6:05:09

"Okay, fine. Let's say, hypothetically, that was Alice and Jasper walking you to lunch." Angela began, her lips twisting up into a grin, making Emery groan out loud as they walked down the hallway.

"Alright, they walked me to lunch. Are you happy now?" The Swan asked, biting back an amused laugh as her friend walking beside her raised her books in the air triumphantly.

During the rest of their trip to their classrooms on the same floor, Angela spouted on about different scenarios of how Emery met up with the two, ignoring the looks her friend sent her as her theories got worse and worse.

"There's absolutely no way." Emery said, choking on a laugh as Angela went on with the absurd story. "I'm just saying, maybe they always have a sixth sense when it comes to you." Angela continued, but quickly became quiet as they walked up to her locker and spotted the duo she just spoke of, continuously glancing over at them.

Angela cut off Emery before she could even reply and simply nodded her head in their direction, causing her to look over and catch the golden eyes of the two. Emery quickly looked back at Angela with wide eyes as her friend simply looked at her with a red face, holding in laughter as she took in her friend's embarrassment. "They have to know we were just talking about them!" Emery tried to whisper out, but her voice came out unnaturally high, causing the two to look over once again, amusement painted on their faces.

Emery felt her hands began to dampen as she heard the warning bell begin to ring, a reminder of the fact that she would have to sit next to one of the Cullen's she was caught red handed talking about. "Just breathe, maybe it was just their sixth sense telling them that you were coming their way." Angela chimed out, sending her friend a non-descrete wink and a thumbs up as she turned around from Emery and began to walk towards her own classroom.

Seeing as to how they seemed they were almost waiting for her, with the rest of the students beginning to walk inside, Emery quickly readjusted the arms of her backpack and made her way over, staring down at the tiled floor beneath her.

After almost stumbling over her own two feet and seeing the two sets of shoes standing still in front of her, she looked up and began to flush red as she saw the two looking back at her intently.

"Emery." Jasper greeted, his lips almost pursed together, as if he was holding back a grin. Alice, on the other hand, had an amused grin as big as could be on her face, her hand reaching out to lightly tap her on the shoulder.

"We just saw you coming and thought we'd wait." She said, her grin now turning into a fond smile as the Swan looked up at her with a crimson red face. Emery almost jumped as the final bell rang, and almost jumped once again as a gentle and cold hand guided her into the classroom.

Looking back, she was faced with a now smiling Jasper, with his hand placed on her back and with Alice following after them happily. Emery faced front once again and smiled to herself, feeling content as she walked into the classroom with the two.

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"So as I was saying, there are allowed to be a few groups of three, due to the irregularity of the amount of the students in this classroom," The teacher continued, looking around at her students with a look of annoyance as they all began to speak over her in excitement. "And although I am allowing you to choose your own partners, need I remind you that this project will accumulate up to a large percentage of the grade you will be passing this class with. So I suggest your take this seriously, and choose partners who have been paying attention."

Emery sunk down in her seat as she listened to the teacher drone on in an almost monotonous tone, dread filling her as she realized she knew no one enough in this class to be invited into a group. She looked to the right, where Alice was once sat, and frowned as she realized that the Cullen was already sitting next to Jasper.

Biting her bottom lip in worry, she began to raise her hand to announce she was alone, before someone tapped on her shoulder. Turning around, she came face to face with a boy she's never seen, who looked at her shyly.

"Do you want to work with my friend and I? I'm Aaron, and this is Mason." The boy said with a crooked grin, pointing back at his friend who almost seemed to jump out of his chair as she met eyes with him.

But before she could even reply and accept, a familiar face popped up next to her. Jasper stood next to where she sat and looked over at Aaron, who began to look nervous as the Hale made eye contact with him.

"There's no need, she'll be working with us," Jasper said, causing Emery to look up at him with furrowed brows. Looking down at her, he sent her a reassuring smile before looking at the boy once again and continuing. "She'll be working with us." And as if Alice was waiting to be announced, she made her way over and glanced at the boy with a charming grin. Aaron stared back at her with a look of shock, staggering on his feet.

"Thank you for offering, Aaron." Alice said in a sweet tone, finalizing the conversation as she looked over at Emery and placed her hand on hers. "You don't mind working with us, do you?" She asked in a playful tone, causing Emery to flush and quickly shake her head, her hand already fastening around the shoulder of her backpack.

Emery looked up and sent an apologetic smile over at the boy, causing him to smile back and shrug, before speaking to his friend once again.

"Anyway," Alice smiled out, leaning against the table in front of her as she looked at her mates. "Jasper and I were just talking about inviting you into our group, and inviting you over so we can figure everything out."

Emery glanced at the two as Alice and Jasper caught eyes, grinning at each other before looking back at the swan in unison.

"Are you free tonight? We can always do tomorrow night as well, since you just moved in." Jasper added in, leaning back to rest his arm against Alice's, causing her to smile to herself at the touch.

"No pressure of course." Alice chimed in, causing Emery to nod her head and agree almost instantly.

As Emery wrote down her address, she felt relieved from the fact that she now had an excuse from sitting next to Bella during dinner tonight. Guilt seeped through her at the thought, because she knew that her sister was hurting as much as she was.

Shaking her head from the thoughts, she placed the slip of paper in Alice's hand, and smiled down to herself as her warm hand touched cold. Alice grinned down at her and went to speak, but the bell that announced the ending of their class rang.

Emery stood up as fast as she could and carefully picked up her backpack, placing it onto her shoulders gently. Jasper noticed the slight grimace on her face and went to help, but Alice quickly sent him a calming smile and wrapped her arm around his bicep.

"We'll pick you up at seven. Wear something pretty." Alice said with mirth, causing Emery to blush and look down at her sleeping shirt and the pants she tossed on this morning. Pursing her lips, she nodded and sent them a small smile as she walked past them, cursing herself at how messy she looked.

Tugging on her wrinkled shirt, she sighed as she made her way to her next class, hoping the rest of the day would go by fast.

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Emery quietly cursed to herself quietly as she made her way to her last class of the day, realizing she forgot to take her medicine. Stopping in front of her classroom, Emery stopped and took her backpack off of her shoulders carefully and shakily kneeled down, opening up her backpack.

Sighing as she wrapped her hand around her familiar medicine contained, Emery counted out the pills and made a fist as she heard footsteps approaching her from behind her.

Zipping up her backpack, Emery turned around and looked at who would still be in the hallway after the warning bell had already rang.

Looking around, she sighed in relief as she only saw a few unknown students making their way towards their classrooms in a hurry, laughing as their friends ran down the hallway in front of them. Making her way over to the water fountain that wasn't too far away for her to leave her bag to rest on the ground, she quickly placed her pills in her mouth and bent down for a drink.

Wincing at the familiar taste of her iron pill, she grimaced as she swallowed and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. As she stood up straight, she froze as she heard a voice clearing their throat and a tall figure wrapping a hand around her backpack. "Do you want to tell me what you're doing out of class?"

Rapidly blinking her eyes to see clearly, Emery looks up and locks eyes with Emmett Cullen. She immediately thrusts a hand out to latch onto the backpack in his hand, but he flexes his arm above his head and out of her reach.

"Listen, relax, okay? I'm just out here because the teacher was taking attendence and she saw you weren't in class. And I saw you earlier, so." Emmett trailed off, almost looking sheepish as he lowered the bag and held it out for her to take. Sighing, Emery wrapped her hands around her backpack and looked up at him with squinted eyes.

"Are you ever going to tell me about how you and your girlfriend got outside faster than I did last week?" She asked, frowning as she sees his body becoming rigid. Forcing himself to fake nonchalance, Emmett places on a grin and shrugs his shoulders.

"I don't know if anyone's ever told you before Em, but you're an incredibly slow walker." He said playfully, his grin becoming more genuine as he sees the look of annoyance on her face.

"Making fun of me isn't going to take away from the fact that you aren't telling me the truth." Emery sighed out, giving up on questioning the Cullen as she looked up at his smile. Instead, she just sighs and shoulders the backpack once again, turning to make her way towards their shared classroom.

Looking back at him with a newfound grin, she decides to change the topic and begins to tease him in a friendly manner. Puffing out her chest, she looks up at the boy towering over her with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, let's see who can get to the classroom faster." She challenged him. Looking down at her with a sideways smirk and holding back a laugh, Emmett accepts. Without looking back, Emery begins to walk as fast as she steadily can with a large grin on her lips.

And unbeknownst to her, Emmett waits to start walking until the Swan turns the corner.

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After walking into her last class minutes late and out of breath, the Swan finds herself sitting in her chair, with a grinning Cullen sitting only a few chairs away.

Looking back at him with narrowed eyes as she hears Emmett recalling the story to a now grinning Rosalie, she quickly looks forward as the teacher clears her throat for her classes attention.

Allowing herself to relax into her chair, Emery then grabs ahold of her notebook and begins to write down notes, ignoring the quiet laughter coming from a few tables over.

As Emery sits there, she begins to smile to herself, as she realizes that she might have made her own group of friends for the first time in a while. 

▹

Emmett grinned over at her as he made his way past her, once again in the hallway, with an arm wrapped against a smiling Rosalie. Biting back a grin, Emery makes her way behind them and follows them outside, suprised when Rosalie looks back at her with a welcoming smile.

"See you later." Emmett booms out, uncaring of the multiple pairs of eyes that stare over at him and his mate as he speaks loudly to the now blushing Swan.

Awkwardly nodding and making her way over to her sister's truck, Emery frowns as she catches eyes with their brother Edward, who looks back at her with unnerving eyes, as if he were trying to read her. Swallowing thickly, she quickly makes her way over to the red truck and her sister, who finally looks up and acknowledges her.

Pursing her lips and folding a page in her book, Bella claps her keys in her empty hand as she shoulders her bag and makes her way over to the driver's side.

"Are you still mad at me?" Emery asked in a quiet tone as she places on her seatbelt, looking ahead with hurt in her eyes.

Sighing and placing the keys in the ignition, Bella glances over at her sister. "I'm not mad at you, Emery, I'm upset about the fact that you seem like you don't want to get help. Like you seem to be okay with dying."

Emery clenches her jaw shut as her sister begins to drive, the silence becoming almost unbearable. As they go over an uneven part of concrete, she winces as the side of the door presses into the bruised part of her shoulder. Bella glares over at her and tugs her back into her seat properly, her hands gripping white on the steering wheel.

"Why aren't you ever careful?" Bella snapped, causing the elder to shove her backpack off of her lap in anger and fall the the floor of the truck, the loud sound of it cutting off her sister, who now freezes in shock.

"I have been nothing but careful, Bella. You haven't been to a single one of my appointments in years or ever even asked me about how I felt about things until we moved out here. So how about you go back to silently brewing over the fact that I'm dying, and let me worry about a speedbump, okay?" Emery replied back angrily, her throat beginning to ache from the restriction of her raising her voice.

Bella jumps in her seat in fright from the tone she hears from her sister, so used to her being soft spoken. Opening her mouth to respond, she pauses as her sister sighs and raises her hands.

"I am so tired of arguing with you, Bella. This has never been about you, you are not the one that is dying. Why can't you just accept the fact that I'm dying and spend the rest of the time we have together the best that we can? Why do you constantly have to remind me and argue with me? I know I'm dying, alright? I've been dying for years." Emery continued, her shoulders slumping down as she unbuckles her seatbelt and makes her way out of the truck.

Bella reaches out as she blinks back her tears, but Emery simply shrugs her off and slides off of her seat. Bella sits inside of the truck and watches as her sister walks away from her and towards their home, guilt weighing her down.

As Bella watches her sister enter the home, she begins to realize her sister just might be right. It may not be her sister's illness getting in the way of them, it might just be her. And the idea of her being the cause of their drift, pains her more than she thought it would.