CHAPTER SEVEN:

When I woke up on Wednesday to weak rays of sunlight peeking through gaps in the heavy grey clouds, I felt relieved. With the threat of the sun, the Cullens wouldn't be able to attend school, not without the risk of giving away their supernatural status by sparkling like fairy princess.

Sure enough, when I pulled up in the student parking lot, there was no Volvo in sight.

School was better that day, too. People didn't stare at me quite as much and I managed to hide in the library during lunchtime, successfully evading McKayla.

When biology came around, I walked into a classroom with no Edythe and firmly told myself I was relieved. I was glad that she wasn't there, that I had the desk to myself; this I repeated, over and over. Still, I couldn't get rid of the annoying whisper of doubt in the back of my mind, the memory of her perfect beauty, those dark eyes framed by long eyelashes confused as she looked at me.

Vampire; I reminded myself, whenever my thoughts strayed dangerously towards that territory. Everything about a vampire was designed to attract, to draw in their prey– humans. There was little wonder that I felt such a pull towards her.

When the school day was done I drove to the Thriftway, Charlize having requested I pick up the groceries. The Thriftway was not far from the school, a few streets south, off the highway. I fell easily into the pattern of a familiar job. When I got home, I unloaded the groceries then picked a recipe from my Home Ec. book for dinner.

After sticking a marinade-covered steak in the fridge, I pulled out my homework and textbooks and got started. Charlize didn't get home until late, some time past nine, and she was exhausted enough that she went to bed before I did.

I slept badly that night, images of red eyes, like endless pools of blood, dominating my dreams.

Thursday followed much of the same routine as Wednesday had, except it was raining again, the sun hidden once more behind thick grey clouds. I debated how to get out of biology, then decided I was trying to not stand out to the vampires, and avoiding my only class with a vampire in it wasn't exactly subtle.

McKayla had latched onto me during English, and acted weirdly territorial over me all through the day. She brought up the subject of my car accident at the lunch table, where I was sitting with her and her friends once again, carefully avoiding even glancing over at the Cullens. I repeated the amnesia excuse to her, citing that I'd hit my head hard enough I didn't remember most of the day of the accident, that it had been nothing exciting, just a drunk driver hitting the car my dad was driving.

I was almost relieved to be going to biology, as it meant McKayla couldn't keep invading my personal space, but my stomach twisted at the thought of having to sit next to a vampire. It was far too easy to imagine sharp, unnaturally white teeth settle at my neck, rip through flesh and drink my life away as my fingers went numb and my vision turned dark.

Once inside the classroom, I was relieved that Edythe's chair was still empty as it gave me a moment to settle myself. Class still had a few minutes before it began and the room buzzed with conversation. I kept my eyes away from the door, carefully concentrating on the open page of my textbook. I'd spent an hour last night going over the content Mrs. Banner would be covering today, trying to understand it the best I could so I could get the most out of the lesson.

Still, I heard very clearly when the chair next to me moved, though I kept my eyes focused on the page.

"Hello," Edythe said, in her quiet, musical voice. I looked up and instantly had to school my features as I got my first good look at her since my first day– it wasn't the fact she looked like she'd just finished shooting a commercial, her dripping wet hair tangled but somehow perfect and a slight smile curving her full, pink lips, that had me shocked speechless. I could remember Monday so vividly, recall so easily the fear I'd felt looking into the flat black color of her eyes— so jarring against the background of her pale skin. I'd expected, once she'd fed, her irises to turn to a bloody crimson red. Instead they were gold; darker than butterscotch but just was warm.

She didn't feed off humans.

I felt like laughing; overwhelming relief flooding me. Even the growing confusion in her stunning golden eyes, with hints of suspicion, did little to dampen my relief.

Charlize was safe, I was safe, even stupid Hermes–look-a-like Jeremy was safe. None of us were going to end up as dinner for one of the Cullens, and that knowledge made me almost giddy.

When Edythe cleared her throat, I realized that I'd just been staring at her like an absolute crackpot for who knew how long. I fought back the threatening blush.

"Um," I said, and then, because I couldn't think of anything else, "did you get contacts?"

She seemed puzzled by my apropos-of-nothing question. "No."

"Oh," I mumbled. "I thought there was something different about your eyes."

I saw the flash of realization in her eyes before she shrugged and looked away, and I was grateful for the time to gather my thoughts.

This... this changed everything. Mrs. Banner started her lecture and I did my best to concentrate on what she was saying, but my thoughts were spinning. Charlize had said that after tomorrow I wouldn't have to return to Forks High. In the interest of wanting to stay as far away from the Cullens as possible, I had fully intended that Friday would be my last.

Except the Cullens weren't human drinkers. They weren't dangerous to me– well, I still wouldn't want to bleed in front of them, because control only went so far, but they weren't actively hunting and killing humans.

The school bell rang and I left biology still in a slight daze. McKayla instantly latched onto me, and I didn't try to fight it, just followed her to PE. Coach, taking one look at me, seemed to realize I was going to be next to useless so she assigned me a position where I could do the least amount of damage possible. I still ended up hit in the face with a volleyball, but at least that pulled me into the present enough that I wasn't a danger on the road when I pulled out of my parking space and backed into a place in the line of cars that were waiting to exit the parking lot.

As I waited, trying to pretend that the earsplitting rumble of The Thing's thunderous engine was coming from someone else's car, I saw the five Cullens walking up to their car. They looked at my noisy truck as I passed them, just like everyone else. Except they weren't anything like anyone else.

The blond vampire girl, the one who reminded me of Mad-Eye, caught me looking and the way her eyes narrowed made me turn straight ahead and punch the gas.

(The truck didn't go any faster, the engine just grumbled even louder, but it made me feel better.)

-

I didn't do any homework that night, instead I wrote myself a pros and cons list about whether or not I should continue at Forks High. When that didn't help me make up my mind, I thought of Lyric, who'd have been able to help me– he always had the answers. Even if those answers made no sense whatsoever.

Thinking of Lyric made me think about Gordy, and Shaun and Irvine, and Harri, Hermes, Ronda and Neve too, which made me feel miserable, but it also made me think of the radio station Gordy had told Lyric and I about– Potterwatch.

Digging through my school trunk, I fished out the small radio Lyric had given me last Christmas, with its two wonky antennae and about fifteen different sized dials that somehow all fit on the radio that wasn't even the size of a brick.

It was almost spooky; I'd never shown an interest in the Wizarding Wireless Network, there had been no reason for Lyric to decide to a radio was the perfect gift, no indication that I'd ever need one. Except sometimes he just did things like that; sometimes he just seemed to know things, things that he shouldn't. And you either had to accept that, or let it drive you crazy. Sanity was overrated, of course, but in my first year I'd decided to just let it go– so what if Lyric was special? So what if he probably had some sort of Seer blood in him? So what if he was slightly– or a lot– bonkers? He was my best friend, and that was that.

Pulling out my wand, I twisted the dials to the frequency I was mostly sure Gordy had said was the right one to pick up the broadcast. Trying to think of possible passwords that the Light could have used, I tapped my wand against one of the dials while speaking them out loud, hoping that one of them would work; phoenix, Harri, Potter, lightning-bolt, Light, savior, Order, Hermes, Granger, Ronda, Weasley, Muggleborn, Hogwarts, muggles, Alba, Dumbledore, Stella, Black–

I almost dropped the radio when a very familiar voice issued from the tiny speakers, and it was only a slight exaggeration to say that my jaw practically hit the ground.

Gordy had never mentioned the fact LeeAnne Jordan helped run the pirate radio program, because that was undeniably her voice coming out of my radio; I recognized it easily from all those Quidditch matches she'd commentated. And if LeeAnne was involved, then I had absolutely no doubt the twins, Frederica and Georgina, were involved too.

"We apologise for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which is due to a number of house-calls in our area by those charming 'Death Eaters'." LeeAnne's voice cheerfully announced. "But now, we're back! So, let's move to news concerning the wickedest witch who is proving just as elusive as our Harri Potter. We'd like to refer to her as 'Queen Death Eater'. And here to give us their views on some of the more insane rumours circulating about her, I'd like to introduce our new correspondent, 'Rodent'!"

I actually started laughing at the familiar voice issuing from the speaker, full of indignation– whether it was Georgina or Frederica I wasn't sure, the twins' voices were as identical as their faces.

"I'm not being Rodent!" the twin said. "I told you, I want to be, 'Rapier'!"

"Oh alright, 'Rapier'!" LeeAnne said, with a mock-sigh. "Could you tell our listeners the various stories you've heard about the Queen Death Eater?"

"Yes I can. As our listeners will know, unless they've taken refuge at the bottom of a garden pond, You-Know-Who's strategy of remaining in the shadows is creating a nice climate of panic! Mind you, if all alleged sightings of her are genuine, there must be nineteen You-Know-Whos running around!"

"Which suits her of course, the air of mystery creates more terror than actually showing herself."

"Agreed. So people, let's try and calm it down a bit, things are bad enough without inventing stuff! For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill you with a single glance from her eyes. That's a basilisk, listeners! One simple test: check whether the thing that's glaring at you has legs: if it has, it's safe to look. Although, if it really is You-Know-Who, that's still likely to be the last thing you ever do." I couldn't help my laughter at the terrible joke, unable to believe I could actually find something that featured in the worst of my nightmares so amusing, and yet undeniably entertained.

"Well, thank you for that update, Rodent!"

"Rapier!"

"And don't forget to tune in again listeners, for more stories, tales, updates, and advice. In the meantime–"

"Stay safe!"

"And support Harri Potter!"

I felt a bit like laughing and a lot like crying, but I did neither, just sat there; wand in my hand and radio on my lap.

I wasn't exactly... cheered up, by any means, but by the time Charlize arrived home, I wasn't as confused or uncertain. As we sat down at the table– she had cooked– Charlize broke the comfortable silence we usually ate in.

"So, how's school been going? Make any friends?" she asked. I knew she was trying to ask if I planned on continuing school after tomorrow or not and purposefully kept my answer vague.

"Well, I have a few classes with this guy named Jeremy. I sit with his friends at lunch. And there's this girl, McKayla, who's friendly. Everybody seems pretty nice."

"That must be McKayla Newton. Nice girl— nice family. Her dad owns the sporting goods store just outside of town. He makes a good living off all the backpackers who come through here."

We ate in silence for a minute, until I thought of asking Charlize what she thought of the Cullens– my mother was a good judge of character, even if she didn't have all the information (and I was referring to their little 'poaching' habit there).

"Do you know the Cullen family?" I asked, keeping my voice casual.

"Dr. Cullen's family?" Charlize said. "Sure. She's a great woman."

"I have a class with one of her kids." I said. "I noticed that none of them seem to fit in very well at school."

The point I was trying to lead up to was if Charlize ever got the feeling there was something off about them, but instead I was surprised to see her face get red, the way it did when she was angry.

"People in this town," she muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary she gets here," she continued, getting louder. "We're lucky to have her– lucky that her husband wanted to live in a small town. She's an asset to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature– I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should– camping trips every other weekend...  Just because they're newcomers, people have to talk."

I backpedaled. "They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they kept to themselves. They're all very attractive," I added, trying to be more complimentary. It worked.

"You should see the doc," Charlize said, laughing. "It's a good thing she's happily married. A lot of the hospital staff have a hard time concentrating on their work with her around." My mother then turned sly eyes towards me. "Which one did you say was in your class again?" I rolled my eyes at her.

"It's not like that." I said, and she laughed.

"Sure it isn't. Is it the tall girl? Or the blond?"

"That's presumptuous," I said, mostly just to knock her off kilter the way she'd knocked me off kilter. It worked, and her eyes widened.

"Are– are you– not that I have a problem with it, of course, Beau, I just didn't realize, you never said anything–"

"I don't really prefer one gender over the other," I interrupted, putting her out of her misery. She looked confused but I just shrugged. Hermes had used words like 'bisexual', 'pansexual' and 'demisexual' but he'd also said most sexualities were fluid to a degree and unique to each person. Labels could be good for understanding things, but I didn't think they should define a person, and I didn't let them define me.

"Have you ever, you know..." Charlize made some sort of gesture with her hands and it felt like my face was on fire I started blushing so hard.

"Mom!" My voice was embarrassingly shrill. Charlize's eyes widened, and her expression turned just as horrified as I imagined mine was.

"I meant kissing, Beau! Not– not sex!"

We stared at each other, mortified, before both looking down at our dinner plates. I focused on trying to make my face not look quite so red, and after a few minutes she cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Don't think I didn't notice you never actually answered my question, Beau," she said. "Either of them."

I looked up from my plate, my face not quite tomato red anymore, and decided admitting which Cullen I shared a class with had less embarrassing potential then her second question about if I'd ever kissed anyone. "I– I'm in a class with Edythe Cullen. The shorter one with the reddish hair." 

"Oh?" Charlize lifted an eyebrow in a way that was very judgmental. "That's a lot of detail for 'it's not like that'."

"No it's not," I protested. "Height, gender and hair color! Perfectly normal!"

"I think you doth protest too much." I glared at my mother and pointedly stood up. Her laughter followed me into the kitchen, where I starter filling the sink with soapy water– whoever didn't cook, it was decided, had to wash the dishes. 

Elbow deep in hot, soapy water, I decided I'd wait until after tomorrow to decide whether or not to stay at Forks High.