Chapter 22

Alexandra

I followed Kyle down the corridor into our homeroom. We talked a bit, mostly small talk, but I decided that this was an alright kid. He said hello to most people in the hall, and seemed well liked. We arrived at Room 116.

"Are you ready?" Kyle teasingly asked me.

"Born ready," I replied seriously. We laughed, and Kyle opened the door. Immediately, classroom activity ceased.

"Save me a seat," I whispered to Kyle, who nodded solemnly at me, then winked at me. I smiled as I walked up to the teacher's desk.

"Hello?" I announced my presence at his desk. The nameplate said Mr. Reilly. I knew from my schedule he was also my English teacher.

"How may I help you?" Mr. Reilly asked, looking up from his desk. I wordlessly handed him the papers from the main office. He glanced over them, and nodded his understand. He stood up.

"Class," he announced, "Eyes on me." Everyone focused on Mr. Reilly and me. "I would like to introduce a new student. She is in an exchange program from Italy, and is currently staying with the Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his family. Please make Miss Alexandra Kelly feel most welcomed here." He then turned expectantly to me.

"Hello," I said to a room of people staring at me, wide-eyed. "My name's Alexandra, but please call me Lexi."

"Would you like to tell us something about yourself?" Mr. Reilly asked.

"Um…"I thought for a second, "I enjoy reading and my current wish is to find Bilbo Baggins and the Shire," I told the class jokingly. The girls stared at me blankly, but the guys loved my response.

"Don't forget Frodo!" a boy sitting in front of Kyle called out.

"Matt," the boy turned around to face Kyle, "don't be silly, it's Gandalf that we want to find."

"Who?" some girl asked her friend quietly. I held back my smile.

"My Precious…" another boy hissed, and I cracked up.

"Sméagol wants his precious," I replied, and the guys and I all laughed.

"Ok, you can go sit down now," Mr. Reilly replied smiling at us. "I'm glad that some on you seem to enjoy reading; as an English teacher that brings me great joy. But please sit so I can go through the routine start of term announcements. I nodded at him and went to the seat next to Kyle and sat down. Once he saw that I was seated, Mr. Reilly gave the announcements. He ended them, looked at the clock, and told us to continue talking until the bell rang. As soon as he allowed the talking to continue, Matt, the boy in front of Kyle and I, turned in his seat to look at us.

"So do you really like Lord of the Rings, or was that a joke to sort the nerds from the cool people?" he asked, a small grin on his face.

I gave him a huge smile in return, "I love Lord of the Rings. I have a really old copy that I treasure above all else." They had no idea, as I was there when it was published; I brought it, and currently have it stored in a safe in Switzerland. "And in response to the whole geek thing, I most definitely use that question to find the cool people. And I'm currently sitting with them." It took Matt a second to figure it out, but quickly he and Kyle were smiling at me. The bell rang, and Matt went to gym as Kyle and I headed to Chemistry.

Chemistry was pretty uneventful; Kyle and I were assigned as lab partners which was completely fine with me. Our teacher, Mrs. Dolan started to explain what we would be learning throughout the year. Oh god, I could tell right away that I was going to fail this class.

"Phsst…" I whispered to Kyle. He glanced away from Mrs. Dolan and looked at me.

"You had better be prepared to bail me out of this class," I told him. "I'm counting on you to make sure I don't fail." His eyes widened and he held back his laughter as Mrs. Dolan shot us a look. I pretended I was paying her the utmost attention. She began her lecture, and Chem got really boring really fast.

After Chemistry, I went to Math, and Kyle went to Spanish. Math was followed by gym; thankfully Nessie and I were in the same gym class. We play volleyball, and I managed to actually do very well, yet hide the fact that I was an amazing with my awesome vampire skills. Nessie told me that she was especially thankful that she had not inherited her mother's clumsiness and sports skills, whatever she means by that. I think that Bella could not play sports when she was human because she was a klutz. After gym we went to lunch. Nessie told me that Alec and I need to buy human food to keep up the façade that we were normal, human, exchange students. I brought something, I'm really not quite sure what, and was looking around the cafeteria for Alec when Kyle came up to me.

"Want to sit with us?" Kyle asked sweetly, and pointed to a table where I saw Matt and a few other boys a faintly recognized. I bit my lip. I didn't want to say no. But then I saw Alec wave me over.

"I'd love to, Kyle," I replied, "but how about tomorrow or something? Alec's waiting for me, and I'm not sure how well he was able to make friends on his first day. He probably wasn't as lucky as I was. Is that ok?

"Yeah, Lexi, it's totally fine," Kyle said and nodded. But tomorrow, you sit with us. And even Alec and Nez can come. Sound like a plan?"

"Defiantly," I smiled at him. He waved at me as he walked away. I went over to where Alec was playing with his human food.

"So," I playfully asked, walking over to him, "how was your first day?"

Alec looked at me, then rolled his eyes, "I have this girl who won't leave me alone! And she has been in all of my morning classes! She's going to drive me crazy."

Nessie arrived at this moment. "What's the girl's name?"

"Sarah Something-or-other."

At this, Nessie started darkly across the lunchroom, where a redheaded girl was leaning all over some guy. "I hate that girl."

"You hate someone?" I asked, surprised. "You seemed like such a sweet person." I teased.

Nessie stuck her tongue out at me. "She's a real nasty bitch. She wants to get every guy in this school. Most guys love her, I have no idea why, but they do. She probably finds you hot. I'd stay away from her.

"Gladly," Alec replied, shuddering, "she's like a stalker. And she's always watching me. It really creeps me out." Lexi and I laughed at Alec's obvious discomfort. "So Lex, how was your first day of American High School?" Alec asked.

"Painful," I replied, pulling out a chair and sitting down, "I hate learning this stuff. When are we ever going to actually use it?"

Nessie laughed, "Spoken like a true high school student."

"I saw you talking to Kyle," Alec informed her, with a smirk on his face.

"You jerk," I muttered, to Alec, who simply smiled at her. "Kyle was inviting me to sit with him. I told him tomorrow. And he invited both of you as well. So do not dare make fun of me you friendless jerk."

"Actually, Matt invited me to sit with him, but I declined. So there."

"You're friends with Matt?" I asked incredulously.

"Why the surprised look?" Alec asked me.

"I didn't believe you could be happy and make friends," I replied. He looked offended. "No offense, but your track record of making friends is pretty bad."

"As is yours," Alec huffily told me.

"Touché," I said.

Lunch went by pretty quickly, and then the three of us had History together. We threw out our lunches, and went over to our History class with Mr. Banner.

"Good afternoon, students," Mr. Banner said after everyone was seated, "the first few days of this class will be to refresh your memory and see what you all remember from last year, if you remember anything at all." The students laughed and he smiled. "Alright then, does anyone remember anything about Medieval Europe? Any information just call it out."

"There was the Black Death," a girl sitting next to Nessie shouted.

"Good," Mr. Banner said and wrote it on the board. "Now, Mr. Holladay, can you tell me anything about the Black Death?"

"Didn't half of the population die?" Sean Holladay answered.

"Not quite," Mr. Banner correct. "Only about one third of the population of Europe died of the Black Death, or the Bubonic Plague, as it was called. What else do we remember?"

"There were knights!" a kid in the back corner of the class called out.

"Correct Thomas," Mr. Banner said, writing it on the board "but not the typical knights we think of today. Come on people, any information, shout it out! Get those brains working!" Everyone laughed.

"They burned witches!" someone called out and I saw Alec tense. God, what idiot had to bring that up?

"Yes, Chris, they did" Mr. Banner said, he added witch burnings to the list on the board. "No what can anyone remember about witch burnings in medieval Europe?" No one answered. "No one remembers? How about our two new students; do either of you know anything about witch burnings?" I cursed. Did he really have to ask?

Flames… screaming… families separated… neighbor against neighbor…anyone who was different, hated, or an outcast—they were sent with no trial to the stake.

"Alec, is it?" Mr. Banner asked, "Do you know anything?" Oh god, he just asked Alec! Of all people! Please, please can Alec keep his cool and not rip him to shreds! I sat, horrified, waiting for Alec to respond.

Alec looked across the aisle at me with expressionless eyes and turned back to Mr. Banner. "Witches were burned without a trial, and were social outcasts, people who were hated, or looked different from others in the community. They were sent without trial to be burned, and anyone could be sentenced, even children." Alec stopped abruptly and stared at Mr. Banner. Mr. Banner did not seem to notice the tension that his question had caused me and Alec.

"Correct," Mr. Banner looked down at Alec and then at the class, "what Alec has just told us is true, and we see the fear and paranoia the enveloped the country. Anyone could be tried, and whole families were convicted on the accusation on being a witch. We will see the same thing happen in the United States in Salem later on in this course. Now, what else can anyone tell me about Medieval Europe?" I stopped listening to Mr. Banner and looked at Alec, who was now looking out the window, a steely look on his face. I sighed. This is really bad. If I got Alec to open up to me it would be a miracle. But he did have to talk to Carlisle today. Maybe that would help? Who am I kidding; that's only going to make things worse. I was so concerned about Alec that the rest of History went by in a blur.

I tried to meet up with Alec after class to talk to him, even for a few minutes, but it didn't work.

"Alec—" I began.

"Lex, don't even start, okay?"

"Alec, please—" I tried again.

"I'm going to be late for Latin," he said and hurried away from me.

I checked my schedule. That moron! I had Latin as well. I was going to kill him. I walked rapidly through the halls, but I did not arrive early enough to talk to Alec before class started. He avoided my gaze the whole class, and I finally gave up in frustration. I was still thinking about how I could make Alec feel better in English, my last class of the day. Kyle and Matt were both in my English class, so I smiled as I saw them upon entering the room. They had saved me a seat, so I went and sat next to Matt. We sat behind Kyle and a boy named Cody. English was definitely a full class, and I found that Alec and his troubles had escaped my mind as we discussed A Farewell to Arms. When the final bell rang though, Alec was back on my mind and I said good-bye to Kyle, Matt, and Cody, and went to my locker. I hurriedly got what I needed and walked rapidly to the parking lot.

Jasper wasn't there yet, so Nessie, her friend Steph, and I began talking, while both Nessie and I simultaneously were looking around for a sign of Alec. After a bit, Steph's mom came and picked her up. Alec still wasn't there. Jasper pulled the car up as soon as we spotted Alec.

"Hey guys!" Jasper greeted as Alec came over to the car.

Alec groaned, opened the door to the passenger seat in front and said, "Jasper, shut up, I don't want to talk about it and I REALLY don't want to hear it. So just get me home so I can have me freakin' therapy session and get it the hell over with. And if you dare use your special gift to control my emotions, I will rip you to shreds. I swear I will." Alec's in a bad mood. Just as I thought. Crap.

Jasper stared at Alec and then turned to look back and Nessie and I through the rear-view mirror. He then started the car and took us to the Cullens.

Alec slammed the car door and walked into the house without a word. Alec was now going to get in touch with his inner feelings. I prayed for Carlisle.