• Chapter one

    Cold eyes

    “No!” I shot up, gasping for air, only to be pulled back down by the mess of sheets I was ensnared in. It was just a dream Mike, no big deal.

    I untangled myself and stumbled out of bed, resulting in my head connecting with the floor. That’s it, no more late-night horror movie marathons. I sat up on my hard wood floor and tried to sort my thoughts.

    I was always a sucker for a good horror, and I often found myself staying up until some beastly hour in the morning watching the gruesome unfold before me. I loved it all, from something as futuristic as a sci-fi shoot down to something as classic as a bloody vampire flick. But I also had over-active imagination, setting off repercussions such as the grisliest of nightmares, if I ever got clam enough to sleep.

    But there was one good thing about being addicted to the world of the impossible was, just that, impossible. In the morning when I wake up from even the most horrific nights I can always laugh at myself, that there was no such thing as vampires or werewolves, or anything of that sort. I chuckled, why do I put myself though all this torture?

    I got up and dressed for school, and with a second look at the clock I realized how far behind I was.

    Crap. It was 7:45; I was going to have to skip breakfast…again. I sprinted down from my attic bedroom, snatched my bag from the front room sped out the door, and came to a screeching stop when I got to my car. Wasting no time, I chucked my bag into the passenger seat and got in myself, slamming the door as my engine whirred to life. Once at school I made a mad dash for my first class and made it, with only seconds to spare.

    No longer racing the clock, I crossed the room and sank into my usual seat. I relaxed and closed my eyes, grateful that I wouldn’t have to face Mrs. Crabapple about being late. Like her name, that would have been a true horror story.

    I managed to get a degree of peace, and then Jessica decided to make her appearance.

    “Hi Mike!” I opened my eyes to see her sitting next to me, beaming. Trig was the only class I had with her, but still it gave me a migraine.

    I forced a smile “Hi Jess.”

    Apparently that’s all the permission she needed. “So did you hear the news?”

    “What news?” what poor innocent has she decided to gossip about now?

    Her eyes widened. “So you didn’t see her?”

    Here comes the migraine. “I don’t know who your talking about Jess.” I eyed her carefully, her eye brightened, and I braced myself. This only happened when she had an especially large amount of dirt to dish out.

    “There’s a new Cullen!”

    “Mr. and Mrs. Cullen had a kid?!” when did this happen?!

    “No!” Jessica rolled her eyes and sighed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “They adopted another kid, our age too. She’s supposed to be starting school toady.”

    Nothing was making sense. “But why adopt at seventeen? Wouldn’t she have already been adopted when she was younger?” no parents until you where seventeen, wow.

    “No, she’s another relative of theirs. Apparently her parents died recently and she needed to finish up high school before getting a place of her own, so the Cullens took her in.”

    “But why-

    “Silence please. This is School not social hour.” The room silenced and everyone turned to see Mrs. C at the front of the room. “Now will everyone please turn to page three hundred and five in your text books…”

    The classes went by in a blur, until finally, lunch came around. I got out of government, right behind Bella and…him. I still liked Bella, though it seems I have to cope, now that she’s engaged. I didn’t like the way he always looked at her, like she was weak, and something could jump up and harm her any second. And sometimes-I hated this with a passion-like she was something to eat.

    With all those angry thoughts clouding my mind, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I slammed into something hard and cold, and then I was on the ground. I looked up, expecting to see a brick wall or a pole, but the only thing obstructing my view was a girl.

    She was beautiful, though not nearly as stunning as that Hale girl, but who could beat that? When she saw me on the ground, her dark eyes widened.

    “Oh- sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” She gave me an awkward smile, “Sorry about that.”

    Of course, all I could do was sit there and gawk like an idiot. We where silent for a few moments; I sat there, all traces of thought banished from my mind, and she was standing there looking… shy? I couldn’t read the look on her face; it seemed distant, almost like she didn’t know what to do.

    “Um…here.” She kneeled down and started to collect my things.

    “Wait, I can get some of that.” I scrambled to get at least some of my things, not wanting to look totally useless. But she already had them all in her arms, stacked neatly on top of each other.

    “There you go.” She handed me the textbooks in an odd fashion, avoiding contact with my skin as the text switched owners. Great, she must think I have some contagious brain disorder or something.

    I glanced up to thank her, but was speechless when her eyes met mine. They where as black and as cold as ice, but somehow, they made me melt. Hard as rock, but as soft as velvet… and for the first time in a long while I felt my face heat up.

    We sat there for another long moment; finally she averted her eyes and stood up in a single fluid movement. I hastily followed with a clumsier upward rise, finding that when we both were standing, we met eye to eye. The same height to the near centimeter.

    “Um… thanks.” This was embarrassing. “So, are you the new Cullen girl?”

    “Yes, Danielle, but I prefer Dani.” She looked up at me through her thick black lashes, “ and yours is…?”

    I was at a loss for words, and for a second I forgot my name. Then I finally found my lips again. “Mike Newton.”

    How did she do that?

    “So…Mike…I guess we should be heading for lun-“ A gust of wind gushed from behind me and blew her short black hair out of her face, stopping her in mid-sentence. She froze, her eyes suddenly hostile, and I could have sworn that I heard a low hiss. Then abruptly, she spun around and left at speeds just short of running.

    My feet where glued to the ground. I was so scared, did she hate me? If so why? And her eyes…

    But a voice at the back of my mind told me that more than my social apparatus was at steak here. Much more.

    Shuffling the rest of the way to lunch, I reviewed every action we went through amidst our meeting. I don’t think I did anything offensive, but I wasn’t sure.

    The lunchroom was already full of chattering students, so I hurried up to get my food. Due to recent events, most of my appetite had left, so all I bought was an apple.

    I had no idea what I would do; she would probably be there, eating with the rest of the Cullens. May be if I confront her, she would explain what had happened back there, to tell me that it was just a simple mistake. But I doubted it.

    But when I was able to pick out our table from the others, I didn’t see her there. In fact, I didn’t see any of the Cullens there.

    I sat across from Bella; worry etched her features, and she kept giving the door weary glances.

    “Hey, Bella, where are they? The Cullens I mean.”

    “They…went out to get some air.” Her tone implied more.

    “Did they get into a fight?” for some reason, I felt slightly concerned.

    “No… Dani was… nervous about something.” Bella shifted in her seat, she was clearly leaving something out.

    “Oh, okay.” I didn’t want to pry; she looked incredibly uncomfortable as is.

    For the rest of the lunch period, we waited in silence, the both of us to thought bound to eat. After what seemed like ages, Edward and Alice finally entered the emptying lunchroom. But Dani was nowhere in sight.

    Bella jumped from her seat, closing the distance between her and Edward. They embraced each other, bringing back some of that old affliction dealing with their relationship.

    When Bella’s face had disconnected from Edwards chest, he whispered something into her ear. Her eyes grew wide with shock.

    “Do you think he’s her-

    “Bella,” Alice interrupted her “I think you and Edward should talk this over in class.” She was specking abnormally loud, like she was trying to point out an unspoken factor. Bella’s eyes flickered to me, and she nodded, seeming to understand whatever Alice was trying to get across.

    She looked to Edward and he nodded, and with that the two of them made their way out of the lunchroom.

    Alice turned to follow, but before taking another step, she turned to me. Her Topaz eyes met mine, and she gave me a little smile. Then she turned on her heal and left me with even more questions then I had before. Has this world finally gone mad?!

    Somehow in the brain-fogged state I was in, I managed to make my way to Biology. I took my usual seat, setting my textbooks in the space next to me. I was the only one in class with a table to myself, a result of Jessica being forced to switch periods so she had government instead of biology this hour, and I thanked the high heavens for that. It wasn’t that I hated her; it was just impossible to concentrate on a single word the teacher’s saying when you have somebody who just won’t shut up as a lab partner.

    The classroom slowly filled, and soon the entire class was present. Suddenly, a blast of moistened air blew in from the opening door in the back of the classroom. That was odd; I thought everyone was already here. I turned to see who it was; in fact the entire class (excluding Edward and Bella) peered back to see the newcomer. Though, I already had a hunch of who it was.

    Dani walked down the isle with her onyx eyes cast down. While passing Edward, he reached out and grabbed her by the elbow. He got up and gently pulled her to the side of the room, and turned her around so that her back was against the wall. I couldn’t tell what was happening, Edwards back blocked my view of Dani’s face to tell how she was reacting.

    An eternity and a day later, they finally seemed to reach a verdict. Edward finally let her pass, but even when he took his place next to Bella, he watched after her with a worried expression. Dani on the other hand, was deprived of all emotion, her face blank as she handed a slip of paper to the teacher before going to sit in the last lab seat in the room. And guess where said seat was right beside, you got it, moi.

    She lowered herself onto the stool, sitting on the extreme edge of the seat and leaning away from me. Maybe she’s just shy around strangers. But remembering that death glare she gave me before trumped that theory, along with sending a shiver down my spin. Why was I so scared? She was only one person, why should I care that she hates my guts? But there was something about the way she acted, like she set off some alarm deep in my mind, telling me to high tail it before she did something. Almost like she was a…predator. And I was stuck as prey.

    Mr. Banner called the class to attention and turned my gaze to him, thankful to have a distraction. For most of the class, I managed to keep a semi-stable stature about being next to Dani. Once I even stole a glance in her direction, big mistake. I was re-greeted with her death glare again, and I could almost feel the daggers shooting into my skull. Not the best feeling to have.

    What was her problem? Never before have I had someone hate me with such intensity. And now, I was ticked. There was no way I was going to sit there and let her hate me without reason. The Cullens have already beaten me enough, but now, this is where the gavel falls.

    I was so engulfed in my inner rantings, when the bell rang; and I jumped nearly ten feet into the air. Dani was the first one out the door, already in her next class before the rest of us could even pick up our pencils.

    That’s it, I’ve seen enough. I was going to find out her secret, and then put a stop to this, even if it kills me.

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