2.a weeks notice

There was a low beep, beep, beep, beep from my alarm clock. It was half seven. I got dressed and went downstairs, getting cereal and sitting down and eating it. I got a fresh drink and put it in my bag, then I got a little bag and put my P.E. kit in it. I put everything in my bag, raced up the stairs, I cleaned my teeth and brushed my hair into place. Then I went back down the stairs, zipped up my bag in one fluid movement then put on my gloves, socks and shoes. The clock said 8:20, so I had a few minutes. I grabbed a quick drink and once I had finished it went out the door, walking down my drive to school. On the bus I listened to my music and looked out the window as the trees sped by. It was soothing, watching trunks of green flash by. In P.E. we started netball, and in English I had to sit next to Jessica. We got let out early from P.E. so I tried talking to her.

"did you make any other friends, I mean I saw you with some kids at lunch, what are they like?" it was a feeble attempt at striking up conversation, I know, but I didn't think she would react as badly as she did. She shuffled over to some other poor kids table. Unluckily this got everyone moving and soon I had a new neighbour. She DID look nervous, but after what I had thought about Cassie yesterday I didn't trust my instincts. She looked completely absorbed in her work and I didn't know what to think. I wasn't really very social as it was, and after what had happened with Jess I decided I wouldn't talk to anyone unless they talked to me first. By the end of the lesson I had slowly shuffled to the end of the table, and whoever was next to me had done the same thing. She didn't talk to me so I didn't talk to her. I walked to calculus hoping that Cassie's light hearted approach would rub of on me. I had always hated new schools, but had also been exceptionally good at blending into the background. But only when I had wanted to, other times I would talk to my mates. On the odd lesson where I wasn't with my friends- just people who hated me- I would always be able to sit there and not get called names. I just didn't like company as much as most people, the same goes for my house. On weekends I always used to be sat at home watching movies, reading, listening to music or writing a new story. That was what I liked, not just cause I didn't have any one else to go down town with. I was pulled roughly out of my daydream as someone came up behind me and tugged at my bag. I automatically held onto it tighter and looked up to see who it was. I didn't recognise the face only that they were in my year. Had I seen them in one of my classes? I thought so but it was only my second day so I couldn't be sure.

"your gunna be late!" he said, pulling me along by my bag. I smiled at him, realizing most people were going into the class room I was headed for already.

"are you in my calculus class?" I asked, a little breathless from the tug of war we were having with my bag.

"your Tess right?" he asked, Jess must have got to him.

"yeah, what would you like to know?" I just knew he would want to ask me something.

"your really from England?" he had let go of my bag and came and walked next to me.

"yeah, rainy old England" he was looking at my rolled up sleeves.

"and your not cold, at all?" we had walked through the door and were getting to my table now, so I only had time for a one word answer.

"nope" I said lightly, knowing that that wasn't the real question. Cassie was already there, energetic as ever.

"hi Cassie, haven't deserted you yet!" I said and smiled at her. Her mood really was rubbing of on me.

"yay! Your going to sit next to me today!" she almost screamed with excitement, then flushed red when she saw some people looking at her.

"why wouldn't I be sat with you?" I asked, confused.

"I saw that emily kid talking to you, and that boy I keep forgetting the name of. emily hates me, so I thought you would take her advice and sit with someone else." I realized what she meant instantly.

"emily doesn't like me anymore." I whispered to her. The teacher had just come in. Cassie turned and smiled at me happily, then her face dropped. I presumed it was because she had seen the teacher come in to. All through calculus we kept writing funny notes to each other, but did the work to. It was hard to keep a straight face with some of the things Cassie came up with. By lunch I was finding it hard enough just to not laugh. At lunch I got a pizza and some salad again, and sat at the same table as before. We sat eating in silence for a bit, then suddenly Cassie said

"I, am a god," in a funny way. I had to laugh, but not before I managed to raise my eyebrows and look at her questioningly. "I'm so sorry Tess, but im moving." she said after a while of concentrating on something.

"what? Where?" I asked confused. She had only just started school

"me, mum and dad are moving to England, I complained but they wouldn't change there minds." she said solemnly.

"when are you going?"

"next Tuesday, I thought I would give you a weeks notice, but by the sound of it your going to be eating alone." It was such a shock that it took a minute to unjumble my thoughts.

"looks like I am going to be eating alone from next week then," Cassie looked so unhappy about moving that I had to add on. "Good job I'm used to being alone, I actually quite like not having to keep up conversation, I don't find it easy to talk to strangers." she still looked guilty, just not quite so bad.

"I feel so bad about leaving you here on your own."

"I can fend for myself, lets just make the most of the time we have, yeah?" and we did. We had a laugh in science, but not so much that we distracted everyone. In Spanish we sat there eating chocolate cake and trying not to laugh when miss had her back turned. The rest of the week past in the same sort of way, and suddenly it was Saturday. Me and Cassie were going to port Angeles to go to the cinema and go see a film. I didn't have a clue what we were watching because I had let Cassie choose, though I HAD said no icky, sicky romances. I don't know what we ended up watching, but it was good anyway. We came out and bought a portion of chips to eat between us. Cassie phoned her mum to come and pick us up and we ate the chips while we were waiting for her to come. By that time it was just after lunch so I asked Cassie if she would like to come back to my house and do homework and stuff. I did warn her that my house was a bit messy, but she said she honestly didn't mind. My room was the worst. There were no shelves so the books I had brought with me were in stacks, piled on the floor. My school bag was still down stairs so, after Cassie had made a pit stop at her house to grab her books, I tipped the contents of my bag all over the lounge floor. There was enough room for us both to lye on the floor with our books around us. I connected my mp3 to my speakers and put it on, opening my door and turning It up quite loud so we could here It down stairs. We hadn't got loads of homework, and we had go t to my house by just after 1:00 so by about 2:30 I had finished. It took Cassie a little longer-I was a quick writer- so I did the washing up, put some washing on so I wouldn't go without clothes and put another load on to spin dry. Then I scrubbed down the kitchen surfaces and changed the sheets on my bed. I grabbed 'ink heat' and started reading, I had almost finished it now.

At 4:00 I realized that I couldn't hear Cassie's humming, so I looked up to see that she was no longer in the lounge. There was a note where she had been sitting. Scribbled on the page was the words find me if you can! I knew straight away that it was Cassie, she had said she loved hide and seek. First I went into the spare rooms and looked in both of the wardrobes. Then I looked under the three beds. With a sudden burst of inspiration I ran to the airing cupboard and yanked open the door. Cassie was nestled in amongst the spare sheets, her cheeks pink from the heat. I helped her out of her nest but left the door open, it was getting cold in the house by now. It was 4:55 so I decided to make tea for the two of us. I made a tomato sauce with veggie mince and some wraps, we both had two each. Then Cassie rang her mum and asked her to pick Cassie up in about half an hour. I was feeling quite energetic, so I changed the music up stairs, we packed away our books and danced for about quarter of an hour in the lounge. It wasn't really dancing, more like jumping up and down at we were exhausted at the end of the fifteen minutes. We crashed back onto my sofa, and lolled there- breathing heavily- for a bit and giggling.

When we had cooled down enough I turned the music down and there was a knock ,knock from down stairs. I ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time, but Cassie still managed to beat me to the door. She tugged on it quickly and it opened to her mother's surprised expression, her fist still lifted inches from where the door would have been. She composed herself quickly.

"you nearly ready to go?" she asked.

"yeah mom, just a minute." She turned round, went to the lounge and picked up her bag full of books. "by the way, this is sue." she shouted down the hall, obviously to me. I walked to the bottom step and perched there, waiting. Cassie grabbed her shoes from by the front door and came and sat next to me. She pulled on her shoes.

"so, what did you two do today, apart from your homework?" asked sue, trying to fill the silence that was starting to get uncomfortable. She was looking at me so I decided I'd better answer.

"I managed to get some washing done and some dishes washed to. Then we played hide and seek. We also managed to do a bit of dancing, it was really fun!" I said happily. I smiled at her, happy. She smiled back, then looked at Cassie. I looked at her too, Cassie was staring at me wide eyed, looking scared. I was still smiling, but furrowed my eyebrows. "what's up?" I asked. She was looking at my mouth, so I closed it and stopped smiling.

"you have REALLY sharp teeth!" she said, still looking at my mouth as if she could still see them. I realised now that the way I had smiled had shown off my canine teeth, and the place she was sitting made them look sharp and scary. One of the friends at my old school had even once accused me of being a vampire. Haha! I smiled again and laughed.

"you'll be surprised to hear your not the first person who has said that," I said smiling more and raising my eyebrows. She laughed then and I felt the edge of my pointed tooth with the edge of my tongue. "we will talk again on Monday," I hinted, still smiling the smile that showed off my teeth. It was my natural smile, but I didn't often smile like that, I usually got similar shocked reactions.

"ok, see you on Monday," she replied, seeming to get my hint. I stood on the porch as they drove away, waving and smiling at them. When they were gone I sighed deeply and dragged myself inside. I stood in the kitchen for a few minutes, gathering my thoughts and chewing the inside of my mouth with my canines. I went upstairs and put on my music, jack Johnson this time. Him playing guitar and singing calmed me down quickly so I went back down stairs, grabbed my book off the armchair and went back upstairs. In my room was my old pink armchair. I had got it for Christmas when I was thirteen and had had it shipped over especially. Since coming here I hadn't used it yet, so it was still in some of the plastic wrapping it had come in. I ripped off the wrapping quickly, and chucked the plastic in the little bin in my room. I sat down on the chair, resting my head on one of the arms and dangling my feet over the other. It was warming up nicely so I didn't bother getting my quilt from off my bed. I read till I had finished the book and by then it was about 11:00 I had brought with me ink spell and ink death but I couldn't be bothered to read them tonight, so I got dressed slowly, and lay in my bed thinking. At some point I must have dozed off because I was awoken to a loud crash and the sound of some things falling on the floor.

I yawned, sat up in bed and stretched my hands above my head. I looked around to see I had swept the alarm clock onto the floor again. Trying to find out where it had landed I saw that one pile of neatly stacked books had toppled over and that in amongst the books was my alarm clock. I picked it up to find it completely ruined, and beyond repair. I sighed and chucked It roughly into the bin. Then I knelt down and carefully restacked my books, the binds all facing towards me. I went down stairs to find that it was 8:00, I was going to be really tiered later. I took the dry washing out of the dryer and popped some wet stuff from the washing machine in it. I went up stairs and put my clean clothes in my drawers. It was to early to go and get a new alarm clock and some shelves from town so I had some cereal and cleaned all the dishes, I really was bored. I closed the airing cupboard door as it was pretty warm in my house after leaving it open all night. I had absolutely nothing else to do so I got dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a jumper and went outside. I wasn't really cold, but I shivered involuntary as I drop of rain dripped down my neck. I tilted my head up to the sky and closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of cold, refreshing rain on my face. There was a wet bench by my house, so I walked over to it and sat down, not caring that I was getting my jeans wet. I leaned back and closed my eyes, listening to the birds singing and the sound of water splashing on leaves. Although I had never told anyone that was the real reason I had come to forks, it was so quiet, natural and green everywhere. I must have sat there for quite a while, just listening to water running off leaves and splatting on the ground. Suddenly I could feel some heat radiating next to me. I opened my eyes slowly, feeling too calm to be scared. The top layer of my hair was dripping wet. I had such thick hair that the rain didn't ever soak all the way through to my scalp. I lifted my head up and turned to look at whoever was sat next to me.

"so you are alive then?" asked the stranger, seeing me lifting my head up and look at him. I laughed. He had quite brown skin- a nice colour brown- and really dark brown hair, naturally that colour. His hair was ragged and beautiful. It was windswept but he didn't seem to mind. He had deep blue eyes that were ringed by a deep green around the edge. His eyebrows weren't really thick, though his lips were pretty full.

"I didn't scare you did I?" I asked, still smiling happily. I didn't know who it was, but he seemed friendly enough.

"well you were lying limply on a bench In the rain, normal people don't usually do that." he said. I looked at my hands, seeing they were pale as ever. That was the reason I usually put my gloves on. My hands weren't cold, but they looked an odd colour, even for someone who had ginger hair and lots of freckles. I had subconsciously pushed my sleeves up again.

"so what are you doing then? I didn't realise you weren't normal either." I said raising my eyebrows but still smiling happily.

"ok, you got me." he said, holding up his hands palms towards me. "guilty as charged." he smiled to. I was smiling as I had at Cassie yesterday.

"um…" I said, not wanting to be rude. "I don't mean to be rude or anything but do I actually KNOW you?" I felt really embarrassed for asking but I had to know.

"oh, sorry didn't I say? I'm oliver!" he smiled. I smiled back, but obviously he saw the curiosity burning in my eyes. "I wanted to see who had moved in, looks like a loony whoever she is." I laughed lightly, but realised I hadn't properly introduced myself.

"oh, by the way, my names Tess," I said. "if your as cold as I am you'll probably want to go inside." I said, getting up. "think I need to change my jeans to," I said making a face and turning my back to him. He laughed and got up to. I hadn't locked the door, so I just opened the door. "just give me a minute," I told him, walking up the stairs. He sat down in the kitchen on one of the stairs, so I went upstairs to get changed. putting on my black jeans, I opened the door. oliver was stood there, outside the door so close I actually walked straight into him. He looked just as surprised as I was. "oh! Hello!" I laughed, wondering how long he had been stood there.

"HUh…" was all he could manage. I raised my eyebrows pointedly at him

"why don't you come in then?" I asked, signalling towards my room with my hands. "it's a bit of a mess though, I will warn you." he looked past me into my room, taking in the stacks of books. His eyes stopped at my bin.

"what happened to that?" he asked. "did you throw it at the wall or something?" I looked down at my feet, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"I sort of pushed it off the table while I was asleep." I explained. He laughed. As we walked down the stairs I looked at the clock in the kitchen. It said 9:45. "tell me you can drive?" I asked, looking hopefully at him.

"not yet," he frowned "why?"

"I need to go into town, get some things."

"oh," he lightened up. "its a ten minute walk from here along the path."

"at what pace?" I asked. I was going to get fit really quickly living here

"quite a fast one," he admitted. "I could go with you?"

"deal," I said before he could change his mind. He raised his eyebrows but said nothing. I smiled and grabbed my purse, a bag and my set of keys. I gestured to the front door. "lead the way," I said smiling at him. We wondered through the forest for twenty minutes at a leisurely pace until before we saw another house. We walked into town, going into the supermarket to buy a new alarm clock and a few shelves. I bought them, stuffed everything into a bag for life and then told Oliver I had finished. He was a good person to be with, easy to talk to. He walked back with me all the way to my house.

"would you like to come in?" I asked politely.

"love to," he said grinning at me. I unlocked the door and put the bag down on the chair closest to me. He followed me into the kitchen

"wanna cup of tea?" I asked him, my cheeks were beginning to hurt from smiling to much, but it seemed almost as if they were stuck there.

"no, thanks. I don't really do tea, or coffee before you ask." he said. I didn't either but thought it polite to ask.

"you might have to stick around a bit to help me put up these shelves," I warned him. "so get out while you still can, and don't say I didn't warn you."

"I think I'll take my chances." oliver stayed round all day. He helped me to put up the shelves first, holding them straight for me . When it got to luch time I made us both something to eat. After lunch he helped me put all the books onto the shelves and then we sat on the floor in my room and talked. He asked me usual questions. Where did you come from, why did you move here and a few unusual ones to. At one point he asked why I didn't like my mum. I laughed and punched him on the shoulder lightly.

"what?" he had asked innocently. I was still laughing.

"I just don't like the cold English weather, not my mum to!" I had explained.

"what's English weather like?"

"in winter its cold and rains really hard, in summer its cold and rains but the sun shines slightly." we both laughed at that. Soon the sun was setting. I looked at the new alarm clock I had bought in town. It said 5:30 pm.

"don't you think you should go?" I asked anxiously, not wanting to make his parents worry.

"what's the time?" he asked. He had his back to the clock.

"half five, when do you need to go?" when I said that he jumped up quickly

"hell! Twenty minutes ago!" he shouted. I raised my eyebrows at him. He smiled sheepishly at me.

"where do you live?" I asked

"that way for a bit," he answered pointing the opposite way from town. We went down stairs and I said goodbye to him.

"bye," he said smiling. Then he turned to go, leaving the door open. He didn't look back as he walked into the forest. I was stood, gripping the door with both hands until long after he had vanished into the green wilderness. I made myself dinner, warming up some pasta sauce I had made a couple of nights ago and cooking some pasta. It tasted good, but I only slightly registered that fact. I was daydreaming about oliver, wondering if he would be in school tomorrow. He WAS the same age as me so hopefully we went to the same school. I couldn't believe Cassie was leaving, we had only known each other a week, but she was a good friend and I would miss her loads. All I knew about oliver was that he was my neighbour, we were the same age, he had always lived here and that last week he had been ill so he might be in school this week. I hoped so. I went upstairs and took 'ink spell' off the shelves. But I didn't read it. First I got ready for school, making a fresh drink and checking I had all my books. I read till 11:30, making sure I had all my clothes piled on my armchair and setting my alarm for 7:00.

Beep beep beep beep I sat up straight, then fumbled about to turn off the alarm. When I finally found the button I stretched and yawned, though I wasn't tiered. I got out of bed and walked over to where my clothes were. I was still half asleep as I got dressed, but when I got down stairs and started to eat my breakfast I finally woke up properly. I finished my breakfast, noting that I was running low on milk, and went upstairs to brush my hair and clean my teeth. When I had finished I got my bag out of my room and went down stairs. I still had twenty minutes but I pulled on my socks anyway. I did it slowly, as if trying not to rip them, then got my shoes. After Ten minutes, I got my MP3 out of my room and plodded down the stairs. Untangling the headphones I walked slowly to the door. By the time I had got to the door the headphones were in my ear. I opened the door, locked it and turned on my music. Evanescence came on quietly, as background music. I turned it up slightly and stopped at where the bus usually stops. I looked up to see it coming slowly down the road. I got onto the warm bus and sat on an empty as far from emily as possible, not that she even bothered m anymore. As I looked up to see who I was sat next to, I was surprised to see it was oliver. I took one of my headphones out of my ears- the one closest to him- and smiled. He smiled back at me.

"hey oliver! Your at school today then?" I asked cheerfully.

"yeah, but im gunna be a loner," he complained, his smile getting smaller

"you can sit with me and Cassie at lunch and if we're in any classes together" he smiled even more than before at that.

"yay!" it turned out that he was in the same calculus class and Spanish class as me and Cassie so he got to sit next to us. Cassie even gave him some pieces of cake so he could eat it to. Cassie was a bit shy with him(yeah I was surprised by that too!), so we only managed to get a few 'yeah' s and a few answers to questions we asked her directly. When ever she spoke to Ollie (he had said we could call him that) she would blush and sometimes even giggled quietly. It was rather funny to watch. Ollie soon found out about the fact she was leaving and said that he was honestly sad to see her go. Instead of going on the bus I had persuaded Ollie to come do the food shopping with me in town. He said that he would love to but that he would have to call and ask his mum first. I agreed that it was a good idea. So after we had hugged Cassie and said our goodbyes for the final time we went into the supermarket. I didn't get too much, I didn't need to anyway as I lived on my own. I remembered to get milk and some pasta- I loved pasta- along with a load of other things. In the end I carried two bags of food and Ollie carried one. We talked while we walked. He asked when my birthday was. Thursday the third of December I had said, then asked his. It was January the twenty second. We got to my house by about 5:30- we were let lose at 3:00- and Ollie even helped me put the shopping away. When he left I once again stared at the empty space where he had vanished into the trees, only to be reminded that I was still standing and staring when my stomach rumbled loudly about what must have been ten minutes later. I had an omelette with yummy free range eggs, mushrooms and cheese. When I had finished It all I did some homework and put the wet clothes onto spin dry. Among them were my gloves, which I figured I would need tomorrow. I packed my bag, trying to get into a familiar pattern to do each night. I really didn't feel like reading again so I put on my laptop for the first time since I had got here. I went through my documents until I found my stories folder then opened it. I clicked on the first one in the list. I read through the last page I had written trying to remember what the story was about. It had been ages since I had opened it. After reading through the same page twice I suddenly realized what it was about. I bit my lip and pushed up my sleeves, trying to figure out what to write. I hadn't figured out what the story was called yet, only the plot and where It was going to end up. Roughly anyway. I lived through the last sentence in my head I was confused. Her bed? That couldn't be right no-one lived here any more Louise had said so. then I figured out what to type. I wrote till 11:00 then I stopped, having written quite a lot. I sighed and stretched my fingers, I hadn't typed In a while and needed to practise a bit. I went to sleep that night and dreamed I really was in the story.