Monday's were typically the worst and it didn't help that Lili would be starting at a new school with people she didn't know a week late. Most of these people have already formed groups and Lili did not want to deal with it. The weather was chilly but not cold and drizzly but not rainy, perfect for the outfit she had picked out the night before. She turned on her grow lights for her high sun plants and checked her heat mats for the rest of them before going to the bathroom to shower. She unpacked her sage and citrus shampoo and lavender body wash from a box under the sink along with the rest of her toiletries.
Sluggishly she stepped into the shower and then spent about 20 minutes staring at the wall before finally washing herself and getting out. Her outfit consisted of a pair of blue skinny jeans, a cropped black tank top, a black and white flannel, and boot heels. After putting on a tiny bit of mascara and lipgloss Lili left the bathroom and went downstairs. Grabbing her messenger bag she walked into the kitchen where Charlie sat with two cups of coffee.
"Are you ready to go?" He looked up from his newspaper and took a sip of his coffee.
"Yep I am!" Lili brought her cup up to her lips, "mmmm you remembered how I liked my coffee!" After finishing the cup she set it into the sink along with Charlie's and made her way to the front door.
"You know what," Charlie said while opening the door. "How about you drive." With that he handed her a set of keys and moved out of the way to expose a beautiful cherry red 1969 Ford Mustang Fastback sitting in the driveway.
"Wait... wait you're joking right? Oh my god she's beautiful!" Like a child she grabbed the keys out of Charlie's hand and skipped down the stairs and to her new car.
"I'd say drive carefully but I know you. Have a good day at school and please don't get in trouble." With that Charlie turned and made his way to his car while Lili excitedly crawled into hers.
•••
It's not like she really cared but wow this school was practically the definition of a small town high school. Her gaze swept over the parking lot picking through the cliques, stopping at one in particular. They were pale, beautiful, and elegant they stuck out in the crowd of teenagers like they weren't supposed to be there and it was like the others knew that. They parted around the group like they were the plague. She definitely missed her old school by now. She missed her group of friends chanting twerk in the McDonald's parking lot at 12 AM or pestering her favorite teacher calling him mom. This school looks like it won't be able to handle her personality one bit.
She pulled herself out of her car with a bounce in her step and made her way to where she assumed the office was ignoring the stairs of everyone else. Her hopes to be left alone were quickly diminished when a guy draped his arm around her shoulders.
"You must be Lilian Swan, I'm Eric the eyes and ears of this place," he said in one breath with his arm still wrapped around her shoulder.
"It's Lili and so Mr. eyes and ears of the school would you like to escort me to the office?"
"It would be my pleasure," he said while offering his arm. He then began explaining short tidbits about the school and the people in it to her in the short amount of time it took to get to the office.
"Hi I'm Lilian Swan, I need to pick up my schedule," she looked at a woman that was middle aged and very pretty. She smiled while shuffling her papers around until she found a small packet that she then handed to Lili.
"So in there you will find your schedule, locker assignment, and a map of the school but it looks like you already have a guide for that. If you need anything else just come here and we can see what we can do for you," she said with a smile and with a quick thank you Lili turned around and headed out of the office where Eric was standing.
"Soooo what's your first class?" Eric asked while looking over Lili's shoulder.
"Looks like art."
"Well your in luck!"
"Why?"
"Because it just so happens that I know where that is, let's go!" Eric said while laughing a little.
When Lili walked into the room it was like a different dimension. The windows were blacked out and the room had several easels set up surrounding a small well lit table with an assortment of fruits, vases, and flowers. A still life great, Lili thought to herself. She looked around the room until she finally found an empty spot towards the back of the room and made her way to it.
"Good morning everyone. So now that the days of paperwork and introductions are over we can start our first project, a still life! I will be using this first piece to judge your progress for the year. Some of you will be amazing at the structure of the piece but struggling at the detail and vice verse, this class will hopefully help you with your journey in art so begin!"
The sketch pad broke her view of most of the class but there was one that sat perfectly in her view. She had black pixie cut hair that flared out at the bottom, she looked small even though she was sitting down, and she was modelesque. She looked back at Lili and smiled exposing a perfect row of teeth. Lili remembered the parking lot, the group of beautiful people that no one seemed to interact with. The girl looked around the room at the people still gently moving their easels and in a swift and silent movement she was sitting by Lili.
"Hi! I'm Alice, you're Lili right?" She whispered while gently holding her hand out towards Lili. Her hand was cold but she couldn't say anything because so was Lili's.
"Your hair is so pretty!" Alice said turning back to her drawing paper.
"Thanks! Your very pretty." Alice began quietly giggling at Lili's flushed cheeks.
"I think we are going to be good friends!" She said and began expertly sketching. Lili began on her piece as well trying to get every small detail in her sketch.
The class came to an end and she began packing up her things and flipped the pad closed. Apparently this was her in class sketch pad so she put her name on the back cardboard and placed it into the small cabinet. Alice bounced beside her and began questioning her.
"So why did you move here?"
"My mom and never really got along so I decided it would be best to come stay with my dad for awhile, besides I really missed it in Forks!" Lili said while digging her schedule out of her bag, her second class being 12th grade English.
"Wow you must be smart. Are you taking all senior classes?"
"Not necessarily, just English and History. They are my favorites." Alice turned to her and smiled a little.
"Well here is your class! I'll see you later!" She said while skipping off.
•••
For the most part classes were boring, English already had them starting on a project where she read a classic piece of lit and write an essay about it. Her third period was History and they are learning about Asia. Her fourth class was P.E. where she met a girl named Jessica and a guy named Mike. When the class ended they practically forced her to sit with them at lunch. It wasn't that she didn't want to but Mike radiated dumb jock energy and Jessica seemed either very two faced or just super controlling. She wasn't sure if she could see herself maintaining a friendship with these people. A pleasant surprise, however was Eric sitting at the table she was being led to along with another very beautiful girl. She had cute oval glasses and her slick hair was pulled into a ponytail.
"Eric how nice to see you again, I almost didn't survive without you," she said and turned to the girl, "hi I'm Lili. It's nice to meet you."
"Angela," she smiled at her then turned to the group that was sitting in the seats around her. The time was filled with meaningless chatter that seemed to stop as everyone looked behind Lili. As she looked back she spotted the group of teens from the parking lot.
"Those are the Cullens. Dr. and Mrs. Cullens foster kids, they really stay to themselves but it's weird because they are all together like together together," Angela began whispering after noticing Lili's peaked interest.
"The blonde girl is Kendra and the big dark haired guy is Emmett and they are like a thing. I'm not even sure that's legal," Jessica added.
"Jess their not actually related."
"Dr. Cullen is like a foster dad slash matchmaker."
"Maybe he'll adopt me."
"The little dark haired girl that's Alice, she is really weird. She's with Jasper, the blonde on that looks like he's in pain." Alice looked at Lili and smiled as the couple walked to a far off table.
"And them?" Lili looked pointedly at the two that walked into the door.
"The blonde is Rosalie and the guy is Edward. Everyone thought they were together for awhile but they aren't. Edward is totally gorgeous but no one here is good enough for him."
"And Mike tried asking Rosalie out once and I've never seen someone get rejected from a look," Eric added while laughing. The puppy dog look shadowed his face and the two started fake fighting. That was until Lili got tapped on the shoulder but a small brunette.
"Lili, I was wondering if you'd like to sit with us! I'd love to introduce you to my siblings!" Lili looked at everyone at the table and Angela made a little scooting motion with her hands. Lili gathered up her things and faced Alice.
"I would love to."
•••
I am so sorry about how long it's taken to write this! I've written and rewritten this chapter more times than I can count until I began losing interest in it but I'm back now!