Mimic | Jacob Black

2. Meetings

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Forks High School. Here they were.

The worst part about going to a new school: the first day.

We'll be fine, River thought. Their parents had enrolled them and filled out all the paperwork prior to them arriving, so that was done and dusted. They drove around for a bit as they searched for the front office. When they finally found it, they pulled up and went inside, talked to the lady at the front desk, got their timetables, maps of the school, and slips to have each of their teachers sign and bring back to her at the end of the day.

They got back in the truck and drove around to the actual parking lot and River pulled into the first empty space he could find. It looked as though the majority of students had already arrived, and a lot were staring. Great.

River cut the engine and they got out, ignoring the funny looks thrown their way.

"Hey, nice ride," some guy said as they passed. River couldn't tell if it was genuine or not. He didn't really care.

"Thanks," Bella said.

"Let's go." River gestured towards the school. He pulled out the map when they reached the front doors. There were always eyes watching them. River realised that in a town this small, everyone probably already knew each other–especially at school. So the arrival of new students was sure to be a topic of great interest to the other kids, unlike in Phoenix.

"Wait up, you two!"

The two of them turned to the new voice. A kid with black hair.

"Isabella Swan and River Holloway, right? Hi, I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need: Tour guide, lunch date, a shoulder to cry on."

Bella looked at River with an is this guy serious? face.

River shrugged, just as weirded out as her.

"I'm on the paper, and you two are news, front page."

"Please dude, don't do that, or put up anything to do with us," River requested.

Eric pouted, obviously disappointed. "I mean... Alright, I guess I won't." He sighed. "Was really looking forward to something new, but I get it, you don't want the extra attention."

Bella let out a lengthy breath in relief, then asked, "Hey, could you point us towards Mr. Varner's class?"

Eric led them away, while they continued to ignore the stares that persisted for the entire trip. Okay, it was a little worse than River assumed it would be. His face was no doubt making things worse.

"I imagine this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" Eric asked.

River shot him a look of disbelief. It was definitely different to Phoenix, having every pair of eyes on them. Eric seemed to understand what he was thinking.

"Yeah, word travels fast around here."

"Anything else we should know about?" River probed.

Eric shrugged. "No, that's all so far. We just heard two kids from Phoenix were moving here." He stopped at an open classroom door, peeking in. "This is your room, I'll see you guys later."

"Yeah, thanks," Bella said as they waved him off. She turned back to River. "It's gonna be one of those days, I think."

"Yep," River sighed.

It wasn't too bad once they got into their classes. They only had a few together, which was disappointing, but there was nothing they could do about it. They had volleyball right before lunch, which Bella was absolutely dreading. That was also when River was finally approached by someone other than Eric. He was honestly surprised it took so long. After this morning, he had envisioned the day going very differently.