A FRIENDSHIP
The reception, if that's what one would call it, smelt. I was unsure what of, but all I could detect was a musty, paint smell. I just assumed all school offices smelt the same, and probably had the same boring and monotone voiced middle age receptionists with shining white teeth and glossy blonde hair. The boy in front of me was fidgeting with his schoolbooks, vibes running through me and alerting to me that he was nervous. I leant in towards him to ask him if he was okay when he suddenly withdrew and ran out the door.
That was slightly more awkward than I would have wanted things to be I thought, my eyebrows slowly rising. I shook my head, a reflex action that I had just accustomed to. I walked up to the desk to hand in some forms my aunt had to sign for me to attend the school here at Forkes High, which happens to be approximately 5 km away from where I now live: the boring old neighbourhood where mostly retired residents live.
Forkes, for all I can make assumptions of, is a small town that is mostly cold and wet and raining, with hardly any people or means of entertainment and simple non-veranda front houses. Sure, there was a beautiful lake, which was swimmable in, but only in the summer, but hardly even then did we get good weather days. I reminisce un-wanting of when I came here with my close relatives and my best friend. They were the happy moments, which I tried to erase because it hurt too much.
I don't know why I shudder, thinking about the name of the school and town, the sensation goose bumps creeping up and down my legs and arms. Maybe it was because of the memories it gave or the emotions that sprung within me at the feel of the names rolling around in my mind. I sighed heavily, receiving a strange look from the receptionist, whose hair wasn't blonde but red, with heavily put on make-up. I pulled a slack smile, holding out the sheets of paper to her.
She pursed her lips while she read through the pages, her glasses almost falling off the brim of her nose. I waited patiently for her to decipher whether the sheets of papers were viable enough to be submitted to her. Her eyes widened when it got to the section of 'family history' and she gazed up at me with a shocked expression on her. I ignored the look she showed unhidden towards me, and held my hand out slowly to show I wanted to leave.
She cleared her throat, readjusting her pink glasses up to her eyes with one hand; while the other gave me back the sheets I could take back to my aunt. I smiled quickly, turning just as swiftly only to knock into a boy standing right behind me. I fell on my back once again, bruises neatly already brewing all over my body. The boy swore under his breath, but I could hear him and he dived down basically to inspect me for any fatal injuries. I was pleasantly, but inelegantly surprised at seeing those honey eyes again.
"Oh god, are you okay?" he asked huskily, clearing his throat and reaching out to touch my arm softly with his fingertips. An electric charge zapped at the skin-to-skin contact, though I didn't recoil and neither did him. He chuckled softly under his breath, running one of his hands through his hair in a casual manner, no detection of any unusualness within his enchanting eyes.
I smiled at him, but didn't laugh because I knew it meant something else. I studied his features a little more closely, noticing a slightly jagged, but unobvious scar that ran along his right cheekbone. He raised one eyebrow at my stunned silence and gazing, reaching his hand out. "Come on. I'll help you up: it can't be too comfortable on that cold floor." I slipped my hand in his, feeling his strength as he effortlessly lifted me up onto my feet. He smiled at me warmly, my cheeks flushing scarlet in response.
"Thank you…" I started, finding myself stuck for words because I wasn't aware of his name. "Edward," he said, reaching his hand forward to clasp in mine again. "Edward Cullen. I'm guessing you're Bella Swan, whom everyone is talking about." The question was rhetorical, so I settled by showing a slight notion of annoyance. "Is there anyone who doesn't know my name around here?"
"Well at a school from years 7-12, with only 95 students maximum," he informed me sarcastically, causing me to crack a smile. "No, everyone here knows you. But don't worry, the classes are combined from years 7-8 and 10-12, so there aren't too many in our year." "They only know my name, nothing else," I mumbled softly to myself, hoping he hadn't heard me. He merely gazed back at me serenely, which I suspected was because he himself was trying to hide that he hadn't heard me.
"I better get going," I said abruptly, stumbling over my own feet. "Thank you again Edward." "My pleasure," he politely replied, giving me a tiny imperceptible bow, which was only directed towards me. "It was nice bumping into you." I chuckled at his simple joke, giving him a small wave and turning to walk out, shaking my head at him in wonder.
"Hey Bella. Everyone, this is Bella Swan." I got an all round call of hellos, some of them enthusiastic, others just polite. I went to sit next to Mike, where he had left a seat available to me, and he clapped a hand gently on my back and encouragingly once again. I felt comfortable sitting with complete strangers, which was fascinatingly odd, but handy.
I looked around at everyone once, giving Mike's friends a small but friendly smile, and the ones I received were dazzlingly. A petite built and honey brown-eyed girl sitting right next to me placed her hand on my shoulder tenderly, her orange curls bouncing around her small face.
"I'm Jessica Stanley," she said in high-pitched voice, which was not in the least surprising because I assumed it would be sharp and suit her features: but it wasn't annoying, instead refreshing. "I'm in your Literature class and we're studying "The Road", the apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy. Have you read it?" she prompted me, her words tumbling out her mouth in a flurry. Her features deceived her, and she came through as being very intelligent.
"Hey Jessica, hold up a minute," Mike interjected, raising his hands as though the cops had guns held up to him. "Let everyone else introduce themselves before you ask a million questions." Jessica rolled her eyes at him, but stayed quiet, giving me a wink that indicated to me that she wasn't going to ask too many questions.
I gazed around the rest of the group, catching everyone's names and locked them into memory. Emmett was a football player, with the figure like a body builder, but subtler and gentler. He had a nice face and twinkling eyes that caused you to ignore his strong physique. Alice was outrageously hilarious, even more so than Mike. She had fierce features, almost cat-like eyes that made you feel nearly frightened, but her nature was more or less out there rather than abusive. She had jet-black hair that was spiky and suited her, and dark blue eyes that were narrowed.
Rosalie had the shape of a model, the type that nearly caused you to convulse because of their thinness. But she possessed amazing eyes, which were large and inhumanly beautiful, with soft hands that brushed your skin gently. She had kind and compassionate features that made me ignore her almost skeletal body, but I instantly liked her because of her approachable nature. Her hair was golden and dead straight, with a fringe that was cut short and looked very smart. There were three girls and two boys at this moment of time, until I realized there was someone yet to approach.
"Hey Edward, have you met Bella?" Mike crowed, indicating to me by lightly punching me on the arm. Edward beamed warmly at me, taking a seat between Emmett and Alice. "Yes, Bella and I bumped into each other at the reception," he answered, looking intently at me, not in an uncomfortable way, but in a curious way. I blushed again; hoping that no one noticed my reaction to him, though I saw Emmett grinning stupidly at me, while Mike appraised me with a near philosophical gaze.
"Gosh, I am a klutz," I commented, putting my hand to my forehead. "Bumped right into him and fell on my bum." I got a laugh for that joke, a booming one that I assumed came from Emmett. Edward chuckled, shaking his head at me. It seemed very strange that I could act so normally with the people I had just met and how much of a connection I already felt to honey-eyed Edward.
"Well, I guess we can all be like that sometimes," Jessica erupted, throwing her hands above her head. "Sometimes I wonder to myself whether I'll be next to fall on my ass!" Rosalie arched a perfect eyebrow at Jessica, shaking her head delicately from side to side to clear her mind.
"Sometimes I wonder whether you are high on alcohol and drugs Jess!" Alice stated, neither cruelly nor humorously, as though it were a well-known fact. "But who am I to judge. I know I'm no perfect angel of God." Everyone nodded their heads in mock solemnity, Mike raising his can of V, chiming "here here!" getting another laugh from the group. I shuffled uncomfortably in my chair at Alice's choice of words, feeling Edward's eyes on me.
"Hey I heard there is a big boating tournament happening tomorrow down at the lake this weekend," Emmett piped up, banging his fist against the table in anticipation. "I think we should all head down and take a look." We all put forth a mix of different feelings, though I stayed silent to wait and hear what the rest of the group wanted to input.
"I'm not really in the mood for getting my hair wet again Emmett," Rosalie replied dryly, giving him an almost pained look. "Seeing all those nice young blokes in speedos. Come on Roza Poza, what more can you want?" Jessica grinned, throwing a serviette at Rosalie's face, only for it to be swiped away quickly.
"I'm up for it if you all are. We can jump off the pier and take a nice dip!" It seemed Alice liked Mike's positivity as well as the rest of us. "Love the enthusiasm Mike. You could sell millions with that conviction. I think it would be a good idea for all of us, to let out hair loose," she stirred, bumping Rosalie, who sighed and rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Fine, I'll come. Just as long as it's not a repeat of last time." "Can't say I will oblige to that code of conduct," Emmett mocked, giving a lazy grin to Rosalie. "You'll just have to wait and see." "Good," Jessica said in a rushed voice, looking over at me. "What do you say Bella? Wanna see how we Forkes people do it here?" Everyone's eyes were on me, but I detected the clearest Edward's, whose facial expressions looked sceptical, as though he could see through my facade. I cracked a convincing smile, nodding my head.
"Why not?" I said, shrugging my shoulders in mock boredom, though I was more filled with adrenaline than anything. I had to grip reality and remember that it was normal, and this is what other normal people did. Everyone was persuaded with my response, the entirety of the group feeling pumped for the upcoming weekend. I stared up at Edward from underneath my eyelashes, only just noticing how tall he actually was. He looked back at me with a concentrated expression, inquisitiveness filled within his eyes.
"It's settled then," Mike chimed into the groups' convo, "And I'm assuming you're in too Edward?" I watched him, while he contemplated me as I felt this pull towards him that was so unusual and unexplainable. I began to feel quite dizzy at the amount of feelings and emotions I was feeling around this boy whom I had literally met only fifteen minutes before. I took a sip of water from my bottle and sat up straighter in my chair
"Of course," he answered in a free spirited tone, slumping back in his chair in a casual way. "Wouldn't miss it for the world." "Excellent!" Jessica exclaimed, her fervour stimulating her face. "Okay, so now we have a weekend planned." Just as she had finished, the bell rung once again, warning us that if we were all late and we could very well receive a detention which rewarded us no fun packed weekend.
"Don't you just love last period of the day?" Mike asked, virtually jumping out of his chair. "And it's already Wednesday." "Hump day everybody!" Alice yelled, hip and shouldering Emmett, only to make him move an inch. I grinned at the three of them, as did Edward who followed them and gave me a little wave, causing my temperature to rise.
"Bella," a smaller voice whispered from across the table, which I knew was Rosalie's. "Do you have Italian now?" "Yeah I do Rosalie," I smiled, feeling slightly elated at the fact that I would be having the next class with her. Rosalie beamed at me in a girlish manner, but it suited her very well.
"I am so glad," she breathed, coming round the chairs to walk with me slowly to the classroom. "I don't know how I would survive in my language classes alone again." She looked at me from the corner of her eye and burst into laughter and we giggled along the hallway to decipher the passato prossimo.
Rosalie and I walked out of the classroom in unison, not wanting to hear our teacher yell at us in both English and Italian at the same time. We laughed with one another, as though we had been friends since grade prep, rather than having just met at lunch. She was in her own way a little eccentric and rather indifferent to what she did, whether it was poke her tongue out at the teacher or give me a ridiculous wink that caused her lip to turn up. I could tell that Rosalie was a good friend to have and that made me somewhat a little happier.
We arrived outside the school in the parking section where the majority of the teachers parked their cars, but for us boys and girls on L-plates, we parked our bikes in the car parks. The rest of the group was standing around their bikes together, including Edward, so we were the last ones to come out of classes. Alice ran towards us and took us both in a big bear hug, which made Rosalie and I giggle even more than we already were.
"Gosh, you two," Alice said in a feline voice, placing her hands on her hips animatedly. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you two are best friends for life." Rosalie and I looked at each other, a rupture of laughter filling between us again. I hadn't laughed so much in a very long time, not since before… well, in just an extremely long time. Alice shook her head at us and walked us over to the group, her arms thrown out in exasperation.
"I don't know what we are going to do with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum here!" Jessica cackled a tremendous laugh that had us all nearly tumbling over in hilarity. "Okay, I think that's enough for one day," Mike chastised contemptuously but sarcastically, pointing his finger at each of us. "Our parentals will be wondering where we have headed off to." "Good point. I have to go to my singing lesson now," Jessica remembered, running around to her bike. "Catcha you all tomorrow."
"Hey wait up Jess!" Alice called after her, hopping onto her own bike. "Maybe you can give me a practice run! LALALALA!" "See you guys later," Emmett bellowed, giving a very special look to Rosalie especially, who blushed a little in her hollow cheeks. "Do you and Mike want to ride with me? I can dink you Rosalie!" "Now that would be a sight!" Edward shouted, awarding him a nodding of agreement.
"Oh shoosh," Rosalie retorted, brushing the hair from her eyes to walk straight towards Emmett and got up on his handlebars. "You make me out to seem like a posh English woman!" "Ah, I guess we should give you more credit," Mike said in a serious voice, placing his fist on his heart. "Scouts honour, we will never think you not capable of riding the handlebars."
"Come on, let's go!" Emmett said, pushing his bike around. "My grandma will have made cup cakes for us. Do you two wanna come with us?" I looked up at Edward, completely aware that we were standing in close proximity.
"Nah, not tonight lady and gentlemen," Edward crooned, "My grandma will want me home in time for dinner. Plus I can't let Bella make her way alone back to her joint." "Such a gentleman he is!" Mike cried, putting his mountain bike into gear. "Sleep tight tonight and don't let the bed bugs bite!" The three of them rode off out of the parking lot and Edward and I were left alone. He cleared his throat, while I tried to wipe my clammy hands on my jeans.
"Want me to walk you home?" Edward asked politely, because neither him nor I had a bike to ride on. "Sure, that sounds like a good idea to me."