Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

4 - ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ

WEEKS PASSED and the leaves on the trees started to change to the shade of orange that she loved so much. On non-rainy days Athena would walk to school, taking different routes so she could explore the entire area of Forks. It wasn't that she didn't like driving, she just liked to reminisce about how life had been before she was turned. She hoped it would spark some sort of memory from back then that lacked in her brain. To her, it was as if she had been born a Vampire in a dark area of a random village. She couldn't even remember her own parents, let alone what her home looked like. She liked walking for many reasons other than the scenery, like getting snippets of conversations from each of the houses she walked by. Sometimes she smiled at the sound of a playing toddler or laughed when a teen would not rise from their bed no matter how much their parents yelled at them. She enjoyed the music and the nature, building little lives for each life form she saw with every step she took.

On one cloudy day, she had been just about to leave when a car pulled up outside her house. Due to the lack of heartbeats, she gathered who it was and quickly checked her lip in the mirror for any forgotten blood from that morning's meal. Finding none, she ran downstairs and opened the door just as the car was put into park. "Athena!" Alice smiled, having rolled down the window in the back of the car. "Taxi service," Alice grinned, gesturing to the spare seat at the front next to Jasper. She exhaled sharply, looking down to the floor to try and stop the smile on her face. She stepped into the car, gently closed the door and set her bag on the floor. Jasper started up the car again as she sat back in her seat and they were soon off again.

Luna and Alice whispered to each other in the backseat, constantly laughing. She talked to Jasper, little conversations that didn't really add up to anything in particular but she hoped they would make him feel more comfortable around her. Athena's gaze fell to the trees for most of the journey, just watching as the leaves tumbled to the ground. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, still keeping an eye on the road just in case any humans happened to cross it and he couldn't help but wonder why she was so intrigued by the plants that had been around since the world was created. To him, they were just a nuisance that got in the way whilst hunting.

Jasper and Athena had double History second so they split off from the group and walked to their lesson. Athena spent most of the lesson annoying once more, given that they were going over one of the many English monarchs she had been 'alive' for. She stopped reading a few times during the lesson to talk to Jasper after he muttered something so she would only be able to hear it. They only caught the attention of the teacher once or twice, after she had started to laugh quietly about something.

At lunch, Athena and Jasper had managed to catch up with Alice and Luna just as they were about to enter the cafeteria. Just as Alice laughed, her ears picked up a rather rude conversation coming from a table in the middle of the room. She zeroed in on where it was coming from and scowled at the back of Jessica's head. In her short time in that school, Athena had already grown a dislike for Jessica. She was a rather jealous creature that just couldn't get it in her head that she didn't want to talk to her. Only she noticed a new human in the room, one doe-eyed and brown-haired human that she had never seen before. From the way she was sat, Athena could automatically tell she was new and wondered if this was the Bella that Jake had been talking about.

"The little dark-haired girl, that's Alice. She's really weird," Jessica paused, trying not to look at them as they walked past. Luna, not wanting Alice to dwell on what she was saying for too long, took their clasped hands and twirled her around. Alice smiled softly, kissing Luna on the cheek. "And she's with Luna, the one with ginger hair."

Jessica continued, "That's Jasper, the blonde one, who always looks like he's in pain." Athena subconsciously moved a little closer to Jasper as they walked, scowling in Jessica's direction discreetly. "Oh and that's Athena, she's not a Cullen. She was a new student a couple of weeks ago, always walking around with a book and a notebook. She's a little odd sometimes but she and Jasper seem pretty close," Jessica finished and Athena turned around to see who she was talking to. Bella stared right back at her, curiosity widening her eyes.