Twilight Fan Fiction ❯ Two Sides of The Coin ❯ Terror In The Gym!! There is Nothing You Can Do To Stop Me!! ( Chapter 11 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Moonlight Angel 
Non Anime: Twilight Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Comedy / Adventure / Action | Type: Self Insertion | Uploaded On: 02.07.2009 | Pages: 7 | Words: 10.0K | Visits: 146 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Twilight Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Comedy / Adventure / Action | Type: Self Insertion | Uploaded On: 02.07.2009 | Pages: 7 | Words: 10.0K | Visits: 146 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I do own or create any of the characters, expect for Cassie and Brooke and their father. The rest is done and created by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series. She owns them, not I. I am only burrowing them for my own twisted tales.
Summary: Cassandra and Brooke Sparrow are two sisters with psychic abilities, forced out of their warm California home to live in the dreary town of Fork, Washington, so their father can look for inspiration in the serene mountainside scenery. There they discover appearances can be deceiving when it comes to this boring rainy town. Especially when their closest neighbors just happen to be vampires and they actually go to their school, not to mention the nearby reservation is occupied with werewolves. Their lives are about to spiral into weirdsville and the sisters are going to love every minute of it.
Chapter Eleven
Terror in The Gym;
There is nothing you can do to stop me!!
(Cassie’s POV)
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Screams of pure terror woke me abruptly from my sleep and sent over my halfway asleep body the edge of the bed in a fuss. I hit the floor with an echoing thud and gazed up the white washed ceiling, bewildered. What in the world?!
“DAMN FUCKING YIP DOG!!! GET THIS RAT FROM HELL OUT OF MY ROOOOMMMM!!!”
The entire foundations of our usually quaint home shook from my older sister’s frantic shrieks. I groaned in exhaustion, hating the fact I was capitulated out of bed because of Brooke’s tendency to blow things out of portions. I heard a distinct boom as Brooke kicked out her door, crankier than ever. The endless flow of curses words piercing the morning air.
“Yo old hag! Come get your damn yip dog! It just pissed all over my bed!” Brooke yelled down from the tops of the stairs, her infuriated voice bellowing through the suddenly paper thin walls of my room.
Well that would explain the screaming, I thought groggily, rolling out of the entangle mass of blankets I found myself in. I paused to listen to Aunt Victoria shouting back at Brooke, equally agitated and from the sound of appalled by my sister’s use of swear words in almost every single sentence. I tried to shut out the ruckus, staggering over to my closet, looking for something to wear. Our house has been in uproar for the past two days since Auntie V’s arrival. Something crashed outside my closed bedroom door. The familiar sound of a frighten yip from Auntie V’s little terror Chihuahua followed as Brooke chased it out of her room.
What did she throw at it?! A vase? Sounded fragile! I wondered not really wanting to know the answer. I cringed, shuddering at the very thought of what Brooke threw at the tiny terror on four legs. I changed out of my pajamas into a navy blue Naruto t-shirt with a picture of Akatsuki on the front, a black hoody with a pair of purple and gold angel wings embroidered into the back, and my favorite bondage pants.
I poked my head out into the hallway to discover a broken guitar case shattered across the thick white carpet in the hallway. Splinters gleam dangerously in the early sunlight. My eyebrow twitched, freaked out. Wow, talk about anger management.
I pulled my head back into my room. “Better grab my converse,” I grumbled, diving into my cluttered closet floor, searching for a pair of converse I haven’t worn in a while. I scavenged up a beat up pair of lavender and orange converse and slipped into them quickly before heading out the door to navigate through the mess my hell-bent siblings created.
Brooke was already in the bathroom. I stared at her, exasperated, watching her apply mascara to her eyelashes, acting like she just hadn’t smashed her old guitar cast all over the hallway floor chasing Auntie V‘s dog out of her room. Unbelievable.
She shot me a look. “What are you staring at?” She turned to smirk at me, amused by the obvious irritation written all over my face. “I know I’m hot, Cassie, but seriously, you don’t have to gawk like that.”
I rolled my eyes, bumping her out the way to have at the make up. That’s Brooke for ya. “Did you have to smash your guitar case all over the floor?”
Brooke blinked, pretending to be innocent. “It’s not my fault that stupid thing pissed all over my bed.” She turned to stare thoughtfully into the mirror. “Been needing a new guitar case anyway.”
I snorted in response and put the finishing touches onto my purple eye shadow before reaching for a clear tube of lip-gloss. “Anyway, you notice the change in Be~lla this last week?”
She looked up from applying her trademark black lipstick. “Hm?”
“Come on. You’ve had to notice. Brooke, you’re a techno path for heaven sakes. You can pick up a person’s natural electrical from a mile away. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed?”
Brooke unconsciously raised an inquiring eyebrow. “Besides being spacey than normal. Not really.”
I couldn’t believe it! Brooke was usually the first one to pick up sudden shifts in a person’s natural demeanor. “You’re getting rusty, sis! Something’s not right with that girl. I can feel it in my bones.”
She held up her hands as it saying she surrendered. “Okay. Fine. I’ll keep an eye on Miss Bella-No-Brains electric field for any sign of a disturbance.” She grinned that evil grin of hers. “If I find any odd behavior in her waves, you’ll be the first to know. Okay, worrywart?”
I puffed out my cheeks, incredulously. Frustration flushing into my cheeks. I can’t believe her! Something’s been off about Bella Swan since the week started and my sister is treating it like it’s a joke?! She should at least be a little concern for Miss sad sack’s safety. Especially since James has now reared his ugly head once again, seeking revenge on the people who sentenced him to death. Bella could be in danger or even worst! “What if James managed to possess Bella when we aren’t looking? This could be trouble, Brooke.”
Brooke sobered at the suggestion. Her eyebrows pulled together. “Yeah, you’re right.” She looked me straight in the eye. “This could be trouble. That’s why you need to be the one to take care of it.”
I gawked at her. “W-What?”
A wiry smirk spread across her black lipsticked lips, her brown eyes flashing, devilishly. “You heard me, dearest sister. You’re the medium in the family, so it’s your job to see that James is forced back into the abyss where he came from.”
I felt my heart skip a beat, that same old fear slowly sinking back into my limbs. A chill ran up and down my spine at the very thought of having to confront that powerful apparition again. My throat dried up and my eyes widened, my sister’s words hitting me in powerful waves coming off the ocean of truth. Automatically, I grabbed onto the edge of the sink, trying to steady my trembling body. “B-Brooke. I c-can’t. There’s no way I can…”
My sister snorted in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me. One slip up and you’re ready to call it quits?” she demanded sharply, the tone in her voice disapproving. She grabbed me by the shoulder as I swayed back and forth, scared out of my wits at the thought. Her gaze softened. “Cass, just because you froze up last time doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. You still have a second chance to beat the living tar out of that bastard next time he decides to make an appearance.”
I peered up at my sister through my bangs, feeling more than pathetic. “Brooke…”
She sighed, when she didn’t rally my fallen spirit. “Oh good grief. You’re really hopeless sometimes, Cassie,” she commented, lightheartedly, even though, it didn’t quite reach her gaze. She reached out and hugged me, comfortingly.
“Oh, there are you girls,” Dad said, lifting his eyes from the manuscript set down in front of him at the dining room table, Aunt Victoria hovering his shoulder like a malevolent vulture ready to devour her rotten prey. He smiled despite feeling the heated laser beams of displeasure shooting out of Auntie V’s eyes. “I was getting worry. I thought for sure you girls ran away without telling me.”
Wham!
“Okay. That hurt,” Dad complained after receiving a bash to the head from a rolled up newspaper. Brooke and I exchanged shocked glances, seeing him hold onto the back of his head, grinning, while Aunt Victoria tapped the end of said deadly weapon against her open palm like some strict headmistress minding a disgruntle student. It reminded me of an anime scene straight from Fruits Basket.
“Is that supposed to be funny, Derrick?” she seethed, ominously, her facial expression turning toward the menacing death promising end of the rector scale. “If you have that munch gumption to joke around then I would think you’d have the ambition to have that new manuscript done by now.”
Dad only chortled, rubbing his injured head. “Well, creative energy doesn’t work that way.”
Brooke rolled her eyes, not impressed. “Stupid old bat,” she muttered underneath her breath.
Aunt Victoria caught the snide remark as it traveled along the air in the room, changing the target of her distaste glare onto her annoyed face. She was ablaze with fury, tension in the room between them reaching critical levels. “Mind repeating, my dear beloved niece. I loved to hear you say that again.”
Brooke eagerly met her challenge, glowering at her. “You heard me, lady,” she warned and then shouted at the top of her lungs. “Guess we can’t help it that you’re a deafy old grandma!!”
Derrick quickly rose to his feet and theatrically glanced at the nonexistent watch on his wrist. “Well, would you look at the time,” he stated, interrupting the piss-off contest between my hot headed aunt and my homicidal sibling. “7:36. My, I better get you girls to school.”
He quickly gathered his jacket and car keys, and started herbing Brooke and I out the dining room. “See, in you fifteen minutes, sis. I better see these two to school before they’re mark tardy on the attendance lists-!”
Aunt Victoria snagged him by the ear before he even had the chance to make it out the door. “And where you do you’re going, my dear brother?” she inquired in low sinister voice, her wrinkled face looking pretty darn scary. It looks could kill, Dad would probably be buried six feet underneath the ground by now. “Did you forget you have manuscript to finish? No wonder why you never get anything done. Always looking for excuses to distraction yourself from your work. For shame, Derrick.”
“H-Hey! Ow! Victoria, that hurts! Oh, how cruel you can be to your brother!” Dad wailed, pitifully as he was dragged away from our two standing profiles, He tossed Brooke the keys and called after her, “Looks like you’ll have to drive today, Brooke. It seems my schedule is tied up. I trust you’ll get you and your sister safely to school and back!”
Brooke and I watched as Dad was mercilessly dragged back into the dining room. We stood very still till he and our aunt was completely out of sight. We both looked to each other, our eyes wide. Our lives were becoming more and more like a cheesy anime by the minute. Just by the looks on our astonished faces, we were thinking the same thing.
What the hell was going to happen next?!
The squealing of wheels against pavement filled the full parking lot at Forks High. I clung to the “Holy shit” handle for dear life as Brooke swerved into an empty parking space, nearly taking out some poor soul in the process. The vehicle jerked to a stop. I sat completely frozen in place, my breathing uneven, watching my life pass right before my eyes. My heart was going a hundred miles per hour. I swear, Brooke was trying to get us kill!
“Remind me… to drive…. Next time,” I rasped, my eyes bugging out of my head, anxiety tightly wand in the pit of my stomach.
Brooke snickered at my frightened facial expression. “Maybe when you finally get your license,” she replied, rather amused by my gasping. She got of the car and slammed the door shut.
Shaking, I followed her example, slowly prying my stiff fingers from the handle above the door and staggered out of the Honda. I nearly collapsed right on the spot and kissed the ground, I’ve been so grateful to be alive!
“My god! You are the crappiest driver on the face of the Earth, Brooke!” I cried, having calmed down enough to point an accusation glare my sister’s way.
A smug grin graced Brooke’s lips as she just swapped the statement off, nonchalantly sauntering toward the opened aired campus. “Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve been told.”
“Ugh! Brooke!” I called after my sibling, jogging to catch up with her, frustrated. “You are such a homicidal maniac!”
Brooke busted out laughing at my daring insult. She whirled around simpering away, doing her best impersonation of my crazy monkey grin. “Oh me? Never.”
I smirked back and shoved my sibling, playfully. “Uh-huh sure. Whatever you say, Oh great Princess of Insanity Kingdom.”
We grinned at one another and busted out cackling at the tops of our lungs, causing the students around us to jerk their heads in our directions wondering what the hell was going on. That made it funnier even more. We were laughing so loudly that we hardly noticed that a group of students were clustering themselves on the far end of the sidewalk.
“Huh,” Brooke said pausing in her cackling to turning her attention to the growing circle of students yards away from us. “What do you know.”
I stopped laughing as well, staring at her, puzzled. “What do you mean?” I followed her gaze until my eyes too landed on the gaggle of students. A tall dark figure towered over the other students. His mop of shaggy black hair sticking out like a sore thumb, his bulky muscular rustic profile stood apart from the rest of the pale faced students body.
“Holy crap,” I said surprise coloring my voice. My eyes widened in disbelief. “Is that who I think it is?”
Brooke’s smirk only grew. “Hell yeah. Looks like your fur ball boyfriend couldn’t wait till you got off of parole.”
Heat rushed into my cheeks and ears, turning them a nice cherry red color. “He’s not my boyfriend, Brooke!”
My sister only laughed at my denial. “If you say so, Cassie.” She tugged me by the arm, leading the way to the cluster of bodies gathering around the sidewalk. There was quite a commotion. I absently wondered what was going on.
“Dunno.” Brooke answered my thought before I even had the chance to voice them. “Let’s go find out.”
Whispering voices filtered in from the moving swaying crowds of peers as Brooke and I pushed our way to the inner most circle to glimpse a view of what was going on. Through the throng of bobbing heads, I caught the familiar figures of a certain bronze haired wonder and depressing pathetic excuse of a human being. If you guessed Edward and Bella, you would be right. I blinked, doing a double take when I was able to get a better look beyond the conversing bodies of Mikey Boy and Ben-they were gossiping to each other- about the confrontation going on between a certain overgrown Native American fur ball and an undead pasty white bloodsucker. Inside the spread out circle, curious on lookers were pointing and whispering, staring at Jacob Black, looking intimidating and feral as ever, leaning up against what looked to be a shiny black and red Harley Davidson motorcycle parked along the curb of the sidewalk. His face a calm and collective mask, his bare ripped arms casually folded across his equally muscular and ripped chest. His bushy black eyebrows cased deep bluish black shadows over his narrowed, contemptuous eyes, staring undaunted at a very stiffed and discomfort able Edward Cullen standing on the other end of the wide open circle. The Bronze Wonder stood protectively in front of Miss Bella-No-Brains, like Robin Hood protecting his Mary Anne or something to that extend.
The tension air was so thick you could it cut with a knife as the two mortal enemies, werewolf and vampire, exchanged heated glares, neither refusing to take the eyes off the other. Bella stood awkwardly behind Edward, peering around him like some poor tortured victim, displeasure plainly observant on her pale frail face. Whether it was at her undead boyfriend for overreacting and causing a scheme or at the tall dark and handsome werewolf in front of her, I didn’t know. Eddie Boy and Jacob looked to be exchanging words. Edward’s low velvet voice sounding like the faint whisper of the wind, while Jacob’s was loud, clear, and husky. All I could tell was that things could get ugly real quick if some one didn’t step in and interfere.
“Well. Well, what do we have here?” Brooke’s confident voice filled the air, immediately breaking the whispering crowds, drawing Eddie’s and Jacob’s intense threatening glares away from each other. Our peers parted the way as my sister stepped forth into the ring. “An overgrown puppy dog and an undead prick.”
Surprise clearly shown on the Quileute werewolf’s face, his eyes landing on my sibling’s beaming face. His dark eyes widened slightly and his jaw dropped open. Edward and Bella frowned in distain at Brooke’s arrival into their little bubble of a fighting ring. My sibling threw Cullen a sneer and then glanced back at Jacob.
“While I’ll be damn,” Jacob muttered and his face instantly lit up. “Didn’t think I’d see you again any time soon.”
“Sparrow, this has nothing to do with you,” Edward warned in a low menacing voice, his eyes flickering quickly between my sister and Jacob. An obvious bewildered and yet, clearly discontented scowl spread across Bella’s face as she too looked from Jacob to my sister.
“Oh really?” Brooke inquired, eyebrow arched challenging him. “I don’t remember needing your permission to do whatever the hell I want, Cullen.”
I sighed deeply, guessing it was my time to make an appearance too. I pushed my way to through the last layer of students, stepping up beside my sister to face the three in the circle. I placed on a carefree grin to hide my uneasiness. “Hey guys! What’s up?”
Jacob’s face went straight from flat out surprise to enthusiastic. He straightened up from where he leaned against his bike, a big old smile spreading across his face. “Cassie?” He practically shouted, happily. “Wow. Hey, long time no see.”
I felt myself blush, wincing slight. “Hey Jacob.”
Bella’s strained voice came next. “Jake, you know these two?” Her tone was both horrified and disapproving.
Jacob didn’t take his ecstatic eyes off of me. “Yeah, Bells, I do. They came to the beach party two weeks ago.”
Brooke made a face, stopping him before he had the chance to elaborate further. “Bells? Is that your little nickname for, Miss Depressing? Wow, talking about trying to make strawberry ice cream out of lemons.”
The weird analogy earned Brooke a whole round of bewildered stares. Nobody, but me, actually got what she was getting at. Well, except for Edward and Bella. They only glowered at my crazy siblings some more. They didn’t like Brooke openly insulting Miss Sad Sack.
“Strawberry ice cream out of lemons?” Jacob uttered confused beyond belief, taking his eyes off me for a second before turning them back on me, inquiring.
I rolled my eyes. “You have to be Sparrow to understand our weird sense of logic,” I answered in a matter of fact tone. It was true after all. Most people didn’t get my family. To a bunch of outsiders we were a bunch of fruit rolled crack pots!
Jacob nodded still confused. “Oh. Okay.”
I giggled at his still puzzled expression. Whoa, He really did look cute like that. I flushed catching myself in the act of thinking it. I shook my head. What the hell? No. Bad Cassie. Bad!
My sister only snickered and jabbed my in the side. Looks like some one has the hotts for a certain rustic Native American fur ball. Shall we get him a collar with a little dog tag that reads “Fido” and leash for your birthday, Cass?
I openly smacked my suddenly laughing sister. “Damn it, Brooke!” I hissed, mortified, feeling my face exceed a new level of red.
Jacob, Cullen, and Bella gawked completely oblivious to our little private conversation, confusion written all over their faces.
I turned to Jacob, awkwardly. “Hahaha. Don’t mind her! She has a bad case of stupidicus idiotius right now. Can’t control herself whatsoever. You know how lunatics are.”
Brooke snorted, grinning and punched me in the kidneys causing me to cringe. “Haha. Funny. Nice try, moron! But I’m not the one all jittery right now, am I?”
“Umm… What in the world? Are those girls serious?” Bella uttered completely horrified at our shameless juvenile antics.
Edward’s eyebrow twitched. “Obviously the girls have ADD.”
“Hey! What don’t you go crawl into a hole and cry yourself to sleep, Cullen!” Brooke snapped, whipping around to point an agitated finger at him, irked. “We all know how much of a pansy you are.”
Edward’s eyebrow began twitching more. “P-pansy?” he snarled, unspoken wrath unfurling in his ocher eyes.
“Yeah, you heard me, ball less wonder! ‘You’re mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!’” my sister crowed, quoting those weird French dude from Mighty Python’s Holy Grail. “‘Now shoo, shoo before I shall taunt you a second time!’”(1)
I was nearly rolling on the ground cracking up watching our utterly blown away fellow peers gape at Brooke’s outrageous out bust. An eerie silence be fall the gathered students and the circle’s occupants. They all just gawked at her simpering form as she gave Eddie Boy and Miss Sad Sack the double bird. Jacob’s rumble booming laughter broke the quiet, shattering the air in its wake. He tossed back his head howling with laughter at Brooke’s absurdity.
A high pitched whistle filled the air, disrupting the gathered bands of students, the circle fracturing when the high school principal, Mr. Greene and the two gym teachers, Mrs. Hummel and Mr. Sheer, approached. Mr. Greene looked like he meant business.
“Alright, what’s going on here?” he demanded aggravated, the sea of students parting letting him evaluate the situation. His eyebrows furrowed and his face became red when he saw my hell-bent sister in the mists of the commotion. “Brooke Sparrow. Should have known! Can’t come to school without some kind of fuss can you? You‘re always at the heart of the problem.”
Bella threw Brooke a smug look, silently hoping she would be in trouble instead of her undead boyfriend. My sister grunted, shrugging her snide disposition. “Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Greene, but I’m just a by-stander in this one the circle had already formed when we got here.”
She motioned toward Bella and Edward. “Why don’t you ask these two what’s going on. They’re the real culprits here, not I.”
“W-What?” Bella sputtered, astounded to my sister laying the blame on her and her so-called innocent boyfriend.
Mr. Greene didn’t look amused. “Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen. Do you think I am a blind fool, Brooke Sparrow? These two have clean records as far as causing trouble at school is concerned.”
Could have fooled me, Brooke thought inside her head, nudging me, smirking.
Maybe I should lead a hand, eh? I offered mentally.
Be my guest.
“Actually Mr. Greene, my sister is telling the truth this time,” I piped before Cullen and Bella could gang up on my sibling. After all I too had a clean record. “Everyone was gathered around these three when we got here. We just wanted to see what as going on like everybody else. Brooke’s totally innocent.”
Mr. Greene scowled at me, deliberating. He turned to Edward and Bella, promptly. His eyes flickering over to Jacob as he started his motorcycle. “Would care you to explain, Edward and Bella, what seems to be the matter?”
Eddie shot me a dirty look, not liking the sudden attention. He and Bella were not at all pleased that they have to explain the embarrassing situation to the High school Principal especially since it was a confrontation between the Quileute werewolf and them.
Brooke and I wandered over to Jacob, who sat comfortable on his bike. He grinned, his eyes lingering on me, causing those unfamiliar chills to ride my spinal cord over and over again. He leaned against his handle bar, idly. “So what’s up?”
Brooke shoved me forward. The floor’s all yours, Cass.
I puffed out my cheeks, indignant and turned to him with a sigh. “Oh nothing. Trying to stay out of trouble. Going to school. Dealing with Edward’s and Bella’s shitty attitudes. The usual.”
Jacob’s face became blank. “Ah, so I take it you and your sister are not a big fan of Bella or her leech lover.”
I made a face, equal the one Brooke made just moments ago. “Nope.”
He smirked. “I see.”
I wavered underneath his constant stare. “So what are you doing here anyway?” I wanted to know, my eyes roaming over his bike. It was a pretty cool looking thing.
Jacob’s smile brightened. “Well, actually, besides wanting to piss off those blood sucking parasites, there’s a certain some one who didn’t give me their phone number when I dropped them two weeks ago.”
I groaned. “Oh good grief.”
Brooke snickered. “Translation: Oh shit, I’m in trouble.”
I lightly socked her one. “Oh, shut up.” And turned to his bemused facial expression as he observed our typical sister squabble. I placed on an awkward smile. “Anyway… it may not be a wise idea to give you our phone number.”
He cocked his head to the side, cutely. “And why is that?”
“Well, for one, we’re still under house arrest. Two, my crabby Aunt V is visiting from New Orleans. And three, I don’t know how Dad’s going to take if he finds out a boy is calling our house, who is outside our normal range of guy friends.”
“Oh,” Jacob said, reluctantly, lowering his head, disappointed.
Brooke shook her head. “Excuses. Excuses. God, Cass, you’re starting to sound like Miss Basket Case over there.”
“Am not!” I drawled back. “I just don’t want to get in any more trouble.”
My sister ignored my protesting pulling a notebook and pencil. She scribbled something down and torn the page out, handing it to Jacob. “Here. Since Chicken Little, here, is too afraid to give you our phone number herself, I’ve taken the liberation of doing it for her.”
“Ack….” I gawked after my sister, not willing to believe that my dear beloved sister would rat me out like that. Jacob, on the other hand, looked all the more enthralled at the idea that now he could call our house at his own convenience, his eyes greedily reading over the span of numbers a few times, memorizing it.
I dropped my head in defeat. I was so doomed. I felt Brooke pat me on the shoulder, a wise guy smile spread across her gloating features.
“Trust me, Cass. You’ll thank me later for this,” she assured me, connived I would see the light sooner or later of her good deed for the day.
Stupid Brooke and her tendency to stick her nose where it doesn‘t belong. And she calls me a social butterfly, I fumed inside my head, glaring out the window of fifth period Health. My cheeks were puffed out, miffed. Jacob had been so tickled after receiving my phone number; he basically gave me a huge boa constrictor hug which nearly crushed every single bone in my body. The guy meant well, but I was happy when I could feel my toes again. And my body didn’t ache every time I moved…
Luckily for me, fifth period past in a blink of an eye. Most of the time was spent listening to the old vulture up front lecture and going over notes. She gave us class time to do our homework and I joyfully took an advantage of it. I was done within the first ten minutes. Of course, there was no one to talk to. Jasper and Emmett were still giving me the cold shoulder. Were they still mad that my dad blasted their ignorant brother, Eddie Boy, into Kingdom Cum and back? I wish I understood why they were avoided me like the plague. I thought for sure, I could bug Jasper and freak him out with my emo ways like I had been doing and make Emmett nearly ripped his sides laughing so hard. I missed it. Health wasn’t interesting any more.
All those two did was sit next to me, keeping as much distance between us as humanly possible, silent and still as statues. I just didn’t get it. I said “hi” to them at the start of every single class period, hoping to fuel a conversation between us, but they just nodded and continue to ignore me for the rest of the period. Why?
It made no sense at all. My stomach churned with uneasiness. I didn’t like the feeling I was getting. Something wasn’t right. I just knew it!
I found myself walking to lunch alone. Jasper and Emmett took off on me quicker than you could say emo five times in a row. It kind of hurt, being ignored. My normally bubbly demeanor had been successfully decreased to half its usual eagerness, which pretty much killed my personality. I stared at the sidewalk as it passed under me, hands shoved deep into the pockets of my jacket. I hummed a clearly made up song underneath my breath, looking for something to take my mind off all my current troubles. It didn’t help much though.
I looked to the overcastted sky, wondering if the sun was ever going to come out again. I missed the sunshine, the warmth. Nothing usually dampened my spirits, but there seemed to be things here in Forks that brings out the worst in a person. Or so I think so at least. Kids walked by at jovial carefree past, noticing very little except the gossiping voices chattering around them and their clique of closely knitted friends. Couples somewhere to the side of me were laughing over some dumb joke their friend spouted. How come everybody else seemed by having a good time?
Beats the heck out of me, I heard Brooke’s voice echo inside my head. I looked up to see my older sibling, leaning up against the cafeteria’s exterior brick wall, looking menacing as always. She shot a couple of preps a dirty look, having caught them in the act of securitizing her outfit consisting of a three quarter sleeve lavender shirt underneath a ripped black tank top with a jaded silver skull on the front, wearing a pair of baggy navy blue jeans with silver stubbed belt and black combat boots. Her fire engine red full metal alchemist hoody was secured around her waist. In addition she was wearing her favorite pair of fishnet cut-off fingered gloves. She never went anywhere without them.
She offered me a cool smile while I strolled up to her and we were on our way into the cafeteria. “Hey, cheer up, Cass!” she commented, clearly sensing my gloomy ora. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder, comfortingly. “It’s not like the world is ending.”
She caught the sight of a nerd being picked on by a punch of muscle head idiots. “Well, for most of us it isn’t,” she amended frowning slightly and absently flicks her wrist.
One of the meatheads yelped when his cell phone zapped him inside the back pocket of his pants and dropped the nerd, dancing around desperately yanking the electrical charged thing out. He threw it the ground, confounded, huffing, while rubbing his now sore buttock.
I gave my sister a raised eyebrow, a small smirk curling itself up onto my lips. “Nice.”
She tossed her head back laughing, waving her free hand up in the air, carelessly. “Ah, one of my many talents, my dear. One of my many, many talents,” she proclaimed haughtily, jesting while walking through the doors of the cafeteria. A pair of low life snobs eyed us, viciously.
I threw them one of my famous crazy monkey grins to make them back off. Yeah, I loved that smile. It scared the living shit out of anybody.
“Speaking of which,” Brooke continued, making our way through the crowds over to our usual spot far in the back of the cafeteria near the side exit. She eagerly reached into one of her many pockets and pulled out a piece of scrap paper. “You gotta hear this. I got really bored during English today and since that shitty retarded class project is finally done and over with, I thought I would celebrate with a wickedly gruesome song.”
I couldn’t help, but smile and took my seat. I wasn’t up for eating lunch today. Just sitting back and relaxing sounded good today. “What’s it about?”
Brooke just grinned. “You’ll see.”
“Well, go head and I’ll give my constrictive criticism after you’re done humiliating yourself in front of all our peers,” I replied indicating her to go on.
My sister cleared her throat, preparing herself. She closed her eyes and focused. Brooke liked getting into the “zone” as she referred to it as before she sang. A minute later her eyes snapped open and she started, her deep rich singing voice drifting on the stuffy chattering cafeteria air like a haunting whisper of an ancient past.
“Drowning in mercury.
Falling past the creaks and pathways of my childhood innocence.
This pain of mine consumes me whole and binds me to the planet of misery.
“I sing for you, my midnight melody…
Mommy once told me;
That monsters don’t exist,
Nothing is waiting for me underneath my bed,
To gobble me whole and devoir my sin.
If only mommy knew…
If only mommy knew…
YOW!!!
Run Away. Run Away.
Flee as fast as your legs can carry you.
Your life is on the line.
You’re in danger.
Fight for your life,
From the creatures of the night!
“Love, I fear I can’t comprehend what you’re telling me.
I was always told that science shines the light in where darkness existed.
How do you expect me to understand your world when you and I are from two different universes!
All that is supposed to be discover has been made known.
Oh no! Don’t tell me a thing.
Don’t tell me thing.
Let us dance in this parade of ignorance!!!
For we are all blind!
“Run Away. Run Away.
Flee as fast as your legs can carry you.
Your life is on the line.
You’re in danger.
Fight for your life,
From the creatures of the night!!”
A dead silence drifted across the surrounding tables. It appeared that everyone’s attention was drawn to our little quaint table. Kids were turned around in their seats, peering over the tops of their tables and their friends trying to catch a hint of who had been singing. Even the Cullen table ceased their every day activities to stare. Curiosity shining brightly in each pair of ocher eyes. Brooke groaned, realizing the effect of her electrically vibrant voice and banged her head on the table, mortified, a light blush flooding her cheeks.
“Shit,” she grumbled underneath her breath.
I laughed nervously, watching my sister sulk, feeling curious stares burrowing a whole in to the back of my head. Whispers erupted in the air, gossip floating among the chaos, astonishment hinting at what had taken place. Slowly, but surely the atmosphere returned to it’s normal jazz as students lost interest in our tiny corner of the world, going back to their previous conversations acting like Brooke’s song hadn’t brought them to a screeching halt.
Only the Cullens still looked our way. Their expressions brooding, rigid and wary. They looked perplexed beyond belief and I couldn’t understand why. Edward seemed especially frustrated, not taking his eyes off of my sister’s slouching profile. Brooke’s body froze, stiffening at the sensation of being watched. She slowly straightened up and turned around in her seat, to set her sights on the Cullen clan, who seemed suddenly intrigued by our presence again. Was it just me or were these undead bloodsuckers bipolar?
Brooke’s lips curled back in irritation, glowering Eddie Boy’s way. She whirled around her seat, immediately, turning her back on him. “Rotten jack ass,” she muttered through gritted teeth, looking pissed off even more. A heated blush flourished in her pale face like a fever, making her look ridiculous. “Don’t say a word.”
I couldn’t help, but chuckled at her expense. She really was flustered. It wasn’t often I saw the Big Bad Brooke Sparrow in a huff. “May~be,” was my reply. “I’ll try to keep to my trap shut. For you, sis.”
“Oh aren’t you nice?” she seethed.
I smiled like a goon. “I try to be.”
“Smart ass.”
I found myself cracking up, even more. Sooner than later Brooke joined me, laughing along side me. At what we really didn’t know, but something, whatever it was, suddenly became funny. We laughed our way through the rest of lunch and walking out the door. We were both simpering away like chimpanzees, while the dreary overcastted skies above gave way to sunshine for the first time in what seemed like eons. My gloomy dispositions melted away, letting my usually happy-go-lucky random persona shine through. It felt so good, I wanted to start dancing.
Not even sitting in Biology next to Bella and Edward dampened my high spirits. Maybe all I had really needed was a good laugh to clear my bothered mind. I was humming absently to myself, bobbing my head as I wrote down observations for our class assignment today. Mr. Banner actually let us pick our groups this time, so fortunately I tagged Angela Weber and Mikey Boy as my reluctant partners. Reluctant is probably the wrong word to use, if anything, Angela and Mikey were more than thrilled to have me as their partner. Class was actually pleasant.
“How much of chemical X are we supposed to add?” I inquired, reading over the instructions for the fourth time in a row. We were doing a fusion lab today. I felt like a mad scientist with all these unknown chemicals scattered around the lab table top.
“I think its thirty millimeters,” Angela answered taking the sheet from me to scan it over again and then going about the process of measuring said chemical. It was up to the groups to determine what natural primary element they had, judging by the chemical reactions emitted from the three specific stages of experimentation set by Mr. Banner. If we did everything right, we should end up getting the right answer.
Mikey Boy was managing the gas fire while we girls got everything ready. As the only boy in the group, he said it was his obligation as a gentleman to do the “dangerous” stuff. I attempted not to keel over with laughter when he stated his intentions. Mike I’m-A-Blonde-Spiky-Haired-Babe-Magnet-Newton a gentleman? Snort. Please.
“I think this flame should be good enough,” Mike stated, turning the handle a little bit more, adjusting the size of the flame until it was the right amount for the experiment. He placed the beaker of water in the frame, stationed over the glowing flame. “What’s next?”
Angela’s scrunched her nose, thinking. “It says to wait until the water is boiling, then slowly and carefully pour the unknown element into the water.”
Mike smiled. “Okay. Piece of cake.”
I looked at him, questionably. “Do people even say that any more?”
Mike shrugged, nonchalantly, reclining back in his chair. He threw me one of his so-called dashing smiles. “Who knows.”
I rolled my eyes at his attempts to flirt. “Oh, aren’t you cryptic?”
Mike gaped at me, befuddled. “Wha? Huh?”
“Hey, Cassie. Are you going to prom this year?” Angela asked, turning my attention away from the confused Newton.
“Oh yeah, that’s coming up, isn’t it?” Mike joined in, his ears perking up at the reminder. He looked to me, hopeful. “Do you have a date for it?”
I made a face. “I usually don’t go to those kinds of things.”
Let’s just say Angela and Mike were very surprised.
“What? Why not?” Angela spoke for both of them.
I shifted my seat, uncomfortable. “Well, because, the only music they play at those kinds of things is rap crap, and half the prep population is there. My sister and I don’t exactly fit in, so we usually skipped dances and just hang out with ours friends back in San Diego.”
“Well, you should go then,” Angela insisted.
“Yeah, no school high education is complete without at least attending one dance,” Mike added, eagerly, grinning from ear to ear. “And hey, if you need a date, I’m always open for invitation.”
I laughed. “I don’t know about that. Jessica might kill me if I go out with you to the prom.”
Mike’s face became blank. “Why do you say that?”
Angela and I snickered. Wow, Mikey Boy was oblivious as ever. “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t notice the possessive way Jessica’s swoons over you. It’s so obvious she has the hotts for you.”
He blinked, stunned, heat flooding into his fair face. He gulped and rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. “Oh. I didn’t really notice.” He glanced off to the side. “Well, it’s not like she can’t go out with any other guy in school.”
I sighed, smacking him in the shoulder. “Dude! Are you that blind?! She only has eyes for you! Wow, you really are an idiot.”
“Hey!” Mike cried pretending to be hurt by my joking around. “I regret that statement.”
I stuck out my tongue, childishly. “Tough luck, buddy boy. I ain`t taking it back.”
An evil gleam shone in his pale blue eyes. Along with a devilish smirk. “Really? What if I make you take it back?”
I snickered. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Now, now, you guys,” Angela piped up, laughing seating herself between us before things went array. “We’re in the middle of an experiment, remember? Let’s get this done and over with before you two lovebirds go at.”
“WHA?!” Mike and mine incredulous voices echoed, bewildered and flushed with embarrassment. Our little out burst made most of the heads in the room to title our way, queerly. We grinned sheepishly and muttered a quick, “Okay” before going back to work. After all we only had thirty minutes left to the class and the in-class assignment was due at the end of the period.
“Hey, Jessica and I are going prom shopping tomorrow in Port Angeles,” Angela told me later on when the period was over and we had handed Mr. Banner our results. He threw us a suspicious glare as we headed for the door, for causing a ruckus today during class. We exited the building and made our way across campus. Mikey Boy stayed behind to ask Mr. Banner about a few problems on the homework he assigned at the end of class, which was a relief!
She smiled, pleasantly. “Wanna come with? There are some pretty nice boutique stores we can go to in Port Angeles.”
I mulled over the invitation. “Hmm… I dunno.”
“Oh come on! It will be fun,” she persist and held up a finger to point out, “And it’s on a Friday night, so we won’t have school in the morning to worry about.”
I smile, ecstatic. “True!”
I said my good-byes to Angela and parted ways heading directly for the gymnasium. I made my way into the girls’ locker-room and changed out of my regular school clothes into the standard gym uniform worn here at Forks High. Jogging up the stairs I joined the rest of my classmates in the spacious typical school gym. Since I transferred here in the middles of the Bad Minton unit, I was soon forced to participate in one of the worst sports to ever exist on the face of the Earth: Volleyball. We just switched last week and now by the way the gym is split into four separate volleyball courts I have the distinct notion that we were going to be playing four court volleyball!
My stomach sunk. Great. Lucky me, I was going to be participating in the deadliest game to ever be invented. They should call it the Volleyball Wars, instead of Four Court, just on the account that more people get injured during one round than most gym activities throughout the entire school year!
I swallowed, anxiously, lining up with the others along the blue doted line. The teachers were having us count off by fours. Mr. Sheer and Mrs. Hummel walked down past each student, pointing at them and reciting the number they were appointed. I bit my lowered lip and pray silently for a miracle. The nausea in my stomach wouldn’t go away. Mrs. Hummel was drawing closer.
Please don’t let me be on either Miss Sad Sacks team or the Bronze Wonder’s team. Please don’t let me be on Miss Sad Sack’s team or the Bronze Wonder’s Team, I chanted desperately inside my mind.
Mrs. Hummel finger landed on my frigid form, waiting for me to say my assignment number. I gulped, shifting my weight onto the other foot, unsteadily. “Four.”
And that was that. The gym teacher continued on her way until she reached the end of line. The whistle blew.
“Okay, you worthless maggots! Split up and go to your respective courts!” Mrs. Hummel decreed, her sharp feline voice ringing with authority. Nobody argued.
I hurried over to four team, where my new team members were assembling each other. One of them was familiar. Way too familiar.
“Yo Cassie! Alright!” Mikey Boy crowed, excitement lighting up his face as he waved me over. Standing next to him were two other boys, one being Ben, Angela Weber’s boyfriend and the other being Eric Yorkie.
“Hey, Mike!” I called back out of courtesy, walking up to him and his little crew. I nodded my greeting to a stupefied Eric Yorkie and shook Ben’s hand when he offered it. Angela was sure lucky to hook up with some one as dependable as him. I was glad they found each other so early in life. I wished them the best of luck from the bottom of my heart. “Guys. Good to see, I’ll be on a team where I know a few people at least.”
Mike’s spirit dropped. “Yeah, we’re glad too, but…” He stopped in mid-sentence to jerk his head in a specific direction. “Guess who else is on our team?”
I followed his movement to catch a glimpse of the back of a very unmistakable head of tasseled bronze colored hair up near the front of the court. I grimaced. “Oh goody.”
As if sensing that he was being watched, Edward Cullen halfway turned his torso to peer over his shoulder at our little group. His expression was unreadable, but displeasure clearly reached his ocher eyes when he saw who was staring back. His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows furrowed in distaste. The exchange was brief and then he returned his attention back to the opposite side of the court. From my vantage point, I could see Miss Sad Sack wavering feebly on the opposing court, facing ours. My eyebrow twitched, vexed.
The whistle blew, signal for the bombardment to begin. Simultaneously, sonic booms broke out all over the gym as pearly white balls were sent hurtling through the air. Mike and Ben charged to the front, hoping to get in on the action as the first balls came flying into our court, leaving Yorkie and me to stand far in the back, out of the way and hopefully out of firing range.
Let the massacre begin…
I unconsciously shivered, feeling a menacing chill in the air. It was halfway through the gym class and we had already rotated other three courts. We were down by eleven points, while Team Three were only down seven, despite the handicap of having Bella Swan on their team.
Somehow, miraculously, all four balls ended up in our court. This gave my teammates a chance to get revenge on the other teams for scoring on our team so many times.
“Hey Cassie! Here!” Mike shouted, tossing me a ball. I looked at him like he grew an extra head. There was no way I was going to serve. They would have a better chance of scoring a point with a monkey serving than me! He just shook his head at my hesitance and then motion for me to join. “Come on, don’t be a chicken! The ball isn’t going to bite.”
“How do you know,” I murmured, staring at the dangerous weapon in my hands, scrolling over to the serving line. If you estimated my chances of scoring on the opposing team, my luck would predict that the ball would going flying through the air, hit the net, which in turned would be used as sling-shot and the ball went be sent flying back, smacking me square in the face.
Mike smiled encouragingly when I took my place between him and Ben. Edward was also lined up the swerving. He, of course, was ignoring our little façade. He nodded to me and Ben. “Ready?”
We tensed and took up our serving stances.
“Set.”
Prepared to toss up the ball into the air and hit it.
“GO!!”
All at the same time, the four of us threw our balls into the air and hit them as hard as humanly possible. A loud thunderous sonic boom shuddered the busy gym air as all four volleyballs became air borne, going in different directions. To my surprise, mine actually made it over the net. I squealed in delight and gave Mike a five-hand when it flew over the net. My celebration was short lived. The familiar screech of a certain depressing gloomy basket case followed as Bella-No-Brains was decked square in the face by the in-coming volleyball. Poor, poor Bella Swan. Her bad karma really did have it out for her! Her fail skinny body hit the floor, awkwardly, kind of like a flimsy twig being blown away by a strong gust of wind.
“Oops,” I uttered taken back. I could feel the scorching glare of her undead boyfriend as his glare burned through the side of my head.
“Ow. That had to hurt,” Mikey Boy commented, cringing for Bella’s sake.
I grinned, sheepishly and called over to the opposite of the court, “SORRY BE~LLA!”
“Think she can walk,” I quickly asked the blonde next to me, who only shrugged, not sure himself. We watched as her fellow teammates gathered around the girl as she sat up, holding her head. I winced when I saw the indignant glare aimed in my direction.
Bella rose to her feet and staggered, but remain up right in standing position, much to the relief of both her and our teammates. What do you know? It’s a miracle. Bella-The-World-Is-Going-To-Come-Crashing-On-My-Head survived being flattened by deadly medium size volleyball of doom!
Another sinister shivered made its way up my spine and back down. Goosebumps rose up on my bare exposed arms. I shuddered, visibly, sensing the sudden shift in spiritual pressure. A foreboding vale draped itself over the bustling and chaotic atmosphere of the gymnasium. The gym lights flickered slightly.
Just when the game seemed back under way, a loud echo crack of steel giving way sounded through the space existing between the floor and ceiling. A grinding noise came, followed by another loud thunderous crack as a huge steel support beam snapped in half and was sent crashing down to the patiently waiting wooden floor below. Bella Swan was right in its intended path. Screams of panic and terror filled the air as students and faculty alike scattered, darting out of the way of falling debris, created in the hurtling steels beams wake. Bella’s high pitched, eardrum shattering scream was the loudest out of all them. I watched in horror as the steel beam collided with the floor, where the depressing brunette had stood. Before it reached the ground, I saw flash of white and red, head straight for Miss Sad Sack. I could only presume it was Edward hurrying to save his condemned Juliet. Floor boards splintered and gave way, flying in every direction. Dust rose upon impact, flooding the right half of the gymnasium in thick hazy cloud.
I shielded my eyes as the dust cloud flew my way. I felt Mike Newton grabbed onto me to drag me out of the path of stray shards of wood, traveling through the air. A long eerie silence consumed the gym, forlorn radiating throughout every standing soul as all stood still. Horrified at what had taken place before their very eyes. Was everyone safe? What about Bella and Edward? Were they okay?
Cries of horror and frantic screams of students injured from the steal support beam falling soon engulfed the heavy suffocating stillness. The dust began to clear away, leaving only grief and despair behind. The sight was excruciating. The volleyballs had toppled over from the aftershock, students caught underneath them. Blood from the afflicted victims caught in the beam’s wake, stained the floor as mangled bodies of those who couldn’t get out in time, lay sprawl across the uprooted floor. Moans and groans of pain mixed in with cries of horror at the gruesome sight.
I heard a choke sobbed fill my ears as I found myself clinging onto Mike Newton’s arms for support, tears flooding my vision. This was all my fault. I could only imagine the terror gripping Mike’s face right now. We held onto each other for support as the teachers recovered their voices and began shouting for some one to call 911 and get as many ambulances to the school grounds as soon as possible.
In the mists of the chaos, something cold brushed against my neck as a dark malicious shadow formed in the corner of my blurred vision. A low vile laughter pierced through my defenses. My body became cold all over, I started to shake violently, and frantic sobs escaping my constricted throat as his words echoed through the bowls of my mind, terror paralyzing my body in place.
“Hehehehe. There is nothing you can do. You are helpless!” James declared, his voice consuming my senses, even though nobody else but me could hear him. “I will have my revenge and there is nothing you can do to stop me!”
Summary: Cassandra and Brooke Sparrow are two sisters with psychic abilities, forced out of their warm California home to live in the dreary town of Fork, Washington, so their father can look for inspiration in the serene mountainside scenery. There they discover appearances can be deceiving when it comes to this boring rainy town. Especially when their closest neighbors just happen to be vampires and they actually go to their school, not to mention the nearby reservation is occupied with werewolves. Their lives are about to spiral into weirdsville and the sisters are going to love every minute of it.
Chapter Eleven
Terror in The Gym;
There is nothing you can do to stop me!!
(Cassie’s POV)
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Screams of pure terror woke me abruptly from my sleep and sent over my halfway asleep body the edge of the bed in a fuss. I hit the floor with an echoing thud and gazed up the white washed ceiling, bewildered. What in the world?!
“DAMN FUCKING YIP DOG!!! GET THIS RAT FROM HELL OUT OF MY ROOOOMMMM!!!”
The entire foundations of our usually quaint home shook from my older sister’s frantic shrieks. I groaned in exhaustion, hating the fact I was capitulated out of bed because of Brooke’s tendency to blow things out of portions. I heard a distinct boom as Brooke kicked out her door, crankier than ever. The endless flow of curses words piercing the morning air.
“Yo old hag! Come get your damn yip dog! It just pissed all over my bed!” Brooke yelled down from the tops of the stairs, her infuriated voice bellowing through the suddenly paper thin walls of my room.
Well that would explain the screaming, I thought groggily, rolling out of the entangle mass of blankets I found myself in. I paused to listen to Aunt Victoria shouting back at Brooke, equally agitated and from the sound of appalled by my sister’s use of swear words in almost every single sentence. I tried to shut out the ruckus, staggering over to my closet, looking for something to wear. Our house has been in uproar for the past two days since Auntie V’s arrival. Something crashed outside my closed bedroom door. The familiar sound of a frighten yip from Auntie V’s little terror Chihuahua followed as Brooke chased it out of her room.
What did she throw at it?! A vase? Sounded fragile! I wondered not really wanting to know the answer. I cringed, shuddering at the very thought of what Brooke threw at the tiny terror on four legs. I changed out of my pajamas into a navy blue Naruto t-shirt with a picture of Akatsuki on the front, a black hoody with a pair of purple and gold angel wings embroidered into the back, and my favorite bondage pants.
I poked my head out into the hallway to discover a broken guitar case shattered across the thick white carpet in the hallway. Splinters gleam dangerously in the early sunlight. My eyebrow twitched, freaked out. Wow, talk about anger management.
I pulled my head back into my room. “Better grab my converse,” I grumbled, diving into my cluttered closet floor, searching for a pair of converse I haven’t worn in a while. I scavenged up a beat up pair of lavender and orange converse and slipped into them quickly before heading out the door to navigate through the mess my hell-bent siblings created.
Brooke was already in the bathroom. I stared at her, exasperated, watching her apply mascara to her eyelashes, acting like she just hadn’t smashed her old guitar cast all over the hallway floor chasing Auntie V‘s dog out of her room. Unbelievable.
She shot me a look. “What are you staring at?” She turned to smirk at me, amused by the obvious irritation written all over my face. “I know I’m hot, Cassie, but seriously, you don’t have to gawk like that.”
I rolled my eyes, bumping her out the way to have at the make up. That’s Brooke for ya. “Did you have to smash your guitar case all over the floor?”
Brooke blinked, pretending to be innocent. “It’s not my fault that stupid thing pissed all over my bed.” She turned to stare thoughtfully into the mirror. “Been needing a new guitar case anyway.”
I snorted in response and put the finishing touches onto my purple eye shadow before reaching for a clear tube of lip-gloss. “Anyway, you notice the change in Be~lla this last week?”
She looked up from applying her trademark black lipstick. “Hm?”
“Come on. You’ve had to notice. Brooke, you’re a techno path for heaven sakes. You can pick up a person’s natural electrical from a mile away. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed?”
Brooke unconsciously raised an inquiring eyebrow. “Besides being spacey than normal. Not really.”
I couldn’t believe it! Brooke was usually the first one to pick up sudden shifts in a person’s natural demeanor. “You’re getting rusty, sis! Something’s not right with that girl. I can feel it in my bones.”
She held up her hands as it saying she surrendered. “Okay. Fine. I’ll keep an eye on Miss Bella-No-Brains electric field for any sign of a disturbance.” She grinned that evil grin of hers. “If I find any odd behavior in her waves, you’ll be the first to know. Okay, worrywart?”
I puffed out my cheeks, incredulously. Frustration flushing into my cheeks. I can’t believe her! Something’s been off about Bella Swan since the week started and my sister is treating it like it’s a joke?! She should at least be a little concern for Miss sad sack’s safety. Especially since James has now reared his ugly head once again, seeking revenge on the people who sentenced him to death. Bella could be in danger or even worst! “What if James managed to possess Bella when we aren’t looking? This could be trouble, Brooke.”
Brooke sobered at the suggestion. Her eyebrows pulled together. “Yeah, you’re right.” She looked me straight in the eye. “This could be trouble. That’s why you need to be the one to take care of it.”
I gawked at her. “W-What?”
A wiry smirk spread across her black lipsticked lips, her brown eyes flashing, devilishly. “You heard me, dearest sister. You’re the medium in the family, so it’s your job to see that James is forced back into the abyss where he came from.”
I felt my heart skip a beat, that same old fear slowly sinking back into my limbs. A chill ran up and down my spine at the very thought of having to confront that powerful apparition again. My throat dried up and my eyes widened, my sister’s words hitting me in powerful waves coming off the ocean of truth. Automatically, I grabbed onto the edge of the sink, trying to steady my trembling body. “B-Brooke. I c-can’t. There’s no way I can…”
My sister snorted in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding me. One slip up and you’re ready to call it quits?” she demanded sharply, the tone in her voice disapproving. She grabbed me by the shoulder as I swayed back and forth, scared out of my wits at the thought. Her gaze softened. “Cass, just because you froze up last time doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. You still have a second chance to beat the living tar out of that bastard next time he decides to make an appearance.”
I peered up at my sister through my bangs, feeling more than pathetic. “Brooke…”
She sighed, when she didn’t rally my fallen spirit. “Oh good grief. You’re really hopeless sometimes, Cassie,” she commented, lightheartedly, even though, it didn’t quite reach her gaze. She reached out and hugged me, comfortingly.
“Oh, there are you girls,” Dad said, lifting his eyes from the manuscript set down in front of him at the dining room table, Aunt Victoria hovering his shoulder like a malevolent vulture ready to devour her rotten prey. He smiled despite feeling the heated laser beams of displeasure shooting out of Auntie V’s eyes. “I was getting worry. I thought for sure you girls ran away without telling me.”
Wham!
“Okay. That hurt,” Dad complained after receiving a bash to the head from a rolled up newspaper. Brooke and I exchanged shocked glances, seeing him hold onto the back of his head, grinning, while Aunt Victoria tapped the end of said deadly weapon against her open palm like some strict headmistress minding a disgruntle student. It reminded me of an anime scene straight from Fruits Basket.
“Is that supposed to be funny, Derrick?” she seethed, ominously, her facial expression turning toward the menacing death promising end of the rector scale. “If you have that munch gumption to joke around then I would think you’d have the ambition to have that new manuscript done by now.”
Dad only chortled, rubbing his injured head. “Well, creative energy doesn’t work that way.”
Brooke rolled her eyes, not impressed. “Stupid old bat,” she muttered underneath her breath.
Aunt Victoria caught the snide remark as it traveled along the air in the room, changing the target of her distaste glare onto her annoyed face. She was ablaze with fury, tension in the room between them reaching critical levels. “Mind repeating, my dear beloved niece. I loved to hear you say that again.”
Brooke eagerly met her challenge, glowering at her. “You heard me, lady,” she warned and then shouted at the top of her lungs. “Guess we can’t help it that you’re a deafy old grandma!!”
Derrick quickly rose to his feet and theatrically glanced at the nonexistent watch on his wrist. “Well, would you look at the time,” he stated, interrupting the piss-off contest between my hot headed aunt and my homicidal sibling. “7:36. My, I better get you girls to school.”
He quickly gathered his jacket and car keys, and started herbing Brooke and I out the dining room. “See, in you fifteen minutes, sis. I better see these two to school before they’re mark tardy on the attendance lists-!”
Aunt Victoria snagged him by the ear before he even had the chance to make it out the door. “And where you do you’re going, my dear brother?” she inquired in low sinister voice, her wrinkled face looking pretty darn scary. It looks could kill, Dad would probably be buried six feet underneath the ground by now. “Did you forget you have manuscript to finish? No wonder why you never get anything done. Always looking for excuses to distraction yourself from your work. For shame, Derrick.”
“H-Hey! Ow! Victoria, that hurts! Oh, how cruel you can be to your brother!” Dad wailed, pitifully as he was dragged away from our two standing profiles, He tossed Brooke the keys and called after her, “Looks like you’ll have to drive today, Brooke. It seems my schedule is tied up. I trust you’ll get you and your sister safely to school and back!”
Brooke and I watched as Dad was mercilessly dragged back into the dining room. We stood very still till he and our aunt was completely out of sight. We both looked to each other, our eyes wide. Our lives were becoming more and more like a cheesy anime by the minute. Just by the looks on our astonished faces, we were thinking the same thing.
What the hell was going to happen next?!
The squealing of wheels against pavement filled the full parking lot at Forks High. I clung to the “Holy shit” handle for dear life as Brooke swerved into an empty parking space, nearly taking out some poor soul in the process. The vehicle jerked to a stop. I sat completely frozen in place, my breathing uneven, watching my life pass right before my eyes. My heart was going a hundred miles per hour. I swear, Brooke was trying to get us kill!
“Remind me… to drive…. Next time,” I rasped, my eyes bugging out of my head, anxiety tightly wand in the pit of my stomach.
Brooke snickered at my frightened facial expression. “Maybe when you finally get your license,” she replied, rather amused by my gasping. She got of the car and slammed the door shut.
Shaking, I followed her example, slowly prying my stiff fingers from the handle above the door and staggered out of the Honda. I nearly collapsed right on the spot and kissed the ground, I’ve been so grateful to be alive!
“My god! You are the crappiest driver on the face of the Earth, Brooke!” I cried, having calmed down enough to point an accusation glare my sister’s way.
A smug grin graced Brooke’s lips as she just swapped the statement off, nonchalantly sauntering toward the opened aired campus. “Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve been told.”
“Ugh! Brooke!” I called after my sibling, jogging to catch up with her, frustrated. “You are such a homicidal maniac!”
Brooke busted out laughing at my daring insult. She whirled around simpering away, doing her best impersonation of my crazy monkey grin. “Oh me? Never.”
I smirked back and shoved my sibling, playfully. “Uh-huh sure. Whatever you say, Oh great Princess of Insanity Kingdom.”
We grinned at one another and busted out cackling at the tops of our lungs, causing the students around us to jerk their heads in our directions wondering what the hell was going on. That made it funnier even more. We were laughing so loudly that we hardly noticed that a group of students were clustering themselves on the far end of the sidewalk.
“Huh,” Brooke said pausing in her cackling to turning her attention to the growing circle of students yards away from us. “What do you know.”
I stopped laughing as well, staring at her, puzzled. “What do you mean?” I followed her gaze until my eyes too landed on the gaggle of students. A tall dark figure towered over the other students. His mop of shaggy black hair sticking out like a sore thumb, his bulky muscular rustic profile stood apart from the rest of the pale faced students body.
“Holy crap,” I said surprise coloring my voice. My eyes widened in disbelief. “Is that who I think it is?”
Brooke’s smirk only grew. “Hell yeah. Looks like your fur ball boyfriend couldn’t wait till you got off of parole.”
Heat rushed into my cheeks and ears, turning them a nice cherry red color. “He’s not my boyfriend, Brooke!”
My sister only laughed at my denial. “If you say so, Cassie.” She tugged me by the arm, leading the way to the cluster of bodies gathering around the sidewalk. There was quite a commotion. I absently wondered what was going on.
“Dunno.” Brooke answered my thought before I even had the chance to voice them. “Let’s go find out.”
Whispering voices filtered in from the moving swaying crowds of peers as Brooke and I pushed our way to the inner most circle to glimpse a view of what was going on. Through the throng of bobbing heads, I caught the familiar figures of a certain bronze haired wonder and depressing pathetic excuse of a human being. If you guessed Edward and Bella, you would be right. I blinked, doing a double take when I was able to get a better look beyond the conversing bodies of Mikey Boy and Ben-they were gossiping to each other- about the confrontation going on between a certain overgrown Native American fur ball and an undead pasty white bloodsucker. Inside the spread out circle, curious on lookers were pointing and whispering, staring at Jacob Black, looking intimidating and feral as ever, leaning up against what looked to be a shiny black and red Harley Davidson motorcycle parked along the curb of the sidewalk. His face a calm and collective mask, his bare ripped arms casually folded across his equally muscular and ripped chest. His bushy black eyebrows cased deep bluish black shadows over his narrowed, contemptuous eyes, staring undaunted at a very stiffed and discomfort able Edward Cullen standing on the other end of the wide open circle. The Bronze Wonder stood protectively in front of Miss Bella-No-Brains, like Robin Hood protecting his Mary Anne or something to that extend.
The tension air was so thick you could it cut with a knife as the two mortal enemies, werewolf and vampire, exchanged heated glares, neither refusing to take the eyes off the other. Bella stood awkwardly behind Edward, peering around him like some poor tortured victim, displeasure plainly observant on her pale frail face. Whether it was at her undead boyfriend for overreacting and causing a scheme or at the tall dark and handsome werewolf in front of her, I didn’t know. Eddie Boy and Jacob looked to be exchanging words. Edward’s low velvet voice sounding like the faint whisper of the wind, while Jacob’s was loud, clear, and husky. All I could tell was that things could get ugly real quick if some one didn’t step in and interfere.
“Well. Well, what do we have here?” Brooke’s confident voice filled the air, immediately breaking the whispering crowds, drawing Eddie’s and Jacob’s intense threatening glares away from each other. Our peers parted the way as my sister stepped forth into the ring. “An overgrown puppy dog and an undead prick.”
Surprise clearly shown on the Quileute werewolf’s face, his eyes landing on my sibling’s beaming face. His dark eyes widened slightly and his jaw dropped open. Edward and Bella frowned in distain at Brooke’s arrival into their little bubble of a fighting ring. My sibling threw Cullen a sneer and then glanced back at Jacob.
“While I’ll be damn,” Jacob muttered and his face instantly lit up. “Didn’t think I’d see you again any time soon.”
“Sparrow, this has nothing to do with you,” Edward warned in a low menacing voice, his eyes flickering quickly between my sister and Jacob. An obvious bewildered and yet, clearly discontented scowl spread across Bella’s face as she too looked from Jacob to my sister.
“Oh really?” Brooke inquired, eyebrow arched challenging him. “I don’t remember needing your permission to do whatever the hell I want, Cullen.”
I sighed deeply, guessing it was my time to make an appearance too. I pushed my way to through the last layer of students, stepping up beside my sister to face the three in the circle. I placed on a carefree grin to hide my uneasiness. “Hey guys! What’s up?”
Jacob’s face went straight from flat out surprise to enthusiastic. He straightened up from where he leaned against his bike, a big old smile spreading across his face. “Cassie?” He practically shouted, happily. “Wow. Hey, long time no see.”
I felt myself blush, wincing slight. “Hey Jacob.”
Bella’s strained voice came next. “Jake, you know these two?” Her tone was both horrified and disapproving.
Jacob didn’t take his ecstatic eyes off of me. “Yeah, Bells, I do. They came to the beach party two weeks ago.”
Brooke made a face, stopping him before he had the chance to elaborate further. “Bells? Is that your little nickname for, Miss Depressing? Wow, talking about trying to make strawberry ice cream out of lemons.”
The weird analogy earned Brooke a whole round of bewildered stares. Nobody, but me, actually got what she was getting at. Well, except for Edward and Bella. They only glowered at my crazy siblings some more. They didn’t like Brooke openly insulting Miss Sad Sack.
“Strawberry ice cream out of lemons?” Jacob uttered confused beyond belief, taking his eyes off me for a second before turning them back on me, inquiring.
I rolled my eyes. “You have to be Sparrow to understand our weird sense of logic,” I answered in a matter of fact tone. It was true after all. Most people didn’t get my family. To a bunch of outsiders we were a bunch of fruit rolled crack pots!
Jacob nodded still confused. “Oh. Okay.”
I giggled at his still puzzled expression. Whoa, He really did look cute like that. I flushed catching myself in the act of thinking it. I shook my head. What the hell? No. Bad Cassie. Bad!
My sister only snickered and jabbed my in the side. Looks like some one has the hotts for a certain rustic Native American fur ball. Shall we get him a collar with a little dog tag that reads “Fido” and leash for your birthday, Cass?
I openly smacked my suddenly laughing sister. “Damn it, Brooke!” I hissed, mortified, feeling my face exceed a new level of red.
Jacob, Cullen, and Bella gawked completely oblivious to our little private conversation, confusion written all over their faces.
I turned to Jacob, awkwardly. “Hahaha. Don’t mind her! She has a bad case of stupidicus idiotius right now. Can’t control herself whatsoever. You know how lunatics are.”
Brooke snorted, grinning and punched me in the kidneys causing me to cringe. “Haha. Funny. Nice try, moron! But I’m not the one all jittery right now, am I?”
“Umm… What in the world? Are those girls serious?” Bella uttered completely horrified at our shameless juvenile antics.
Edward’s eyebrow twitched. “Obviously the girls have ADD.”
“Hey! What don’t you go crawl into a hole and cry yourself to sleep, Cullen!” Brooke snapped, whipping around to point an agitated finger at him, irked. “We all know how much of a pansy you are.”
Edward’s eyebrow began twitching more. “P-pansy?” he snarled, unspoken wrath unfurling in his ocher eyes.
“Yeah, you heard me, ball less wonder! ‘You’re mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!’” my sister crowed, quoting those weird French dude from Mighty Python’s Holy Grail. “‘Now shoo, shoo before I shall taunt you a second time!’”(1)
I was nearly rolling on the ground cracking up watching our utterly blown away fellow peers gape at Brooke’s outrageous out bust. An eerie silence be fall the gathered students and the circle’s occupants. They all just gawked at her simpering form as she gave Eddie Boy and Miss Sad Sack the double bird. Jacob’s rumble booming laughter broke the quiet, shattering the air in its wake. He tossed back his head howling with laughter at Brooke’s absurdity.
A high pitched whistle filled the air, disrupting the gathered bands of students, the circle fracturing when the high school principal, Mr. Greene and the two gym teachers, Mrs. Hummel and Mr. Sheer, approached. Mr. Greene looked like he meant business.
“Alright, what’s going on here?” he demanded aggravated, the sea of students parting letting him evaluate the situation. His eyebrows furrowed and his face became red when he saw my hell-bent sister in the mists of the commotion. “Brooke Sparrow. Should have known! Can’t come to school without some kind of fuss can you? You‘re always at the heart of the problem.”
Bella threw Brooke a smug look, silently hoping she would be in trouble instead of her undead boyfriend. My sister grunted, shrugging her snide disposition. “Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Greene, but I’m just a by-stander in this one the circle had already formed when we got here.”
She motioned toward Bella and Edward. “Why don’t you ask these two what’s going on. They’re the real culprits here, not I.”
“W-What?” Bella sputtered, astounded to my sister laying the blame on her and her so-called innocent boyfriend.
Mr. Greene didn’t look amused. “Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen. Do you think I am a blind fool, Brooke Sparrow? These two have clean records as far as causing trouble at school is concerned.”
Could have fooled me, Brooke thought inside her head, nudging me, smirking.
Maybe I should lead a hand, eh? I offered mentally.
Be my guest.
“Actually Mr. Greene, my sister is telling the truth this time,” I piped before Cullen and Bella could gang up on my sibling. After all I too had a clean record. “Everyone was gathered around these three when we got here. We just wanted to see what as going on like everybody else. Brooke’s totally innocent.”
Mr. Greene scowled at me, deliberating. He turned to Edward and Bella, promptly. His eyes flickering over to Jacob as he started his motorcycle. “Would care you to explain, Edward and Bella, what seems to be the matter?”
Eddie shot me a dirty look, not liking the sudden attention. He and Bella were not at all pleased that they have to explain the embarrassing situation to the High school Principal especially since it was a confrontation between the Quileute werewolf and them.
Brooke and I wandered over to Jacob, who sat comfortable on his bike. He grinned, his eyes lingering on me, causing those unfamiliar chills to ride my spinal cord over and over again. He leaned against his handle bar, idly. “So what’s up?”
Brooke shoved me forward. The floor’s all yours, Cass.
I puffed out my cheeks, indignant and turned to him with a sigh. “Oh nothing. Trying to stay out of trouble. Going to school. Dealing with Edward’s and Bella’s shitty attitudes. The usual.”
Jacob’s face became blank. “Ah, so I take it you and your sister are not a big fan of Bella or her leech lover.”
I made a face, equal the one Brooke made just moments ago. “Nope.”
He smirked. “I see.”
I wavered underneath his constant stare. “So what are you doing here anyway?” I wanted to know, my eyes roaming over his bike. It was a pretty cool looking thing.
Jacob’s smile brightened. “Well, actually, besides wanting to piss off those blood sucking parasites, there’s a certain some one who didn’t give me their phone number when I dropped them two weeks ago.”
I groaned. “Oh good grief.”
Brooke snickered. “Translation: Oh shit, I’m in trouble.”
I lightly socked her one. “Oh, shut up.” And turned to his bemused facial expression as he observed our typical sister squabble. I placed on an awkward smile. “Anyway… it may not be a wise idea to give you our phone number.”
He cocked his head to the side, cutely. “And why is that?”
“Well, for one, we’re still under house arrest. Two, my crabby Aunt V is visiting from New Orleans. And three, I don’t know how Dad’s going to take if he finds out a boy is calling our house, who is outside our normal range of guy friends.”
“Oh,” Jacob said, reluctantly, lowering his head, disappointed.
Brooke shook her head. “Excuses. Excuses. God, Cass, you’re starting to sound like Miss Basket Case over there.”
“Am not!” I drawled back. “I just don’t want to get in any more trouble.”
My sister ignored my protesting pulling a notebook and pencil. She scribbled something down and torn the page out, handing it to Jacob. “Here. Since Chicken Little, here, is too afraid to give you our phone number herself, I’ve taken the liberation of doing it for her.”
“Ack….” I gawked after my sister, not willing to believe that my dear beloved sister would rat me out like that. Jacob, on the other hand, looked all the more enthralled at the idea that now he could call our house at his own convenience, his eyes greedily reading over the span of numbers a few times, memorizing it.
I dropped my head in defeat. I was so doomed. I felt Brooke pat me on the shoulder, a wise guy smile spread across her gloating features.
“Trust me, Cass. You’ll thank me later for this,” she assured me, connived I would see the light sooner or later of her good deed for the day.
Stupid Brooke and her tendency to stick her nose where it doesn‘t belong. And she calls me a social butterfly, I fumed inside my head, glaring out the window of fifth period Health. My cheeks were puffed out, miffed. Jacob had been so tickled after receiving my phone number; he basically gave me a huge boa constrictor hug which nearly crushed every single bone in my body. The guy meant well, but I was happy when I could feel my toes again. And my body didn’t ache every time I moved…
Luckily for me, fifth period past in a blink of an eye. Most of the time was spent listening to the old vulture up front lecture and going over notes. She gave us class time to do our homework and I joyfully took an advantage of it. I was done within the first ten minutes. Of course, there was no one to talk to. Jasper and Emmett were still giving me the cold shoulder. Were they still mad that my dad blasted their ignorant brother, Eddie Boy, into Kingdom Cum and back? I wish I understood why they were avoided me like the plague. I thought for sure, I could bug Jasper and freak him out with my emo ways like I had been doing and make Emmett nearly ripped his sides laughing so hard. I missed it. Health wasn’t interesting any more.
All those two did was sit next to me, keeping as much distance between us as humanly possible, silent and still as statues. I just didn’t get it. I said “hi” to them at the start of every single class period, hoping to fuel a conversation between us, but they just nodded and continue to ignore me for the rest of the period. Why?
It made no sense at all. My stomach churned with uneasiness. I didn’t like the feeling I was getting. Something wasn’t right. I just knew it!
I found myself walking to lunch alone. Jasper and Emmett took off on me quicker than you could say emo five times in a row. It kind of hurt, being ignored. My normally bubbly demeanor had been successfully decreased to half its usual eagerness, which pretty much killed my personality. I stared at the sidewalk as it passed under me, hands shoved deep into the pockets of my jacket. I hummed a clearly made up song underneath my breath, looking for something to take my mind off all my current troubles. It didn’t help much though.
I looked to the overcastted sky, wondering if the sun was ever going to come out again. I missed the sunshine, the warmth. Nothing usually dampened my spirits, but there seemed to be things here in Forks that brings out the worst in a person. Or so I think so at least. Kids walked by at jovial carefree past, noticing very little except the gossiping voices chattering around them and their clique of closely knitted friends. Couples somewhere to the side of me were laughing over some dumb joke their friend spouted. How come everybody else seemed by having a good time?
Beats the heck out of me, I heard Brooke’s voice echo inside my head. I looked up to see my older sibling, leaning up against the cafeteria’s exterior brick wall, looking menacing as always. She shot a couple of preps a dirty look, having caught them in the act of securitizing her outfit consisting of a three quarter sleeve lavender shirt underneath a ripped black tank top with a jaded silver skull on the front, wearing a pair of baggy navy blue jeans with silver stubbed belt and black combat boots. Her fire engine red full metal alchemist hoody was secured around her waist. In addition she was wearing her favorite pair of fishnet cut-off fingered gloves. She never went anywhere without them.
She offered me a cool smile while I strolled up to her and we were on our way into the cafeteria. “Hey, cheer up, Cass!” she commented, clearly sensing my gloomy ora. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder, comfortingly. “It’s not like the world is ending.”
She caught the sight of a nerd being picked on by a punch of muscle head idiots. “Well, for most of us it isn’t,” she amended frowning slightly and absently flicks her wrist.
One of the meatheads yelped when his cell phone zapped him inside the back pocket of his pants and dropped the nerd, dancing around desperately yanking the electrical charged thing out. He threw it the ground, confounded, huffing, while rubbing his now sore buttock.
I gave my sister a raised eyebrow, a small smirk curling itself up onto my lips. “Nice.”
She tossed her head back laughing, waving her free hand up in the air, carelessly. “Ah, one of my many talents, my dear. One of my many, many talents,” she proclaimed haughtily, jesting while walking through the doors of the cafeteria. A pair of low life snobs eyed us, viciously.
I threw them one of my famous crazy monkey grins to make them back off. Yeah, I loved that smile. It scared the living shit out of anybody.
“Speaking of which,” Brooke continued, making our way through the crowds over to our usual spot far in the back of the cafeteria near the side exit. She eagerly reached into one of her many pockets and pulled out a piece of scrap paper. “You gotta hear this. I got really bored during English today and since that shitty retarded class project is finally done and over with, I thought I would celebrate with a wickedly gruesome song.”
I couldn’t help, but smile and took my seat. I wasn’t up for eating lunch today. Just sitting back and relaxing sounded good today. “What’s it about?”
Brooke just grinned. “You’ll see.”
“Well, go head and I’ll give my constrictive criticism after you’re done humiliating yourself in front of all our peers,” I replied indicating her to go on.
My sister cleared her throat, preparing herself. She closed her eyes and focused. Brooke liked getting into the “zone” as she referred to it as before she sang. A minute later her eyes snapped open and she started, her deep rich singing voice drifting on the stuffy chattering cafeteria air like a haunting whisper of an ancient past.
“Drowning in mercury.
Falling past the creaks and pathways of my childhood innocence.
This pain of mine consumes me whole and binds me to the planet of misery.
“I sing for you, my midnight melody…
Mommy once told me;
That monsters don’t exist,
Nothing is waiting for me underneath my bed,
To gobble me whole and devoir my sin.
If only mommy knew…
If only mommy knew…
YOW!!!
Run Away. Run Away.
Flee as fast as your legs can carry you.
Your life is on the line.
You’re in danger.
Fight for your life,
From the creatures of the night!
“Love, I fear I can’t comprehend what you’re telling me.
I was always told that science shines the light in where darkness existed.
How do you expect me to understand your world when you and I are from two different universes!
All that is supposed to be discover has been made known.
Oh no! Don’t tell me a thing.
Don’t tell me thing.
Let us dance in this parade of ignorance!!!
For we are all blind!
“Run Away. Run Away.
Flee as fast as your legs can carry you.
Your life is on the line.
You’re in danger.
Fight for your life,
From the creatures of the night!!”
A dead silence drifted across the surrounding tables. It appeared that everyone’s attention was drawn to our little quaint table. Kids were turned around in their seats, peering over the tops of their tables and their friends trying to catch a hint of who had been singing. Even the Cullen table ceased their every day activities to stare. Curiosity shining brightly in each pair of ocher eyes. Brooke groaned, realizing the effect of her electrically vibrant voice and banged her head on the table, mortified, a light blush flooding her cheeks.
“Shit,” she grumbled underneath her breath.
I laughed nervously, watching my sister sulk, feeling curious stares burrowing a whole in to the back of my head. Whispers erupted in the air, gossip floating among the chaos, astonishment hinting at what had taken place. Slowly, but surely the atmosphere returned to it’s normal jazz as students lost interest in our tiny corner of the world, going back to their previous conversations acting like Brooke’s song hadn’t brought them to a screeching halt.
Only the Cullens still looked our way. Their expressions brooding, rigid and wary. They looked perplexed beyond belief and I couldn’t understand why. Edward seemed especially frustrated, not taking his eyes off of my sister’s slouching profile. Brooke’s body froze, stiffening at the sensation of being watched. She slowly straightened up and turned around in her seat, to set her sights on the Cullen clan, who seemed suddenly intrigued by our presence again. Was it just me or were these undead bloodsuckers bipolar?
Brooke’s lips curled back in irritation, glowering Eddie Boy’s way. She whirled around her seat, immediately, turning her back on him. “Rotten jack ass,” she muttered through gritted teeth, looking pissed off even more. A heated blush flourished in her pale face like a fever, making her look ridiculous. “Don’t say a word.”
I couldn’t help, but chuckled at her expense. She really was flustered. It wasn’t often I saw the Big Bad Brooke Sparrow in a huff. “May~be,” was my reply. “I’ll try to keep to my trap shut. For you, sis.”
“Oh aren’t you nice?” she seethed.
I smiled like a goon. “I try to be.”
“Smart ass.”
I found myself cracking up, even more. Sooner than later Brooke joined me, laughing along side me. At what we really didn’t know, but something, whatever it was, suddenly became funny. We laughed our way through the rest of lunch and walking out the door. We were both simpering away like chimpanzees, while the dreary overcastted skies above gave way to sunshine for the first time in what seemed like eons. My gloomy dispositions melted away, letting my usually happy-go-lucky random persona shine through. It felt so good, I wanted to start dancing.
Not even sitting in Biology next to Bella and Edward dampened my high spirits. Maybe all I had really needed was a good laugh to clear my bothered mind. I was humming absently to myself, bobbing my head as I wrote down observations for our class assignment today. Mr. Banner actually let us pick our groups this time, so fortunately I tagged Angela Weber and Mikey Boy as my reluctant partners. Reluctant is probably the wrong word to use, if anything, Angela and Mikey were more than thrilled to have me as their partner. Class was actually pleasant.
“How much of chemical X are we supposed to add?” I inquired, reading over the instructions for the fourth time in a row. We were doing a fusion lab today. I felt like a mad scientist with all these unknown chemicals scattered around the lab table top.
“I think its thirty millimeters,” Angela answered taking the sheet from me to scan it over again and then going about the process of measuring said chemical. It was up to the groups to determine what natural primary element they had, judging by the chemical reactions emitted from the three specific stages of experimentation set by Mr. Banner. If we did everything right, we should end up getting the right answer.
Mikey Boy was managing the gas fire while we girls got everything ready. As the only boy in the group, he said it was his obligation as a gentleman to do the “dangerous” stuff. I attempted not to keel over with laughter when he stated his intentions. Mike I’m-A-Blonde-Spiky-Haired-Babe-Magnet-Newton a gentleman? Snort. Please.
“I think this flame should be good enough,” Mike stated, turning the handle a little bit more, adjusting the size of the flame until it was the right amount for the experiment. He placed the beaker of water in the frame, stationed over the glowing flame. “What’s next?”
Angela’s scrunched her nose, thinking. “It says to wait until the water is boiling, then slowly and carefully pour the unknown element into the water.”
Mike smiled. “Okay. Piece of cake.”
I looked at him, questionably. “Do people even say that any more?”
Mike shrugged, nonchalantly, reclining back in his chair. He threw me one of his so-called dashing smiles. “Who knows.”
I rolled my eyes at his attempts to flirt. “Oh, aren’t you cryptic?”
Mike gaped at me, befuddled. “Wha? Huh?”
“Hey, Cassie. Are you going to prom this year?” Angela asked, turning my attention away from the confused Newton.
“Oh yeah, that’s coming up, isn’t it?” Mike joined in, his ears perking up at the reminder. He looked to me, hopeful. “Do you have a date for it?”
I made a face. “I usually don’t go to those kinds of things.”
Let’s just say Angela and Mike were very surprised.
“What? Why not?” Angela spoke for both of them.
I shifted my seat, uncomfortable. “Well, because, the only music they play at those kinds of things is rap crap, and half the prep population is there. My sister and I don’t exactly fit in, so we usually skipped dances and just hang out with ours friends back in San Diego.”
“Well, you should go then,” Angela insisted.
“Yeah, no school high education is complete without at least attending one dance,” Mike added, eagerly, grinning from ear to ear. “And hey, if you need a date, I’m always open for invitation.”
I laughed. “I don’t know about that. Jessica might kill me if I go out with you to the prom.”
Mike’s face became blank. “Why do you say that?”
Angela and I snickered. Wow, Mikey Boy was oblivious as ever. “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t notice the possessive way Jessica’s swoons over you. It’s so obvious she has the hotts for you.”
He blinked, stunned, heat flooding into his fair face. He gulped and rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. “Oh. I didn’t really notice.” He glanced off to the side. “Well, it’s not like she can’t go out with any other guy in school.”
I sighed, smacking him in the shoulder. “Dude! Are you that blind?! She only has eyes for you! Wow, you really are an idiot.”
“Hey!” Mike cried pretending to be hurt by my joking around. “I regret that statement.”
I stuck out my tongue, childishly. “Tough luck, buddy boy. I ain`t taking it back.”
An evil gleam shone in his pale blue eyes. Along with a devilish smirk. “Really? What if I make you take it back?”
I snickered. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Now, now, you guys,” Angela piped up, laughing seating herself between us before things went array. “We’re in the middle of an experiment, remember? Let’s get this done and over with before you two lovebirds go at.”
“WHA?!” Mike and mine incredulous voices echoed, bewildered and flushed with embarrassment. Our little out burst made most of the heads in the room to title our way, queerly. We grinned sheepishly and muttered a quick, “Okay” before going back to work. After all we only had thirty minutes left to the class and the in-class assignment was due at the end of the period.
“Hey, Jessica and I are going prom shopping tomorrow in Port Angeles,” Angela told me later on when the period was over and we had handed Mr. Banner our results. He threw us a suspicious glare as we headed for the door, for causing a ruckus today during class. We exited the building and made our way across campus. Mikey Boy stayed behind to ask Mr. Banner about a few problems on the homework he assigned at the end of class, which was a relief!
She smiled, pleasantly. “Wanna come with? There are some pretty nice boutique stores we can go to in Port Angeles.”
I mulled over the invitation. “Hmm… I dunno.”
“Oh come on! It will be fun,” she persist and held up a finger to point out, “And it’s on a Friday night, so we won’t have school in the morning to worry about.”
I smile, ecstatic. “True!”
I said my good-byes to Angela and parted ways heading directly for the gymnasium. I made my way into the girls’ locker-room and changed out of my regular school clothes into the standard gym uniform worn here at Forks High. Jogging up the stairs I joined the rest of my classmates in the spacious typical school gym. Since I transferred here in the middles of the Bad Minton unit, I was soon forced to participate in one of the worst sports to ever exist on the face of the Earth: Volleyball. We just switched last week and now by the way the gym is split into four separate volleyball courts I have the distinct notion that we were going to be playing four court volleyball!
My stomach sunk. Great. Lucky me, I was going to be participating in the deadliest game to ever be invented. They should call it the Volleyball Wars, instead of Four Court, just on the account that more people get injured during one round than most gym activities throughout the entire school year!
I swallowed, anxiously, lining up with the others along the blue doted line. The teachers were having us count off by fours. Mr. Sheer and Mrs. Hummel walked down past each student, pointing at them and reciting the number they were appointed. I bit my lowered lip and pray silently for a miracle. The nausea in my stomach wouldn’t go away. Mrs. Hummel was drawing closer.
Please don’t let me be on either Miss Sad Sacks team or the Bronze Wonder’s team. Please don’t let me be on Miss Sad Sack’s team or the Bronze Wonder’s Team, I chanted desperately inside my mind.
Mrs. Hummel finger landed on my frigid form, waiting for me to say my assignment number. I gulped, shifting my weight onto the other foot, unsteadily. “Four.”
And that was that. The gym teacher continued on her way until she reached the end of line. The whistle blew.
“Okay, you worthless maggots! Split up and go to your respective courts!” Mrs. Hummel decreed, her sharp feline voice ringing with authority. Nobody argued.
I hurried over to four team, where my new team members were assembling each other. One of them was familiar. Way too familiar.
“Yo Cassie! Alright!” Mikey Boy crowed, excitement lighting up his face as he waved me over. Standing next to him were two other boys, one being Ben, Angela Weber’s boyfriend and the other being Eric Yorkie.
“Hey, Mike!” I called back out of courtesy, walking up to him and his little crew. I nodded my greeting to a stupefied Eric Yorkie and shook Ben’s hand when he offered it. Angela was sure lucky to hook up with some one as dependable as him. I was glad they found each other so early in life. I wished them the best of luck from the bottom of my heart. “Guys. Good to see, I’ll be on a team where I know a few people at least.”
Mike’s spirit dropped. “Yeah, we’re glad too, but…” He stopped in mid-sentence to jerk his head in a specific direction. “Guess who else is on our team?”
I followed his movement to catch a glimpse of the back of a very unmistakable head of tasseled bronze colored hair up near the front of the court. I grimaced. “Oh goody.”
As if sensing that he was being watched, Edward Cullen halfway turned his torso to peer over his shoulder at our little group. His expression was unreadable, but displeasure clearly reached his ocher eyes when he saw who was staring back. His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows furrowed in distaste. The exchange was brief and then he returned his attention back to the opposite side of the court. From my vantage point, I could see Miss Sad Sack wavering feebly on the opposing court, facing ours. My eyebrow twitched, vexed.
The whistle blew, signal for the bombardment to begin. Simultaneously, sonic booms broke out all over the gym as pearly white balls were sent hurtling through the air. Mike and Ben charged to the front, hoping to get in on the action as the first balls came flying into our court, leaving Yorkie and me to stand far in the back, out of the way and hopefully out of firing range.
Let the massacre begin…
I unconsciously shivered, feeling a menacing chill in the air. It was halfway through the gym class and we had already rotated other three courts. We were down by eleven points, while Team Three were only down seven, despite the handicap of having Bella Swan on their team.
Somehow, miraculously, all four balls ended up in our court. This gave my teammates a chance to get revenge on the other teams for scoring on our team so many times.
“Hey Cassie! Here!” Mike shouted, tossing me a ball. I looked at him like he grew an extra head. There was no way I was going to serve. They would have a better chance of scoring a point with a monkey serving than me! He just shook his head at my hesitance and then motion for me to join. “Come on, don’t be a chicken! The ball isn’t going to bite.”
“How do you know,” I murmured, staring at the dangerous weapon in my hands, scrolling over to the serving line. If you estimated my chances of scoring on the opposing team, my luck would predict that the ball would going flying through the air, hit the net, which in turned would be used as sling-shot and the ball went be sent flying back, smacking me square in the face.
Mike smiled encouragingly when I took my place between him and Ben. Edward was also lined up the swerving. He, of course, was ignoring our little façade. He nodded to me and Ben. “Ready?”
We tensed and took up our serving stances.
“Set.”
Prepared to toss up the ball into the air and hit it.
“GO!!”
All at the same time, the four of us threw our balls into the air and hit them as hard as humanly possible. A loud thunderous sonic boom shuddered the busy gym air as all four volleyballs became air borne, going in different directions. To my surprise, mine actually made it over the net. I squealed in delight and gave Mike a five-hand when it flew over the net. My celebration was short lived. The familiar screech of a certain depressing gloomy basket case followed as Bella-No-Brains was decked square in the face by the in-coming volleyball. Poor, poor Bella Swan. Her bad karma really did have it out for her! Her fail skinny body hit the floor, awkwardly, kind of like a flimsy twig being blown away by a strong gust of wind.
“Oops,” I uttered taken back. I could feel the scorching glare of her undead boyfriend as his glare burned through the side of my head.
“Ow. That had to hurt,” Mikey Boy commented, cringing for Bella’s sake.
I grinned, sheepishly and called over to the opposite of the court, “SORRY BE~LLA!”
“Think she can walk,” I quickly asked the blonde next to me, who only shrugged, not sure himself. We watched as her fellow teammates gathered around the girl as she sat up, holding her head. I winced when I saw the indignant glare aimed in my direction.
Bella rose to her feet and staggered, but remain up right in standing position, much to the relief of both her and our teammates. What do you know? It’s a miracle. Bella-The-World-Is-Going-To-Come-Crashing-On-My-Head survived being flattened by deadly medium size volleyball of doom!
Another sinister shivered made its way up my spine and back down. Goosebumps rose up on my bare exposed arms. I shuddered, visibly, sensing the sudden shift in spiritual pressure. A foreboding vale draped itself over the bustling and chaotic atmosphere of the gymnasium. The gym lights flickered slightly.
Just when the game seemed back under way, a loud echo crack of steel giving way sounded through the space existing between the floor and ceiling. A grinding noise came, followed by another loud thunderous crack as a huge steel support beam snapped in half and was sent crashing down to the patiently waiting wooden floor below. Bella Swan was right in its intended path. Screams of panic and terror filled the air as students and faculty alike scattered, darting out of the way of falling debris, created in the hurtling steels beams wake. Bella’s high pitched, eardrum shattering scream was the loudest out of all them. I watched in horror as the steel beam collided with the floor, where the depressing brunette had stood. Before it reached the ground, I saw flash of white and red, head straight for Miss Sad Sack. I could only presume it was Edward hurrying to save his condemned Juliet. Floor boards splintered and gave way, flying in every direction. Dust rose upon impact, flooding the right half of the gymnasium in thick hazy cloud.
I shielded my eyes as the dust cloud flew my way. I felt Mike Newton grabbed onto me to drag me out of the path of stray shards of wood, traveling through the air. A long eerie silence consumed the gym, forlorn radiating throughout every standing soul as all stood still. Horrified at what had taken place before their very eyes. Was everyone safe? What about Bella and Edward? Were they okay?
Cries of horror and frantic screams of students injured from the steal support beam falling soon engulfed the heavy suffocating stillness. The dust began to clear away, leaving only grief and despair behind. The sight was excruciating. The volleyballs had toppled over from the aftershock, students caught underneath them. Blood from the afflicted victims caught in the beam’s wake, stained the floor as mangled bodies of those who couldn’t get out in time, lay sprawl across the uprooted floor. Moans and groans of pain mixed in with cries of horror at the gruesome sight.
I heard a choke sobbed fill my ears as I found myself clinging onto Mike Newton’s arms for support, tears flooding my vision. This was all my fault. I could only imagine the terror gripping Mike’s face right now. We held onto each other for support as the teachers recovered their voices and began shouting for some one to call 911 and get as many ambulances to the school grounds as soon as possible.
In the mists of the chaos, something cold brushed against my neck as a dark malicious shadow formed in the corner of my blurred vision. A low vile laughter pierced through my defenses. My body became cold all over, I started to shake violently, and frantic sobs escaping my constricted throat as his words echoed through the bowls of my mind, terror paralyzing my body in place.
“Hehehehe. There is nothing you can do. You are helpless!” James declared, his voice consuming my senses, even though nobody else but me could hear him. “I will have my revenge and there is nothing you can do to stop me!”