The routine at Forks High School settled in fast, becoming as gray and predictable as the constant drizzle that soaked the town.
Lief played the role of model student just enough: he arrived on time and, every now and then, let out a brilliant answer that left the teachers blinking in surprise, only to lean back in his chair again.
To entertain himself, he levitated the pen of the girl sitting in front of him, watching with amusement how she looked for the "lost" object on the floor.
Amidst that boredom, his friendship with Bella Swan emerged not as an explosion, but as a natural consequence of social gravity.
Both were the "new kids", the outsiders in a closed ecosystem, and that shared label acted like a magnet.
Besides, there was something about Lief that made Bella, who used to feel clumsy and anxious, find a strange calm in him.
At lunchtime, the cafeteria was a hive of noise. Lief navigated through the crowd and dropped into a table by the window, across from Bella.
Bella poked at her salad reluctantly, moving a lettuce leaf from one side of the plate to the other.
She seemed to be debating internally about something until, finally, curiosity got the better of her shyness.
"... I have to ask you something" she said, without looking up much, "Seriously... that introduction you did on the first day in Mr. Molina's class... Were you serious?"
Lief, who was in the middle of a big bite of his hamburger, looked at her with full cheeks.
"Mmm? What do you mean?" he asked vaguely, swallowing calmly.
"You know. The thing about... hunting vampires and werewolves" she lowered her voice almost to a whisper, as if she feared someone would hear them and think they were crazy, "I know you probably did it to make friends with people but... I don't know, it was a bit of a weird joke, don't you think?"
Taking his time, Lief drank a long sip of his Coke.
He set the glass on the table and observed Bella's brown eyes... there was a genuine innocence in her confusion that he found amusing.
"Oh, yeah?" He asked leaning forward, invading her personal space a little, "And what if it wasn't a joke? What would happen if I told you that those things really exist, that they are here, among us and that I am an expert in dealing with them?"
"..."
Bella made a face, processing the information for a second. Then, seeing the mocking glint in Lief's eyes, she shook her head.
"I get the hint" she said with a shy smile, "If you don't want to talk about your real hobbies, that's fine. But for next time, you could invent something less imaginary."
"Noted."
He was about to add something else when, suddenly, the atmosphere of the cafeteria changed subtly.
The constant noise of conversations diminished and a wave of silent attention swept through the place.
With his instincts always alert, Lief turned his head toward the entrance.
Five figures had just crossed the cafeteria doors.
The contrast with the rest of the students was so great that it seemed they belonged to a different species.
They looked nothing like the people around. They looked like fashion magazine covers in slow motion.
Their skins were pale, almost translucent, and their faces possessed a beauty so perfect and angular that it was unreal.
They walked in a tight formation, isolated in their own world of cold perfection, heading directly toward an empty table in the farthest corner of the dining hall.
"They're here."
A voice came from the table next door.
It was Jessica Stanley, who lowered her tone with an evident mixture of envy and adoration.
"That is the Cullen family."
Bella's curiosity lit up instantly, and following Jessica's gaze, she turned to observe the group that had just taken possession of the farthest table.
"The blonde girl is Rosalie Hale," Jessica explained, gladly taking on her role as introducer. "And the huge guy who looks like a bear next to her is Emmett Cullen. The little one with short hair, the one who looks like a pixie, is Alice Cullen, and the blond one who looks like he's in constant pain is Jasper Hale. They are all adopted children of Dr. Cullen and his wife...."
Jessica paused with her eyes shining as she focused on the last figure sliding toward the table.
It was a young man with messy brown hair, his face possessed a devastating beauty, but he emanated a detachment that screamed "don't come close."
"And that... that is Edward Cullen," she concluded with a barely disguised sigh. "He is absolutely gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time, he never goes out with anyone."
Bella's gaze settled involuntarily on the young man and then, as if he had felt the weight of her attention, Edward Cullen turned his head sharply.
His golden pupils clashed directly with Bella's eyes, as if he were trying to dissect her from a distance.
!
Bella felt an immediate chill and lowered her eyes quickly, feeling exposed.
However, Edward didn't look away and his eyes remained fixed on her, and a faint expression of perplexity began to form on his face.
He was trying to get in, but the door was locked.
Lief, sitting across from Bella chewing a piece of ice from his drink, caught the whole scene clearly. But he caught something else.
He could feel how Edward was projecting his mind, trying to "read" Bella's thoughts by force, but he was hitting a wall of silence.
Frustrated, he widened his range, and that mental force swept the table like a radar, looking for anything, until it hit Lief.
Lief stopped chewing the ice feeling the foreign touch in his mind.
The corner of his lips curved into a cold smile and instead of blocking him he struck back.
'Spying on private conversations is not a very polite habit.'
A clearly mocking voice rumbled inside Edward's skull.
At the Cullen table, he went rigid instantly.
The perplexity on his face was instantly replaced by surprise and he looked frantically around him, searching for the source of that voice that hadn't entered through his ears... but the students around him continued chatting, oblivious to everything.
His family, attuned to his reactions, perceived immediately that something was wrong.
"Edward, what's wrong?" Alice asked with concern seeing his accentuated pallor.
But he didn't answer and his frantic gaze swept the crowd once more until it finally stopped, fixing with disbelief on the man sitting in front of the new girl.
Lief held his glass of Coke calmly and feeling the vampire's gaze on him, he raised the glass in a toast toward him.
And with a deliberate slowness, he silently mouthed a single word:
"Hello."
.....
In the biology classroom...
Clutching her book tightly, Bella advanced down the aisle while her eyes were fixed on the only empty seat remaining in the last row, but each step she took felt heavier than the last.
Her assigned table partner was none other than Edward Cullen, the same boy who had looked at her with that incomprehensible intensity.
But now the situation was worse.
The copper-haired man was sitting with an unnatural rigidity, his body tense like a spring about to snap.
His hands were tightly clasped, and he leaned toward the opposite edge of the chair, moving away from the aisle as if Bella's mere presence caused him unbearable repulsion.
His face was livid, and his nostrils dilated rhythmically, as if he were struggling not to breathe.
His "don't come close" presence this time was so palpable it was almost a physical barrier, causing the students at nearby tables to seem to hunch over.
Taking a deep breath, Bella steeled herself.
She didn't want to cause a scene, so she mentally prepared herself to sit down.
"Bella."
But a timely voice at her side stopped her dead in her tracks.
Lief appeared on her left without making the slightest sound, but he wasn't looking at Bella; instead, his eyes were locked on Edward with a certain amusement.
"Do me a favor and switch seats with me," he said not as a question, but as a casual suggestion and without waiting for an answer, he slid his backpack naturally onto the empty chair next to Edward, effectively blocking Bella's path. "There is a free seat in the second row, next to the window; the air is better there."
"Huh? But..." Bella blinked, confused by the sudden intervention and trying to process the change of plans.
"Trust me. You look a little pale and I don't want you to faint."
And before Bella could protest or thank him, Lief dropped into the chair next to Edward with total unconcern and ignoring the murderous tension radiating from the vampire. He settled in, stretching his legs under the table, and turned his head to face him.
"I think this is much better, don't you think? If we sit together, I'm sure we'll have many more... common topics to talk about."
________
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