In Her Eyes

I woke up surprised to find Maria was already gone and a note taped to the fridge.

Sorry could not be here for your first morning.
Need to care of some business.
Have a great first day. xoxo –Maria

Looks like I would be fending for myself this morning. This place was totally new to me but yet, it seemed oh so familiar. To my delight I found that the kitchen cupboards were stocked with my favorite foods. My mother must have called to let Maria know what I liked. I quickly grabbed two slices of bread and made a ham and swiss sandwich.

After what seemed like forever I found my toothbrush and face wash. I thought about taking a shower but I didn't really want to blow dry my hair. I wasn't sure what the weather would be like here Forks, so I decided on jeans, a long sleeve gray t-shirt and my brother’s old blue pull over. His sweater still smelled the same as he always did, Gain laundry detergent and cigarettes, (although he didn't smoke most of his friends did so the smell often rubbed off on him.). It was the middle of March so I threw on a light jacket and some black Vans. I was on my way out the door when I suddenly realized I had no idea how to get to my new school.

After a long debate between the pros and cons of just skipping I decided to go ask the girl who helped Maria with my room if she knew where it was. I grabbed my backpack and searched the house for a key. When I couldn't find one I just thought it would be better to leave it unlocked and explain to Maria later that if she was going to often leave early in the morning I was going to need a house key.

It was drizzling lightly, I was glad I wore my jacket. I walked down the stairs confused as I saw a huge jeep wrangler in the driveway. I was pretty sure I was the only one home and so it couldn’t be a guest and Maria had a little black car. Just I was about to forget about it and go look for someone that may know where the high school was a pink piece of paper caught my attention. It was taped to the hood of the jeep.

Beth,
Thought you might need a way of transportation.
(Your dad said you like jeeps, hope you like this)
There is a GPS inside and the keys are in the glove department.
xoxo-Maria

I almost started to cry. Maria was too kind. I mean it was brand new! I jumped in with tears in my eyes, trying to think of a way to thank Maria for this. The drive to school only took about five minutes. This high school was very different from mine back home. The high school in New York was much, much bigger with high technology and security guards at every entrance.

The morning pasted fairly quickly, to my luck an interesting family moved here just a week ago and they were still the latest gossip, so my arrival wasn’t very exciting. My classes seemed easy since I took mostly highly advanced in New York and I made some new friends. I am not sure if I could call them friends yet but they seemed nice enough.

Anna was in two of my morning classes and very welcoming. She kept me busy asking me questions about New York during the classes we had together. She led me to the cafeteria, and introduced me to a group of her friends. I had forgotten most of their names after about thirty seconds later. We sat down at a round table close to the entrance. Most of them couldn’t stop asking me questions about my life in New York, my crazy Aunt and my brother’s disappearance. Apparently Maria went a little nuts when my brother went missing. I wonder if my parents knew about that.

“What do you mean “nuts”?” I asked Anna.

“Well she kept telling everyone that “it was happening again” and “it was going to happen to all of us if we didn’t stop them” she is a little odd.” Anna said using air quotations whenever she said something my Aunt had said before.

“Wait, what’s going to happen?” I asked more confused now than before. Everyone at the table looked at me as if I had three heads.

“You don’t know about her do you?” a boy in an orange hoodie asked, who was sitting beside Anna.

“No, we aren’t really that close, before I moved here.” I laughed a little at how much I actually knew about Maria.

They all just stared at me, giving me an uncomfortable sympathy stare. What was going on? Is Maria actually crazy? Another girl quickly changed the subject, back to the new family that had moved here.
I couldn’t pay attention; my mind was too busy trying to figure out what in the world they said about Maria. I started to wonder how much we really had in common. How did her sister disappear? And what was going to happen to all of us? The boy in the orange hoodie tapped on my shoulder making me lose my train of thought.

“Hey lunch is almost over, I was wondering if you needed an escort to class?” he held his hand out for me to take.

“Umm, yeah do you know where grade eleven calculus is?” I said standing up, avoiding his hand. I really wasn’t into the whole leading people on. And no offense to him, he was attractive and seemed sweet but he really just wasn’t my type.

He stared at me, wide eyed. “Grade eleven calculus?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, I know where that is, are you taking any classes that are in your actual grade?” he looked a little shocked.

“Yeah, just two grade eleven classes.” I said kind of offended that he asked me that.

We didn’t talk most of the walk to class, he obviously got the hint that I wasn’t interested in him or maybe he was just embarrassed about asking me about my classes.

“Well this is your class, have fun. Maybe we will have another class together.” He smiled sounding a little too hopeful.

I smiled back and walked into my class.

Honestly I was shocked to see how many students were seated in such a small class. Every seat was taken up except for a desk that seated two towards the back of the class. I sat down at the desk after giving the teacher my information.

I looked around the class to see everyone staring at me with the same wide eyed look the boy in the orange hoodie gave me. Feeling self conscious, I quickly looked down and pulled out my notebooks. The bell rang for class to begin and the teacher started the lesson. I pulled my hair into a high ponytail, as I always did when writing or working.

About ten minutes into the lesson the door opened and a boy walked in.

“Sorry Mrs. Mallory, still getting used to the school.” His voice was angelic, and his face matched perfectly. His pale skin looked almost white under the florescent lights; his face beautiful from every angle, his jaw line structured and breathe taking. He had dark, purple shadows underneath his eyes. His hair brown, slightly wet probably from the rain outside. He smiled showing his dimples and started walking towards the seat beside me. I looked away before he noticed me staring.

Now I understood why the other students were looking at me funny at the beginning of class, it was because the desk I sat in was the desk he sat at. The beautiful boy who showed up late.

“That’s alright Cedric, please take your seat. I expect you to be on time tomorrow.” Mrs. Mallory said. “Alright now class, I’m handing out a booklet and you can work by yourself or with a partner. Please keep volume to a minimum”

I started to answer my questions as soon as I got my booklet. And despite the teachers request the classroom became noisy almost instantly. The questions were not very hard, even for me. I was on the second page when the boy beside me introduced himself.

“Hi, I’m Cedric. I just moved here a week ago, so I am guessing you are new as well, that’s why I haven’t seen you before?”He asked.

“Yeah I just moved in with my Great Aunt Maria yesterday. My name is Elizabeth, but please call me Beth.” I said trying to avoid looking him straight in the face. I just kept my head down answering questions.

So this was the boy everyone was talking about, well part of what everyone was talking about. The girl at the lunch table said it was a family. No wonder no one cared I moved here. If Cedric’s family looked anything like him, well it’s not a shocker people are so hung up on them.

"That’s a beautiful name.” he was whispering now.

“Thank you.” I replied.

I started answering the questions once again, and for some reason a got a bad feeling that started rising in my stomach. The feeling you get when you forget something, or you know that you have done something wrong.

“So do you like Forks?”Cedric asked still whispering. I could see he obviously wanted to talk, but I still had that awful feeling in my stomach and honestly I was nervous to talk to him. He was intimidating, so handsome. But I ignored my instincts that told me to keep doing my work and leave him alone. Instead I put my pencil down and slightly turned my body towards him. I noticed he was also slightly turned towards me but he was also as far away from me as the table would let him.

“Forks is nice. Small and wet but rain doesn’t particularly bother me so I like it.” I said whispering back. I finally decided to not be a total ass and look him straight in the face. It surprised me, how beautiful he looked from afar but close up he was dazzling. He was looking into my eyes when a slight smile appeared on his lips, showing his dimples. I looked back into his eyes. They were black, pitch black.

Suddenly I didn’t feel so well. The darkness his eyes reminded me of something, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. I automatically regretted ignoring the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. I turned away from him and placed my head on the desk.

“Beth, are you okay?” he asked his voice now at a regular volume. “Beth?”

That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.