The Rise of Lydia Rowe ↠ Jasper Hale (ON HOLD)

[1.03] the new new girl

THE CAFETERIA WAS SURPRISINGLY lively. Lydia had expected it to be a bit quieter and calmer than her old school, seeing as there were more students in her old cafeteria for lunch than Forks High School's entire school population. But the students seemed to make up for their lack of numbers with loud conversations and laughter.

She and Gwen walked in side by side, having just come from their uneventful biology class. Thankfully, she got to sit next to Gwen in that class, since her old lab partner had recently moved away.

In her peripheral vision, Lydia saw a familiar redhead wave her over to her table, which appeared to have a few jocks and who Lydia assumed were some of the more popular kids at Forks High sitting around it. Lydia looked away, noticing the slight drop in Gwen's once-happy demeanor.

"If you want to sit with Kenzie, that's okay," Gwen said, her voice smaller than Lydia had heard it. "You don't have to sit with me."

"Why would I want to sit with someone I barely know?" Lydia asked, leading the way to the lunch line. She got two trays, handing one to Gwen. "So far, you're my closest friend here, so I'm sitting with you." A sudden, worrisome thought came to her then. "Unless you don't want me to?"

Gwen was quick to correct her. "No, that's not it! It's just... Kenzie and her group are more popular than I am, so I would understand if you want to sit with them." She looked down at her tray, adding, "Plus, I'm probably not great for your new social status here."

"I don't care about my social status anymore," Lydia said, remembering how popular she had been at her old school, and how quickly it had fallen apart. Popularity was overrated. "I care more about my friends—which is a group that, at the moment, only includes you."

Gwen gave her a small smile, but it was genuine. The girls got their food and Lydia followed Gwen to a table to the left of the cafeteria. There were a few other girls and one boy at the table, and they all looked up when they saw the two approaching.

Lydia gave the group a friendly smile as she sat down in the seat next to Gwen.

"This is Lydia," Gwen said softly. "Lydia, this is Casey, Nina, Ashley, and Travis."

"It's nice to meet you all," Lydia said politely.

One of the girls—Ashley, Lydia believed—returned Lydia's smile. "So you're the new new girl."

Lydia let out a small laugh. "Yeah, that would be me."

She spent her first lunch at her new school fielding questions about where she was from, what she liked to do, why she moved to a small town in Washington. She gave them a vague answer to the last one, not comfortable telling them the whole truth. If it was just Gwen, maybe, but she had just met the others. Besides, she was sure talking about it would just drudge up the memories Lydia was trying very hard to forget.

At one point, Lydia looked up and saw the short girl from her AP History class. The girl caught her gaze, giving Lydia a friendly wave. Lydia waved back, which drew the attention of her new companions.

Casey followed Lydia's gaze, gaping at the new girl when she turned back to face them. "Did one of the Cullens just wave at you?"

The shock in her voice was almost amusing. "I sit next to Alice in my AP History class," she explained. "She's nice."

"Still," Casey said, "the Cullens are pretty antisocial with everyone outside of their family."

Nina leaned forward, her voice a little quieter as she said, "They're all the adopted children of a surgeon here and his wife, and two of them are together. The blonde girl and the huge muscular guy, Rosalie and Emmett. They're dating."