• The Lives and lies Of Luna Evans

    Chapter One: Days of my life
    My stepmother was a world-class b***h.
    She was literally impossible to live with. She didn’t care about me in the least. I was simply the daughter of her ex husband. The only remainder of a marriage of convenience, besides my sister Raven, who my dad had adopted to go along with me when I was born, and the doctor told my parents they couldn’t have another child.
    “No child of mine is going to be alone in this world,” he once told me, when I’d asked him why he’d chosen to adopt her. Not exactly what I’d wanted to know, but my dad had been infamous for his notoriously non- straight answers.
    Raven and I stuck together to survive her wrath. She was my closest friend, and even though we weren’t even technically related, I had spent so much time with her I had even begun to look like her. I didn’t have her jet black eyes, or her white blond hair, but I had the shape of her lips, her perfect posture, the same long eyelashes. The same expression, the same long fingers, with long fingernails that always had some dirt underneath from art (she did oil painting, and always smelled of turpentine. I did sculpture, and consequently usually had some clay dust on my clothes).
    We had the same peaceful, understanding smile. She was my twin, even though she was prettier than I was.
    I had slim, willowy figure, and a completely flat chest. My hair was a chocolate brown with streaks of golden brown that made the gold flecks in my matching brown eyes shimmer. I had rosy cheeks and straight, even teeth. I had a nice face, a nice body, nice hair, nice teeth, wore nice clothes. But I wasn’t exotically gorgeous like Raven, who had pale blond hair and contrasting black eyes that smoldered sexily. She had curves in the perfect places and a nice-sized chest. Perfect skin, perfect body, perfect face, perfect hair.
    I was, however, to my eternal surprise, quite popular. It never failed to shock me- that everyone at Alexander Meriwether High School thought I was…cool. I was always asked out to dances by all the cute guys. But all of them just wanted a kiss, or a one night stand. I wanted a boyfriend, someone steady, someone who was always there. It was nearly impossible to find that special guy, though.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    “Luna! Luna, wake up, you’re going to be late! Luna Evans, my God, we have a test in trigonometry today!”

    Raven’s voice woke me up just as sharply as a bucket of ice water would. Probably because she never let me be late for school, and partly because I wouldn’t put it past her to dump a bucket of water over my head. I got up. Resistance was futile.

    “I’m so tired, Rave. Can’t I-”
    “NO.”
    “Just ten-”
    “NO.”
    “Fine. God, would it kill you to let me sleep in once in a while?’
    “Maybe.”
    I sighed dramatically and stumbled into the shower, half conscious. A cool shower always woke me up.

    By the time I was dressed, Raven was sitting on her bed, reading Seventeen. Her homework was all done, her bag was packed, her hair and makeup done, she’d already had breakfast, and she was waiting for me.

    “I have a weird feeling about today,” She informed me seriously. I know most people would have laughed at the sound of someone so secure of herself sounding so worried, but I never laughed at her predictions. She wasn’t psychic or anything, but she’d always had an uncanny sixth sense. It scared me. She’d ‘sensed’ something was wrong when dad died, she’d ‘sensed’ something when I had almost drowned at the beach. It only made me cling to her tighter, because I felt like only she could protect me. It was probably selfish, seeing how I was older (if only by a few months), and we weren’t even related, but she was my only relative that actually gave a s**t about me. She cared. And I didn’t want to grow up, and have to accept responsibility, like Raven did. I still wanted a maternal figure to wake me up. It had been too long since anyone cared for us.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Raven drove me to school. Not because I wanted her to, but because we only had one car (a beat-up old Toyota) and I’d lost my driver’s license. Also, she was a better driver.
    “I heard you were going on a date with Adrian tonight,” she remarked casually, gripping the steering wheel so tightly she swerved a little. “Hot date. I heard that he used to date Lindsey, that stuck-up girl that’s in your Civics class. She’s a total idiot.”

    I stiffened immediately.
    She must have had a really bad feeling his morning if she was making small talk. Raven, for all her faults, wasn’t one to talk about trivial things. If she was going to speak, it’d better be something important.

    “Are you okay, Rave?” I asked nervously. Her premonitions always freaked me out. But it had been years since she was this tense. She slammed on the brakes at the sound of my voice, and my forehead cracked against the dashboard.

    “OWW!” I yelled, rubbing my head. “Jeez, Rave, lighten up a bit. I haven’t seen you this tense in years.”

    Raven sighed, slowing down as we neared the school parking lot. “I’m sorry, Luna, I’m just kinda jumpy today. Don’t be superstitious. It’s just a load of bull.”
    I didn’t respond, but I slammed the door of the car. I had to think about this on my own. Maybe Clarissa could keep me from freaking out.
    I had a different homeroom than Raven, so I went off alone, looking for Clarissa, my only other close friend. She was short, but graceful, with delicate limbs and pale skin. None of us got much sun. I mean, this was Oregon, after all. She had bright, red ringlets that cascaded down her back, with freckles and rosy cheeks. She was smiling until she caught ahold of my face.
    “What’s with the frown, Loony?” She asked, concern shadowing her face like an eclipse. After all, I was a normally cheerful person.

    “Raven had this weird feeling this morning- remember the last time that happened?”

    Clarissa winced. The “last time” she’d had the feeling, our dad’s plane had crashed somewhere in Milwaukee, leaving us with a careless stepmother. We’d been thirteen.
    “Well, that was almost four years ago. It could have been a weird coincidence.” She said hopefully, looking at me in the way she always did that meant just-go-along-with-this. I shrugged. Maybe it was batter to forget.
    The late bell rang, and we ran off for class, hoping Ms. Hopkins wouldn’t mark us down. We got there just as the bell stopped ringing. The only seats left were the ones in the front. Damn. Everyone was staring at us. Ms. Hopkins looked at us disapprovingly, reaching for her red marker. The one she used to mark us down as late. Perfect. Now I was going to get detention, too.
    Just then, the phone rang. How clichéd. Saved by the bell. Or phone, or whatever.

    “Uh-huh. SEVEN? That’s a large family! So all- oh. Uh-huh. Only two? I see. Uh-huh. I see. Juniors? Okay. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yes. Okay, great. Excellent.” She turned around to face the class. “We are having two new students today!”

    There was an explosion of whispering. TWO new students? That called for a gossip overload. I pitied them, whoever they were.
    There was a knock on the door. The whole class was silenced immediately, ready to pounce on the poor newbies. MS. Hopkins walked over to the door to invite them in.
    “Welcome to Alexander-” Her voice trailed off.
    The door opened all the way. The class- which had been ready to start whispering about the new kids, were silenced.

    The two girls who stood in front of us all were unmistakably more beautiful than anyone any of us had ever met. EVER. One of them was tiny and pixie like- with spiky black hair that pointed in every direction. She had weird, golden eyes that watched everything like a hawk, even though they were still. The other was (impossibly) even more gorgeous. She had strange, bronze colored hair, with stunning milk chocolate eyes. She was much taller than the petite girl, but had the same gracefulness, like a gazelle. They were both so beautiful, a million complexes I’d never had began flashing through my head. I wasn’t skinny enough, didn’t have those gorgeous eyes. They looked so different, but had the same gracefulness, even perfectly still. They were both extremely pale, but the taller girl had rosy cheeks, and was a lot less pale.
    There was something else, too…they were frightening in a way- too…I didn’t know what. I didn’t know whether to bow down and adore them, or run for my life.
    Ms Hopkins seemed slightly overwhelmed. She stuttered a bit until she finally found her voice. “Would you like to introduce yourselves?”

    The girls smiled. Perfect white teeth. I sighed.
    ‘I’ll go first,” said the short girl volunteered. She turned to face the stunned class. “My name is Alice Cullen. I’m seventeen.” She had a beautiful voice. I envied her.
    The taller girl grinned. She wasn’t as frightening as Alice was, yet she still seemed… almost threatening. As if she could rip your head off. Or take care of herself.
    “My name is Renee” She said, her voice musical, as if she was singing. Just like Alice.
    “I’m seventeen, too. Call me Nessie.”