Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER FOUR ғɪʀsᴛ ɢʟᴀɴᴄᴇ
It was Mike's brilliant idea to wake up bright and early on Saturday morning to make our way up through the trees at the edge of Forks. For me, it was brilliant: I loved the early mornings, when the air was still misty around these parts and the sun was still low in the sky- and that was if it could even be seen at all.
I was lucky enough that the morning began with a light drizzle, setting the day up to be cold and damp. The unfortunate weather earned a number of groans from Jessica, and a girl called Lauren, who she'd invited. Erik and Tyler hadn't shown either, which Mike seemed rather happy about.
For the first hour, I walked wow, dragging behind Angela and the other two as Mike talked at my ear. He was nice enough but in the space of half an hour, I'd learned more about him than I'd ever need nor want to know. He'd lived in California until he was ten, which was apparently a good enough excuse as to why he could complain about the cold as we walked.
For the rest of the morning, also on Mike's insistence, we hurried ahead, leaving the rest of our group to dawdle behind as they chatted. He was fed up by half an hour, lagging behind with jagged breaths that he tried hopelessly to suppress. We were halfway up another incline when he shouted up to me.
"You aren't tired yet?" He said, hands leaning against his knees.
"No." I chuckled.
"So you do this often then?"
I stopped, leaning against a tree as he caught up.
"I lived in Canada. Of course I did!"
He forced on a smile, pushing in front. "Great. Great."
I laughed again, quickly gaining my pace again. And as he died down into his quietness again, it was then that I realised I was hungry.
On Monday, it seemed that Mike's interest in me had dropped as quickly as it had came. I wasn't the new girl anymore, to my relief, and stares were sent away from me and to someone else: a pale girl from Arizona, was the gossip that I'd heard. Mike had picked her up third lesson and dragged her to our lunch table, looking as surprised as I must have looked when he'd done the same to me.
"Looks like you're the shiny new toy Bella," Jessica sniped, watching as Mike shuffled his way beside her. "It was Elide last week. They get over it after a few days."
Bella ignored Jessica, instead smiling grimly, her lips in a thin line and hair falling darkly to shield her face. She was as pale as I'd heard, something Jessica found pleasure in teasing about, but my worries about another secret identity were squashed from the minute I'd seen her. Delicate and nervous. She couldn't be a vampire.
