Cliff Diver || Paul Lahote•Jacob Black/Twilight Fanfiction

Chapter 30

Once inside, Renata sat in front of a desk where a beautiful woman in her fifties was sitting, she was wearing a navy blue blouse, with a brown blazer over it, and light blue jeans. The woman told Dean to bring her a coffee and water for Renata, and then looked at Renata into her eyes.

"Aren't you the girl living with Sam Uley and Emily Young?" The woman, Principal Barks, asked.

"Yes, they have been kind enough to let me stay with them" Renata told her. And she nodded.

"Why do you want to come to this school, Renata?"

Renata told her everything. Well, that's not true. Renata explained to Principal Barks how her brothers were killed by a gang in Mexico, which was not entirely a lie, and after living for months with diagnosed major depressive disorder, her parents decided to send her here, away from the place the tragedy had taken place, to live with family friends. However, Renata continued, these family friends had a family emergency and had to leave town, and since Renata knew Emily from babysitting Seth, Emily offered her the guest room. Renata also explained what had happened in Forks's high school, and how she had been expelled but still had to course senior year. For a moment, Renata considered not telling her, but decided to tell her, she would find out eventually and it would have probably been worse if she leant from elsewhere and then asked Renata why had she lied.

"I understand" Principal Barks said as she typed something into her computer, "I'm just printing out a psychometric test I am required to give you before admittance, also, I would like a word with your parents, even if it's on the phone, and with Sam Uley and Emily Young, since I assume they are your Emergency contacts for the time being" Renata nodded, "however, I am sure everything will go smoothly, so considering you do the psychometric test now, I give you the tour around the school afterwards and I talk to your parents and caregivers in the following days, you'd be good to start school next week, is that okay?" Principal Barks asked, only looking at Renata when waiting for an answer.

"Yes, I- I will tell my parents to call or would you rather call them?"

"Give Dean their number, later, dear. Now, I'll leave you to answer this while I go make a call" Principal Barks grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer behind her and giving it to Renata, standing up and leaving the room.

It was not a difficult test, but there were things Renata certainly didn't know, there were some questions regarding "World History" but they only asked really specific questions about the United States. Egocentric much? If they had asked her about actual World History, it would have been actually easy. Renata dug her brain trying to remember or make up an answer for a question that asked how many essays Alexander Hamilton, John May and James Madison had each written defending the United States Constitution? How would she know? If only there was a musical or something that dedicated a verse entirely to that.

After about an hour and twenty minutes, Renata was finally finished, but the princilal was not back yet. So she stood up and left the office with the exam, and she walked up go Dean's desk, where he was signing some papers.

"Hey, Dean, uhm, I finished this" Renata handed him the exam, "and Principal Barks told me to give you my parents' phone number" 

"Okay, sure" Dean took the exam and wrote down the number Renata gave him, just then, Princupal Barks returned.

"Oh, hey. I was talking with Emily Young on the phone, I will talk to Sam Uley later, he was at work" Princioal Barks told Renata, she nodded, "come with me, I'll give you a tour"

"Bye, Renata" Dean smiled and waved at her, Renata waved back.

"You'll find that our school is quite small" Principal Barks started, her sneakers squeaking in the polished floor, "however, it might confuse you a little, some stairs lead to a certain hall and to that hall only, and there are some stairs that lead you outside without even knowing. While you get used to it, I advise you to walk with someone at all times" Renata made a mental note of that, knowing herself, I'd she didn't, she'd most likely get lost every five minutes, "we are a close community, as you might have guessed, and we don't tolerate bullying, disrespect, or any type of hate or discrimination. I'm sure we won't have a problem, am I right?" Principal Barks turned to look at Renata with one eyebrow raised, she quickly nodded, "the gym is over there, although we rarely use it, P.E. is usually taken outside, since there is more place for you to move freely" the principal continued, "lunch should be taking place now, why don't I show you the cafeteria and you try to make some friends?" Even if she said this, Principal Barks smiled knowingly at Renata, from her talk with Emily, she might know that she was already well acquainted with the boys. 

They walked in silence through a long corridor with only two doors in each side, and two of them were bathrooms. The closer they got to the cafeteria, the stronger the noise seemed and the stronger the smell of food got. Principal Barks mentioned it was Taco Tuesday, they had it every two weeks, and that's why most of the students were in the cafeteria instead of the halls. Apparently, everyone liked those tacos. As they got closer, the noise stopped being noise as such and started sounding more like chanting.

"Oh, no..." Principal Barks said softly, she had noticed the chanting as well. She quickened her pace and Renata sped up to match her.

The principal opened the doors and the few students that were near them jumped away to avoid being hit. But other than them, no one noticed her presence. Everyone was gathered in what seemed a mob, yelling "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!". Renata had never seen something like that, she thought those kinds of things only happened in movies. Principal Barks pushed away kids to pass through, and Renata just hurried behind her thinking "Chismesito", and smiling. However, by the time they got to the centre of the mob, the smile was erased from her face and something that couldn't be described as something other than as a 'Resting bitch face' appeared in her face. Renata crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at what she was watching at her feet.

"Uh oh" Renata heard Jared's voice, and she didn't quite know if it was because Principal Barks had arrived or because she had arrived.