Twilight Fan Fiction ❯ In The Shadow Of The Sun ❯ Unexpected Delay ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

“Leina! Leina!”

“Come on, Leina, please wake up!”

Leina opened her eyes and rubbed them sleepily. “Wha d’ya two wan’?”

She focused her eyes a bit more and saw Leonna. She was already dressed in a pair of dark brown, low-rise cargo pants, an orange belt, and a V-neck, forest green sweater.

“It’s already eight, and we need to get ready to go to Mr. Emerson’s. Plus, I thought if we left early, we could go to a grocery store and get some more food.”

Leina groaned, flipped over and pulled the sleeping bag back over her head. “You must be feeling better if you can wake me up an hour and a half before we actually have to leave.”

Leonna laughed. “Yeah, I’m feeling much better. Not 100%, but close enough to do this!” With that, she pulled the covers off of Leina. Luna laughed.

“AAAAGHHA! NOOOOOO!” Leina dove back into the couch, trying to stick her head into the space between the cushions. Luna laughed again, then lifted a cushion off the couch and hit Leina with it.

“Ow, that the-“

“Come on, Leina! Breakfast time!”

Leina heard Luna skip off into the kitchen, followed by Leonna. After a few minutes of moaning over the hour, Leina got up and wobbled into the kitchen, shooting dirty looks at Leonna, who either laughed or ignored them.

Leonna had set out three plates, three spoons, one knife, the bread, peanut butter, and had used a pot and three mismatched cups to put hot chocolate into. Luna was happily slathering peanut butter onto three pieces of bread, stacking them all together. Leonna was sipping her hot chocolate.

Leina thudded into a chair, moved her plate, then face-planted into the surface of the table.

BAM!

Leonna’s eyes got wide. “Noooo! Don’t do that!” She wedged her hand under Leina’s head, making sure she wouldn’t do it again. Leina raised her head, a red mark starting to bloom on her upper forehead.

“I’m too tired to function…” Leina decided not to tell her friends about her hallucinations from last night: the cause of her tiredness. She grabbed the knife and peanut butter, a piece of bread, and started to make her own breakfast. She had folded the single piece of bread over, when they heard a knock on the front door.

The girls looked curiously confused at each other, then all three rose to see who it was. Leonna made it to the door first, then un-dead bolted it and opened it.

A man with brown hair and brown eyes was standing in the doorway. He looked about forty and wore the uniform of a sheriff.

“Is this that Charlie Swan that Jacob was talking about?” Leonna wondered.

“Good morning, ladies.”

The three girls stared at the man. He seemed a little uncomfortable, like he wasn’t used to talking. Or that this was an uncomfortable visit.

“They sent me here to give you girls a ride over to the school.” He shifted a bit on his feet.

“Um, excuse me?” Leina was a bit confused, her friends as well.

The sheriff looked a bit confused as well. “Didn’t they tell you?”

The girls shook their head. “Would you like to come inside?” Leonna asked. “Maybe we can make some sense of this.” She opened the door wider and the man stepped inside. They all moved over to the couch. Luna and Leonna sat on the floor while Leina and the sheriff took the couch. Leina sat in a crouching style while the man sat politely straight.

“I’m sorry Sheriff…”

The man laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry! I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Sheriff Charlie Swan-“

“That answers that,” Leonna thought to herself.

“… Let me explain why I’m here.” He pulled out an official-looking piece of paper with a government seal on it. “It says here that though the government is allowing you girls to live by yourselves, you must go to school until you, at least, finish high school.” He handed the paper to Leina, who stared at it with opened eyes, then passed it on to Leonna and Luna.

Leonna shook her head. “Are you sure?”

Sheriff Swan nodded. “It says so right there… we even got a call to make sure to tell you girls, in case you didn’t know.” He glanced down at his watch. “But you girls better hurry. School starts pretty soon, and today’s the only day you girls get a police escort.” He laughed.

Leonna nodded, then motioned for the girls to get up.

Sheriff Swan stood up as well. “I’ll be waiting for you girls in the car, all right?”

“Right.” Leina shot into the bathroom to get changed while Luna shot back upstairs. Leonna grabbed her tan-white backpack and started taking almost everything out of it. She left a binder with paper, that she had in case she wanted to write, and a few pencils, pens, and a bright orange highlighter.

Luna came down dressed in a short blue skirt, silver-gray leggings and a gray, off-the-shoulder top. She was carrying her blue backpack, which had almost nothing in it. The only things remaining were a hidden piece of chocolate (that even Leina and Leonna didn’t know about) that she kept in case of an emergency and a tiny, sparkling tube-looking thing that was only the size of Luna’s human-sized thumb nail. She skipped over to Leonna.

“Do we get to bother kids at school, Leonna?” she asked eagerly.

Leonna shook her head. “No, Luna. We have to stay fairly low… we can’t let anyone there know about us, all right? That means no magic, no floating or flying, and not a single grain of sugar for you, got it?”

Luna nodded, feeling slightly dejected because of her now lack of fairy-ness.

Right then, Leina came into the room. She was wearing a pair of baggy, dark blue jeans with a silver, washed-out look on the knees and thighs. Her t-shirt was a deep, blood red color that had silver and black swirling designs on the sides. She carried her black, purple and orange messenger bag on her left shoulder, and had dark silvery black eye shadow on.

“Let’s get this over with…”

They walked over to the front door, and slipped on their shoes. Leonna had chunky white shoes with black and gold designs, Leina had black high-tops with a white skull, and Luna had self-designed blue, silver and black high-tops. Then they ran out the door, Leonna locking it, and slid into the police cruiser.

It was a quiet ride to Forks High School. The Sheriff was not a big talker, and still seemed uncomfortable when he dropped them off. They were at the school a little early. In addition to the fact that they were new students, besides a shiny Volvo in the parking lot, the cruiser was the most stare-bringing car in the area.

“Good luck, girls. Just go to the front office to get your schedules… they should probably give you a map or something… do you need anything else?”

“Nope.”

“Thanks, Sheriff!!!” Luna smiled brightly.

He nodded, then drove off.

The three girls turned.

“Well, here we go,” Leonna said. They all walked into the building together. ‘Strength in numbers’ was their motto for the moment. Many of the students at Forks High stared at them, a few were open-mouthed. Leina glared at them as they passed. She didn’t like the stares, so she decided to stare back; she tried to make them feel as uncomfortable as she did. Leonna ignored them all, looking for the door to the main office, and Luna just smiled at everyone.

Finally, Leonna saw the sign: “FRONT OFFICE.” They all single-filed behind Leonna down a stone path with dark hedges and filed through the door.

They walked up to the front desk where a redhead with glasses was sitting, filing papers. She glanced up as they approached the desk.

“Yes, can I help you?”

Leina stepped forward. “Hello, ma’am.” She tried to be as polite as Leina-ly possible. “I’m Leina Saxen, and this is Luna and Leonna… we’re new students here. We were wondering if you had our schedules?”

The woman nodded. “Of course, dear, one second.” She pulled open a drawer and flipped through a bunch of files and papers. Finally, three white sheets appeared out of the mess. “Here you are, girls.” More rustling. “And here are some maps for you to help you find your way around.”

Leonna grabbed the maps and schedules from her. “Thank you very much.” The girls turned to leave.

“Wait, one more second!” Yet again, more rustling. “You three need to get your teachers to sign these slips and bring them back here at the end of the day, all right?”

Luna turned and grabbed the passes. “Yep, thanks!” Then the three left the office. Once outside, Leonna passed out their respective schedules and handed out the maps. More students stared at them as they figured out which classes they had together.

“All right, so we have Cooking together third period and Study Hall together in sixth period… after lunch… but we’ll have lunch together, right?” Leina asked. “Oh! Leonna, you and I have Art together 4th an History together 5th!”

“Yep! And Luna, you and I have PE, and English together… that won’t be so bad, right?”

They all three nodded as the first bell rang, signaling them to get to class.

“See ya later!” Luna called over her shoulder as she and Leonna walked away to PE. Leina waved, then started her way to Biology II.

As she entered the room, she got more stares from the students.

“They were probably all together for all of their grades…” she thought bitterly.

She walked up to the teacher, a Mr. Banner, and handed him her slip. He handed her a textbook, and gave her a piece of paper that had her instructions for supplies on it, and returned her signed slip. She nodded, then took her stuff to the back of the classroom, where she sat dozing until the class was over.

When the bell rang, she went to English in Building 3. She quickly walked the whole way, trying to zoom past the other kids’ stares. “I guess I better get used to this,” she thought. English wasn’t bad. She sat on the left half of the classroom, by the door for an easy escape. She looked around at the rest of the class. No one really caught her eye as someone worth talking to. They had already formed their cliques. The only person not talking to anyone was an extremely white-blond haired boy. He seemed to be staring out the window while the teacher talked on and on about Shakespeare. He never turned his attention away from the window. Leina couldn’t understand what was so fascinating. “It’s totally dark out there… there’s no sun here.”

After the boring speech on Shakespeare, Leina ran to Cooking. Luna and Leonna were already sitting at their own table, motioning and waving for her to come over. Leina grinned and walked over to the table, plopping her stuff down on the floor next to their round table.

“Oh my gosh, guys, my classes are so boring!” Leina complained immediately.

“Really?” Leonna asked. “Mine weren’t so bad… Luna and I didn’t have to do anything for PE. They just gave us our uniforms and told us to sit on the side of the gym.”

“I got to shoot a basketball! I got this big guy a point for his team!” Luna announced, completely proud of herself.

Leina smiled. “Good job! Didn’t the big guy squish you, though?”

“Nope! I think his name was Emmett… but he was really nice! The other team had lost control of the ball, and it rolled over to me. So I picked it up and shot, and I made it! Emmett came over and got the ball, then thanked me for the point!” She smiled again.

“Then I went to Math,” Leonna continued. “Now that was boring… I’m sure I’ve learned this stuff before, so I just sat there doodling in class.
“I went to History!” Luna said. “That was all the way in Building 6! It was boring, too…” Then she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Human History is so boring… nothing about fairies at all!”

Leonna and Luna laughed as the class began.

The teacher made the new students stand up and say their names and answer questions. Then the class divided up into groups of three (Luna, Leonna and Leina were, of course, in a group together) and started to make their dishes.

The trio went over to the only remaining mod area. Leonna picked up the recipe card.

"Brownies..."

Leina eyes opened up wide. "Oh good god!" They turned and looking at Luna.

"What?"

The two shook their heads. ""Never mind...""

All went smoothly... until they had to cook them. Leonna heard popping noises coming from the oven. She opened it up to see the brownies bubbling and spontaneously popping. Leonna grabbed the mitts and took out the brownies. Leina slammed the door shut.

"What the hell happened?!"

"I don't know! I gave them to-"

Silence followed. They slowly turned to Luna who was moaning about the ruined brownies.

"Luna... how high did you put the heat?"

Luna turned around, the recipe card in her mouth. She pointed to a degree on the far left.

"YOU MADE OUR BROWNIES EXPLODE!!!"

They spent the rest of the class trying to save the brownies. Eventually, they got them looking somewhat edible.

When the bell rand, Luna went off to Science and Leonna and Leina went off to Art.

After a boring Science and Art class, Luna went to another boring Math class, and Leonna and Leina went to Government in Building 6.

Leina and Leonna entered the room. All of the students, yet again, stared at the two girls as they went up to the teacher. They handed the teacher the passes, which was signed immediately.

"All right, now where to put you two... well, the only two seats we have are there and there." He pointed at opposite ends of the classroom. "Leonna, why don't you go sit by Richard. Richard, please show Leonna where we are in the textbook." He handed Leonna and Leina each a textbook and guided Leonna to her seat. Then he came back to Leina, who had been feeling quite uncomfortable standing at the front of the class alone.

"Edward? Would you be able to catch Leina up with the rest of us?"

"Of course, sir."

Leina looked down at the floor as she headed to the back corner of the class. She was two seats away when she heard a snicker. Then her foot caught the edge of something and-

BOOM!

The class burst into laughter as Leina picked her face up off the floor. She was about to bang her face back into the tile floor, to avoid showing her ruby red, blushing face, to the hysterical class, when a pale hand was reaching out to her. She looked up to see the most gorgeous, angelic face ever. The boy had pale, immaculate skin, slightly tousled bronze hair and mesmerizing golden-brown eyes. He smiled crookedly, yet cutely, at her.

"Are you all right?"

Leina shook her head, trying to release the hold on her. "Yeah, I'm fine... embarrassed out of my mind, but fine."

He laughed, a beautiful sound. He grabbed Leina's hand and a shock ran through them both.

"Sorry..."

He got a different hold on her, her wrist instead of her hand, and helped pull her up. Meanwhile, the class had continued without them. The boy helped Leina pick up her books, then set them on the table beside him. Leina walked over around his desk to hers and sat down. She re-arranged her stuff, then looked up at the boy. He was staring at her face, completely focused.

Leina blushed. "Um... is there something on my face?"

He moved his chair so he was farther away from her, but the chair was angled toward her. "No, there's nothing on your face." He chuckled a bit, then reached over and opened her textbook to the correct page while the teacher talked.

"This is the section we're on... there's a test in two class periods, and knowing our teacher, he will most likely make you take the test."

Leina moaned and put her head down in the book, causing the boy to laugh again.

"I'm most likely going to fail it..."

More laughter came from the boy. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name is Edward Cullen." He smiled that beautifully crooked smile, waiting for Leina to give her name.

Leina stared into his eyes. They seemed to have the power to make you want to say anything and everything, yet nothing at the same time, so you didn't do anything else but stare into them. Then she brought herself back into the real world. "Oh, I'm sorry... my name's Leina Saxen."

"A pleasure to meet you."

He was so formal that Leina felt intimidated by him.

He started underlining passages in the book for Leina, who started writing them all down and taking notes on everything he said, but not fully looking at her paper. While he was waiting for her to catch up on a section, he started asking her questions.

"So, are you friends with the other girl? Leonna, right?"

Leina nodded. "Yep..."

"Why did you come to Forks?"

Leina thought for a moment, trying to work her way around the truth. "Well, let's just say that we thought it was time for a change..."

She looked over to him. He seemed frustrated by something.

"Is something wrong?"

He slowly shook his head. "No, nothing-"

"Saxen! Do you mind? I'm trying to teach a class!"

Leina brought her attention away from her notes and Edward to look at the teacher, who was glaring at her... along with the rest of the class.

"S-sorry, sir..."

"I apologize, sir, I was trying to show her the sections we already covered and give her more info on what you were saying, sir."

Leina turned to Edward, surprised that he had stood up for her. The teacher seemed surprised as well. "Well... keep going, then... just try to keep it down, will you, Mr. Cullen?"

"Yes, sir."

The teacher turned back to the board and was writing down notes for the rest of the class to copy. Edward started to write down the notes for the class while Leina wrote her own notes. Occasionally, he would lean over and point to a sentence for Leina to copy down. The class continued as such.

Then the bell rang, signaling for them to move to lunch. Leina and Edward both stood up. Leina started to gather her books when Edward handed her a piece of paper. She glanced curiously at the paper.

"The notes for the class today."

She backed away. "No way. I can't just take those... you need them!"

He laughed again, causing Leina to almost faint. Why did he have to have this strange effect on her?

"Don't worry, I wrote a copy for you and myself. This way, you'll be able to get the notes for next class in time," he joked. When Leina didn't take the paper, he grabbed her backpack.

"Hey! That's mine!"

He put the paper inside the bag, then handed it to her and nodded, telling her to take it. Leina finally took the bag, sighing.

"Fine... I'll take it..."

He smiled one last time, then left the classroom.

Leonna ran over to Leina's desk. "Ugh... this class is so boring! That Richard kid barely knew what was going on in the class... so I didn't get any help at all! Did that boy help you at all?"

Leina nodded. "Yeah... way too much, actually..."

The two started to walk out of the classroom when Luna came skipping up to them. "Hey, guys! What're you talking about?"

Leonna turned to Luna. "Oh, we're just talking about how the boy that Leina had to sit next to in History helped her out too much, though I'm not sure how yet."

Luna's eyes opened wide. "Oh, ok! Keep going with the story! Was he cute?"

Leina was thrown by that question. She chose to ignore it. "Well... he showed and explained all of the chapter that they've already gone through, and showed me the parts of the book to know for the test-"

"Wait, we have a test?!?! When?!" Leonna cried.

"Two days."

"Aw, man! It would have been nice if Richard had told me that... anyway, on with your story."

"Anyway, so while the class was going on, he made two copies of notes and gave me one of them."

Luna smiled. "Well, that was nice."

"Yeah, but he didn't have to do that!" Leina yelled.

Leonna sighed. "Leina, just take the help if you can get it, 'kay? Now, where are those brownies?" She tried to change the subject to a lighter one.

“Ya mean the blown up ones?”

“HEY!” Luna said. “I didn’t mean to, ‘kay?” The three had entered the cafeteria now. “I thought that if I turned the heat up higher, then they would cook faster- Oh hey, Emmett!”

Luna was waving to a gigantic senior. He had dark hair and golden eyes. He was sitting next to a girl with intimidating gold hair. Across from her was a girl with short, spiky black hair. She was almost pixie-like, similar is stature to Luna. Sitting very closely to her was a boy with light-blond hair. Next to him was-

“Edward...” Leina whispered. The beautiful boy had turned when the muscular Emmett’s name had been called.

Emmett laughed then waved back. Luna turned back to Leina. “Anyway, what I was saying was-”

“All right, Luna...” Leonna interrupted. “Leina and I will go get the food, ‘kay? You go and get us a table, all right?”

Luna nodded, sticking her tongue out to Leina one last time before turning to complete her mission.

Leina sighed. “I’m sorry but sometimes she’s so forgetful that-”

“Yeah, like you’re one to talk about being forgetful, Leina!” Leonna said, teasingly.

While Leonna and Leina were off to get their lunches, Luna was scanning for a table.

"None of the tables are empty..."

Finally, she saw an extra chair over by a table in the far corner. She quickly ran over and sat down with a smile.

"Hi, Emmett!"

The boy laughed. "Hey, Luna."

The rest of the kids at the table looked suspiciously at Luna. Not many of their classmates talked to them. They figured that something about them must cause people to keep their distance, and they were find with that.

"Hey, Alice! Jasper!"

The pixie-like girl, Alice, and the blond boy, Jasper, both nodded to Luna. Alice smiled. "So, how are you liking Forks so far?"

"It's all right... not very sunny, though..."

The kids laughed, as if there was a private joke between them. Meanwhile, Luna was staring at Edward's tray. In the midst of the strangely untouched food was a chocolate cupcake. Edward noticed what Luna was staring at.

"Um... you gonna eat that?" she asked hungrily.

He picked up the cupcake and handed it to Luna. "Be my guest."

Over at the food line, Leonna and Leina were arguing over how forgetful and impatient Leina could be. They were filling up two trays of food, enough for the three of them.

"I told you, I may be forgetful, but at least I don't turn the oven up to make-"

Leina's eyes opened wide as Leonna finished paying.

"What's wrong?"

Leina pointed to the table where Luna sat, about to eat the giant, powdered sugar and icing covered cupcake. The two girls ran at the table with the trays.

""NO!""

Luna shoved the whole cupcake into her mouth, not hearing Leonna and Leina's yells. The pair ran up to the table as Luna pulled the tin foil from the cupcake out of her mouth.

"Ew.... yuck..."

Leina slammed the tray down and grabbed Edward's shoulders, making him face her with those gleaming golden eyes.

"WHAT... THE HELL... DID YOU JSUT DO?!?!"

He looked confused as he pulled away from her, making her let go. "I don't know what you're t-" He stopped short as the table started to shake.

Everyone looked over at Luna, who was vibrating on a complete sugar high. Leina and Leonna watched in horror as Luna practically exploded from her seat, ran around the cafeteria twice, then shot out the door.

Leonna sighed as she took Luna's place at the table next to Emmett. "Sorry..." she mumbled.

Edward looked over at Leina, suppressing a laugh. “I’m assuming that was a bad idea?” he asked innocently.

Leina’s eyes opened wider than before. “Ya think?!” She looked around the table, but saw no seats.

Edward smirked. “You can share my seat, if you wish.”

Leina glared at him. “No, thank you,” she replied, mocking his polite tone. She walked over to a stack of plastic chairs and took one off the top. She brought it over to the rectangle table and, seeing there were no other open spaces, sat the seat at the end, next to Edward and Leonna.

Edward laughed as Leina angled the chair away from him.

“This first day sucks...”

Alice looked over at the two girls. “H, I’m Alice Cullen!”

Leonna smiled at her. “My name is Leonna.” She pointed to the pouting Leina, who was angrily eating her cafeteria-made spaghetti. “That’s Leina... sorry, she’s not in the best of moods-”

Edward snorted. Leina shot a look of death at him. “I’m Edward Cullen. This quiet one here is Jasper Hale. This is Rosalie Hale and Emmett Cullen.”

Emmett grinned at Leonna and Leina. “Nice to meet you.” The Hales merely nodded.

“Hey, Leonna,” Alice asked, “Aren’t you in my Math class?”

Then the Hales, Cullens, and Leonna all started talking about schedules and classes they had together. Leina didn’t talk, but instead squished her lunch with the back of her fork. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to go talk with Leonna and Luna about Forks and their classes. She had nothing against the other people at the table... she just wanted to be away from Edward.

Leina glanced upwards and saw Edward staring at her, with a mix between frustration and amusement. She was a bit confused.

“What?”

“Sorry...” he said, leaning on his arm. “Just usually, I can tell what people are thinking... I can’t understand what you’re thinking.”

Leina focused more. That was a mistake. His captivating eyes held her, making her want to tell him exactly what she was feeling, but her mind told her not to tell him anything. She ended up compromising.

She sighed and looked down again, getting ready to talk. “You know, you didn’t have to go and make those notes for me. I could have borrowed Leonna’s notes and used them to make my own. Secondly, you just caused Luna to go on a major sugar spaz spree, which will take her most of the rest of the lunch period to get over, maybe some of sixth period as well. She’s probably in La Push by now…” She stabbed the spaghetti again.

He laughed. “Well, in answer to your complaints… first of all, it wasn’t any problem for me to take notes for you. You’re a new student, you were trying to get the notes from about five previous classes within less than an hour, and Leonna doesn’t even have notes for today because of Richard.”

Leina glanced up at him. He seemed to know, even though Leonna didn’t say anything about the subject in front of him. “Maybe he overheard our conversation…?” Leina thought, though the probability of that was quite low. She decided to ask him before he continued. “How do you know that Leonna doesn’t have the notes?”

He smiled. “Let’s just say I have my ways of knowing…” He dropped off mysteriously.

“Great,” Leina said as she went back to stabbing every piece of food on her tray. “Now he can read minds…”

Edward looked strangely at her, as if he was wondering about her sudden conclusion. Then he shook his head. “Anyway, answering your second complaint, I want to know how you think I would possibly know that your friend would go completely insane if given that cupcake.”

Leina stopped puncturing for a moment. “I don’t know… just now I’m going to have to pay… I’m never going to get any sleep tonight…” she mumbled.

He laughed quietly, then looked into her eyes, holding her gaze. “Then I apologize for adding to your apparent lack of sleep.”

Leina gawked at him. “What do you mean ‘apparent lack’?”

He grinned. “You have a faint purple color under your eyes, similar to mine.” Leina looked underneath Edward's eyes. Sure enough, he, too, had the faint bruise-like look under his eyes. “Though, I’m figuring your’s are from not being able to sleep last night… am I correct?” he asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Y-“

DING!

The bell rang signaling them to move on to their next class. The lunch room was filled with people standing up from their seats, throwing trash away, and talking as they moved out of the cafeteria. Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Alice stood up and threw away their un-eaten lunches. Leina looked, confused, at Edward.

“Weren’t you hungry at all?”

He shrugged. “Not that much… I ate a large breakfast.”

“Oh…” Leina looked down at her almost un-eaten lunch. Edward laughed. Everything on her tray had a bunch of puncture wounds.

“Why don’t you try eating your lunch next time instead of stabbing it, all right?”

She smiled wryly at him. “Fine…”

He looked down, slightly worried. “Are you still hungry?”

Leina thought about it for a moment, then realized how hungry she actually was. “Yeah… and that whole stabbing thing was a stupid idea…” Edward laughed again. Leina was starting to like making him laugh. It was an angelic, almost addictive, sound. “Oh well, I can probably get something from the vending machines.”

Edward shook his head. “Come on.” He grabbed her hand and started to drag her away toward the lunch line.

“Wait!” Leina yelled, then looked back to see a laughing Leonna.

“I’ll see you in Study Hall, ok?” Leonna called before leaving.

Leina nodded helplessly as she was pulled through the mass of people trying to get out the door. Edward walked up to the lunch lady. “Excuse me, but can we have a slice of pizza, some fries, and a cookie, please?”

The lunch lady nodded, dazed by Edward. She quickly started getting the food Edward had ordered for Leina.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Edward looked down at her. Leina was a few inches shorter than him. “Ordering you some food. You’re not going to last the rest of the day if you don’t eat anything.”

Leina shook her head. “Nuh uh, no way! I’m not owing you for notes and the lunch as well!”

Edward grinned. “Well, that’s too bad, because I’m getting it for you anyway.” He grabbed the tray, then moved on to the place with the bottled drinks. “What would you like? Pick any of them.”

Leina grudgingly looked at the drinks. She realized she wasn't going to win this argument. She picked up a strawberry-kiwi smoothie-type drink. “Is this ok? I can just go with water.”

Edward grabbed the drink out of her hand and set it down on the tray. He moved quickly to the cashier, and quickly pulled out a five dollar bill. “Please put the change on my account.”

Then he handed the pizza to Leina. “Eat, now.”

Leina followed the command by stuffing the pizza in her mouth. She chewed quickly, not wanting to be late for her next class. Then Edward handed her the plastic bagged cookie, the mini-fry tray and the drink.

“Just put it in your bag. You have Study Hall next, right? Just eat it in there.”

Leina nodded. "Thanks..." The two started to walk down the hallway.

Edward looked down at Leina. "So, how are you liking Forks so far?"

Leina shrugged. "It's all right... some interesting people here..."

They stopped outside the auditorium. Edward looked confused again. "'Interesting people'?"

She re-positioned her messenger bag on her shoulder. "Well, like you, for example." She smiled up at him, her statement part joking, part truth.

Edward stared down at her, a look of frustration on his face. He frowned. "I should go." He turned and quickly walked away, leaving a stunned Leina to stare after him as he disappeared into the crowd.

Leina looked down at the ground as she stormed into the auditorium and dropped her bag on the floor next to Leonna.

Leonna looked up from a book she was reading as the tardy bell rang. "What's up? You don't look happy..."

Leina plopped down in the chair. "It's Cullen... he's confusing the hell out of me!"

Leonna set down her book, giving Leina her full attention. "So what happened?"

Leina put her feet up on the table and folded her arms angrily across her chest. "Well, he pulled me over and bought me a lunch, so now I owe him for that, too! I'm going to end up owing him so much money..." Her face fell as she thought of the amount that would probably end up being more than any house. "Anyway, after buying me lunch, we walked over here, talked a bit, then all of a sudden his mood changed drastically and said that he had to go..."

Leonna pondered that for a moment. "What did you guys talk about before his mood swing?"

Leina thought about that. "Well, he was asking me how I liked Forks... and I just said there were interesting people here. When he asked what I meant, I said like him, for example. Then his mood changed and he ran off."

Leonna thought for a moment. "I don't know... it's probably not you, though. Don't worry about it, 'kay?"

Just then, Luna came running into the room. She gave the teacher, who had started calling role, a pass and came and sat down with Leonna and Leina.

"Sorry, guys... I found myself in La Push when I stopped running..."

Leina and Leonna laughed. The girls spent the rest of Study Hall talking about Forks and complaining about their classes. When the bell rang, Luna and Leonna went on to English in Building 3, and Leina went over to the Math building.

Leonna and Luna walked a bit late into the class. Everyone was already seated and the teacher was almost ready to start the class. The two went to the front of the class and handed the teacher their passes.

"Sorry... we got lost," Leonna explained. The teacher nodded as they signed the pass, then motioned for them to sit down. They looked at their fellow classmates, looking for any openings. They saw two seats in the far back of the class, right behind two familiar, perfect faces.

Luna waved. "Hi, Edward! Hi, Alice!"

Edward nodded and Alice smiled. Leonna took a seat behind Edward and Luna took the seat behind Alice.

"Now today, class, we're going to be discussing in pairs the characteristics of a classic hero. Also make sure to talk about the tragic hero, like Romeo, and what characteristics make them tragic heroes. Please, in the groups, fill out this packet." The teacher put stacks of the packets on the first person desk of each column, and the students passed them back. "You have forty-five minutes to an hour, so please work quickly."

Luna raised her hand.

The teacher sighed. "Yes..." She dropped off, not being able to remember her new student's name.

"Luna," she reminded the teacher. "Anyway, I was wondering how we're doing partners...?"

The teacher walked to her desk and picked up a book. "I suppose I'll let you all choose your partners this time..." Then she dove into her book, and the class all started talking.

"Hey, Alice!" Luna asked in a loud whisper. "You wanna be partners?"

Alice smiled eagerly. "Sure, Luna."

Edward looked at Alice. "So who is going to be my partner, Alice?"

Leonna raised her hand a bit. "I will... I have something to talk to you about, anyway."

Edward looked slightly worried, but more uncomfortable than anything.

As Alice and Luna started working, Edward grudgingly flipped his chair around to face Leonna. "Can we please just start the packet?"

Leonna stared at him, a determined look in her eyes. "We can start the packet now... but I want to ask you some things, all right?"

Edward sighed as he started to work. "It's better if I wasn't around her so much... for the both of us."

Leonna stared, completely mystified. He had answered the exact question in her mind. She had known that he was different; now she wanted to know just how different.

He grinned, his eyes flicking up to look at Leonna. "Don't even try."

Leonna bent over her paper, rapidly answering the questions. "But still... you should give her some sort of explanation. You've really confused her with your mood swings."

Edward looked down sadly. “I know... but it’s better this way.” He seemed to be trying to convince both Leonna and himself. Then, trying to change the subject, he asked, “What is your next class?”

Leonna thought for a moment, trying to visualize her schedule. “Um... Biology with Mr. Banner.”

Edward grinned slightly. “I had him last period. I wish you luck.”

“Thanks... and what’s your next class?”

Edward looked questioningly at her. “PE... why?”

Leonna smirked impishly.

Edward’s eyes opened wide with realization. “She’s not...”

“Good luck with your plan, then, Edward.”