6. Let’s Start This Again

"He's not here."

I turned my head to Bella as we walked down the hallways after lunch.

"Who?" I asked. My mind wasn't really focused on her moods.

My day had gone from good to better.

I hadn't realized that two of the Cullens were in my morning classes until they'd engaged a conversation.

***

"Hello."

Startled out of my thoughts by the melodic voice, I turned around to see two gorgeous honey-blondes.

The one who'd greeted me was the statuesque girl.

"Hi." I smiled back. "Rosalie, right?"

"Yes. Nice to meet you, Rebecca." Rosalie nodded.

I twisted my body until I was in a more comfortable position. "Call me Becca."

"I'm jasper." A slightly husky voice came from the cautious blonde boy next to her.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Rosalie startle when Jasper took the initiative to shake my hand. I wondered why.

"Nice to meet you, Jasper." I nodded, shaking his hand.

The coldness that met my hand was rather bizarre but not off-putting. The two were closely watching my face and when I noticed, I gave them a confused grin.

Eyes on my lips, Jasper's shoulders finally eased, a relaxed grin of his own taking over on his face. Rosalie, who was observing her brother's reaction seemed to take it as incentive to show me a more genuine smile too.

"Kids!" The teacher clapped his hands to grab our attention. "Gather around in groups of three for your project and then come up here to pick your topic."

I turned back to the Cullens—or Hales—and smirked. "So, there's two of you and one of me." I said in a sing-song voice.

Rosalie let out a light chuckle and stood up. "I'm going to choose the topic."

Jasper moved their belongings to my row and arranged it as they would sit on either of my side before Rosalie came back.

The rest of the class was filled with melodic giggles, manly chuckles and promises of sleepovers—with me taking home Jasper and Rosalie's mails as they didn't have phones.

I startled quite a bit a that, I mean, who didn't have a phone?

Even if most of the phones were flip-phones, at least half the school's students required it to keep in contact—never mind the fact that we all lived pretty close to each other, we were rather fond of the device.

But I digress, the three of us had a good time and they invited me to sit with them at lunch—which I refused since I'd promised Angela that day—but we made other plans for the next few weeks so it was all good.

I left the class with a relaxed smile, sure, deep in my bones that I'd just made friends for life.

***

"Edward." Bella pulled me out of my musings. "He's not here."

"What's it to you?" I arched a brow as I opened my locker. "You don't know the guy and he doesn't know you."

"I want to know what his problem is." Bella shrugged. "I want to know why he glared at me so much."

I put the last of my books in my locker and slapped it shut. "Maybe, my dear sister should mind her own business." I nudged her to walk to biology. "Things happen, Bella. Maybe his day was already shitty to begin with and it has nothing to do with you."

"It had everything to do with me." Bella snapped.

"And that, is the most self-centered sentence I've heard come out your mouth." I rolled my eyes. "And I've heard a lot."

Bella made a weird face at me before I lightly pushed her in the classroom—a class where Edward was indeed absent.

•••

That evening, Bella and I had done groceries and cooked as my dad couldn't boil water if his life depended on it.

"How are you girls liking school? Made any friends?" Dad asked before he took seconds of the chicken and potatoes.

"We have a lunch group with some people we have classes with." I told dad as I served myself some seconds too. "There's this girl named Jessica and another named Angela."

Bella continued. "And there's this boy, Mike, who's very friendly. Everybody seems pretty nice."

Dad hummed. "That must be Mike Newton. Nice kid—nice family. His dad owns the sporting goods store just outside of town. He makes a good living off all the backpackers who come through here."

"Do you know the Cullen family?" Bella hesitantly asked.

"Dr. Cullen's family? Sure. Dr. Cullen's a great man."

"They...the kids...are a little different." Bella tried fishing for information. "They don't seem to fit in very well at school."

I shrugged, not seeing the problem. I mean, did they have to fit in?

Dad surprised me by looking angry. "People in this town." He muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here. We're lucky to have him—lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community and all of those kids are well-behaved and polite. I had my doubts when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature—I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should—camping trips every other weekend... Just because they're newcomers, people have to talk."

And behold, ladies and gentlemen, the reason my dad was the best you could ask for. No judgment, or if there was, he tried to see things for himself and make his own assessment and that's one of the lessons he'd instilled in me.

Bella quickly backpedaled. "They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they keep to themselves. They're all very attractive." She added in to be more complimentary.

"You should see the doctor." Dad chuckled. "It's a good thing he's happily married. A lot of nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around."

Dad and I then lapsed into our own conversation, laughing; Bella joining in whenever she felt like it.

I felt a routine coming on as Bella and I washed the dishes and then went to sleep—not sure if it was a good thing or not.

***

The rest of the week was uneventful. After that first day, all of my lunches were spent at the Cullen's table, the family having adopted me in their mold.

Edward was still a no-show, which frustrated my sister to no end but I got to know big, teddy-bear Emmett, and pixie, hyperactive Alice. I now had all their mails—safe from Edward—and we behaved like very old friends. As if we did this all the time. We acted very natural around each other, which I liked.

It didn't prevent me from observing some little things though—like how cold their skin was, how they loaded up their plates but never ate anything at lunch or how they always seemed to restrain themselves even if an innate, almost animal grace seemed to be imbued in their very person. My new friends were weird but, lucky for them, I liked weird.

***

My first week end in Forks passed without incident and before long, I was hurrying across campus on Monday, late and balancing books in my hands.

One of them slipped out of my hold and I was about to use telekinesis when a pale hand reached out, catching the book mid-air. I looked up, surprised to see the elusive Cullen.

"Edward Cullen." I took the book back with a smile. "I can't say you were missed." I teased him.

Chuckling, he extended his hand. "I heard a lot about from my siblings. Let's start this again. I'm Edward Cullen."

I shook his hand—which was as cold as his siblings. "Rebecca Swan but call me Becca."

Looking into his golden eyes, I was now more than determined to solve the puzzle that was the Cullen family.