The Inevitable

Chapter 5 First Sight

She walked through the last of the trees into the clearing. The clearing that, even after seventy five years, was so familiar.

The meadow. She wasn't exactly sure why she had come here. She didn't need to go somewhere familiar to have memories of him; they were so prevalent in her mind without any kind of reminder. She walked across slowly, taking a deep breath. Her mind was so full of him she almost thought his scent lingered here.

She had almost gone to the house, but she convinced herself not to go there, at least. It was amazing that, even though the memories of him, of them, played out in her mind like a movie, not like things that had actually happened to her; even then the pain still cut her deep.

She wondered if the rest of eternity would go on this way, with no semblance of herself and painful memories constantly crowding her thoughts. She had never really been able to understand why Edward wouldn't change her.

But now she did.

Of course if he had changed her she would be with him, instead of living this constantly lonely existence. They had an entire family of those like themselves; but she had no one.

She sighed heavily and looked around one more time before leaving to make her way to the school. She ran as much as she could, before she got to the point where she would be seen by people, and then walked the rest of the way. When she got to the school she just stood out front for a long time, staring. It hadn't changed too much. The basic structure was the same, but a few more buildings had been added. They were still all brick, and still surrounded by trees.

A vague memory of that first day so long ago began creeping its way to the forefront of her mind, but it was hazy. Except, of course, for one part. Edward.

She kept staring for awhile, and when she finally decided it was time to go in it was as if her feet would not move. She had sort of expected this to be hard. But now that it was actually time to go in she found that she was terrified.

She finally shook her head a few times and forced herself to advance toward the front office. She paused only momentarily before turning the handle and walking in.

She went to the counter, behind which an elderly woman with bright white hair sat at a desk. She glanced up over her glasses with narrowed eyes.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm new. I need to get my schedule."

"Name?"

"Amber Benson." She looked away when she said this. Even after all this time she still felt like something in her eyes would betray her.

The woman shuffled some papers around. "Here we go," she finally said, standing slowly. She came to the counter and set the papers on top. Then she stared carefully at Bella.

"Can I go?"

She narrowed her eyes further. "Are you related to anyone here?"

Bella just stared for a moment before speaking. "No I'm not."

"Hmm…thought maybe you looked a little familiar." She finally looked down at the papers in front of her. "Here's your schedule and a map. This paper needs to be signed by each teacher and brought back."

"Thank you." She quickly gathered the papers up and walked back outside. She felt uncomfortable under the old woman's watchful eye. She looked at the schedule to see she had English first.

She was relieved that the teacher didn't try to get her to make any introductions. Her paper was signed and she was put in the back of the room. She looked pointedly away from all those who stared at her, hoping they would get the idea. She was well used to the stares by now. Funny how she had once thought she might enjoy being beautiful, flawless. But she didn't; it really meant nothing to her.

All of her morning classes went roughly the same. She was never asked to introduce herself, and was always put in the back. She felt she was doing a pretty good job alienating herself; no one had tried to approach her yet. She had gotten pretty good at either avoiding gazes or giving harsh ones of her own to show that she had no desire to be approached.

Finally the bell rang signaling lunch. She gathered her things and got up slowly, having no desire to hurry up and pretend to eat. She walked there as slowly as possible and when she arrived saw that the room was already pretty full. She got in line and bought a soda. She spotted a table in the back corner that was empty and went to sit, trying her best to clearly ignore all those staring at her. She took the top off the soda bottle and began spinning it on the table.

Edward sat at the table quietly, leaning back in his chair. Everyone else sat around the table, eyeing him carefully.

"You know, there's another new student today," Alice piped up. "I haven't seen her yet. What does she look like Edward?"

"Didn't see her," he mumbled, still staring down at the table.

"You must have seen her in everyone's mind," she persisted.

"Haven't been paying attention."

"Well get to it then," Emmett said playfully. "We gotta see what kind of dirt everyone's giving her on us."

Edward looked up to see Emmett smiling. "Yeah, ok." He focused in on some of the students. "It appears she's a big topic if discussion. Her name is Amber. I don't think anyone's…" he trailed off.

"Edward, what's wrong?" Alice asked worriedly as she watched his face quickly change.

"No…something's…" he breathed.

"What is it?" Jasper asked.

Edward stood slowly. He closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them again quickly and they were full of panic. "No," he hissed.

"Edward, what's…" But before Alice could finish he walked quickly from the table and began making his way toward the back of the cafeteria.

The others followed behind and saw him stop abruptly. Alice quickly came to his side, the others standing behind them. "What are you…" She stopped as soon as she saw the look on his face. She saw him sniff the air slightly, and then his whole body wavered.

Jasper put his hand on Edward's shoulder. "He's bad," he muttered to Alice.

She looked up to see him staring forward intently and turned her eyes in the same direction.

"What the hell," Emmett began just as Alice gasped quietly.

The others looked forward to see what they were staring at. Everyone was dead silent.

"Holy shit," Emmett finally breathed incredulously.

At the sound of his voice the dark haired girl's head turned up to look back.