Maya enjoyed her summer, spending most of her time in the woods exploring and hanging out with her father. But eventually it came to an end and school was beginning. She was excited to meet new people her own age, and was also excited by the gift she had gotten yesterday. Apparently, her vampire family had decided that she could not possibly attend school without appropriate transportation and had gotten her a 1965 powder blue convertible mustang to get to school in. Maybe she should have reminded them that she was a terrible driver who got distracted way too easily, but oh well she already loved the car as she could put the top down and feel the wind in her hair. Which meant that there was no way she was giving it back.
As she finished getting ready, she headed down the stairs to drop a kiss on her dad's head before heading off to school. She figured she was early given the fact that the parking lot was empty, but she simply shrugged and headed into the office to get her schedule and a map. All the other students had been mailed theirs, but since she was new to the school and her records had to be transferred (read: faked) they had asked that she come in the first day to make sure everything was in order. The minute she opened the office door though she had to pause as she became overwhelmed by the smell of perfume. While it may not have been too noticeable to a human, she could pick up on the built-up layers that came from someone wearing it everyday for what had to be years in such a confined space. She sneezed three times before her nose was able to adjust to the smell enough enter the room. Muttering a quick explanation about allergies to the secretary, she quickly got down to the business of getting her records all sorted out.
When she came out, she saw a few cars pulling in and followed after them to find parking.
Once parked she hoped out and headed into the school, consulting her map to find her class, ignoring the stares and wolf-whistles aimed her way.
"Hey I'm Eric! And you're the new girl Maya Swan, right?" A boy said jumping in front of her and nearly causing her bump into him.
"Si, that's me!" She smiled up at him.
"Oh getting fancy with the Spanish. I like."
Maya rolled her eyes but didn't correct him. "So are you like the official tour guide or something?"
"Na, I'm the eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need I got you!"
"Does that include directions to English class? Cause this map is useless."
He gave another laugh, "yeah, our maps suck. But don't worry I can get you there no problem! What class is it in?"
She told him and the two set off down the hall, Eric pointing out things as they went and cracking jokes about the school. Maya laughed along with him and when they reached the class thanked him and told him she would see him later.
Classes were as boring as she thought they would be, but luckily for her in Spanish class she met a girl named Angela who she thought was pretty nice. The girl had invited Maya to sit with her and her friends at lunch and she had accepted her offer.
When the bell went, they headed off together, talking about the projects the teacher had mentioned they would be doing later. Maya quietly snickering as the other girl complained about the essay they would have to write at the end of the year. At least she had the advantage of being fluent in Italian thanks to her vampire family. It may not be the exact same language, but seeing as they both evolved from Latin it certainly would help.
As they sat down at what Maya assumed to be Angela's usual table they were joined by another girl, a blond boy and Eric.
"Hey nice to see another friendly face" she said smiling at Eric who laughed.
"Don't worry, this is a small town, pretty soon everyone will be a friendly face. But these are my other friends, Mike and Jessica and I take it you already know Angela."
"Yep, we share Spanish. Its nice to meet the two of you. Hope we can get along."
"Yeah same. So, what's your story? I heard you're the Chief's daughter?" Jessica wanted to be the first to get all the gossip on the new girl.
"Yep, he's my dad, although I am adopted. My parents died when I was baby and he took me in, along with my step-mom."
"I'm sorry to hear about that." Angela put a hand on her shoulder in comfort.
"Its okay. I don't remember them and my dad's awesome, so I don't really mind."
"So why don't you live with him?" Jessica asked rudely.
"Jess! You can't just ask that" Angela chided.
Maya raised an eyebrow at their interaction. She already had an idea of what sort of personality Jessica had. Letting out an imperceptible sigh, she mentally shrugged. It wasn't as if Jessica was the only one who would be curious. In a town this small, plenty of people would probably come sniffing around for answers. Best just to let the gossip girl have the answers so less people would feel the need to ask her directly.
"No, its fine. I knew people would be curious. I actually lived with my uncles in Italy while I went to school there."
"You went to school in Italy?!" Jessica said unbelieving and Jealous at the thought.
"l'ho appena detto" Maya muttered before continuing on in a louder voice, "there was this whole exchange student thing at my school in Phoenix when I was younger and I got chosen to go, so I have been going there ever since."
"Wow. That sounds amazing" Mike spoke, for the first time taking his eyes off her chest and looking at her face.
Maya could already tell that she was not going to like this boy. She knew that she had a nice figure and looked good thanks to her mothers who had taught her how to dress nicely even in simple clothes, but she did not like the way he was leering at her.
"So, what's with all the food?" Jessica prodded, wanting to get the new girl's attention off her crush.
Maya looked down at her tray. She had more food on it than your typical teen, especially given the quality of cafeteria food, but it could not be helped. Due to her shifting her body burned through calories quicker than a human so she had to eat more. Nevertheless, that did not mean that she would allow others to judge her for it.
"What's wrong with me eating, ragazza superficiale?" Maya asked with fake innocence.
"Aren't you worried about getting fat?" Jessica replied with a scoff, she herself being on a diet.
"Well, I think her body looks perfect." Mike interjected, causing Maya to hide a cringe and Jessica to glare at her.
Yeah, she decided, I am probably not going to be getting along with these two. "Personally, I think anyone should be able to eat whatever they want, so long as it is part of a healthy diet. I mean everyone is different, that includes their metabolism. Which is why I don't get how anyone could judge someone based on what or how much they eat, let alone how you could shame someone for it."
"That's a really good point. Hey Eric do you think we should do an article on it for the paper? About like fat shaming and the effects it could have? Or how unhealthy dieting is for someone?" Angela was already planning out what they could write in her head.
"Sure, it sounds like a neat topic. AND a new one, lord knows we don't get many of those around here." Eric gave Maya a cheeky wink causing her to laugh. She had already turned down being in the school paper. She was not shy per say, but she already knew that she would be the talk of the town and did not want to add to it anymore than she had to. Eric had been understanding of that and had admitted that with the way gossip travelled around Forks, by the time they got the article written and printed everyone would already know everything anyways.
"Whatever" Jessica scoffed.
Just then, something out of the corner of Maya's eye caught her attention and she turned to look. Jessica turned to see as well, wanting to change the subject.
"Oh, those are the Cullens" She swung into gossip mode then, glad to have someone new to share it with. "They're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster children. They all moved down here from Alaska like two years ago. They're kind of weird."
"They kind of keep to themselves" Angela added, trying to balance out Jessica's judgment.
"Yeah, because some of them are together. Like together together. The tall blond is Rosalie, she's with the big dark haired one Emmet, they're like a thing. I'm not even sure that's legal!"
"Jess they're not actually related." Angela defended.
"Whatever, they still live together. It's weird" Jess muttered, defending her thoughts.
"Right cause it's not like married couples do too" Maya muttered, although Jessica just ignored her and carried on with her gossip.
"Okay the small girl with the pixie cut is Alice, she's really weird. The one behind her is Jasper. Jasper always looks like he's in pain. It's actually kind of creepy. Anyway, Dr. Cullen is like this foster dad slash match maker."
"Maybe he'll adopt me." Angela said with a sigh.
Maya smiled to herself, noticing all the little things about them that gave them away as vampires. Guess school was not going to be as boring as she thought if she now had a coven of vampires to prank and play with. Although she did wonder what it was that caused their eyes to turn gold instead of red. Maybe it was one of their gifts? Although one would think if their gift could hide the red eyes they would go for a less conspicuous colour.
"Is that all of them?" Maya asked, wanting to make sure she knew the faces of all her future targets. Not that she would be pranking them anytime soon. Her uncle Caius would skin her alive is he ever found out that she picked a "fight" without first doing her research.
"No there's one more, Edward Cullen, totally gorgeous, but like Jasper, apparently nobody here is good enough for him. Like I care you know" she said in an obviously fake attempt at being causal as the last one entered the room. "Anyways like don't waste your time."
"Hm, not planning to. He's not my type." Which shocked all the people at her table as it seemed that Edward, being the most approachable of the single male Cullens was every girl's type.
"Anyways, what was the blond one's name again?" Maya asked looking over all the Cullens.
"Jasper." Angela supplied.
"Good to know, but I meant the girl."
"Rosalie? Why would you want to know her name?" Jessica was shocked that someone would try to approach her. She had tried when they had first gotten here, but had scampered off in fear when faced with her glare.
"Yeah, she and her twin are kind of unapproachable. Like even more than the rest" Angela agreed.
"I'd believe that. But you can tell from the way she carries herself that she is the kind you want to befriend."
"What?" Jessica asked not following.
"Yeah, you can tell just from how she holds herself and walks that she is a girl that knows her worth and is not going to let anyone try to devalue her. She is exactly the kind of girl my mom said I should try to befriend. That unlike other girls who need to boost their confidence by putting others down, she won't." Maya of course meant her mother Athenodora and not Renee, that woman was a force to be reckoned with. Although Maya supposed she would have to be to put up with her uncle Caius all these centuries.
The others at the table though looked shocked at her words and were thinking them over, glancing at Rosalie as they did.
"Whelp. I'm off to find my next class; math. Just kill me now and spare me the misery." She rolled her eyes as she said this, picking up her bag and heading off. She really was regretting ever agreeing to attending an actual school. Between the fake girl, Jessica, the horny boy, Mike and the classes, she was ready to run off into the woods and never look back. At least having a coven here meant that she would have targets she could go all out on when bored.
Translations:
ragazza superficiale – shallow girl
Si, l'ho appena detto – Yes, I did just say that