Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight...wish I did, though.

Edward: Lunch

Ally was a very insecure girl. And with good reason, the thoughts I heard from nearly every student as she passed them were snide. Hardly anyone liked her. Poor girl.

As she walked into the office, her thoughts were occupied with the sleepless night she'd had due to a can of itching powder.

The girl had bad eyesight and dental issues. When she introduced herself, her tongue caught on her retainer and slurred her 's's.

Oh god let me melt into the floor right now. Embarrassment. Apparently the slurring was a topic of amusement for the other students.

Blood ran to her cheeks in chagrin. Great now the girl with the pretty eyes is pitying me!

Huh? In her mind was an image of Bella. Her eyes did look pitying. I wondered for the billionth time what Bella was thinking about.

The receptionist introduced us. Nessie and I were posing as twins, we would be starting in the same grade and the resemblance between us was obvious. Bella and Jacob were to be cousins. Bella was using my human surname, it suited her.

Ally immediately set us straight on the name issue. Bella smiled reassuringly at her, ever careful of not showing the perfect rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Whoa! Bella's eyes! She shuddered inwardly, looking away. It seemed Ally was well in tuned with her instincts; they were telling her we were dangerous.

They continued to do so all day as we followed her from class to class. By lunchtime a small voice in her head was telling her to run for it. She suppressed the urge for politeness sake.

"The gym doubles as a cafeteria at lunchtime," Ally was explaining. "Did you guys bring lunches or do you have money or what?"

Jacob and Nessie voiced that they had brought money for lunch. Ally led us through the gym doors and directed our attention to the lunch line. "I gotta warn you though," she said seriously. "The food here is the worst I've ever tasted, eat it at your own risk." She was totally serious. The food couldn't be that bad, everyone was eating it.

It was then that I heard the thoughts of a small girl sitting with a group of friends at a table nearby. That smells absolutely foul! I don't understand how Alex can eat that junk. I wouldn't touch it if my life depended on it! UGH!

I had to make a conscious effort not to laugh out loud at the revulsion in Kelly's thoughts and the bewilderment from Alex as he caught the look on her face.

"I'll find a spot to sit," Ally's voice broke through my amusement. "Come find me when you get your lunch." She moved off to find a space at the end of a table. Bella and I followed her.

She started when we sat down opposite her. Where the hell...quiet aren't they...

And the small voice spoke up in here head: Run away, dangerous.

Amazingly, Ally responded to the voice, Shut up, they're not gonna hurt me. You're being ridiculous.

Odd.

I noticed that Ally didn't have a lunch with her. She just sat, looking around absently.

"Aren't you hungry?" Bella asked.

She sighed. She was hungry. "Yeah, but I didn't have time to pack a lunch. I get free lunch at school, so it's not a question of money, like I said before; the food here is disgusting."

I tried not to grimace as she ran through all the food she had dared to try here, none of it was any good by human standards. I felt sorry for her. She met my eyes then, and I expected her to turn away as she did with Bella, but something in my expression seemed to intrigue her.

What's that in his eyes? Sympathy. Hmm, his eyes are so reflective, like I can see all of my thoughts in his mind...

Bizarre, all of her thoughts were in my mind.

It's like he can see my thoughts and I'm reading them back...

That's exactly what it was like! This human girl was reading my thoughts as I read hers!

Just then, Jacob and Nessie sat down next to Ally and her attention was shattered by the unappealing aroma of cafeteria pizza.

Jacob noticed Ally's expression. "You don't like pizza?" he inquired.

Ugh, gross.

"Not school pizza," she qualified. "It's like eating soggy, greasy, lumpy cardboard."

I couldn't hold back a laugh at that one; she just described what all human food tasted like to me.

Nessie hadn't bought pizza and was now glad that she had opted for macaroni and cheese. She leaned toward Jacob's plate and eyed his choice, disgusted. She placed her hand on his face and showed him her imagination of a soggy piece of cardboard. Jake smiled at her, amused by the image.

Ally noticed the exchange. "Are you guys, like, together?" she asked.

Nessie blushed and lowered her eyes. Jacob just shrugged, meeting Ally's hazel gaze.

That's a yes, Ally thought.

Huh! Jacob was thinking the same thing. I had long gotten used to the way Jacob now thought about my daughter, so that wasn't what bothered me. Ally was reading Jacob's thoughts too!

Or maybe I was just jumping to conclusions. Anyone could have guessed right the way Nessie was blushing. Yeah that was probably it, humans couldn't read minds.

Ally was bored, and uncomfortable, as was to be expected with two vampires sitting across from her. She let her mind wander.

Apparently the girl had lived in a group home for the last three years. She had been picked on the moment she got there and nobody was interested in adopting her. I wanted to ask her why she was there in the first place, but how would I explain knowing that at all.

She suddenly brought her focus back to us. "I'm sorry," she said, slurring past her retainer. "I must seem really rude... I've barely said a word to you guys at all..."

"That's alright," said Bella. "Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Oh..." she seemed reluctant but something in Bella's voice made her relax. "Okay, what do you want to know?"

"Well... what do your parents do?"

Her face fell. A chaotic memory flashed through her mind. A car crash, lots of blood, a woman who was so obviously Ally's mother, draped across the steering wheel, a sliver of glass embedded in her temple, blood running down her face.

I blinked several times to clear the image, Bella and Jacob noticed my expression and looked between me and Ally, concerned.

Ally pushed the memory away. "I don't have any parents; my mom died three years ago and we'd never spoken about my dad, I don't even have any pictures..."

"I'm sorry..." Bella said. I was sure that if it were possible, she would be crying, it hurt me to see that in my love. Something about Ally—dragging that much emotion out of us—made a person want to love her. But that wasn't right, she was hazed by nearly every student here.

"It's okay," Ally said, her eyes dry. "It's been three years, but I still have the good memories."

But she hadn't forgotten; the accident was very vivid in her memories, and I guessed that day would traumatize her for the rest of her life.

"What happened?" Jacob asked, like an idiot. I wanted to slap him for that; Ally was obviously hurting. But she answered anyway.

"It was a car crash, the breaks wouldn't work and we flew into an intersection and a red light. A transport truck hit the driver's side..."

"You were in the car?" Jacob urged.

"Yes, she was dead before the ambulance got there. My right shoulder was broken from hitting the door but that was it, barely a scratch on me..." she trailed off, remembering. Then her tone became brusque. "I've been in a group home ever since, and since then, life has sucked."

Nessie put her arm around Ally's shoulders. She looked into Ally's hazel eyes, trying to convey her sympathy without using her gift.

Poor girl, she's been through hell, she thought.

"Nah," said Ally. "Hell's probably a lot worse."

Nessie looked at her in surprise, then her eyes flicked to me. I didn't touch her skin at all, let alone her face! I'm sure I didn't show her my thoughts!

Bella and Jacob were staring at Ally in confusion, having not been privy to Nessie's thoughts.

"She read your thoughts," I said, too low and fast for human comprehension. Bella and Jacob turned to Nessie, surprised.

"What was that, Edward?" Ally asked. I was surprised and horrified as her thoughts ran over what I had just said, turning up the volume and slowing it down to the point where she could understand it. "Did you just say that I read Nessie's thoughts?"

Now all eyes were on Ally.

A/N: Dum dum dum! So any ideas yet? Review!