Chapter 6: The Southern Gentleman

-x-x-x-

"We get carried away in emotions,

We get lost in each other's eyes,

And we forget what we regret,

As we cast our fears aside."

Kodaline – Wherever You Are

-x-x-x-

"Bella, you heard what your dad said last night." Lexi said in the truck on the way to school with Bella the next morning. "He said that the Cullens are stand up people. My dad personally thinks that Dr Cullen is amazing, I don't think we should push them if they're just misunderstood."

"Something is wrong, Lex." Her words were barely mumbled, her attention soon focusing on the tired face of the redhead at her side. "Are you okay? You look exhausted."

The previous night she hadn't slept at all. Every time she closed her eyes she saw awful images of the Cullen family, making the idea of falling asleep terrifying at best. She didn't want a repeat of her second night in Forks, the image of her blood-soaked neck still ingrained at the front of her mind.

Lexi had spent the entire morning trying and failing to cover the dark circles under her eyes, before narrowly avoiding her mother's worried questions. Luckily her father was almost always out and working before she would wake up in the morning, so she never had to think about answering to him.

"I'm just having some trouble sleeping, I don't know why." Lexi's words came out in a sigh, the stress of her dreams and strange visions only heightened by the fact she was keeping them all to herself.

"Nightmares again?" Bella asked as she maneuvered the truck into a parking space in the school lot. "What are they really about, Lex? I know you're keeping something from me."

"I'm telling the truth when I say I don't know, Bells." Her eyes watched as students mulled about, chatting about everyday problems as they readied for school. She just wished that she could be one of them, unburdened by the images of monsters in her mind. "They're a mixture of images that just don't really make sense. I wish they did, but I just can't figure them out."

"Is your brother messing with you or something?"

Oh how she wished it was that simple. What she would give to go back to the days of him trying to scare her; of his fruitless attempts at giving her restless nights. Those days always ended in laughter, Lexi somehow managing to turn the tables back on him at any moment.

She'd seen him only briefly the night before, just before he went to bed, when he explained he'd finally be going on a little hike for the day. He'd left before sunrise, gone before she'd even opened her eyes to the morning light.

"No, he hasn't done anything like that in years." Her eyes focused on their friends as they started to make their way up to the truck, Mike and Tyler shoving at each other playfully the entire walk. "He went hiking today. My mum seemed a bit off, I think she's worried about him going off on his own for the first time. He usually had his friends, you know?"

"I'm sure he'll be alright, Lex." She said, placing a hand on her best friend's arm to comfort her. "Adam is more than capable of looking after himself, he wouldn't let anything take him away from you all."

"I guess. Anyway, we should get to class or we'll be late."

As she opened the door, she could see that Bella wanted to talk about it more, but she wasn't ready to talk about it all just yet. There was a possibility that she'd never be prepared to talk about it. How does someone explain to their loved ones that they're seeing weird visions of blood and vicious monsters ready to attack them? She couldn't risk being misunderstood or treated as though what she was seeing wasn't real. Maybe it wasn't, but she wasn't ready to face that possibility.

Thankfully Bella took the hint as they made their way towards English for the day, gently nudging her elbow into Lex's side to show she was there if she needed to talk.

-x-x-x-

The morning seemed to pass by in a blur.

After dropping the conversation about Lexi's dreams, Bella had turned back to the usual topic of discussion since moving to Forks; the Cullen's. She spent the hour whispering about Edward's disappearance and what it could really mean about him and the family. For some reason, she was determined to prove that it was because of her that he'd skipped out of town. Lex tried her best to soothe her best friend, repeating what Alice had said a few times - that Edward needed to leave for family reasons. However, the brunette wasn't having any of it.

In photography, the petite Cullen had smiled brightly at the redhead, waving good morning as Lexi settled down beside Angela for the lesson.

Angela had looked between the pair with a kind smile, commending Lexi for getting to know some of the Cullen family; explaining that she found it wonderful that somebody was finally getting through to the loners of the school. It seemed as though she was the only person at the school that didn't envy or despise them.

As the bell rang, signalling the end of second period, Alexis and Angela walked out of the classroom to find Tyler stood waiting by the door - his hand opened up immediately at their appearance for Lex to hand over her bag as usual.

"Hey, bunny rabbit." He greeted, casually throwing an arm around her shoulder. "Are you ready for our third race next lesson?"

Lexi quickly waved goodbye to their other friend as she departed to finish off some work for the school paper. "Really? Bunny rabbit? You can't be more creating than that?" She scoffed, arms crossing over her chest. "Are you really so competitive that you need to race me every single day? I'm just faster, you're going to have to deal with it eventually."

"I think you'll find I said best out of five, I can easily win the next three races. If not then I know I can beat your ass at basketball next week." His arm dropped from your shoulder as the two of you came across a picnic table, hoping up to sit with his feet on the bench. "You might as well just admit defeat now."

"And why is that?" She asked, taking a seat on the bench beside him.

"Well, for starters, I have a solid height advantage. I mean, what are you? Two feet tall?"

Lex decided that the appropriate punishment for his words was a swift punch to the leg, his hiss of pain only slightly satisfying. "I am 5 foot 7, you ass. Not to mention my brother is taller than you and I've still managed to beat him plenty of times."

"Yeah, we'll see." He muttered, still rubbing over the spot you'd hit seconds beforehand. As his eyes scanned the school yard, a gruff scoff caught in his throat. "Hale is looking at you again."

"What do you mean again?"

"Don't act like it's surprising to you."

Turning to look in the direction he'd been glaring, Lexi spotted Jasper stood in conversation with a few of his siblings; looking mildly annoyed as he glanced over in her direction. "I wonder what he's annoyed at."

"Maybe he's annoyed that after rejecting every single girl in the school, the girl he takes an interest in is friendlier with other guys." His tone was bitter, eyes still focus on the honey haired boy at the other end of the yard. "Must make him pretty angry that I'm basically serving as a wall between you both; he's probably wishing that I'd just get up and mov-"

His words cut off as she aimed another punch at his leg, hitting the same spot as last time to shut him up. "Stop being so weird. Jesus, what is it with guys and getting all territorial over every little thing? You realise that just because I talk to you doesn't mean I won't talk to him right? Cause I'm sure he does."

"I'm better than him anyway."

Rolling her eyes at his childish remarks, she was away to turn and check on how Jasper seemed to be doing when she was distracted by Mike, Bella and Jessica appearing to sit with them.

"So guys, I've been talking to Eric about possibly going on a trip to the beach soon." Mike excitedly gushed, face lighting up at the idea of a small getaway. "Anyone else up for it? Bella and Jess are both in."

"Really?" Lexi's eyebrows shot up at the news, turning to see Bella shrug at her shocked expression. "You want to go to a beach where it's not going to be all sunshine and bikinis?"

Awkwardly picking at her nails, she pulled out the tattered item Lexi was used to seeing on a daily basis. "You wanted me to like it here, I might as well try and find somewhere I enjoy, right?"

"How about you? You down?" Mike asked, leaning forward in expectation.

Alexis took some time to contemplate the idea. On one hand, she felt so exhausted that there was a possibility that she wouldn't be able to enjoy herself in the slightest; then again, it could be the perfect distraction from the images that plagued her thoughts. "I guess I don't have anything else to do, so sure. When is it you're thinking of going?"

"It probably won't be for a few weeks, gives us time to convince our parents to borrow some of the bigger cars. We can't just rely on Tyler's van." Though his words were directed at the redhead, his eyes were solely trained on Bella in the hope he could divert her attention away from the book in her hands. "Best not to go just now anyway, the weather should clear up by then and give us some sun to enjoy."

"Seems fair... Bells, you don't have to read that book every time you have a sliver of free time."

Eyes finally lifting from Wuthering Heights, Bella sheepishly shrugged with an embarrassed grimace. "You know I find it easier to read than to do most things."

From the look in her pleading gaze, Lexi knew exactly what her best friend meant. The brunette found it easier to whip out the old book and read over the familiar words for the hundredth time, instead of trying to engage in a conversation with the desperate blonde sat across from them who closely resembled a golden retriever. Taking pity on the poor girl, Lexi chose to direct the topic back to Gym. "So I heard that your class is doing track in Gym next week."

"Please don't remind me."

Mike laughed from the other side of the table, looking between the pair "Come on, how much damage can she do to other people when she's just running?"

Raising a single brow, Lexi pitied the boy for not understanding just how clumsy his crush happened to be. "You'd be surprised. Bella has a habit of not just tripping herself up, but tripping into everyone around her to bring them down too."

"I really don't want to think about it." Bella groaned, stuffing the book back into her bag as she stood from the bench. "I think I'll just walk around, it's safer that way."

"I guess, at least that way you'll only damage yourself."

Giggles filled the air as Lexi narrowly dodged the folder Bella was attempting to swing at her arm, jogging around the group when the brunette tried to chase after her on the way to their next class.

-x-x-x-

"How the hell do you run so fast and not get tired?"

Alexis smirked at the boy laid on the grass at her feet, his breaths rapid and shallow as he tried to regain an ounce of energy after their race. "It's not that hard, Ty." They'd competed in their daily race, leading to her third victory and overall win of their friendly competition. "You know I used to go for a run every afternoon when I was back in Phoenix, I was thinking about starting back up again; feel free to join me if you want."

"Like, after school?" Tyler asked, sitting up when his lungs stopped struggling for air. "I think I could make that work. Would you be doing weekends too?"

"I can do early mornings on the weekend, sure."

Jumping up to his feet with a new found energy, he quickly shook her hand in agreement. "Great, we'll work out times later."

There was a small rumble in the distance, the dark clouds swirling not too far from the school. It wasn't an unfamiliar sound at this point, the town being in an almost constant downfall of rain. "If the weather permits you might just be able to better your stamina." Lexi commented, eyes scouring the murky clouds above. "Honestly, as the captain of the basketball team you should be ashamed; you're meant to be a star athlete."

"Oh shut up. You only win races cause you're tiny, there's less wind resistance."

Getting back into position at the starting line, her arms raised above her head in a stretch; loosening her limbs before having to do another round of the track. "Sure, we'll say that's why. I can't wait to hear what excuse you come up with when I beat your ass at basketball."

Scoffing, Tyler looked around the field in disbelief, smirk spreading across his features as he turned his attention back to Lexi. "There's no way that's going to happen, I'll even bet on the fact I'll win."

"Neither one of us has any substantial kind of money, Ty, what could we possibly bet with?"

"Just you leave that to me…" He trailed off, face souring as his eyes focused on the distant figures of the Cullen family. "Hale is staring at you again, you know. What did you do to him?"

Glancing over to the guy in question, she noticed that his shoulders tensed as he turned away from the pair of them. Alexis wasn't sure why everyone at the school continued to have such a fixation on the family; the idea that if one of them merely gazed at someone for the smallest amount of time it became top tier news was almost laughable to her. "I highly doubt that's what he was doing."

Before she could say anything more, she felt a small shove to her shoulder as someone bumped into her.

Luckily Tyler had quick reflexes and caught her just in time, helping her to regain balance and check that she was alright, only releasing her when she'd assured him that she was fine. When she turned to see who it was, she noticed the back of a girl she'd only met in passing continue on her way around the track; Lauren Mallory.

Lauren Mallory was someone she'd not managed to have any substantial contact with, but she was well aware that the girl was obnoxious, territorial and whatever everyone would usually consider a bitch. She was the kind of student that people tried to avoid in most cases, hoping to avoid any unnecessary confrontation for the crime of looking in her general direction.

Alexis had come to quickly realise that Lauren felt something towards her new found friend, the glare sent in her direction for so much as having lunch with him the previous day all the evidence that she needed. The redhead sighed, wishing that she'd have taken five seconds to ask her about Tyler; so that she could have explained that there was no romantic connection there in the slightest.

"Funny that you joke about Jasper being jealous of you hogging my attention, when there's someone so clearly bummed at the idea of you spending so much time with me."

Tyler's eyebrows scrunched in contemplation, eyes shifting between you and Lauren's retreating form with confusion. "What? Lauren? Nah, it's not like that, we're just good friends."

Biting her lip to stop from outright laughing in the puzzled boy's face, she shook her head in disbelief. "God boys are so oblivious sometimes. You truly believe she just shoved past me by accident? When there's like three free lanes that she could have taken? Really?"

"I think girls just look too far into every little interaction." He mumbled to himself, crouching to the floor in an attempt to ready himself for their next run.

"As someone who seems to think Jasper Hale is madly in love with me just from standing in the same building as I am, I feel like you're in no position to say such things."

"Alright," he proclaimed, rising back to his feet, hands firmly on his hips "if you win this race then I'll promise to let it go. I won't so much as mention Hale to you ever again."

Eyes narrowing at his newly outstretched hand, Lex contemplated any possible downsides to this new bet. Really, there was nowhere to go but up, if she lost then things would just remain the same. "Deal." She said, firmly shaking his hand in agreement. "But if you do lose, then you also have to deal with me pointing out every single little thing that Lauren does around you."

"You're on."

-x-x-x-

Trying her hardest to ignore the questioning stares of her peers, Alexis sat down in the chair between the two Cullens before History was due to start. "Honestly, did you all arrive on your first day riding unicorns or something? Why is everyone so obsessed with you?" She grumbled, yanking out her supplies more harshly than needed.

"Why of course, what would make you think we'd arrive in any other fashion?"

Even though she'd heard it a few times the previous day, there was something still so shocking about the southern twang in Jasper's drawl that she was taken off guard. Lexi's mind still struggled to wrap around the fact that the boy beside her was known to constantly look in pain and keep his distance from others; yet there he was with a playful gleam in his eyes attempting to joke around with her.

"You seem better." Her eyes scanned over his gentle features, and for reasons she couldn't quite understand she felt a certain fondness. "Whenever I've seen you today you've seemed quite tense. Everything okay?"

An emotion she didn't quite catch flickered across his face, before he simply smiled. "It's nothing, I assure you." Jasper's words seemed to falter by the end, as though he was wanting to say more but wasn't able to bring himself to.

"So Lexi," Alice piped up from her other side, a bright beaming grin set on her lips as usual. "It seems that you and Tyler Crowley are quite close. I don't get much girl talk, is there anything there?"

Focus taken away from the honey blonde, Lexi couldn't notice the way his shoulders tensed much like they had earlier in the day. "Tyler? Oh, God no, he's just a friend. He's been a really good guy to talk to is all, he kind of reminds me of my older brother I guess."

Alice's eyes darted to the side for a second, glancing at her own brother whose posture had significantly relaxed without Alexis' notice. "You have an older brother?"

"Yeah, his name is Adam." Alexis explained, smile widening at the memories of their time together back in Phoenix. "He can be a bit of an idiot sometimes, but mostly we used to just play sports together."

"Did he come to Forks with you and your parents?"

Nodding her head, her eyes shifted to the teacher as he started noting things down on the board for the day's lesson. "Yeah, he's taking a year out before he goes to university. I'd say you could come round and meet him, but he just went on a hike today so probably won't be back for a few days."

"Maybe we can plan for something over the weekend?" She asked, taking her phone out of her pocket for a moment to hand over. "If you put your number in, we'll meet up at some point. Sounds like fun, right Jazz?"

Jasper looked up at the redhead by his side for a moment, nodding in agreement. "I wouldn't miss it."

Alexis only just had enough time to enter the needed digits into the small device before the man at the front demanded everyone's attention for the next hour. Excitement vibrated in her veins at the thought of spending some real time with the two siblings, her father's advice to give them a shot seemingly the right one; her imagination was out to get her, but she wasn't going to let silly things like bad dreams keep her from befriending good people.

-x-x-x-

"I think I made the wrong choice." Alexis sighed as the trio walked towards the cafeteria, thoughts consumed with everything she'd need to try and memorise for the next few months. "History is really interesting, but there's just so much you have to remember."

Alice's arm had linked with hers the second they'd left the classroom, the small girl pulling her to a stop just before their destination. "You know, Jasper here is kind of the family expert on the Civil War. He has books upon books about that time at home, I'm sure he won't mind helping you out."

Lexi spun around, eyes wide with hope towards her handsome new friend. "Would you mind? If it's too much trouble then I understand, but I really don't want to fail."

He exchanged a meaningful look with his sister, expressing a look of questioning, as though he wasn't sure he was allowed to do such a thing. After a few moments, Lex considered apologising and moving on before he directed a kind smile her way. "Of course I'll help. If you'd like to join me for lunch we can start right away?"

"Great!" Alice cheered, petite hands softly patting the boy on his arm. "I'll go tell the rest of the family you won't be joining us. I'll see you later, Lexi." With that, she skipped away through the double doors and out of sight.

"Shall we?" Jasper asked, holding out a hand to suggest you go ahead of him.

Giving his form a once over, the redhead smirked before starting to walk again. "You know, you don't seem like the type of guy that should be terrified of his little sister."

Raising a single eyebrow, his gaze was fully set on her as they entered the large room. "What type of guy is that exactly?"

"The tall, strong, stern looking type." She answered, glancing around the room and the intrigued eyes that were pointed their way. "The type of guy that all other men envy and so many women want. To be perfectly honest with you, sometimes you look as though you belong in the military."

Whispers sounded around them at the chuckle Jasper gave her in response, but he was all she could focus on; the world drowned out by the new sound that she was already so entranced by. The other students weren't used to seeing any of the Cullens interact with anyone besides themselves, let alone enjoy anybody's company.

"You're so hard to understand sometimes…" Lex whispered, almost to herself, taking in every last perfect angle of his face. "You act all strange to me one day, just to treat me as though we're friends the next. What's next? Are you going to shamelessly flirt with me?"

"You don't want me to?"

The sudden smile that stretched across her face was close to hurting her cheeks, hand shooting up to cover it as soon as it happened. "I don't really think that was the point of what I was saying."

A smirk tugged at the side of his lips, eyes never leaving hers as he stepped ever so closer. "Maybe I just swiftly realised I thoroughly enjoy your company."

"Thoroughly enjoy my company? With such little conversation? Was it my incredible bravery in the face of spiders?"

"Oh, I would never dare pick a fight with you."

The distance between the pair had slowly dwindled, Alexis only realising as much when he laid his hand on her lower back; sending a shiver up her spine. "Woah." She gasped, her own hand flying to the now empty space.

"My apologies." He quickly pulled his hand away, looking down to the floor in regret. "My father informs me that I have exceedingly bad circulation. Besides, I shouldn't invade your personal space without your consent, that's my mistake."

"No, no, don't worry." She hushed, hand reaching out to reassure him as anxiety shifted through her veins. "I actually find myself overheating a lot of the time due to my unreasonably high body temperature, so it was kind of… nice?"

His hand returned to the small of her back as he politely smiled at her words, escorting her to an empty table further away from the other students. She wasn't sure what it was about Jasper that had her so drawn to him; besides the coincidental dreams she had of course. There was a calming effect that always seemed to wash over you momentarily when he was around, something that everyone starting a new school needed. The awkward and nervous feelings that she'd been filled with back when she first started school in Phoenix were almost non-existent in Forks and it seemed to be all thanks to him.

"You know, sometimes you act and speak as though you're from a different time." She slowly sat down in the chair he'd pulled out for her, eyebrows scrunching ever so slightly in confusion. "All this talk about consent, the different hand gestures, pulling out a chair for me, the little twang in your voice. Do you purposely try to be the stereotypical southern gentleman or does it just come naturally?"

With the slight scuff of a laugh, he simply replied "I was raised to respect others."

"I've heard about your parents, my dad won't stop talking about the wonder that is Dr Carlisle Cullen." Pulling out an apple from her bag, she took a small bite, awkwardly covering her mouth as she noticed his intense stare. "How is it that your family all look so similar, by the way? From what I've heard you weren't related by blood."

"Rosalie is actually my biological sister." He explained, quickly peaking over his shoulder at the familiar group. "Esme, Carlisle's wife, is our aunt and was kind enough to welcome us into her home when our parents passed away."

Alexis' chewing slowed, the realisation that this was the first time all day he'd been unable to look at her while he spoke unsettling her; worried that he might be hiding something. "They sound amazing, your adoptive parents. Taking in so many children at such a young age, it's almost unheard of."

"Yeah, my family isn't quite like any other."

Feeling eyes on the back of her head, Lex turned to find her usual group of friends all staring in her direction; swiftly scooting around and trying to act natural when they noticed her attention. "I don't think I thought this through, sitting with you is basically guaranteeing an avalanche of questions from everyone later."

The smirk that she was quickly becoming fond of returned to his lips as he met her eyes once more. "At least three of them are jealous. Your friend Bella seems to be just a little confused."

"You sound so certain?"

"I guess you could say I'm just good at reading people's emotions."

Eyes scanning over his face, Lexi tried to find any hint as to the meaning behind his words. The tone suggested something more than just reading their body language, but there was nothing that could be done otherwise, was there?

Jasper's smile turned to one of fondness at the sight of your scrunched brow, lowering his gaze to the way her fingers picked at the skin of the apple in her hands.

For just a second, with his head tilted to the side, she could see a range of teeth marks covering his neck; the skin looking ravaged to a point he should have almost certainly died. Without thinking, her hand reached out to touch the marred flesh; only to be halted by a stone cold grip on her wrist.

The honey blonde's eyes had fractionally widened at her movement, though for what reason she didn't know.

When her eyes left his golden gaze to glance back down at the scars they were gone, the skin smooth as marble once again. Her heart was beating erratically in her chest, mind whirling as tingles spread throughout her body from where his skin touched hers. "So what am I feeling now?"

"Slightly scared." He muttered, staring into her forest green eyes, incapable of looking away. "Alice mentioned that you'd been having bad dreams recently, you're worried about something…"

So far he was correct, something that should have possibly terrified her if it wasn't for the warmth she felt with his presence; only heightening when the corners of his mouth tugged up into a soft smile.

"You also feel calm, but mostly… Curious. Am I that much of a mystery to you?"

It wasn't until his voice became almost a whisper at the end of his words that she realised how close they had become, their faces mere inches apart. Suddenly, a new feeling overcame her, one that she was unfamiliar with. Her breathes came out short and ragged, the ability to focus on anything drifting away.

Remembering her current surroundings, she blinked rapidly to come back to reality; moving back to an appropriate distance from the boy in front of her. "Yeah, I guess you are good at reading people."

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she glanced back at his eyes, noticing that their colour had appeared to change to an almost black colour. His shoulders were just as tense as she'd seen them earlier in the day, his jaw locked whilst he stared at her lips, body frigid as though he weren't even breathing.

Then the bell rang.

"So much for studying, huh?" She joked, trying to laugh off the current awkward situation. "I guess I'll see you in Biology later?"

"Alice heard that we'll be in the computer lab today, I'm sure Mr Crowley will steal you away from me." Jasper replied, body relaxing with every word as he rose to his feet. "If not then I'll gladly enjoy your company."

"Tomorrow then?"

The smile returned to his face, simply nodding as he said "Tomorrow." before walking off to join his family before class.

"Are you ready for Chemistry?" Eric's voice sounded behind her, making her jump out of her skin. "I'm guessing you won't be walking with Hale?"

"Yeah." She smiled, sending one last look Jasper's way before turning to walk to class. "Let's go."

-x-x-x-

"You lost the race, you don't get to ask questions." Alexis laughed, sitting down beside Tyler in the computer lab in her final lesson of the day.

It had turned out that Alice had been right. When she'd walked up to Biology, Tyler had been waiting for her outside the classroom to tell her the good news; arm held up to jokingly escort her to the new room.

"Yeah, that was until you looked like you were away to get down right in the middle of the cafeteria." Tyler whispered, looking around at the other students around them to make sure they weren't being overheard. "Seriously, what is it about the Cullens that makes girls go instantly weak?"

"Okay, number one, I am not weak." She scoffed, narrowing her eyes at the boy. "And number two, we weren't doing anything and we were going to do anything. Not to mention, you can't even say anything because you got turned down by Alice so don't act like you didn't try to get in with one of them."

"I'm a guy, we're meant to be full of hormones of stupid decisions."

Sighing, Lexi just wanted one lesson where she could actually do the work without hearing about the Cullen family and everyone's obsession with them. Yes, they were interesting, you'd be a fool not to think so. However, they seemed nice, normal enough that she figured people should be capable of moving past it.

"I'm going to slide right on past the general sexism, there is nothing going on. So, do you want to start running this weekend?" She asked, deciding to change the subject as quickly as possible. "If you turn up at my house for about 9am we can start, I'll send you my address."

"Yeah, that sounds great. Are you sure you want to wake up that early on a weekend, though?"

"Why? Do you become lazy on weekends?"

Tyler scoffed, his voice slightly cracked and high pitched as he answered. "No, I'm good. I just thought you'd want to sleep in, you look kind of tired."

"Oh I'm sure I'll survive, Ty." She laughed, typing away at the keyboard to bring the computer to life. "Trust me, I feel way better after I've been for a run; plus it has to be early anyway, Bella wants to go to the library and I said that I'd go with her."

After a few seconds of silence, she looked to see him with his eyes wide; staring at her as if she was insane. "The library? Why the hell would you want to go there?"

"Because, Tyler, some people actually enjoy reading books. You know you really aren't doing anything for the athletic student stereotype."

He shrugged, logging in to his own computer with a pout. "I just don't find it all that interesting. Sports is my life, bun-bun."

"Bun-bun?"

His pout only deepend at the look of disgust that crossed her face. "Bunny rabbit is too long."

Lexi found herself laughing more than she probably should have at his complaint, the sheer ridiculousness of his words oddly charming. "You know, you could just call me Lex or Lexi like other people do?"

"Where's the fun in that? Man, it sucks that we got put into a seating plan, this class would be so much better if it was always like this."

"I don't know…" She beamed, finally opening up the work that the teacher had assigned. "I think you'd be too distracting, we've been in here for like 10 minutes already and we haven't done even a little bit of work."

"I'm just that awesome." Tyler smirked, shoving her shoulder when she scoffed and mocked his words. "You should appreciate me more."

"Sure I should."

-x-x-x-

Later that night, while she sat in the living room watching television with her mother, Lexi thought back to all the little mishaps from the past few days; the images that her mind had conjured up flitting throughout her mind.

"Are you sure you're alright, love?" Her mother asked, noticing her daughter had spaced out once again.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

Biting her bottom lip with worry, Maeve searched her daughter's face for any sign of truth behind her words. "I can tell you haven't been sleeping, Lex, is there something keeping you awake?"

Alexis tried her best to avoid her mother's keen gaze, knowing that it would only take a few seconds for her to unravel and spill everything. "It's nothing, I think I just need a bit of time to get used to the weather. It's a lot colder here, it'll just take some time."

"You know if there is anything else that you can tell me, right?" She stressed, forcing Lex to meet her eyes. "Literally anything. Even if it seems strange, even if it seems impossible, I'll listen."

The young girl's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion at her mother's words. Was there a chance that her mother knew exactly what she was going through? She thought it was impossible, but then again her mum had just said that even things that seemed impossible were topics that should be discussed.

Lex opened her mouth to ask her all the questions she'd held to herself for days, only to swiftly shut it when she heard the front door open and her father call "Hello? Everybody home?"

"In the living room, love!" Her mother responded, lowering her voice to a whisper as she spoke to her daughter. "We'll talk about this later, Lex."

"This weekend?"

Hand raising to lovingly stroke her daughter's hair, she kindly smiled and said "Whenever you want."

"Hey there Lexi-Lou." Oliver greeted, walking into the room and greeting her with a kiss to the forehead. "How was school today? Everything is still going well?"

"Yeah, it was okay. I spoke to a couple of the Cullens again." She answered, turning to face him as he took a seat to remove his shoes. "They actually seem really nice, Alice and I exchanged numbers so that we could possibly do something outside of school sometime."

Her father significantly brightened at her words. "That's great! You see? I told you that they just needed someone to give them a chance. Honestly, with their father I'm not surprised. You should have seen him today, I thought for sure that this poor woman was going to be lost tonight, but he knew exactly what to do. He makes me want to work even harder, he's incredible."

"That's great, dad."

"Since you're both getting along so well with them, maybe we should invite them over for dinner one night?" Maeve suggested, already mentally preparing the house for guests in her mind. "It would be nice to have some new people round."

Her husband smiled at the idea, nodding his head in agreement. "You know, I doubt they get many offers, that sounds like a great idea, darling. I'll ask Carlisle the next time I see him."

Thinking it was about time she got some sleep, Lexi excused herself to her room, pulling out her phone to see if she had received any response from her brother. She'd caved and texted him shortly after arriving home, asking if he'd found anywhere interesting and whether he'd be coming home soon.

Her stomach felt like a stone as she realised there was nothing from him.

Adam had always been an important part of her life, an older brother who genuinely enjoyed her attention and companionship. She'd heard of other students in her old school complaining about their siblings, but she could never relate. Her parents had often spoken about how, even since she had been a baby, Adam had always been the one to make her laugh the most.

As Lexi sat down on her bed, her faithful little pup Pepper crawled into her lap and gave her chin a tiny lick, almost as though she sensed the girl's fears.

"What should I do, Pep?" She asked, stroking through the soft fur absentmindedly, the simple comfort calming to her after her stressful first week. "Too much is happening here, none of it makes any sense."

She knew not to expect a genuine answer from a dog, it was impossible, but then again it appeared everything was possible in Forks. She felt as though the world was full of things she'd once believed to be ridiculous, that she had once believed to be a total fantasy.

"Do you think everything will turn out alright?" Lexi smiled as Pepper responded with another gentle lick to her chin. "I'll take that as a yes, huh?"

After changing into some sweats and a tank top, she crawled into bed with her copy of Alice in Wonderland; hoping that a story to take her away from reality would help keep the nightmares away and allow her to peacefully fall asleep again; she needed the energy now more than ever.

However, as she closed her eyes, the images of golden eyes turning red swarmed her vision.

It was going to be another sleepless night.

-x-x-x-