Man how I hated getting up early, I was very much a night owl, but unfortunately, the school schedule can't account for that. I set a couple alarms, I woke to everyone each time waking up just a little more so it made eventually getting out of bed easier.
After getting dressed Laura dragged herself down the stairs to make her usual, exciting breakfast; two slices of toast and a cup of tea, the breakfast she had at home every morning. Sitting at the table eating her toast as she looked out the window, rain, great. She turned her head as her mom entered the kitchen. "Morning" she smiled.
"Morning. Where's Nate?"
"Just brushing his teeth" her mom answered, getting some food ready to pack her son's lunch. "I left some lunch money for you by the door, I took a guess that you wouldn't want to bring a packed one"
"Mom, I haven't brought a lunch from home in like two years" Laura pointed out with a giggle, before she took the last sip of her tea. Getting up she placed her dishes in the dishwasher and gave her mom a quick hug as to not interrupt her lunch making. "See you after school"
"Good luck"
Walking out of the kitchen she grabbed her bag that she'd left by the door. "Bring your jacket!" her mother called.
Laura let out a huff and began to shift through the coat rack. "Is the only jacket here that's mine seriously the red one?" she yelled back, no way was she wearing that.
"That's the only one I took from the old house, all the other's looked too small" Laura looked towards the living room where she had tossed Jared's's jacket from the night before after the incident with Sam and she had forgotten to give it back to him. "You can take one of mine if you want?"
"It's okay, I got one" Laura replied, grabbing the coat and quickly throwing it on. "Bye mom, bye Nate"
This had been her first time driving the new car, but she liked it. It wasn't brand spanking new, nor was it an old banger, it was a happy middle ground though she would've been thankful with whatever her mother had gotten. Pulling into the school parking lot she cut her engine and sat in the car for a moment as she felt the butterflies return to her stomach. Unbuckling her belt she removed Jared's coat and left it on her passenger seat before looking in the rearview mirror at herself, making sure she looked okay.
"Why do I smell a mutt?" Rosalie asked her siblings as they stood by their cars, her face showing clearly her disgust for the scent. Just after Rosalie's question Laura opened her car door and stepped out, unbeknownst to her all the Cullen's eyes were on her.
"The new girl's a shifter?" Emmett asked curiously.
"Wolves usually stay on the reserve" Edward commented before he furrowed his brows and tried to focus on her thoughts, but the only thing he could hear was her trying to focus on her breathing and calming her nerves. Jasper was standing alongside Emmett as they all watched the brunette, he could feel the anxiousness radiating off her, but also the determination to calm herself, it was somewhat intriguing. Suddenly Edward was unable to pull himself from the new girl's mind like he was being drawn in, bewitched almost. It wasn't until Rose spoke to him that Edward finally snapped back.
"Well?" Rosalie asked, raising her brows towards Edward.
"I don't know" he shrugged, a confused look on his face about what had just happened.
"Well she stinks that's for sure"
"Rose" Emmett tried to scold, "We don't even know if she is one"
"If the scent is that strong..." Jasper trailed off with a shrug, thinking it was inevitable.
"I don't think she is" Alice chirped as she walked passed her siblings and headed towards school. The remaining Cullens watched their sister, before sharing a look between each other, though Jasper's remained on the pixie-hard girl. Alice had ended their relationship about three weeks ago, and she was so certain about it that Jasper offered to get Jenks to send divorce papers, which they had already signed to seal the deal. Jasper was hurting, but there weren't any hard feelings, he just couldn't understand why. The pair lived together and shared classes so there was no way to simply avoid his former love to aid the breakup process. Besides Alice was there to help him with his control, to keep him grounded if needs be which thankfully she had said she would continue to do. She told him that although she was ending things, she still cared and would be there for him. His brothers had also offered to help him, offers which Jasper gladly accepted, but none could deny Alice had been the best at doing so so far.
Laura held a tight grip onto the strap of her bag that she had slung over her shoulder. Her gaze flicked between the ground and the school as she made her way towards the parking a lot, occasionally glancing at the people around her. As she neared the school her gaze landed on a group of teenagers closest to the school, a beautiful blonde girl, a tall and muscular boy by her side, a brunette guy, and a curly-haired blonde stood towards the back.
I had glanced at a few people as I made my way towards the school, but when I glanced at them, they were all already looking at me. I of course quickly looked away feeling awkward but wondering why they were staring at me so attentively. I guess it's just because I'm the new girl?
After picking up her schedule Laura was making her way through the halls when a bubbly voice sprung from nowhere. "Hello"
Looking up from the paper in her hands Laura saw a short-haired girl smiling brightly at her. "Hi"
"I'm Alice, you're Laura right?" she beamed.
"Yeah" Laura was actually glad that someone was speaking to her. She was the type that was afraid to start a conversation, but if someone started one with her, then she was all for talking with them. "I didn't realise new people were such a big deal here" she tittered
"It's a small town, word travels fast" Alice grinned with a shrug. "Well I gotta get to class, it was nice meeting you" she said before quickly heading off down the hallway.
"You too"
I was slightly taken by surprise by Alice's spontaneous and brief introduction, but at least now I knew one person's name in the school. The classes I had were Trigonometry, English, History, Art, Spanish, and Gym class. Today, Art was first.
Laura slowly walked into the Art room, after taking a min or two to find it. As she slowly entered she bit her lip and looked around the room, she didn't want to sit down yet in case she accidentally took someone's seat. Angela Weber looked up from the page she was highlighting and saw a new face stood by the classroom door, eyeing up the room. Putting the lid on the marker she waved to the girl to get her attention. "Hey" Attention caught, Laura looked towards the girl before making her way over to her. "I'm Angela"
"Laura"
"You can sit next to me if you want?" she offered with a friendly smile.
Laura was relieved that the two people she'd met so far seemed really nice, Laura smiled back and nodded. "Thanks" she said happily as she took a seat next to her. It wasn't long before the teacher turned up and luckily for Laura the classes were just a day into a new project, so she wasn't far behind. The class got started on their work, everyone chit-chatting to their friends as they did do.
"So where did you move from?" Angela asked riffling between her stuff to find what she previously had been working.
"Oh uhm Olympia, but my mom is originally from La Push" Laura answered not taking her eyes from the page she was sketching on. Laura had been drawing since she was little and although like most kids her earlier pieces were utter crap, she had gotten a lot better through practice at school and at home.
"La Push? I like the beach there, great for whale watching" Angela praised.
Laura and Angela spent the rest of the class getting to know another a little more, but unfortunately, Angela wasn't in her next class and so Laura made her way to Spanish alone.
Upon entering the class she was greeted by her teacher who handed her a worksheet the class was working and told her she could sit next to Tyler. Laura had hoped he wouldn't mind since she knew some people preferred sitting alone and having a desk to themselves. The two shared brief hi's, only speaking again when he asked for help with a Spanish question which she thankfully was able to give. After that, they briefly chatted before being told to be quiet by the teacher. After Spanish Laura had Trigonometry and Gym, the latter was where she had spoken with a girl called Eliza who had moved to forks three years ago so she knew what it was like to be the new girl. Lunch rolled around and Eliza thankfully walked with Laura as they got their food, before she began to search for her friends. "Oh there they are"
Looking towards the table Eliza had waved to Laura saw Angela's familiar face and smiled. Sitting at the table Eliza introduced Laura to Mike, Jessica, and Eric and was about to introduce Angela but Laura explained that they had Art together and so had already met. Mike and Eric's eyes seemed fixated on the new brunette which all four of the girls noticed but Eliza was the first to act by clicking her fingers in front of the boys' faces. "Hey, Thing 1 and Thing 2, snap out of it" she chided causing the other girls to giggle. Both boys were quick to apologised embarrassedly.
"Hey guys" Tyler said approaching their lunch table and taking a seat next to Laura.
"Hey Tyler..." Jess greeted him, slightly confused as to why he was at their table, he usually sat with the guys he played sports with.
"Why uh, why are you sitting here Tyler?" Mike questioned, asking what was on the majority of their minds.
"What, I can't sit with my new friend?" he chucked, nudging Laura with his elbow to which she gave a small smile.
"Tal vez mañana, además creo que tus amigos te quieren" Laura said pointing towards his friend that were waving him over.
Tyler let out a huff as he saw them. He looked back at Laura and nodded. "Mañana" he winked, before getting up with his tray and heading off to his friends.
"What was that about?" Eliza asked with a laugh.
"I don't know" Laura admitted coyly as glanced over to shoulder to him before back at the girls. "We only spoke in class for like 10 minutes" she shrugged.
Laura could see behind the girl's heads the teenagers she'd seen in the parking lot were just now entering the cafeteria. "Question, who are they?" she asked, not breaking her gaze from them. "They practically burned holes into me when I walked in this morning"
"They're the Cullens" Eliza said, quickly fanning herself playfully at the name.
Jess then leaned in closer to explain. "They're Dr. Cullen's foster kids, they kinda keep to themselves, and it's weird they're like together. Okay so the blonde girl, that's Rosalie and the big dark-haired guy is Emmett, they're still a couple"
"Still?" Laura asked with furrowed brows.
"Yeah, see, that little, dark-haired girl-"
"Alice, I met her" Laura nodded.
"She's like really weird, anyway her and Jasper were another couple, oh Jasper's that blonde guy who looks like he's in pain" she whispered as he walked passed their table, trailing a few feet behind Alice. "They broke up like, what, 4 weeks ago? And that last guy is Edward Cullen, I guess he's waiting on Dr. Cullen to work his foster, matchmaker magic since no one around here seems good enough for him" Jess scoffed, clearly bothered.
Laura turned her attention towards the table the Cullen's had sat, trying to secretly look at them.
I was happy to glance over at them and not find them staring at me this time. I looked over their faces for a moment, they were all gorgeous. Not wanting to get caught looking at the, I turned my attention back to my new friends and continued chatting with them.
"The smells kinda died down" Emmett pointed out to his family, playing with the tray in front of him, the food on which he obviously had no intention of eating.
"Doesn't change the fact she reeked of dog the second she got here" Rosalie replied, not yet willing to dismiss the possibility.
"Why would a shifter go to school outside of the reserve?" Jasper asked. It made no sense for a shapeshifter to go to school in Forks where they knew the Cullens attended, the very people that the shifters disliked, and who also smelt bad to them.
"Maybe they want to keep an eye on us" Rosalie assumed annoyed.
"I doubt it" Edward said with a light shake of his head, quickly setting aside Rose's assumption. The tribe had trusted the Cullens to follow the treat once before, and since their return a few years ago they had given no reason for the tribe to keep watch of them.
Lunch ended leaving just two classes to attend English and History. English she shared with Eric, but he said that none of the others were taking History. As Laura entered her last class of the day she was quick to spot a family face; the blonde Cullen guy that Jessica had mentioned, Jasper. Upon seeing the new girl Jasper adjusted himself in his chair, he knew she would be put sitting next to him since that was the only available seat given that Alice had switched classes. "Ah Ms. Winters, you can take a seat next to Jasper"
Laura smiled and nodded, trying not to think much of it as again she was sitting next to someone she didn't know. Jasper quickly found himself straining, now that she was closer he no longer really got the smell of a dog, but what he did smell had him clenching his jaw and clasping his hands together as hard as possible. How could someone that smelt so vial in the morning, smell so enticing now?
Laura's blue hues watched from the corner of her eye as the blonde gripped his hands tightly, his knuckles probably would've been turning white if he wasn't already so pale. His posture was stiff and straight as he kept his attention on the front of the class, every time she would glance back at him it seemed his jaw had never unclenched. She was worried if he was okay but was too shy to ask not wanting to seem nosey either, even though she was totally a nosey person. Jasper could feel her worry for him and it honestly had taken him by surprise, he expected her to feel freaked out, impatient because she wanted to get away, a number of other negative things, but she instead was worried for him. Unfortunately, Jasper couldn't dwell on the fact that she wasn't having negative thoughts about him despite his odd behaviour because of the burning thirst in his throat.
The two sat in silence for the entire class, eventually, Laura attempted to open her mouth to speak but the bell rang and Jasper was out of the room as quick as possible. A sigh escaped her open mouth as she dropped her gaze and slowly gathered her things, taking off her glasses to put them back in their case.
Jasper hastily made his way out to the cars. "Alice" he said, rushing over to her.
"Jazz, what's wrong?"
"The new girl, Laura, she didn't smell like a mutt when she was sitting next to me"
Rosalie was quick to begin paying attention to his words after that. "What did she smell like?"
"She smelt like a human but more compelling. I didn't move the entirety of the class because I was afraid I might do something"
The Cullens moved their golden eyes from Jasper as once again Laura walked passed the group of teenagers, this time heading towards her car and not coming from it, but just like this morning, they were all staring at her. Though after the class she'd just been in the person Laura's eyes were on was Jasper, and Jess was right, he really did look like he was in pain. Emmett and Edward seemed to look at her with confusion and curiosity, Rosalie looked at her with her nose turned up, while Alice had a neutral expression the corners of her lips boarding on pulling up into a smile. Laura looked away from them and continued on her hurried path towards her car.
Why did they keep staring at me? And why did Alice seem like the most normal out of them despite Jessica calling her weird? Jasper looked like he was going to break his hands if he gripped them any harder in that class. It was all very weird and after the day I had yesterday with Sam and finding out about the tribe's secret, I wasn't mentally prepared to deal with four people gawping at me like they did. On the up, non-strange side I at least had made some friends.