EXILE ━ Alice Cullen

04. The Cullens

FOUR THE CULLENS

Everyone had been kind enough so far, which was something Jo was immensely grateful for. Nice students would make returning to high school slightly more bearable, thankfully. As she looked over at Margot while they walked to lunch, she reminded herself that she was doing this for Margot. Having been turned in 1997, the relocation made it so it was safe for her to finish the high school education she never got to have. Josette's heart became heavy as she remembered how much Margot had taken away from her.

"Quit staring at me, is there something on my face?" Margot asked as she walked beside her sister, pushing a loose curl out of her face.

Jo shook her head, "No, I was just zoning out, sorry. Uh, Jess said we could sit with her, right?"

As they entered the cafeteria, Josette was immediately off-put by the sheer amount of students they had to get through. It wasn't that it was a particularly large school, but it was a bit different than their twenty student classrooms.

The younger vampire nodded as she searched the crowd, "Ah, there she is! How are we explaining the lack of lunch again?"

"We don't like the school food so we always pick something up on the way home," the older reminded her as she found Jess and smiled. There was another girl beside her with fair skin and sharp features, dark brunette hair billowing over her shoulders being held back by a plain headband. As a person, she was rather plain, but not in a way that she was ugly. In fact, Josette found her to be rather beautiful in her simple ways. It didn't help that the smell of her blood was so strong Josette almost found herself becoming hungry. Margot seemed to sense it too as her eyes went dark. Immediately, she stopped, gripping her sister's arm, "Breathe."

"We don't need to breathe," Margot joked, but her voice was tense, "What is up with that smell? It's making me --"

"Hungry, I know," the older vampire cut her off as she pulled the girl over to the table and had her sit as far away from this girl as she could. Josette smiled at her as she said, "Hi! I don't think we've met! I'm Jo, this is my sister, Margot, we just moved here."

"Me too," the girl spoke meekly, clearing her throat as she raised the volume slightly for her next statement, "Uh, I'm Bella. I think my dad mentioned there would be some other girls my age starting."

"Yay, this is so exciting!" Jess exclaimed, "Ugh, I'm so glad I found all of you this year is about to be so much more fun."

Lunch was more or less going off without a hitch which Josette was eternally grateful for. They actually found that for a couple of vampires, they fit in with humans quite well. Thankfully for their already dark complexions, no one questioned why they were more on the pale side and Josette could assume they would simply write the girls off as mixed. Jess was a welcome energy at the table, filling in gaps where everyone was quiet.