CHAPTER III ―

THAT'S EDWARD CULLEN!

𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 lunchtime when Nora escaped her History class, a constant thrum in her head from the earlier events in the morning. Nora was sure she was going to bruise, and it wouldn't be pretty either.

Standing in line, Nora ran a hand through her long, curly brown locks, a nervous habit of hers. "Hey, Nora!" the small brunette turned to see Candice with a bright smile, walking towards her. "You're sitting with us, right"

Nora felt a tug at her heart. She honestly hated it when people thought about her, but at the same time, she liked it, too. It made her feel included, a feeling that Nora hated to admit she yearned for. The more Nora thought about it, Candice was just like April. Bubbly, friendly, and constant... she swallowed. "Uh, thanks," Nora gave the blonde a small smile. "I'd love to join."

"Cool," Candice said, pointing to a table towards the middle of the lunchroom with a few people sitting at it already. "We're sitting over there, so see you in a few." With that, the blonde bounced off towards the table, leaving Nora to get her lunch.

After a few minutes in line, Nora found herself sitting at the table Candice was, feeling a little out of place. They seemed nice, for the most part. Well, with the exception of Jessica Stanley. Nora found herself kinda annoyed by the snarky brunette, and the girl next to her, Lauren, wasn't any better. And she had recognized two boys from her History class, Jordan and Eric.

"Guys," Candice chimed in, smiling again. Nora took note that she had yet to see anything but a bright smile on Candice's gorgeous features. "This is Nora, be nice." Nora gave a small, awkward wave to the group staring at her. "Nora, this is Lauren, Jessica, Eric, and Jordan. There's usually Mike and Tyler, but they got lunch detention again." There was a chorus of hey's and hi's before everyone went back to their conversations, leaving Candice to practically attack Nora with questions.

"How do you like Forks so far?" Candice asked, taking a bite of her pizza.

Nora shrugged, nibbling on her salad. She really didn't want to find out how the school's greasy food tasted. "It's normal." Candice nodded, humming in agreement.

"I suppose." And just as Candice was going to ask another question, Lauren and Jessica gasped in amazement and began to giggle and whisper to each other, occasionally pointing. Nora frowned, following their gaze and saw what they were giggling about. Well, who they were giggling at.

Nora recognized the angelic blonde-haired girl, who now had a smile instead of a sneer, and the large, burly-looking man that had picked her up had that same teddy bear smile. The other three she didn't know. The honey-haired boy, well, man, had a pained expression on his face as a pixie-like, cheery brunette bounced along-side him, holding his hand with a smile. And although the pain expression wasn't the best looking, it didn't affect his looks. They all looked beautiful and unbelievably angelic. The last one was tall, probably around 6'1 or 6'2 with bronze-colored hair and a slight smirk on his features. He looked to be the youngest in her opinion, a slightly boyish look to his obviously gorgeous features.

"Those are the Cullen's," Candice informed Nora's curious stare, the brunette turning back to her. "They're Doctor and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. They moved down from Alaska, like, a year or two ago."

"They keep to themselves," Jordan added.

"Yeah, because they're all together, like together-together," Jessica said with a slight emphasis on the last two words. "The blond girl, that's Rosalie. The dark-haired guy next to her is Emmett. They're a thing. I'm not even sure that's legal!"

Candice rolled her eyes. "They're not actually related, Jess."

"Yeah, but they live together. It's weird!" Jessica exclaimed, and then pointed at the pixie-haired girl that sat with the blonde-haired guy. He spun her around whilst holding her hand like they were dancing. "That's Alice. She's really weird. The blonde guy that looks like he's in pain, that's Jasper. They're together, too."

Nora's brown eyes scanned the couple with a curious stare, her eyes connecting with Alice's bright honey-colored ones, she gave Nora a small smile. To be polite, Nora gave a slight lift of her lips, not even sure it was a smile before her eyes found the bronze-haired boy again. He had a slight cocky smirk on his features, which confused and allured her all at the same time. She had to admit, he wasn't exactly hard on the eyes.

"Who's he?" Nora asked, reluctantly turning her head away.

"That's Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, obviously." Jessica said as she swooned over him, but then grew bitter. "Apparently no one here is good enough for him. Like I care." She picked at her food. "Don't waste your time."

Nora glanced over her shoulder, connecting scanning Edward before she pursed her lips. "He's not exactly my type," she mumbled, turning her head away and focusing back on her food. The Cullen's were clearly angels in everyone's opinion, and a little of her own as well. Peaking back, Nora saw that Edward was staring at her with an expression she couldn't decipher. She frowned, quickly turning around. The Cullen's were just like everyone else, just unbelievably beautiful, Nora thought to herself.

"I'm going to dump my tray," she mumbled, getting up from the table. Candice gave her a slight smile, nodding before she went back to her conversation with Jordan. Nora quickly walked over to the garbage can, dumping her tray.

"Planning on running into any more cars after school today, Nora?"

Nora spun around, nearly knocking the booming voice next to me over. Her heart instantly lurched. "How do you know my name?" Nora frowned, looking up at the tall guy who had helped her this morning. She took a deep breath.

"You're the talk of the school," Emmett grinned. "How do I not know your name? Anyways, how are you feeling?"

Nora's eyebrows furrowed, licking her lips before she responded. "Uh, still have a bit of a headache, but I'm fine. And no, I don't plan on running into any more cars."

Emmett nodded, chuckling slightly. "Y'know, the office might have some Advil for your headache." Nora's brown eyes made eye contact with Emmet's amber ones.

"I'll live," she said, stubbornly. Peering around Emmett, Nora found that Edward was still staring at her and looking to the right of Edward, Rosalie was glaring at her. She shrunk back a little. "Uh, I'll see you later?"

Emmett smiled. "Sure," he chuckled again, shaking his head as he walked away.

Nora gave a slight smile as he walked away. Setting her tray on top of the small counter to be washed, Nora headed back to the table, with a frown. Why didn't Emmett have a tray or anything to dump? Did they not eat? Nora glanced back at the Cullen's to have her suspicions confirmed. The Cullen's didn't have any food. "Candice? Why don't the Cullen's buy any food? Do they not eat?" Candice's eyes twinkled and she ignored her question.

"You just talked to Emmett Cullen, oh my God! You never said you were connected with the Cullen's!" Nora wasn't connected with them. At all, but she could feel the jealous stares of Jessica and Lauren.

"Yeah, I guess so," her voice was soft as she twisted the ring on her thumb around. "If you consider having them almost hit me with their car as "connected"..."

The entire table fell silent and Candice blinked a few times, trying to read her face. "They hit you with their car? Oh my God, that is so unlike them!" she frowned, before looking back at the Cullen's to see Rosalie fuming. "But, hey, you know what?! Emmett Cullen talked to you! And Rosalie is so pissed! Just look at her!"

Nora turned her head and sighed when she saw that Rosalie was glaring at her. Emmett's eyes glanced at Rosalie, and following her stare, he sighed and gently slapped her shoulder. Nora could tell he was trying to stop her from giving Nora the death glare. Nora swallowed.

His mouth moved quickly as his brows creased. Rosalie stared at him, fuming as he spoke. "Oh, look!" Jessica giggled. "Emmett is giving her a scolding for glaring at you! Maybe he likes you! That would certainly be news!" Nora shook her head, huffing slightly.

"I don't think he likes me like that, Jessica," she shrugged. "He probably feels guilty for hitting me with their car." With that, Nora grabbed her bag off the floor, giving them all a small smile before walking her way to her next class.

...

When Nora had entered the classroom, she found that Jordan was sitting at a black-topped lab table exactly like the ones she was used to. He already had a neighbor. In fact, all the tables were filled but one. Next to the center aisle, Nora recognized Edward Cullen by his unusual hair, sitting next to that single open seat.

With a sigh, Nora walked to the front desk where the teacher was, handing him a slip of paper to sign. She waited patiently as Mr. Banner signed her slip and handed her a book with no-nonsense about introductions. Nora could tell they were going to get along. Of course, he had no choice but to send her to the one open seat in the middle of the room. Nora ducked her head as she went to sit by him, her nerves getting the best of her.

Nora could see his posture change from the corner of her eye. He was leaning away from her, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. Nora just frowned. She knew she smelled good, she had used her strawberry and honey shampoo, her clothes were freshly washed, and there was nothing wrong. Maybe he was just a germaphobe?

The lecture was on cellular anatomy, something that Nora had already studied. She took notes carefully anyway, always looking down. She felt the familiar tug of her scars as her arm moved and she swallowed in discomfort but ignored it.

Nora couldn't stop herself from peeking occasionally through the screen of curly hair at the strange boy next to her. During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the edge of his chair, sitting as far from her as possible. She could see his hand on his left leg clenched into a fist, tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too, he never relaxed.

The class seemed to drag on longer than the others. Was it because the day was finally coming close, or because Nora was waiting from his tight fist to loosen? What was wrong with him? Was this his normal behavior? Nora questioned her judgment on Jessica's bitterness today a lunch. Maybe she was not as resentful as she thought...

Nora glanced up at him again and regretted it. He was glaring down at her this time, his black eyes full of revulsion. And Nora flinched away from him, shrinking against her chair, the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through her head.

As soon as the bell rang, he fluidly leaped from his seat - he was taller than Nora thought - his back to her as he rushed out of the room, the first one out. It was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders as he left.

"God, what'd you do to Cullen?" Jordan questioned, causing Nora to jump slightly.

Nora sighed, grabbing her books and walking with him. "Honestly, I don't know and I don't care." Jordan nodded.

"Fair enough," he hummed. "What's your next class?"

"I'm headed to music, actually."

"I have gym, but I can take you there if you'd like?"

The music teacher, Mrs. Evans, found that Nora played the cello and piano fluidly, claiming that she rivaled her best piano player, Edward Cullen. Nora already knew she was good, it had been her mother's dream for her daughter to follow the same path she did - Juilliard. And Nora wasn't going to disappoint her mother.

When the final bell rang, Nora walked slowly to the office to return her paperwork. The rain had drifted away, but the wind was strong and colder. She wrapped her arms around herself.

When she walked into the warm office, she almost turned around and walked back out. Edward Cullen stood at the desk in front of her. She recognized the tousled bronze hair. He didn't appear to notice her as Nora pressed herself against the back wall, waiting for a free receptionist.

He was arguing with her in a low, attractive voice. She quickly picked up the gist of the argument. He was trying to trade sixth hour Bio to another time - any other time. Nora rolled her eyes before she was called over by a brown-haired woman and she quickly put a smile on her features.

"How did your first day go, dear?" Nora made sure to steer clear of Edward Cullen as she walked past him.

"It was fine," Nora lied, handing the woman the slip of paper. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry for your loss, dear." The secretary gave her a sad smile. "Losing both your mother and your sister must be so hard... maybe Forks will help you heal."

Nora swallowed harshly, tears stinging her eyes as her hands curled into fists, fingernails digging harshly into the palm of her hand. A curt nod was all she was able to give the secretary as Nora stepped around Edward and opened up the door with all the strength she had, the wind practically forcing her back into the room when a hand pushed the door open with great strength, and Nora felt the chillness coming off of the person behind her, feeling a slight shiver running through her.

Nora looked to see the hand pushing the door open connected to a tense Edward and she ducked her head, mumbling a choked "thanks", before walking off towards the front to find her father's car waiting and heading home to get out of the cold weather.