"Aiden... Aiden... Hello, Aiden."
The voice cut through the fog in his head.
He blinked and looked up from his notebook. "What's up?"
The ringing was still there, faint now, like an afterimage of sound lodged deep in his head. Not loud enough to hurt, but persistent, like the whine of a dying lightbulb. Aiden rubbed his temple and tried to bury himself back into the half-finished notes sprawled across his notebook.
"Hey," Angela's voice broke through gently, "you okay?"
He looked up, blinking like he'd been pulled out of a dream. Across the round table, Angela peered at him with that quiet concern of hers, her hands folded neatly on top of her own textbook.
"You've been out of it again," she added softly. "Like… a couple minutes just staring. And honestly? You've been like that most of the day."
Aiden forced a shrug, scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah. Just tired. Don't worry about it."
She didn't look convinced, but she didn't press him either. That was the thing about Angela, unlike Jessica, she didn't need to fill silence with commentary. Sometimes, she just let things be.
He ducked his head back down, trying to focus. Math problems stared back at him, demanding his attention, and he remembered why he'd agreed to this stupid study group in the first place. He hadn't wanted to, normally, he would've just handled his assignments solo. But Jessica had offered him a ride, and with the way Forks rain had been hammering down, walking home hadn't felt like much of an option.
Now, though, his focus was splintering.
Because his mind wasn't on equations or history notes—it was on them.
The pale kids.
He'd seen them around before, always together, always apart from everyone else at the same time. They stood out in every hallway, every cafeteria corner, every space they happened to occupy. And once you noticed them, it was hard to look away.
Alice, the pixie-haired girl, he'd actually met earlier. Nearly collided with her in the hallway that morning. She'd smiled at him, bright and bubbly in a way that clashed with her otherworldly features. She was light on her feet, a kind of energy that felt almost impossible in Forks' gray monotony. He could still picture the tilt of her head, the glimmer in her golden eyes, like she was in on some joke no one else could hear.
And Rosalie… well. Rosalie was unforgettable. He'd drawn her without even meaning to, her face ending up on the page like his hand had acted before his brain. Stunning, intimidating, untouchable. The kind of beauty that wasn't just seen but felt, sharp, like stepping into sunlight after hours in the dark.
But then there were the others.
The massive guy with dark hair and shoulders broad enough to block out the world, he moved with a lazy ease that didn't quite disguise the strength he carried. Even sitting down, he looked coiled, like an athlete who could spring into motion at any moment. Aiden had only glimpsed him once before, striding across the parking lot like he owned the ground beneath his feet.
Then there was the blonde one. Tall, lean, sharp in a way that wasn't about appearance so much as presence. Aiden remembered him from history, but intense, as though he was hearing more than what was being said. His golden eyes had scanned the room that day in a way that made Aiden feel like he'd been seen, really seen, for a split second before being dismissed.
Another girl, skin a soft shade of mocha that made her stand out even among her strange siblings. She wasn't loud, wasn't flashy. Instead, she had this quiet watchfulness, the kind of gaze that felt like she was cataloguing everything. Aiden had only caught glimpses of her in the cafeteria, head bent close in quiet conversation, but her stillness had a weight to it.
And the last one. The brown-haired boy with reddish undertones in his hair. Out of all of them, he was the hardest to pin down. Sometimes he looked absent, distracted. Other times, his gaze cut too sharp, too quick, like lightning under cloud cover.
He tapped the eraser of his pencil against the notebook, trying to shake it off, but the question slipped out before he could stop it.
"Hey… who are they? The pale kids."
Angela had just finished reviewing the notes when Jessica leaned forward with that look in her eye, the one that meant studying was about to take a back seat to gossip.
"So… you've noticed them, right? The Cullens."
Aiden glanced up from his notebook. "The pale kids?"
Jessica lit up like he'd just given her permission to run with it. "Yes! Them. Everyone notices them eventually. They're impossible to miss."
Eric, sprawled back in his chair, grinned. "It's like they've got their own gravitational pull."
Angela shifted uncomfortably, lowering her cup. "Don't be mean."
"I'm not being mean," Jessica insisted. "I'm being observant. Look, they're… different. Like a pack. Always together, never mixing with anyone else. Which, sorry, is weird."
Aiden let her words hang, half-listening as his pencil tapped against his page.
Jessica smirked and leaned closer, lowering her voice. "Okay, so first, you know the huge one? That's Emmett. The guy looks like he could crush a football with one hand. Rumor has it he wrestled a bear once."
Eric snorted. "Sounds like total BS. But honestly? Wouldn't put it past him."
Jessica shrugged, satisfied with the effect. "Point is, he's like a giant teddy bear… if teddy bears could break your spine."
She moved on quickly, pointing her pen like she was conducting a lecture. "The blond one who always looks miserable? That's Jasper. Creepy as hell. Looks like he's in pain every second of the day. People say he has… issues. Anger problems or something."
Eric laughed. "More like constipation problems."
Angela frowned. "That's not funny."
Jessica only smirked. "I'm not joking. He's… off. Like he's just waiting for something to go wrong."
Aiden thought of the tense, sharp movements he'd noticed from Jasper, Jessica wasn't wrong, but her tone was dripping with judgment, not curiosity.
"And then there's Elise," Jessica went on, twirling her pen. "She's quiet. Too quiet. Like… you never hear about her. No drama, no gossip. She just… exists. Always with them, never without them. She creeps me out more than Jasper, honestly."
Angela finally interjected, her voice firm. "Maybe she's just private."
"Private doesn't mean silent," Jessica said with a huff. "But fine. Whatever. Moving on, Alice."
At that name, Aiden looked up.
"The pixie one? Yeah, she's… something. She bounces around like a fairy, all smiles and weird comments. But don't let it fool you. She looks at you like she knows things. Like she's reading your mind."
Eric gave her a skeptical look. "What, you think she's psychic or something?"
Jessica grinned. "That's what people say."
Angela sighed, but there was the faintest trace of a smile.
Aiden's pencil pressed harder against the page. Psychic or not, he remembered the way Alice had appeared beside him without a sound, the way her cheerful voice carried something sharper beneath.
Jessica leaned back dramatically. "And then there's Edward. Don't even get me started. Every girl in this school has a crush on him. He doesn't date, doesn't talk to anyone, just sits there brooding like he's too good for the rest of us."
"Or," Eric chimed in with a smirk, "he's secretly a serial killer."
Jessica threw a crumpled napkin at him. "Shut up. He's gorgeous, aloof, mysterious, it's practically a cliché."
Angela muttered, "Or he's just shy."
Jessica ignored her and set her pen down with finality. "But the crown jewel… Rosalie."
The shift in her tone was sharp enough to cut the table in half.
"The ice queen herself," Jessica declared. "She's beautiful, sure, but she knows it. Walks around like the rest of us don't even exist. I swear, she'd rather die than talk to someone outside her little circle."
Eric raised an eyebrow. "Jealous much?"
Jessica shot him a glare. "I'm just saying, she acts like she's better than everyone."
Aiden froze, his pencil hovering above his sketchpad. He could still see the lines he'd drawn earlier, Rosalie in a sundress, soft against a bed of flowers, a rare vision of warmth in someone others only saw as cold.
He closed the sketchbook carefully, his voice calm but edged. "Maybe you just don't know her."
Jessica blinked, caught off guard.
Angela glanced at him with quiet curiosity, and Eric smirked knowingly.
Jessica leaned back with a sly grin. "What, do you? Don't tell me you've got a crush on her already."
Aiden didn't answer. He just tucked his pencil behind his ear and went back to his notes, though the image of Rosalie lingered in his mind, sharper than any rumor.