The Human Mate

#2

Rosalie's POV-
I can smell it as soon as she gets out the car. It's an earthy, sort of sweet scent. The scent of my mate. Almost immediately after she gets out the car, the sophomore Eric Yorkie all but jumps on her.
"You're Harper, right? I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need, study buddy, shoulder to cry on, I'm here for you," he tells her. She just shoves her hands deeper into her pockets, clearly uncomfortable.
"You're from New York, right?"
"Yes."
"My cousin's from New York. What school did you go to?"
"Um...Silver Arrow High.?"
Edward comes to stand next to me.
"You might want to go save her," he says to me.
"Really?" I reply.
"Because she's already uncomfortable and he's about to put an arm around her."
"Of course he is."
I roll my eyes and walk over to them.
"Yorkie, leave off. She just got here," I tell him. He turns as if he's about to argue with me until he realises who I am. He quickly says goodbye to Harper and goes back to his friends.
"Sorry, it's just that you looked like you needed saving."
"Thanks."
"No problem. I'm Rosalie Hale."
I hold out my hand for her. She hesitates, before shaking it.
"Harper Evans."

Harper's POV-
I put my hand back into my coat pocket. "Do you need help finding the room you're in?"
"Uhh, if you could point me in the direction of Room 27, um, that would be great," I reply. For some reason, I don't feel as much anxiety talking to her as I normally do when I'm around new people.
"I can take you, if you want. That's my homeroom too."
"Yeah, if that's not too much trouble."
"Trust me, it's fine."
"Thanks."
We walk for a short while until getting to the room. She doesn't try to start an awkward conversation with me, which I appreciate. When we get there, she sits down next to a blond guy and a muscular guy, both with the same eyes as her. I assume they're her brothers.

Rosalie's POV-
"That her?" Emmett asks after I sit down.
"Yes."
"Nice."
"You gonna invite her over to our table, or are you just going to let her stand there?" Jasper asks.
"I'll let Mrs Jackson speak to her first."
"What school did she go to again?" Emmett asks, with a phone in his hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"Then why do you want to know."
"Will you believe me if I said curiosity?"
I grab his phone and see it's on Google.
"Really? Mr My-boyfriend-is-in-the-volturi is looking up my mate?"
"Just checking she's not, like, a serial killer. Or a cheerleader."
I roll my eyes.
"Silver Arrow. New York."
"No way. My friend's uncle set up that school. Hmm. She was on the varsity swim team. Did very well. Won a national competition last year."
"Really?"
"Yeah, look."
He shows me the picture of her, in a black swim suit and red varsity jacket with wet, grey hair in dutch plaits. She has two gold medals and one silver around her neck. She's awkwardly smiling at the camera. I can't help but smile.
"Someone's got a crush."
"Fuck off Emmett."
"Rose, she's coming this way."
"Hi, um, sorry, can I, um, sit here?" Harper asks.
"Yeah sure. Harper, this is Emmett and Jasper. My brothers."
"Hi. I'm Harper."
"Hi."
"Howdy."
"Alright team, just a few notices to start the week. The boys toilet in building four is flooded, so that will be closed all this week. Detentions will be in room 55 this week. You may have noticed we have a new student, Harper. I trust that you're all old enough to welcome her politely."