General - POV
Samael could feel the attention coming from Jessica, almost like heat from a lamp.
His previous self would have reacted very differently. The old Samael would probably have enjoyed it, maybe even encouraged it. With his new look, it would have taken very little, a smile here, a small compliment there, and the girl would have been completely hooked within minutes. After all, Jessica wasn't unattractive. In fact, by most high school standards, she was considered very pretty.
But now?
Now he felt absolutely nothing.
It wasn't disgust. If anything, it was simple indifference. Something about her felt… artificial to him. Not fake exactly, but overly polished in a way that made her seem less genuine. Like a bright advertisement trying a little too hard to sell something.
The other reason was stranger.
His instincts were telling him to do it.
For some reason, completely ignoring her felt necessary. Whenever he considered responding differently, being friendly, encouraging the conversation, even just showing normal interest, something inside him quietly pushed back. It wasn't a loud warning, but a subtle feeling that doing so might lead to trouble.
And that was unusual.
Up to this point, Samael had not felt danger in this world at all.
Yet the feeling had been there, faint but real.
Strange.
When he said parents, the images that appeared in his mind were not from this life.
They were from the one before.
His real parents.
The ones from the life he had already lived and lost.
Sometimes the thought of them still made him feel lonely. Not painfully so, but like an old echo that occasionally returned when the world grew quiet. Still, he understood something very clearly.
That life was over.
Nothing could change that.
He had died.
And somehow, for reasons he still didn't fully understand, he had been given another chance.
So there was no point drowning in memories of something that could never return. The only thing that made sense now was to live this new life properly and, if possible, enjoy it.
Fortunately for him, Jessica had finally run out of questions.
Unfortunately, he had already missed what he personally called the Cullens' first entrance. He had arrived a little too late for the main event. Why had he been late… well, that was a story for another time.
Since his arrival in the cafeteria, another table had been watching with far more interest.
Six vampires sat there.
They had noticed Samael the moment he walked into the room. At first glance, nearly all of them had come to the same conclusion.
A vampire.
It was an easy mistake to make. His appearance alone could have fooled anyone familiar with their kind. The unnatural beauty, the calm confidence, the way the crowd seemed to part around him without realising it.
But that assumption quickly fell apart once they looked closer.
His heart was beating. His breathing was steady and natural, not the slow, controlled imitation vampires used when they tried to blend in.
Every other sign confirmed the same thing.
He was human.
And that alone made him interesting.
Emmett casually mentioned that he had already met the guy earlier that morning.
"Yeah," Emmett said between bites of food he had no intention of actually eating. "Spanish class. He sat at the same table as me."
Rosalie raised an eyebrow.
"And?"
Emmett shrugged.
"Cool guy. Good Spanish."
That was apparently the entire review.
Most of them found the situation mildly interesting.
Two of them did not.
Edward and Alice were having completely different reactions.
For Edward, the problem was simple.
Impossible things were happening far too often today.
A bit earlier, he had discovered something he had never encountered in his entire existence - a girl whose thoughts he couldn't hear. He had already told the others about Bella Swan and how her mind was completely silent to him.
And now, after listening carefully to the entire cafeteria for the last several minutes, Edward leaned slightly forward and spoke again.
"I can't read him either."
The entire table froze.
Four pairs of black eyes turned toward Edward at once.
Rosalie blinked.
"That's not possible," she said flatly.
Edward only shook his head slowly, still focused on Samael across the room.
"I hear nothing."
For a moment, no one spoke.
Beside him, Edythe sat with one hand resting lightly on Jasper's arm. Jasper himself had been unusually quiet during the entire discussion, his attention focused more on the emotional atmosphere of the room than on the conversation itself.
Edythe was about to say something when she noticed Alice.
Alice had not taken her eyes off Samael since he entered the cafeteria.
Not once.
Edythe followed her gaze.
If the intensity of a stare alone could physically affect someone, Samael would probably have felt a hole being burned into the side of his head right about now. Alice's eyes were locked on him with absolute focus.
But there was far more in that gaze than simple curiosity.
Excitement.
Happiness.
Confusion.
Worry.
And something that looked suspiciously like fear.
Edythe stared at her for a moment longer before suddenly whispering,
"No way..."
Everyone assumed she was reacting to Edward's statement.
But when Rosalie followed Edythe's gaze and saw where she was looking, realisation dawned instantly.
Honestly, it didn't take much to understand what was happening. Anyone who looked at Alice's face in that moment could have guessed.
Rosalie slowly turned her head toward Edward.
For perhaps the first time in her life, she looked genuinely uncertain.
She pointed subtly toward Alice.
"Is it… what I think it is?"
Edward frowned at first, confused by the question. But the moment he looked at Alice properly, and caught a few of her many thoughts, the meaning clicked into place.
His expression shifted from confusion…
…to complete shock.
Across the table, Rosalie turned toward Emmett.
"What was his name again?"
Emmett answered without hesitation.
"Samael."
Edward leaned back in his chair.
"Fuck…" he said quietly
After that, no one spoke.
They simply sat there, watching Alice and listening carefully to every word Samael said at the other table.
Alice had been completely still since the moment Samael walked into the cafeteria.
At first the others thought she was simply curious, the way she often was when something new happened in Forks. But after several minutes, it became clear that this was something different.
Alice was staring.
Not casually. Not with mild interest.
She was locked on him.
To anyone watching carefully, it almost looked like she had slipped into a light trance. Her eyes followed every small movement he made, when he sat down, when he lifted his fork, when he answered Jessica's questions. Nothing escaped her attention.
Inside her mind, however, things were far less calm.
To Alice, Samael was… perfect.
Not simply handsome. Vampires were used to beauty; they lived surrounded by it. Every member of their family looked almost too perfect to be real.
But in Alice's eyes, Samael was different.
There was something about him that felt… right.
That was the only way she could describe it.
For months, she had seen flashes in her visions. Pieces of the future that never quite showed a face, moments that felt important but never fully explained themselves. A hand she was holding. A voice beside her. Someone standing next to her in places she had not yet visited.
And now that person was sitting across the cafeteria, eating school lunch like a completely normal teenager.
If Alice had allowed her instincts to take control, she would have crossed the room in two seconds, grabbed him by the arm, hugged him, and dragged him as far away from the rest as possible.
Preferably somewhere private.
Preferably forever.
The fact that several girls were staring at him like he was the most attractive thing to enter Forks High School in the last decade did not help her mood at all.
Especially Jessica.
Jessica was leaning forward, smiling too brightly, speaking in that slightly sugary tone that Alice immediately classified as flirting.
Inside Alice's mind, a much smaller and far less composed version of herself crossed her arms and huffed.
Good, she thought smugly when Samael answered Jessica with complete indifference. Don't fall for that one, dear.
The tiny mental Alice puffed out her chest proudly.
Once we're together, she won't even come within a hundred meters of you. I'll make sure of that.
Outwardly, however, Alice's face remained perfectly calm.
Her expression didn't show jealousy, anger, or even irritation. She simply watched.
Then the conversation took a different turn.
When Jessica asked about Samael's family and he calmly mentioned that his parents were gone, Alice's expression softened immediately.
A small wave of sadness moved through her chest.
Across the cafeteria, the conversation at Samael's table slowly quieted down.
And then something happened that made Alice's entire world narrow to a single point.
Samael looked in her direction.
Alice didn't look away.
Not for a second.
When their eyes met, something strange happened.
Samael froze.
Bella noticed it immediately. From her seat, she could swear his pupils widened in an instant. If he hadn't been wearing dark contact lenses, someone paying close attention might even have seen a faint golden flash in his eyes.
For everyone else in the cafeteria, the moment lasted only a couple of seconds.
For Samael, it was something entirely different.
Time… simply stopped making sense.
The cafeteria noise faded into nothing. The people around him blurred into the background.
There was only one thing left in his mind.
Alice.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
And that was saying something, because Samael had seen plenty of vampires before — creatures literally known for supernatural beauty.
But Alice…
Alice was something else.
She was petite, but perfectly feminine, with a lightness to her posture that made her look almost like she could move without touching the ground. Her short pixie haircut framed her face in a way that somehow made her look both adorable and elegant at the same time.
Through his sharpened vision, he noticed the details others might miss.
The smooth, pale skin.
The delicate shape of her hands rested lightly on the table.
And then she smiled.
The smile appeared the exact moment their gazes connected.
And something inside Samael shifted.
It made him unexpectedly happy - far happier than anything he had experienced since arriving in this world. It felt like his entire life up to this moment had been a black-and-white film, and suddenly someone had turned on colour.
Despite all of that, his face barely changed.
The calm mask he usually wore stayed in place.
Only a small smile formed on his lips.
But it was warm.
And unmistakably genuine.
At the Cullen table, Alice felt it instantly.
To her, the calm expression on his face meant absolutely nothing. She didn't need to see emotions on his features - she could practically feel them through the connection that seemed to spark between them.
Warmth spread through her chest.
It was a strange feeling.
A feeling she hadn't experienced since becoming a vampire.
Without thinking too much about it, Alice lifted her small hand and gave him a light wave.
Across the room, Samael blinked once as if waking from a short dream. Then he raised his own hand and waved back.
Alice's smile widened slightly.
Then she even winked at him before turning back toward her table.
She was deliberately forcing herself to slow down.
She really was trying.
Across the room, Samael allowed himself another small smile before returning his attention to his own table.
The atmosphere there had changed noticeably.
Bella watched the whole interaction with quiet curiosity. She didn't show much emotion, but she was definitely surprised by how quickly the moment had happened. She couldn't help wondering if this was how confident people behaved - casually exchanging looks and smiles like they had already known each other for years.
Angela had a very different concern.
She was gently rubbing Jessica's back, trying to calm her down.
Because everyone at the table had seen the exchange.
And Jessica was clearly not happy about it.
She tried to compose herself, but the attempt didn't go well. After a minute, she abruptly stood up, muttered something about needing to prepare for the next class, and hurried away.
Angela quickly followed her, offering the others a polite apology.
Peter watched them leave and then broke into a wide grin.
"Well," he said, glancing at Samael, "look at you. First day at school and already getting attention from one of the hottest girls in school."
He laughed.
"I'd say this town is treating you pretty well."
Samael gave a small nod.
"It seems welcoming," he agreed.
At the same table, several other boys were trying very hard not to cry.
Mostly because every single one of them had tried talking to Alice Cullen at some point in the past.
And every single one of them had failed.