Alice sighed lightly and stood from the table, taking her untouched tray of food. Only she, Jasper, and Edward had bothered with the meagre props today. The play pretend was draining, nothing more than a reminder to Rosalie that her version of normality would be nothing other than a fake.
Rosalie let her eyes move over Edward's trail of sight as she ignored Emmett's childish teasing to her side. He stared at a table in the middle that was filled with people from his own year. But his eyes drifted past them all, landing singularly on a girl shoved in at the back of the table. Her brown hair fell over most of her, drifting slightly to reveal a soft, rounded, and fleshy face. Edward's nostrils flared, dark eyebrows twitching suddenly. She knew that look.
"Shall we?" Rosalie muttered as she stood from the table.
Edward paused, letting his eyes be pulled away from the new girl. Her scowl hadn't yet loosened, and Rosalie's face darkened further. His interest would end with bloodshed.
"So is the new one afraid of us yet?" Emmett asked, a grin pulling at his wide face.
Rosalie felt him nudge his elbow into her arm, attempting to pull her into his humoured conversation. She sighed, pushing past him and heading toward her lesson. She didn't have the energy to deal with them today.
English with Mrs Bainbridge was her only lesson without Emmett and Jasper, the only lesson in which she could sit by herself without having to worry about their presence. It was one of few hours of the day when she didn't have to think of Edward stalking her thoughts too- he was a Junior and her thoughts were far less interesting when he had to dive from the other end of the school to hear them.
"Books out, people!" Mrs Bainbridge shouted as she strode into the classroom, the heavy sound of her heels hitting the floor reaching Rosalie's ears unwelcomingly. "Turn to page 132, please. Silent reading up until page 210 today."
Violet reached for the book in her bag, flicking to the page in question. Her copy of Emma was already annotated, the pages warm and frayed, touched only by her after-work hands, fingerprints of grease staining the edges. She'd read it already, while tucked in the back of the Jeep in the garage, the pattering of rain an unending playlist in the background, hiding the clangs of metal as her dad worked late. It was the best time: just as she'd finished as much as she could take for the night, forgetting about the piles of homework that were discarded at home, and with a cup of tea standing on the scratched leather seats, the bag still steeping.
The book opened to the chapter where Knightley reconciled with Emma after their disagreement. Violet sighed- she knew the book far too well to be bothered to read it. 'Vanity working on a weak head produces every sort of mischief.' How many people could she pin that quote to, with their incessant need to be in the middle of things?
The clock seemed to stick, time not willing to move, only willing to torture her with the lengthiness of the lesson. Violet let her hair flip over her arms as she rested her chin against the desk, the streaks of ginger strands amongst the dark brown highlighted under the harshness of the light's glare. Her hands were stained with car oil, the scent of it filling her nose as she sighed. Her stomach rumbled. The Jeep- which she'd been working on for two years all from scratch- had caused her to miss many lunches and dinners in the last week, all of which was deemed worth it in Violet's eyes, and even her father's. All within a few days, she'd finished the framework and sanded it, all ready to be painted at the weekend.
Restlessly, her head flipped back to stare at the clock a second time. The smallest hand had moved only five minutes. The rest of the class still read contently- an easy sign that it was an advanced group. They all read, except for Rosalie Hale, who sat directly behind her. Violet could see the book still in her bag, which was pushed arrogantly against Violet's own seat.
Violet sighed again, unable to stop the exasperated sound from falling past her lips. Boredom gripped her whole. She contemplated playing matchmaking, as Emma did, just to pass the time. It wasn't as if there was much else to do. But looking around the room, at the people who she'd known every year until her senior year, the idea fell flat. Not to mention the fact that she would have no clue when it came to the boys.
Time moved so slowly that it felt as if it had stopped altogether. There had to be more to life than this, Violet thought. The only thing keeping some sort of liveliness within her, was the thought of getting to finish her Jeep and one day escaping into the world, a single bag chucked into the back, her friend Celia's number scrawled in chalk on the dashboard. There had to be more, surely, than sitting and waiting for slow time to pass, wishing her life away by the hour.
When the bell finally rang, Violet was one of the first out of her seat, shoving the worn book into her bag and hurrying to the door. It was cold like it always was, and her shirt jacket did little to stop the chill from crawling up her back. Her legs moved quickly as she hurried toward Celia's small car, though not quick enough for the head of blonde who rushed past her to the silver Volvo across the lot.
Rosalie shuffled in closer to the car door, squeezing in as far as possible so Emmett could fit his wide shoulders in with Jasper on his left. Alice sat in the passenger seat, biting her lip nervously as she glanced to the empty space beside her. When Edward finally pushed through the door, slumping into the driver's seat, strangely, he looked as if he'd been suffocated.
"Edward?" Alice gasped.
"What the hell happened to you?"
Edward didn't answer as he threw the car into reverse and sped from the car park, gaining speed as rapidly as his safe Volvo would allow. Rosalie turned to Alice, watching with a lowered expression as her sister just shrugged, and turned to glance from the window, gazing at the trees that moved along in a blur of green.
"You're leaving?" Alice asked, her head snapping to him. Until then, the car had been ghostly silent, not even filled with Emmett's pleads for a rematch with Jasper.
"Am I?" Edward snarled.
Then Alice's face dropped. "Oh," she mumbled. "Oh."
Rosalie fought the urge to shake the very words from her sister's mouth. Her fists clenched. Once again, they were left at a disadvantage, knowing nothing other than the fact that Edward was angry, most probably at himself.
"Stop!" Edward shouted, his eyebrows furrowing and forehead creasing in distress.
"Sorry," Alice whispered sheepishly, ignoring Rosalie's confused stare. "I'll miss you. No matter how short a time you're gone."
Edward didn't say anything. His only response was his tightening grip on the steering wheel, his already pale knuckles whitening with strain.
"Drop us here. You should tell Carlisle yourself," Alice said softly.
Without another moment's notice, the car screeched to a stop and Edward pulled to the side of the road, waiting as the siblings piled from the car. Alice leaned in through the open window, hand touching his shoulder briefly.
"You will do the right thing. She's Charlie Swan's only family. It would kill him too," she said.
Anger flashed behind Rosalie's eyes. Swan. Bella swan. The small girl who huddled in on herself in the cafeteria came to mind, her face pale and sickly and eyes a warm but plain brown. That was what this was about? Bella Swan? But neither Alice nor Edward elaborated before they melted back into the woods.
"Yes," was his only response.
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