𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑:
Cafeteria Gossip

THE CULLENS ARE CURRENTLY SEATING in the corner of the cafeteria or the usual spot that they have been sitting on every lunch since they started going to the school in Forks. They sat away from the student body as possible.

Alice looks at Edward. The two mastered communicating mentally. Edward lightly shook his head, not telling the others they were having a mental conversation.

A small girl paused at the end of the closest table to theirs, stopping to talk to her friend.

She tossed her short, sandy hair, constantly running her fingers through it. The heaters blow her scent to theirs.

Edward suddenly kicks Jasper's chair, the honey blonde's black eyes resentful for a second, and he looks down at the ground and mutters, "Sorry."

"You weren't going to do anything," Alice murmurs assuringly, trying to soothe his mortification, and adds, "I could see that," Edward fought a frown that would easily give the pixie's lie.

"It helps a little if you think of them as people," Alice suggests, her high, musical voice racing too fast for human ears to understand.

"Her name is Whitney. She has a baby sister she adores. Her mother invited Esme and Thalia to that garden party, do you remember?"

"I know who she is," Jasper curtly says. He turns away to stare at the small windows that are spaced just under the eaves around the long room.

His tone ended the conversation.

Edward shakes his head and mentally sighs. "Jasper should just accept his limitations and work within them."

Alice sighs silently and stands up, picking up her tray of food-her prop, as it is with her leaving him and the others alone.

She knew when her best friend had enough of her encouragement. She'll just go to the teacher's lounge and talk to Thalia.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

AT THE OPPOSITE CORNER WHERE THE CULLENS SAT, Bella Swan couldn't look away. She stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful.

She watched as Alice rose from her seat with her tray-unopened soda, unbitten apple-and walked away from the cafeteria with quick, graceful steps that belonged on a runway.

"Who are they?" Bella asks the girl from her Spanish class, whose name she'd forgotten, then suddenly Edward looks at the girl seated beside her for just a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered to hers.

He looked away quickly, more quickly than she could. In embarrassment, she looks away from them.

The girl beside her giggled, looking at the table where the Cullen sibling sat.

"That's Edward and Emmet Cullen, and Rosalie Cullen and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen. They all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife," she says under her breath as Bella looks at him, his mouth moving very quickly, his lips barely opening as if he is speaking to them quietly.

Strange, unpopular names, She thought to herself.

"They are...very nice-looking," Bella struggles to release her statement.

"Yes!" The girl agrees, with another giggle escaping her lips. "They can all be like together, you know? Since they're in pairs, but they're just siblings, they can go on as couples, but that will be weird since they all live together."

"Which ones are the Cullens?" Bella asks, "They don't look related."

"Oh, they're not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They're all adopted. The Hales are brother and sisters, siblings-the blondes-and they're foster children," The girl informs her.

Bella furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "They look a little old to be fostered."

"They are now, Jasper and Rosalie are seventeen and eighteen, but they've been with Thalia, our English teacher, since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that."

"Thalia Elie?" Bella asks surprisingly that her English teacher is Cullen's adoptive mother.

"Yes!" Jessica agrees once more. "She's really nice, you know, always so considerate of us. She's my favorite."

"That's kind of nice-for them to take care of all those kids like that when they're so young and everything," Bella admits.

"I guess so. They weren't alone. Dr. Cullen's sister and her husband helped to raise them," Jessica admits reluctantly and adds, "I think Thalia can't have kids, though."

"Have they always lived in Forks?"

"No," The girls says with a voice that she shouldn't even ask the obvious and adds, "They just moved here two years ago from Manhattan, New York. They're like, rich, rich."

"Which one is the boy with the reddish-brown hair," Bella asks curiously as she takes a peek at him from the corner of her eyes, she sees that he's already staring at her, and she looks down again, fiddling with her fingers.

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently, none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him," The girl says with bitterness lacing in her voice.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

EDWARD TURNS HIS HEAD AWAY to hide his smile and thinks to himself, "Jessica and her classmates had no idea how lucky they were that none of them particularly appealed to me."

"Shall we?" Rosalie murmured as they exited their seats, and Emmett asked, "So, is the new one afraid of us yet?"

Edward just shrugs. Emmett isn't interested enough to press more information, then they walk out of the cafeteria and as they went to their separate classes.

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

THALIA FROWNS AS SHE SEES EDWARD TRYING TO CHARM MRS. COPE about moving from Biology class to a senior-level science, specifically, Physics.

So she decided to join in the conversation. Walking towards Edward, she places a gentle hand on his broad shoulder, then Edward turns around and shakes his head and looks back at Mrs. Cope.

"Please, Ms. Cope," Edward murmurs, his voice smooth and compelling "Isn't there some other section I could switch to? I'm sure there has to be an open slot somewhere. Sixth-hour Biology can't be the only option..."

He smiles at her, careful not to flash his teeth too widely that it would scare her again, letting the expression soften his face.

"Well, maybe I could talk to
Bob-I mean Mr. Banner. I could see if-" Mrs. Cope says as she quickly types on her computer, trying to see if there are any vacant sections.

Then a scent wafted through their noses that changed the atmosphere completely.

A second was all it took for Samantha Wells to enter the room, place a signed tardy slip in the basket by the door, and out again, in a rush to be away from school.

A gust of wind through the open door crashed upon them, and they froze as their heads looked back, and they saw Bella Swan standing with her back pressed to the wall beside the door, a paper clutched in hand.

The smell of her blood saturated every particle of air in the tiny room. Edward's throat burns into flames.

Thalia squeeze's his shoulder, locking him in place. She feels Edward's control slipping.

"Edward," Thalia says softly, and Edward's head snaps towards her, his glare becoming soft as he looks at Thalia shamefully.

He had just thought of slamming Mrs. Cope's head on the desk with enough force to kill her, and he knew Thalia felt it. She thought that he'd go on a spree.

The room reeks of death.

Edward cuts off the motion of his lungs and turns back to face Mrs. Cope as the redhead shrinks away from him. Using all his control, he evens and smooths his voice.

"Never mind, then. I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help," Edward says and quickly looks at Thalia as the brunette woman just nods, and Edward is quick to exit the room.

Thalia just straightens her skirt and looks at Mrs. Cope, who is still shocked at the interaction that just happened, and chuckles. "Teenagers and their mood swings," and the redhead nods in agreement.

Then she turns around and sees Bella still standing beside the door. Thalia smiles and says, "I hope you're enjoying your first day here, Bella. Tell Charlie that I'll send dinner after I get home."
and Bella just nods as Thalia follows Edward behind.

She sees Edward in his Volvo as she approaches the rest, who are already crowding around the car as they entered one by one, and Alice asks, alarm in her voice, "Edward?"

"What the hell happened to you?" Emmett demands. Instead of answering him, Edward starts the car and reverses, and drives away from the parking lot.

"You're leaving?" Alice whispers as Thalia looks at Edward worriedly.

"Am I?" Edward asks with a snarl escaping his lips.

"Oh," Alice suddenly says, her eyes glazing over. She's having one of her visions again, "Oh," she says again.

"Stop!" Edward groans. What he must be seeing mustn't be a pretty picture. The grimace on his face says so.

"Sorry," Alice whispers, then her eyes glazing over again.

"I'll miss you," She says, "No matter how short a time you're gone," Thalia, Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie share an apprehensive glance.

"Drop us here," Alice instructs, "Thalia will come with you to tell Carlisle yourself."

Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper leave the car in silence; they would make Alice explain what she saw, and the pixie places a hand on his shoulder.

"You'll do the right thing," Alice murmurs and adds, "She's Charlie Swan's only family. It would kill him, too."

That statement just made Thalia's confusion into a realization of what's causing Edward's frustration and her sudden feeling of death.

"I'll be alright, Edward, Carlisle, and I will support you in your decision," Thalia says comfortingly, and Edward just nods and looks back on the road.

Edward Cullen wanted to kill Bella Swan.

Author's Note:

➵ I hate how I took a lot of paragraphs from the books, but I can't exactly change them since I have no other perspective of what visually happened. Like in the movies, I can't put much detail into this. Lmao. Expect more. However, I won't be writing all the details from the books, only scenes that are important/aren't in the movies.