Izzy
I walked down the halls at my school, looking for my best friend. She was, no doubt with her creepy-ass boyfriend. It scared me how much time she spent with him. I mean he was gorgeous and all, but I'd told her before and I'd tell her again – she was obsessed. Even Jessica was saying so,and Jessica didn't pick up on anything.
I quickened my pace angrily, and so, almost missed them. They were huddled together beside Bella's locker, and they were whispering. As I came closer, I could make out a few words or phrases.
"…I was the first…three…usually just…" It was Jamie's voice. I crept closer. I had known for a while now about Bella's secret vampire family, but actually hearing something about them firsthand was rare. Jamie was continuing. "…They chose carefully, then…." He nodded his head, as if implying the rest. "It's not a way most of our kind would want to die, but there are some, myself included who could withstand it."
"How," Bella's turn to talk, "how did you find out you could? I mean what if the Brethren had been wrong, and you had died… I mean…" She broke off with a shudder. No one can break off with a shudder like my best friend.
"I didn't…care… back then," said Jamie, very slowly. "I wanted to get rid of the beast inside of me so desperately… I would have been perfectly willing to die."
"HI GUYS!" I said, stepping forward. I didn't care whether his secret got kept or not, but Bells cared, and some kids nearby, (Chad, I think? And his blonde friend, Lorri?) was starting to stare. "What's up?"
Bella whirled to face me eyes huge. "Don't… scare me like that," she said shaking her head.
"Sorry," I lied sheepishly. "I just… I mean, we're going to be late for class, so…"
"Right." She gave Edward one of her 'long adoring stares', and followed me to class, reluctantly slipping her hand out of his. I could have cared less, but only by a little bit. I loved Bells, but she worried me a bit. Ah well. Off to class.
Jessica
'Oh, like, she totally deigned to come!' I thought, like really sarcastically. 'I'm so totally shocked. I thought she'd be cutting class with her boyfriend again.' I wasn't bitter or anything, it just was really irritating that they spent so much time together. I mean sure he was gorgeous, and I guess she kinda was too, but it's like they were all goo-goo in love or something – that's weird.
My physics teacher, who totally needed to die by the way, asked us to take our seats, and gestured for a moment of silence. Then he gestured to this, like, guy in the corner that I hadn't seen and – Oh my God! He was really cute. Like, Really Cute. Like I would have dated him in a second! Oh my God.
By the end of the day, all of us had made a discovery. That guy? Not cute. His name was Jackson Evans, right? But he went by Jack, which I'm totally cool with, but it's (hello?) kinda boring - and he didn't look at anybody. The whole time I saw him at school, he made eye contact with, like, zero percent of the people here. I totally don't get it. I mean maybe he was just shy, or maybe he, like, didn't think we were good enough for him, or…or whatever. I mean talk about disappointment. Oh, and talking? Off the menu. Not happening at all, which was, like, really annoying. I mean you could look right at him, and ask him something, and he would totally just mumble something and walk away. Maybe he's trying to be emo? I don't know. It's just really irritating.
Bella
I had heard a new way of killing vampires – and of doing something even more powerful. What could I have learned if my best friend hadn't walked in? I'll never know. I love Izzy, but I had to hate her timing.
Jamie had told me one of the deepest secrets of his kind, in between history and physics, the same way he might have told me what day it was. He trusted me – and if I could have loved him even more for it, I would. But I couldn't love him any more. He had every last shred of my heart. I would never ask for it back.
That night as I washed dishes, carefully scrubbing each stain off the odd, teal patterns that sprawled across the plate (I think they must have been some of the ones mom picked, because Charlie and teal don't tend to mix), my mind wandered back over what Jamie had told me about the brethren. I guess I had expected them to make their secret hideaway in Rome or Venice, some place with history, and according to Jamie they had until recently – but to live their cold, beautiful, elegant lives in Vegas? That I did not expect. Maybe I should have, I mean where could vampires hide better? Where else would their flare for the dramatic be seen as merely that? But at the same time, the strange, inhuman aristocracy that Jamie had described seemed to fit better somewhere – anywhere – else.
As my mind churned and coiled around this newfound information, my hands went on autopilot. Grab, scrub, rinse. Grab, scrub, rinse. I slipped my hands beneath the frothy water and felt a sharp sting. Great. I had managed to impale my finger on a knife. I hurried to rinse it off, turning the water red, and hoping for perhaps the first time in my life, that Jamie was no where near.
Jacob
I dropped by Forks high school before classes could start. All else failing, I could cut my first class. But I had to see Bella. I knew she was still with her cold-faced, plastic boyfriend, but I had to see her all the same. I needed Bella. When I was with her, life just had more color, like the difference between my vision as a wolf and my vision as a human. Bells had kept that secret for me, and I would keep her jackass boyfriends. But I wouldn't like it.
Wet leaves tangled in my hair, and I could see why some people cut theirs short. A small stream of water was pouring right down the back of my already drenched shirt, and I couldn't seem to move so it didn't. 'That's what the brave Indian gets for climbing a tree', I thought bitterly.
Forget waiting; if I couldn't get answers from the source, then I'd go for the next best thing.
I watched as a red tangle with a round girl attached climbed out of her beat up old car.
Time for some answers.
Izzy
He didn't even look at me.
How Jacob Black could enter upon the scene, ask me terse questions about my best friend, and stand right there, in all his beautiful, drenched glory, all the time looking around as though he expected a magical Bella-in-the-box to pop up somewhere, I don't know. But he did. He didn't even make eye contact.
I sat at home, listening to grandma telling me for the fourth time, how, no, I didn't need to wash the dishes, she would do it, and if her aching bones finally gave way under the stress of those mounds of filthy porcelain, well, that was alright, I shouldn't feel bad… on, and on, and on.
My life was beautiful. After the tragedy of my mother's death, my small, sweet, broken family had pulled itself together, and forged an all new life for ourselves. We had started fresh, and had built our own new family. I had gotten past my fears of rejection because of some stupid numbers on a scale, and now had the best friend a girl could wish for. I lived in a free country, where women could talk as equals to men, and what color you were didn't affect where you were hired. Yes, I had a beautiful life… and I was considering ending it with a toaster to the bathtub. Grr.