Eight

"I'm beginning to wish Mum and Dad didn't give me a car. I mean, I can't even use it, here." Scott grumbled as we walked to school together. It had been a couple of weeks since he had first arrived in Lianna, and he was leaving in just under a week.

Scott lived a couple of rooms down from my room in the Dorm House, and with him there, I began to feel well and truly at home. Scott told me that the parentals had insisted that he attend school with me, so as not to fall behind in his VCE year. Scott had quickly fitted in with a group of jocks, and he sat on a different table from me. I, of course, sat with the Cullens.

Jasper and I became very close, and I felt so comfortable and just myself with him. Jasper told me that Alice thought my relationship with Jasper, was as close as her relationship with Edward. I was flattered. We understood each other. I know, I know, it could just be his 'power' talking, but I didn't think so. Jasper promised me, very earnestly, that he wouldn't influence my feelings unless he thought my head was going to implode. Those were his very words. He made me laugh.

Of course, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie were all very friendly towards me, but Jasper and I had a connection.

Their parents were nice.

One time, Carlisle found me bumming around the house with Jasper, and he didn't seem surprised to see me there at all. I couldn't help but notice his stunning good looks, and his wide grin that spread across his face.

He shook my hand firmly, and I immediately felt safe with him. A second later, Esme appeared beside him. She looked unnecessarily happy to see me, and her voice cracked with emotion when she introduced herself. Jasper stood with his arms crossed, and a blinding smile on his face.

I liked them.

I hadn't had another 'flashback'.

It was strange. I seemed to have a… selective acceptance of facts. I believed that the Cullens – Edward included – were vampires. How could I not? That inhuman speed, and their most definitely inhuman beauty… But I still did not fully believe that I was some reincarnated Bella. Sometimes I believed it, but then I would immediately label them as crazy, or myself crazy.

That first and only flashback – of Edward introducing himself - kept replaying itself in my mind. The details didn't seem to dull or fade over time, the way most memories should. I couldn't sleep.

Jake didn't have any classes with me, but he always managed to see me at least once a day. He was so cheerful, and he made me laugh. Jake would walk me home every day, with Scott walking on the other side of me, shooting evil looks at Jake.

When I didn't find my brother maddening, I found him sweet.

Jake was always in high spirits and a good friend but he was never more than that.

Meanwhile, Edward acted very careful around me.

He was perfectly polite and friendly, and whenever I would ask him a question, he would answer me. He smiled at me, but never touched me again if he could help it. It was a stark contrast to the passionate embrace during that Biology detention.

When I finally got the nerve to ask Jasper why his brother was acting like that, he answered me as though it was obvious, and he said as much.

"Isn't it obvious, Indie?" he had said to me. I shook my head. I was confused.

Jasper gave an exasperated sigh and told me, "He doesn't want to scare you off. Edward's stupid like that sometimes."

After a second thought, he added, "Or maybe he's trying to give you a chance to not choose him."

I frowned, "What do you mean, choose him? Choose him for what?"

Jasper stared at me, his mouth falling open. Now he was really looking at me like I was deranged. He said, "He likes you!"

My heart began its predictable roller coaster ride and I scrambled to sound normal. I asked Jasper, trying to sound casual, "Yeah, but don't you like me? You don't act all…" I struggled to find the right words. "… hesitant around me."

Jasper looked at me, and explained to me as though I was slow, "I like you just as a friend, Indie. I don't think Edward likes you the same way."

I swear my jaw was touching the ground. Seeing my expression, Jasper burst out laughing and joked, "You're a real village idiot, you know."

As I walked with Scott, letting him complain about the small-towness of Lianna, I thought back to that conversation. Of course, it made sense, but then my selective acceptance would kick in. Sure, I could've mistaken Edward's shyness as detachment, but then again, maybe Edward was so detached because he really didn't like me. He didn't want to raise my hopes. I screwed up my eyes in frustration.

We began to cross the road.

A washed-out red car with dark windows had slowed down as it got to us, but it was still inching jerkily forwards, as if annoyed at having to wait for us. Seeing his obvious impatience, I didn't hesitate to hurry across.

It was a misunderstanding.

Perhaps my body language wasn't clear enough, or the driver's wasn't, but we both decided to move at the same time.

Just as I took a step onto the road, the car gave a burst of speed and nudged forwards. I heard a low oath and I felt strong arms pulling me back.

I stumbled backwards with Scott's arms securely around me. I heard an ear-splitting screech as the driver in the red car stomped on the brakes.

Only when I was safely standing on the pavement did my body finally decide to pump in the adrenaline. My heart raced. My legs felt like jelly.

"Are you okay? Did it hit you?" I heard Scott's urgent voice, his face anxious.

"N-no, I'm fine." My voice trembled at first, but I was quickly recovering from the shock.

Scott released me, and his expression was suddenly tight with anger.

Over Scott's shoulder, I saw the red car edging forwards again. That infuriated me.

He didn't even care! He was just so busy, I thought sarcastically.

It was only when Scott hit the top of the car with the palm of his hand that it stopped jerking forwards and stopped still. A boy with skin problems and a bad haircut ducked nervously out of the car.

Scott seemed to be thinking the same way I was. He shouted at the pimply driver, "Hey, man, when you almost hit someone, you don't just drive off!"

The guy didn't say anything. Scott's eyes narrowed and he shoved him in the shoulder. "Aren't you even gonna apologize?" he asked him furiously.

Students, on their way to school, stopped to stare at us. I thought I glimpsed a bronze-haired boy staring at me from the small crowd, but when I looked again, he had disappeared.

Finally the other guy spoke, mumbling to the ground, "I …didn't hit her…"

Scott shoved him again, this time hard enough to make the pimply guy stumble.

"Luckily! You're walking along a thin edge, man." Scott hissed.

I woke up. I decided to intervene before Scott did something he would regret. He was so easily pissed off. I hastily walked towards where Scott was clenching his hands into fists, and stepped between them. "It's okay Scott. He didn't hit me. No harm done, see?" I tried to calm him. Scott looked at me, and rocked back on his heels, unsure.

The spotty guy shot me a look of intense relief and thanks, and apologized profusely to me. "I'm so sorry! I was kind of in a rush for something and I didn't really think you were going to go, so I just drove and… I'm sorry. I was an idiot. I'm really sorry…" I let him scramble for a minute, but then I put up my hands.

"Stop." I sighed. My indignation at his attempt to simply drive off, melted. And I continued, "It's nothing. Just an accident."

He smiled nervously at me, but Scott butted in, saying brusquely, "But it better not happen again."

As he got back into his car, Scott glared at him. I pulled him away, rolling my eyes. He swore at the driver, still angry, but I said, exasperated, "Scott, he didn't even touch me. You're making it out to be a bigger thing than it really was." We walked towards school.

He eyeballed me. "It could've been worse, Indie! The thing with you is that… you always take things too lightly!"

I muttered under my breath, "Get over it, Scott."

"What? Didn't catch that," he asked, sarcastic.

"Nothing." I mumbled.

It was at that moment that Edward came to my side. I hadn't realized he was there; he was so quiet. It was only when I saw Scott glance past me that I turned my head to see Edward walking next to me. His eyes smoldered, and it wasn't until I ripped my gaze from his mesmerizing eyes, that I realized that he looked extremely worried.

Even so, it was a welcome change from his usual detached demeanor.

Then I mentally slapped myself for being so selfish.

His ocher eyes bored into mine, and my heart did its usual dance.

"Indie, are you okay?" His words rang with sincere concern.

"I'm fine. It was nothing." I repeated.

His brow furrowed. "Are you sure?" he probed seriously.

I exhaled loudly. "Yes, I'm sure."

Edward seemed to approve. "Well, if you're okay… I'll see you later then." And with that, he turned his back and walked away, his bronze hair on fire in the sun. I groaned and put my head in my hands.

"What's up?" Scott asked casually, stealing glances at my hidden face.

"Nothing." I mumbled into my face. I sighed again and yanked my hair back into a messy ponytail.

When I looked up, Scott looked at me curiously. Then, slowly, a wide grin etched itself into his face. He looked amused.

He jumped back, and pointed a finger me. "You like him!" he crowed.

I yanked his arm to make him keep walking, and answered back too quickly, "No, I don't. He's just a really annoying, up-himself idiot who has Bio. with me."

Scott looked at me in that patronizing way that was just him.

I sighed wearily and said, resigned, "It's that obvious isn't it."

Scott just snickered. "Yep." He dragged the word into two syllables.

I was silent. Scott spoke, "If you like him… then…" he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I flicked the back of his head and said, "I thought you hated everyone who I liked."

"No, I dislike any guy who likes you, but only when you don't like him back." He corrected, grinning. I snorted.

"But Edward doesn't even know I exist!" I moaned, despairingly.

"Edward." Scott repeated, sniggering. I shot him a look. "Gay name," he commented.

But then he said cryptically, "I thought you were meant to be the perceptive one."

I grumbled, "No, I'm the smart one."

He let that one slide, and continued, "Edward likes you. Trust me on this."

He seemed to think the same way that Jasper did.

Jasper…

I was just leaving home with Alice to get to school, when Edward rushed towards us. His expression was unreadable… and his emotions were too mixed to decipher.

"Indie almost got hit by a car this morning," he said.

Alice was immediately beside herself with worry. Panic exuded from her.

She hadn't sent his coming, I realized.

"How could you not see this coming?" Edward hissed at her, mimicking my thoughts. Alice was dumbfounded. She said faintly, "I don't know."

"Is she okay?" I asked the most important question.

Edward blew out in frustration. "Yes, she's fine. It really was nothing; not nearly as bad as when…" I knew what he thinking.

The big, blue van careering towards Bella, tires locked and skidding across the ice…

Edward whispered, "Is Indie's life just going to be a re-run of Bella's?" he asked us. Fear was emanating from him. I didn't know what to say; I didn't know the answer. It was Alice who spoke, "No."

Edward turned to her, his eyes pleading for answers. Alice continued calmly, "It won't be a re-run. They live two different and independent lives… it's just that Bella's soul, if you will… is in Indie. There are some similarities between their character, but you must've realized that there are huge differences between Bella's life and Indie's life." Alice ticked off all the subjects on her fingers.

"Bella would find something to trip over on a flat surface - Indie makes a daily habit of sprinting through a forest. Bella was very sweet - Indie's a little… feistier. Bella lived with her father, Indie lives by herself with her brother over to visit, Bella had brown eyes, Indie has indigo eyes, Bella's car accident was a whole lot more dangerous than Indie's little -"

Something that Alice had said niggled at my mind, and I grabbed Alice's arm to stop her talking. She turned to look at me curiously.

I spoke, suddenly excited, "Haven't any of you realized that the colour of Indie's eyes sometimes looks different? Sometimes indigo and sometimes more blue?" I probed.

Edward looked at me as if to tell me to go on, but Alice looked resigned, as if she knew what I was going to say. Which of course, she did.

I continued, "I have a theory about that. You remember when she was having that flashback, in the cafeteria? Well, Indie's eyes looked blue. And on that first day, in the forest, when she was running, I remember Indie's eyes to be indigo."

Alice looked doubtful, but Edward looked shocked. Even though I knew they understood what I was saying, I concluded, "When Indie is more like Bella, her eyes look blue. And when she's more like Indie, her eyes look indigo.

Edward nodded, but Alice still looked skeptical. "I don't know… maybe it's just the light…"

I shook my head, frustrated. "Indigo, Indie? Bella, blue? Remember how… well, pretty she looked when she would wear blue? It makes sense, Alice!"

"Coincidence?" Alice tried.

Edward's eyes tightened, and we watched as he disappeared.

"I think he believes me." I said proudly.

Alice rolled her eyes.

Indie…

I lounged in my chair, my head propped up with my hand. I heard Mr. Book - an appropriate name for my history teacher – as he droned in the background. He was talking about Henry the VIII and his six wives. What a man-whore.

But boy he was ugly. Mr. Book had handed out photocopies of old Henry, and I stared at his heaving beer-gut and great ham of a leg with disgust.

Why were all his wives called Catherine? It was like their mothers all copied one another's list of baby-names. I looked away from the picture.

Then again, maybe it was just an artist's impression?

How could you know the past, for sure? Unless you were actually there… as a primary source… I refused to think about it anymore. Everything I looked at reminded me of my own life.

I blew back a strand of my hair, and absentmindedly scratched an elegant 'EC' into the table for the ninth time.

I longed to know more about Bella. She seemed so mysterious to me. I didn't know what she looked like; I didn't even know what her voice sounded like… In that flashback, I – or rather, she – was so absorbed with Edward that she didn't even say a single word. And of course, I couldn't see her because I was her. If that even makes sense.

She was an anomaly.

But I couldn't blame Bella for being so speechless. I would've been like that, had Edward turned the hypnotizing power of his eyes on m–

"Hey there." Someone interrupted my train of thought. I wearily looked up… into the warm, friendly eyes of Jake Black.

He was leaning with his elbows on the table, his face just a few inches from me, grinning at me. Shocked by the closeness of his face, I threw myself backwards, and I heard the high-pitched screech as my chair scraped itself along the floor.

I winced as I slowly looked around the classroom. Everyone was staring at me. Mr. Book was had a look on his face like when a baby would relieve itself in your arms. "Sorry." I said loudly. After a slight pause, the teacher resignedly turned back to the board and normal conversation started up again.

Meanwhile, Jake was silently cracking up at me. I hissed at him to sit down, and he lounged comfortably in the empty chair next to me.

I leaned over and whispered, "What are you doing here?"

He whispered back in my ear, his mouth closer than was needed, "I changed classes. An exchange student's coming to my class, so I got kicked out. And guess where I landed?" Not waiting for an answer, he continued, "Here."

I thought for a second, and then whispered back, "You know, you just answered your own rhetorical question? Pretty sad."

He snorted. I commented, "I haven't quite forgiven you yet for that stunt before."

"What stunt?" he asked feigning innocence.

"Don't pretend you don't know. When you came in and put your face right near mine, and I basically deafened everyone in the room with my chair."

"Oh, that stunt."

I restrained myself from strangling him. "Yeah. Well, everyone already thinks I'm a freak, and now they know for sure that I'm a freak."

Jake cocked his brows and answered, "Who thinks you're a freak?"

"Everyone!" I burst out louder than I intended. A few people swiveled around in their seats to look at me, and I ignored them.

"No…" he said slowly. "No one thinks that. Everyone likes your… how can I say it nicely… liveliness. And I know that for a fact. The girls don't know what to think of you – you're a strange combo of sweet and feisty. Not to mention you're prettier than all of them." He smiled his lovable smile, and I felt myself blush.

I wondered why I had to blush now when Jake complimented me, when I didn't blush before when I split everyone's eardrums.

Jake continued, "And half the guys in my class pant after you." He wrinkled his nose, his expression suddenly dark. I couldn't help letting out a loud "Ha!" of incredulity. Guys? Liking me?

"I don't believe it. You know Jake, lying is a sin. You'll get sent to hell," I snickered. "Guys do not like me. Guys like blondes with big assets."

Jake raised his eyebrows. "I'll prove it to you."

I matched his tone. "Oh yeah, how?" I sniggered.

Jake leaned back, and answered confidently, "I'll get every guy who likes you to write his name on a list, and I'll give that list to you."

I immediately stopped laughing. "What! Don't you dare!" I hissed.

"I do dare. I think it's a pretty good idea, don't you think?"

I stared at him in outrage.

"How am I meant to act around anyone on that stupid list? I'll have to avoid them! And as if they'll take it seriously! There'll probably be random names like John Howard or Dorothy the Dinos -" I babbled.

"Who's John Howard?" Jake asked, interrupting my panicked protestation.

"Who cares!" I burst out.

He grimaced. "Well, seeing as you think that no guy likes you, then you shouldn't be expecting any names, hence, you have nothing to fear, hey?"