A/N: Thanks for all the reviews I got for the last chapter. This one is a bit longer and you've received the update quicker this time so please let me know what you think.
Chapter 5:
The atmosphere inside the Cullen's home was tense as Edward paced around the room with a look of frustration on his face. "Oh come Edward, it's not as bad as your making it out to be." a chipper little voice said as the brooding vampire looked towards a small pixie girl who was sporting a huge smile.
"Not that bad...not that bad!" he spluttered out with a look of pure dis-belief on his face. He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and replaced his look of dis-belief with a neutral expression. "Your right Alice. Your absolutely right." At this the little pixie girl and her family smiled but it soon faded as he spoke up once more. "I mean it's not as if I didn't want to kill every living person inside the school just so that I could have her all to myself as I bled her dry now is it?" he added sarcastically as his family members looked towards him with shock.
After a moment Rosalie shook her head and glared at her brother. "Oh please. Stop being so over dramatic Edward." she sneered.
"Your one to talk Rosalie...after all aren't you the queen of all things over dramatic." he hissed as he looked towards the golden haired beauty before looking towards the rest of his family. "I'm leaving." he said. As his family went to speak up he held up his hand to silence them. "Look the longer I stay here the more I put you guys at risk. All it takes is one little slip up and we're all in trouble but if I meet up with the Denali coven in Alaska for a little while we won't have that problem." he added in a firm tone before turning around to exit the room.
"Edward?" a motherly voice called out. Edward sighed and looked towards the matriarch of the family who was gazing at him sadly. "At least talk this through with Carlisle before you go. He might be able to tell you why you find this girl's blood so tempting." she said hoping that her youngest would at least agree to that.
"For you Esme. I'll do it for you." he replied solemnly before using his vampire speed to exit the room.
"Who does he think he is calling me over dramatic anyway?" Rosalie grumbled ignoring the rest of the family as she folded her arms and sank back into her seat sulking.
"Aww babe. Ignore Eddy boy, he's just jealous because he hasn't gotten this over dramatic thing down like you have." Emmett said smirking at his wife whilst the rest of the family winced. If there was one thing Emmett was good at it was putting his foot in his mouth where Rosalie was concerned. Rosalie looked at him in anger as she leaned over and whacked him across the back of his head. Emmett jumped up in surprise as she stood up and stalked out of the room whilst the rest of the family snickered. Emmett was quick to follow her out of the room rubbing the back of his head and pouting.
Esme looked towards the last remaining vampires in the room with a worried gaze. Jasper went to speak up when he felt his wife going stiff beside him causing the others to look at her in concern. Moments later the glazed look in Alice's eyes had faded and she looked towards the others with a knowing grin on her face. Jasper took her hand as he gazed at her lovingly. "What is it my love? What did you see?" he asked with anticipation of what was to come.
"You'll just have to wait and see but Esme I don't think you have anything to worry about where Edward is concerned." she replied before happily bouncing out of the room.
Jasper and Esme watched her leave the room before turning to look at each other and sighing. Knowing how predictable Alice's visions were they decided that they would let this play out unless she gave them something to be concerned about.
xxx
Claire Bennett sighed as she leaned across her bed to turn off her night light and thought through the days events. After getting home from school she had not had much time to think about a certain Cullen and his attitude towards her and the other students before her mother had bombarded her with questions. After answering her mothers questions to the best of her ability Claire had sat at the table to eat her tea as they waited for Lyle and her father to return.
When her father entered the house the calm atmosphere quickly became a tense one as he looked towards her with a stern glare. She had simply rolled her eyes and followed him into the front room where he had confronted her with a different set of questions based on her secret and any potential threats at the school. Claire had snapped and told him that there was nothing to worry about before storming off to her room for another early night.
Claire was almost certain that there was something different about the Cullen family but then again she wasn't exactly normal so who was she to pass judgement. Edward was definitely different from other boys around Claire's age and she couldn't help but notice how attractive he is. Shame about his attitude though she thought angrily as she pulled her blankets over over and rolled onto the side wondering what tomorrow would bring.
xxx
The rest of the week at Forks High flew by for Claire and she couldn't help but notice Edward's empty seat at his families table. Curiosity finally got the better of her as she looked towards Jessica, the school gossiper for answers. "Any ideas where the missing Cullen is?" she said.
At this Mike looked up from his lunch to frown at her. "Thought you didn't care about him." he muttered as he tried to mask his jealously by picking at his food.
Jessica's face was positively a glow at this new piece of information until Claire looked towards Mike with a frown of her own. "He's my lab partner in biology Mike...I need to know if I'm going to have to complete the assignments given on my own or not just because he can't be arsed to turn up to school." she snapped. Jessica's expression turned sour at this whilst Mike now looked hopeful as he looked towards Claire.
"Word is he's gone on holiday to find himself or something. But the only people who know the truth are his family and they aren't exactly known for mingling with us lowly mortals." Jessica said casting an annoyed glance over to the Cullen table where the occupants appeared to be in a world of their own.
Claire inwardly smirked as she followed her friend's gaze towards the Cullen table. It was easy to see that Jessica was envyess of the Cullen family though Claire didn't really understand any of it. Suddenly the small pixie girl locked eyes with the former cheerleader and grinned at her causing Claire's eyes to widen in surprise. The shrill sound of the school bell brought Claire out of the staring contest with the other girl as she stood up with her school bag and walked out of the school canteen.
I wonder what that was about she thought to herself as she sat down next to a quiet girl called Angela Weber for her last lesson of the day before the weekend. Bring it on Claire thought glumly, not looking forward to being restricted to the house for the weekend because she was still grounded.
xxx
"So Lyle what are your plans for today and tomorrow?" Mrs Bennett asked as the Bennett family sat around the table to eat their breakfast. Noah looked towards Claire and glared at her when she started groaning before looking towards his youngest and smiling at him.
"Not really. Me and a couple of friends from school are just going to hang out whilst they show me around the town." Lyle replied gulping down the last part of his scrambled egg and taking his plate to the sink.
"That sounds great dear. Maybe you could ask your friends to show you around next weekend Claire when your no longer grounded." she said looking towards her daughter who was playing around with her food. "Claire?" her mother called out as she looked between her daughter and her husband confused at the lack of response she was receiving from the girl.
"Claire bear your mother is talking to you. Don't be rude." Noah said shaking his daughters shoulder causing her to look around in confusion before she faced her mum, purposely avoiding her father.
"Sorry mum...did you say something?" Claire asked ignoring the menacing glare that her father was shooting at her.
"I was just saying how nice it would be to have your friends show you around Forks next weekend when your no longer grounded." her mum sighed as she looked between her stubborn daughter and her husband once more.
"Yeah...I suppose so. I don't think that it's fair that I'm not allowed to leave the house at all this weekend. What am I supposed to do sit around and stare at the walls all day while you guys are out having fun." Claire said pouting at her mum with hope in her eyes.
"Go up to your room and study Claire. Your grounded and that's final. The only time you can leave your room is to go to the toilet and when it's time to eat." her father snapped growing tired of his daughter's attitude towards him.
"Fine." Claire said shooting him a glare before stalking out of the kitchen and heading up the stairs.
"Noah, was there any need for that? Lyle has behaved far worse than this before and he doesn't even get a slap on the wrist for it." his wife said frowning at her husband as she cleared up the rest of the plates from breakfast.
"I'm sorry dear but Lyle has respect for both you and me whereas Claire only has respect for you and total dis-respect for me. I'm growing tired of it." he said as he approached his wife and pulled her into his arms. If only you knew the truth about our daughter, then you'd understand he thought sadly as his wife laid her head on his chest.
"I'm just scared of losing her...haven't you noticed her becoming more distant lately?" she replied her motherly concern shining through as her husband sighed. It was true and there wasn't much he could do to stop it except for what he was doing now.
"We won't lose her honey. I promise." he said pulling back to look at his wife and kissing her soundly on the lips. I just hope that I can keep that promise he thought as he comforted the woman he loved.
xxx
The rest of the weekend passed quicker than Claire had expected and she had soon found herself back in the familiar setting of a classroom as she waited for her first lesson of the day to begin. "So Claire what did you do this weekend?" Angela asked in a low tone as the teacher entered the classroom and the day officially began.
"Not much. My dad grounded me as soon as I stepped off the plane last week for being myself." she replied bitterly wincing as the teacher shot her a look. Angela seemed surprised by this and went to interrogate her friend further when she caught the look the teacher was sending her way and gulped. The Claire Bennett interrogation will have to wait until lunch the shy girl thought nervously as she began taking notes from the board.
The girls sat in a comfortable silence as they anxiously awaited for the bell to ring. Claire didn't really understand why she was so anxious but she had a feeling that she would find out before the end of the day. Sighing Claire gathered up her belongings as the bell rang and she exited the classroom at a brisk pace leaving her friend behind her.
xxx
The rest of Claire's morning passed by without much incident and Claire groaned as Mike continued to drone on about what he had done over the weekend. "That sounds great Mike." she said with annoyance as she picked out her lunch and sat down at their usual table.
"...and then I told my dad..." but before Mike could finish another voice cut in. Finally Claire thought as she flashed a smiled towards Angela and Jessica.
"Guess what?" Jessica asked bounding around in excitement. Claire shrugged her shoulders not really in the mood to play the guessing game and Jessica frowned at her obviously put off by her lack of interest. "Edward Cullen is back." Claire's head shot towards her as she processed this new information and Jessica grinned. "And he's staring right at you." she finished off unable to keep the envy she felt out of her voice.
Claire scrunched her eyebrows together and bit her bottom lip as she thought about the new development. "Does he look angry?" she asked wringing her hands together as she waited for the answer.
Her friends looked at her confused by her behavior as Angela replied. "No just curious. Maybe a little irritated but no anger." she said softly.
"Thought you didn't care about Cullen anyway Claire." Mike mumbled under his breath causing Jessica to frown as Claire looked towards him with irritation.
"He's my lab partner in biology Mike. I care about my school work and now that I know he's back I can cut myself some slack and get him to do some work. And just so you know I'm not interested in any form of a relationship with you other than friendship." she finished grinning as she saw the flush in his cheeks before turning to look over at the Cullen table where Edward was still staring at her with huge grin on his face. What an ass she thought as she looked away from him to eat the rest of her lunch.
"He's still staring at you." Jessica whispered into her ear causing Claire to look at her friend in frustration.
"Stop looking over at him then. He can stare at me all he wants just stop making such a big deal out of it because I don't care." she snapped picking up her lunch tray and dumping it into the bin before heading off to biology leaving her friends at the table just as the bell rang.
A/N: The end of another chapter. Cruel of me to end it here...maybe but I wanted to do a separate chapter for the talk between Edward and Claire. Leave a review on the way out please and I'll get the next chapter up soon.