June ended. July passed. August came and went. Then it was September.
Melaina made it a habit to pick her clothes out the night before she needed them, so that she could have a few extra minutes in the morning to sleep. She was grateful for planning ahead, so she wouldn't be late to school, especially today when she walked into the bathroom and saw her disfigured face.
A bluish-brown bruise covered the right side of her face from her jawline to her eyebrow. As she bruised like a mushy banana, she was used to finding small splashes of discoloration along her body without remembering how she received them. Unfortunately, it was hard to forget how her stepdad got physical with her when she accidentally spilled her drink across the counter last night; it ran into his pile of mail. He reached out too fast for Mel to move away and his hand hit her across the cheek with a force that brought tears to her eyes.
Melaina spent a good twenty minutes painting her face with heavy concealer. It was not just any day of school, but the first day. She found herself racing out the door to the bus at the last minute.
With a cry of anguish, Mel watched the tail end of the bus disappear down the road. Without her. Wishing she wore sneakers instead of her worn Converse, she began to run to school from her house.
~*~
Starving from not eating breakfast and out of breath from her undesired morning run, Melaina slouched against her new locker for a breather. She reached into the front pocket of her bag and grabbed a cookie dough protein bar.
Mel nibbled on her breakfast as she glanced at her reflection on her phone to make sure her bruise was still covered.
Satisfied that her makeup held up through her run, she shoved her phone into her pocket and pulled out her new schedule.
Name: Melaina Jackson
Grade: 9 - Freshman
Locker: 114 B
Combination: 8-21-13
Year: 2003-2004
Homeroom: Mr. Roberts
European History - Mr. Roberts - Building 6
Algebra - Mr. Ross - Building 5
Art - Mr. Mahone - Building 4
Honors English - Ms. Perkins - Building 3
Lunch
French IB - Madame Zee - Building 7
Phys. Ed - Coach Love - Gym
~*~
Freshman year was supposed to be the start of something better, or so Melaina had always thought. She was younger than most of the students in her grade, because her birthday fell at the very end of the school year: June 12.
Walking into Forks High School for the first time, people quickly noticed the change since middle school in the once-spirited girl. Mel's eyes no longer held the same glow as it did before the summer. Savannah tried to talk to her best friend, as she had been for the last few months, but even she could not get the time of day from Melaina Jackson.
The school was new, the teachers were new, but the students were the same gossiping back-stabbers that she remembered. Savannah was the only one Mel had trusted besides her mom, but now she was alone to suffer the next four years of high school.
Every class was like the one prior. Introductions, syllabus, icebreakers. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Mel hated icebreakers with a burning passion. She thought by high school the first day of school torture would have faded out, but no such luck. "Now, everyone, for this next game you will have your eyes closed." A low groan rolled across the two gym classes around Mel.
"The goal is to sort yourselves by your birth month. You will call out your month and follow the voices of others with the same month. By the end, you should be in clusters of students born in the same month," Coach Love enthused. His enthusiasm was lost on his last period students.
Mel, for one, wanted to take a nap after the seemingly endless first day. "There are a few rules for this to be a success: one, you need to have your hands up in firsts in front of you--like bumpers. No running, of course, and your eyes must remain closed. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Coach," the combined classes said in sync.
"Rise and spread out across the gym." The students did as they were told. "Eyes closed, hands up, and begin!"
Melaina was more worried about someone running over her small frame than her tripping over someone else. She barely moved from her spot by the gym wall. She listened for June to be called out and took baby steps toward the voices. There weren't many, but she followed the ones that she could.
"June."
A slightly familiar female voice prompted her forward. "June." Mel moved a few more baby steps in her direction. "June."
After ten minutes of students fumbling blindly around the gym like drunkards, Coach called out for them to freeze and open their eyes. "Raise your hand if you're January." A scattered assortment of students raised their hands. "February. March. April..."
Coach Love went through the months. The only month to form a decent group was July since there were only two of them out of about sixty students. "Now, find your fellow birth month people with your eyes open. These will be your groups for the next few classes."
June and July were combined, as were a couple other small month groups. Mel glanced around at her Phys. Ed. groupmates. She only recognized most of them, hated one of them, and was best friends with another one's sister.
Jonah Golde. Gracie Lee. Hannah Myers, Savannah's older sister. Marissa Fitzgerald. Lin Ti.
"Mingle with your group. Get to know them. Next class we're starting team-building activities!"
~*~
The days went by and Mel found high school to be exceptionally mundane. Even though she was quick to make herself a social outcast, Mel never found herself bullied in school. In fact, most students were exceptionally nice to her. She knew that many people felt bad for her after her mother passed from breast cancer over the summer. Mel didn't want to be pitied, so she pushed them away. Eventually the hint got across and people stopped bothering her after several failed attempts at conversing with the broken girl.
Thankfully for Melaina, the buzz about new students, the Cullens, took hold of the school's gossip after the first week of classes came and went. Mel was relieved that the previous eyes trained on her were quick to turn to new faces. Melaina found gossip to be more like the game "telephone" than necessary information. No one quite kept the story the same as it traveled through the grapevine, so Mel ignored the rumors floating around about the large family.
The youngest new girl, Alice, was in two of her classes, and the other freshman Cullen, Edward, also shared two classes with Melaina. Electives at Forks High were grade-neutral, so their sophomore brother--Jasper Hale--was in one of Mel's classes in the morning.
The Cullens didn't pay her any mind. Not at first. Melaina was just another human whose life cycle lasted no more than a century--nothing compared to a vampire's eternity.
All it would take was one bloody moment to change their pattern of life.