Chapter 3:

There were literally moths in my stomach. Okay, not literally.

My nerves had been raging all morning. Along with the unsettling dream from this weekend, there were also the first-day jitters.

But besides my nerves, today had actually gotten off to a good start.

Apart from some accessories and lip gloss, I had decided to keep it plainer than usual today: a white tee, tights, and my new green raincoat— Charlie had taken me and Bella shopping yesterday. Well, more so just stood awkwardly while we browsed— just in case.

Bella was already waiting in the car for me. After a goodbye from Charlie, we parted ways. Us to school and him to work.

Apart from my constant flicking through the radio channels, it was a quiet drive.

Within twenty minutes we pulled up to a big, older-looking brick building with banners of blue and gold. I had never seen the highschool before but it looked practically identical to the Forks Elementary and Middle schools, albeit a little bigger.

Bella walked slightly behind me, tugging at her backpack as if trying to make herself smaller.

I put a good amount of effort into my appearance. A grunge haircut to my dark brown hair (only recently redyed from blonde after a Buffy phase) made it look impossibly fluffy. I usually kept it on the shorter side but right now it reached just below my shoulders.

My facial features matched my fathers, albeit a little softer, and my latest growth spurt which had left me neck-and-neck with Bella ( actually, I stood a little bit over her now. Had that happened over the weekend? ) would suggest that I got my height from him.

Between the two of us, I easily stood out more. But despite the fact that she tried hard to avoid it, Bella always garnered more attention. She was like Renee in that way.

Just then, a tall nerdy-looking kid appeared in our path.

"You two, are the Swan girls." He had phrased it like a question but it sounded more like a statement.

Nonetheless, I nodded.

"Helena Swan," he gestured towards me " I remember you. "We had third grade together."

I didn't recall him at all. Nonetheless, I nodded. "Yeah, 's right?"

He beamed at that, "Yes!"

I gave him a smile. While talkative, he seemed nice enough.

"And you're Isabella Swan, the new girl. Hi. I'm Eric. The eyes" he made a dramatic gesture towards his eyes, "and ears of this school. Anything you need, just call me."

"I'm more of the suffer-in-silence type" Bella deadpanned, but Eric chuckled.

"Do you think you can show us to the office?" I asked.

The secretary, , had already been expecting us. She had our schedules and slips all printed out and ready to go when we got there.

I tucked the slip into my back pocket, examining the orange schedule in front of me.

"Let's see…" I wondered out loud, "French, Gym, US history, Trigonometry, then Lunch, Earth Science, and Finally art".

Not too bad.

"Yours?" I asked Bella as we made our way out the office.

She just handed me her paper.

"Yikes," I said as I looked over it. It looked like we didn't have any classes together.

Seeing as Bella had always had more advanced classes than me, It wasn't exactly surprising. It was still disappointing though.

"Alright" Bella made a gesture in the opposite direction, "looks like I'm heading this way."

"M'kay, I'll see you later".

I found my French class relatively easily, which was to be expected. The building wasn't that big and I'd always been directionally gifted.

I'd must've made good timing because there was no one in the class when I got there. Figured I might as well do some exploring rather than just sitting there and waiting for students to file in.

Not wanting to put my stuff in someone else's seat, I sat my bag by the teacher's desk.

As my feet carried me through the hospital white halls I looked at all the other students, trying to find some people who I remembered.

I struggled to put names to some faces but most were familiar. Most.

Leaning against the staircase were two pale girls. One was short, with black spiky hair and an airy smile. The other girl beside her was gorgeous. She was statuesque with a walking vogue demeanor. Long golden waves framed soft yet sharp features that not even the snarl on her face could ruin. And, were those golden eyes?

The warning bell signaling 10 minutes until class shocked me out of my trance.

I turned quickly, making my way back to the classroom.

I was certain I had never seen them before. They'd left me breathless, but not how a museum painting or a stunning pair of earrings takes your breath away. More like how a lion crushing your neck and windpipe takes your breath away.

Students had started to file in when I got back to the classroom.

The teacher was a pale, brunette woman with a rather youthful face. She was dressed casually, wearing jeans and a long sleeve. If not for her place scribbling on the board, I would've thought she was a student.

" ?"

"Hm," She replied but continued to write.

"Would you mind signing this first-day slip for me?"

At that, she finally turned around.

"Oh, I'm so sorry dear. You must be one of the new Swan girls right?"

"Correct."

beaconed me over to her desk. She signed the slip before pulling out a sticky note and scribbling some stuff on it.

"Although you're transferring in, you haven't really missed that much. Just read these" she handed me the note "chapters to catch up. You can sit at any of the desks without a name tag on it and once I get class started I'll be by to give you your textbook and some other materials. Sound good?" She smiled.

I nodded, taking my bag. I think I'd like this class. The teacher seemed easygoing and put me in the mind of Bella for some reason.

The room was nice too. Organized posters of grammar rules and maps covered the walls, livening it up but not overwhelmingly so.

I picked a seat in the last row towards the middle and looked through the worksheets.

They seemed pretty basic: simple verbs, common phrases. Most that I already knew.

Renee had seen this french television show one day and decided that it would be a good vacation idea. She had us practice it every day for months before it— like so many other things— faded from her mind.

We never did go on the vacation but some of the stuff stu–

"Helena?!" Came from in front of me.

I instantly recognized it. The voice was less soft and more nasally than I remembered, but the person was undoubtedly her.

In front of me stood one Lauren Mallory. We'd been good (maybe even great) friends all throughout elementary school and though we had faded to just acquaintances during middle school, I was no less fond of her.

She'd always been pretty, and that hadn't changed. Long pale blonde hair, sea-green eyes, and thin eyebrows.

Before I knew what was happening, we were hugging.

"I heard you were coming back but I wasn't sure" She took the seat in front of me, whispering "I'll catch you up on everything that's been going on".

The bell rang and class started, bringing our reunion to a halt.

took a quick attendance before handing out some graded assignments, then left the class to do our independent work.

Lauren and I worked together on the worksheets, making conversation in between questions.

She "caught me up" on what had been going on since I left. Nothing too major, just who went out with who, which teachers to take and not to take. You know, simple stuff.

Me and Bella weren't the only new students though. Apparently, a group of foster siblings ("the Cullens") had transferred here.

"Yeah, they're really weird but also really hot. I'll show them to you at lunch. Wait, what lunch do you have again?"

"Fifth period."

Lauren let out an annoyed sigh "I have fourth"

"Well shit" I whispered, not wanting to get in trouble "I was hoping you could introduce me to some of your new friends."

I had no doubt I would make some of my own soon, but it would've definitely been easier that way.

" Hmm" Lauren nodded, checking off a problem on her sheet "You know what you should do?"

"Join hECO club with me"

"hECO?"

"Yeah, home economics. It used to be a class until the district deemed it unnecessary. But there were still a lot of students who wanted to take it, so they just made it a club. We still cook and take care of fake babies and everything, but it's really relaxed. It's more of a hangout than anything."

I told Lauren that I'd check it out, and I really did mean it. I loved little homemaker things like sewing and cooking. I wasn't good at them, but that's besides the point.

My next two classes went by quickly. I hadn't brought any gym clothes to school but my outfit was loose enough to move in and we just played badminton, so it wasn't that big of a deal. And US history was interesting. I might be a tad bit biased though. I had always loved history, it felt like one big, expansive story. If she had to rank her classes, history would hands-down be her favorite.

All in all, today had been going well and as the clock inched further and further along I felt all the nerves from earlier leaving my body.

Then came trigonometry: my mortal enemy, the bane of my existence, the joker to my batman, the shinsplints to my legs.

The teacher had jumped right in, spewing formulas and equations like bullets. My only comfort was that most of the class seemed just as lost as I was.

There was only one person in my group of four who understood it. Nicolas Laghari, a handsome guy with long eyelashes and wiry glasses. He answered most of the equations at our table but explained them to us as he did them.

We talked about the sports at school and he seemed knowledgeable about them.

Apparently, there wasn't a softball team there because not enough girls had signed up. There was a women's soccer and volleyball team though. Not ideal, but good enough.

When lunch came around I was absolutely famished.

I'd had been getting by on cereal and pizza all weekend, which was fine and dandy but I wanted some real food. Cafeteria food wasn't exactly what I had in mind but it was close enough.

The cafeteria was roughly the same size as the gym. It was a lot more open than the cafeteria at my last school.

The circular tables had a lot of space between them and the outer walls were lined with glass windows, giving a view of a beautiful outside eating area.

There were only a couple of options at the line, but none were bad. I got the pizza and some salad, and at the request of the lunch lady, I got an orange and milk. Neither of which I'd eat. (Oranges were way too much work and who ate milk with pizza?)

Before I could even look around and figure out a seat, a voice called out my name.

I turned to see Nicolas at a crowded table. He was leaning over a smiling girl with short, sandy hair and blue eyes.

"Swan" He beckoned me over. I made my way there, waving at the others there who smiled back before going back to chatting amongst themselves.

When I got there the sandy blonde pulled up a chair next to her.

"Hey" she greeted, holding out a hand for me to shake "Whitney". Her voice was the complete opposite of her face: raspy and low as if she'd been smoking all her life.

"Helena."

"I'm captain of the Volleyball team. Nic here tells me you're interested".

Whitney gave me the rundown on the team. What their team was like, how often they played, membership fees, etc. They were off-season right now but still practiced once a week, just a friendly game (though from how she described it, they got very serious sometimes).

She said that I was free to join in on the practices and get a feel for it, which I was grateful for. While I had played sports for most of my life, it was almost always softball. Volleyball seemed very different. There was a lot of jumping and flexion involved, whereas softball had mostly been about power and speed.

After we got that out the way, Whitney introduced me to the rest of the table. Most of them played sports too. There was June Richardson, a tan girl with a constantly bored look on her face. She was on the volleyball team.

Kirk, brown hair and goofy smile, swimmer. I remembered him from my history class earlier.

Nicole, brown-skinned girl with poofy hair, and dating Nicolas. I remembered her. We used to be on the same team when I was younger, though now she played soccer.

Beth Daws, cocky redhead. Neither her nor Nicolas played sports but were bestfriends with Kirk, and slowly just migrated into the group.

Then there was DJ Garrett, a sophomore with a love for intense love for movies and books and games (basically anything he could immerse himself in). His brother had been a football player here and recently graduated and they had just decided to adopt him.

They were all pretty nice. Not to mention funny. I'm pretty sure I smiled the whole time.

After Earth Science and Art, I was thoroughly worn out. In a good way though.

Bella is already in the car waiting when I get there. She's staring intensely at the rearview mirror, in the direction of a particularly nice batch of cars: a Volvo, Porsche, BMW convertible, just to name a few.

She jumps when I open the door.

"Nice cars aren't they?"

She just shrugs, still acting weird.

"Better than this, I'd say" I tease

"Hey, don't disrespect the car" she laughs, "Or else you might find yourself walking to school."

"Alright, Alright" I raise my hands in mock surrender. Bella just shakes her head as she peels out of the parking lot.

"Dad gave me some grocery money so I was gonna stop by the store on the way home. Sound good?"

"It sounds perfect," I agreed eagerly, tired of cheerios.

I was going to fill that house up with so many snacks. Goldfish, Nutella and crackers, jerky. My mouth watered at the thought.

"So, what do you want for dinner?"

"Breakfast."