The F.O.R.K.S. Academy

(A Moderately Important Author’s Note: Wondering why this chapter took so long? First of all, I’ve been swamped with work at school as the summer draws near and haven’t had as much writing time as I ought to. But don’t worry, I’ll be a lot more active when school’s out. Promise. The second reason is that because I was very dissatisfied with the last chapter, I went back and made the discussion between Jasper and Carlisle longer and less pointless and added a scene between Edward and Eleazar. Ok, go go go reread it now and I hope you enjoy this installment of FORKS! Seriously.)

Chapter Four
Bella

“Look, it’s snow!” Alice pointed out, snowflakes covering tufts of her short dark hair in swirls, enthusiastically during their walk to the main academy building where the cafeteria was located.

“No duh, Captain Obvious,” said Rosalie, looking a little dazzled by the snow herself.

“We live in Washington, peoples, Rain City, USA. Of course there’s going to be snow,” Emmett asserted, smirking.

A thick layer of snow made a silvery finish over the academy paths and stretches of grass, glittering enigmatically as Edward followed the others, frantic. He was glad that no one except his siblings noticed that he had been missing for the entire weekend but the outcome felt grim nonetheless. Jasper now had punishment—for a month, because he was trying to help.

He had to admit, begrudgingly, that Eleazar was correct; he had no courage to take control of his own life, however wretched it was. And he supposed the right thing to do was to attempt to, at least, though he still hadn’t an inkling about why Bella Swan had such a startling effect on him…

She is just another girl, after all. “Emmett, Washington isn’t a city. It’s a state,” he reminded the older boy, gently, as Rosalie raised an eyebrow wittily and Emmett appeared wounded. “Oh don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Emmett pouted some more, exaggerating his bold features.

Edward whirled around swiftly when struck by a cold, wet ball of snow hurled at his face. Ominous music thundered in his mind. He wiped the mixture of snow and water from his face with his sleeve and turned to Jasper, who whistled innocently. “You tricked me.”

“A simple redirection of thoughts is all,” was Jasper’s cool response.

“And the war begins…” Alice murmured, tragically, her hands quickly assembling snowballs of her own. Edward’s lips quirked at what his sister was about to do.

“Alas—” Rosalie began to say before getting hit by Alice’s huge snowball. The younger girl laughed at the sight of Rosalie’s face smeared with white, powdery snow. Emmett dropped, ducked, and rolled away efficiently, only to be smacked in the back of the head by Jasper’s snowball.

It was Edward’s turn to take his revenge while his opponent was preoccupied. “Aughhh!” Jasper screamed when a large snowball, a foot in diameter, was hurled at his face. “Damn you, Edward Cullen! Damn. Youuuuuuuuuuuuuu…”

Edward merely guffawed madly as Emmett’s strong arms dragged him into a pile of snow, choking from the snow rushing into his open mouth. Alice was rolling on the ground, laughing at her brothers even though Rosalie was dumping heaps of snow on her repeatedly.

They were all laughing, creating music out of cold atmospheric air

Later, sitting grinning and shivering and soaking wet, Edward mocked, “Are you sure you want anything to eat, Jasper?” They sat at their customary lunch table again, taking small, cautious bites of the unidentified foods the stoic lunch ladies plopped onto their plates carelessly. He thought the main course was something that had once been lasagna, though it seemed to have gone through a lot since then, looking distasteful as an old, brownish mass resistant against Edward’s metal fork.

Jasper eyed him suspiciously, then said, “Okay, I’ll bite. Why wouldn’t I want anything to eat, dear Edward?”

“Well, you ate enough snow during the snowball fight outside!” Edward cried, as the rest of the table roared with mirth.

“Says the person sopping wet from being dragged into the snow,” Jasper replied, unperturbed.

Alice changed the topic lest another snowball fight was started over such a pointless subject, “So how was Denali?”

“Little has changed,” Edward admitted, slightly discomfited by the memory of his conversation with Eleazar. “Snow, snow, caribou, snow, snow, people,” he murmured absently, paying little attention to his siblings now. There she was again, Bella Swan, glancing furtively at him from her place amongst the Lucky Seven. He closed his eyes broodingly.

“You look at her like you’re hungry,” Rosalie said quietly, golden eyes piercing through him. “And the way she’s glancing back at you when she thinks we’re not looking…” Disgusting. Dishonest.

“Thank you for your opinion,” he told her, his tone cutting. Edward, thought Alice warningly. She’s only being honest. “I intend on resolving the matter today.”

The older girl appeared impressed in spite of herself. Alice gave him a thumbs-up and he felt himself swell with pride tastelessly.

Edward felt Mike Newton’s wary glare on the back of his skull. He wondered if he should feel threatened by the swirls of violent, jealous thoughts involving him getting brutally tortured in many creative and clichéd ways rotating through the boy’s thoughts. Then it occurred to him: Mike Newton could not be a threat to him physically as he could anticipate every move he would make the second it popped into his head.

“I think Newton might be in love with you,” Emmett said in a false whisper, leaning across the table carefully. “You and Isabella Swan both, since the two of you’re all he is looking…”

“That’s… flattering, but he’ll be disappointed to know my sexual preference leans heavily towards the female sex,” Edward told his brother, straight-faced.

Alice brightly entered the conversation with, “Not according to the walls in the boys’ and girls’ bathrooms you don’t.”

He sighed. “All rumors and lies. But Alice, how do you what are on the walls of the boys’ bathroom?” She cocked an eyebrow. A vision. Duh. Edward was very thankful that the vision did not involve him in the said bathroom.

It was during Biology with Mr. Banner that Edward managed to look at her without grains of self-loathing and hostility in his gaze. His hair was damp from the melted snow as he subconsciously ran his hand through it, leaving one hand free to balance his body on the edge of his seat. Afraid of what might happen if he got close to her but could not comprehend her thoughts, he sat as far as humanly possible away from her, trying to ignore the constraint of his sweater and the discomfort in his bones.

Nevertheless, he would talk to her still—he must talk to her.

“Hello, Bella Swan, my name is Edward Cullen.”

She looked up reluctantly from the cover of her notebook, confusion shuffled into the soft brown of her eyes. Yes, of course she would be utterly baffled, he said to himself. After all, why would someone who had previously acted a complete ass suddenly speak with a certain degree of cordiality? Her downcast eyes almost physically pained him for he could not acquire the unseen thoughts that made a pair with her countenance. “You know my name?”

He laughed nervously, wondering to himself how on earth he was going to explain this one. “You are—quite popular these days, so you shouldn’t act so surprised.”

“But my name is Isabella Swan,” she said softly, a mystery for him to solve.

“Oh—sorry, I’d thought you might prefer—do you go by Isabella?” he stuttered, flushing.

“No, it’s just that nobody had thought to call me Bella here before.”

“Oh. I merely knew you would prefer Bella…” He couldn’t speak anymore, all the thoughts and words in his mind frozen in their tracks. “Shall I begin the experiment?” he asked, changing the subject quickly.

“I can start it if you want.” She was blushing.

Now he knew he had all the control he needed. He had carried some sort of conversation with her successfully. It was awkward certainly, but he decided to blame it on the fact that they were teenagers. He could speak to her without unleashing horrific consequences because of his ability or rather its lack thereof if he wanted, and he felt stronger for it. “As you wish,” he finally said, confident for the first time in a long while.

He was marveling at the victory of the situation when Bella looked up from the microscope, staring him straight in the eye as she declared, “Prophase.”

Prophase. What a lovely word. She was obviously thought she was proficient at Biology, but Edward knew he was better from past experience doing partner labs. “Really? May I look again?” He caught her hand when she started taking the slide out of the microscope and he flinched, breathing ragged. Her skin felt warm in his hand as thought he was grasping sunlight or something forbidden. “I apologize,” he murmured to her, seeing out of the corner of the eye that she was as startled as he. Then swiftly, he glanced at the slide through the microscope to say, “Prophase.” Perhaps she really is proficient.

He helped himself to the next slide. Before recording it, he simply stated, “Anaphase.”

“Do you mind…?” He shrugged wryly and allowed her a turn on the microscope. “Can I do slide three?” she inquired, sounding satisfied, like she was the one who could read minds.

They were finished with the experiment promptly, though afterwards the teacher, Mr. Banner, had given them some strange looks at their unnatural speed. “So tell me about yourself? You came from Arizona, correct?”

She nodded shyly, a pale blush lying beneath her beautiful exterior, compelling him too dangerously. She was prey to him, the predator, and he was frightened suddenly by how much of a vice she was becoming to him. And what a threat he was becoming to her… he repressed a rush of aching memories overcoming him. “I guess I’m not really used to the cold yet. Or the wet and snowy, for that matter.”

“I suppose I’m not hazarding a guess when I say that you’re not disappointed about the snow melting?” he teased. “Why did you come to the Academy, then, if this is such a difficult place for you?”

Bella seemed shocked that he would ask her straight out like that, without any hint of mockery and machinations. “My mother got remarried last September to Phil, who plays ball for a living and travels a lot,” she said. “And that’s when things got complicated.”

“You guys have to move around a lot, and your mother sent you here so that she could travel with him,” he assumed, measuring the ephemeral expressions on her face in his mind.

“Your assumption isn’t true,” she told him.

She baffled him. All he wanted to do right then was scan her thoughts for clarity. “What do you mean?”

His already piqued interest rose even more when she sighed, apparently exasperated at his curiosity. “You just made an assumption about something you barely know anything apart.”

“Yes, I believe I am familiar with the definition of the term ‘assumption’.” Edward grinned crookedly, to her chagrin.

“How would you like it if I just assumed you’re some gay, emo faux-hipster guy?” she suggested.

“Why would you think that?” he said, frowning, though the curiosity was still apparent in his eyes.

She smiled and listed, “Cashmere sweater, neat hair, sensitive but sulking demeanor.”

“Cashmere sweaters are classic, but I see your point.” He saluted her with a slight nod of the head. “Touché.”

“I sent myself to spend some quality time with Charlie. She looked so unhappy because she couldn’t be with Phil while staying with me…” she explained. Her voice was laced with so much glumness and sadness that Edward could not help but meet her tender gaze sympathetically.

“You would rather be unhappy than to see your mother unhappy,” he stated.

“That’s the end of my story,” she finished humorlessly.

Mr. Banner was scrawling something on the blackboard but it was not at the teacher that Edward’s attention was diverted at, left hand holding his chin in a pensive manner. “Yet deep down inside you are suffering and you won’t let anyone see it.” Too late did he notice how bizarre he would seem to her.

“My mother always calls me her open book, my face is so easy to read.” She smiled, just for him, just this time. The lesson Mr. Banner was teaching them was a blur to him at this point. “You’re reading me like an open book.”

“You have no idea how excruciating hard this has been,” he replied to her, vaguely amused.

---

“Emmett, do you want to like, go out with me this weekend?”

Emmett blinked as he contemplated his prospects, his thumbs hooked on to the belt loops of his jeans thoughtfully. All the students were gradually leaving their classrooms at the last bell of the day when what’s-her-name, the girl, cornered him in the main hallway, as hopeful as he himself was when he decided to ask Rosalie out. “I thought the whole school knows who I like,” he said dumbly, slightly stunned by the boldness that shone from the girl’s eyes like a desert mirage from the heat of the sun.

She, in turn, asked him, “So? What if I know who you like?”

Yeah, so why would you decide to ask someone who likes someone else out, you little idiot? Emmett said to her mentally. “Don’t you think I’d say no? After all, it’s obvious I don’t like you in that way.” Or in any way, for that matter right now. He had been asked out enough times before, but never like this, forcefully, delusional.

“No, you won’t say no because you’re not going out with Rosalie. She won’t have you,” the girl sneered, though Emmett was really more bothered by the fact that he couldn’t recall her name since FORKS was such a close-knitted school… She was quite tall and pretty, but nowhere near the pedestal Rosalie stood on in his mind.

He came right out and bluntly said to the irritating girl, “I don’t even know who you are! There’s no way in hell I want to go out with you.”

“And why not?” Her voice bordered on dangerous as her silky-smooth words of threat danced a passage into Emmett’s consciousness.

“Look, no offense to you even though you’re really kind of an annoying girl, I don’t want to go out with anyone except Rosalie.” He wanted to knock some sense into the girl, who plain old refused to “get it”.

“Oh darn. I guess I’ll be forced to tell Principal Cullen that his darling children broke like a billion school rules to sneak Edward out of the Academy last weekend…” she revealed quietly.

The clamoring footsteps of the students and the thunderous slams of locker doors barely covered the deafening rumble in Emmett’s heart. “What are you talking about, damn it?”

“Drop the dumb act. You know what I’m talking about.” The girl’s fingertips brushed his chest in a dangerously light caress, meeting Emmett’s wide eyes just once, briefly, to allow him to see the ruthless beauty in the pools of her gaze.

“Noooo, if I knew what you were talking about, I wouldn’t be asking you, would I?”

“Fine, here’s a little something to remind you then.” She pulled a pink (not just any pink, an offensively hot pink, thought Emmett) mobile phone from the pocket of her too-tight, designer jeans. “I bet you don’t have like, a hot cell phone like this one. It even takes videos.”

Emmett had never been so tempted to slap a female in the face, and with his strength, he could probably slap her face off her head and there would be nothing left there to bother him.

“Okay, your parents give you too much money and you enjoy filming questionable videos on your ugly cell phone. I get that.” He couldn’t rein in his anger at this girl. She was so… bitchy and preppy. A more sensible part of himself reminded him gently that Rosalie had a cell phone like that, only red, but he knew she was above this Barbie, deep down inside. Would he like her as much as he did if she was?

“Oh, check out this really, really fab clip I got really like late last night.” She flipped open the phone gracefully and stuck it before Emmett’s eyes. “I took it while I was looking out the window at night, y’know.”

He shivered beneath his skin from something other than the cold temperature. What showed up on the previously blank screen of the streamlined device was Edward’s vehicle, with a clear view of Edward’s face in the window, driving through the front entrance of the academy, its engines humming tranquilly in the silence.

Blackmail. That was what her intention was when she first approached him. He attempted to speak, but the disgust he had for his stupidity and her malice that his angry words gagged him like a cloth as he recovered.

Blanching, he demanded, “What do you want with me, then? You obviously don’t think I’m so great and nor I you. Why do you even want to go out with me?”

“The problem is that I do think you’re pretty great,” she said demurely. She took the phone away from his face and closed it loudly.

“I’m not Edward,” he said quietly. “That’s who you want to go out with you, right? We’re brothers, but that’s when our common interests end.”

“I know that, but he’s not the reason I’m doing this, even though he rejected me.”

“Then its popularity?” he guessed. “You’re dying to beat Rosalie. And how much more embarrassing would it be for her if her own brother sided with you.”

She smiled, revealing white teeth and deadly cruelty. “I knew you weren’t totally dumb. This is like a one of those awesome ‘two birds with one stone’ plans. Since we’ll be together all the time, I can also make sure Bella Swan doesn’t get Edward if I can’t. And you can’t tell anyone because then I’ll get Edward expelled. Principal Cullen can’t exactly go easy on his son, now can he?”

“You’re a nasty piece of work,” Emmett growled, though he really meant “You fucking piece of shit” or something equally explicit. Neither of them spoke a syllable next. The hallways emptied as students exited the school building for the final time that day. “Since we’re ‘going out’, shouldn’t I know your name?”

“You can call me Lauren.”

---

Edward pushed the door to the main school building open enthusiastically, glad for his classes to be finished for the day. He walked through the door and stopped at the right side of the doorway, waiting as Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper too exited the building. The untainted snow drifting from the heavens earlier that day had weakened into a minor rain that left paths of water across his white skin. He recalled the natures of passion, beginning as pure and chaste and powerful as snow itself and somehow dwindling into a rain, softer and kinder but no less essential to the world.

He repressed a gasp when he saw Bella Swan, separated from him by a glass door and three students. Their eyes met precariously through what divided them, golden versus warm brown. She walked absently in the crowd, paying little attention to her surroundings but for Edward.

Edward let out a cry of warning, but she did not notice the door was closed when she attempted to walk through the doorway, hitting her forehead on glass and metal firmly.

So fragile. What will she do with no one there to protect her? Edward then thought, and laughed irrepressibly until he fled the scene of the crime.