Pinned but Fluttering

Chapter 11

Here's the next chapter!!! Enjoy!!!

Chapter 11

When the bell rang at the end of American history, Alice was on her feet and out the door before the ringing stopped. I noticed that she moved with the same quick grace as her brother.

Slowly and thoughtfully, I gathered my things together, looking up as I realized that Angela was patiently waiting beside me.

“Um, what was that all about?” I asked her, bemused.

Angela shrugged, and as we left the room together, she spoke in a low voice, “Alice is the most friendly of the Cullens.”

I whispered back, “How many Cullens are there?” I mean, I've run into two of them so far, and both of them are more than a little strange, right?

Surreptitiously Angela peered over her shoulder. “Um, let's talk in the cafeteria,” she said. Raising my eyebrows in curiosity, I just shrugged. Okay....

Things were definitely weird around here.

Angela led me into the school cafeteria, a huge room. As I entered the wide open double-doors, the sheer volume of noise forced me back a few steps. A few boys were running around, playing keep-away with some girl's jacket while she chased after them, screaming at the culprits in a flirtatious way, putting on quite an act of being annoyed but obviously enjoying the attention.

Across the room, at least fifty students were in line to purchase food and drinks, the rest sitting down to eat or milling around in groups, chattering and laughing. Several hundred teenagers were crammed in this one room which seemed to grow smaller and smaller, louder and louder, as I stood just inside the doors, stunned by the cacophony and mayhem of this brand-new experience of a high school cafeteria.

Angela looked at me questioningly. “You okay?” she asked kindly.

I paused, trying to swallow down my panic, the noise pounding my brain, the constant movement of teenagers making my head swim. It's okay...it's okay...it's okay...it's okay, I kept telling myself, gulping in huge, deep, slow breaths in an attempt to calm down.

But it wasn't working very well. My breaths quickened without my permission, and the walls continued closing in on me. The waves of noise echoed in my ears, making my head ache with sudden persistence.

Suddenly one face stood out to me amongst all the yelling, noise, and confusion in the cafeteria: a face of otherworldly beauty with intense, dark eyes gazing fiercely into mine from beneath a shock of reddish-gold hair. As I focused on the one visage on the far side of the room, I watched Edward Cullen lean over and whisper something into someone's ear...Alice's ear. He straightened, his gaze never breaking from mine as I felt the color rapidly drain from my face.

My knees began to shake and the whole room seemed to tilt sideways. My sight blurred alarmingly, and I blinked a few times trying to make out Edward's face clearly again. The room continued to shrink in on me, kind of like the garbage chute scene in Star Wars.

“Bella? Bella?” Angela grabbed my elbow as a wave of dizziness hit me, almost bringing me to my knees. Closing my eyes and breaking Edward's gaze, I felt cold perspiration running down the back of my neck as my hands began to tremble.

“Just a second,” I managed to mutter, stumbling back from the doorway of the cafeteria toward a nearby picnic bench on the lawn. Angela placed a firm arm around my waist, and I didn't have the strength to object as I leaned heavily against her as she led me to the fortunately empty bench.