Sunrise | Twilight

I. The Tanakas

In all the time since the Cullens had moved to Forks, Mitsuko Tanaka had probably spoken to them once. Even when Bella Swan had moved into town and had somehow quickly become entangled with them, Mitsuko still only ever saw them in passing.

If it wasn't for a friend's severe mental state, she probably wouldn't have noticed when the Cullens left a few months ago. She'd tried to be there for Bella, often appearing at her house with various baked goods, but her friend remained unresponsive. Instead, she began to help Charlie around the house since Bella was unable to help in her condition.

This continued for nearly half the school year, Mitsuko's worry never lessening even after Bella rejoined the group's table. Then suddenly one day she'd arrived at school to discover that the Cullens had suddenly reappeared, their table occupied once more.

She'd asked Bella what had happened, but her friend simply excused that The Cullens had simply missed their friends too much. 'What friends?' She remembers thinking. The only people the Cullens interacted with was Bella, and that was mainly because she was dating Edward.

Yet, despite the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of the Cullens, the strangest thing Mitsuko experienced was that Edward would now follow Bella to their group's table at lunch. Mitsuko had never even had a single conversation with this guy, and now he was suddenly sitting with them at lunch. Additionally, even then he never really spoke to her; he simply held Bella's hand and would listen to the rest of the group interact.

She tried to ignore her overthinking and focus on her studies; graduation was coming up, and she wanted to be prepared for college and enjoy her time with her friends before some moved away.

Mitsuko had grabbed her lunch bag from her locker before going to the cafeteria and sitting down at her usual table. She uttered a 'Hi' to Bella and her boyfriend, who was already sitting down, before joining in with the lively conversation.

"Jess, are you still worried about your speech?" She'd asked her friend, and she scribbled away on a notepad.

"I just don't want it to be a stereotypical graduation speech, ya know?"

"You're getting too stressed about it, here." Mike spoke before stealing the notepad from the girl, "My fellow students. Cool. Right? We are the future. Anything is possible, if you just believe."

Both Mitsuko and Angela laughed at his antics, with Angela adding a sarcastic "Nice" between her laughter. Ignoring the two, he continued, "Blah, blah, blah, and you got yourself a speech."

He passed the notepad back to Jess, who ripped the bag out before speaking, "No, this will be my speech. When I want everyone to throw diplomas at my head. So, thank you." As she spoke, she crumpled the piece of paper and threw it back at Mike's face.

He ignored the paper and smiled smugly before replying, "Ya gotta embrace the cliches, Jess."

"They have the bread and butter of all valedictorians," Eric chimed in from next to Angela, causing her to also chime into the conversation. "And that is why you are not valedictorian."

"Give the guy a break, Ang," her boyfriend Ben spoke up, his arms wrapping around her shoulder.

"And Jess doesn't need clichés. Speech is gonna be epic." Bella spoke up, smirking at the boys, earning a proud smile from Jess.

"Epic? It'll change lives." She stated confidently.

"I'm sure it'll change mine." She nudged Jessica as she spoke, earning an appreciative side hug. The group was interrupted from continuing when three other Cullens approached the table and sat down.

Alice and Emilie would occasionally join their group during lunch, mainly so Alice could spend time with Bella. However, Mitsuko found herself getting along with the pixie's gorgeous girlfriend the more they spoke. Today, Alice had somehow managed to drag Jasper to the table as well, pushing him down into the seat next to Mitsuko.