Twilight and Dawn

Chapter Two

Turned out it was Rhea who could barely get any sleep last night.

The rain was hitting the glass in a way that reminded her of Camp Half-blood, more so, when Poseidon and Zeus were fighting. If there was one thing she knew, it was that her Uncle knew how to annoy her father.

Why?

She didn’t know, maybe they were bored and wanted entertainment.

Bella, on the other hand, might have gotten more sleep than her, but that didn’t mean she got a lot of sleep.

“Morning, Bella,” Rhea said.

“Morning,” Bella said.

“Let’s get going, there’s no food in this house and Charlie has already left.”

“I’ll get dressed.”

They had to leave earlier than normal, for both the food and to get to Fork’s High School’s front desk and get information about their classes.

Where Rhea had to give the school information about her medical condition. Doctors didn’t know what it was, but Rhea did and she couldn’t tell them.

It was the Achille’s Curse and the fact she was getting stronger. Abilities gained after she had been adopted by Neptune after Gaea’s War.

It was a tricky thing to handle, more so, since her care wasn’t being handled by a child of Apollo or by any child of a God or Goddess of healing or medicine.

She had to eat more the more powerful she got, just to maintain her weight. Again, the Achille’s Curse didn’t help the matter.

Frank had a similar problem; his problem might not have been a curse, but Mar’s Blessing meant that he had to eat as much as she did, along with the fact that he was taller than her and had more visible muscle.

It sounded like a curse to Rhea.

She wouldn’t want to hear Neptune and Poseidon in her head like Frank had Ares and Mars did. Frank was also one of the reasons that Rhea swore that she wouldn’t go to Camp Jupiter, since Ares wanted her dead, while Mars respected her for her abilities on the battlefield.

“Time to get breakfast,” Bella said wearing jeans, a grey long-sleeve shirt and a green short-sleeve top over it.

Rhea wore a long black skirt, leggings and a dark blue long shirt.

Bella enjoyed wearing earthy tones, while Rhea adored her blues and darker colours.

“You need to eat, can’t have you losing more weight, Mum was worried about the last time you fainted,” Bella said.

“We might not share the same condition,” Rhea said picking up her bag, “but you need to eat as well.”

“Come on, Rhea,” Bella said, “we have everything and we need to monitor your weight.”

“I’ll need to find a doctor,” Rhea said.

“Dad might know one.”

He might, but nevertheless, doctors.”

“Hospitals, your favourite place to be.”

Rhea narrowed her eyes.

Bella rolled hers.

“Bells, my weight isn’t an issue and you know it.”

“It’s a problem when I can pick you up.”

“And then drop me.”

“Once.”

“Bite me.”

“No thank you, you might actually enjoy it.”

Rhea grinned, grabbing her raincoat before Bella followed her. She paused for a second to make sure Bella remembered to grab her coat.

Bella was more like Renee than she liked to be, such as forgetting to grab things if they weren’t in front of her. Out of sight, out of mind was a literal saying when it came to all three of them. Rhea, Bella and Renee. It would drive Phil to insanity when all three of them would forget about the same thing.

“There’s not enough room up front for our bags,” Rhea said.

“We’ll put them in the trunk, the covering should stop everything from getting wet,” Bella said.

“We should go shopping after school.”

“We’ll have to.”

“Ain’t it the truth, Charlie doesn’t have any food in his house.”

“Doubt he’ll be any good at cooking.”

“I’ll do breakfast and lunch,” Rhea said.

“I’ll be in charge of dinners and lunch on the weekends, along with dessert,” Bella said.

“Bells, I think we agree.”

“We’ll both be in charge of snacks.”

Rhea nodded, thanks to the card that Poseidon gave her, she could afford to buy enough food to maintain her weight. She was in charge of monitoring her food, which didn’t always work...

Again, she would forget her own head if it wasn’t attached and more than once she had lost track of time while in the middle of her favourite activities. Reading now being one of them, thanks to the fact that she’d been adopted by Neptune.

It was odd, the fact that letters no longer could be mistaken for another one. She was infamous at her old schools for mixing up p with q, d with b, and i with l.

She was still on her own when it came to figuring out how much her abilities took out of her. In the end, she just ate as much as she wanted without worrying all that much about how much weight she might gain from it.

There were times she felt like Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes with the sheer amount of food she could put away on her own. She would just remind herself that it came with being a demigod, and that was one of the reasons so many of those in Camp Half-blood stayed year around, not everyone could afford to feed their children the amount they needed once they started using their godly abilities.

“We’re at the dinner,” Bella said.

Rhea nodded, she was glad that Bella didn’t say anything about her being lost in her thoughts.

--

Forks High School wasn’t hard to find once they had finished eating their breakfast; the dinner had decent enough pancakes.

Even if Rhea felt slightly self-conscious about how people were looking at her weirdly, their waitress might not have asked why she was ordering so much... which was one of the reasons Rhea made sure that she left her a large tip.

One of the gentlemen had asked, but Bella had been the one to tell about her rare medical condition and how the only way Rhea could manage it was to keep up her calorie count.

They had been left alone after, but Bella had informed Rhea that the entire town would know before the sun was down, that small towns were just like that.

Gossip and rumours could spread faster than the truth ever could.

“Away with the fairies, Rhea?” Bella asked.

“Always Bells.”

“We’ll have to find the parking lot later.”

“Of course, we’re new.”

Bella nodded.

Rhea quickly followed her towards the Front Office, before pausing and going back for their school bags. She had a feeling they would need them if they didn’t want to get their paperwork wet.

“You forgot this,” Rhea said.

“Thanks,” Bella said taking her bag.

“Can I help you?” a red-haired woman asked.

Rhea stared before looking at Bella.

Bella stared at her.

“I’m Rhea Jackson,” Rhea said, mentioning to keep a small smile on her face, “and this is Isabella Swan, but she prefers Bella. We’re starting today and were told to come here before school started for our timetables.”

“Of course, I’ll get your schedules and a map of the school,” she said grabbing two small stacks of paper from the drawers next to her.

Rhea blinked when a small slip of paper was placed on top of the stacks.

“Now get this signed by your teachers,” she said, “and Rhea dear, you have medical forms to give to your teachers?”

“Yes ma’am,” Rhea said, taking a copy from her bag to give to the woman.

She had enough copies for her teachers, just in case, she fainted again. It would help them know what was going on, along with just letting Bella deal with it.

It was the reason they were in the same classes.

“Come on, we have some time before classes,” Rhea said following Bella back to her track.

“We should look over our timetables,” Bella said.

Rhea nodded before getting in, it didn’t take long for them to find the parking lot.

“Bells looks like I’m the one who's going to stand out for once,” Rhea said.

With her naturally olive skin, Rhea stood out in the sea of pale skin tones. She was mainly Greek, for crying out loud, she was darker than what most people thought about when they thought about Europe.

But then she knew that Americans had a habit of lumping the entirety of Europe together, along with the entire continent of Africa.

In the end, she didn’t owe any answers.

“Tanned skin must be rare here,” Bella agreed, “those Greek genes of yours must be a curse now.”

“If I’m lucky, the Scottish ones will take over.”

“Rhea, that’s not how it works.”

“Course not, I’m not that lucky.”

Bella coughed to cover her laugh, but the bell rang for them to start heading to class.

“Let’s go,” Rhea said.

English was their first class, Mr Manson just looked at them when they walked into his classroom. Handed them the reading list after they had given him what they needed.

Rhea quickly scanned said list after they had sat down in the back of the classroom.

English was going to be boring, both she and Bella have already the books on said list. Once glance at Bella told her all she needed to know about where her thought process had taken her.

“She won’t do it,” Rhea said class finishing, “you know she’ll think that it’s cheating.”

Looking at her new books, she put them into her bag before giggling at Bella’s offended expression.

“You must be Isa-”

“Bella,” Rhea said cutting him off, “she prefers Bella.”

“You must be Rhea then,” he said.

Something about him reminded her of Luke, at least, the Luke she knew when she first arrived at Camp Half-Blood, which meant one thing.

She didn’t trust him.

“Where’s your next class?” he said pushing up his glasses.

Rhea stared at him.

“Rhea?” Bella asked.

“Government with Mr Jefferson in Building Six is our next class,” Rhea said putting her bag over her shoulder.

He was staring at her in shock.

“Rhea has a photographic memory, it’s useful for times like this,” Bella said.

“Real useful,” Rhea added.

“I’m heading towards Building Four, I could show you the way,” he said.

Rhea narrowed her eyes.

The last person who was this helpful was Luke and he had almost killed more than once when she was eleven.

“I’m Eric, by the way,” he said.

Would have been nice if he started with that, Rhea thought.

“That would be nice,” Bella said putting her jacket back on, and tapping Rhea on the shoulder, “thank you, Eric.”

Rhea followed Bella’s example while keeping an eye on Eric.

Just in case.

“Forks is nothing like Phoenix, huh?” Eric asked.

Rhea had a feeling that he only wanted to talk to Bella, not her. Which she was used to, mortals might not be able to pinpoint the feeling or explain it, but they knew something was off about her.

That something about her wasn’t human.

Bella narrowed her eyes at him, hooking her arm through Rhea’s.

“Very,” Bella said, “I’m sure it’s different to New York as well.”

“New York?” Eric asked.

“I was born and raised in New York before my family was murdered,” Rhea said.

“It doesn’t rain much there, does it?” Eric asked.

“It’s about the same in New York, there are just more high-rise buildings to block it and the wind,” Rhea admitted.

“Phoenix gets rain three to four times a year, sometimes more than that if we’re lucky,” Bella added.

“Wonder what that would be like,” Eric said looking up, rain going down his glasses before he used his jacket sleeve to clean them.

“It’s sunny,” Bella answered.

“Rhea looks tanned, but you don’t Bella,” Eric said.

“My mother’s part albino,” Bella joked.

Eric just looked at her like she had grown another head.

“Her mother’s also part Danish, you know, Viking’s don’t tan so well,” Rhea added.

Eric didn’t look amused.

“I’m tanned 'cause I’m Greek,” she added.

“Well then, good luck,” he said, walking them up to the door even though the building was clearly marked and he had to be cutting it close to get to his class.

Rhea could only wonder how many hearts Bella was going to break before the week was up since she doubted that Eric was her type.

Aphrodite would enjoy this.

“Maybe we’ll have another class together,” he said.

I hope not, Rhea thought.

“Maybe,” Bella said.

“I don’t like him,” Rhea said.

Bella pulled her towards their class.

“You don’t like overly helpful people, I swear you were two seconds away from stabbing someone during your first day at Phoenix,” Bella said, “James just happened to be your last straw.”

“Little bastard almost got a pen to the neck before you intercepted,” Rhea said.

“And now I have one of the best sisters in Forks,” Bella said.

“With me, fluttery will get you nowhere,” Rhea said.

During the next two classes, Rhea was starting to notice a lot of familiar faces and some were braver than others, and come up to them to ask Bella questions.

Rhea had to correct them on her name most of the time.

They would ask Bella questions, and Bella would always pull Rhea into the conversation as if they asked both of them.

Only one teacher had made them stand in front of the class, something that Rhea was comfortable with since she was more used to moving schools. Bella was not, even though Renee’s flights of fancy, she never moved out of her apartment and thus, Bella only went to three different schools before now.

It just meant that Mr Varner was their least favourite teacher, for more than the fact that he taught Trigonometry, which Bella and Rhea already had a deep-rooted hated for... that and anything Maths related.

Rhea ignored Mr Varner and introduced them both.

For now, Jessica was showing them to the canteen.

Rhea swore to herself that she would make her lunches from now, she didn’t need them knowing how much she needed to eat for lunch, just to make it through the day.

That was before she thought about gym class.

“Now,” Bella said as they lined up, picking up a tray as she looked at what they had, “Rhea has a medical condition where her body burns through calories faster than it should, so it means she needs to eat more.”

“Sounds fake,” Jessica said.

“It’s rare and genetic,” Rhea huffed.

“Must make losing weight easier,” Jessica snorted.

“The food here doesn’t have a lot of calories,” Angelia admitted before quickly pointing out a few things she thought would help.

Angelia reminded Rhea of Hazel, both strong in their own ways.

“Thank you, Angelia, after this I might have to rely on my own cooking, I know a few tricks that help... it might also taste better than this,” Rhea admitted paying for her lunch.

Might also cost more than this garbage, she thought.

“I know what works for me and what doesn’t,” Rhea finished.

Rhea kept Bella in her range of sight, people talking around them and she could see that her sister’s eyes kept glancing at another table.

It looked like she was waiting for Rhea to be finished eating before saying anything.

“You okay, Bells?” Rhea asked, soft enough that only Bella should have heard her.

“Just wondering who they are?” Bella asked.

“Who?” Rhea asked.

She was finished with her lunch.

Bella looked at her, before looking away.

Rhea followed her line of sight, spotting a table of people who looked like they had walked out of a professional photo shoot.

They looked like supermodels, maybe even children of Aphrodite or even Apollo. Three males and two females.

Their eyes were amber, but they had different hair colours.

Only two of them looked vaguely familiar.

Were they demigods? Did the gods break their vow to the Styx? No, they wouldn’t have, the Goddess Styx was one of the few people Zeus was afraid of.

It was the reason Dionysus’ mother had been killed because she made him swear an oath on the River Styx.

“Might be better if we ask them that Bells,” Rhea said.

She could feel that Jessica wanted to spread gossip about them, she could tell. Jessica reminded her of Drew before she had died.

“Don’t bother, the Cullens and the Hales think they’re good for us, moving down from Alaska with their doctor father and his wife,” Jessica said, pouting, “they’re all paired off as well, but Edward thinks he’s too good for the girls here.”

“Or maybe, just maybe, just hear me out. They just won’t want to be in the middle of gossip by people who don’t care about someone else’s feelings,” Rhea said getting, taking her empty tray.

Angelia looked at her with a sad smile before talking to Ben about something.

Without another word, she left the cafeteria.

“Rhea, are you okay?” Bella asked.

Rhea stopped outside her new locker, leaning against it.

“People like Jessica piss me off,” Rhea admitted, shoulder slumping, “she’s like Drew. More than one person wanted to kick her off the nearest cliff.”

“Summer Camp?”

“Summer Camp.”

“You must be Rhea and Bella?” a female asked.

Rhea looked up and spotted a petite female with a pixie haircut, odd, she was just a few inches taller than her.

Rhea was 4’8, which meant she had to be around 4’10.

The blonde male standing behind her was much taller than she was. The odd thing was, it didn’t look like he was breathing, looking behind her and Bella like they scared him.

Or he was scared that he was going to hurt them.

“I’m Bella,” Bella said looking behind the two before pointing at Rhea, “Rhea’s my adopted sister... no, just my sister from another set of parents.”

“Adopted sister then,” Rhea said.

“I’m Alice Cullen,” she said grabbing the male’s arm with a giant grin on her face.

As if she knew something that they didn’t, it reminded her of Racheal when she saw something that was amusing instead of life-threatening.

Rare, but it still happened.

“And this Jasper Hale,” she said, “my boyfriend.”

“Hands off, got it,” Rhea said, “anyway, Jasper, are you okay?”

He looked like he was in pain, not physical pain. The same type of pain that she’s seen in Nico’s eyes before he started dating Will and Jake.

Always scared that someone would hurt him because he was gay or the son of Hades.

Rhea had made Jake and Will promise to look after him, Nico was the only reason she would return to either Camp.

Either to hug Nico or knock out someone’s knee camps or spine.

Nico, Will and Jake were a horribly cute couple from what she’s seen. Nico’s dragged them into her dreams before, she didn’t know if he wanted to catch up with her or make sure she didn’t go headfirst into trouble... again.

“I’m fine,” Jasper said.

Thinking of Will, it would seem that Jasper and Will shared the same accent, which made her smile.

“You must be from the south, like my cousin’s boyfriend, Texas?” Rhea asked.

Alice and Jasper stared at her, Jasper nodding a second before the bell rang for class.

“We should get going,” Bella said grabbing Rhea’s hand, and gently pulling her towards their classroom, “we have biology and then gym class.”

“It was lovely meeting the two of you,” Rhea said.

Alice took her hand into her own.

Jasper nodded his head.

“I do hope we have a class together, even though I’m I saw you in Spanish,” Rhea said.

“Si,” Alice said, “Edward’s in your biology class.”

“The brooding one?” Bella asked.

“The brooding one,” Alice agreed.

“Bye,” Bella said.

Rhea waved before walking towards their new class, Mr Banner handed them a textbook when they walked up to his desk.

Rhea looked around for an empty seat, there were two of them. One of them was next to Edward and the other was next to Angelia.

Her mind was made up the moment she saw Edward’s newly black eyes stare at Bella. The same look she had seen before hellhounds attacked her during her stay in the pit.

“Thank you, Mr Banner,” Rhea said, patting Bella on the shoulder before sitting next to Edward.

Bella sat next to Angelia, who quickly told Bella what they were going to do that day and what they had already done.

Edward looked at Bella.

Rhea had been in too many wars to be scared by some creep of a boy.

She looked at him with narrow eyes before kicking his chair.

He stared at her.

“You look at my sister like that again, and I swear I will remove your eyes with toothpicks while removing your organs with a blunt knife,” Rhea said.

She had fought gods, some eye-changing prick would not change her track record.

“And if happen to lay a hand on her,” she said, “well, I’ll be sending you to Hades the hard way. Burn your body and make sure that no one finds the ashes, you’ll be another missing person case turned cold.”

Edward stared at her before looking back at the board.

Gym, she only had to survive gym class after this.