head fall to the table. Feeling the soft pain in my head I realized the one in my chest had gone again, a mild surprise since it had only returned for a few minutes. I was pretty sure that the one and off pain would be substantially more annoying then if it was there at a constant, and it bothered me even more that now I knew what it felt like to live without the pain.
"You don't like it here very much do you?" Asked Edward from my side, and I turned my head to glare at him.
"Obviously." I said, turning my face back towards the floor, hoping he would drop it at that. But no, he continued, persistent as ever. At this rate he would start to annoy me as much as Mike.
"Then why did you come here? It doesn't seem like your parents moved." He continued, and I sat up with a sigh, wondering why I was even going to answer his question.
"Because my mother had finally found her true love or whatever, and they went off and got married." I said. "And so I decided that I would leave by my own devices before she decided to kick me out, and I came here because of the low population and the landscape." I snapped, and he raised his eyebrows at me.
"I doubt your mother would kick you out of the house just because she got married." He told me, and I gave him a harsh look. He knew nothing of my kind, and the traditions of it. Even if he did, he did not know my mother, who had probably already forgotten me by now.
"Well then, you've obviously have never dealt with my family. I'm lucky I got to stay there as long as I did."
"Then why here, of all places, if you hate the rain so much? From the looks of it you have no relatives here." What was with all the questions? And why was he so damn curious? I doubted that he could have figured out something by now, but I continued rather then pay attention to the part of my brain yelling at me to shut up and ignore him.
"There are a lot of big trees and wildlife." I grumbled as the bell rang.
"Nature lover then?" Edward asked, desperately trying to figure me out, but without avail.
"You could say that." I said with a smile, turning towards the front of the room to listen to the pudgy little Spanish teacher rambling on about the proper use of adjectives in sentences, the smile widening when I heard an agitated sigh from next to me.
Luckily I didn't share my last class with any of the vampires, for I feared that it would not end well if I did. If I let something slip in front of the humans, I could always react fast enough to make it seem like they were just seeing things. But if I was dealing with creatures who were faster then a cheetah on steroids, complete with photographic memory and vision that easily surpassed that of a hawk, I wasn't about to take my chances.
The final bell finally rang and I followed the chatty girls into the locker room, changing quickly so I could get out of here as quickly as possible. I had been high strung all day, and the littlest thing could set me off. I needed to get home, or just into the forest and out of view.
By the time the rest of the girls were putting their shoes on I was halfway across the parking lot, making a straight shot for the woods. I was at the end of the parking lot and only a few meters away from safety when a bright red sports car went roaring by me. I stumbled backwards in surprise, tripping over my own feet several times before coming to a complete stop. I whirled around in time to see the car speeding off and my lips curled at the dangerous habits of vampires, and how close they had been to spilling blood without even baring their teeth. I had just turned to stalk off into the woods when I heard someone call my name. My automatic reaction was to turn, and I saw none other then the vampire I had been trying so hard to avoid.
"Are you all right? I apologize for my siblings nearly running you over there." He said, and I gave him a pointed look.
"I'm fine." I told him, turning to walk off, my bag bumping against the side of my leg. I heard the tires crackle on the gravel as it rolled forward a few feet.
"How do you plan on getting home?" Edward asked, driving with one hand as the other arm rested on the door.
"Walking." I lied.
"Would you like a ride? By the looks of it it's about to start pouring." He persisted, and I gave him a look.
"Luckily I don't melt when I come into contact with water. Besides, it won't take me long to get home." Edward gave me a wary look.
"If you're sure…"
"I'm sure. " I told him with conviction, turning to head back towards the forest.
"See you tomorrow then." He finished, and I raised a hand in acknowledgment, not looking back as I disappeared between the trees.
I knew I should have been careful, more so then the previous days, but a few feet into the forest I took of my jacket and tied it to my bag and moments later wings were set on my back, and I wasn't even a hundred meters away from the edge of the trees. But at the moment I could have cared less, and I rushed forward, taking a few long strides before throwing myself into the air. I was met by a torrent of rain as I got higher, the cold drops bouncing off my skin.
Sorry for the delay, but I had a lot of stuff going on the last week or so. But hey, this chapter is almost twice as long as the former. :D And Edward finally makes an entrance, so that should appease everyone.
Anyways, make sure to look for a new chapter soon.
Lily