RISING MOON
CHAPTER FOUR
. . .
Their second day of school, Jonathan walked out of the house and found Bella waiting in her rusted, old pickup truck. She had her earbuds in and nose in her book, an assigned book from her English class most likely. She wore a pair of dark jeans and a tan brown jacket over a green blouse layered over her white long sleeve. She had a cute black-cloth-wrap style headband over her dark hair, too.
"Hey," Jonathan greeted her when he got into the truck and subsequently gained her attention.
"Morning." Bella smiled meekly, putting her book away and taking her earbuds out of her ears, placing everything back in her bag that sat on the floor in front of the center counsel.
"You ok?" Jonathan asks, raising an eyebrow at her anxious behavior.
Bella chews on her lip for a second in thought, probably debating whether she should tell him or not, and decides to do so at the end of her internal debate. Jonathan was always a good listener to her problems, even if he didn't always understand them. "It's just... I," She tries to voice her problem and Jonathan sits patiently, waiting for her response. "There's this guy in my bio class and he... he was a jerk."
"What did he do?" Jonathan asks curiously.
"Well, I sat next to him and throughout the class he made it seem like I... like I smelled, or something, and then as soon as class was over he was in a hurry to get away from me..." Bella managed to get out, "And then when I went into the office he was trying to get out of the class. It's like I repulsed him, or something, I don't know..." She looked down as she shook her head, second-guessing her assumptions.
"Wow," Jonathan scoffed, "What a dick." He nodded in agreement. "Want me to go kick his ass for you, Bells?"
"Jon!" Bella scolded mockingly, hitting him in the arm with a book as she laughed. "No, don't, please. You have enough offenses on your record as it is."
"Can't blame me for asking," Jonathan smiles, "You're my sister, and I don't want some douche-bag making you feel like that."
"Thanks," Bella mumbles with a light heart, and a soft smile, even if she doesn't make eye contact with him.
"What was this guy's name though?" Jonathan asks.
"Why? So you can go pick a fight with him?" Bella scoffs.
"No, okay, yeah, maybe," He laughs when she shoots him a look. "But seriously, I wanna know who hurt your feelings."
"Edward Cullen."
Jonathan stiffened. That ass-prick? He nodded as he processed that information. Wow, he sure is a pompous dick. Okay. He'll keep an eye out for him, then. "Seriously, you sure you don't want me to beat him up? I could make it look like it was his fault?"
"No," Bella shakes her head, smiling, "Thanks Jon, but no. I'm gonna confront him myself, you know? Ask him what his problem is."
Jonathan smiles a little, proud of his sister. "Good for you, Bells."
. . .
After arriving at school, Jonathan left Bella to her own devices as she chose to stand against her car and read for a little longer. Instead, Jonathan entered the school building and quickly found his locker.
"What's with the dark look?" Cass asks, breaking him away from his thoughts on how he could at least confront Edward after Bella got her chance to make sure the rich prick didn't hurt his sister ever again.
"Hm?" He turned towards her, "Oh, nothing, just thinking about something Bells told me." He divulged, "Apparently that Edward Cullen guy insulted her."
"Oh, so, what, are you trying to plan his murder or something?" Cass asks, laughing.
"What? Me? Plan a murder? No, no," Jonathan mockingly jokes, "It'll just be a very unfortunate accident if anything else."
Cass snorted, shaking her head and she held back a snicker. "Man, have I missed you, boy wonder."
"Wrong superhero, Cassandra."
"Um, excuse me, if anything boy wonder fits you better."
"Not denying that, but it doesn't negate the fact that-"
"Oh, negate my ass, Swan-boy." Cass scoffs with an eye roll, shaking her head. "And if we're gonna get clinical here, then I shall be referred to as Orphan or Black Bat. Maybe even Batgirl, but we do not refer to me as Cassandra." She shuddered. "God, might as well be a witch with an old ass name like that," She laughed out loud.
"Better than Catherine or something," Jon offers with a shrug, knowing that Cass had hated that character in the book Wuthering Heights that they'd been forced to read in freshman year (well, she had been forced to read it over the winter break because she had procrastinated and waited until then to actually read it and Jonathan had been chilling with a copy of Pride and Prejudice- hey, it was a classic, and he wasn't embarrassed to have been hooked on the book the moment Cassandra's sister had offered it to him. It was a well known classic among literature for a reason), "Lest you be compared to that horrid Wuthering Heights."
"Don't even remind me of that god-awful book."
. . .
Seated in class for his first period, with Cassandra seated right behind him, Jonathan was quick to notice when Evangeline Cullen came into the classroom. She was late, which seemed to stir the class as they whispered about the possible reason. He wanted to roll his eyes at the craze this school had over the Cullens- though, his annoyance wasn't with her, no, she seemed like a lovely girl, albeit more of a loner, like himself and Cass; no, his ire was more so directed towards her older brother, Edward.
Evangeline looked a little frazzled, but played it off as she stared coldly at those around her that dared to stare openly, ogling her like loons. She was a gorgeous young woman, and she was very curvaceous. She wore dark jeans with black heeled boots, a black blouse under a brown leather jacket, and had black-silvery necklaces decorating her collarbones. Something about the Cullens that Jonathan had noticed was that they were all so incredibly attractive- all of them. Every single one of them was hot. Which was so unbelievably unfair in Jonathan's mind.
The lecture started without much delay once the final bell had rung, and Jonathan tried paying attention, but was ultimately distracted which resulted in him staring off into space. He was in his own world, thinking about what he would be doing to waste the time away once he got home, that he hadn't realized that the lecture had ended.
Jonathan was currently debating whether he should go out and explore the forest or town, or if he should invite Cass over to reorganize his record collection- Cass liked organizing things, but she also enjoyed the sound of his record player. Then again, maybe he should get himself more reacquainted with the town and find some places to hang out at when he didn't want to immediately go home. Maybe there was a good book store or music shop that he hadn't been to before, highly unlikely, but you never know. He hadn't been here since the previous summer, which had been cut short because Jonathan had gotten ill the day school let out so he had been unable to travel for a good two and a half weeks. In the end, he decided that he would be checking out the forest behind the house, going to explore and maybe even find a nice place to have picnics with Cass- she liked that kind of stuff, and it was hard to find a place with privacy for them to talk more freely. Small towns and all...
Jonathan remained unaware of the directions of this newest project, and stayed blissfully in his own head as students were randomly paired off. That is, until he heard the screeching of desks around him being moved around and chair legs scraping painfully on the floor, hurting his ears and snapping him out of his reverie.
Looking around, Jonathan Swan found himself at a loss as he found Evangeline now seated next to him. Exceedingly close due to her desk being pushed right next to his. Taking a quick glance around the room, he found others had their desks in similar setups, and Cass was pouting with arms crossed as she was paired up with some boy from the basketball team. She did not look happy, as she sneered at the boy as she most obviously insulted him and began to work on whatever assignment they'd been given, rolling her eyes when the boy continued to talk to her.
He snapped his eyes back to the girl before him as she cleared her throat softly, looking amused as she smiled a bit at him, raising her eyebrow. "I'm going to assume that you weren't paying attention." She said, her voice unwavering in confidence and absolute music to his blessed ears. Holy shit, that was some sappy-ass shit.
Jonathan grimaced, "Yeah, no, sorry. What's going on?"
"We've been assigned a partner project." Evangeline explained kindly, before launching into the details of what they were supposed to do and the directions for what whatever they were doing would entail. Turns out, it was a research report that was loosely related to their discussion of Shakespeare's works.
He caught Cass' smug look, then, as she peered over at him with one of the hugest smirks on her face, looking in between him and Evangeline with obvious suggestion. She was now sitting with a different partner, a girl this time- she must have been reassigned, judging from the looks she was getting from her previous partner, and also the eye roll from their teacher, who was just walking back to the front of the room were his desk sat from Cass' seat in the back of the room.
"So what do you think?" Evangeline's voice broke him from his distractions, and he turned to quickly face her again to see her already looking at him with amusement. "You don't have a very strong attention span, do you?"
"No," Jonathan sighed, "Sorry, I'm just having a rough morning."
"It's cool, I get it," Evangeline shrugged, "Something on your mind?"
It was almost startling how easily the words had come out of her mouth. Evangeline wasn't one to get close to someone or make conversation with the mortals at this school, or any school they attended, and yet here she was now. She found his silent observations of Cassandra Yang fun to watch, and she thought his spacey behavior, which was obviously uncharacteristic because Cassandra had been shooting him worried looks for the entire duration of the class' lecture, to be adorable.
Plus, when he talked to her, he was looking her in the eyes.
"My sister's having a bit of a hard time because yesterday some jerk made her insecure." Jonathan sighed heavily, internally surprised how easily he had divulged his thoughts to her.
Sure, he thought she was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, other than Cass, but she didn't really count because they'd been friends since they were kids. Evangeline had this dark, ethereal vibe to her, and she was calm, and oddly dignified for a teenager. Just from his observations at yesterday's lunch period, she had already shown this cold class that was strange for a teenage girl; she was an Ice Queen, and he put true emphasis on the label of Queen.
And yet, talking to him yesterday after classes had ended, and even now, she seemed so... normal? No, that wasn't quite right, because her eyes were this weird gold color, and he didn't think that was humanly possible for eye colors. She was just easy to talk to, and it was weird because they seemed to be getting a pretty good read on each other, but this was only their second conversation.
"Let me guess, my brother Edward was the one being a jerk?" Evangeline smiled when Jonathan allowed his surprise to show. Before he could question her, she smirked, "Because Edward's an awkward, angry idiot."
"Is that so?" Jonathan asked, narrowing his eyes at her amusement.
Evangeline rolled her eyes, shaking her head, "It's a wonder girls even like him because he's just so weird and dramatic."
"Yeah, well, he really hurt Bella's feelings." Jonathan huffed, glaring down at the papers in front of him, directions and grading prompts for their assignment, which was due at the end of the week.
"I'm sorry about him," Evangeline said softly, she looked down, too. "He's such a thoughtless doofus, he has absolutely no tact about stuff like this."
"Stuff like what?" Jonathan furrowed his brows, confused.
"Oh, well, you know," Envageline danced around the answer, "It's not everyday new people come into town," She evaded his eyes then, "Especially if they're really pretty..."
Silence sunk in around them as they stared at each other, with wide eyes. Avoiding each other's gazes, they looked away and to the sides, all around them as they tried to shake the awkwardness off.
Jonathan cleared his throat then, changing the subject, "Let's start on this project, shall we?"
. . .
God, she had totally just embarrassed herself. Evangeline wanted to slam her head into the wood of the desk and destroy the classroom around her as she sat there, listening to the boy beside her as he explained what his ideas were to add to their brainstorming section, which was basically just a blank space on the paper. If she wasn't so cold due to her being undead, she was sure that her whole face and being would be burning hot.
With Edward taking a break away from Forks in Alaska with their allies of the Denali Coven, due to the fact that he'd found his blood singer and was having a hard time controlling himself, Evangeline was having a hard time figuring out what she should be doing about her own human problem. Should she be making herself scarce, too? Should she be following Edward's lead? Or should she just stay and see where this would all lead to? She really wanted to. She was enjoying listening to the sound of his voice as he talked, and the few times their hands would brush because they would switch who was writing on the paper... it sent jolts into her being, waking something in her that screamed for something other than blood for once.
While one part of her told her to run, another, somehow stronger part of her was curious. She hadn't been wrong or exaggerating when she had said that Bella and Jonatahn were pretty. Sure, Bella's prettiness was kind of overshadowed by her immense anxious, awkward, insecure personality, but Jonathan wasn't held down by such internal tortures.
Jonathan Swan was a handsome teenage boy, with beautiful facial features and soft-looking, dark hair. It was a bit messy, but in this roguish, rakish kind of way, and he had these stunning lips, along with a small dimple when he smiled- which was absolutely adorable; not to mention how dazzling his smile truly was. It felt like the room lit up with sunshine when he genuinely smiled or laughed, and Evangeline had missed the sun in her years as a vampire. Then there was his scent, which had been driving Evangeline up the wall for the entire class period; it would only get worse once she noticed the sheer number of classes she just so happened to share with the boy.
The first thing she could smell was his cologne, which was subtle, especially compared to some of the other boys at this school. It was a clean scent, fairly generic. But his natural scent, that was what got her. He smelled of coffee and pine, which was a given as they lived in the middle of a forest and she assumed he drank a ton of coffee- considering he'd already gotten into an amusing argument with Cassandra about the way they liked their coffee during lunch (Jonathan apparently just drank it black or sometimes with a little bit of cream, while Cassandra preferred tea or hot chocolate over the "liquid garbage"). However, there was also this earthy scent of the passing rain that seemed to follow him, like petrichor. It was oddly refreshing.
Evangeline just wanted to get to know him a bit. She wasn't sure if she wanted to expose him to the dangers of the supernatural, but she couldn't keep herself away from him. She wanted to get to know him, yes, she just hadn't realized that an opportunity would present itself so soon.
The class period ended with the teacher reclaiming attention to get the class back in organized order, rows and columns reforming as people dragged the desks and chairs back to their original spots.
The bell rang and Evangeline made her way back to Jonathan's side, as he was snickering about something Cassandra Yang had told him, shoving her away when she'd mentioned that he was paired with Evangeline Cullen herself. The two, however, quieted when Evangeline approached them.
"Hey," Jonathan smiled politely, but she basked in this new warmth, "What's up?"
"I was just wondering if we should spend some time after school working on this project," Evangeline said, "We didn't exactly get a lot done."
"No, I suppose we didn't," His hand was scratching the back of his head a bit shyly, as he avoided her piercing gold eyes. A small flare of heat shot to his face, and he ignored Cass' smug air radiating from her person. "We could go over to my place or something? But we can also go somewhere else if you're not comfortable with that."
Evangeline smiled, and Jonathan was floored by her flowery happiness. "Here's my number," she handed him a small slip of paper with a neat scrawl of numbers on it. "Text me when you figure it out."
And with that, she had turned and sauntered off.
"Holy shit, dude, you just got her number!"