The following morning, the six of us drove to school. Edward said that usually when they started a new school, they all went together, but with Rosalie's continued hostility towards me, Edward had driven the two of us in his silver Volvo. I smiled to myself, thinking about how different this was to the first time I went to Forks High. I was a Cullen now. Well, technically I was still Bella Swan, but I was a Cullen at heart now, I belonged to the vampire family that even as a human I loved.
"What are you thinking about Bella?" Edward asked, while driving madly fast.
"I'm surprised this thing still runs after a couple of centuries," I lied.
I didn't particularly want to get into a conversation with Edward about me being a Cullen, and I knew he saw right through me every single time I lied. I had to admit, I didn't like lying to him. Thank god for the glitch in my brain. Oops, I mean my 'shield' as Eleazer and Kate call it, I thought, mentally correcting my own train of thought. I huffed. I was rambling in my own head.
Edward stopped in his usual parking spot, and sped round to open my door for me. I smiled at him and walked over to where Alice and Jasper stood. I frowned. Wasn't Rosalie and Emmett with them?
"No, they went in Rose's car," Alice said.
I rolled my eyes. Having a fortune-teller for a sister could be irritating. Put that together with a mind-reader... I remembered watching Alice and Edward play chess, it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. After about three minutes, Alice knocked over her King and surrendered. There had been a lot of sitting and mind-reading, then sitting and vision-seeing, as Emmett called it. It was hilarious.
"Hey guys!" Emmett screamed from behind us.
Rosalie whacked him on the back of his head and glared at him, although to as playfully as usual. We had gained a lot of stares from the people around us. Emmett would pay.
"Behave Emmett," I snapped, "Act human."
"No fun lil' sis," he said, pouting.
I laughed slightly at him, and then followed Jasper into the office. The lady gave us our timetables, and a map that none of us would use. I compared my timetable to Edward's, and saw that we had the same lessons at the same time, thank god. We had English with Alice and Jasper first, then Calc, Biology, Spanish and...oh great. Gym. Edward would get to see me humiliate myself. Then again, maybe I'd be a little more co-ordinated now I was a vampire. Remaining inconspicuous could prove the greatest challenge.
Edward, Alice, Jasper and myself headed to English, waving goodbye to Emmett and Rosalie. I sat down by Edward, as there didn't seem to be a seating plan, and ignored the stares we were receiving. Edward growled quietly next to me. I rested my hand on his and looked into his eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.
"Those boys behind us have no right to think of you like that," he snarled, too quietly and quickly for anyone else to hear.
"Edward," I said, getting the usual thrill at saying his name, "I only love you. You know that."
He smiled at me briefly, and squeezed my hand. Just then, the teacher came in, so the four of us got up to get our slips signed. Thankfully, he didn't make us introduce ourselves. I sighed, and opened the all-to-familiar textbook, and memorised it in a minute or two, while paying vague attention to what he was saying.
"Miss Swan?" he asked suddenly.
"Conjunctions," I answered automatically, having plenty of room in my head.
I looked up and smiled sweetly at him. I heard Edward chuckle quietly beside me, and had to stop myself laughing at the expression that crossed the teacher's face. He pursed his lips and continued lecturing us on something dull.
English passed slowly, and I wondered if high school was always this dull. I was about to ask, when Alice nodded gravely. I groaned at her, partly due to her gift, which got on my nerves, and partly due to the two years of Forks High we'd signed ourselves up to. Jasper laughed at my expression, and Edward smiled, slinging his arm around my shoulders lazily. I giggled.
***
The rest of the morning passed just as slowly, and I was soon walking back into the lunch hall. I bought a sandwich that I obviously wouldn't eat, and we sat down at a suitably sized tale, claiming it as our own. Rosalie and Emmett sat down, Rosalie making a show of sitting away from me, and then Alice and Jasper.
A girl with brown hair swept into a pony-tail skipped up to us. She looked to be in our grade, so I made an effort to be nice, unlike the rest of my family.
"Mind if I sit here?" she asked.
I was about to politely answer with the negative, when Edward interrupted coldly.
"Yes."
She looked to him, and seemed just as dazzled as I'd been when I first saw him. She raked in every inch of Edward's body, and I waited patiently for her to leave, before I became falsely jealous. Jasper was watching the three of us carefully, and I gave him a small smile, reassuring him that I wasn't about to knock her head off.
"Oh. You guys are new here right?" she asked, immediately chatty.
We nodded, and I couldn't help but make a connection between her and Jessica Stanley. She even looked like her. I wonder...
"What are your names?" she asked, with a 'duh' tone in her voice.
"This is Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, Alice, Edward and I'm Bella," I said, before somebody else answered rudely.
"I'm Jessica. And you guys are, like, related?" she asked.
"No. Dr. and Mrs. Cullen adopted all of us. Edward, Emmett and I are siblings, and Carlisle is our uncle. Rosalie and Jasper are brother and sister, and Bella is on her own," Alice said, picking up what I was trying to do.
"But you're, like, all together?" she persisted.
"Yes," the six of us said in unison.
She nodded, looking back to Edward again. I could feel the jealously building up inside me, so I took a calming breath. I sent Jasper a grateful glance when a wave of calm washed over me. He smiled minutely.
"See y'all around," she said, glancing at us with disdain, other than Edward that is.
"Wait!" I called out, needing to ask her.
She turned around, and smiled at me. I smiled back, but it felt a little forced. She walked back over to our table and looked to me.
"You don't happen to know about you ancestors do you?" she nodded, "Was there a Jessica Stanley in your family?"
She motioned to herself, and I shook my head.
"Before you."
She thought for a minute, but kept glancing at Edward, who was grinding his hands into iron fists. I clasped his hands in both of mine, lightly tracing patterns on the backs of his hands. He relaxed slightly, and I clenched his hands finger by finger, then unlocked his jaw. I smiled at him.
"Yeah, like, a hundred and something years ago. Why?" she asked, watching me suspiciously.
I shrugged, and waited until we left before talking to my family. They were string at me incredulously.
"How on Earth did yu work that out?" Aice asked.
"She looks and sounds like Jessica did. I guessed," I replied, shrugging again.
"It's kinda depressing that her family have stayed in Forks all this time. You never know, maybe Mike's family store is still here," Emmett said.
"It is," Edward said, "Her parents own it."
"So you think Mike married Jessica? In he end?" Jasper persisted.
Edward nodded, and I smiled. At least she'd been happy, that was a good thing. And Mike had been happy. I leant against Edward's arm, and he wrapped it around me.
"I feel mentally exhausted," I said.
"Whatever you're doing with Kate must be tiring," he said, laughing.
I smiled.
***
The end of the day couldn't have come quickly enough. Jessica had spent the entire day flirting with Edward. Unfortunately, she'd been in Spanish and gym, so I hadn't escaped from her since lunch. It had been hell. Edward pressed a kiss to the top of my head as we lay in his bedroom, and I smiled, wriggling closer to him, putting my head on his chest.
Less than three seconds later, Alice was calling me from downstairs. I groaned, and stood up, slipping out of Edward's comfortable embrace. I leapt down the stairs and saw Kate sitting on the kitchen work-top, waiting to start training again. I nodded to her, and we sped outside.
After an hour, Kate told me to go spend time with Edward, because I had it. I still felt tired, even more so now, so I walked at human lace back to the house. Alice hollered my name again, and thrust a fashion magazine at me, telling me to chose my outfit for some party she was throwing.
"Please don't Alice. I'm tired," I said.
"Bella," she whined.
I glared at her.
"No. I don't want to go to this party anyway. Leave me alone," I begged.
Alice looked offended, so I gave her a hug, apologising for my outburst. She hugged me fiercely back, and then shoved me up the stairs. I sprinted to Edward's bedroom, and found him waiting as usual. He smiled as I entered, and opened his arms slightly. I flew into them, and hugged him tightly, having no desire to ever let go. He kissed my lips gently, then smiled.
"I love you Bella," he whispered.
"I love you too Edward, you know that."
He smiled, then kissed my lips again.
Bliss.