Chapter 1: High School Never Ends

EPOV

"Oh, my God! This is crazy! I am sick and tired of going to freaking high school! I know it all already!" Emmett yelled as we walked into Forks High School for our senior year. All of the freshman gaped at him before running in the opposite direction, some of them intimately meeting the tiled floor with their faces. It didn't stop them from getting up and running again, though.

We had managed to get into the school as sophomores after explaining that we really were only fifteen. Just more mature for our age. The secretary kept glancing skeptically at Emmett until we told him he was really big as a baby. She nodded her head and got that Oh-okay-now-I-understand look and gave us our schedules.

Jenna was happy. After all she had been through with her change five years ago, she made friends really easily and never seemed to make an enemy. She was very quick to adopt our ways, and her control was incredibly strong. We only had to restrain her once, the day she woke up from her change, but it seemed like that was the shock her system needed to keep her from going after anyone else. We would have known if she did.

"Jen! Jenna!"

All of us turned around to see Jenna's friend Adrian running up to us. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but walked right up to her. Jenna had had her arm through mine, but removed it to embrace her friend. She had met him when we had first come here, and they had been inseparable ever since. They started talking and I told Jenna we'd see her later and kept walking. She waved quickly before turning back to him.

Our first class was on the other side of the school but we weren't in a hurry. All of us had the same first class except Jenna. We tried to change it, but the class was full. She didn't mind since it was English and she had it with Adrian. It's the same class we had, but she had a different teacher. We managed to get everything else together, though.

We walked past the main office and felt the stares from the staff. I was trying not to laugh at the thoughts, mostly consisted of "Too young, too young!" but I quickly sobered up when I looked at the rest of my family. Each of them was wrapped around their husband or wife, smiling at each other without a care in the world. I sighed and walked ahead, my mood greatly dampened and falling even more when I turned the corner.

All eyes seemed to turn in our direction and stay there, slowly growing bigger and bigger. You could tell who was a new kid and who was a freshman because their jaws dropped, as well. Rose seemed to be enjoying the attention when I glanced back, and Alice was paying no mind. Jasper was a little uncomfortable and Emmett was just staring at Rose.

We made it to English and took the five seats at the very back of the room, each of them with their significant other on one side. No one else was in the room, so right before the bell rang, people began coming in, and the stares started all over again.

The teacher walked in and stopped in his tracks as he scanned the back of the room. His eyes stopped on me and I lifted an eyebrow at him. I had seen him around school, so he knew the pairings of our family. His thoughts verified as much.

Still no girl for him, huh? Must be depressing to live in a house full of couples. I have to give him credit for being able to stay there surrounded by that, he thought. I looked out the window, instantly liking this teacher a little more. I asked myself the same question every day, but I never could think of a sufficient answer.

The teacher introduced himself as Mr. Meyers and took attendance, his eyes staring at me with pity as he called my name after Alice's. He quickly went through the rest of the names and started the normal rambling about this being our senior year and how important it is. It may have been a hundred years since I first graduated High School, but the first day still hasn't changed.

We made it through the class, albeit awkwardly, and went to our next class, Drawing and Painting. It was the same as first period, and apparently it was still my turn to be stared at. The teacher, Ms. Marshall, told us she had just graduated from college and this was her first year teaching. Pretty much trying to tell me she wasn't too old for me.

Jenna sat at the same table as me, Emmett and Rose, and Alice and Jasper at their own tables. She quickly figured out what was going on when I made very disgusted faces and almost burst out laughing multiple times. My hand clamped down on the table leg and I tried not to crush it.

Lunch was the most interesting period of the day. And interesting doesn't always mean good. Every person in the cafeteria, including the staff, turned in our direction as we walked to our table. We sat down, Emmett and Jasper standing back up to get trays of food so it looked like some of us were eating, and I made sure to sit one seat apart from everyone. Alice was on my left, with one seat between us, and Emmett was on my right, two empty seats on that side. Jenna sat down next to me and bumped my shoulder with hers.

"So, how annoying was it to be a mind reader today?" she asked, teasing me. I was currently blocking the thoughts of one extremely slutty senior at the moment, so my face said it all. I felt another mind tugging at me, and cautiously allowed myself to hear it. I gave Jenna a tight smile.

"Your friend is looking for you. He's wondering if he could sit with you. Well, to be more precise, us," I whispered.

"Why haven't you asked him to sit with you before? You've been friends for a while now. It's okay," Alice said, bouncing in her excitement. Jenna's shoulders seemed to drop with relief and she ran to go find him. I mentally sighed, glad she was happy, but not exactly glad to be surrounded by it.

Jasper had confirmed that she has strong feelings for Adrian, and that he feels the same. Neither wanted to say anything in case the other didn't feel the same. And, of course, Jenna had mixed feelings about getting close to a human, knowing that we wouldn't be here forever. And she wouldn't age. All of these thoughts ran through her head whenever she and him weren't talking about something that would distract her.

She walked back over with Adrian in tow, one of his hands balancing his lunch while the other was caught in Jenna's grasp. She let go of his hand and sat down, but he remained standing, looking at each of us. His gaze moved to Alice and she smiled brightly at him, motioning for him to sit. He hesitated before sitting down stiffly. You could almost hear the collective gasp from the rest of the cafeteria as he sat down. No one had tried to sit with us in the two years that we had been here.

"Relax, kid. No one's going to hurt you!" Emmett boomed from next to him. I could see why he was so afraid now. I looked at Jasper and saw Adrian relax slightly out of the corner of my eye.

Jenna started rambling on about her classes with him, while he sat there, still not quite over his shock. He nodded and commented where needed, so she didn't seem to notice he wasn't fully there. You could tell there was something there. Alice asked Jenna something and Adrian turned to me.

"So…are all of you…you know…together?" he asked hesitantly. I nodded.

"Yes. All of us were adopted by Carlisle and Esme. None of us are related but Rose and Jasper. They're twins. Rose and Emmett are together, and so are Alice and Jasper." I pointed to each of them and he nodded. He kind of had to look around Emmett to see Rose but she did the same and waved at him.

"Oh, okay. So you are the only one alone?" I nodded tensely.

"I'm impressed. How'd you know?" I said, half sarcastically. I was trying to be nice, but being surrounded by relationships was grinding my patience. He thrust his thumb in Jenna's direction. All of us except for her and Alice did a collective "Oh" and he laughed, starting to loosen up a bit on his own.

"She's told me all about you," he said, looking away from me. I looked at Jenna and raised an eyebrow. She frowned and shook her head, letting me know Adrian didn't know anything he shouldn't.

"So, what about you? Have an interesting story you can share?" Emmett asked. We all looked at him, shocked. He raised his hands in the air, palms up.

"What? I'm bored!" Rose whacked him and Adrian laughed.

"No, it's okay. You told me about you guys, so it's only fair." Emmett let out a whispered "Yes! I like this kid already!" and he laughed again.

"Well, my mom died right after she gave birth to me, and my dad is never around. I might as well be an emancipated minor. He goes around to different women and will stop by to drop off money for food. He pays the bills, but I'm the only one that really lives in the house. Neither of my parents had any siblings, and my only living grandparent died last year. So, it's just me and him." He shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but there was no mistaking the tears trying to fill his eyes.

Alice got up and walked over to him, kneeling down next to him. He looked down at her and she took his hands, a single tear slipping down his face. She wiped it away before taking his hand again.

"Adrian, if you ever feel like you want to talk to someone about this, please do not hesitate. Any of us would be happy to listen. You are not as alone as you think you are." He nodded and more tears made their way down his face. She pulled him to her and he gripped her shirt in his hands, trying not to cry. I saw Jenna smiling at her over his shoulder Alice and smiled back.

Adrian pulled away and composed himself, wiping his face with his hands. Jenna wiped the last one from his jaw and smiled at him, taking his hand in hers. Alice got up and walked back over to Jasper, who pulled her onto his lap.

"You did the right think, love. He was breaking down as he said it, but didn't want to look like a baby in front of us," he whispered in her ear.

She smiled and shook my head, turning to see Jenna running a hand through his spiky brown hair as she soothed him. He just kept nodding and looking down at his lap. I looked around at everyone to see them making the same realization as I was.

Sooner or later, Jenna was going to want to tell him.

A/N: So, this is the new version of Infectious. For those of you who read Fate Brought Us Together, the Cullens will have the same powers I ended that story with. For those of you who haven't, I'll have to find a place in the next chapter to explain it . . . or you could read that story! :)

This story will not be updated regularly with new chapters not from the old version until Dreamer is completed, but I know this one was supposed to be written before that one, so I altered the chapters I had already written to fit the new circumstances. It'll give me a little head start . . . I'll just be posting this one for now, and I'll post the others once a week after that.

I know a lot of you wanted Infectious to be the sequel, but not many people seemed to be reading. Plus, the story could have stood on its own anyway, so it won't be much different except Edward and Bella are not yet together.

Hope it doesn't disappoint!

Angels of Twilight