It's in Our Blood

Bella, Nyx and I wandered around a little while longer before sixth period began. Bella offered to show us where our classroom is but was surprised to know we had the rest of the day off as spares. She sheepishly waved goodbye. Bella had a lot in her mind. She seemed to want to say more, to ask us something but decided against it and walked away.

There was an assembly today at last period. The welcome and welcoming back type of assembly and well, since we didn’t have last period, we were debating on whether or not we should go. After all, how much fun can you have hanging around school for an hour and thirty minutes?

The two of us went out to the parking lot and hung around there for a bit. We dumped our things into the back seat of our Spider and drove off to the mall. If we don’t get drafted or too caught up at the mall, then we’ll come back for the assembly. Whatever happens will happen right?

We arrived in the small span of 10 minutes opposed to the half hour it should have taken us but hush. What they don’t know won’t hurt them. The doors slid open and surprisingly, there were quite a few people. There wasn’t a lot like during the summer but there were quite a few couples hanging around. Some teens that were probably skipping school hung around gossiping.

The two of us headed into Hot Topic where Jacky immediately spotted us as she was heading back to American Apparel, which was right beside Hot Topic. She quickly ushered the two of us in the store towards the back. Jacky looked around the store before closing the doors to the staff room. She smiled at us.

“Don’t want to take a chance with random costumers.” She told us before turning serious.

I twitched a bit nervously under her gaze.

“Why aren’t you two in school right now?” She frowned at us.

“Well…” Nyx began, “We kind of only have classes in the morning up until fifth period lunch. So we decided to come to work?”

Jacky shook her head at us and sighed.

“I’m assuming you have all of your other credits?” she asked us.

I nodded.

Jacky shrugged, “As long as you’re not purposely ditching class its fine with me.”

I smiled at her words; see what I meant when I say we’re like family? Both Nyx and I ran up and hugged her. She returned it before shoving us towards the door and into the store.

“Now go help Carlie will you Kari. There’s a ton of inventory that needs to be checked when we have our fall sale.” Jacky informed me; she turned towards Nyx, “I’m pretty sure a bunch of new band merch arrived in Hot Topic.”

Nyx’s eyes brightened and she smiled.

“Well…” She dragged out, “Bye!”

Nyx waved and ran out quickly in human speed towards Hot Topic. You could hear her shout out “MAX! RALPHIE! STELLA!” and the three of them running her to the ground and dog piling her. If Nyx didn’t have vampire and werewolf blood running through her, I would have felt bad for her.

Although, I didn’t have much time to think about Nyx for much longer. Jacky had pushed me right into the path of Carlie. Carlie ran up towards me screaming my name with her arms wide open.

“KARI!!!!!” she screamed, dragging out my name.

I rolled my eyes and imitated her, “CARLIE!!!!”

We dramatically hugged each other and sobbed.

“I missed you!” she cooed.

“No, I missed you more!” I replied.

She pulled away from me and glared, “No. I missed you more.”

I glared back, “Lie. I missed you more.”

Our glaring contest continued. A timid looking costumer who was around his early twenties came up to us with a pair of clothes in his hands.

“Uh miss?” he asked politely.

Our glaring turned towards him. He gulped.

“Uh… never mind.” He said.

We continued for a couple more seconds before burst out laughing. The guy’s face was priceless. He pouted. I could swear Carlie just swooned. Which made my eyebrow arch. I scrutinized the guy. He was quite refined in his appearance. He wasn’t exactly any label but his shady looking dirty blond hair was quite cute. Carlie is so hooked.

“You guys are mean.” He said with an adorable accent.

It sounded English. Carlie swooned again. She quickly recovered and stuck her tongue out in a very Nyx like manner. Sometimes I regret having people meet Nyx. They pick up on her little actions and imitate her. Then they start adapting it to their own and bam! It’s some six year old party. Not that I’m complaining but you try dealing with more than one hyper active teenager and being the responsible one.

“Deal with it!” Carlie shouted happily before turning serious, “So how may we help you kind sir?”

He chuckled, “It’s Van. And yes you may help me.”

“Alright Van. I’m thinking you would want to buy those clothes?” Carlie flirted.

I smirked. This was a funny scene. And it was kind of repulsive watching your friend flirt but I’ll deal.

Van and Carlie walked away to the cashier desk with huge grins plastered over their faces. I shook my head, slightly laughing at them and walked over to some boxes. I unloaded a ton of new inventory and chatted with some costumers.

I went over to Hot Topic to see Max slinging Nyx over his shoulder and dumping her into Ralph’s grip. She shouted many loud profane things to Max before turning her head towards Ralph. She sheepishly smiled and waved.

“Hi Ralphie. Fancy seeing you here!” Nyx said.

He laughed at her and put her down gently.

“Nice seeing you here too.” He said.

Ralph turned his head towards the entrance. I walked up to him smiling. Nyx walked skipped over towards me.

“Hello miss, how may I help you today?” Nyx asked me in a very posh voice.

“You may help me by accompanying me in kidnapping dear Ralph here and buying some ice cream.” I replied.

Nyx beamed at me and smiled. She took one of Ralph’s arms as I took the other and dragged him out of Hot Topic. Ralph groaned in protest but gave up as we neared the front of Baskin 31 Robins.

“Hello Mariella!” Nyx greeted, “One orange sherbet for Kari, strawberry for Ralph and triple fudge for moi!”

Mariella had already scooped up the three ice cream cones for us as we were coming along. Our ice cream flavors never changed. She smiled at us.

“You three give me more business than any other person here. More than half of your paycheck is ice cream isn’t it?” she asked us jokingly.

“Yeppers!” Nyx replied, licking her triple fudge ice cream.

We waved good bye to her and went to our regular table in the food court. The three of us ate our ice cream quite happily. That was until Nyx finished hers too quickly and began to mooch off of both me and Ralph. That was not fun.

She settled with just stealing Ralph’s. That is until they appeared. I wasn’t aware the Cullens skipped school. I narrowed my eyes. Not all of them were there but Edward, Alice and Emmett were. Nyx laughed slightly, breaking the brewing silence.

“I didn’t know Edward would dare leave Bella alone.” She spoke.

Ralph rolled his eyes, “I personally don’t like those guys.” He said bluntly.

My curiousity and disbelief peaked, “Really now?”

He nodded, “They are always so isolated. They never talk to anyone. It’s almost as if they are too stuck up to go communicate. Everyone has made an effort to speak to them but they don’t do anything. Plus ever since they came, more and more problems seemed to arrive.”

Edward seemed to growl and glower at us at the exact moment Ralph spoke. Nyx looked away, avoiding his gaze but I looked head on. My eyes narrowed and glared at Edward. He didn’t care but he was getting pissed off. As was Ralph. However the thing about Ralph was he didn’t take shit from anyone. So that gets him in a lot of fights.

Nyx finally looked up and her eyes connected with Edward’s. Ralph’s blood was beginning to boil. My head snapped towards Ralph. I’m guessing there was more to the story of why Ralph doesn’t like the Cullens than he’s letting on. However Edward was unaffected at all. Edward stood up from his table and walked towards us.

Ralph angrily stood up. The two of us followed in suit, trying to calm him down. Edward didn’t seem to back off from the looming competition. Ralph shook Nyx and me away and stalked towards Edward. Edward stood calmly because he knew he was going to win any brawl.

“Why are you here dude?” Ralph asked, clutching his hands into a fist.

I looked around at their table. Alice seemed to be quite relaxed as Emmett did not seem to care about this at all. Alice’s curiousity peaked. She was interested in the way Edward was acting. But something didn’t seem right with Alice. She was gifted but for the first time, I’m scared to know what her gift is.

Edward just shrugged Ralph away.

“I need to speak to you.” Edward spoke melodically to Nyx, his eyes shifted towards me, “Now.”

Ralph glared once more, “She doesn’t want to talk to you.” He spoke for Nyx.

Edward did not glare but impassively looked towards Ralph, “I’m not asking you. She can speak for herself.”

“Back off man.” Ralph threatened, “And stay away. I’m pretty sure I told you this last time as well. Stay away from my friends and me.”

Edward narrowed his eyes, “It’s not my fault if Bella and I are together.”

“No.” Ralph angrily agreed, “But despite what anyone says I know you were responsible for why she was injured.”

Edward glared. Their eyes were locked in an intense battle. Bella was the source of their problems. I couldn’t tell if Bella and Ralph were platonic or not because of their rising tempers but Bella was important to Ralph.

Edward looked away once more towards Nyx. This time he looked to me as well.

“I need to talk to the both of you now.” He repeated.

“Go away.” Ralph said fiercely.

I placed my hand on Ralph’s arm and looked at his eyes.

"It’s fine.” I spoke quietly, “We’ll handle this. Just go back to Hot Topic. We’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

Ralph intensely stared at me before looking at Nyx. He relaxed.

“Fine. You two better be there in 10.” He said to us more calmly and hugged us both.

With one more glare at Edward, Ralph walked away back to Hot Topic.

“Come on.” Edward said to us.

Nyx and I looked at each other. Edward turned away from us.

“We’re going outside to get some more privacy.”