Chapter Text
Forks High School looked exactly the way I expected it to. Low, gray sky. Rain clinging to everything like it had nowhere else to go. The pavement shone under passing tires, and students moved in loose clusters—already settled, already belonging. Like they’d been here forever.
I slowed the bike as I pulled into the lot, letting the engine hum instead of roar. No need to draw attention. Control mattered more than noise. Still, heads turned. Of course they did. I cut the engine in one smooth motion and let the silence settle around me. The drizzle tapped lightly against my jacket as I swung my leg over and stood. For a second, I didn’t move. Just looked. Not at anyone. At everything. Entrances. Sightlines. Patterns. People.
Nothing unusual, just a small town pretending it was quieter than it really was. But then I felt it. A shift, Subtle, Focused.
My gaze drifted across the lot until it landed on them. Five of them, standing apart, without trying to look like they were. Too still. Too aware. Not like the others. One leaned against a tree like boredom was a personality trait. Another watched the crowd like he was measuring it. A girl—small, sharp—was already looking straight at me, like she’d been waiting. And then there was him, he wasn’t moving just watching. Intently.
Something about the way he looked at me felt…wrong. Not curious. Not impressed. Like he was searching for something that wasn’t there. Good luck with that. I looked away first. No reason to linger.
The usual reaction followed me as I started toward the school—whispers, glances, that quiet pull new people always create. It didn’t matter. It never did. I’d been noticed in worse places. And survived them just fine.
LUNCH
By midday, the cafeteria noise had blurred into something constant and dull—like static you couldn’t turn off. I was already over this place. Forks. The school. The people. It didn’t take long for the rumors to start. It never did. Apparently, I was everything from a runaway to someone who’d killed her own parents. Creative, I’d give them that. Pathetic, mostly. The flirting wasn’t any better. Predictable lines. Inflated confidence. Zero awareness. At least Angela was different. Quiet, a little shy—but real. She didn’t talk just to hear herself speak, which already put her above most of the room.
I sat with her and her friends, half-listening, half-watching the cafeteria move around us. That’s when I noticed them again. The five from this morning. Still separate, still wrong. I nodded slightly in their direction. “Who are they?”
Jessica perked up immediately. “Oh—the Cullens.”
“The Cullens?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” she said, leaning in like this was valuable information. “They moved here a couple years ago. Dr. Cullen and his wife adopted them all.”
I glanced back at the table. “They don’t look related.”
“They’re not,” Jessica said quickly. “That’s Rosalie—the blonde? Total ice queen. She’s with Emmett—the huge one. Then Alice—the tiny, pixie one—she’s, like, super weird. She’s with Jasper—the one who always looks like he’s in pain.”
My eyes flicked between them, matching names to faces.
“And Edward,” Jessica added, her voice shifting slightly, “the one with the bronze hair. He doesn’t date. Like, at all. So don’t even try.”
I let out a quiet laugh, lifting my hands in mock surrender. “Relax. He’s not my type.”
Jessica blinked at me. “Not your type? Are you serious? Look at him.”
“I am,” I said, glancing past Edward without much interest. “Just not impressed.”
Her expression bordered on offended.
“Besides,” I added, tilting my head slightly toward the other side of their table, “I’d pick the blonde.”
“Rosalie?” Angela asked softly, surprised.
“Yeah. That was her name, right?”
The table went quiet for half a second. Mike broke it. “Wait—what? You’re…serious?”
I gave him a flat look. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
He frowned, clearly recalculating something in his head. “Maybe you just haven’t met the right guy yet—”
“Don’t,” I cut in, my voice sharper now. “Finish that sentence.”
He didn’t. Good. I pushed my chair back and stood. “I need air.” No one tried to stop me. As I walked past the Cullens’ table, I didn’t plan to look—but I did anyway.
Edward had gone completely still, rigid. His expression had shifted, too. Darker somehow. Focused in a way that didn’t match the situation at all. Our eyes almost met. Almost. I looked away first. “Freaky,” I muttered under my breath, continuing toward the exit. Yeah.
Forks was going to be interesting.