Mio Amore (Caius Volturi)

New Friends

"Why don't you wanna sit with us, we won't kill you." Ximena asked Bella exasperated as she tried to convince her to sit with her brother and his friends. They had now began to form a friendship as they texted regularly and sat with one another for lunch. Bella had begun getting better about her break up with Edward despite there was a sting in her chest every time she thought about his heartless action of leaving her alone to fend with her own depression and demons.

"Because they're so . . ." Bella trailed off trying to figure out what word to express her reasons to not sit there. "I don't know they seem so cool." Bella said trying to formulate her words properly. "And I'm, me." She said expressing that she was a plain Jane and all the people that sat at Ximena's table were the cool people. They had been the coolest group of friends right next to the Cullens when they were here. Everyone wanted to be with them.

The group consisted of the important people of the town, such as the head cheerleader that was also the daughter of the football coach. In such a small town, it was easy to get wrapped into the competitiveness of the sport when their local high school had a pretty good football team. But their basketball team was even better, not that anyone would say that.

Also, the star basketball player and captain of the team, Ximena's brother Zain was included and many of his teammates. And their cool girlfriends.

That was enough to intimidate Bella into not wanting to be in their presence. She was scared that they would be rude to her.

"Oh come on, don't use a Mean Girls' excuse on why you don't want to come and sit with us." Ximena only looked at Bella with raised eyebrows. "We're not royalty. Not 'Off with their heads' status. Come on, Bella. You need to make new friends."

"I have other friends." Bella said trying to excuse herself from sitting with people out of her league.

"Really? Who?" Ximena asked with her arms crossed. She knew for a fact she wasn't necessarily talking to her previous friends, Jessica's group.

"I have a friend on the reservation who I talk to. His dad and my dad are best friends and we were best friends when we were kids and then I moved away." Bella did her best to make her cover story believable.

"Mhm," Ximena said staring at Bella trying to decipher if she was lying. She didn't mind Bella's company but she needed to expand herself. She needed more than one friend. She couldn't rely only on Ximena's friendship. "Send him a text message then. No wait, let me send him a message." Ximena said testing Bella's story.

"Depending on what you're gonna text." Bella said trying to go with the flow of her cover story.

"I'm just gonna ask if he wants to hang out. Depending on what he responds, I'll see if you're saying is true. If he seems surprised, you're lying. And if not, you're telling the truth."

"Okay," Bella said trailing off as she slowly pulled out her phone.

"Hey, do you wanna hang out tomorrow? Your place after school." Ximena texted and said aloud so Bella knew what she was saying.

"Now we wait." Ximena said as she pulled her books for her first class from her locker and checked her messy bun in the mirror. She didn't particularly care too much about her appearance today but she didn't want to look homeless. "You're still sitting with us at lunch." Ximena said in a non-negotiable way as they walked to their English class and turned in their printed out English essay they had weeks to write. Bella simply sighed and sighed even louder when the teacher announced they had an in-class essay to write. They had to compare their current book Frankenstein to another book they have read, not necessarily in class. Well there goes my B, Bella grumbled.