I hurried off to Maths, praying that there wasn't going to be any vampires in my class.
As I slipped into the seat Lila had saved for me I relaxed as the smell of blood washed over me. I think I can honestly say that I never thought I would welcome the smell human blood like an old friend. I barely paid attention to Mr Morris as he began teaching. I'd done algebra a million times already.
"What are the new kids like?" she asked as soon as the Mr Morris finished explaining that day's exercises.
"They're ok, I guess," I replied not sure how to discourage her from trying to be friends with the Masons'.
"Maybe I'll go say hi after school," she said thoughtfully.
"Mmm, I think they are the kind of people that like to keep to themselves. Very family orientated."
"Oh . . . you seemed to get along with them just fine."
I shrugged, "We were interesting to each other. They have a big family, I have none."
Thankfully Lila decided not to pursue that particular topic any further. She didn't have to know that that wasn't what we were talking about.
"So what did you get for number 5? I got x=7.3," Lila asked a few minutes later.
Once we had figured out that the answer to number 5 was x=7.5, maths seemed to fly by.
"So what have you got next?" Lila asked as we exited the classroom.
"English," I replied after checking my schedule, "you?"
"Business," she answered pulling a face to show just how much she didn't want to have Business next, "See you later then."
"Have fun," I teased as she walked off.
English would have been mildly enjoyable if not for one little problem.
"Welcome back class, I'd like you all to meet Alice Mason. She, along with her brothers and sisters, has transferred here from Alaska. Please make her feel welcome," Ms Bradford told the class before addressing Alice, "Do you have your slip? Ah, yes, thank you Alice if you could just take a seat next to Marie we can get started."
Alice smiled brilliantly as she headed towards me. Great. This lesson was going to take forever!
Ms Bradford began teaching the moment Alice slid into her seat, so Alice was unable to speak to me for some time. I felt a wave of gratitude for Ms Bradford, I needed some time to get my thoughts in order and figure out just what exactly I was supposed to do.
I was staring blankly at the white board when suddenly a hand was waving itself in front of my face.
I turned to Alice.
"Uhh, Ms Bradford wants us to read these articles and then work together to answer the questions on the board," she informed me.
"Oh ok. Thanks," I smiled as she passed me the articles.
After about 10 minutes students had finished reading and were chatting about the answers.
"So how do you know so much about us?" Alice asked, taking me by surprise. I stared at her and after a few moments she continued.
"You knew about Carlisle and Esme before we had even mentioned them, you knew it was Jasper who was trying to calm you down and you knew about Edwards mind reading ability and my physic powers although we hadn't even told you about them yet. Explain, please." Her eyes glinted in a way that told me if I didn't explain I was not going to like the outcome.
Sighing, I began to explain.
"Well, as you know, vegetarianism isn't very common among us so whenever I came across another of our kind they always wanted to know if I was associated with the Denali coven or the Cullen family or as of recent years the Mason family. Naturally I wanted to know more about these covens so I asked some questions, did some research and I actually went and visited the Denali coven for a week or so. Good times . . ." I smiled letting the memories take over. Tanya and I had had so much fun holding a near constant snowball fight for the few nights I stayed.
"You know the Denali coven?" Alice's sharp voice cut through my memories yanking me back to the present moment.
"Kinda, I visit them every decade or so but I'm never there long," I answered. I would love to stay with the Denali coven longer but unfortunately the Cullen's always seem to arrive about a week after me and I just haven't been ready to face them yet, not that I was ready now or anything but I didn't exactly have a choice.
"Oh, ok," Alice replied accepting my explanation. "So why Forks?"
"I've been here before and I thought it was high time I came back. Also, there a story, legend if you will, that I relate to quite well. It's all about heartbreak and what not, kinda Romeo and Juliet like. I really got into it and found out where the girl in the story used to live and then about a year ago that house was up for sale, so I bought it and here I am."
Alice looked at me, confusion written on her face.
"I haven't heard of any legend, could you tell me?"
"Sure," I answered because I didn't know what else to say. I mean what else could I say 'No, I won't tell you so buzz off'? Somehow I didn't think that would go down well.
"Well it begins with a girl, Bella, who transfers to Forks High to live with her father. At Forks High, Bella falls in love with a very handsome boy called Edward, some say he was inhumanly good looking others say he was god like but they all agree that he was super gorgeous. Anyway, Edward and Bella fell in love. It all went swimmingly for a year or so, then out of the blue Edward and his family leave. Apparently he didn't love her anymore.
"Bella is distraught and refuses to leave her room taking up a silent vigil across from her open window. If anyone ever tried to get her to talk about it she would clutch her chest as if it were falling apart and murmur "It never made sense for him to love me" over and over. If anyone ever tried to close the window she would always tell them the same thing 'Leave it open, so he can come back.'
"After a few weeks Bella decides that waiting isn't good enough, so she goes looking for him in the woods. Every morning Bella leaves the house and spends the day searching for him, every night she returns home and resumes her silent watch of the window. This goes on and on for weeks until one day Bella doesn't come home.
"No-one knows what happened, some say she was attacked by wild animals, others say she drowned herself in the river. Personally I wouldn't have blamed her for drowning herself, but anyway apparently the girl was the police chief's daughter and they lived in this house on the edge of the woods. Neat huh?" I grinned, hiding the hurt caused by reliving my past with false enthusiasm.
"Wow," Alice seemed to be in shock, perhaps telling her was a bad idea, "So that's why you said you'd leave the window open, you assumed we knew the story."
I nodded, gladly accepting lie she had created for me, better that than the truth.
"Don't tell Edward, please!" I asked her just before the bell rang.
Ahh, sweet freedom. For the night at least.
I said good bye to Alice, who had agreed not to tell Edward, and raced out the door and towards the parking lot. On my way through the parking lot I passed a silver Volvo. I shook my head, some things never change.