CHAPTER ELEVEN

SAVANNA

After English we had History, and then Math before lunch. The Math classroom had about twenty single desks lined up in four rows. Edward and I sat next to each other again; Alice was in a different math class, so it was just us. As we took our seats the girl sitting in front of us turned around to face Edward and I; “Hi, I’m Savanna,” she said. Her voice was bright, and sounded genuinely happy and optimistic. She was about the same height as me, with flat, shoulder length brown hair, and glasses. “I’m Sa-va-nna,” she said again, sounding a little reserved compared to the first time.

          

“Sorry!” I exclaimed, embarrassed as I realised I had temporarily gone into a moment of deep thought as she was the first student to actually talk to us. “I don’t know where my head is these days,” I added light-heartedly, “I’m Bella.”

            

She grinned at me, “well nice to meet you;” she seemed genuinely nice, “and whose this?” she asked, eyeing Edward over.

            

“Oh, this is Edward, he’s my…ah-“ I suddenly realised that we hadn’t covered this part!

            

“Boyfriend,” Edward quickly finished for me in a flat and somewhat cold tone – people were naturally drawn to us, so we couldn’t be too friendly to anyone. I was glad that Edward was going to be with me most of the time at school, to help me focus on maintaining my daytime persona.

            

“Yes, my boyfriend,” I said, relieved that he had jumped in at the right time.

            

“So where are you from?” she asked.

            

“Forks, America,” I replied. She was about to respond but the teacher walked into the room. She winked at me and turned back around. 

            

“Textbooks out now,” the teacher screeched, as she sat down at her desk at the front of the class. She was a middle-aged woman, and I could tell that she was the type of teacher that didn’t tolerate any nonsense. “Begin with section four on page thirty,” she added.

            

Everyone did as she requested, except Edward and I, as we didn’t have ours yet.

            

“Excuse me Miss,” Edward said, breaking the silence of the room with his soft velvety voice, “I’m Edward Cullen and this is Bella Swan, it’s our first day here and we don’t have any text books.”

            

She frowned slightly and glared at us for a moment before getting out of her chair and grabbing two green textbooks from a bookshelf. “Welcome to Seward, page thirty,” she said coldly, as she handed us a book each. I glanced at Edward, and he grinned at me with a knowing look.

            

I felt even more like a vampire. I remembered feeling fear in the presence of teachers like this, but now it was different – I guess the fact that I could rip her to shreds in a spilt second helped with that change of mentality. I wondered what it was like for Edward too, being more than double her age – he must have been viewing her as if she were just an immature child!

            

“Thanks Ms……” Edward paused, waiting for a reaction.

            

“MacKinley!” she said sharply.

            

He smiled his charming smile at her, and then opened his textbook. I could see that it wouldn’t be long before he became her favoured student.

            

Math was always my weak subject, and I found a lot of the questions challenging. I hadn’t looked at a single equation since I was at Forks High school.

            

When the bell finally rang for lunch I put my pen aside with enthusiasm; my body may have been invincible, but my brain hadn’t became any smarter through my transformation.

            

“I’ll see you around,” Savanna said as she quickly got up from her desk to leave the classroom.

            

“Ah…sure,” I said, smiling at her hesitantly. She had surprised me again by being the only student to talk to me so far.

As Edward and I walked down the corridor to the cafeteria, I couldn’t help but notice how hostile everyone was towards us – we seemed to constantly have a couple of metres gap around us, despite being in a typically cramped walkway. Whilst no one had spoken to us, except Savanna and some of the teachers, we were the centre of most peoples attention. I hated the thought of what Edward was having to listen to; it was bad enough with the sensitivity of my own ears - I was constantly hearing people whispering things about us: “there all so beautiful,” “do you think they’re related, they look similar, but also like they could be actual couples,” was all starting to get rather repetitive. Savanna really was oddly different in comparison. 

            

“Over here guys,” Alice’s voice called out as we entered the cafeteria, snapping me out of my thoughts about the students at Seward High School. Alice, Jasper, Emmet and Rosalie were sitting at a round table at the back of the room.

            

“Have you seen Nessie and Jacob,” I asked as we reached their table.

            

“Their in the lunch line,” Rosalie replied. I noticed that they had obviously done this already; as they all had untouched trays of food in front them.

            

“We won’t be needing to feed Jake tonight then,” I said. They all laughed at this.

“I don’t think Jacob could ever be full,” Nessie answered as she came up behind us with Jacob beside her. Her voice sent instant sparks of joy throughout my body, and I realised that I had missed her.

“Enjoying school so far?” I asked.

“Its been rather entertaining,” she said, sitting down between Jacob and Rosalie, 

“Jake needs some serious tutoring!”

“I’m sorry I’m not a nerd like you Nessie,” Jacob said, as he took a huge mouthful of macaroni-cheese. We all laughed.

“Lets go get ours,” Edward said, “any special requests,” he added, looking a Jacob.

“Not really,” he replied, with his mouth half full, “just fill your plates right up with this macaroni, its pretty good!”

Edward and I joined the back of the line to get our food. I looked around the room and noticed a lot of people seemed to still be discussing us.

“Is it always like this,” I whispered under my breath, knowing that only Edward would be able to hear me.

“Yes,” he said.

We watched in silence for a little while longer, as the long line moved slowly. My eyes moved from table to table, studying each group of students, and they all seemed very similar to those at Forks High School, sitting in their groups of friends talking to each other. When I came across the girl from our math class, Savanna, I noticed that she seemed to be isolating herself from the other students. She was sitting in the opposite corner from us, with a guy sitting across from her at the empty tabel. It was an odd sight as she seemed like she was more of a people-person, and I’d expected to find her being the centre of attention at one of the fuller tables in the cafeteria. They weren’t talking to each other either, and they both were listening to music on mp3 players. Their body language didn’t show any signs of them being uncomfortable in each other’s presence – as if they were a new couple having a lunch date or something.

“What do you think about that girl from our maths class,” I asked Edward, whispering again.

“I not sure, but something’s not right,” he said. As I turned to look at him I noticed that he must have been watching them for a while as well. “She was unusually focused on the math equations in class, and now her thoughts are purely filled with the music she’s listening to on her mp3.”

“I wonder what she is,” I said.

“She’s defiantly not a vampire,” he replied, “I can hear her heart, but she could more than human, same with the guy as he’s thinking the same way as she is. We’ll have to keep an eye on them.”

I felt as thou my heart skipped a beat, despite the fact that my heart was eternally frozen in time. What else could there be in this supernatural world that I was now a part of? Was pretty much everything from the fiction books true? We grabbed our lunch and walked back to the others at our table. Jacob was already digging into his third helping of macaroni – he was great for our human persona.

“Don’t all look at once,” Edward said quietly to everyone at the table, “but the couple at the far end of the room could be dodgy.

“What do mean?” Alice asked, “I would have had a vision if anything was going to happen.”

“They seem to be protecting their thoughts, and the girl is the only student to have spoken to us,” he said.

“The boy did the same thing in our English class,” Renesmee said.

“Something doesn’t seem right with them,” Edward said, “and if they are aware that I can hear their thoughts, then maybe they can prevent Alice from having visions.”

“Like with Jacob!?” Alice said.

“Exactly,” Edward replied, “so just be wary of them.”

           

For the last 20 minutes of the lunch break, we sat in silence, taking turns at watching Savanna and the boy she was sitting with. They listened to their music the entire time, obviously focused on keeping their guards up for some reason. I had to force myself to turn my concentration over to myself during our gym class, as I could have easily hit the ball a little too hard and knocked someone out - we were playing volley-ball.

           

As we were walking to the Volvo after our last class, we found Nessie and Jacob waiting by it talking to the boy that Savanna was sitting with at lunchtime. As we approached them, he turned around to face us, “you two must be Edward and Bella?” he said, in a confident tone, “I’m Eric, I think you’ve met my sister Savanna, she’s in your math class?”

   

“That’s right,” Edward said blankly.

           

“You all seem to be the topic of every conversation around here, so I thought I’d come and say hello myself and ask if you’d all like to come to our Halloween party we’re hosting tomorrow night?” he said, “its something we’ve done for a couple of years now”.

           

Edward was quite for a moment, “sure,” he said, starring intently at Eric, who must have been blocking his thoughts still, “where is it?”

            

“52 Pincoe Crescent, Bear Creek,” he said.

            

“Alright,” Edward said, “thanks for the invitation.”

           

“And extend the invite to your other siblings too, their most welcome.” I was studying Eric as he spoke to Edward. His skin was pale, and he looked tired as he had dark circles under his eyes – his jet-black hair enhanced all this.

            

“Well, see you tomorrow then,” Edward said, as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket and unlocked the car.

           

“Look forward to is,” Eric said, as he left.

           

We climbed into the car, and didn’t speak until we got out of the school parking lot.

            

“Something is defiantly not right about them,” Jacob said.

            

“Yes,” Edward agreed, “we all need to be extremely wary tomorrow night, he was defiantly blocking his thoughts from me - he’s skilled in doing it too.”

            

Edward drove home fast, slowing down only when he could hear that a cop was near by. When we got back house everyone was gathered in the living room, except for Carlise who was still at work. Rosalie was the first to speak, “looks like that mysterious couple have mysterious parents too,” she announced.

           

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron

CHAPTER TEN

HIGH SCHOOL

We spent the rest of the day exploring the forest, and enjoying the house. Another feature that was new to my experiences with the Cullen’s was the large indoor pool house. For most of the afternoon we enjoyed a lengthy, and competitive game of water polo. Esme had designed this area to be pretty much bullet proof, as if we hit the ball at the window on normal glass it would have shattered instantly. We were split into two teams of five, with Carlisle, Edward, Rosalie, Jasper and Jacob on one team, and Alice, Esme, Emmett, Nessie and myself as the other. We had decided that it was only fair to split Edward and Alice, as their gifts combined would be too greater advantage. It was a tie when Alice called the game to a stop – and the sun had vanished completely by now.

           

“Okay guys,” she chimed, “we have school tomorrow and Nessie and Jake will be getting tired; plus I need to show you all your outfits that I’ve planned – we do want to make a good impression on everyone.”

           

I looked over at Edward and rolled my eyes in a light-hearted fashion. I loved Alice, but her clothing choices were always decadent to say the least. He smiled back knowingly. I would have much preferred to wear my jeans and a t-shirt, but doubted that I would get away this.

           

“I’ll be visiting you four first,” she said to Edward, Nessie, Jacob and I, as we started to leave the swimming area to get changed into dry clothes in our rooms.          

           

“I hope its not too over the top,” I said to Edward as we had just finished drying ourselves off.

            

“Don’t worry, she hasn’t chosen anything couture for you at least, but you do look pretty sexy in it, and its Italian designed” he replied. He would have already seen the image in Alice’s head of what we would all look like in our clothes for tomorrow. 

            

“Knock knock,” Alice said excitedly, startling me as she opened the door to our room. “I have your outfits! Come out when you’ve got them on,” she placed two black boxes on the floor, and turned around to leave.

            

Edward started to open one of the boxes, “come on,” he said, gesturing to the other, “it not that bad. Trust me.”

           

I walked over to the other box and lifted the lid, peeling back the white tissue paper. The garment was a bright, vivid blue, and when I pulled it out of the box I realised that it was a dress. It was defiantly designer, and expensive, but didn’t look over the top, or like I was going to ball or anything – it was more dressy-casual, , with short sleeves, and a gold zip on the centre-front that started from my waist level; and by the length if it,I could tell that it would sit just above my knees. The box also contained a pair of black stockings, a short black jacket, and matching blue pumps with thick heals. It wasn’t my ideal outfit, t-shirt and jeans, but it could have been far worse. I knew that the clothes would only add to making us seem even more unapproachable to other students at Seward High School, which was ideal, as we didn’t want to risk exposing ourselves to anyone. Also, I knew that blue was Edwards favourite colour. “You look amazing,” he said as he finished the last button to his blue-grey shirt. Alice had also given him a pair of expensive looking black jeans, with what I could only guess was Italian black shoes. I could vaguely remember the first time I saw the Cullen’s in the Forks High School cafeteria, they looked like they had walked out of a modelling shoot – I looked like I had just walked out of a modelling shoot.

            

“You don’t look to bad your self,” I replied, flirting a little.

           

“We’re waiting,” Alice called out from our living room. I couldn’t help but laugh a little when I saw Jacob dressed in a similar pair of black jeans to Edward, and an untucked red shirt with a black tie done up loosely. He looked like a model, playing the role of a designer school-boy theme, but I knew that his personality didn’t suite it.

           

“Looking good Jake,” I said. He just grinned at me, and I could tell that I was right in thinking he didn’t suite it. Nessie looked beautiful, Alice had given her a long flowing white chiffon top, with dark blue denim jeans, and black, knee-high boots.

            

“Yay!” Alice said excitedly, jumping up and down slightly too. “You all look fantastic.”

           

“Are you sure we aren’t a little over dressed,” Jacob said hesitantly.

Alice glared at him, “No! Everyone will love what you are wearing.”

            

“Well we are technically overdressed for High School,” Edward said, “but it’s a good way of not blowing our cover. By looking this way, we stand out at first, but become unnoticed very quickly as people soon realise that they do not fit in with us. Its amazing how social groups are formed by certain stereotypes.”

            

“Weird,” Jacob said, “but I can see how it works.” It was weird that in order to be the most effective at keeping our cover we would have to appear as if we were shallow and too good for everyone else. I could see how ones ego could be easily uplifted in this way.

            

“Okay, enough chit chat,” Alice said, “the clothes are for tomorrow, not now. But you all look great!”

            

We said goodnight to Nessie and Jacob, and returned to our room for the rest of night, enjoying each other’s company.

*****

As we watched the sun begin to edge over the horizon line, I started to think about what the day would have in store for us. I was surprisingly calm, I had already been to through High School once, but this was my first time as a vampire. It all seemed a little bit like a game now, despite the fact that over that last few days I had felt rather nervous. “How long does it take to get into town,” I asked Edward, who still had his arms around me.

            

“Its about a fifteen minute drive,” he said. The tone of his voice gave away that he was smirking – probably at the thought of breaking the speed limit. “The High School is at the end of Seward that is closest to Bear Creek, so it could be further.”

           

“Its going to be odd, knowing how to do most of the work,” I thought out loud.

            

Edward laughed, “it is an odd feeling, but it means you get more time to learn about human nature. When you graduate again, you’ll find College a lot more stimulating.”

            

Since Renesmee was born, College hadn’t really entered any of the conversations. I remembered the complicated deal that Edward and I had devised, about marriage and University – our original plans for our life were starting to come into play, not that I had any regrets with the past six years.

            

We quietly watched the sun come up more before we changed into the clothes that Alice had organised for us, and went to meet with the others downstairs. Rosalie was dressed in a pair of metallic silver skinny jeans, with a deep purple blouse and matching shoes. She wore silver accessories, and pale metallic makeup on her lips and eyes – a perfectly sculpted ice queen. Alice was dressed in a leather black jacket with a white, knee high dress underneath. Emmett and Jasper were in similar attire to Jacob and Edward. We looked glamorous, and were most definitely destined to stand out.

            

Edward took Nessie, Jacob and I in his black Volvo, while Jasper went with Alice in her yellow Porsche, and Rosalie and Emmet took the Jeep. “So should we meet up at lunch time?” Nessie asked Edward and I as we were driving.

            

“Yes,” Edward replied. “We will grab a table and sit together in the lunch room. Obviously you two can eat, but we will grab something from the cafeteria as well, for appearances sake.”

            

I could see Jacob in the back seat. He looked content, which surprised me, but it was a good thing. I had thought that he would have been more uncomfortable, as at the school at the reservation he was pretty much surrounded by family only – he must have been more comfortable being with us than I had originally thought.

            

Edward slowed down as we came into Seward. We had just gone through Beer Creek, which was rather deserted, as the small population was predominantly made up of lifestyle blocks, or lodges for tourists. It had a small service station, and that was about it when it came to shops; I guessed that Seward was everyone’s main point of call – and it was so close, Beer Creek was practically a suburb. I looked out my window, and noticed that groups of students were walking – we were obviously close to the school. Most of them seemed to notice our cars as we drove past, and multiple boys pointed at Alice’s Porsche, which was in front of us. Despite the fact that I was frozen in age, it seemed like the average student was looking younger than those who went to High School in Forks when I did – I hadn’t really considered that even though I wouldn’t be ageing physically, I would be mentally. I began to wonder what my mentality would be like in three hundred years from now, how much maturity could a person have? But I was interrupted as we almost came to a stop. We were outside the entrance to the school parking lot. The school looked similar to Forks High School, two storied in most places, three in some, and it was made of brick. People were staring at us as we drove into the car park, and I was glad that my skin was no longer affected by blood – if I were still human I would have been constantly blushing, I hated being the centre of attention. As we got out of the car the bell rang, which I was grateful for as it moved a lot of the attention off us as people went to their classes. We went to the office together.

            

“And you lot must the Cullen’s” the woman at the reception desk said loudly as we walked in. She had short, wavy brown hair, and glasses that seemed to keep slipping down her nose.            

            

“Yes,” Edward replied.

           

“I have your timetables here, and a map for each of you to find where your classes are,” she said. “We are very grateful that your father could get you all here so quickly. There is quite a backlog of people needing medical help. He sounds like such a lovely man.”

            

“I’ll pass on your gratitude,” Edward replied, as he took the small stack of timetables for each of us. She smiled at him, and I masked my face slightly as I couldn’t help but smirk at how Edward had the ability to charm from day one – I could see where the myth about vampires being able to glamour had came from. He handed the timetable out amongst us as we left the reception area.

            

We glanced at the large map in the corridor to find where our classrooms were. “We’ll see you at lunch,” Alice said, “have fun Nessie;” and we each went to our different classes. My first class was English, and I had both Edward and Alice with me.

            

“Late!” the teacher was quick to announce as we opened the door to the room. He was a short man, with a bald head and a large stomach. As we opened the door fully so that he could see us he turned slightly red with embarrassment, as we were obviously new.

            

“We’re sorry sir,” Edward said, in an overly polite manner – I had forgotten that he would have been reading the man’s mind to figure out what would get him in his good-books. “I’m Edward Cullen, this is Bella and Alice,” he continued, “we have been at reception as its our first day.”

           

“I see,” the teacher replied in a more mellow tone, “well, I’m Mr Barkley, there are seats at back, I’ll let you off for today. But I don’t tolerate lateness.”

            

Mr Barkley explained that we were studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and I glanced over to Edward, exchanging a knowing look with him – I had studied this at high school before, so things were already proving to be a breeze; Romeo and Juliet was also one of my favourite books. I hadn’t read it in a while, so listening to the teacher read it was strangely comforting.      

          

               

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron