Behind Enemy Lines

Chapter Three

The morning of my first day at Forks High School, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror practicing. "Hi, I'm Marissa. Emmett and Rosalie are my... siblings." The word felt foreign on my tongue, like trying to speak a language I'd never learned.

Downstairs, the tension was thick enough to cut. Rose kept adjusting my backpack straps and smoothing down my hair, her maternal instincts on full display. "Remember, if anyone asks about your parents—"

"Carlisle and Esme adopted all of us," I finished. "I know, Mom—Rose. Rose." I caught myself, but not before Emmett winced.

"This is going to be harder than we thought," he muttered, running a hand through his dark curls.

Alice bounced over with a bright smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "It'll be fine! I've seen it—well, mostly fine. There might be a small incident in third period, but nothing we can't handle."

"What kind of incident?" Rose's voice went sharp.

"The kind where Marissa accidentally calls Emmett 'Dad' in front of half the junior class," Alice said cheerfully.

My stomach dropped. "Great. Just great."

The drive to school was torture. I sat in the back of Emmett's Jeep while he and Rose occupied the front seats, acting like the siblings they were supposed to be. Every instinct screamed at me to lean forward and ask Rose to braid my hair or tell Emmett about the weird dreams I'd been having. Instead, I sat there like a stranger.

"Remember," Rose said without turning around, "we barely know each other. We're not close."

The words stung more than they should have.

Forks High School was smaller than I'd expected, a collection of brick buildings that looked like they'd been there since the 1950s. Students clustered in groups across the parking lot, and I could feel their stares as we got out of the Jeep. The Cullen family was apparently quite the spectacle.

"See you around," Emmett said casually, shouldering his backpack. But his eyes lingered on me for just a moment too long, filled with the same protective concern I'd seen every morning for sixteen years.

Rose walked past me without a word, but her fingers briefly squeezed my shoulder—a gesture so quick I might have imagined it.

I made it through first and second period without incident. English and History were easy enough; I kept to myself and tried to ignore the whispered conversations about the "new Cullen girl." But third period was Biology, and that's where everything fell apart.

The teacher, Mr. Banner, was explaining cellular respiration when a Bunsen burner flared too high at the lab station next to mine. The sudden burst of flame made me jump backward, knocking over my stool with a loud crash.

"Are you okay?" Emmett was beside me in an instant, his hands on my shoulders, checking for injuries with the practiced ease of someone who'd been taking care of me my entire life.

"I'm fine, Dad, it just startled—" The word was out before I could stop it.

The entire classroom went silent. Even Mr. Banner stopped mid-sentence about ATP molecules.

Emmett's face went carefully blank. "I'm not your dad," he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. "We're just... family friends. Adopted siblings."

But the damage was done. I could see it in the curious glances, the whispered conversations that would follow us for weeks. Jessica Stanley, a girl with bouncy hair who'd tried to befriend me earlier, was practically vibrating with gossip potential.

"Sorry," I mumbled, righting my stool. "I'm still getting used to... everything."

The rest of the day crawled by. At lunch, I sat three tables away from my family, picking at a sandwich while they laughed and talked like normal teenagers. Every few minutes, Rose would glance over at me, her expression carefully neutral but her eyes worried.