CHAPTER TWO
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i. home of the spartans !

— THE CULLEN HOUSE WAS QUIET, any movement sounded like the padding footfall of a lightweight cat and the only real ambience was a soft piano ballad. Each member of the family was doing something different, yet they chose to exist in the same room.

The calm piano was coming from the rich looking instrument in the corner, with a bronze haired boy drifting his hands along the ivory keys.

The buff looking brunette- almost black haired boy was sitting on the couch on his phone with his arm wrapped around a flawless blonde woman.

A long haired blond male sat on a plush armchair reading a book on the civil war, scoffing and rolling his eyes.

The oldest looking couple of the house were placing piles of books back in their respective places on shelves, while a small pixie-like woman followed after them with a stack in her own hands.

Suddenly, the books in the small woman's hands went tumbling to the floor. She stood stiff as a board while her family watched her in mild curiosity. Within a moment, the woman snapped out of it, her and the bronze haired boy smiling lightly.

"Alice, what did you see?" the oldest looking blond in the room asked, setting a few books off to the side.

Alice ignored the question and instead turned to the boy with the blond hair, who's civil war book had fallen to the floor in his shock.

"Since when are you gay!" Alice shrieked, laughing in excitement. The boy looked confused.

"Last I checked, I wasn't."

The bronze haired boy laughed as well, "Not for long." He stated.

The tough brunette on the couch stood up, pulling the blonde woman along with him. "I'm confused. Alice, what did you see?" The Boy repeated the earlier question.

Alice smiled wide. "Jasper's mate." She laughed. "He's coming."

— ANTHONY WOULD HAVE GONE DOWN TO GREET BILLY AND JACOB BLACK, but he was far too exhausted from the flight so he simply changed into his pyjamas and switched out his nasal cannula for the oxygen concentrator Charlie had put in the work to get into his son's room. He had to let his tank refill anyway.

When he first had to use a nasal cannula, it was a difficult time. They made his upper lip itch and the feeling in his nose was funny, not to mention that he was attached to something.

Sleeping was always weird now, he never knew if he would have a good, well deserved sleep or if he was going to wake up in the middle of the night drowning in his own body when his lungs decided to fill up with fluid.

Luckily enough, there were no problems that night and Tony woke up feeling much better than he had been the night before. Though that rejuvenated feeling ran from his mind screaming as soon as Bella called for him to get ready for school.

It wasn't necessarily school that bothered him. It was more so the people. It was like one huge tent topped circus and he was the main attraction. How could you not be when you lived so differently than the rest of them.

So begrudgingly, he hopped up into Bella's brand new rust bucket truck and set his backpack and oxygen tank on the floor between his legs. Bella followed soon after, situating herself into the driver's seat.

Anthony wasn't allowed to drive. They were too worried that something could suddenly happen to him and he'd lose control of the vehicle. He couldn't care less if he was driving or not, so long as he got to where he was going.

The ride was almost silent, save for the stupidly loud rumble of the truck's engine. Taking a moment to observe his sister, Tony turned his head to analyze her.

Her eyebrows were furrowed and her pale fingers were gripping the steering wheel with ferocity.

He didn't have to be a genius like Liv to tell something was bothering Bella.

"I'm sorry." Anthony spoke, both startling and confusing Isabella.

"For what, exactly?"

"It's your first day at this new school in a small town, you're already nervous and I'm just making it worse." Anthony turned to look out the window, not noticing the surprised look on his sister's face.

"Tony," Bella started, a firm tone in her voice. "I'm not ashamed of you. You're sick, that's something you can't control."

"Then why are you angry with me?"

It fell silent yet again- and for once, it stayed that way and Anthony couldn't tell if he'd found the source of anger or if Bella just didn't have an answer.

Either way, when they pulled into a Forks high school parking lot Tony rushed to gather his things and get out of the weird tension of the truck.

Before his feet even hit the pavement, he could feel all eyes on them. Struggling to ignore their gazes or Bella's voice calling after him, he pulled his bag over his shoulders and grabbed his oxygen tank. The rolling sound seemed to echo loudly in the parking lot, almost making Tony cringe in embarrassment. But he kept moving, trying not to show how simultaneously uncomfortable and annoyed he was.

He made it into the main office building without any difficulty and retrieved a schedule, locker number, passcode and directions to the infirmary building.

And again, he was outside trying to avoid everyone around him whilst also finding his first class of the day. Art.

To be entirely honest, he didn't mind art. In fact- he rather enjoyed it.

It took him a few minutes to gain his bearings and navigate the map of the school on the back of his schedule, but once he did it was pretty easy to find his classroom.

He knew Bella was probably going to have difficulty finding her first class- but if she wasn't going to tell him why she was in a mood, he frankly didn't want to deal with her brooding.

As he walked up the stairs of the art building, a light sounding voice called out to him. He sighed, almost predicting the conversation that was about to happen.
'Why are you wearing that nose thing? Do you have cancer or something?'
'As a matter of fact-'

But as Anthony turned to see the owner of the voice, he was met with a tiny, pale girl who had eyes of gold and hair splayed in tufts, a cute little choker around her neck.

"Hi! You must be Anthony, I'm Alice Cullen." The girl, Alice, spoke with a voice like honey.

"Yeah, Anthony Swan." He held out his free hand to Alice, who shook it gently. He couldn't help but notice her skin was freezing temperature. He didn't comment though, not really minding the cold. "You can call me Tony though."

Alice nodded happily.

"So are you on your way to art class?" Alice asked.

Tony took a moment to look at the sign outside the building that claimed it was the art room, pointing at it as he spoke.

"It'd be weird if I wasn't."

His tone wasn't quite bitter, he tried his best to make it come across as a joke. Alice was the only person that had the courage to come up to him and not talk about his illness immediately. So far, she seemed nice.

Luckily, Alice understood and giggled lightly.

"Right, I forgot that was there." She mumbled. "Well I have art too! Maybe you'd like to sit with me? Unless you have somewhere else to sit."

Tony smiled, a real genuine smile.
He was thankful that Alice had such a kind generosity.

"I'd love to sit with you."

Alice squealed lightly. Normally Tony would have found it annoying, but there was something about Alice that made her instantly likable. At least to Tony.

Then she did something he wasn't expecting, she linked her arm with his free arm and went to tug him into class.

Tony chuckled at her impatience, picking up his oxygen tank with his left hand and trying his best to level his breathing as he followed Alice's pulls up the stairs.

Once they made it into the classroom, all eyes were on them. For a moment, Tony tried to pull his arm away from his newfound friend. Of course, he was the newcomer with an illness. People think he's weird and he really didn't want to drag Alice down with him.

But she wouldn't budge, she kept her arm wound around his like an iron clamp and for a moment, Tony smiled down at her pixie-like figure.

But then they passed a few desks, heading to the free tables at the back, and he heard whispers.

"Look it's that new kid, what's he doing with the weird Cullen girl."

"Oh my god Alice Cullen is actually interacting with someone."

"Maybe it's pity because he's sick."

Alice heard the last one and spun to face the person who said it.

The girl had mousy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, with a resting look on her face that screamed 'I'm gonna gossip about everything you tell me.'

"It's not pity, I'll have you know that Anthony seems like a very nice person." She huffed, tugging Tony all the way to the back of the class. As they sat down and Anthony made sure his things were organized he finally turned to Alice who was digging pencils out of her bag.

"Thanks for that."

Alice smiled brightly yet again.

"I meant every word."

Her saying this brought along a warm feeling in Anthony, "I think we're going to be good friends." He stated.

Alice's smile widened if possible, "Me too."

The teacher stepped in as Alice finished her sentence and began to talk about shading techniques.

Neither Alice nor Tony paid very good attention, more focused on chattering quietly to each other and doodling drawings in their sketchbooks, and if they were called upon both knew exactly how to answer.

It was a great class, and Tony was insanely glad he'd have a whole semester of mornings with Alice.

Nearer to the end of the period, both of them pulled out their schedules to compare hoping they'd have another class together.

"We seem to share lunch, trig in 4th and biology in 5th. You have history second period, my brother has that too maybe you can sit with him." Alice bit her lip as she looked back and forth between the two slips of paper. Anthony couldn't help but smile. Alice was so sweet to think of him in classes they didn't even share. She was even polite enough to not mention the fact that he was supposed to have two more classes. He'd been excused from gym, for medical reasons and Spanish so he could find the infirmary and replace his oxygen tank.

"If he'll have me." Tony chuckled.

Alice looked back up and grinned.

"I can introduce you two before 2nd period if you want- Jazz is really amazing at history so you'd be in good hands." She slid his schedule back over to him, he took the paper and stuffed it into his bag.

"I can usually hold my own in history but it'd be nice to know someone else in that class."

"Great! We can just go to his locker after."

The rest of the period remained relatively silent, despite there being a few giggles and chuckles between Alice and Tony. There were students giving them weird looks, confused glances or envious glares. Normally it would have bothered Tony, but with Alice things seemed a lot easier.

— THE END OF THE PERIOD ROLLED AROUND PRETTY QUICKLY. Soon enough, art was done and over and the Cullen girl and Swan Boy found themselves shoving their art supplies back into their bags.

Alice had latched onto Tony's arm yet again and Tony followed obediently, not quite knowing where to go anyway.

After a short walk they came to a few lockers and Alice seemed to find the exact person she was looking for.

"Jazz! Look who I've met."

The boy that looked up at the sound of Alice's dreamy honey-esque voice was easily one of the most beautiful human beings that Anthony had ever seen.

His hair was long and dark blond in colour, his eyes were similar to Alice's in their golden hue. He was lean and tall, with pale skin and a grey cable knit sweater that went down passed his hands, though he had the sleeves rolled up to his wrists.

Anthony saw that the pendant on Alice's choker was the same as a wristband her brother was wearing.

Comparing Alice and her brother now, he could see that being gorgeous must run in the family. It was like gods themselves had chiseled their features from marble.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he decided the polite thing to do would be to introduce himself but realized that Alice was way ahead of him.

"Jasper, this is Anthony Swan." Alice held out her hands as if he was some great masterpiece to be displayed proudly. Tony just laughed and held out a hand for Jasper to accept.

"Just Tony is fine." He told the blond.

Jasper's eyes looked a bit darker for a moment as he glanced down at Alice, who gave him a mischievous smile, but they quickly returned to their normal colour as he grabbed hold of Tony's hand and shook it.

"Jasper Hale." He introduced "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Tony noticed the slight southern drawl to the blond's words, and the upturned lip that came with it.

Tony noticed the cold temperatures of Jasper's hand too. But he was more focused on the 'Hale' part of this interaction.

"Hale?" Tony inquired.

Jasper nodded and gently closed his locker, "I'm adopted."

So they were just really damn lucky to look like that.

If they were to turn around, they'd see Alice Cullen watching them like a hawk. Or at least a hawk on a sugar rush.

"So Jasper, Tony has next period with you, why don't you make him feel welcome." Alice more so stated than asked.

Jasper looked over at Tony again, only now noticing the oxygen tank he was dragging behind him.

"Sure." Jasper smiled.

Alice clapped her hands in excitement and squeezed Jasper into a hug before doing the same with Anthony. Then she fled off down the corridor with a dance in her step.

"D'you need any help with that?"

Anthony is jerked away from watching Alice by Jasper's voice. Quickly realizing the Hale boy was talking about his oxygen tank he widened his eyes in surprise.

"No, it's okay, I've got it." He said.

Jasper chucked and adjusted his shoulder bag before leaning down and grabbing the tank from Anthony's hands, lifting it off the floor with ease.

"You're probably tired of carrying it around, let me help."

Anthony couldn't help but just nod in relief, only now noticing how sore his shoulder was.

So they walked side by side to their history class, asking some mundane get to know you questions back and forth, and ignoring the judgemental looks and whispers they received.