Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel or Twilight
Summary: What if Lydecker realized what was really important? The happiness of his 'kids'. Over the years since the escape of Unit 2 he has changed Manticore's conditions to become more humane while remaining a government facility. X5-481, Bella, is the first to try out a new regiment where soldiers are free to be outside of the facility but they must still perform their duties as a soldier (go on missions). PS None of the bad encounters with Lydecker happened (Prodigy and Cold Comfort did happen).
A/N: I was planning to post this tomorrow but turns out that I'm going to be busy the whole day tomorrow so I guess I'm posting it today
Chapter 6: Non-Humans at High school
As Ben and Bella walked through the hallway, they left a trail of gossip and rumours, which they could easily hear due to their genetically enhanced senses.
"Dang that girl's fine. I wouldn't mind getting to know her better."
"I hope they're not together…"
"They're rich you know. I saw them in the parking lot; they came to school on sport bikes!"
"They must be the new students. I wonder if they're nice."
"Whoa… are they models or something?"
"Or something," Ben whispered to Bella which she responded to with a quiet laugh. The gossip didn't stop but thankfully it faded as they reached the office.
"Hi, my name's Isabella Swan."
"And I'm Ben McDowell."
"We're new here and we need our schedules." The two introduced themselves with a polite smile.
The secretary looked at the two with a knowing glance, which both the transgenics caught, assuming incorrectly that they were together. She opened a drawer and then drew four sheets of paper handing two to each of them.
"Of course, here you are dears. Don't forget to get your teachers' signatures on the smaller sheet of paper and then hand it back to me after school today. Have a nice first day," she said with her own smile.
"Thank-you ma'am," the two said simultaneously earning them a strange look which they just replied with a smile. They'd have to remember not to act so military like to avoid being more conspicuous than they already were.
Ben and Bella left the office to go to their lockers which were thankfully next to each other. They placed a couple of binders and their gym strip into their lockers seeing as they had gym class last.
"Surprisingly, we actually have gym class together," Ben said when they exchanged schedules to know where the other was going to be and where they had to go in case of an emergency.
"Yeah, I was expecting none since we're in different years." Bella being a junior while Ben a senior; Ben was pretending to be a year younger than he actually was while Bella, a year older.
"Guess this is what happens when a school only has 1 and a half full classes for every year," Ben deduced before exchanging schedules again.
"Guess so… Well I'll see you lunch," Bell said closing her locker before walking away.
"See you then," Ben said as the first bell rang.
Bella walked into English to see that only one person, other than the teacher, was currently inside. She recognized her as one of the five hanging around the silver Volvo in the parking lot.
The girl was extremely pale and skinny, she had short black hair sticking out in all directions though wasn't messy at all, and she had the strangest eye colour Bella had ever seen: topaz. She gave Bella the sense the she was not normal which was enhanced by the precise way she seemed to fidget and how Bella didn't see one blemish on her pale skin…
'Now is not the time to analyze the girl though,' Bella thought as she heard students walking closer to the classroom. Bella decided to talk to the teacher to get his signature on the sheet of paper she received from the secretary as students started filing in.
"Mrs. Cailac," Bella began, getting her teacher's attention. "I'm the new student Isabella Swan. I was told I need your signature."
"Yes of course," Mrs. Cailac said holding out her hand where Bella placed the sheet of paper. Mrs. Cailac then signed the line where she was supposed to sign and then handed it back to Bella.
"Can you stay up front so I can introduce you to the class?" she asked, but really meant it as an order as she didn't even wait for Bella's response before turning around to organize her desk. Bella found this extremely rude and couldn't help herself when she whispered her thoughts very softly so that no ordinary could hear.
"Sure I can do that… rude much?" She wasn't expecting anyone to hear her, in fact no one was supposed to hear her but surprisingly enough, the girl that was in the class before her had giggled softly, like she heard Bella's comment. Bella's attention immediately turned to the girl and she examined her using her peripherals not wanting to alert the girl of her suspicion.
Was the girl a transgenic? No definitely not. Bella had seen what all the transgenics looked like and she was not one of them. Even after aging the images in her brain by the appropriate number of years Bella did not find a match. What was she then? 'Definitely not human,' Bella thought.
"Class," the teacher's voice caused Bella to change the center of her attention. "We have a new student joining us today. Her name is Isabella Swan. Can you tell the class a couple of things about yourself?" Once again the teacher gave an order in question format, something that was surely to get on Bella's nerves.
"I prefer to be called Bella. I'm 17 and my birthday's September 13th. I moved from Phoenix, Arizona with my best friend Ben McDowell. He's also new here," Bella said rattling off random things from her background information.
The teacher nodded acceptingly before assigning her a seat; the one next to Alice Cullen or as Bella dubbed her, the girl who wasn't human.
'Perfect,' Bella thought; she was determined to figure out if Cullen was a threat or not.
"Hi and welcome to Forks Bella. We're going to be best friends," Alice greeted with a smile as Bella sat down. Was this girl nuts? Then again she didn't know that Bella viewed her as a threat and when Bella did examine Alice's smile she found it friendly and sincere. Still, what made her think that they were going to be best friends? They didn't know each other period.
"It's nice to meet you," Bella replied returning Alice's smile. They shook hands before turning to look up front to listen to the lesson, or at least pretend to listen. During this time Bella discreetly looked at Alice's exposed neck to see a lack of a barcode.
That sure backed up her idea of Alice not being a transgenic, but still, if she wasn't, what was she? Unfortunately she did not get her answer for the rest of the class or in the next two classes either. She was however relieved when it was finally lunch hour; school had been extremely boring especially for a genius transgenic like her.
Bella walked into the cafeteria after visiting her locker and then immediately caught sight of Ben sitting at an empty table. She gave him a smile and got some food before sitting down next to him all the while casing the place and planning for the best exit routes if they were attacked.
"How has your day been so far Bells?" he asked softly turning from his food to greet her with a smile.
"As well as it could have gone… I met a girl too, she seemed nice enough. Her name's Alice Cullen." While Bella talked she also tapped a message onto Ben's thigh using Morse code: Alice is not human but not transgenic.
"Cool. I met her older brother, Emmett Cullen, in one my classes. He thought our rides were sweet."
Same deal with Emmett, Ben tapped on her thigh.
"Forks is turning out to be different than what I expected," Bella said with a grim face.
"We'll fit in Bells, don't worry about it," Ben replied comfortingly. Bella gave him an appreciative look before turning to her food and digging in.
Whilst the two ate, they observed the room and found the usual cliques: jocks, preps, geeks, and then the mixed like the group of juniors that was headed for their table.
"That's my cue to leave," Ben said winking as he took his tray and headed off to find a table with some seniors that he met.
"Oh I'm sorry, did we chase him away?" a brunette asked. Behind here were a blond haired blue eyed boy, a black haired and dark brown eyed boy, and another brunette with glasses.
"Nah, he wanted to go mingle with mature people as he deemed them, as if I'm not mature," Bella lied easily, rolling her eyes. "Please sit. I'm Bella by the way, not like you all don't know by now." The four of them sat down at the table with smiles.
"I'm Jessica. These are my friends Mike, Eric, and Angela." Jessica seemed friendly enough but Bella could never know if anyone was a wolf in sheep's clothing. She herself was, after all, one of the best examples of the saying.
"How do you like it here so far?" Angela asked.
Bella bit her lip, looked outside and shrugged. "It's definitely different from Phoenix, but not really a bad different. Here it's wet and quiet while over there it was arid, and overcrowded."
"How are you still so pale?" Why were they asking her all these questions? Was this the general way that people got to know each other? From Bella's experience it was always offer information and then receive some in return. Ordinaries were strange…
"It's genetic. Couldn't tan to save my life," Bella easily joked. By the Blue Lady, she wished that Ben was with her right now. She didn't like being the center of attention around people she didn't know, though it did come with the job sometimes. Then finally something she'd been waiting for, a distraction.
Five of the palest and most beautiful creatures walked into the cafeteria, one of which was Alice Cullen and another one, Bella guessed, was Emmett, though she didn't know what he looked like exactly.
Bella let her gaze follow the graceful creatures as they walked to an empty table near the window carrying trays but then not once eating or drinking what was on it.
"I see you've caught sight of the Cullens," Mike said. Bella looked towards Mike and nodded urging him to say more.
"Yeah Alice is in my English Class, we sit beside each other. Who are the others?"
Jessica pointed each one of them out; the drop dead gorgeous blond as Rosalie Hale, the chiseled, curly haired man beside her as Emmett Cullen, the other blond with wavy hair going to his ear lobes as Jasper Hale, Rosalie's twin, and finally the bronze haired God as Edward Cullen.
"It's weird they're all together… like together together. Rosalie and Emmett, Jasper and Alice, all except for Edward, but I wouldn't bother with him; apparently none of the girls here are good enough for him."
Bella shrugged and said, "Maybe he's gay. I mean he is a pretty boy after all." Right after she finished her sentence she heard laughter coming from the Cullen table, or more specifically Emmett. Meanwhile Edward was looking quite flustered, though there was no sign of it on his cheeks; more back up to the fact that they have super hearing or more generally, not human.
"So, why did you call them Cullens before? Two of them are Hales right?"
"Yeah, the Hales are Dr. and Mrs. Cullens foster kids while the Cullens are their adopted ones," Eric explained cutting off Mike who was just about to do the same thing. Bella ignored the weird rivalry between the two and continued on with her prying.
"They must be nice taking in so many kids…"
"Yeah but I hear that Mrs. Cullen can't have any kids," Jessica said haughtily, showing her evil side.
"Jessica!" Angela hissed obviously not liking what Jessica said about Mrs. Cullen. Bella watched the Cullens using her peripherals and saw that they had all tensed too. 'Yep definitely super hearing,' Bella thought.
"What?" Jessica asked defensively. "It's not like it isn't true."
"Jessica… it doesn't matter if Mrs. Cullen can't have children. I bet she loves her adopted and foster children just like they were her own, just as much as your own parents love you, maybe even more. Family isn't dictated by blood you know," Bella said calmly but with an edge to her voice unable to stand Jessica's presence for much longer. She didn't hate the girl, she was just immature like most of the other kids in this school, but that's the way it generally was on the outside world.
"I'll see you guys in gym or in bio if you have it. See you later," Bella said as she took her tray with her now cleaned off plates and placed it with the other dirty trays. She then headed off to her bio class to be alone with her thoughts.
"This Bella chick is kinda interesting… for a human," Emmett Cullen said as the Cullens saw her shock Jessica, the gossip of the school, into silence.
"Like it really matters? If she gets too interested in our family then I'll teach her a lesson about minding her own business myself," Rosalie put in her view indignantly.
"Bella's a nice girl," Alice added.
"Are you forgetting that we can't expose ourselves to them? You know what would happen wouldn't you?" Rosalie argued almost becoming hysterical.
"Of course Hun and that won't happen, she's just a human. It's not like we're going to tell her our deep dark secret," Emmett comforted his wife. They kissed which worked in calming the blond down.
As the other Cullens talked about the new girl, Bella, Edward became more annoyed and frustrated.
Finally Jasper couldn't take his emotions any longer, "Brother, what's bothering you?"
"I can't hear her… I can't hear that guy Ben either. Back at the parking lot I thought it was just a fluke since there were so many people and I wasn't actually focusing on hearing their thoughts but now when I did focus on them, I hear nothing… absolutely nothing."
"What do you mean nothing?" Emmett asked, not because he didn't understand what it meant, but because nothing like this had ever happened before.
"Maybe she's brain dead," Rosalie mumbled earning her a glare from Edward.
"It's like they're there… but not there. I can see them, smell them, but I can't hear their thoughts. It's just a blank space," he explained more still glaring at Rosalie. This worried the others a lot, well all except for Alice.
"Strange… Maybe its connected to how I only see them as blurs in my visions," Alice mused.
For the second time that day Alice's siblings all turned to look at her confused.
"Why didn't you tell us earlier? They could be threats to our existence!" Rosalie somehow screeched quietly.
Emmett laughed at this in disbelief, "They're only humans Rose, just like you said. They can't hurt us."
"Are you certain Emmett? They don't exactly smell like normal humans. And now we know that Edward's and Alice's powers both don't work on them correctly. There is a definite possibility that the new students are a threat to our family," Jasper deduced ever the cautious and strategic Cullen out of their family.
Rosalie looked extremely pleased with herself once Jasper backed her up, while Emmett still doubted the idea.
"They're not a threat. Or… at least they will not harm us," Alice interjected causing the tension to dissipate.
"Even so. I'd like to know their purpose here. People like them who are rich, from what I can tell with their rides, and beautiful don't just move into a small town like this. Take us for example," Jasper said still seeing the need to be cautious despite Alice's visions. No one spoke against his words though Alice remained unaffected by them.
Ben, who had sat at a table closer to the Cullens, had heard their entire exchange and frowned. So their suspicions were right; the Cullens were not human. What were they exactly though? They had powers, but none like the transgenics… The can hear thoughts… and have visions of the future? That was a powerful ability to have. He and Bella would have to be wary, though it didn't seem as if the Cullens had any idea what they were which means that they had the advantage in Intel. Too bad they had the advantage in numbers…
A/N: More Cullen action for everyone =D