As I walk through the empty halls, I cannot help but feel a sense of relief. No not relief, that's the wrong word, it's more like I can finally just breathe. I don't know if it is the freshly cleaned linoleum or the echo of only a single set of footsteps but for a single moment Forks High almost seems peaceful. A buzzing from my pocket breaks through my serenity.
Reminder: Meeting with Father in Two Days.
A cold wave floods my system, and suddenly the halls feel too quiet. I had no idea how I was going to explain to him what had happened. I mean how can you tell your father you were always the thing he always hated….
Two weeks earlier
I take a deep breath as I walk through the doors out of the cold sleeting rain and into the florescent lit corridor. Students line the walls; all somehow manage to be focusing on their conversations while still eyeing me off as though I have a third head. All I want to do is turn around and run back into the rain. Oh come on snap out of it, I waited forever for this day! What would Uncle say, 'Never let them see you weak'. Might not be the in setting me meant but as always, he was right. I take a deep breath and meet the eye of any who looks my way. Thankfully they all quickly drop their eyes. See I've got this, everything will be great!
"What's up with the new girl?", whispers a girl's voice as I walk past.
"Yeah, what's her problem", agrees another girl.
Ok maybe not great, but everything will be fine. Hopefully.
I eventually manage to make my way to a sign that points towards the office, which the brief explained was my first objective. See small wins. In the small room is an elderly woman with a kind face behind the counter. I clear my throat to get her attention, but she continues to stare at the computer in front of her.
"Um, excuse me Miss?", I ask. She lets out a little gasp as she jumps in her seat.
"Oh, I am sorry my dear, I am afraid I get a little carried away with things. How can I help you?", she asks.
"I was told to this was where I was to pick up my schedule?" I ask.
"Oh of course you my dear, I am Mrs Cope, and you must be Miss Swan, is that correct?", she asks. I swallow the urge to growl at the name, I was going to kill them.
"Please call me Isabella", I say.
"Well Bella, let me be the first to say welcome to Forks High! It is always lovely to have new student join us in our small little town!", she says, "honestly I cannot believe there have been 6 of you in only a few weeks!".
"I'm sorry, did you say there week 5 other new students?", I ask, trying to keep my composure. It had taken almost a year of research to choose Forks as the base for this operation. The only reason I had been able to convince them was because there would be no surprises. 5 new students in a small space of time for a small town like this sounded like a surprise.
"Oh yes dear", she exclaims, "The new head doctor in town brought his family from the city, they are all lovely students". I have a feeling there is little this woman thought was not lovely, but at least this was good news. If it was only one family, then it was not as if Forks had become a source of popular attraction. She slowly gathers a stack of papers and puts them in a vanilla folder before handing them across to me.
"Now in here you will find your schedule, map of the school, reading list and the social calendar for the school. There is also a slip that you will need to have your teachers sign at the end of every class for the first week. Other than that, were there any questions you had?", she said. I quickly grab the folder; I want to memorise it all as soon as possible.
"No thank you", I say, quickly immersing myself in the pack in front of me. I barely take in the words the office lady says as I walk out the door and straight into what feels like a wall.
"Shit!", I say as I stumble towards the ground, before I quickly regain my foot as I look for the immediate danger.
"Watch where you are going", growls an almost familiar voice. I start follow the blonde figure walking away from me, but before I get too far a small brunette girl with mousey brown plates stops in front of me breaking my concentration.
"Hey are you ok", she asks. I quickly look back to where the blonde figure had been moments ago, but she was no where to be found.
"Uh yeah, little sore but all good, wasn't prepared for the Forks traffic system clearly", I say. The mousey haired girl let out a small giggle.
"I promise it's not like that all the time", she says, "my names Angela".
"Isabella", I say.
"What class do you have next?', she asks.
"English with Miss Moore,", I said.
"Great! That is my next class too, I can show you around as we go," she offers. I look down at the map in my folder and judging by the looks of it, it hasn't been updated in 20+ years.
"That would be great actually thank you", I say.
"Perfect, some of the kids think Miss Moore is a bit weird but personally I think she's great! At the moment she has a reading a book called Carmilla, have you read it before? It's meant to be the book that inspired Dracula", Angela asks. Oh yes, I was going to like this school. As we walked down the hall, all thoughts of the blonde were pushed to the back of my mind. For now.
After the mornings classes, I feel like I can say I am slowly starting to understand the system of this school. Don't go to the ladies bathroom next to the science labs because they are always broken, the librarian is almost deaf and blind so the library is the perfect place to hide out and everyone seems to be obsessed with a family called the Cullen's. Supposedly they all moved to Forks a few weeks ago and according to a blonde boy called Mike from my maths class they are "sex on a stick", whatever that is supposed to mean.
"I'm telling you, it is illegal for someone to be that hot!", exclaims Mike as we enter the cafeteria.
"Whatever, she is a total bitch", says a girl called Jessica, also from maths class.
"Someone is just jealous a certain brooding bronze haired emo isn't picking up on your way too obvious signs", said a boy called Erik with greased black hair, who is allegedly in my science class. Jess turns to give him a death stare.
"Shut up Erik, we all know you like the weird one anyway", snaps Jess.
"She is not that weird!", says Erik. Angela starts to shuffle uncomfortably next to me.
"If they aren't interested in any of you then why are you letting them get to you", I ask. The others just laugh.
"You clearly haven't seen the Cullen's", scoffs Jess.
"Yeah dude, they are super hot, like super super hot", says Mike. I just shrug and follow them to a table, eyeing off my questionably coloured sloop which is labelled as a "Sloppy Joe". As I poke at my lunch, the others start to go quiet. I look up and follow their line of site, a flash of golden eyes, and pale skin invades my senses, and I don't know what hits the floor first, my fork or my stomach. All I know is my alarm bells are ringing.
"See I told you!", smirks Jess. I feel my heart rate push the breath from my body, my palms start to feel clammy as I rub them on my jeans. Shit shit shit, I told them this would be safe.
"Who are they?", I manage to mutter.
"Seriously Isabella! They are THE Cullen's", says Mike. These are the new students! We checked everything; how did this go under their radar.
"Yeah big guy is Emmett, he is like super scary but also super hot, I mean can you imagine- "says Jess.
"Jess", scolds Angela.
"Whatever you know I'm right, then there is the blonde guy that looks like he is in pain, his name is Jasper and is with that really weird girl with the pixie cut Alice, match made in heaven there if you ask me", says Jess. What am I meant to do we never prepared for this!
"No one did", says Erik.
"Jealous much?", says Jess, "then there is Edward, he is the perfect guy, he is in like all the art classes, and he is such a sensitive soul".
"Desperate much", muttered Erik.
"Shut up there she is!", exclaims Mike, "Rosalie Hale". As I draw my eyes to her, I hear myself gasp, and in an instant Rosalie Hale snaps her eyes to look at me. That was all it took to snap me from my shock. I quickly push myself up from the table, ignoring the questions from my table, and the curious eyes of the Cullen's. I push open the double doors of the cafeteria and let the cold air cover me. I take a deep breath and run towards the tree line. I need to think, I need to plan.
Shit, shit, shit! Father is going to kill me! My school is full of vampires!