SKIN DEEP
four | gossip group

The moment that Imogen left the classroom, an arm was flung over her shoulder. She had just suffered over an hour of sitting in a warm and surprisingly humid classroom, now she had a sweaty armpit resting on her shoulder. 

She halted, attempting to shrug off the arm of the complete stranger and continue walking, but the ambusher had different ideas. Instead, he tightened his arm around the back of her neck, his hand clutching onto the opposite shoulder. In a gleeful voice, one that hurt her ears due to how close his mouth was to her ear, he questioned, "Hey, you're Imogen King, right?"

Imogen knew that she couldn't dodge the social interaction and turned her head slightly in acknowledgment of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy who looked like a jock poser. "Obviously," she spat out, her tone coming out more venomous than she had intended. "Unless there's another Imogen King I don't know about."

The blonde chuckled in an awkward manner, obviously not expecting the innocent ill new girl to answer in such a way.

Imogen then began walking again, the squeaking of the wheels on her roller-bag surprisingly loud in the full corridor. But, she couldn't free herself of the boy even though his arm was now hanging down by his side and not over her shoulder. She thought that by her walking away that he'd get the picture and leave her alone, but he kept up the fast pace she was going at.

"I'm Mike, by the way." His tone still upheld the chipperness.

Imogen didn't look at the boy, but replied anyway. "Nice to know," she said sarcastically, but the Mike boy was still oblivious to the tone as he kept up with her long stride. She was already out of breath, but would keep going in attempt to get away from the boy who showed no sign of backing off.

Mike questioned her, curiosity underlying his tone, "So, what did you talk to Edward about?"

She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow at the question. Shrugging her shoulders, she replied, "Not much." Imogen came to a stop then, reaching out to open one of the double doors that would lead outside. She needed some fresh air and as it was lunch hour, she would be fine for a while before having to enter the humid building again. She couldn't believe that a town so cold would have extremely humid buildings. It must be all the sweaty bodies of teenagers altering the temperature.

Mike followed her outside which irritated her immensely. She wanted him to bugger off and go join his friends, if he had any that was. He seemed too annoying to have friends. Unless he was only annoying to her, which was a high possibility.

"Why are you following me?" she questioned the blonde boy. 

Then she felt stupid when he replied, and she realized just how rude she was being to someone who had only been nice (even if too nice), "I'm not following you. I'm going to the cafeteria which is that block right there." Mike pointed to the building block that was practically smack in front of them, one that was adorned with many glass windows. Imogen hadn't been heading to the cafeteria, she had been heading in the direction of the woods that was off to the side of the cafeteria block.

"Oh," was the only sound to leave her mouth, before she turned to Mike and whispered, "Sorry." She never said sorry, but she had to in this situation. 

He shrugged, a lazy smile still on his face, as though he hadn't even noticed how rude she had been. He pointed his thumb in the direction of the cafeteria block and questioned with a pout on his lips, "Want to join me and my friends for lunch?"

Imogen was about to decline his offer, not actually wanting to spend more time with him, but felt as though she at least should sit with him at dinner as a way to feel better about being rude to him. Yes, he didn't seem to mind or even notice she was rude, but Imogen felt bad and the only way to not feel bad was to sit with him.

As the walked through the open doors into the cafeteria, everyone's eyes turned to the duo. It was possibly because Imogen was the new girl who had an illness that required her to roll an oxygen tank around after her; but Imogen hoped they were staring at Mike because he was the popular overly nice guy.

He wrapped his arm back around her shoulder, the weight making her even more uncomfortable under the stares of everyone in the block. But, the stares turned away the moment the duo walked over to a table where three others were situated. Well, it was less of a walk for Imogen as she was practically dragged to the table due to the death grip Mike had on her.

"Hey, guys. Meet Imogen King." Mike smiled brightly while taking a seat, then urging Imogen to take a seat next to him. Imogen looked over at Mike pointing a glare at him while thinking 'seriously?', but again, he was oblivious to the glare and smiled brightly.

A girl with bouncy brown locks had a false smile when addressing Imogen, "The new girl, right? My name's Jessica." Imogen drew her lips into a tight-lipped smile, giving her a fake one back. She would just have to endure this dinner and then escape and make it through high school in solitude.

A Korean boy spoke next, having as much enthusiasm as Mike had, "I'm Eric. You, Imogen, are front page, baby."

Imogen's nose wrinkled in disgust at the pet name the acquaintance had gave her, "Ew, no thanks." Mike chuckled at her, thinking she was against the front page business, which she was, but he hadn't realized her disgust was towards the pet name.

Imogen wasn't the only one to show disgust at the 'baby'. The unnamed girl across from her scrunched her nose up, causing her glasses to ride up her nose slightly, before she said to Eric, "Stop being a pig and leave her alone." Then she faced Imogen and introduced herself, "I'm Angela."

Grateful towards Angela, Imogen smiled an awkward smile. Eric spoke up again, "So, you have an oxygen tank or something?" Imogen only nodded stiffly. 

"Is it bad?" This came from Jessica, and it sounded extremely bitchy. You can imagine what a dumb blonde sounds like when smacking chewing gum between her lips; well, that's exactly how the brunette sounded. 

Imogen glared, "Stage four thyroid cancer. So, it's pretty freaking bad." She had been a bit bitchy, accentuating the freaking. 

Imogen then felt her stomach rumble and decided to get up and get some food. This would also give her time to calm down slightly and not kick off at the people who were trying to be her friends; even if she didn't really want them to be.

But, as she slightly rose from her seat, the four heads around her turned to look at the door. That's when Imogen saw a pale couple walk through the door. The male with bulky arms was holding the hand of the girl with almost white hair, whose hips were swaying enough to break a hip.

The groups eyes turned back to look at Imogen who had taken a seat again, waiting to actually tell the guys she was getting food. Imogen opened her mouth to say she would be back in a minute, but Jessica opened hers, "That's Emmett and Rosalie. They're like the it couple of the school." She had made quotation marks with her fingers when saying 'it'.

Imogen was tempted to say, 'Why should I care?' but just kept silent. Jessica's eyes strayed to the door again, seeing the next couple walk in. Imogen was looking at Jessica with raised eyebrows (and still a bit pissed from the dumb question she had asked), waiting for her to continue, "That weird girl dancing around is Alice, and the one who looks like he's in pain is her best-friend, Jasper." 

When she heard the word pain, Imogen glanced up to see a boy who was whiter than the rest of them, with eyes that had red circles underneath them and a mess of blonde hair on top of his head. Underneath Jessica's breath she whispered, "Though I suspect they're a couple with how close they are." 

Imogen watched as the four were seated at a table away from the rest of the students, "Are they Cullen's?" Everyone's eyes turned to Imogen - those at her table, and the four who had just seated at the other end of the cafeteria. Though, Imogen wasn't aware that the four across the room were listening in.

Angela replied, "They're not all named Cullen, but they're all adoptive children of Doctor Cullen."

Imogen's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, "But they all look like Carlisle?" It came out more of a question as they did all look - to her anyway - like they were all related. They all had the same pale skin, something that you don't just get from staying out of the sun. She then realized that it weren't possible for them to be related as two were dating, which wouldn't have been made public if they were actually related by blood.

"You know Doctor Cullen?" This came from Jessica, who sounded both curious and jealous. Imogen couldn't understand why she would be jealous.

Imogen only nodded before stating, "I'm just going to get something to eat." She grabbed her bag (as it had her purse in), tightened her hand around the handle of her roller bag, and walked over to look what they were selling. Nothing appealed to her except for an apple. 

After buying the apple, Imogen turned around and saw that the four were all laughing and smiling at each other. She would've sat back down with them if she hadn't seen Edward enter, whom she watched as he sat down at the table with his 'siblings'. 

Imogen did prefer Edward's company to the others, as he was quiet and only made conversation when necessary. So, she did something that made everyone's eyes widen when they realized what she was doing. Imogen walked over to the table where the Cullens were seated and questioned, "Do you mind if I sit with you?"