2. The new girl in town

Disclaimer (I remembered! Now no one can complain ;-)): I don't own Twilight, Steph does, bla, bla, bla…

Oh, and I'm thinking of changing the name of the story to Moonlight, 'cause Selene is my Penname, and maybe the name seems a little odd if you don't know that Selene is the Greek moon goddess, and then it's also my characters middle name. If you didn't understand what I just wrote, please don't get confused; I didn't understand it either.

And (and, and…) I want you all to know that Moonlight is set exactly 5½ years after 'Breaking Dawn'.

Song for this chapter: So what – Pink

When the last of the boys jumped I felt this weird sting of… worry, I think. I woke up sweating heavily. It was still dark outside but light began to appear in the eastern horizon.

I felt a strange sensation, when a wolf howled in the distance. I felt an urge to run out in the forest and just laugh because this morning was so incredibly beautiful. I didn't even bother to be quiet when I ran out in the garden. The flowers were blooming, sending this magic perfumed scent out. I breathed deeply.

"Mm…"

How I could have been so depressed just yesterday seemed like a mystery. I danced, humming quietly, down the garden path, which slowly turned into a forest trail. I didn't even realize it when I danced, now singing loudly, of the trail. Suddenly a loud wolf howl sounded. Wow it must be really close… Wolf… Close… Shit! I stood still like a statue in the beautiful forest clearing I'd ended up in. A branch snapped behind me and I turned slowly.

In the green blur stood, not one, but three HUGE wolves. I wanted to scream so badly, but the wordless sounds were stuck in my dry throat. My stomach seemed to contract. The wolves, one chocolate brown, one black and one sandy, just looked at me, and the look in their eyes was, strangely enough, not terrifying, but just as terrified, as I would imagine my own eyes to look. Then suddenly they turned around and ran away, like they were sharing one single thought.

I started shaking and I felt like fainting, exactly like the heroines in my favorite books of my childhood. Tears ran down slowly, following the lines in my face. What a stupid, reckless, idiot I was.

I still have no idea how I got home that day, but I do know that it was a miracle my parents didn't find out what had happened.

Three hours and no sleep later my room looked like something colorful had exploded on the floor.

Red or turquoise? Blue or green? I held my shirts in front of me, one by one. First day at the new high school and boy, was I nervous. I ended up in a black top, a nice pair of shorts and then, with my sneakers on, I was ready to go! I could hear my dad in the kitchen, teasing my sisters until they would cry. That procedure I knew, and today, I was going to try to avoid taking part in it. This morning my sisters both claimed to be ill, with headache supposedly.

I stepped into my dad's show off car, a BMW Something, and started driving slowly through still sleepy Forks. My hands were shaking again, I was sweating (gross!) and I had to concentrate on the road all the time, to prevent myself from falling asleep. My mom had yelled a quick goodbye, but she hadn't had time for a 'have a good day, sweetie' as she usually had.

My legs were shaking badly from tiredness and nervousness, when I finally made it to Forks High. There was only two other students on the whole parking lot (both girls), and one of them, a Native American (didn't they go to school at that reservation?), seemed so angry already, that I didn't dare asking her for the directions to the office. The other one was (luckily) already walking towards me.

She was pale in a way, that reminded me of beauties on old paintings, and beautiful, was a word that suited the girl. With the rosy cheeks, red lips and her long black curls, she literally was the fairytale princess I used to tell myself stories about.

"Hi" She smiled a friendly smile. "I'm Adara and the girl over there," She pointed over her shoulder at a girl walking out of one of the buildings, "is my twin, Ophelia. You must be Cassandra then?"

"Cassie, yes, but how did you know?"

"Oh, let's just say, that news travel fast in Forks." She smiled briefly. "Didn't you have a sister or something?"

Oh, the mighty power of small town gossip. They probably even knew what kind of cat food we gave our cats. "I have two as a matter of fact, Daphne and Gabriella."

And suddenly, just like that, we were talking sisters, families, everything, even boys, which was something I never talked about with anyone, except Mattie and Kara, my two best girlfriends. Adara was so natural and nice, that it would be impossible not to like her. I even told her about my crush on Thomas. I didn't know exactly why, but I really wished to be friends with Adara. She was simply 'adarable'!

Adara and I luckily had all the morning classes together, and even luckier; none of the teachers asked me to introduce myself. What a relief that was! We talked and whispered through the first classes, and I quickly learned that she lived with her busy 'career-mother' and her 'football-big brother'. Her father had died in a car accident a year after the twins were born.

When the bell rang out for the first break ((save me, please, I have no idea what 'break-system' American schools use!)) Adara dragged me towards the cafeteria to meet her friends. Everybody stared; not just at me, but at Adara as well, she was very popular amongst the boys, it seemed. It felt a bit like I was slowly sinking through the floor and I felt very warm and sweaty.

I hated this kind of attention. It felt a bit like being in a talent show and proving your (nonexistent) singing talent for some crazy and evil judges… Only here, there were over 300 'judges', all staring at me! I wouldn't look down, I wouldn't look down, I kept telling myself. I should focus on looking confident and elegant instead of clumsy and weird. I was going to fit in perfectly, I told myself.

"Hey, I'm Jordan and this' Mariah, Jaden, Tammy and Brittany. " The tall muscular boy was smiling at Adara, while he was supposed to be speaking to me. Classical. Wonderful. This was already going great.

"Cheerleaders… Jordan and Brittany share the 'sleeping around' record." Adara's quiet whispers in my ear had become a habit. This was the fifth group today, and at least the cool half of the groups, only came to chat with Adara. I hadn't even been introduced to her friends yet. Here the next group came.

It was the football players. It seemed like this break would never end, and I felt like people kept 'dropping in' on our table. I had underestimated Forks High; there seemed to be a lot more people here than I had ever imagined.

It was not until our last break, people stopped coming over. Then Adara was finally able to introduce me to her friends.

"Cassie, this is Arianna, or Ria as she prefers, James; Jamie (he shot her a vicious glance, apparently he didn't like his nickname) and Ophelia or Phelie."

Arianna was a tall girl with long curly blonde hair, one of those girls everyone envied. James was blonde and tall as well, and looked like a male Scandinavian supermodel. What really surprised me was 'Phelie', who of course looked exactly like Adara, but she also looked totally… Drained… Ill, actually…

They all greeted me quickly, and fell silent. Adara chattered a little with herself, and then she fell silent too. How awkward. Then, Ophelia stood up and left the table. And conversation kick started.

"Are we coming to Brittany's party tonight?" It was Arianna asking.

Adara looked at Arianna like she was crazy. "Are you serious? I really don't bother going to that! Her parties are about three things only:

Drinking.

Kissing and having sex with random people.

Gaining more popularity to her (which she, sadly, doesn't succeed in)."

James opened his mouth. "Now, now children, behave… We are the greatest freaks of this school after all… Right? We don't attend that kind of parties… But, I suppose we can make an exception tonight. By the way, why the heck do you want to go Ria?"

Adara snorted. "Children? Seriously James, you are more a child than all the rest of us together… Just because I'm a little younger than…"

"Cut it OFF! " It was Arianna. A feisty argument began, and I felt kind of stuck in the middle of it. I felt warm, confused and dizzy… Black… Colors… No definitely black.

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I was floating, drifting through nothingness. Darkness surrounded me. I would have been half scared to death if this had been reality, but now, I was just calm.

A boy was running through the forest, looking scared and confused. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't move. Suddenly, out of nothing, a wolf jumped into the clearing I was standing in. There was blood on its barred teeth.

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My head hurt. A lot.

"I she awake?" A stranger, a female, a professional female… "Yeah… I kinda think so… "James' voice.

"You kids nowadays; 'I kind of, maybe, might think so…'" The female mocked him. "Well, Miss Dove, can you then, if I'm very lucky, tell me what happened to our newest student? Huh?"

"Well… She fainted, obviously, and I think she might've been a little dehydrated… That's all." Adara was here too?!

I was finally figuring out where I was, and who was talking. I was at the school nurse's office with my supposed new 'clique'. Damn. I might not have blushing issues, but I definitely have fainting issues.

I opened my eyes a little.

"SHE'S AWAKE!" Arianna announced proudly.

An awful lot of explaining later, we were finally allowed out of the office. My head was aching, I felt like fainting again and I was embarrassed half to death.

"Thank goodness…" I sighed.

"She speaks!" It was James, trying to be funny.

"Leave her alone for a couple of seconds James, will you?" I silently thanked the gods for Adara.

We walked to the parking lot in silence.

"Do you faint a lot?" James just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"N-n-no, I d-don't." I stammered. Oh, hell, pull yourself together now Cassie.

I wasn't usually like this. Usually I was the one talking all the time. Why couldn't I just act natural?!

"Do you talk a lot?" I mocked his voice.

"Ha! Good one Cassie!" Adara was grinning.

"Wow. I am completely stunned. Momentarily stunned." James sat down on the grass and then jumped up again, when he realized it was wet.

That made us laugh again, and it broke the tension that was building up between us. I walked towards my car, and to my surprise, Arianna and Adara followed. Ophelia was waiting by a tiny Ford, which I recognized as the twins' car. Adara's friends were nice. Really nice, smart and funny. They were perfect, and in truth, I felt very lucky to have met them.

When James saw my car, his mouth fell open. "Wow, is that your car?"

"I guess technically speaking it's not, but I am allowed to use it," I explained, almost giggling, because of the overly jealous look on his face. "It's my father's show off car."

"Well, lucky you," he grinned, "Are you inviting us over to your place?"

"Hmph, James, normally you don't invite yourself over in that way… But since I'm curious as well… Please, Cassie?" said Adara, who was, for the first time today, not saving me, but making me fall deeper into the 'get new friends quickly'-trap.

"Yeah, yeah, just follow my car…" I sighed, giving my 'relax-relax-bore-relax'-day totally up.

We all drove to my house and, of course, they all knew where it was, who had lived in it before us, and probably which ghost was said to reside in it. The nervous knot in my stomach was finally loosing up. My body was all warm and I was happier than I'd been for a long time. This was great. I stepped on the speeder and raced past James. I was still laughing when I stepped out of the car.

The others stepped out of their car: Adara smiled, James scowled and Arianna giggled. They had shared Arianna's tiny old VW and Ophelia had left in the Ford without a word.

We went into the house to say hello to my sisters and my mum, who was at home. She looked pleased that I, her oh so lonely daughter, had found new friends so quickly. Baberiella eyed Arianna a speculatively, I personally think she was considering asking Arianna to give her some fashion advice. Daphne stared at Adara with huge eyes.

"Are you a princess?" She asked.

Adara smiled. "Flattering, but no, I'm not. May I ask you the same question, princess Daphne?"

Daphne giggled. "I'm no princess. I'm just me. "

While my new friends chatted with my sisters, I could see my mum's glance get more and more approving. For a moment I actually wished that I had found some really 'bad-influence'-friends, just to annoy her, to show her that she couldn't decide everything that happened in my life.

It took a while to get everybody out of the house, to avoid my room which was not very interesting right now, just a big mess (exactly like my head). We sat in the garden, Adara and James on the huge white swing, looking like a fairytale couple and Arianna and I on two big stones. I actually wished I could have taken a picture of my garden in that moment.

"Tell me about Forks." I pleaded.

Adara smiled. "What do you wanna know? Not that there's much to tell, but…"

"Everything that's just the least bit interesting, and, by the way, I've only lived in small towns this far, so the 'nothing interesting here' phrase is not exactly new to me." I said, smiling. "I want all the stories and gossip."

Arianna, who looked like a cat with a very big bowl of cream, answered me: "Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm the biggest authority on that topic, you'll ever find. In other words: You've come to the right person."

Adara giggled. "Yeah, she has, she definitely has!"

Arianna continued, pouting. "Well, as I was about to tell you, the most exciting thing in Forks is the Cullen's. A couple of years ago, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, and his wife, Esme Cullen, moved out of town with their adopted children: Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett… Butttttt, yes, there is a but, no, not a butt-but, but a but. Okay, that sounded just a liiiitle bit confusing. Sorry. Well their other son, still adoptive by the way, Edward, stayed and married his high school sweetheart Bella Cullen, nee Isabella Swan (her father is the police officer). They went to college on Dartmouth; I may add here, that the Cullen's are trés, trés rich, and then moved back to Forks, and they now live in the Cullen's huge house in the forest. As if that wasn't exciting enough, there are some rumors going on, that Edwards's unknown cousin is coming to live with them. And she is our age! Isn't that exciting?!?!!"

"Wow… "Was all James could say. "I didn't even know that much."

"And I didn't know it was humanly possible to speak that fast," Adara added, dryly.

"But, seriously guys, can't you all see how exciting this is gonna be? " Arianna again.

James was starring dreamily on a tree. "Yeah, I see the possibilities…Another inhumanly beautiful, smart and talented Cullen in town… "

"You're just such a jerk, James Sanders." Adara pushed him so he fell of the swing.

"Ouch, Adara, and you're calling me a jerk?!"

I giggled. I just knew that Forks was going to be… The time of my life…

What I didn't know was the extreme changes the topic of the conversation was going to have on my life.

Did you notice how Cassie kind of has two personalities (when I write her at least); one at school with her friends (the funny, clumsy one) and one when she's alone (the thinker)? That's because Cassie is kind of based on me and I always think in a different way (and more ;-)) when I'm alone.