I found a lot more than a pulse. Whoever this guy was sat straight up, gripping my wrist.
"You could have killed me!" He growled. I mean,growled, like he was a damn dog or something.
The scream that had been rising in my throat died out. "I'm sorry!" I squeaked, my voice coming out a lot higher pitched then I had meant for it to.
He suddenly gasped, and he looked like he was having a seizure or something. His grip on my wrist tightened. "Dude, are you okay?" I asked, trying to pull my wrist out of his grip.
After what seemed like ages, he blinked, and abruptly let me go. "Watch where you're going next time." He snarled before getting up and running. And I meanrunning, this guy was booking it like he was in the Boston Marathon or something.
"What the hell..." I muttered. This guy shouldn't even be walking, let alone running. I mean, I would have killed a deer, let alone a person. Did everyone in Forks just have like, freaky healing skills or something?
Needless to say, I was a few minutes late to school, just making it into my algebra class before the tardy bell rang. Ignoring the dirty look I was getting from the teacher, I walked to the back of the room and slumped down into an empty seat beside Rosalie.
"Why are you so late?" My sister whispered to me.
"Long story." I mumbled. "I'll tell you guys about it at lunch."
I was having a hard time believing what had happened myself, and I don't think that my siblings would believe me. I mean, a human guy just getting up and walking away after getting hit by a car? Was that even possible? I mean, he could have been a vampire, but he didn't look like one, and when he grabbed my wrist, his grip was hot. Like he was on fire.
When I told everyone what happened as we were all seated at a lunch table in the cafeteria, it took a lot less to get them to believe me then what I had been expecting.
"Probably one of the wolves." Emmett said, playing around with the boiled eggs that he had brought as 'lunch'.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that wolves don't resemble humans." I said as I took a sip from my water bottle. Except it wasn't water, it was blood. Bear, by the taste of it. Esme spoiled me too much.
"Not those kinds of wolves." Edward looked around to make sure that no one was listening. The whole cafeteria had watched us walk in, but as soon as Edward had turned to look at them, they all had quickly looked away, engaging in idle conversation and trying to not act like they had been obsessive stalkers staring us down. "I'm talking about werewolves. Carlisle and Esme didn't tell you?"
"No, they didn't fucking tell me." I said as I took another sip. Unlike the rest of my family, who could go for longer periods of time without eating, I needed to eat a lot more and a lot sooner. Carlisle said that it would get better, but for now I was stuck drinking blood out of a water bottle and hoping that I didn't spill it anywhere and making it look like someone had been murdered.
I snatched one of Emmett's eggs, popping it into my mouth. While we vampires didn't normally eat food, we were still able to, it just didn't provide us with any sort of nutrition. I still liked to do it from time to time, because I'll be damned if I'm going to live for the next 500 years and not have any of my ramen. That sort of thing is a necessity.
"You need to stay away from the reserve." Edward said to me. "You're a vampire. If any vampire goes near the reserve, or hurts a human of the town, then the treaty is off."
"Treaty?"
"Carlisle made a treaty with Ephraim Black years ago. So long as we stay on our side of the town, then they leave us alone."
"Wouldn't want to be around any of those filthy mongrels anyway." Rosalie added.
"Come on, they can't be that bad, right? I mean, the guy today was probably just pissed off that I ran him over. I mean, I know that I would be."
"Just stay away from the reservation." Rosalie said to me, to which I nodded. Last thing I wanted was to stir up any trouble.
Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw a guy with long brown hair. Freckles dotted his cheeks, and he kept pushing his glasses up onto his face.
"H-hi." He stammered out, and I gave a small smile in return. "Hey there."
"M-My name is Ashton Greyson."
"Tessarae Cullen."
"I know. I was watching you in Math class. I-I mean, I wasn'twatching, watching you, I was just...um, uh..."
"It's okay." I told him with a chuckle. The guy seemed sweet and harmless enough. "Is there something you needed?"
"Oh yeah, well, I was kind of wondering if you were going to the Homecoming dance next month?"
"I don't know, it's not something that I've really thought about."
"I...If you are going, well, I was kinda wanting to know if you wanted to go with me-"
"She's not going." Emmett said, the big brother protectiveness quickly coming out.
"Ignore him, Ashton. Rosalie, could you please rein in your bear before he mauls this poor kid?"
Rosalie put a hand on Emmett's arm, whispering something to him.
"As for the homecoming dance, Ashton, I wouldn't mind going with you, I think that it would be fun." Surely I would have the whole bloodlust thing under control by then, right?
Apparently I wouldn't, at least, not according to my siblings.
"Are you crazy?" Edward hissed in my ear as we walked to class. "You can't go to the dance!"
"Edward, I've managed almost the whole day without biting anyone."
"A dance is different, it's more...intimate."
"Are you more worried about me biting someone or getting laid?"
From the look on his face, it was the latter. I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. "Edward, are youserious?"
"Your body is 19, it's going to have...urges."
"That doesn't mean I'll act on said urges. For God's sake Edward, you can at least have a little bit of faith in me."
"It's not that I don't trust you, it's the male population in this school that I can't trust. Don't forget that I can read minds."
"Yeah, that's still very unsettling to me." I replied with a shudder. "Hence why I never read erotica when you're in the house."
"You read that?!"
"Kidding Edward, I'm kidding. Mostly."
He rolled his eyes at me. "You're impossible."
"Yet you love me anyway and are forced to call me your sister and play babysitter."
"We're not babysitting you."
"You're making sure that I don't turn anyone into a vampire or bleed them dry, perfect description of a supernatural babysitter. Or prison guard. Take your pick."
"You're being dramatic."
"You're not the one that hasn't been around people since the 80's. Thank God Alice caught me up on all the latest tech." I still don't know what I would do without that girl.
"It took all of us time to adjust."
"Says the one that's been going to high school since they were created."
"I'm not that old!" Edward laughed as he lightly shoved me, which, when you have the strength of a vampire, isn't very light when you think about it.
I shoved him back, smirking as he ran into a locker. "That's not very nice. I didn't even shove you that hard."
"Whoops, guess I'm still getting used to this superhuman strength." I replied as we walked into our science class. I could smell the formaldehyde before we even entered the room. Dissecting frogs on our first day, how freaking lovely.
Thank God we don't have to breathe. I'm pretty sure that I didn't breathe that entire class so I wouldn't get those damn chemicals up my nose.
"It's official, I hate science class." I said to Edward as we walked out. My next class was P.E. with Emmett. This should be fun, he always liked to show off whenever he could...or show off as much as he could without people realizing that there was something supernatural about him. Think Dash fromThe Incredibles,if Dash had super strength instead of speed.
I let out a groan when I saw the dodgeballs sitting in the middle of the room. "I had to do enough of that shit in the 80's." I grumbled as I sat down on the bleachers with Emmett as we waited for the P.E. coach to show up.
The P.E. coach was also the basketball coach, so something told me that he would go easy on his precious basketball players so that they didn't get injured. If you don't think that a dodgeball hurts all that much, then you've never been hit in the face with one...or testicles for that matter. My brother learned that it hurt the hard way, as did I.
"I'm not doing it."
"Tess come on, you have to. You really want Carlisle getting a call from the school saying that you refused to participate in class."
I let out a grumble under my breath. He was right, that wasn't really something I wanted on the first day of school.
The sound of a whistle alerted everyone to the coach entering the gym. Coach Anderson was tall, at least 6 foot tall, with muscles in his arms that would put even Emmett to shame.
"I wonder how many steroids he's on." I whispered to Emmett, making him snicker.
"You!" Coach Anderson pointed at me. "What are you finding so hilarious? Please, share with everyone else."
I looked at him deadpan. "I was just wondering how many years of steroids and God only knows what other performance enhancing drugs you've been on, because muscles like those aren't exactly natural. Unless you got Botox or something, which is nothing to be ashamed of."
Coach Anderson's face turned red as some of the kids in the room bit back laughs. "I don't know what it's like in the big city where you're from, Cullen, but here in our little rinky dink town of Forks, we respect our educators."
"You mean the educators that take it easy on the jocks, making them not do as much during P.E., or maybe giving them just enough points to pass when they clearly fail a test?" I figured that much hadn't changed since my time.
Coach Anderson looked like he wanted to strangle me. "You think you're so tough, huh? We'll see how tough you are on the dodgeball field." He blew his whistle, and as everyone began lining up, he took one of the boys to the side, whispering to him.
With my enhanced hearing, I could hear every word that was being said. Let's just say that if I were human, within the next few minutes I would be deader then dead.