FORK’S HIGH SCHOOL HALL B

Classes had finished, but Edward couldn’t let Bella go – not when he had been enduring for so long. He wanted a glimpse of her mind, and that would only be possible if she volunteered the information.

Bella, as well, was not eager to allow Edward to leave, but the eyes scanning them in the halls gave her a rude awakening.

How long would it be till Xavier found out?

What would he make of it?

The vampire and his prey walked and chatted, and the more Edward learned about the girl known as Isabella Swan, the more enamored he became.

“Why didn’t you move with your mother and Phil?” Edward inquired – he had a look that said this was the most interesting topic of his life.

Bella couldn’t understand why, but she answered the questions nonetheless – it felt good being the focus of curiosity instead of the other way around.

“Well… Phil’s a minor league baseball player, and he travels a lot, and my mom stayed home with me but I knew it may her unhappy, so I figured I’d stay with my dad for a while,” Bella shrugged.

“And now…” Edward frowned – a gut-wrenching thought stirring in his mind. “You’re unhappy?”

“No…” Bella shook her head. “I’m just—”

She couldn’t finish the statement since her heart sunk the next moment when Xavier turned down the stairs into Hall B. All the plans she had built up for just this moment had vanished.

Maybe it was her staring – Bella’s gaze brought Xavier’s gaze unto her, and they locked gazes. His eyes naturally drifted to Edward.

Edward was closer to Bella than anyone had been in a while, and from just a glimpse, Xavier could tell that she wasn’t at all uncomfortable.

She welcomed the proximity.

The Eternal frowned and kept walking, nursing a headache that made him all the more irritated. His mind had registered the incident, but there was just no time to address it.

Bella simultaneously hoped that Xavier would pass her by and give her a chance to explain, and then… he stopped a bit to her right.

“Listen, I can explain…”

The words left Bella’s mouth before she even realized what she was saying, and this automatic deference to Xavier irritated Edward.

‘Why do I have to explain myself to him? Someone who has a girlfriend,’ Bella's mind spoke logically, but her heart was experiencing all kinds of chaos.

Xavier had the urge to chuckle at the cute misunderstanding, but a bout of headaches bombarded his mind, and through gritted teeth, he could only say a few words.

“Bella, MOVE!”

The Eternal forced Bella aside to get to his locker behind her – a locker that held an impressive amount of LSD and medical marijuana, exactly what was needed to deal with a possible supernatural headache.

“Don’t treat her like that!” Edward growled, stepping in front of Bella, and placing a firm hand on Xavier’s shoulder.

The Eternal frowned and tried to brush Edward’s hand away, but the vampire’s grip was as if a vice, unable to part once it had been locked.

The student watched with bated breaths – they could guess a confrontation was inevitable.

The school only needed one alpha male.

“Woah… Woah…” Bella panicked and tried to get between Edward and Xavier, to stop whatever was about to happen.

In hindsight, she now realized her error – she had subconsciously stopped in front of Xavier’s locker, so her previous actions could be considered as coming to show off Edward to her crush out of spite.

A subtle golden hue slowly colored Xavier’s pupil golden, and Edward’s grip on The Eternal’s shoulder was tightening – they would come to blows any moment.

Edward and Xavier locked eyes – Bella between them.

Xavier was willing to rampage even at the cost of Bella’s life while Edward hesitated a bit… just as Xavier was about to move and allow the vampire to regret that hesitation…

Alice broke through the gathered crowd.

Her haste was unmistakable, but the lost expression on her face didn’t match the urgency of her movements.

“If you fight, Bella and Angela will get hurt,” She said with certainty. “Think about this carefully.”

Xavier’s muddled thought calmed significantly when a familiar, steady heartbeat made itself known to his ears. Almost immediately, he could think about the future Alice had witnessed.

A massacre…

The Eternal could say with utmost certainty that the nearest twenty people to him and Edward, as the battle started, would be reduced to corpses.

With a clear outlook, Xavier was now able to see some things.

Emmet, Jasper, and Rosalie stood a couple of feet behind Edward – appearing silently at this critical moment.

Xavier took a deep breath…

Nobody was more relieved than Bella, but as the tense situation dwindled, eyes started to judge her worth – wondering what mystery she held capable of instigating the two hottest guys at the school to fight over her.

Such an idea was untrue, but it was the idea that most students stuck with.

A pair of arms wrapped around Xavier’s waist, and The Eternal was quickly led away. Alice, Jasper, Emmet, and Rosalie did the same for Edward.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Jessica directed a silent thumb of approval to Bella before ushering the partially-frozen awkward teenager to a table in the cafeteria in hopes of learning her secret technique.

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The day moved at a snail’s pace.

The height of excitement – an apparent confrontation between Xavier Ikaris Aionios and Edward Cullen – had left the competing events a bit dull.

The teacher’s words seemed less impactful.

The baked chicken at lunch tasted blander.

Even the nude of a 4th year didn’t cause as many boners as it should have.

Then, the last session came.

Xavier had found his balance once more, finally able to analyze the incident that he had so thoughtlessly caused.

And there was no excuse for it.

The Eternal knew just how obsessed Edward Cullen is with Isabella Swan so he decided to stay away for a week to see how the dominoes would fall.

But… accidents happen.

Xavier sighed as he pushed the door open, welcomed by the sight of Alice and Brittney, Rosalie, Angela, Eric, Mike, and members of the student body.

The time had come to finalize the plans.

“We need to know the music to organize the dance,” Alice hopped out of her seat as if it was burning, but Xavier knew it was mostly her excitement. “So, have you finished it? I know it’s going to be great.”

Xavier stared at the overenergetic vampire for a couple of seconds before sighing and gesturing for everyone to come over to the instruments section of the room.

He settled at the piano.

Then, The Eternal started to play an instrumental…

Halfway through…

Alice shook her head, interrupting his playing. “That’s not it,” She said.

“Sounded pretty okay to me,” Brittney shrugged – she could choreograph a dance from anything.

“It should be easy enough to synthesize the audio,” Eric commented.

“What about the other one?” Angela suggested.

Unlike the others, she had heard all the prospective songs due to Xavier often playing at home.

Xavier closed his eyes and thought about the funniest song from his previous world…

Tu dun du du nu nu…

Alice’s eyes lit up – she was instantly entranced, and she was far from the only one. Rosalie’s bored expression shifted to surprise, and even the President, Brian – as much as he disliked Xavier – had to admit the rhythm was just right.

“In my bag…”

Xavier’s hands didn’t leave the keyboard, but a quick word to Mike told the boy his purpose for being here.

In Xavier’s bag, Mike found the music sheet for a dozen songs, and as someone who could read music, he selected the one Xavier was currently playing.

“What does the fox say?” Mike read.

“A thought-provoking name?” Yesmin faltered after hearing the name – suddenly, she didn’t like what the song would become. “Right?”

“Sounds pretty stupid to me,” Rosalie was as blunt as always.

“You’re gonna love it,” Alice voiced. “What about the other one?”

“What other one?” Xavier was confused.

“Tin tin tun tun tan tun tan tun tu – PARTY ROCK!” Alice voiced the rhythm that had been stuck in her head for days. “Yeah… that’s the one.”

Xavier’s eyes lit up – he had only intended on using one song, but a mash of a funny song, and a Party Rock Anthem?

That would be gold in any world.

Xavier quickly ran his fingers across the keyboard, playing electronic music on the piano as much as he could manage, and though it wasn’t exactly what he imagined, the others were still impressed.

“I like this one more…”

“I found the sheet,” Mike announced, carefully storing the music lyrics and notes in a binder, and slipping it into his bag.

He was responsible for making sure each department got a copy of the music sheet so editing would line up with photography, design, and choreography.

“And about the design?” Rosalie inquired.

“Everyone sings – our best singers will do most of the singing and dancing, but it’s a school project so we need the focus to be on the institution,” Brian spoke.

Nobody thought he was speaking due to his responsibility as president – the only reason he dared speak in front of Xavier was that the latter had given Erin a lead position due to her amazing voice.

“So… we need head coverings – everyone,” Rosalie was relieved by this turn of events since she really wanted to participate in the video but couldn’t allow her ageless face to appear on any computers.

“Make them marshmallow-like, round smiley faces, or just cardboard boxes with robot expressions painted on them,” Xavier suggested – that was mostly how the original music videos went anyway.

“I can do that,” Rosalie smiled – it was exciting to be challenged.

“I am the fox,” Alice announced with a tone of finality. “And Jasper will be the frog.”

Everyone else was confused.

Xavier couldn’t help but chuckle – he definitely liked Alice the most out of all The Cullens.

“I’ll put the word out in the newspaper,” Angela contributed. “I already know more or less what to expect so I’ll be sorting out the best areas for the video. Xavier already has the equipment we’ll need at home. Eric, you’ll need to text me when you want to come over since Xavier never has his phone.”

“I’d rather text you anyway,” Eric admitted, wanting to forget the last time he met Xavier at that place filled with naked girls.

It was traumatic – not the naked girls, just the fact that Xavier and Jessie were boning all of them… including but not limited to two of his crushes.

“Careful, Eric…” Xavier spoke in a drawling tone. “You might hurt my feelings.”

The meeting continued as the details were ironed out.

Rosalie sketched the initial designs and suggested a few places in Forks where the video could be shot – primary amongst those places was the High School’s auditorium.

Alice stared into empty space for a couple of seconds and was suddenly inspired into creating some dance steps, but still, she insisted on Xavier showing them how it was done.

Yesmin led the student body council instead of Brian who was mainly focused on getting his girlfriend's performance ready.

Besides Angela and Xavier, Brian and Erin were next up for couple of the year, and they were only considered second place because Angela and Xavier provided much more dramatic flare to the school.

Perfect couples like Brian and Erin tended not to be liked.

“Okay, that’s it, guys,” Xavier interlocked his fingers with Angela’s as they departed the room.

Just before he could successfully exit, The Eternal paused when he noticed the sharp sensation of a returning headache.

Something instantly clicked.

Xavier’s neck craned in Alice’s direction only to discover that she was similarly staring at him.

‘She knows…’

There was something in her eyes that told The Eternal that she understood more about his headache than she was letting on, but at the same time, there was a lack of understanding reflected on her face.

Not wanting to lose himself to paranoia, Xavier bared the pain and continued his stride with Angela, careful not to let anything about his situation slip to the mother hen of the day.

The Eternal wanted to say he disliked her hovering, but the truth of the matter was that Xavier liked being protected by Angela as much as she appreciated his protection.

He had learned long ago that everything in a relationship had to go both ways, less it ends in the inevitable divorce.