When I First... [E.C.]

Unlikely Encounter

Freshman year

1

When I first saw Edward Cullen, I was sitting in a noisy and dirty cafeteria that shouldn't be suitable or even clean enough for teenagers who get the flu and lice every other week to sit in. I was eating some stale, microwaved chicken nuggets from the lunch line that I doused in honey mustard to keep them down. I dug the remaining crumbs from my braces with my tongue, hoping nobody noticed. Oh my god how I hated my braces with a passion. They sucked, they really did. I mean, come on, why me? They're just metal hell.

It was the second day of my Freshman year at Forks High and I had just found a steady place to sit with Angela Webber and Mike Newton. We had our own little clique already forming and I was grateful to fit in anywhere I could. I just did not want to be sitting in a bathroom stall with my lunch. I had seen that in a movie once and was always saying to myself, HA, not me. Nope. Never.

So you can imagine my surprise when the next scene played out like an 80s movie, the scene where the hot love interest walks in for the first time. It was exactly like that, just with someone ten billion times more beautiful. I watched as he gracefully moved towards his lunch table where his siblings sat. His eyes held dark circles underneath them, making him look like he hadn't slept since the second World War. His hair was tousled in a way so perfect that it was incomprehensible to man and I distinctly remember his navy blue sweater adorning his top half, causing my heart to ache because I wasn't near it.

His family members looked pained to even chew the cafeteria food. Welcome to the club, dudes, I thought. I wanted to go up to them and tell them my new secret of the honey mustard but I was too shy back then. And all of them were hella intimidating. Especially Emmett. Oh, and Jasper. Very tall, very scary, and very attractive. The kind of guys you saw in action movies.

They were all very attractive, even the tiny girl and the blonde bombshell took my breath away.

Other tables held the kids I'd known my entire life. Ben Cheney, Tyler Crowley, Eric Yorkie, Lauren Mallory, Austin Marks, etc. People that made me feel secure in who I was and who they were. We all knew each other. From birth. Probably till death.

But here these newcomers sat. All pale, all moody, all related by the dark circles and distant stares. Here they were, sitting on their own without any conversation. Here they were, clean slates in a dirty windmill of personalities known from the very start. Here they were.

From the corner of my eye I could see Jessica Stanley across the room, practically touching herself underneath the table from the amount of euphoria she seemed to be receiving by just looking at him. I had chuckled lightly at the observation.