Chapter 6
BPOV
Tuesday morning I awoke to the sounds of rain beating on my windows: just another rainy day in Forks. When I realized what the day would bring, I groaned and rolled over. High School was a form of Hell, made for the torture of my youthful years. I beat Emmett into the shower and had just finished drying my hair in time to hear him pounding on the door. "C'mon Bella, I have to piss!" he cried. I flung open the door, only to see him smiling. "Nah, I'm just kiddin'! But I do need to shower: you done in there?" I hadn't expected that our new morning routine would be so pleasant. All of my friends in Phoenix told me horror stories of the fights they got into with their siblings while trying to ready themselves in the morning before school. My new home life was much easier than I had imagined it would be.
I strolled downstairs with my red backpack slung over my shoulder after dressing in a low-cut black fitted tee with holey jeans and green Chuck's, unable to keep the lightness of my new realization out of my step. I set my backpack down by the front door, adding my new apple-covered designer raincoat, which Renee had gotten me as a goodbye gift before I left Phoenix, on top of it. Charlie was already sitting at the table drinking coffee while eating his toast when I entered the kitchen. "Morning Bells," he said cheerfully. "Excited for the first day of school?" My expression was dumbstruck: why would I be excited?
"Oh, you know Dad, not really. I mean, high school is high school anywhere you go."
"I know I am!" Emmett called while thumping down the stairs, "Senior Year, baby!" He joined us at the table, taking the Life Cereal box from in front of me.
"Bells, it's your junior year—you're an upperclassman now. That's pretty exciting," Charlie attempted.
"I guess." I replied. Charlie went to work shortly after his pep-talk and wished us luck. Emmett drove us to school in his red off-roading jeep that he loved so dearly. Apparently the teenage boy population of Forks was big on driving in places where one is not normally meant to drive. I was again reminded of how I'll never understand the male psyche. We pulled into the small student parking lot that was slowly flooding with cars and their teenage drivers. As we walked towards the front office, I searched the crowds of students for people I recognized. There was a guy, Ben something I think, that was with a few other football players that looked familiar and a couple girls that were also somewhat memorable (they were some of the denim-skit girls). Other than those few, I hardly knew one face from another in the crowd: it was wonderful.
Being brotherly, Emmett walked me to the front office so I could pick up my class schedule. We looked it over and saw that I had a typical junior-year schedule: Junior English, Government, Calculus with trig, Spanish 3, Biology, and Gym. Ugh! Gym! Apparently, in Forks you had to take it all four years instead of only two. Saying that I hated gym was an understatement by far. I loathed it and it, me. I groaned after reading my schedule. Emmett, seeming confused that I would groan, looked at my schedule again and saw the tiny three-letter-word and started laughing. "Oh yea! Bella, I forgot to tell you about the gym thing! Sorry!" He led me to my first class before wishing me luck and heading to his own. I set my backpack down at a desk in the back, took out a fresh notebook and a pen and started doodling. I used to be a front-of-the-class sort of gal, but now I only felt comfortable in the back, having my long dark brown hair almost shielding my face from the rest of the classroom. Suddenly I became aware of how boring my hair was, and I mentally decided to change it sometime this week. I must have been much consumed with my hair-issue because I did not notice the person who plopped down next to me.
"Hey, you're Bella, right?" a male voice asked. I looked to my right and recognized that Mike guy from the bonfire Saturday night. "I'm Mike Newton; we met at the Cullen's on Saturday?"
"Oh, yea hi. I'm… Bella Swan—but you knew that." I lamely replied. Why was he talking to me? Despite my awkward reply, Mike laughed.
"So, how have you been enjoying Forks so far? Has your brother been showing you around?" He eagerly questioned.
"It's fine. I've been here before many times to visit; I know my way around. But no, we only went to the bonfire on Saturday after my plane landed." Why did he care?
"Then how come we hadn't met till Saturday?"
"Well, Mike, I didn't know you were personal friends of my father's because usually when I had visited, Emmett and I hung out with our dad." I was getting snotty now because he was becoming more annoying.
"Perhaps I should have been, and then I could have met you much sooner." Holy shit! Was he flirting? I looked into his eyes and he winked. Yes, he was indeed trying to flirt. It reminded me of Edward on Saturday, and I had to admit: Edward was much smoother than Mike. I only felt embarrassed for Mike, but had been quite upset with Edward. Before I could make a bitchy remark to shut Mike up, Mr. Mason—my English teacher—walked in and quieted the classroom: school had finally begun.
Thankfully, Mr. Mason was a talkative bookish type; once you got him going on a subject he never shut up. Mike wasn't able to pick up our conversation again. I, aware of the impending end of class, was able to gather my few belongings and bolt from the classroom before Mike could again capture my attention. Government was boring; most of the material I had covered in my Honors American History class in the spring when I was in Phoenix. Mike was in my Government class and again, sat in the back of the classroom with me but wasn't able to talk. When I made it to Calculus with trig, I was beginning to recognize people from my previous classes and a few from the bonfire because Forks High School was painfully small. That Ben guy was in my Government class as well as Calc with Trig, and Tyler was in my English and Calc classes—they were some of Emmett's football buddies. In Calculus, I sat in back again: enjoying my new seating pattern. The girl who sat next to me introduced herself as Jessica Stanley, one of the jean-skirt girls from the bonfire. She was very nice and gushed about how excited she was that I was here. Jessica had claimed that she had grown tired with the high school population of Forks and couldn't wait to get to know me, a new face. I had begun to notice how nice and inviting the youth of Forks seemed to be. It was making me sick. So, annoyed, I had come to Forks to be left alone and here all of these strangers were trying to befriend me. It was maddening.
In Spanish, Jessica sat in the back with me again. Already, in my first four classes of the day I was being claimed by two of Fork's most avid social climbers: Mike and Jessica. They should just climb on each other and stay away from me. Another one of Emmett's football friends, James, was also in my Spanish class. He sat diagonally in front of me, turned in his seat and said "Hola Bonita." I rolled my eyes, and he asked how the rest of my weekend went before class started. After Spanish, Jessica had asked me if I wanted to eat lunch at her table. Thankfully, Emmett had already asked me to sit with him at lunch so I declined but thanked her. Maybe it was because these people didn't know me well or perhaps they were just incredibly stupid, but I was amazingly annoyed with their overly-friendly behavior and they never seemed to notice.
I walked into lunch and spotted Emmett, towering over a lunchroom table in the corner. Only Jasper was at the table with him. Emmett waived to me to come with him into the lunch line. We chatted easily as he grabbed almost one of everything (typical of his veracious appetite) and I grabbed a banana, a salad, and fountain water. He led me to our table as we joined Rosalie and Jasper, at that point I could only guess who would fill the other two vacant chairs. "Bella!" a tinkling squeal of excitement called to me. "I'm so glad you're joining us for lunch!" I turned around in my spot and saw Alice loping up to me. She gracefully approached the table and then engulfed me in a surprisingly firm hug for such a tiny person. I couldn't bring my annoyance back up to its original levels from class, partially because I was around Emmett and partially because I found myself liking Alice. I felt as though I actually wanted to be friends instead of only through our mutual knowledge of Emmett and Rosalie. Alice, having brought a packed lunch from home, sat down on my other side immediately. A minute or two later, as I was unpeeling my banana, Edward appeared at the empty place next to Alice. My stomach, again, did the funny dancing plummeting feeling it had done when I first met him. It was the hatred I knew I harbored for him.
"Well, well,well! I see my best friends and newest friend have started to eat lunch without me!" Edward joked, placing his tray of food down in front of him before taking a seat.
Emmett replied with his mouth full of pizza, "Shhowrry dude! I whas howngrrry!"
Edward smiled his branded crooked-smile and turned to me. "Bella, do you think you could translate that for me?" He winked. It felt as though Munchkins were blowing up balloons in my stomach and sighed.
"He said Sorry. He was hungry." I replied, shortly. Edward laughed and shook his head, looking again at Emmett, and then to Rosalie.
"Well, Rose, it appears there's now someone else here that speaks 'Emmett'! Maybe the two of you can finally refine him." Edward teased. I wasn't oblivious to the slight sentiments of a jab in his tone or the tiny stiffening movement Rosalie made before obviously putting her hand on Emmett's lap, laying claim over him in front of the table. To me, it was a wasted response: I didn't care. Emmett was my brother and I knew nothing anyone could do would change it. I also wasn't the jealous type; she could have my brother's undying whims and affection: I didn't want it all for myself. I ignored them all and stared intently at my banana, slowly chewing the bite I had taken during their exchange.
Jasper laughed and changed the subject: always one to sense a nasty mood shift coming on, he averted the potential catastrophe. I listened to his faint southern accent, and was lulled into a sense of peace. Suddenly they all started laughing; someone must have told a joke, and I lightly chuckled along with them. After a few minutes went by, Alice leaned over to me. "Hey Bella, what are you doing Thursday night?" She asked. I had to search my mind, but not very hard. The answer was painfully obvious.
"Uhm… nothing, I don't think. Why? Whats… up?" I became wary, but not nearly as much as I had expected myself to.
"Want to go shopping with me? I've decided that nothing in my closet goes with what, I feel, says 'Fall, junior year', ya know?" I nodded lightly—I had no clue about fashion. I just wore what I liked and what I felt looked good, not to mention what was comfortable. My wardrobe was mostly band tee's, varying styles of jeans (mostly dark with holes), random tank tops, zip-up hoodies, a very few amount of dressy shirts and a collection of Converse shoes. Perhaps I could add to it, or maybe convince Alice to come with me for a hair appointment. She seemed like she would be able to direct me to a decent hair salon.
"Sure. Yea, I'll go," I responded, trying to add more enthusiasm to my tone, and then added more softly, "I think I want to make a hair appointment too… change things up a bit." Well that did it. Alice was now melting into peals of delighted laughter.
"Bella, that's a fantastic idea! Rose, do you want to come with?" Alice asked, always democratic. Rosalie shook her head before answering.
"I would, but my mom is taking me to Seattle that day for my own Senior Year shopping extravaganza. I thought I told you that, Alice?" Rose wondered. I knew exactly what Alice was doing. Alice, not wanting Rosalie to feel left out, wanted to spend alone time with me without causing trouble. What a clever little pixie, that one was. Just then the bell rang, alerting us of our impending classes. Biology was next on my schedule. Edward, standing up and slightly stretching his lithe but defined muscles walked over to me after grabbing his belongings.
"So, Bella, wasn't that just a pleasant lunch?" He asked. I couldn't tell if he was laying on the sarcasm too thickly or if there was a molecule of truth in his question. My own answer eluded me so I merely um-ed and shrugged. "I look forward to our lunch tomorrow." He said before I nodded, an acquiescing lie, and walked to my next class while he walked to the garbage cans. Walking rather quickly for my usually clumsy and apathetic self, I beat most of the other students to the Biology class room and got a seat in the back, right where I liked it. The students sauntered in, surprisingly leaving only the seat next to me open—a first all day. Just as the bell rang, who should walk through the door with the air of Royalty, but Edward-freaking-Cullen. My stomach did its flips and turns again, and my cheeks slightly flushed from anger. I felt as though this guy was going to be the death of me in Forks.
