Chapter 22

"So you don't want to meet her, right?" Arthur questioned as he kept looking at the passing scenery of the forest while the Volvo drove toward Forks High School.

"You know about that too, huh?" Edward mumbled as he kept his sight fixed on the road ahead of them.

"I can't say anything about your choice, as it's yours at the end of the day. However, I suggest that once you make a choice, stick to it. At the same time, you should give your mate a chance to influence that choice as well, considering this is a matter that concerns both of you," Arthur said before returning to silence once more.

"I guess you're right, Arthur. However, I don't think I can give them that choice. It's not even a choice in the first place," Edward muttered in reply.

Silence engulfed the car after those last words, the only sound being the noise caused by the wheels of the car as they drove toward the school.

After a while, the car slowly started to slow down.

They had arrived at their destination, Forks High School.

"How are you going to explain practically ditching your friends?" Alice questioned, a light smirk showing on her expression.

"I'll just say that something came up. Sometimes the best lie is the simplest one. This way, you don't have to remember every detail of your complex lie and have fewer chances of messing it up and revealing the truth later down the line," Arthur replied with a light hum.

"I see. Experienced liar, huh?" Alice questioned, her tone clearly showing her amusement.

"To a certain degree."

With those final words, the silver Volvo parked itself on the right side of the school parking lot.

Twisting the key, Edward shut the engine off and turned toward Alice and Arthur.

"Let's go."

Without waiting any further, all three of them headed out of the car.

"We're going to be waiting for a bit for the others to arrive. Are you staying with us?" Alice turned to face Arthur and asked.

"Sure. It's not like I have anything else to do," Arthur replied with a light nod and backed up so that he could use the car as support to stay up.

It was at this moment that a loud crackling noise was heard.

KKRRVHHH

Turning his head to the other side of the parking lot, Arthur saw a large orange truck parking itself.

"New student?" Arthur questioned aloud as he focused, trying not to let any stray thoughts complicate things.

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen that before. I would surely remember something as loud as that," Edward nodded, affirming Arthur's question.

A moment after the truck stopped, its driver-side door slammed open, and out came a young girl, looking to be around seventeen years old, with long brown hair and a complexion as pale as paper.

"It's her, isn't it?" Edward questioned Alice as he slightly turned his gaze toward her.

"Yeah," Alice confirmed his thoughts.

"So, are you meeting her?" Arthur questioned immediately after.

"No, maybe later, but not right now. I'm still thinking about it," Edward replied before turning his head toward the entrance of the parking lot.

There, a large red jeep was entering the parking lot.

"Seems like the rest are here as well."

"Well then, I'll also be heading off. It's close to the start of the classes. Don't want to miss them," Arthur said as he opened the car door once more, took out his new backpack, and slung it over his shoulder, giving Edward and Alice a small wave.

"See you during lunch break?" Alice said as she gave a wave of her own.

"Yeah, sure."

With those words, Arthur started walking toward the school.

Coincidentally, when he arrived, he saw Bella Swan, Edward's mate, falling down right next to him.

With his close-to-superhuman reflexes, Arthur didn't have a single issue lowering himself down to catch her fall; however, he stopped himself.

'Those two are just an annoyance to deal with. I'll leave it to them to figure that out,' Arthur thought as he walked past Bella, hearing a small grunt of pain only a split moment later.

'She's as much of a klutz as described in the books, huh.'

Entering the school, Arthur quickly went through two different hallways before he arrived at his first class of the day.

It was biology today.

The class was easy enough, having already learned the entire book. It was almost an easy daily routine nowadays for Arthur to complete the class and answer the professor's every question.

The next few classes were much the same.

Physics.

And Calculus.

After finishing the three classes, it was finally time for the lunch break.

Riiinngg~!

With a loud sound, the bell signaling the end of the class rang, and Arthur stood up from his seat at the end of the class by the windows.

'Another day, another boring class lesson,' Arthur thought to himself as he started carefully packing his books into his backpack.

Looking down at the Calculus book in his hands, he noticed that it had already started to deteriorate.

'Looks like this one won't last much longer,' Arthur thought in frustration before sliding the book into his backpack.

Closing the zipper, he slung the backpack over his right shoulder and started walking out of the class toward the cafeteria.

'The start of the plot, huh... I guess things will start to get more interesting from now on.'

_____________________________________________________________________________

Here's the chapter of the day.

Bella Swan has been introduced.

I wanted to make it so that there were a few months between Arthur meeting the Cullens and Bella, but in the end, I decided against it. The main reason is that we don't know much about what happened in Forks before Bella came, and at the same time, it would just be boring to write, in my opinion. There would be no action, and with Arthur not being that exciting of a guy usually, it would just be a repeat of the first few chapters.

That's all. Thanks for the support, as always!

Lots of love,

White Author