Dusk till Dawn - Edward Cullen

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DUSK TILL DAWN
(CHAPTER ONE AURORA COLBURN)

Aurora Colburn has thought about dying since two days after her twelfth birthday. Not in a suicidal or dark way, but just accepting the cards that life dealt her.

She can't help the small sigh that falls from her lips as she looks down at the multicolored pills in her hand. When she was little and couldn't swallow all the pills, the doctors would give her the liquid version. Now, she misses the sickly sweet purple syrup as she downs the handful of pills and takes a sip of her water.

"Aurora?"

Her fathers slightly frantic voice draws her attention to the stair case, his eyes search downstairs for a second before landing on the small blonde girl standing in the kitchen. His hand immediately flies to his racing heart.

"You weren't in your room, I-," her father doesn't finish his sentence, just purses his lips together as he looks down at his daughter, who with every passing day looks more like her mother.

"I'm okay, dad," Aurora says and offers her dad a smile, "Go back to sleep, I can drive myself to school."

Her father hesitates for a second, "You sure? I don't min-"

"Dad, it's fine," she says sternly.
He lets out a sigh and runs his hands through his hair, "Yeah. Okay. Text me when you get to school, let me know you got there safe."

Aurora nods and watches her father walk back up the stairs, her father was definitely a worrier. Even from the kitchen, she could see the dark bags under his eyes from not getting enough sleep.

She quietly walks back upstairs to get ready for school. Putting on a white long sleeve shirt and some light wash jeans, something that won't draw attention to her.

Aurora keeps her head down as she walks down the hallways, ignoring the open stares and whispers of the students who had all assumed she had moved after being absent for almost three weeks.
Aurora isn't used to being noticed, in fact she strives not to draw attention to herself for any reason.

"Rory!"

Aurora can't help but roll her eyes at the nickname she hates so much. She spots the culprit leaning against her locker with a Cheshire grin on her face.

"How many time do I have to tell you that I hate that name?" Aurora mutters as she gets to her locker, bumping her best friend with her hip to move her away so she could put her bag in her locker.

Camille shrugs, "You can tell me all you want, I think it's cute."

Aurora rolls her eyes and fights the grin that pulls at her lips.

"I thought you weren't coming back to school until Thursday," Camille questions, her dark eyebrows pulling together.

Aurora slams her locker shut and meets Camille's big brown eyes, "Yeah that was the plan, until I got bored of sitting at home all day."

Camille shakes her head and grabs Aurora's arm when she tries to start walking away, "You're okay now, right?"

If it's one thing Aurora hates, it's people worrying about her. Even though she knows Camille means well, she can't help to feel a tiny bit annoyed. She knows how to take care of herself. Despite her feelings, she puts on a smile and nods her head, "Of course, you know my dad wouldn't let me come back if he thought I wasn't."

Camille hesitates, searching Aurora's face for any sign that she was lying, before accepting her answer and letting go of her arm.
Together, they begin to walk down the hallway. Aurora avoids the prying eyes of her classmates while Camille meets them head on, daring anybody to say something bad about her best friend.

"What's that?" Camille finally asks, gesturing to the pieces of paper in Aurora's hand.

"I have to drop all my AP and honors classes," she says with a sigh, not happy with the idea, "These are my transfer slips."

"Awe, looks like the little genius will be in regular classes with regular people," Camille teases and earns an eye roll from the blonde.

Aurora stops in front of a classroom and glancing down at her transfer slip, "This is me."

"Mrs. Monroe is nice. I have her for fifth period, you'll like her."

Aurora smiles at her friend for trying to make her feel better, "I'd like her even better if she taught AP English."

Camille rolls her eyes, "I don't know why you obsess over being in all advanced classes, any college would thrilled to have you, little miss 4.0 GPA."

Aurora giggles at her friends attitude, "You're right, Harvard will love me. I'll see you for lunch?"

"You know it."

And with that, the two girls part ways. Aurora hesitantly enters the class just as the first bell rings, and all eyes seem to turn to her. She silently shuffles to the teachers desk and hands her transfer slip over to the middle age woman.

"Well, Ms. Aurora Colburn, we're doing a partner project based on the book The Odyssey. You can take a seat by Edward over there and he should be able to catch you up," Mrs. Monroe says.

Aurora's eyes search the classroom for a second before landing on Edward Cullen, emerald eyes collide with melted gold and Aurora holds his gaze for just a second before dropping her eyes to the floor and coming to sit beside him.

She feels his eyes on her, and she curses herself as she feels her cheeks heat up. Why is Edward Cullen, of all people, staring at her? Sure maybe it could be the reason everyone else has been staring at her today, but the Cullen's don't talk to anyone. There's no way he has any idea who she is.

Edward tells himself he should drop his gaze, but he can't. His mind goes to his sister Alice, and the flickers of a blonde girl with the brightest green eyes you ever saw in her visions. Her scent is the sweetest smell, vanilla with a hint of honey and something else he can't quite place his finger on. When her eyes met his, he swears he felt a sensation he hasn't felt in a long time, his heart pounding in his chest.
Who is Aurora Colburn and why has he never heard of her or even seen her?

Aurora ignores Edwards gaze and keeps her head down, the teachers voice droning on as she drowns her out. Aurora read The Odyssey years ago, and did this lesson in her freshman year. She stares down at her blank notebook and silently waits for the period to be over.

I know it's kind of a slow start, but what do we think of Aurora? If you liked the chapter please let me know in the comments and vote if you want!

—josie