Chapter Two – First Information:
Last night was a bad night for me, an extremely bad night. It sounded like it was raining heavily but it was actually a heavy flush of snow. This was very normal for where we lived in Dartmouth. When the morning light finally trickled through the curtains I just hid my head underneath the pillow holding it over my ears tightly to try and gain the sleep that I had lost. After about fifteen minutes of trying to sleep again, the youngest of my brothers, Jason, ran in and jumped on my bed. It felt like I had a long and tiring day ahead of me.
"Jason, get lost for Christ sake!" I hollered. He just laughed and carried on jumping up and down. This would be worse when they learn how to phase within the next ten years or so. In the end I sat up and kicked Jason in the shins which stopped him. He did run off and tell mum that I had kicked him but I wasn't really bothered. It was always me that our mum was annoyed with anyway. Besides I had bigger things to worry about.
My usual process for getting ready in the morning was a lot longer than usual, my first university lecture wasn't until eleven o'clock but luckily I didn't live that far away from the university. That was a good thing because it meant I didn't have to feel homesick being away from my family like many of the others would. I wouldn't have to worry about rushing to get there for lessons. Plus I didn't have to pay loads of money to live in one of the dormitories on campus. After showering for about thirty minutes, I dried my long brown hair whilst flinching and moaning whenever I hit a knot with the comb and roughly messed it up again with the styling clay. I then had to tackle brushing my teeth. Most mornings it hurt to clean them because of the brace making different teeth move everyday. It was ten o'clock when I finally went downstairs after my bathroom time and my mum had already left to take Jason and Mike to school. They were the youngest which meant I was stuck with Embry. Embry was only two years younger than me but you wouldn't believe it if we were to stand next to each other. He was pretty much an unwanted nuisance whenever mum wasn't in and I had to be stuck with him today of all days. I knew what to expect from him seeing as he always liked to try and take advantage of me because I was older and I could drive etc.
"I take it you're taking me to school then?" he asked. I couldn't tell if it was said with a sarcastic tone or not but that wouldn't of actually made much of a difference. It was just aggravating that he had even said it in the first place.
"You were supposed to be at school already and either way you can walk there yourself. It's my first day of uni and I'm not going to be a carpool for you and I'm not taking any chances of being late," I retorted practically biting his head off. I was really nervous as it was and even though I would have made it to the university with enough time to spare before first period I still wasn't intending on being slightly late. Besides I was beginning almost about three months into the first semester which would rack my nerves greatly as well. Looking at it afterwards it wasn't much of a good idea acting like that to him, it never really was seeing as he was bigger and taller than me. Although he couldn't actually hit me or anything I knew that he would probably still try. Most people thought that he was the oldest because of how he looked but he's only like that because a strong family trait that has been with the family for decades. At some point Jason and Mike would look like him roughly as well.
"Bloody hell calm down. I was only joking," he replied in a very sorry and taken back tone. I sighed heavily, said sorry and within twenty minutes I had all of my stuff together and I was driving to the university. My car was a heap of metal just welled together at any point they could be bothered to attack. I was grateful for Embry's friend Jacob for attempting to fix up and redo the main body of the tired out 1949 Chevy even though it wasn't very successful. I would have liked it even more if it had been painted a different colour, maybe a nice blue rather than the strange tone of orange: might have been red at one point but that would have been ages ago. But I wasn't worried about what people would think when they saw my car. I was more worried about what they would think when they saw me. All I could think about was the bad things like would I trip over loads of times, would I embarrass myself in front of the coolest or hottest guy in school and a load of other stuff. That really calmed my nerves well of course.
When I arrived the parking lot was only half full but there were still other cars entering the lot after me. As I pulled up into a free space to try and find my timetable and map I looked around the car park and noticed that only two cars really stood out. All the other cars including mine had to be years upon years old but those two looked brand new: a red A3 BMW and a silver Volvo. I grabbed everything I needed, got out of the car, slammed the door shut and headed towards the main building. I didn't really ever bother to lock my car as I never left anything valuable in it and because it was a piece of trash no-one would nick anyway. They could gladly help themselves to parts to sell and wouldn't really care then either. As it was my first day the receptionist asked if I would the quickest routes highlighted so I wasn't late for any of my subjects or lectures. I replied with a quiet yes and she quickly began. Whilst I waited for her to finish marking down the different routes to the first week's lectures, two people entered the room. I tried to look round only once but I couldn't stop myself from looking again. I didn't pay that much attention to the girl even though she was amazingly beautiful with long blonde flowing hair that contrasted well with her amber eyes. I was more intent on admiring the guy she was with. He was the most amazing person I had ever seen in my life. As I looked more closely I noticed that his eyes were a light golden colour like the girls which blended with the almost two-tone blond of his hair which gently curled at the ends with a scruffy style to it. His skin was so pale that it seemed so un-human but it still made him very attractive to look at which also brought out his delicate cheek bones emphasising his age. Whilst I still studied his amazing looks I thought to myself 'there's no point in getting my hopes up. He'll never even look at a girl like me let alone talk to me.' I was completely and entirely wrong though. After a few minutes of slyly watching him and looking back and forth every so often, I caught his attention. I quickly looked away but I could still feel him staring at me. I slyly looked around the screen of my hair and he was smiling. Was he smiling at me? Why was he smiling at me whilst being with a beautiful girl like her?
If he was smiling at me I had to leave quickly otherwise I would stand out by blushing so much. The receptionist finished up about a second later, handed me the map and timetable and I quickly darted out of the room. As I slowly walked past the window I looked in pretending to be checking I had everything and he was still smiling at me. When I was finally outside of the reception I leaned up against a nearby wall to try and breathe properly before showing myself to anyone else. I was so glad that no-one walked past me as I would have embarrassed myself already. The thing was, I had to dart off again a few seconds later because he was just about to come outside to.
He was all I could think about in my first lecture. His face just constantly stayed in my mind and all of is amazing key features that I noticed earlier on seemed to be emphasised in my day dream. It didn't distract me that much until we moved on to our second lesson, Biology, when he was in the same group as me. Everyone had beaten me to the lesson and had already sat down at the main tables, which only left a seat next to him. 'Great: a whole hour of blushing and not being able to speak to him or anyone else' I thought as I stood in the doorway waiting to see if anyone would offer to sit next to him for me. Someone did but I did the stupid thing.
"Hey, I'm Jared Nelson. If you want I can go and sit next to Cullen whilst you sit with my friends and get to know them a bit? You don't seem too impressed that's where the last seat is," said a tall fair haired boy who walked over to me when he saw the look on my face because of where the last seat was.
"I think I'll be fine thanks. I'm Evelyn Call by the way, but I prefer to be called Evie," I replied as I hung my coat up on the remaining peg ignoring the last thing mentioned. I quickly glanced over at him to see if he had over heard any of what was just said but it didn't seem like he did. He just stayed content whilst peering out of the window to his left watching the light flakes of a new layer of snow fall.
"Cool. Well okay if you think you can survive next to him for a whole hour I suppose we could hang out at break and lunch," Jared muttered as he shook my hand after the greetings and introductions with a nice welcoming smile. I didn't think that within the first two hours of being at university that I would be welcomed in straight away by anyone and seeing as I would look like an idiot turning the offer down: I agreed.
"That would be great. I'll see you at break then," I retorted. Jared grinned and went to his seat with a large group of friends. I assumed that they had all gone to the same high school together judging by how they happily sat there talking to. I quietly walked over to the desk and sat down next to him. I swung my brown hair down over my left shoulder so I wouldn't be too distracted by his handsome face even though it would be going through my mind anyway! The professor told us what we were going to be doing and started to hand out some equipment that we would need. We didn't get a choice of who we worked with so I had to be partnered with him. This meant a load of broken equipment for us.
"Hello, I'm Jasper Cullen. You're Evie Call aren't you?" he said with a calm soft voice. My eyes widened at the shock of him talking to me and my breath caught slightly in my throat. It confused me of how he knew what my name was but shrugged it off straight away.
"Hi, yeah I am. How did you know?" I asked trying to not let it show that I was embarrassed: didn't work like usual. He just smiled again.
"I saw it on the top of your timetable in the reception. Plus this was a pretty quiet classroom when you were talking to Jared Nelson," Jasper explained. I was so mesmerised by his voice, it was soft and almost musical to listen to. If I could record him saying something, I would just to be able to repeatedly hear his voice when I needed to hear a familiar musical sound to calm my nerves or to cheer me up.
"I take it you've just moved to Dartmouth?" he asked when he realised that I wasn't going to say anything myself. First step of embarrassment checked off of my list.
"Yeah, we moved here about two months ago and we've just been getting settled in before throwing ourselves in the deep end with college, school and university," I replied. 'How the hell did I just manage to get through that sentence whilst staring at him?' I thought to myself quickly before he continued talking to me.
"I take it that means you've got younger siblings?" he questioned carefully resting his head on his hands with his head tilted slightly.
"I have three younger brothers. All of them are equal pains but the eldest of the three is the worst. He doesn't seem to show me any respect when he wants something. He is such a pain!" I muttered trying so hard to divert my eyes every now and again so I didn't look all that strange.
"My brothers and sisters can be pains as well. But they're family and you get used to it after a while I suppose. How do you like Dartmouth so far then?" he continued afterwards whilst playing around with a couple of slides.
"It's not my kind of place because of the weather. It's been keeping me up every night for the past month and it's so hard to get around. I hope it's better in the summer," I murmured. He laughed under his breath whilst putting the slides together in a pile next to the microscope. We continued to talk to each other about what I thought of Dartmouth, why I actually moved here, about Embry, Jason and Mike: mainly all of the basics to get to know me more. I just couldn't see how I was just sat there talking to him so openly, it was strange but he just seemed to invite confidence.
The experiment only took us about ten minutes to complete but everyone else took thirty minutes. When the professor was talking in the last five minutes of the lesson, I could feel him watching me, and I sensed him smiling again. I looked around pretending to be oblivious of him looking at me and glanced over at Jared. He was giving Jasper a horrid look but as soon as he saw me looking at him he smiled and put his head down pretending that he didn't do anything. It confused me because it seemed like everyone didn't like Jasper at all yet I couldn't find anything wrong with him. Not a single imperfection. As soon as the bell rang through the crowded classroom, he glided past me, smiled one last time when he reached the doorway and left. I never saw him again between then and the end of the day. Part of me hoped I did though.
For the rest of the day I could only think of him, only picture his smile and only hear his voice ringing through my mind. It was enough to drive me crazy but I loved it and wanted it to never end if it was going to keep me happy. Even at home all I could think of was him I just wasn't really prepared for his sudden change in mood over the next few days.