Five

"Hey Indie."

Jasper was lounging, relaxed against the doorframe, his grin back in place. The sunlight streaming down from a nearby window lit up his golden head of hair. Next to him, stood a pixie-like girl. She was thin in the extreme, and held herself with the perfect, delicate stance of a ballerina.

She had the same remarkable ocher-coloured eyes that Jasper and Edward had, and the same unblemished, pale skin.

Her hair was as black as mine, and hacked short.

Thankfully, her lips were curved in a warm smile.

Jasper, with his tall, golden-haired appearance, complemented the other girl's small features and dark hair. They looked beautiful together.

Jasper's melodic voice broke my stunned silence.

"Indie, I want you to meet someone."

He gave the petite girl a light push. She didn't stumble. She moved with an admirable grace, and I wondered if she was a dancer.

She smiled, showing her pearly whites, and said in a high, tinkling, quick voice, "I'm Alice and very pleased to meet you Indie."

I smiled back at her, "Me too. I've heard a lot about you from Jasper."

Alice flashed Jasper a wide grin and then, so quickly that I thought I'd imagined it, she swiftly blew him a kiss.

"I've heard a lot about you too, Indie." She grinned at Jasper.

"Would you like to sit with us at lunch?" Jasper asked me.

Before I could even open my mouth, Alice butted in.

"Of course she would!" she scolded Jasper. "But we wouldn't take no for an answer anyway," she told me. She grinned and poked me lightly in the ribs.

I began to like Alice already. She didn't pussyfoot around.

As we talked, the three of us walked towards the little cafeteria.

I paused, to look around at everyone eating their assigned food on plastic lunch trays.

Noticing my pause, Alice asked me, "So this must be new for you. You don't have cafeterias in Australia, right?"

I shook my head and couldn't help laughing. It looked so cliché, as if stolen from a movie.

"Nope. We bring our own lunches."

"I bet you have your own pet kangaroo though!" Alice joked.

Jasper and I looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

It felt so natural, so comfortable. My first day seemed like a dream come true.

Except for one outstanding exception.

I hesitantly took my greasy chicken leg and serving of mushy peas, and followed the two beautiful people to a table in a quiet corner of the cafeteria. I couldn't help but notice the heads that were turned in our direction, or the audible whispers that echoed around.

I saw two other people sitting at the table that Jasper and Alice were heading towards. I shrank behind, extremely intimidated.

There was a heavily muscled guy with curly, dark hair, sitting next to a gorgeous girl. The girl had pure, fair hair that hung like silk down to the middle of her back. She had crossed her long legs, and from under the table, I glimpsed a pair of viciously tall, red, stilettos.

The guy had draped his arm over the blonde's shoulder. The muscles bulged from under his expensive-looking shirt. His arm looked really heavy, but the girl didn't seem to notice. She was talking quickly to the guy; her lips were almost blurred with the speed.

The guy was drumming the fingers on his other hand, on the tabletop.

Alice danced towards them, and spoke quietly, "Emmett. The table's shaking pretty violently."

The muscled guy looked down with surprise and sheepishly tucked his hand under the table. The table stopped shaking immediately.

Alice ducked her head and spoke into his ear so quietly that I didn't hear a single word. As he listened, he looked me over, brows knotted together in confusion. He looked incredulous. After a second, his face relaxed, and his laugh boomed through the cafeteria.

He removed his arm from the blonde's shoulders, and stood up. He offered me his paw of a hand. I hesitated, eyeing his tank-like chest, but then his cheeky grin reminded me of Jasper, and I relaxed. I shook his hand.

"Hey, I'm Emmett. You're Indie right? The new girl?" His voice was like chocolate, smooth and comforting.

I felt his infectious grin spread over my face and said, "Yes… the New Girl."

Emmett continued, "Nice to meet you. Jasper mentioned something about seeing you at the forest this morning."

I gave Jasper a look.

"Oh? So now everyone knows I'm the New Girl who ran into an invisible wall?" I asked Jasper testily.

He grinned his mischievous grin, and teased, "I couldn't resist."

I rolled my eyes and turned towards Emmett again. "I'm guessing you're another brother of Jasper's?"

He raised his brows when I said 'another'.

"You've met Edward." It wasn't a question.

"Well," I formed my words carefully, "Yeah, I guess. We sat next to each other in English."

Alice glanced over my shoulder. I turned my head, and my stomach plummeted. A bronze-haired boy was sitting by himself on a table in the opposite corner. His head was bowed, and his hands were clenched again.

Alice spoke again to me, apologetic, "He didn't introduce himself, did he?"

"Not really, no." Even to me, my voice sounded sad.

Awkward silence. It was Emmett who broke it.

"Speaking of introducing…" he hinted at the blonde girl who as of yet, hadn't said a word. Her eyes fluttered up, and I recognized the butterscotch colour of her eyes. She sighed and unfolded herself from the seat. Then she smiled.

"Hi Indie. I'm Alice's sister, Rosalie. I'm very glad to meet you." Despite her earlier hesitation, she seemed sincere.

I smiled shyly at her. "Hi. Nice to meet you too."

Alice bounced up to my side. I hadn't realized that she had even left in the first place.

With a jolt, I realized that she had also brought someone with her. Her brother was standing next to her, his eyes downcast. I thought he looked a little ashamed of his coldness before.

"Look who's arrived!" Alice announced brightly. She nudged Edward with her elbow, and gave him a little push forward with a flick of her fingers.

I wasn't expecting Edward's expression. He looked wary, unsure.

At least he didn't look angry anymore.

This gave me some hope.

"I'm sorry, I didn't have the chance to introduce myself earlier. My name's Edward Cullen."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alice giving Jasper a thumbs-up. He'd crossed his arms across his chest, and was nodding, a smile spreading slowly across his face.

Meanwhile, Edward looked at me, his eyes powerful and scorching. I felt myself getting dizzy.

"Uh…" I blinked, and regained some of my sanity. "Hi. I'm Indie. Nice to meet you."

I glimpsed Jasper and Emmett smacking fists.

He smiled hesitantly at me, "It's very nice to meet you too, Indie."

I just grinned stupidly at him.

Behind his back, I saw Alice doing a little victory dance.

When I turned around, I saw Rosalie sitting down again. She was evidently pretending to read her glossy magazine, but I thought I saw an amused smile playing around her lips.

Suddenly, without any warning at all, I found myself sitting in a Biology lab.

The light moved in waves, like I was underwater. Flashes of bright light burned into my irises. Through the disorientating light, I saw a teacher standing with his back to the class, scribbling something illegible on the blackboard. Students sat with their heads bowed, their faces unclear and their forms waving in the weak light. Everyone's clothes were garishly antique.

There was an old-fashioned microscope and a cardboard box of slides on the table in front of me. I heard the loud scrape as a chair was pulled back, and I turned my head to my right. I received the shock of my life. Edward, in all this wondrous glory, was sitting in the desk next to me. He looked exactly the same as always, as if time hadn't changed him. His hair was wet, and as I stared into his butterscotch eyes, I felt surprised that he was talking to me.

Shocked, even.

"Hello," he said quietly to me. The rippling light didn't seem to affect his voice. It sounded the same as always.

"My name is Edward Cullen," he continued in his sweet, melodic voice, "I

didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan".

I woke in Jasper's arms. Dimly, I wondered why I had collapsed.

But when I opened my eyes and looked around, I was back in the cafeteria. I saw five, anxious, beautiful faces staring at me. I disentangled myself free from Jasper's cold arms and backed away. I felt sick, nauseous. Alice's face was stunned. I fixed my gaze on Edward's face; it was thunderstruck.

I had no idea what had just happened. It was like I'd been sucked into a time warp or something, and recalled some strange memory. Except, they weren't my memories. And…

"Who's Bella?" I asked, my voice cracking with terror.