midnight sun | Page 5

develop any interest in her hidden thoughts simply because they were hidden from me. No doubt, when I did decipher her thoughts—and I would find a way to do so—they would be just as petty and trivial as any human’s thoughts. Not worth the effort I would expend to reach them. “So, is the new one afraid of us yet?” Emmett asked, still waiting for my response to his question before. I shrugged. He wasn’t interested enough to press for a more information. Nor should I be interested. We got up from the table and walked out of the cafeteria.

© 2008 Stephenie Meyer 9 Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper were pretending to be seniors; they left for their classes. I was playing a younger role than they. I headed off for my junior level biology class, preparing my mind for the tedium. It was doubtful Mr. Banner, a man of no more than average intellect, would manage to pull out anything in his lecture that would surprise someone holding two graduate degrees in medicine. In the classroom, I settled into my chair and let my books—props, again; they held nothing I didn’t already know—spill across the table. I was the only student who had a table to himself. The humans weren’t smart enough to know that they feared me, but their survival instincts were enough to keep them away. The room slowly filled as they trickled in from lunch. I leaned back in my chair and waited for the time to pass. Again, I wished I was able to sleep. Because I’d been thinking about her, when Angela Weber escorted the new girl through the door, her name intruded on my attention. Bella seems just as shy as me. I’ll bet today is really hard for her. I wish I could say something…but it would probably just sound stupid… Yes! Mike Newton thought, turning in his seat to watch the girls enter. Still, from the place where Bella Swan stood, nothing. The empty space where her thoughts should be irritated and unnerved me. She came closer, walking down the aisle beside me to get to the teacher’s desk. Poor girl; the seat next to me was the only one available. Automatically, I cleared what would be her side of the desk, shoving my books into a pile. I doubted she would feel very comfortable there. She was in for a long semester—in this class, at least. Perhaps, though, sitting beside her, I’d be able to flush out her secrets…not that I’d ever needed close proximity before…not that I would find anything worth listening to… Bella Swan walked into the flow of the heated air that blew toward me from the vent. Her scent hit me like wrecking ball, like a battering ram. There was no image violent enough to encapsulate the force of what happened to me in that moment. In that instant, I was nothing close to the human I’d once been; no trace of the shreds of humanity I’d managed to cloak myself in remained.

© 2008 Stephenie Meyer 10 I was a predator. She was my prey. There was nothing else in the whole world but that truth. There was no room full of witnesses—they were already collateral damage in my head. The mystery of her thoughts was forgotten. Her thoughts meant nothing, for she would not go on thinking them much longer. I was a vampire, and she had the sweetest blood I’d smelled in eighty years. I hadn’t imagined such a scent could exist. If I’d known it did, I would have gone searching for it long ago. I would have combed the planet for her. I could imagine the taste… Thirst burned through my throat like fire. My mouth was baked and desiccated. The fresh flow of venom did nothing to dispel that sensation. My stomach twisted with the hunger that was an echo of the thirst. My muscles coiled to spring. Not a full second had passed. She was still taking the same step that had put her downwind from me. As her foot touched the ground, her eyes slid toward me, a movement she clearly meant to be stealthy. Her glance met mine, and I saw myself reflected in the wide mirror of her eyes. The shock of the face I saw there saved her life for a few thorny moments. She didn’t make it easier. When she processed the expression on