Hide & Seek

I had come to find out that my class was in the second building... the second building that I had passed about three times while looking for my English class. I felt like a complete and total idiot. The Matron gave me a warning... one that I shouldn't take lightly. I knocked on the closed room, internally cursing my horrible sense of direction - I got it from dad.

The teacher finally opened the door, but only a quarter of the way. She peeked out, and scowled at me. "You're late."

"Uh, I'm incredibly sorry Ms..." I glanced down at my schedule, "Ms. Patellio. It's my first day here and I have never seen a more confusing floor plan." I tried to pull off the innocent look... it didn't seem to work on her.

"This is the last time your tardiness will interrupt my class, correct?"

"Yes, miss." I nodded, trying to show how serious I was about it.

When I sat down at a table near the middle of the room and began to set up my laptop, Ms. Patellio asked, "You're Cooper Acres, right?"

"Copper, ma'am." She waved off the mispronunciation. As if on cue, though, every head turned to look at me. Some of the girls were trying to size me up, seeing if I belonged in their clique, while most of the guys tried to undress me with their eyes. I fiddled with the stripped scarf around my neck.

I pretended to rummage through my bag for something until Ms. Patellio called the class to attention. The stares finally started to subside.

Second and third block started off the same; arriving late, stares inking tattoos into the back of my head, and no one to talk to but the person I was paired with as my partner. (That didn't really go well in Biology since my partner was one of those "you do it, put my name on the project, and you won't get hurt" kind of people.)

A sigh of relief came out of me once the bell for third block to end rang. AP Calculus was now my new least favorite enemy. Being the new kid was right behind it. I started to gather my things up, when someone approached me. She was a bit on the thick side, obviously Asian, and had a hat propped very stylishly on her head. She was my height; around five foot seven or so.

"Copper Arces, right?" She smiled at me. I smiled back.

"Finally, someone gets my name right." She laughed, probably thinking it was a joke.

"My mom told me about you. He works at the publishing company for your mom up in Seattle. You've heard of Taylor Marie Armor, right?"

Taylor Marie... oh right! Mom was talking to someone by that name on the phone the other night. Something to do with my her book.

"Yeah, I have."

"Stellar! I'm her daughter, Roxelana. But you can call me Roxe. It's nice to meet you." Finally, I was showed some kindness from the people of Forks.

"What class are you going to next?"

"Actually, I have lunch."

"No way! So do I. Com'on, you can sit at our table." Roxe pulled me, by the arm, into the crowded halls of Forks High.

She was really nice. Roxe asked me a few questions about my mom's books, asking if they were based off anything, but I just shook my head no to that one. Then were questions about the movie stars, I laughed and joked about knowing their own iTalk number. She begged me for Skylar Ripley's. After comparing schedules, we finally made it into the cafeteria. A tray of food was placed in my hands and I was pushed to a table near the middle of the large room.

There was a long table full of people. "Yo, dirtbags, attention!" All the heads snapped up. What was with all the military talk? "Dirtbags, Copper Arces. Copper Arces, dirtbags." I laughed at that and gave everyone a wave.

The first to speak was a mocha-tan skinned guy. He was definitely taller than me, but seemed very kind. "Here, you can have my seat. I'll go grab another." He walked over and held out his hand. I took it to shake, but was surprised when he bent down to kiss it. "Artemis Winchester, but you can call me Arty. That's my sister, Tate."

His head nodded to the girl that sat across from him. She gave a lazy wave, not looking away from her laptop.

A pale blush fluttered over my cheeks before I nodded and smiled. What could I say? He was cute.

I was introduced to everyone. The only was I remembered were Roxe, Arty and Tate, and Zander because he was the one mostly asking me question. The topic of the movies came up one again before I was interrogated on something else. My new house.

"So, you live in the Cullen house?" Artemis said, thick with digest. Tate kicked his foot from under the table. Well... mom did say something about the former owners I think...

"Uh, yeah, why?" I was surprised by the darkness in his voice when he said it.

He glared at his sister for a moment before turning back to me. "I great-grandpa would always say that they weren't... normal." Tate kicked at him again.

"Like... what kind of not normal?"

"They weren't human," he said bluntly. I simply raised a brow at this.

"What were they, then?"

Arty put down his sandwich, and started his story. "Back in the early 2000's there was this family that moved here. They were crazy beautiful, I guess you could say. The dad was a doctor, no one really knew what the mom did, and all the teenagers were all adopted, and went to this school. There was five of them.

"Two of them, a boy and a girl, were juniors, the other seniors. Well, about the same time they moved in, there was this girl that moved from Arizona to live with her dad. Isabella Swan, better known as Bella.

"Well, she ended up falling in love with one of the guys. They were practically attached at the hip. Well, one of the guys from La Push, back then, was one of her best friends from when they were kids and ended up falling love with her too. Of course, she picked the blo-"

Tate kicked him really hard in the shin this time. He growled at her, like, seriously growled like an animal!

"You finish that sentence and I swear to God I'll tell mom and you know how she gets when Grandpa Sam and the you-know-what gets brought up." Artemis only huffed and rolled his eyes.

"I'll tell you the story some other time, guys." He winked to me.

"Hey, are they new? Damn, the one with the muscles in really cute." One of the girls at the table said.

When I turned around to look, I was bombarded with death stares from heavenly attractive people.

They were the ones from the photograph in the little girl's room.