A/N: Let me know what you guys think!! And sorry if anything is misspelled, I typed this at 4am because I couldn't sleep. Insomnia sucks.
"You suck at life, Emmett," I snarled as I leaned against the Volvo waiting for the others to arrive. "That may be, but I'm pretty good at being dead," he laughed back. "And by the way, I do know that's you trying to make me think I'm in love with the lamp post." I smiled devilishly and feigned innocence.
Alice appeared out of literally nowhere and walloped (a/n: I'm not sure if this is a real word, but I like it!) me with a hug. "I'm so proud of you!" she gushed," you did so well! I knew you would!" Good grief, we just conversed, we didn't go down the aisle, I didn't understand why she was making such a fuss.
On the drive home, I stared out the window trying to fervently ignore my other siblings. While what they instigated wasn't nearly as painful as I was expecting, I still didn't like their meddling. Emmett's smugness radiated from him, nearly choking me. Too bad we weren't under that lamp post anymore. But I did get an intriguing conversation out of their ridiculous plan. I had no idea anyone else had my taste in literature…I thought the people who read my books died 80 years ago.
I could see Edward watching me through the rearview mirror and I started to recite a Britney Spears song in my head just to annoy him. "Ugh, now that's gonna be stuck in my head forever!" he snarled at me, resulting in my laughter. We seem to do quite a bit of snarling lately. "Serves you right for always listening in," I quipped, only partly joking. I knew Edward couldn't help hearing everything, but it was so damn annoying. It was quiet the rest of the drive back, Alice flipping through a catalog, Rose and Emmett talking quietly amongst themselves, and Edward singing 'Oops I Did It Again' to himself.
If I had thought that I wasn't going to be badgered about the day's events I was sorely mistaken. "Are you alright?" Esme inquired as I entered behind the others in the house. "He did great! Everyone is so proud!" Alice chirped, bouncing past us to go up the stairs. "Did everyone besides me know about this scheme??" I asked of Esme. She nodded, reaching up to smooth my hair in her motherly way. "So it went well, then?" "Everyone seems to think so, all I did was talk to her. It wasn't that big of a deal," I answered. Esme smiled and patted my shoulder before saying, "Good for you, it's about time you had someone to talk to about your crazy books."
"Why is everyone encouraging this? Isn't it too dangerous for a vampire to befriend a random, defenseless person? Especially me, out of all of you??" I asked her. Esme would always be honest with me. "We just want to see you happy," she said simply, smiling warmly before going back to her magazine on the couch.
I went upstairs to my room and lay on the bed to brood some more. I guess it is possible for a vampire and a normal human to be friends, and more, as with Edward and Bella. But that was just a disaster waiting to happen, we all knew it. Careful as Edward may be, he can never truly overcome what he is.
I didn't want to be the cause of a disaster, that innocent girl could never have done anything horrible enough to deserve the fate I have. But I guess just talking to her wouldn't end the world. She did have my book, after all. "We're going hunting!!" Emmett shouted, banging on my door. I shot up out of my daze and followed him, Rose and Alice down the stairs. At least I'd have some entertainment tonight besides my thoughts.
The weekend passed by uneventfully. Emmett challenged me to an arm wrestle, which he won, but I told him it was just because I let him. Esme, Rosalie and Alice went to Seattle for some shoe sale or something girly like that. Carlisle was away on some doctor's convention or somesuch. It was almost a relief for the school day to return so I'd at least have something to do besides get lost in my thoughts. My thoughts were seldom the happiest of places. Sometimes I felt bad that Edward had to listen to them. Sometimes being the key word.
I was almost glad for Monday; I was interested to hear what Amanda thought about the book I had lent her. By the time history class rolled around I was almost excited. I took my new seat, since Emmett had destroyed my old seat, but she wasn't there. I didn't think much of it, she was probably running late or something. But she never showed up.
She wasn't there the next day either. I was disappointed, but also a bit relieved that the result was two days free of nagging courtesy of my siblings. I picked up hints of sympathy from them, which I didn't like any better than the other, but at least they didn't say anything.
Wednesday morning the five of us trooped out to Edward's car to attend yet another school day. Alice dashed up to me and tossed me the keys to my dark red Mustang. "You'll need these today," she grinned mysteriously. She followed me to my car and got in the passenger seat. "And I'm doing this…why?" I asked as we pulled out of the drive. "You'll find out soon enough!" she laughed. "But Aaaaliiicee! I want to knoooow!!" I whined. "Sorry, you'll have to wait to see the future, just like normal people." And with all the maturity that a 165 year old vampire could possess, I stuck my tongue out at her.
The day passed at its usual sloth-like pace; all the while I was getting more and more curious about what Alice foresaw. I walked into history and was pleasantly surprised to see Amanda was back. She was too engrossed in her doodling to observe my silent approach. She jumped a little when I sat down but then smiled and greeted me.
"You've been gone a long time," I said, rather lamely, but I couldn't think of anything better. "Uh, yeah, there was a…family emergency," she halfway explained, "Can I see your notes? I really doubt I missed anything important, all this comes straight out of the book, but you never know." "Sure," I said pretending not to notice her quick change of subject, and passed her my notebook.
"I finished your book, but I left it at home. It was a hectic morning," she went on as she scrawled down my notes, "I left it somewhere where I wouldn't forget it, and I went and forgot it." "Not a problem, it happens to us all," I said, "so what did you think of it?" For the next few minutes we discussed some of the finer intricacies of turn of the century philosophy, until the teacher rudely decided that his lecture was more worthy of our attention.
He finally shut up and the bell rang to release us from this hellish prison that they call…high school. I jumped up, perhaps a bit too eagerly. "This class goes on forever, doesn't it," Amanda remarked quietly as she followed me out the door. "Forever doesn't even begin to cover it," I said. Seriously, I've lived through decades that felt shorter than that lone class period. We picked up our conversation where we left off, and I found myself following Amanda to her locker. I leaned against the locker beside hers and listened to her ramble about something in the book. Her movements were fascinating, so casual yet so elegant. Something a normal person would ever, ever notice. She slammed her locker shut, maybe with a bit more force than was necessary.
I found myself following her, wherever she was going. I was still participating in the conversation, yet not paying too much attention. Lucky for me, being a vampire lets me concentrate on several things at once. "Ugh, I get so sick of all this rain," She mumbled as we passed a large window in the hallway. "It is rather dreary," I agreed. She swore quietly under her breath before saying, "Especially when I just missed my bus."
Ooh, so this is what Alice had seen. "I can give you a ride," I offered, suddenly a bit anxious. She looked up at me; I could feel her surprise and confusion. It seemed to me she was surprised someone was being nice or something. "You don't mind?" "Not at all," I insisted. "Okay then…if you're positive you don't mind," she said skeptically, as if she was expecting me to change my mind and run away or something. "I'm positive I don't mind," I laughed. "Thanks," she responded, "this'll give me a chance to give you your book back."