retreat. It happened occasionally-some human with an active imagination would see in us the characters
of a book or a movie. Usually they got it wrong, but it was better to move on somewhere new than to
risk scrutiny.
Very, very rarely, someone would guess right. We didn't give them a chance to test their hypothesis. We
simply disappeared, to become no more than a frightening memory...
I heard nothing, though I listened close beside where Jessica's frivolous internal monologue continued to
gush. It was as if there was no one sitting beside her. How peculiar, had the girl moved? That didn't
seem likely, as Jessica was still babbling to her.
I looked up to check, feeling off-balance. Checking on what my extra 'hearing' could tell me-it wasn't
something I ever had to do.
Again, my gaze locked on those same wide brown eyes. She was sitting right where she had been
before, and looking at us, a natural thing to be doing, I supposed, as Jessica was still regaling her with
the local gossip about the Cullens.
Thinking about us, too, would be natural.
But I couldn't hear a whisper.
Inviting warm red stained her cheeks as she looked down, away from the embarrassing gaffe of getting
caught staring at a stranger. It was good that Jasper was still gazing out the window. I didn't like to
imagine what that easy pooling of blood would do to his control.
The emotions had been as clear on her face as if they were spelled out in words across her forehead:
surprise, as she unknowingly absorbed the signs of the subtle differences between her kind and mine,
curiosity, as she listened to Jessica's tale, and something more...fascination? It wouldn't be the first
time. We were beautiful to them, our intended prey. Then, finally, embarrassment as I caught her
staring at me.
And yet, though her thoughts had been so clear in her odd eyes-odd, because of the depth to them;
brown eyes often seemed flat in their darkness-I could hear nothing but silence from the place she was
sitting. Nothing at all.
I felt a moment of unease.
This was nothing I'd ever encountered before. Was there something wrong with me? I felt exactly the
same as I always did. Worried, I listened harder.
All the voices I'd been blocking were suddenly shouting in my head.
...wonder what music she likes...maybe I could mention that new CD... Mike Newton was thinking, two
tables away-fixated on Bella Swan.
Look at him staring at her. Isn't it enough that he has half the girls in school waiting for him to... Eric
Yorkie was thinking sulfurous thoughts, also revolving around the girl.
...so disgusting. You'd think she was famous or something... Even Edward Cullen , staring... Lauren
Mallory was so jealous that her face, by all rights, should be dark jade in color. And Jessica, flaunting her
new best friend. What a joke... Vitriol continued to spew from the girl's thoughts.
...I bet everyone has asked her that. But I'd like to talk to her. I'll think of a more original
question...Ashley Dowling mused.
...maybe she'll be in my Spanish...June Richardson hoped.
...tons left to do tonight! Trig, and the English test. I hope my mom...Angela Weber, a quiet girl, whose
thoughts were unusually kind, was the only one at the table who wasn't obsessed with this Bella.
I could hear them all, hear every insignificant thing they were thinking as it passed through their minds.
But nothing at all from the new student with the deceptively communicative eyes.
And, of course, I could hear what the girl said when she spoke to Jessica. I didn't have to read minds to
be able to hear her low, clear voice on the far side of the long room.
"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I heard her ask, sneaking a look at me from the
corner of her eye, only to look quickly away when she saw that I was still staring.
If I'd had time to hope that hearing the sound of her voice would help me pinpoint the tone of her
thoughts, lost somewhere where I couldn't access them, I was instantly disappointed. Usually, people's
thoughts came to them in a similar pitch as their physical voices. But this quiet, shy voice was unfamiliar,
not one of the hundreds of thoughts bouncing around the room, I was sure of that. Entirely new.
Oh, good luck, idiot! Jessica thought before answering the girl's question.
"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none
of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed.
I turned my head away to hide my smile. Jessica and her classmates had no idea how lucky they were
that none of them particularly appealed to me.
Beneath the transient humor, I felt a strange impulse, one I did not clearly understand. It had something
to do with the vicious edge to Jessica's thoughts that the new girl was unaware of... I felt the strangest
urge to step in between them, to shield this Bella Swan from the darker workings of Jessica's mind.
What an odd thing to feel.