Part II-Chapter 6: New Kid on the Block

Disclaimer. I own none of the original Twilight characters. Ownership belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

New Kid In Town-The Eagles

Expectations-Belle and Sebastian

Let's Go Out Tonight-Craig Armstrong

I walked into the classroom and was grateful to be the first one inside. I introduced myself to the younger lady at the front of the room and learned she would be my teacher. She was pretty young for being a high school Vet teacher but I wasn't one to judge. She told me her name was Ms. Dayle and gave me a syllabus for the semester.

I took a seat at the front of the room by her desk just in case I needed extra help. Soon everyone started flooding in and I was glad to see most of them looked like the scientific type. Almost all of them stared at me and instantly a taller, brown haired boy came to sit down next to me.

"Hey," he greeted me. "My name is James." He grinned at me with honest niceness and I smiled back.

"Vanessa," I told him. He opened his mouth to say more but Ms. Dayle, who everyone seemed to know already and called her Doc, started to go over the syllabus.

The class was actually really interesting and next week we're even going to an animal shelter to help with the pets there. James even offered to walk me to my next class and I let him guide me to Algebra 2. He told me the teacher was pretty hard to understand because of his accent and that he had him when he was a junior last year. He saw the rest of my schedule and told me he'd see me again in Auto and I walked into my next class.

After introducing myself to the teacher, Mr. Fangary, we went over the curriculum and Cory walked in and waved at me before coming to sit beside me.

"How you liking the school so far?" he asked, unpacking his backpack.

"It's actually pretty nice. It's nothing like my old school, that's for sure."

"Yea, it's not so bad here. I mean, it could be worse." He shrugs.

That class passed by pretty fast and I was in Auto shop in less than an hour later. I love auto, it's pretty much the only class where I feel like I'm really good at. The other classes, while easy, don't come as naturally as auto does. It's not like I even love building cars so much as I feel closer to the guys when I do. It's something we all had in common, especially me and Jake.

I was only a little surprised to see that there was only one other girl in this class and the instructor did not look too happy about it. He grumbled out his name, Rob (apparently he didn't go by a last name), and told me my partner is the only other girl in here, Danika Sanders. I passed by James and he smiled at me before taking a seat in front of me.

I went to say hello to Danika but she was nodding her head to her ipod and ignored me completely. Great, I thought, this will be just like La Push. She wasn't the typical mean girl. She dressed completely different from them in her ripped jeans and black tank top. She had super straight blonde hair and a lip piercing among the other 10 on her ears.

She seemed pretty…punk, if that was even the right weird. She certainly had the right make up to be punk. Thick black liner coated her dark brown eyes and made them appear several times larger. She kept nibbling on her lip and it looked like they were healing from a wound already. She was pretty enough and different from all the other girls I've seen her. This was not the typical blonde beach bunny.

"Everyone shut up and get to know your partners. Danika, I-pod away now!" the teacher barked out and she rolled her eyes and put it away with a heavy sigh.

"I'm Danika," she told me, barely glancing at me before crossing her legs on her desk and leaning back in her chair.

"I'm Vanessa." I smiled politely. "I'm new here and I don't really know how this partners thing works. Do you mind explaining?"

She lifted in eyebrow in response as if to ask if I were crazy. After taking my silence as an answer she took her feet off the desk and turned to face me. Her long hair followed her moves and cascaded down to her belly button.

"Alright, Barbie, here's how it works. We are not partners that's just a title and you don't talk to me and I won't talk to you. Do your own work 'cause I'm not doing it for you and keep out of my way."

I was slightly confused about her Barbie comment considering I'm not the one with blonde hair but I let it slide. I was use to this type of treatment at my old school but it still stung a bit to be judged. She must have seen the stricken look on my face before I masked it because she grimaced.

"My name is Vanessa and that's fine. I'll try my best to stay out of your way and not hurt your grade," I replied calmly, laying my bag on the school desk in front of me.

"Uh ok," she mumbled, slightly taken aback.

It seemed this class was going to be the only one I would be having trouble with after all. I sighed. There wasn't much I could do but try to be nice and do my best. At least I could work on cars in peace without a busy body partner chatting me up. Rob finally started the class a half hour in and took this time to quiz us on all the parts that went in a vintage 1967 mustang, the original car designer just died over the weekend which I suppose is the reason for the pop quiz.

"Skye, what does an HEI Distributor do?"

My head popped up from circling my fingers along the chipping wood desk. "It depends what kind of HEI Distributor it is," I replied.

"HEI, Race Only 50000 Volt Distributor – Pertronix," he challenged me.

I smiled. It was the exact Distributor we had to use on a car my Dad had bought a year ago.

"That, sir, produces 42% more energy in the coil with 46% faster spark breakdown time allowing 48% more peak current to reach the spark plug. This distributor also features a vacuum lockout and welded mechanical advance to improve timing stability and mechanical reliability. It's probably the most expensive one on the market," I answered flawlessly.

Rob and the rest of the students looked completely stunned and I blushed under their intense gazes. Just what I needed, I thought, more students making fun of me.

"Oh my God, marry me," James said in awe, smiling like a child who received a lollipop.

"You're amazing," another boy declared from the front of the room.

Even Rob looked impressed but quickly recovered and asked more students questions. My partner even looked at me a little differently after that. Maybe I had done something right.

The day after that didn't pass by very slowly. It came and went and I was glad for the minimal conversation I had to make with people. Few people talked to me considering there were quite a few new students but a lot of stares came my way. I was only too happy when 2:30 rolled around and Embry's phone number popped up on my screen.

"Hello?" I answered joyfully, a full smile on my lips. I slammed my locker closed and pressed the phone tighter to my ear in order to hear Embry's voice above the hallway chatter.

"NESSA!" He screamed in the receiver. I had to hold the phone away from my ear until he calmed down. "How is your first day? I made sure to call right when you got out in case it was horrible and you needed a friend to talk to."

I chuckled a little and shook my head. "No, no it was good. It's a lot better than La Push."

"Good, I would have had to come down there and kick some ass" he joked. I think he might have been serious, though.

I saw James walking up to me and tried to focus on what Embry was saying but James was smiling and leaning up against my locker.

"Um, yea. Emb, let me call you back, ok? I have to go." I smiled at James and held up one finger and listened to Embry's dejected response.

"Oh. That's cool. Text me or call when you're not busy, bye Ness."

I hung up with Embry and looked up at James.

"I was hoping I'd catch you on the way out. I was wondering if you wanna hang out after school? A couple of friends and I were going to head down to the beach tonight. Sort of a back to school bon fire at the dunes."

"Um." I thought it over in my head and I'd never really been on the beach so far since I've been here. It sounded nice to get away from the house and meet some new people but I was still unsure what their intentions were. "Sure." I didn't have much to lose. I lost everything I had back in La Push so I figured why not?

"Awesome." He grinned. He was kind of cute when he did that. I blushed at my thoughts and glanced down at my hot pink shoes. "Here give me your phone," he asked, putting his hand out.

Confused, I gave it to him and watched as he pressed a few buttons and pressed it back in my palm.

"Text me around 7pm and I'll come pick you up. Bring a sweater because it gets cold at night."

I nodded even though I never got cold. In La Push it was always cold and here it was blistering even at night. "I'll see you then." I waved goodbye and watched him walk away to his friends, one girl giving me a glare as she turned away. I hope this wasn't going to turn out bad. My stomach flipped at all the things that could go wrong.