Accidental Encounters
After arriving at school late because sleeping in for too long, something Faith believed she could remedy by walking quickly and riding on her skateboard. This plan was foiled by having to take a different route to school than her usual route through the woods as there were police stationed near its entrance. By the time she got to school and emptied her belongings into her locker. She was already sick of the long day ahead of her and it had barely even begun, she was exhausted and wanted it to be over.
This left her to daydream in her classes, completely uninterested learning or listening to the gossip of the students seated near; in fact, Faith physically has to stop herself from falling asleep during her biology class. When this happened the teacher looked at her briefly, asking her if she wanted to go to the nurse, she gives him a small smile and waves him off before looking blankly at the board. He takes this as his cue to continue to drone on to the class about whatever they are currently studying, to be honest, she's not sure she really cares.
This seems to be her attitude towards most of her subjects lately and Biology is no exception to this. It might have been better, had she someone to talk to during her classes, but over the years the students of Forks High School have shown to not want to spend more time in her company than they needed to. It took her a while to accept that to be the case, but she's used with it now. Besides, she only needs to be there until the end of the year, so she can graduate, then she'll be able to do whatever she wants and get out of this stupid small town.
As the class goes on she finds herself more and more disinterested in the topic being taught until she's almost asleep face down on her desk. The intercom blaring from the front of the classroom wakes her from her sleep-deprived daze.
"AUTHORITIES HAVE DISCOVERED A BODY BEHIND THE SUPERMARKET, THE CAUSE OF DEATH IS CURRENTLY UNKNOWN BUT A SPOKESPERSON HAS STATED THAT AUTHORITIES BELIEVE IT TO BE THE RESULT OF AN ANIMAL ATTACK. ALL STUDENTS ARE ADVISED NOT TO TRAVEL ALONE AND AVOID SECLUDED AREAS IF POSSIBLE. STAY SAFE."
As the teacher attempts to settle the now chattering class Faith stops to think, nothing has happened in Forks since the Swan girl moved there a while ago. Something in her own option wasn't much to get excited about. It's not like she hated Bella, she seemed nice and always smiled at her in the hallways, her arrival was just another overhyped thing Faith couldn't be bothered to care about. She tapped her fingers and refocused her mind on the announcement, one thing she found interesting about it was the mention of staying away from areas like the woods, her usual way home.
She quickly decided that this was bullshit and that she would ignore the warning, as she wasn't scared of an animal. Suddenly another thought made its way into her mind, what would an animal be doing that far into the town? She quickly dismissed this, there were heaps of plausible reasons for it to be in town, maybe it was hungry and looking for food in a dumpster when someone stumbled across it and frightened it.
Faith, lost in thought, continued to drift through what might have happened to the body that the police found until she was rudely drawn out of her daydream by the bell ringing to signify lunch. She quickly packs up her materials and mutters a quiet thank you to the teacher before joining the cluster of students filing out of the classroom. Entering the hallway Faith puts her headphones and fiddles with her mp3 player, after skipping a few songs she finds the perfect song and makes her way to her too tiny locker.
After putting her stuff into her locker and grabbing the lunch she had rushed to pack earlier in the day, Faith began the trek that is walking through the school cafeteria. Walking this route had always been a challenge because of the rumours that had followed her throughout her high school life, and today was no different. Walking swiftly through this area worked for Faith a majority of the time but apparently, her classmates had other ideas today.
"I bet that freak Faith was the one to kill that guy they found." Faith turned her head towards the source of the voice to see that it came from Jessica Stanley, she wasn't surprised
"Don't be rude; besides, the police say an animal killed him." Faith perked up when she heard that and looked towards who had said it, Bella, of course.
It's not like there weren't things to find weird about Faith, there definitely were. For instance, she finds the interests of her classmates quite boring. Faith much preferred the thrill of collecting objects during her trips into the woods and cataloguing her finds compared to the loud parties and meddling in the business of those who do not concern you that seemed to be enjoyed by most her age. She pushed these thoughts aside, it seemed so silly to hate someone for something that didn't hurt anyone but that was beside the point right now, she needed to get out and have a smoke. This day was way too much for her so far.
"Ignore them and keep moving" was Faith's internal chant; "it will only get worse if you try to deny it." So that's what she did, she ignored the fury that bubbled beneath her skin and kept walking until she made her way to her favourite spot behind the school. She sits and reaches into her pocket to pull a cigarette out of the packet she has stuffed there for when she's feeling stressed. She often worried about their negative effects but today she didn't care.
"It's not like I'm addicted", she thinks to herself. As she brought the cigarette to her lips the song in her ears changed. She lights the end of the cigarette and inhales the smoke to try and clear her mind. She settles into a calmness that sadly only brings her back to the topic of the mysterious animal attack. It's too strange for her not to dwell on, she exhales before drifting even deeper into thought.
"Hey you know those aren't good for you right?"
The sudden break in the silence she was previously residing in catches Faithoff guard, causing her to choke on the smoke residing in her mouth. She coughs and splutters before quickly attempting to put the cigarette out on the slightly damp grass, fearful that she had been caught smoking by a staff member.
She couldn't risk them calling her foster mother again, it would be the third time this semester. It's all Faith would hear from her for weeks and besides, her mom didn't know that Faith has been stealing cigarettes from her when she's out.
The voice doesn't say anything else so she rules out it being a teacher here to get her in trouble. She looks up to investigate the owner of the voice and finds it to belong to Jasper Hale, one of the infamous Cullen clan. Her expression hardens, confused as to why he's bothering to talk to her and ready to get up and leave if need be.
"Why do you care?" She mutters holding eye contact brazenly, why was Jasper even out here? He wasn't a smoker to her knowledge.
His eyebrows raise at her tone as he lets out a small chuckle. He looks down at her before responding, "I was just looking out for a fellow classmate."
Faith mutters a small "Yeah right."
He seems to understand her humour, giving another small laugh before moving to sit down next to her. Faith simply watches as he uses the wall to help maneuver himself onto the patchy grass and into a sitting position. She stares at him, utterly bewildered by this entire interaction, with one of Forks Highschool's most talked about. He reaches out a hand for her to shake, as they touch, she feels a weight lift from her shoulders.
"I'm Jasper"
"Oh I know who you are, you and your siblings have been the talk of the school ever since you arrived" He looks at her, and for the tiniest second Faith almost thinks he's embarrassed, she quickly dismisses this thought before adding, "I'm Faith, if you didn't already know, though you've probably heard one of the many rumours floating around." She pauses once letting out a sheepish smile, "they aren't true by the way."
He nods in acknowledgment and they fall into in a strange, yet comfortable silence. Faith pulls out her food and quietly eats it. This continues for quite a while before Faith turns her head away from him and laughs softly, Jasper looks at Faith with confusion in his eyes, mirroring her confusion from earlier, as he waits for her to give him an explanation.
"Sorry it's just this is the longest I've been around someone without them making fun of me in a while," she pauses to look of vaguely into the distance, "I kinda forgot what it felt like" She laughs again to herself before packing her things and standing up and dusting off any stray blades of grass that might have gotten stuck to her pants. She picks up her untouched sandwich before looking down at him, "We'll have to do this again sometime."
He nods and waves to her when she turns around and walks in the school building.
Faith put this interaction into the back of her mind for the rest of the day, too many things going on in Forks and not enough time to think about them all to waste time thinking about a weird encounter with one of the popular kids. Her thoughts were so muddled because of this that it took her until the last bell of the day to get her head straight. When the bell did ring she picked up her things quickly and made her way back to her locker one without interruption.
Once she reached her locker she grabbed the supplies she would need for homework and her skateboard before putting her headphones back in and walking swiftly through the corridors in time with the beat until she was out of the school building.
Faith walks erratically, in a slight daze, focusing more on moving to the beat of the song then where she was going, this leads her to walk straight into a girl with fae-like features, causing both parties belongings to come crashing down to the ground with a hard thump, she can't believe her luck. She takes her headphones off her head as she bends down and starts to pick up the mysterious woman's items carefully, aiming to not inflict more damage on them then she had already.
"I am so sorry," Faith mutters as she begins stacking her own dropped books, "I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was walking, too caught up in thought I guess."
"It's fine, I wasn't paying attention either." The voice says from above, "Don't worry about picking those up, they'll be okay"
Faith looks at the strangers' shoes with an ashamed look and slightly flushed cheeks; she can feel the stares of people surrounding her, probably wondering how the weirdo can be such a klutz. When she finally gathers the courage to investigate who she bumped into, she puts a name to the face quickly. She just had to bump into a Cullen.
Alice Cullen stood there looking down at Faith with a gentle smile and an outstretched hand. Faith grasps the offering and manoeuvres herself off the ground, slowly as to not bring the small girl down to the ground with her.
"I think that this is the part where u tell me I should get lost," Faith says with a pained laugh, "You better get on with it quickly, everybody's staring." The humour in her voice is gone as she looks around at the crowd that is trying and failing to pretend that they aren't interested in the unusual interaction happening between the two girls. Alice shoots them a small glare and the crowd disperses quickly.
"Let them think whatever they want, you seem nice." The girl says with what faith believes is genuine kindness, she can't tell, "My name is Alice, you probably already know that though," she laughs gently before continuing, "Yours?"
"Faith."
"I like it," Alice pauses for a moment to think, "It suits you." She looks behind her, Faith's eyes follow her line of sight, she's looking at her siblings who are waiting for her in the car park. She notices Jasper, in particular, has a look in his eyes that she can't quite understand. Alice looks back at Faith before continuing the conversation. "I have to get going, I'm sure we'll see each other around more often from now on."
All Faith can do is give a weak nod as the petite girl quickly waves back before turning around and making her way towards her sibling. Faith is now utterly confused at the way her day has gone. She shrugs away her confusion before running down the stairs and onto the footpath and hopping atop her skateboard.
She makes sure to keep her head up to avoid another collision as skates fluidly down the footpaths that lead to the entrance of the forest. Her cheeks remain slightly flushed from her encounter with Alice earlier.
Faith can't help but laugh as she wonders what the chance of meeting two Cullens is one day is. She pushes this thought to the back of her mind as she continues the journey to the makeshift forest path she follows to get home.