Edward settled himself down into his seat in Biology
Edward settled himself down into his seat in Biology. He was, for once, in a bright mood. Though he knew everything the teacher would say about mitochondria, he didn't seem to mind on this particular day.
Part of what had contributed to his bright mood lay in the relocation of a particularly annoying girl who had previously sat next to him; she had moved from rainy Forks to a city in northern Montana. Now he had the desk to himself, no half-rotten stench of an over-perfumed twit leaking in through his stoic nostrils. The class even felt like it had a little more room, which he appreciated. More air to breathe, more air to dilute their scents, and that was pleasant, even if they didn't tempt him so much as they used to.
Sometimes, Edward became greatly annoyed that the Cullens had to re-attend high school so often. Whenever the family moved, it seemed, the five of them were dropped back into junior and senior years. If it wasn't high school, it was college, or med school, or law school. Rosalie had even attended a vocational school for a mechanic certification a few times. It had gotten more than old in the last fifty years.
Indeed, Melissa, the annoying girl, was gone. He stretched out a bit, shifting to the middle of his wide desk and looking forward to doing his experiment alone.
His mood, however, was soon plowed down. A knock on the door came, and with it, a line of thought into Edward's mind.
"Why did they have to transfer me? I liked Mr. Gifford." Mr. Gifford was the only other teacher that taught Science at Forks.
Edward sighed at his misfortune. He looked around the room. The only open seat, it would seem, was next to him.
Forks, you see, was slowly becoming quite a popular school district. Parents from the big cities of California and Nevada were suddenly deciding that they wanted their children in more nurturing environments. There was barely enough room for students in each classroom, and rarely enough books.
He caught the teacher's expression, a look of the inevitability of bad luck that mimicked Edward's own face.
Then she walked in.
In appearance, she was pretty, by human standards. Her body seemed slightly disproportionate, with a torso that was just too short for her long legs and long arms and long neck. Her face was fresh looking and young; her eyes were wide and round and rimmed in glitter and long lashes. Her lips were small and full, and they were paired with a button nose and a splash of freckles. She was slightly tanned in such a fashion that revealed that it was more tan than she usually was.
To compensate for her short torso, her pants hung low on her waist, with a pair of Spiderman underwear sticking out to cover her bottom. Her shirt was more of a tie-dyed dress, loosely hanging down to her thighs. She was wearing flip-flops and a worn red sweatshirt, and her reddish hair hung down her back and over her breasts in loose curls.
No one noticed that, however, because she was pregnant.
People immediately began to whisper. She blushed slightly while she was introduced, and then sat down where she was directed. Right next to Edward Cullen.
He, for the most part, paid little mind to her perfectly round belly. Off and on, he heard someone think, "She's so…big." Obviously she was big, she had a child in her stomach. The speaker, however, meant that she was fat. Edward's eyebrows furrowed at that. It was a little ridiculous. She looked more like a Grecian goddess of fertility than an overweight American.
Moreover, he paid attention to her. He had stopped breathing on purpose – somehow he thought two heartbeats might be one too much in the temptation category – so he didn't catch her scent. He did catch some of her thoughts. They weren't thoughts of embarrassment, like he would expect from a pregnant teenager. She had been blushing just at the attention. He smiled to himself; he thought it was very cute of her.
As the thought floated into his head, it surprised him. Cute? Maybe like a bunny is cute – helpless, soft, furry. That's cute. But humans weren't that cute.
When she sat down next to him, she smiled awkwardly and extended her hand. She had seen him and his siblings at lunch, before she had gotten pregnant, but she didn't seem to be nervous or afraid. She placed her hand right in front of him and said, "Hi, I'm Callie."
Without hesitating, or even thinking, Edward reached out to return the handshake. The polite gesture enamored him to her immediately; it was refreshing. His cold hand surprised her. "You're just as cold as I am!" She exclaimed with a smile. He let out a sigh of relief. "My hands get cold all the time. I'd offer my gloves but I'm quite sure they'd be too small." She pushed her hand against his and raised both of them into their lines of sight. Indeed, her fingers barely reached past Edward's palms. She laughed.
He looked at her, bewildered. "So you're Edward, right?" He nodded. "I've seen you around, sometimes at lunch. Looks like we'll be lab partners," She said, still smiling, then turned to face the front. Somehow, he couldn't tell whether she was smiling because of him, or if she treated everyone like this. He found himself hoping for the latter. It was rare to find a human that was genuinely nice. As he had said to himself so many times, they as creatures tended to be horribly cruel to one another.
She looked about her, a little nervous. Edward probed into her mind, searching for the cause of her nerves. Was it him? He suddenly wanted to know.
As he searched, she put her hands up to her temples and furrowed her eyebrows. "What's wrong?" He asked, distracted from his quest.
"My head just felt a bit funny, that's all." Her nose twitched from side to side like a rabbit's, and then she smiled again. "But it seems to be gone now. Maybe someone blew a dog whistle somewhere close," She added, jokingly. "Thanks for your concern, anyway."
"Are you nervous?" He asked. She shrugged and smiled awkwardly.
"A little."
"Why?" Why was he curious, anyway?
"Oh, just general jitters." She laughed. "New places, new information, and what-not."
For the rest of the period, she and Edward talked on and off, during the lecture and while they examined the mitochondria in a microscope. "We already did this in my other class," She explained later, "That's why this is so annoying. It's like doubling up on half of what I've already done." She shrugged it off with another shining smile.
As he left the classroom and headed toward lunch, Edward found himself thoroughly intrigued at the pregnant girl with a child's face who was now his lab partner. She was so happy, smiling at so much around her. The only negative thoughts he caught floating through her mind were small mental complaints about repeating a Lab or the smell of the dye; complaints that she never aired out loud.
He hadn't taken a breath since she came in, and suddenly, he wished he could smell her.
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He had been sitting in the cafeteria with his siblings for ten minutes already when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned, and there was Callie, with a brown-bag lunch. "Would you mind horribly if I joined you and your brothers and sisters for lunch?" She directed the question not only at him, but at the rest of them, as well, making eye contact with each. Edward's face took on a confused expression; he had never had someone brave enough to ask to sit with them at lunch. Then he realized something. She hadn't come to lunch since she had gotten pregnant and she wasn't sure if he would let her join them. Her so-called friends had ditched her as soon as she would have needed them. "Um…" He looked around to his siblings. Emmett and Jasper shrugged, Alice nodded enthusiastically, and Rosalie ignored her. "Sure."
Rosalie shot a glare at him. He shrugged. Callie went to sit down, but before she did, she looked to Rosalie. "Are you sure it's okay? I don't want to be a bother to you."
Amazingly, Rosalie looked her up and down, stared hard at her, and then nodded. "I'm Rosalie."
Callie smiled brilliantly. "It is very nice to meet you."
The rest of the Cullens smiled. Edward mixed excitement in with his already confused disposition, and then he stood and pulled out a chair for her. "Thank you very much," She said politely. She sat down across from him as he took his seat.
Alice wasted no time. "I'm Alice. You're pregnant?" Edward cringed for a moment, but Callie took it in stride and said, "Yes ma'am," with a smile.
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"I want to be surprised."
"How far along are you?"
"Six months."
"What's your name?"
"Calliope Anne Dawson. You sure do ask a lot of questions."
"I'm a curious person. Nice to meet you, Calliope Anne."
"Nice to meet you, Alice, and Callie will do just fine, if you want the convenience."
Jasper smiled at this. He caught the slight southern twang in her voice. "You're from the South?" He asked. She nodded. He nodded his approval. "So am I."
Emmett had joined the conversation by now. "Do you like bears?"
"I think they're mighty strong and scary, but my grandfather always used to tell old stories about Snow White and Rose Red, and that bear turned out to be a Prince! So they most certainly aren't bad. Otherwise, no one would have told a nice story about them."
Edward didn't know what it was about this girl, but she had charmed his family so far. They spent the rest of their lunch period talking about bears and cars and Biology and shopping and books. It turned out that she was very well read, had a mechanic brother, and a passion for the occasional shopping trip.
Edward went to his next class with a smile on his face.
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After finishing out the day, he went to meet his siblings in the parking lot, where they got into Rosalie's car and drove home. The entire way home, they were chittering about Callie. Alice wanted to take her shopping. Rosalie wanted to look over the Volvo's engine with her and brag about her modifications. Emmett joked about taking her hunting to time how fast he could take down a bear, and Jasper wanted to hear what she thought about Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and what she remembered from living in Alabama. Edward just listened, bewildered, and looked forward to Biology.
The conversations carried over into the house, where Carlisle and Esme both heard every detail about Calliope Anne Dawson. When Alice mentioned that Callie was pregnant, even Esme was hooked. She looked to Edward. "Oh Edward, you must bring Callie for a visit. I'm sure I'd love to meet her." He gaped at the suggestion, even more so when his siblings agreed.
Carlisle was the only one who made any sense. "Now, really, Esme, Alice, everyone. This girl, while she seems to be a nice girl, will probably not be so nice if she finds out what we are. An Alabama girl is bound to be religious, and while I'm not against it per say," everyone nodded, recalling Carlisle's religious past, "We will probably be nothing short of demons to her. Certainly keep her as a friend at school, but it would not be wise for her to come to the house."
Everyone nodded somberly. Alice even sighed. "But I wanted to take her shopping."
Carlisle smiled. "Well, I don't see anything wrong with that."
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Later that night, Edward was curled up in his bed, listening to a mix of music he made three years prior. He couldn't understand the obsession with that girl. Sure, she was nice, adorable, polite, intelligent, and well rounded, he told himself, but she was a human. A temptation. A danger to his family. He resolved to think of her inside the realms of school and nowhere else. Somewhere, in the back of his head, he knew he was being ridiculous. He knew his family had more than enough will power to deal with the situation. Why was he overreacting? He ignored that voice.
Still, as a short song by Pete Yorn came floating through his radio speakers, he couldn't help but reminisce about her.
Someday, I'll look into those green eyes
And know that you'll come with me
A girl like you
She had green eyes. Deep, pale green eyes that stood out wildly against her freckles and tan. He remembered when she looked at him in Biology, straight into his eyes with no fear at all, just trust and welcome.
Too many things I do not care for
But one thing that I adore
Is a girl like you
Things he doesn't care for, like the human race? That was too broad. Even in thinking it, he felt like he'd be disappointing Carlisle. Carlisle believed that we were to protect the humans. And she was different. She was…well, hadn't he said adorable already?
I always try
To look you in the eyes
And it's okay, with a girl like you
When she looked into his eyes, it had been a shock to his senses. She was so real, so near. Yet he hadn't wanted her blood. Why? He hadn't been breathing, he remembered.
Tomorrow, I think I'll tell you something
A thing that I haven't said
To a girl like you
He couldn't imagine sharing his family's secret, endangering them. This line was ridiculous. But wait, he thought, why am I treating this like it is my life soundtrack?
And even if I don't know what the day will bring
I can tell anything to a girl like you
Could he?