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“Are you daydreaming again?” Jess snapped at her, throwing a grape with pinpoint accuracy at her forehead. It bounced twice on the table and onto the floor. “I asked you a question.” Jess had piled her curly hair onto her head, and looked a little manic.
They were seniors and so everyone looked a little manic at that point. Finals loomed closer with every day.
“She’s staring at her lab partner again.” Mike spoke through a mouthful of his sandwich, in return she stomped on his foot as hard as she could.
“I was daydreaming actually.” She corrected him darkly as he yelped, tucking his feet beneath him as far as he could.
“Whatever, I don’t care about your stupid crush right now. I need to see that email from Mr Banner again.” She held out her hand while she returned to her notes.
“You’re blushing.” Mike offered, grinning widely.
“I will punch you Michael.” He laughed at this, while knowing it was a very real threat.
She dug out her phone and handed it to Jess who snatched it away without a thank you, she let it slide, having been friends with her since childhood she understood what high maintenance meant. It meant Jessica Stanley.
“You still running track tonight?”
She had sat on the chatty end of the table, while the other end which held Ben, Angela and Austin ate silently and working from their notes. Eric had instead stolen her seat that day. While Jess still chose to sit this end with the likes of Katie, Tyler and Lauren who were loudly talking about prom instead of doing any actual work. Jess couldn’t bare to be out the loop yet was unable to concentrate due to the noise, so she was snappy. Bella hadn’t even bothered to pull her notes out for lunch to pretend to revise, she had slept badly that night with the rain and with concern for her father. There had been a string of robberies in the area, and everyone in this stupid town had a gun.
Instead she had chosen to attempt to daydream, kicking the chair back as far as it would go before she fell, and eating her sad cafeteria lunch quickly.
When she was sure she was safe, with Jess pouring over the email and Mike engaged in a conversation with Eric and Tyler she allowed herself to look over at the table again. She was trying very hard not to be creepy. Of course, that was easier said than done.
Edythe Cullen had moved to Forks halfway through Sophomore year, and due to Forks’ Highs strict social hierarchies she had been forced into the group of fellow transfers. Everyone who had joined Forks in High School had been deemed too late to integrate. It was stupid, and one Bella had refused to engage in. She had been lucky to be accepted by Jess when she had moved back in with her dad in middle school and thus introduced to the rest of her friendship group. Unfortunately. This was also filled with aspirational jocks and cheerleaders. Which was why in her freshman year, to her father’s and her own amusement, she had tried out for cheer.
Even worse. She had been accepted.
‘Extra-curriculars, it’ll look good on your transcripts!’ Her dad had said, encouraging her to continue with it, even after she had broken her wrist for the second time.
Running track was her own rebellion against cheer, which she had stuck at for the whole four years. Alongside Jess and Lauren, who she was sure had been the cause of her second fracture. Track was all her own.
“Not tonight, Coach Clapp has cancelled it.” She stole one of Jess’s grapes.
“Want an extra shift at work?”
She groaned at this. “Not really.” The school bell went then, and instantly everyone began to pack away their belongings and half-eaten lunches.
“Come on…” he goaded, he and Eric fell into step alongside her as they headed towards bio. “If you do I’ll put in a good word with Edythe.” He nudged her, she elbowed him back.
She had kissed Lauren in spin the bottle when they were fourteen at one of Mike’s get togethers and had developed her first real crush. One that was most definitely not reciprocated. Well, that was an understatement as Lauren had become the only one to be outwardly cruel about it in their group, refusing to invite her to sleepovers and the usual ilk. However, no one formally addressed it. Mostly because no one was really sure it if was homophobia, or because Bella had deliberately kissed Tyler in front of her. Not one of her finer moments.
Everyone knew about her though, and she either friends or amenable with enough of those who otherwise would have bullied her. Her sexuality had always been viewed by the rest of the school as something of a poorly kept secret or played off as a joke anyway.
They reached biology and split off to their individual tables, Edythe was already there. Her papers spread out before her in perfect order, three different coloured pens at the ready and various multi-coloured highlighters. Her hair was loose that day, pushed back by a thin, Alice band. Bella wished she had red hair too, so beautiful. Instead her own was an unfortunate peroxide blonde, it had seemed a good idea at 2am.
“Hello Bella!” She quietly greeted her in her usual way.
“Hey!” She sat and began to pull out her own tattered notebook.
Beneath the desk she noticed Edythe wasn’t wearing tights that day, she wasn’t sure she had ever seen her wear jeans or leggings. But her various floral dresses were accompanied by thick black tights due to the nature of Fork’s awful weather. But not today, instead she had her pale white legs neatly crossed beneath the desk. To escape any further unfortunate creeping Bella reeled away, the top of her head connecting with the underneath of the desk, loudly.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay!” Edythe slid from her seat, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m fine.” She muttered trying desperately to pull away, but Edythe wouldn’t let her go so easily.
“You might have a concussion.”
“I’m fine.” She repeated, instead Edythe caught her chin in her hand and peered into her eyes. Bella was powerless and let her, caught in her beautiful green-eyed gaze. Only after a thorough interrogation she let her sit down again, she realised she had forgotten her pen but was too awkward to reach below the desk again for her bag.
“How are your… college applications coming along?” Edythe asked, her voice high and musical, and apparently unhappy to sit in silence.
“Oh…” she shrugged, “I’ve applied to a few places in state and a few in Arizona.” Her mother technically resided there, so she would get in-state tuition. “What about you?” She had already heard of course, Forks was small. She had gotten into NYU and would be going there this fall. Bella had applied there too, but only out of curiosity, her grades were no near good enough for NYU. Washington State meanwhile, with a scholarship, was the cheap, cheap price of nine thousand a year. Practically a bargain!
“Oh, I’m applying for as many music scholarships as I can, my dad really wants me to stay west coast though.” A light blush coloured the apples of her cheeks.
Conversation ground to an awkward halt, desperately wanting to to continue their conversation but unfortunately her brain remained blank, as instead it chose to focus on her long lashes and red lips. God, she was little better than Mike and Eric, she chastised herself.
“I heard about…” She began right as Mr Banner finally burst into class, only ten minutes late.
“Right kids, books away!” He called over her, they shared a concerned look. “We’re going to be doing something fun today, no stress in my biology class!” Half the class cheered while the other half groaned, she found herself in the former column while Edythe resided in the latter. “There’s a blood drive in town this weekend, who wants to know your blood type!” He encouraged cheers from the class.
She laughed at Mike’s particularly loud whoop and allowed herself a quick glance at her partner.
Edythe did not look happy, her hand shot into the air. “I already know my blood type sir, may I use this time to go to the library to study instead?” She called out when he noticed her hand.
“Not today Miss Cullen! Today we’re having fun!” At those moment he produced cookies that he explained he and his wife had been up all night cooking for the class. Edythe’s lips pursed at this, and she gained that particular look Bella had seen on her face more often than not this year.
“Hey, you can do work here, I won’t distract you, scouts honour.”
At her words Edythe blushed, “oh no… it’s not really about the work.” She tugged on a lock of her hair. Bella wondered the effort it must take to get up every morning and put make-up, choose a nice outfit, and to even straighten her hair, which Edythe clearly did. Her hair did return its natural curl when it rained or the humidity was high, which was very often. Bella had decided she liked it curly.
In return Bella’s morning routine consisted of rolling out of bed, tugging on the cleanest pair of jeans, a tank top, and whatever plaid was the first to hand. Her hair took the longest. Which was letting the blonde grow out without cutting it and so she had the look of a skunk. Her dad also didn’t like her undercut. But she thought it looked cool. So she continued upkeep on that.
“I just.... don’t really like blood.” She flushed again. “The smell makes me feel nauseous.”
Bella bit back a laugh, unfortunately for someone as clumsy as herself while also partaking I’m so many sports Bella regularly saw her own blood. The only thing she couldn’t deal with was the sight of bone sticking through the skin. And that had only happened once. So far.
Mr Banner had begun to make the rounds with the blood-typing kit. She too knew her own blood type as someone as accident prone as herself ought to know.
“Mr Banner, uh, I really don’t think Edythe is feeling very well.” She did look particularly pale as he approached their table.
“Have some water Miss Cullen and put your head on the table for a bit then.”
After he had gone she huffed angrily, muttering under her breathe about moronic teachers. “Sorry, I did tried.”
“Thank you for that,” she looked up at her from under her lashes and Bella felt her heart flutter again.
Stop thirsting over your lab partner, she commanded herself.
“We’d better get this over with then.” She decided grabbing the kit and beginning to set everything up.
“Edythe, we don’t have to, if we get sent out of class then we get sent out of class.” She shrugged, placing her hands behind her head and leaning back on her chair, showing she was willing to go against her teachers rules. It wouldn’t be the first time, so why not make it the last?
Also a lie. She would totally get thrown out of Mr Mason’s English class before the end of the semester.
Edythe, however, looked scandalised.
“Finger... please,” she held out a hand, needle at the ready. Bella snorted, unable to keep her laughter inside, Edythe chose to ignore her response, but colour rose higher in her cheeks. So she wasn’t completely innocent.
She took her hand in her own, so soft, Bella wondered what she smelled like. Edythe wasted no time, as the needle stabbed her finger.
The blood took a moment to pool on her fingertip, a bright red.
Edythe’s reaction was instantaneous.
Already pale, her pallor increased, somehow becoming tinged with green. She wavered on the stool before collapsing backwards. Bella caught her easily in her arms, she was was tiny in comparison. Edythe was passed out. People began to notice then, turning round and giggling at the sight. Mike and Eric thankfully called out for Mr Banner as she found herself incapable of speech. Mr Banner rushed to her side and checked her pulse of all things.
“I uh… need to go to the nurses office.” Was all she could manage while Mr Banner flapped around them, shifting the girl easily in her arms so she held her bridal style. Mike held open the door for her winking as she escaped into the empty hallways the classroom erupted into quiet snickers.
Something in her stomach sunk, she felt like she was being mocked. Like she was being outed to her entire biology class…
Edythe was light in her arms, completely and utterly passed out from one small speck of blood. Her father was even a doctor much to her amusement.
She kicked open the nurses office and placed her in the bed.
“Bloody typing, AP bio?” The elderly nurse question, at her nod she huffed, “there’s always one.” After a few standard questions which included had she hit her head and was she normally that pale.
“You can go back to class Miss Swan.” She ordered.
“Mr Banner told me to stay with her until she woke up... he was quite concerned.” The lie formulated easily enough as Mr Banner was quite the worrier.
The nurse didn’t seem to care. “Let me know when she wakes.” She left them together to write notes.
Here she could stare at Edythe Cullen’s passed out form all she wanted.
Okay. She was officially creepy.
Instead she pulled out her phone, social media distracted her enough, and also managed to waste away the rest of biology. Fifteen minutes before her next class she decided she should go grab the bags they had left, Mr Banner waved her back in, not particularly bothered she hadn’t reappeared all lesson.
“Check your phone.” Mike had hissed as she walked past. She ignored him and made her way back to the nurses office where Edythe had begun to wake up.
“Oh... oh no. I passed out didn’t I?” She asked the nurse, her face was an alarming shade of red, as she struggled to sit up and smooth her dress down at the same time.
“Don’t worry about it.” The nurse offered, checking to see if she felt well enough.
She began to search for something. “Where is my bag and my jacket?” Bella offered her hand to help clamber down from the bed, Edythe took it for just a second, Bella allowed her hand to linger…
Coming back to herself she gestured towards the bags. “Here, I just went back to class for them.”
“Oh… thank you.” She donned her coat and bag and escaped the nurses office as quickly as she could, into empty hallways.
“I knew something like this was going to happen in my last few weeks.” She muttered.
“It’s honestly not that big of a deal.”
“Maybe not for you.” Bella didn’t understand the meaning, but got that it was an insult.
“Sorry, sorry… I didn’t mean that in a bad way.” Her tone had implied something different however. “I just wanted… I had hoped I would have some nice comments in my year book, instead of…” She waited for her to finish. “I think I would rather be forgotten than be known as ‘the girl who passed out from some blood’. It’s embarrassing.” Bella still could not understand why this was as big of a deal as she was making it.
“I’ll write something real nice in your yearbook, don’t worry about that.” She nudged her hip and this seemed to alleviate some of her stress, Edythe let out a giggle.
“I don’t want to go to Spanish now though…”
“We can skip. Come with me and I’ll get you a milkshake and you can forget about the whole thing.” Despite her earlier scandal at being kicked out of class, post-passed our Edythe appeared surprisingly amenable to this offer. “Think of it as a medical treatment, you have to get those blood sugars back up!” She was surprised how quickly Edythe agreed to her plan.
They returned to the nurses’ office after concocting a quick plan, Edythe leant heavily into her side, her face pale once again to sell the story. “I’ll drive her home Nurse Cope, she shouldn’t be driving home in such a state.” After some semi-convincing acting on both their parts they were heading towards her truck.
“Don’t you have gym now? You don’t have to skip gym for me.”
“You know my schedule?” A small burst of happiness settled in her stomach, while in return Edythe blushed again.
“It’s a small school,” she shrugged, she was right, it was pretty easy to know most people’s schedules after a whole year. Edythe clambered into her truck while she grabbed all her useless trash and threw it onto the back seat. She was happy to find a joint, which she stashed into the glove compartment.
They drove nearly all the way to Port Angeles, while Edythe fiddled with her radio bemoaning its poor signal. “I do have an aux… somewhere.” She reached under her seat and pulled out a cassette.
“Seriously Bella, why are you living in 1992.” She giggled taking the cassette from her.
“What music do you like to listen to?” She asked, plugging her phone in.
“Uh,” she licked her lips, deciding whether to take the risk, “girl in red… have you heard of her?” She was practically shouting that she was gay from the rooftops.
“Oh no, I haven’t heard of her before, I’ll search for her though.”
“No!” She practically yelled at her, “just… put whatever you want on.”
“You wouldn’t like my music.” She muttered, still scrolling through her spotify.
“Well show me.”
Her own music taste was mostly whatever was on Spotify’s gym mix or whatever trash Sam and Jared put on the speakers at beach bonfires. And various music from her mom’s boyfriend’s from over the years, and they had been varied.
“I like… fifties music mostly, and classical.”
“Niche!” She laughed, “put it on, educate me!” She offered, after much deliberation instead she heard the sound of Girl in Red. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“Where are you taking me?” Edythe asked, the sounds of ‘We Fell in Love in October’ were emitted from her outdated radio system.
“You’ll see,” she spoke just as the refrain began, you will be my girl, Bella’s head remained blank.
“You’ve always lived in Forks haven’t you?” Edythe asked.
She wound her window down slightly, letting some cooler air into the cab which was steadily getting hotter. “Not always, my mom took me in the divorce, we lived all round. She couldn’t settle anywhere, so I’ve seen a lot of places.” In detriment to her own education, but at least she could say she had seen some of the weirder wonders off the highway. “You’re from Chicago right?” She asked just as Edythe continued:
“What made you move back?” She laughed, it was like music, just as the next song came onto the radio. Bella died a little further inside. I don’t want to be your friend, I just want to kiss your lips.
“Oh,” Edythe giggled a little at the lyrics.
“Just put your music on,” her tone must have been harsher than intended for Edythe immediately paused the song before putting on one of her playlists. “Sorry,” she apologised quietly, but Edythe either pretended not to hear her or ignored her. “I moved back in middle school,” she wasn’t about to add in about CPS, as the whole town had found out anyway. “I prefer Forks anyway.”
“Born and bred in Chicago.” Edythe responded, “I do miss the city sometimes.
“Why’d you move?” Conversation slowly began to flow back to normal.
“Well my mom… We lived in a really nice suburb, but my school got shot up and so she panicked. She’s originally from Ohio and so wanted a change, so she picked the West Coast, and then Seattle, and searched houses for sale within like a hundred mile radius. Unfortunately my mom has a very specific vision for what kind of house she wanted to live in, Forks happened to have a mid-century dilapidated mansion that practically cried out to her.” Edythe mimicked her mom perfectly even though Bella had met Mrs Cullen only once before.
“Were you in school when it happened?”
She nodded, turning her afce towards the window. “I’m sorry,” she let her hand graze her arm.
They reached the outskirts of Port Angeles then and Bella turned down a side road before pulling up outside what was practically a shack. “The best milkshake you have ever had, I promise you!”
She got to watch Edythe hop down from her truck again, she only just came to her shoulder as they walked side by side, their arms brushing gently.
Once inside she watched her afce light up as she read the menu again and again, “these look amazing!” She had already ordered, as she chose the same triple chocolate shake with extra whipped cream every time she came.
“May I have the oreo shake please,” she bounced on her tiptoes as she ordered and Bella was once again struck by how cute she was. She paid in cash before Edythe could object.
“My treat after you had such a bad day, anyway, you need the sugar. Consider it medicinal.” She tugged her plaid back onto her bare shoulders were it had fallen, trying to ignore the way Edythe’s eyes had lingered upon her shoulder. Sure she was making it all up in her head.
“Thank you…” a deep blush coloured her cheeks. There were no seats inside so they headed back to her truck and she took her to Harbourview Park. It was raining, as always, but it was a nice spot nonetheless to enjoy their milkshakes.
“I’ve never been here before,” Edythe turned to her, a small blob of cream on the tip of her nose.
“You’ve got something,” she gestured to her face, and Edythe began to rub at her cheeks.
“No, here…” she leant over, too close, and using her index finger, she caught the cream. Edythe stared at her, wide-eyed, and she sat back as far as she could. She didn’t want to make her uncomfortable in any way so she pulled away. “I uh… can’t believe you haven’t been here, I always come here whenever Jess and Ang make me go shopping with them.” Many a time she had escaped and instead sunbathed in her truck-bed. Jess liked to call her a hick for this.
She was tanned anyway, but she never missed an opportunity for the sunshine. Edythe meanwhile looked as though she hadn’t seen the sun in a decade.
“I’m usually the one shopping,” she explained, “Alice and Rose are big shoppers too.” Her two close friends. Alice Brandon was… odd, to be kind about it. The rest of the school, unfortunately, weren’t so kind. She did know Cynthia, even though she was only a freshman. She was on the cheer squad, and made sure to socially distance herself from her sister. Rosalie Hale meanwhile was Bella’s original crush before Edythe had moved to Forks. She had moved in freshman year, held back a year for reasons no one had ever found out, so she was really a sophomore. She was… ridiculously hot. Mike and Eric regularly salivated over her when no girls were around. Only Bella didn’t count and had heard their gross fantasies. However, Rosalie was very scary and very straight and dating Emmett McCarty. He had been the quarterback on the football team but had dropped out before graduating. He worked in the lumber trade the last she had heard.
They watched the sea for a while, finishing their milkshakes. “I’m a little cold, mind if I turn the heating on?” They reached out at the same time, their hands gently knocking into another. Both apologising, Bella didn’t mean hers.
“The heating on this thing is kind of temperamental, here,” she reached behind her and grabbed the only jacket she had in her car. Her letterman jacket. It swamped the girl and Bella bit back her thoughts about how good she looked in it.
Only long after the sun had set did either begin to mention heading home, and only because her mom called Edythe asking where she was and if she would be home for dinner. She dropped her off back at school where her silver volvo waited for her, the lot was empty apart from it.
Both seemed unwilling to leave, Edythe had gotten out the car but remained chatting, only the cold finally drove her to her own car. “Keep it!” She called out when Edythe tried to return Bella’s letterman.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Edythe called out, like it was a promise.
Only as she drove away she realised she had promised to cover for Mike at work.
It had been worth it.
*