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edwardjacobthemenace · 1 month ago

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Pythagorean Theorem| Chapter One

Pairing: Edward Cullen x male!OC Summary: Edward Cullen is accosted by a human teenaged girl. Word Count: 3,376

I shut the door to my car with a resounding thud and pocketed the keys. The first day at any new school was always a melancholic affair, but something about the other students buzzing around, fresh off the high of summer vacation, made it all the worse. The space around me was filled with a variety of idle chatter, both of the verbal and mental sort, none of it compelling in the slightest. I wanted nothing more than to tune it all out and retreat into the tedium of routine, but as always, I was obligated to pay at least an ounce of attention to the goings on around me. I was, after all, the first line of defense between my family and the outside world.

Nothing stood out though, as far as I could tell. There was the usual fanfare that my family tended to stir up. People balked and whispered, curious about the new students that had arrived only a week ago. I’d seen Rosalie’s face reflected in several minds already. She, Emmett and Jasper had arrived separately from Alice and myself earlier in the morning, and it would seem that she’d already made quite an impression on the male population here. It was an observation I would certainly be keeping to myself, lest I inflate her ego to dangerous levels.

The rest of us had made scattered appearances in thoughts and conversations, but true to form, everyone kept their distance. The inherent threat our existence posed tended to keep even the most curious at bay. We were shiny objects behind a glass wall that would only become less shiny with time. It was a fact that should have made me feel relieved, but honestly, it all just felt so mundane.

At a measured pace, I crossed to the passenger side of the car where Alice already stood, waiting under the circle of a big, black umbrella. The rain this morning was light, hardly even a drizzle, but a quick check of the future had shown a steady increase throughout the day. A proper summer shower, she’d informed me on the drive over. Wet and muggy, something we’d both been looking forward to after our family’s icy stent in Denali.

Alice’s face was partially obscured by the brim of the umbrella, but from her thoughts, I could tell that she was, once again, scanning the future, only this time it wasn’t for weather forecasts. I scowled as a particular scene of the future played itself out in her mind.

Penny for your thoughts?

Still hidden from view, something I now assumed she was doing on purpose, Alice extended her arm out to me. Held between her thin, pale fingers was an actual penny that shone in the light despite the cloud cover. She tilted the umbrella back in dramatic fashion to reveal a raised eyebrow, and smirked.

Well?

I plucked the penny from her grasp, my lips turning up in a grin of my own at her theatrics.

“First day blues,” I supplied, and Alice’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“You do know I saw you decide to say that, right?”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I slipped my hands into my pockets and casually started in the direction of the school entrance. Time was marching forward and being late to our appointment was not an ideal precedent to set; that and I had no interest in having this conversation with Alice. Not now anyway.

I tried to shake her vision from my mind; images of Carlisle’s pinched brow, Esme’s distress. I’d seen it all before in my own imagination, I didn’t need a new perspective, nor the tinge of guilt that accompanied it.

Easily able to keep pace with me, Alice appeared at my side. “I thought we could always be honest with one another.”

I could hear the pout in her voice, and I felt my smirk returning, only to have it disappear at her next thought.

I know you’re still upset with Jazz. And me.

There was a prodding hesitance to her mental tone. Poking. Testing the waters.

As we maneuvered around a group of students gathered in the school entrance way, many of them turned to stare. I studiously kept my gaze forward, drifting closer to Alice to avoid brushing shoulders with them. Alice took the opportunity to hook her arm through mine, her slight but insistent weight pulling my attention back to her. I could feel her golden eyes on me, as she waited for a response.

Upset was an understatement, circumstances considered, and as uncomfortable as Alice’s obvious bids at clemency were, I simply couldn’t allow myself to let this slide. Jasper had broken the diet again. Another moment of weakness, Carlisle had generously reasoned. Just a slip. But Carlisle wasn’t privy to the entire truth like I was.

I know you think it’s too soon for him to come back. She paused, showing me glimpses of possible futures, all in which Jasper made the transition back into our family’s routine with relative ease. But everything will be fine.

We stopped walking in front of a cluster of lockers across the hall from the administrative offices. Our time to chat was drawing to a close, much to my delight. Alice, however, wasn’t keen to let me go without some sort of assurance on my end. She leaned heavily on my arm and looked at me with imploring eyes.

What was there to say? This was hardly Jasper’s first slip up, or fifth, or tenth. That Alice had gone to great lengths to aid him and keep their little cover up operation a secret from me of all people only added salt to the wound. Always honest, indeed.

I cringed at the bitterness my own thoughts held, but that acrid emotion had become my faithful companion of late. It made me question the purpose of all of this. The facade, the farce. What was the end goal? Carlisle would say ‘to be better’. The reward was in the work, in being greater than the monster lurking beneath the surface. But to what end? Clearly denying our true nature was only a temporary venture, and while I loved my family dearly, life on this side was just an extended gap of colorless monotony between failures. Though an extreme example, Jasper was still the poster boy of our true nature. Seeing him struggle was a constant reminder of what we are and what we’d never escape.

The recently persistent thought of leaving on my own pushed for attention at the forefront of my mind. I tucked it away along with my guilt.

“I saw you checking,” I said in a hushed tone, very conscious of the fact that we were in a public setting. “If you said it’ll be fine, then so be it.”

And you trust me, right?

I stared down into her golden, glowing eyes. The feeling of fighting my knee jerk response was akin to denying air to a pair of starving lungs. Of course, I trusted Alice, I always have. The bond she and I shared was unlike anything I had with the rest of our family. But she betrayed me, and knowing her, she’d seen that her choices would inevitably lead to this moment here. My forgiveness was already guaranteed in her mind; we were simply going through the motions.

I hated it, this feeling of confliction. We were meant to be a team, she and I. If I couldn’t place my trust in Alice, then who? Holding a grudge was pointless. It was only a matter of time before this was water under the bridge anyway, Alice would see to that.

A second passed before I released a sigh of concession. Alice’s expression morphed into one of triumphant glee.

She winked. I knew you couldn’t stay mad at your favorite sister.

Inhaling through my nose to speak, I was immediately assaulted with the discordant scent of moss and sugar. I froze as the fire in my throat flared, ceasing to breathe at once. I cut my gaze to the right where the offending scent was coming from. Standing at my shoulder was a round-faced girl with a mass of frizzy blonde curls for hair. Her dark eyes met mine and widened into perfect circles like she’d been just as caught off guard as I had.

How? She was human, that much I could tell from the shocked stutter of her heart to the unflattering red splotches coloring her cheeks. The pungent scent of her, in close proximity no less, caused my throat to ache in its all too familiar way. There was no doubting what she was, so how then had she managed to appear so suddenly at my side?

I could feel Alice stone still on my other side, her hand a frozen vice on my arm. Where before she had been leaning on me for my attention, now she used her grip as a tether to remain in place. She’d stopped breathing too, her thoughts a whirlwind of surprise. Had we really been that engrossed in our own bubble that this human girl had somehow managed to get the jump on both of us? It seemed improbable, yet here we stood relegated to imitating stone statues lest our baser impulses take control.

I blinked in a daze, fighting to come back to myself. I could only imagine what my expression looked like to this wide-eyed girl. Likely one of crazed bewilderment.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” She tittered nervously. “I came out of the office because it was time for our appointment and I saw you guys standing here, so I was like ‘obviously these are the new students’, because I’ve never seen you guys before and you were waiting here outside of the office...”

She trailed off, pushing her wireframe glasses up her nose with a slightly shaky hand. Her big eyes remained unblinking all the while.

“Oh, yeah. By the way, I’m Macy Langford, your Peer Pal for today, but I can stick around for however long you need me.” She tried for a smile, but it quickly fell.

My gaze leapt to the tacky yellow vest hanging loosely on her frame as she fidgeted with the hem. It was bright and obvious, like something a roadside worker would wear to be seen at night. The words “Peer Pal” were stitched onto the front in black thread. The image of that same lemon colored vest wrapped around my fingers as I took the girl in my grasp came to mind unbidden and set my teeth on edge.

And, as if the girl had no sense of self preservation, she thrust her palm toward me in an attempt to shake hands. I reared back, slamming into the lockers behind me with a bang. Everything around us became deadly silent. It was like time had slowed to a crawl as I frantically sifted through the confused clamor of thoughts pouring in from all directions. I saw my bewildered expression from foreign perspectives as nearby students stopped walking and gaped in our direction, all of them trying to puzzle out what on earth was going on.

Move your shoulders.

Alice’s sharp command rose above the mental din, and I complied automatically, moving my shoulder rhythmically to feign breathing. I schooled my face into something impassive, too, hoping that the lack of fanfare would quickly send everyone else about their way. To my relief, after a very tense few seconds, traffic resumed throughout the hallway, and I returned my attention fully to the girl before me.

Macy Langford’s dark eyes bore into mine, and we appraised each other for what felt like ages. I sought out her thoughts in the sea of voices around me, looking for some sort of clue to what was going on in her mind. Obviously, she’d seen my adverse reaction to her simple offer of a handshake. What sort of conclusions had she drawn from my strange behavior? An incident like this could easily draw unwanted attention in my family’s direction.

But there was nothing. I blinked, which caused Macy to blink too. We stood there like a pair of owls gawking at the sight of one another, one not sure what to make of the other. I tried again, specifically searching for the voice I’d just heard just moments ago and again I turned up nothing.

Your staring isn't going to make this any easier.

Flashes of convoluted futures passed before my eyes. It was hard to discern much of anything from the jumble, but from the impression I got, Alice was right. My behavior was working hard against us and the rest of our family’s wellbeing. Alice’s gift wasn’t even necessary for me to imagine the damage I was doing. I could see it in the girl’s tense posture, hear it in her shallow breathing.

I broke eye contact with Macy immediately, releasing us both from the strange encounter. Alice seemed to have shaken herself out of her surprise and was delicately clearing her throat to draw Macy’s attention to herself and away from me. She smiled brightly, giving her head a perky tilt to the side.

“I’m Alice! This here’s Edward.” She released my arm and jabbed a thumb in my direction. There was no offer of explanation for my odd behavior or anything that happened prior. Probably best just to dance past it like it’d never happened.

I nodded curtly at the mention of my name, drawing in enough air to manage a stiff, “Hello.”

Again, my senses were overwhelmed with Macy’s odd earthy scent. I could feel myself starting to grimace, but I kept a tight handle on my expression.

“It’s nice to meet you.” She finally said. Her pulse was hammering loudly, as her instincts surely screamed at her to run for the hills. But whether it was obligation or ignorance, she remained in place. “Okay, so, um, I’m actually supposed to show you to your first class of the day.”

She shoved her hand in the pocket of her jeans like she was digging around for something, likely a printed list of our scheduled classes.

“Sorry.” There was another bout of awkward laughter. “I had your schedule memorized this morning. Um, let me see…”

This poor girl was flustered beyond belief. If the circumstances had been different, I may have even felt sorry for her. But as it stood, she was drawing out this interaction in the most excruciating way, not knowing that seconds ago her life was on the line. And even more confounding, I still couldn’t get a read on her mind to figure out how best to end this. It was like being trapped in a comedy of errors with no script.

“We have Biology with Mr. Kelly,” Alice supplied, bless her.

“Oh, that’s right!” By the time Alice had spoken, Macy had managed to produce a mangled sheet of white paper from her pocket. Rendered unnecessary, she unceremoniously stuffed it back into its hiding place. “Come this way.”

She spun on her heels, nearly colliding with a student passing behind her. There was a clatter as books fell to the floor between them. Alice and I exchanged looks as Macy stooped to help the student collect them. Had this girl walked under a ladder on the way to school? I’d never met a person with worse luck.

When she’d finished apologizing profusely to the other student, she turned back to us, her blonde curls in disarray. “Okay, ready?”

Absolutely not.

I offered her a tight-lipped smile. “Actually, we know the way, but thanks.”

Macy blinked, confused like she hadn’t been expecting us to refuse the grand tour.

“A-are you sure? I mean, I can come just in case, so that you don’t get turned around. Our school isn’t that big, but it could still-”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

Without waiting for a response, I started off in the direction that would carry me furthest from this debacle. However, I'd hardly taken two steps when I felt a rush of heat as one of Macy Langford's hands extended toward my wrist. I snatched my arm away before contact could be made and whipped around to face the offender.

“What on earth do you think you are doing?” I demanded, aghast that this girl had tried to restrain me.

Once again, we were quickly becoming the center of attention as the hallway around us began to thin out and the remaining traffic found themselves needing to sidestep our trio. Alice’s face mirrored the surprise that I felt, although mine was very quickly morphing into anger.

Was this child insane? Not only was her behavior rude and uncouth, but it was beyond dangerous. Had I been a creature of lesser control, her attempt at taking me by the arm could have very well led to her demise. I couldn't even rely on my speed to avoid the interaction, not with so many witnesses around. I nearly had to let it happen. The thought of that alone made me cringe.

“Oh, I'm sorry!” Her cheeks were splotchy red once again, her eyes widened saucers.

“I'm sorry,” she repeated. “I just- I'm so terrible at making first impressions. I really don't want you guys to be put off. I can be a valuable resource, if you ever need my help.”

“We're good.”

Alice's tone was chipper but firm as she wove her arm through mine once more. I couldn't see the look on my face, but it had to have been severe enough for her to cut in. She tightened her grip on my arm and began pivoting us in the opposite direction.

“We appreciate your help, though.” A tacked-on pleasantry and a smile to smooth things over.

Macy Langford offered a weak, “Okay”, but I was already allowing myself to be led away by Alice.

“What was that?” I hissed between clenched teeth as we made our escape.

Our pace was human but clipped as our time before class had dwindled down to a few short minutes. Alice bounced along at my side, her dark brows drawn together in thought.

“Well, I can’t say you made a very good impression.”

I looked at her, incredulous. “Me?”

Alice laughed good naturedly. “Yes, you.”

For what it’s worth, I don’t really see her being a problem for us moving forward.

I watched her visions along with her as she scanned the near future. It didn’t escape my notice that the quality of the visions still had a murky haze to them, like looking through thick colored glass. Alice didn’t say anything about that, but if the slight quirk between her brows was any indication, the lack of clarity troubled her too, or at the very least she found it irritating. Alice relied just as heavily on her gift as I did mine, and the rare times that anything did manage to come in the way of her ability to see, she made her displeasure known.

The fact that we'd both somehow been caught off guard raised my concern even further. I'd failed to notice the girl approaching until she'd been right up under me with her off putting scent, and her thoughts had gone undetected by my gift. It was a terrible problem I’d never encountered before, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. The most I’d ever experienced before was an unusually quiet mind, but a little effort easily remedied that. It could be the case that Macy Langford simply had no mental voice to hear. As harsh as it sounds, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if that turned out to be the case.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much, okay? We can keep an eye on things.

I could tell that Alice was trying to assuage me. There was no clear future she could show me that fully quelled my worry, and the weight of that pressed on her. Simply put, there was no proof, and I was making mountains of molehills, working both of us into a frenzy for seemingly nothing.

“Okay” I conceded to keep the peace.

I would let it go, for now.

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