Gifted

Chapter 13: School

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Please read and review, if you've gotta moment. Enjoy!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bella would've slept through the entire morning if it hadn't been for her screaming stomach. She realized with a groan that she hadn't actually eaten anything since Saturday morning's breakfast at the Cullens. Not that she was a stranger to hunger, but this past week had spoiled her a bit and she had almost forgotten what it was like to not know how she'd come by her next meal. She quickly checked her fridge and thankfully found that it contained a few things. She took out an apple and hungrily bit it into it.

After she satiated her hunger somewhat, she showered and pulled on her cleanest pair of jeans, shirt, and jacket and headed out to start her first day of school.

The bike ride took nearly half an hour and by the time she reached the campus the cool air had invigorated her a bit. Charlie had left her a box full of school supplies she'd probably need...empty notebooks, a calculator, pens and pencils, etc. It was strange to leave the rest of her clothes and meager possessions behind. But if she remembered anything from her grade school days, it was that she was likely to meet some bullies who would insist on upending the contents of her bag at some point during the day. Obviously she didn't want to have her only clothes in said bag when that happened.

She wished Charlie had left her some instructions on what to do once she got there. Bella didn't have any school records so placing her wasn't going to be all that simple. She locked her bike in front of the biggest building and, since she was there already decided to go in and try to find the main office. She was still incredibly early. Even most of the teachers weren't there yet. Inside she quickly found the office, took a deep breath and stepped in.

"Excuse me," she said politely, "I'm not sure where I need to go. Can you please help me?"

"Yes?" A tired looking woman replied.

"My name is Bella Swan. I'm new. Er-I think my father told you I'd be coming?"

"Hmm, yes. Yes, he did, although for the life of me why you couldn't procure your records I don't understand!"

Bella didn't think of anything to say so she stayed quiet. The woman sighed dramatically and bid her over to an empty room.

"Leave your bag here. These are placement exams for your age. Finish them and then we'll see," she said quickly.

"Thank you," said Bella, and quietly took the papers and a pencil and went inside the room.

Here we go, she thought to herself. Bella had already memorized the state's standard levels for sophomores through seniors, and she knew exactly what she needed to do not only to place into the correct grade, but also to tweak the system a little and get into classes certain friends of her were taking.

Carefully, but still in record time, Bella completed all the exams. When she walked back out the woman, Mrs. Cope according the placard on her desk, stared.

"Done already?" She asked incredulously.

Shit. Bella thought she had worked slowly enough, but apparently she was going to have to work a lot harder if she wanted to avoid raising suspicions. Deciding that trying to explain herself would only make things worse, Bella kept quiet as the surprised woman graded her exams against a rubric.

"Hmm," was all she got.

It took her longer to grade than for Bella to take the tests. Bella waited patiently, all while listening to the growing throng outside. The students were arriving. She knew that technically speaking, this school had a very small student body, but she was still quite anxious at the prospect of spending hours every day cooped up in small rooms with so many of them. Her heart skipped a few beats as the memories of the hell she'd endured as a child in school came back to her.