Okay, so this is the first chapter to my new story. Do not worry I WILL finish Fearless, I promise, it's almost done! This story as you've probably gathered from the summary is a little bit different. Enjoy.

Chapter One
How I Used To Be Normal

I used to be normal. I really did, I swear. I used to be a normal seventeen-year-old with normal seventeen-year-old problems like exams and grades and teachers and friends and boys. Well, boys are definitely still a problem but its pretty minor compared to everything else I have to worry about right now. I think I better explain. It all started on a normal, boring, Thursday morning…

I yawned hugely as I slammed my truck door shut, shifted my bag onto my shoulder more securely and headed to form room. I passed a couple of Junior students making their way to reception and one bleach blonde Barbie doll said to the other,

"Some of the seniors this year are looking fine!"

"Oh I know, right? Edward Cullen. W. O. W."

"Oh swoon,"

I shook my head with a scowl. Edward Cullen was mine. Well…in my dreams.

Okay, so he wasn't technically mine but I wanted him to be. We'd been friends since Kindergarten and he got better looking every year with his gorgeous windswept bronze hair and his glorious green eyes that just screamed sexy.

Suddenly, probably due to my daydreaming not to mention the curse they call clumsiness, I crashed into something hard and my bag went flying.

"Oh!" I gasped, and looking up found the face of a very angry bald man, dressed in black, glaring at me. "I – I'm s-sorry."

"Might want to watch where you're going next time." He leered at me, "You never know, might knock into someone who's not so…nice."

His voice sent chills down my spine. Who was this guy? "I'm sorry," I stammered again, blushing, moving to pick up my bag, but when I turned back around, he was gone.

I threw my bag onto my desk in my form room and slumped in the chair. The room was already filled with people and my friends – Alice and Rosalie – were already in their seats.

"Hey," I sighed heavily, lifting my feet onto the chair, making myself more comfortable.

"Hey," they chorused back lifelessly, ever the happy bunch.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"It's Thursday," Alice said, as though it were obvious.

When all she received from me was a blank look Rosalie piped in, "It's past Wednesday where you can be happy it's the middle of the week meaning its nearly over, and it's before Friday where you can be excited about the weekend meaning Thursday is just a dull day of waiting."

I shrugged, "Fair enough."

"Speaking of Thursday," Alice looked up from her phone, most likely texting Jasper despite having already spent the car journey to school with him, "What are you doing here?"

I sat and stared at her in confusion for a while when suddenly in dawned on me and I let my head fall to the table and banged it a couple of times for good measure.

Rose watched me with puzzlement while Alice, highly amused, went on to tell her my problem, "She doesn't have to be here, she has two free periods in the morning, she could be at home in bed right now."

"And I was late this morning, I rushed out the house without eating breakfast because I thought I was late!" I cried lifting my head.

They laughed and I had to join in or I might have started sobbing.

I honestly thought that without my friends I'd be crying daily – though Alice had the power to make me cry when she threatened me with shopping trips and the same with Rose when she was on her monthly!

Alice was a tiny little pixie with spiked black fairy hair and the energy of a five year old drugged up of sugar, sunshine and Red Bull.

Rose was her opposite, being more the laid back, chillaxed, effortless type and could be described with one word - flawless.

Both girls were in steady relationships and were completely and utterly in love – much like I was – aside from the fact that Edward didn't know I was in love with him and nor were we in steady relationship. Emmett and Jasper had Rose and Alice on pedestals and the girls thought the world of them too, though they had the boys wrapped round their little fingers.

It was safe to say the guys were inevitably and irreversibly whipped and they were proud of it.

The bell rang and the girls stood. Alice picked up her bag and looked down at me, "So what are you going to do in your frees?"

"Well first, I'm going to the bathroom, in my mad rush this morning I didn't get a chance to freaking pee."

She laughed, "Well, I'm sure you can find some way to entertain yourself," She jerked her head indicating someone standing just outside the room, "Edward has two frees right now as well." And with a sly wink and a smug smirk she was gone, leaving me gaping after her.

I shook my head following her out, having no clue how she knew about my little crush, I hadn't told her or anyone else for that matter.

He smiled at me, "Hey," shoving his bronze hair from his face, his green eyes glinting mischievously.

"Hi," I grinned back, "How are you?"

"I'm good, what are you doing here? I thought you have two frees?" He questioned, shifting his bag on his shoulder.

I nodded rolling my eyes, "Yeah, well, I must have been extra tired this morning because I completely forgot about that and rushed out of the house thinking I was late."

He chuckled and I felt a sudden thrill because I was the one who had made him laugh even if it was at my expense, I shook my head internally, pathetic.

"That sucks. Well, I have a couple of frees too, fancy practicing for the Spanish test?"

I nodded my head a little too enthusiastically, "Sure, I'm just going to pee, and then I'll meet you back here?"

"Okay," he laughed in answer.

Oh my god, you idiot, I thought as I headed to the girls toilets, "I'm just going to pee", that was way too much information. Mind you, I doubt he cared, we'd known each practically our whole lives. But still, he really didn't need to know that. What happened to "I'm just going to powder my nose"?

I sighed, despite being friends our whole lives he had been my first kiss. We were at Jessica Stanley's thirteenth birthday party and we were playing spin the bottle. I remember sitting there cursing the game as Mike, Tyler and Eric all seemed to leer at me from the other side of the circle. I watched as Edward spun the bottle and all the girls sat gripping their hands into fists, praying it would land on them when, to my utter surprise it landed on me. I had to stop myself from pumping my fist in the air – it was a close call.

I thought for sure after the kiss that he liked me but he never said anything. In fact, I think the kiss boosted his confidence with girls because not long after he started dating Tanya Denali. The prettiest and most popular girl in school. That didn't change when we moved on to Forks High School. Now she's head cheerleader. Typical.

To my relief that relationship didn't last very long but Edward had dated a number of other girls both from school and outside of school.

A particular girl from the Quileute Reservation stood out for me.

Leah.

This all occurred on one fine day…who am I kidding? Forks rains non stop. Anyways, Alice, Rosalie and I had been sitting in the caferteria at lunch when Emmett and Jasper came running up to our table.

"Watch out, Eddie's in a bad mood." Emmett said, throwing himself down in the chair next to Rose.

"Don't call him Eddie, you know he hates it." I sighed.

"What's wrong with him?" Alice wondered.

"Well, turns out he went to a party on the Reservation last Friday," Jasper said, giving Emmett a disgusted look as he started kissing Rosalie – Jasper's twin. "And you know that dude you're friends with? The Jacob guy?" He directed at me.

I nodded, Jacob Black's dad, Billy had been best friends with my dad. "Oh yeah, Edward's friends with him too."

Jasper nodded, "Yeah, that's what makes this so bad."

I frowned, "What happened, they didn't have a fight did they?"

Emmett shook his head, finally though reluctantly, pulling away from Rose who was trying to listen to the story. "No, but I bet Edward wishes they did."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked.

Jasper responded, "Jacob started hitting on Leah Clearwater, that girl Edward really likes. And apparently they disappeared upstairs for quite a while before coming back down and looking…how should I put this….dishevelled?"

"Yeah, buttons in the wrong holes, sex hair kind of dishevelled." Emmett waggled his eyebrows and Rose slapped his arm.

My immediate and instinctive reaction, that I just barely managed to rein in, was to shout "SLUT!" at the top of my lungs. I didn't even think about the fact that Jacob, Edward's supposed friend, had betrayed him and all but stabbed him in the back, all that sunk in was LEAH CLEARWATER IS AN EFFING WHORE! And I didn't even know the girl!

Alice, however, did know who this girl was and pointed her out to me when she spotted her at Port Angeles mall once. Alice was pretty startled, though, when trying to point her out to me she said, "The one with the brown hair who looks a bit like you," and received a death glare from me. Perhaps that was when she discovered my liking of Edward.

Again, my immediate reaction was to judge the girl with her stupid brown hair like mine and her stupid nice face, honestly, she wasn't that pretty, actually quite the opposite if you asked me.

I glanced at myself in the mirror on the wall in front of me where I was washing my hands. I had straightened my mahogany locks today and they fell to just above my waist; I flicked my side fringe from my eyes and stared at my reflection speculatively. I had brown eyes but if you looked closely you could see the slight hazel-y gold colour just around the pupil; I had naturally long eyelashes, enhanced by the mascara I wore – at Alice's insistence. My nose, though straight was slightly upturned and my full pouty lips flawed with a tiny small scar, barely noticeable if you weren't looking for it, from when I was two and had smacked it on the corner of a doorway after I fell, playing, running in the house when I had just been told not to. My friends had always complemented my cheekbones and jawline and my slimness but I had always been pale and no matter what I tried I just wouldn't tan, I would fry in the sun and fake tan was absolutely useless if I didn't want to look like a Watsit! Though my pale cheeks frequently flushed a pink whenever I was embarrassed or lying or talking to Edward. And sure, I wasn't exactly well endowed or curvy but I wasn't that bad looking, I didn't see what Leah had that I hadn't got. A nice body, maybe?

Oh screw her.

I was taller than her with my five foot four inches. That extra half an inch I had over her was very important to me. Well, I thought I was taller than her at least, from what I saw of her from that distance.

I shook these thoughts from my head as I made my way back downstairs to meet Edward but he wasn't where I had left him, he was leaning against the side lined up with computers smiling down at a certain brown haired girl who was sat on a chair facing him, twiddling a strand in her fingers as she giggled at something he said.

I scowled but rearranged my features into a dazzling smile when Edward looked up and saw me, "Bella," he grinned, waving me over.

With a fake smile plastered on my face I went to him wondering what the hell this bitch was doing here.

"Bella, this is Leah, she thinks she might be transferring here," Edward explained.

I looked down at the girl and she smiled a sweet smile up at me and offered her hand for me to shake. Sickening. And who shakes hands nowadays anyway?

Grudgingly, I took her hand in my own.

"Hi," she smiled.

"Hi," I said, "So, you're moving schools then?"

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm just not liking mine right now, and I've got a load of friends who come here so I thought I'd look around, see what it's like."

"Ah cool," I smiled. A load of friends my arse. She knew Edward. I would hardly call that a load of friends I mean she wasn't even really friends with Edward anyway, I mean, not like I was friends with him. She hadn't known him as long as I had.

"So have you always been in this high school then?" She asked.

"Oh yeah Edward and I have been in this school since freshman year haven't we, Edward? And we went to the same middle school." I smiled sweetly.

Whoa, calm down there Bells, you're going to end up slapping this girl round her pretty little face.

Edward nodded, "Yeah, we've known each other a while. Well, actually, it turns out Leah and I have known each other since we were, like, three. Went to the same nursery." He grinned.

"Yeah, my mom told me." Leah piped in.

"Oh…that's err…that's nice isn't it." The sane sensible side of me said while the crazy, irrational and genuine side of me was screaming "slap her one, slap her round her rosy red cheek"!

Okay, this little conversation needed to end, now.

"So, Edward, you ready to go over that Spanish work?" I asked. Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes. Please, please, please don't blow me off in front of this perfect little bimbo.

"Err…" He looked at me before uncertainly moving his gaze to Leah.

"Oh don't worry about me, I need to go talk to your head teacher now, anyway." She stood waving her hand in dismissal.

So come on, Edward, be dismissed!

"Are you sure?" He questioned.

Of course she's sure, she just said didn't she?

Leah nodded, "Yeah, I'll text you later or something."

What? She had his number?

"Okay," he smiled happily, giving her a wave as she headed in the direction of Mr Greene's office. Then he turned to me, "So…shall we go practice?"

"Yeah," I headed towards the library and he followed.

He gave me his Spanish script and I spent the next forty-five minutes in a daze watching the way his lips moved when he spoke and listening to his voice though I couldn't for the life of me repeat anything he had said, even with his script in my hands.

"So, what do you think?" He suddenly asked.

"Wha-? Oh! Yeah…err, yeah it was good. A lot better than mine. I don't even know why I'm doing Spanish, I'm rubbish at it."

"No you're not, I mean I couldn't understand half of what your script said so that's got to be a good thing right?" He grinned.

I laughed, "Yeah, unless the reason you can't understand it is because I've made up a whole entirely new language of my own."

He nodded, "True, that would definitely be a problem."

I handed him his script back. "What time are you having your exam?"

"Four fifteen tomorrow." He replied, checking his watch, "What about you?"

"It's at four fifteen today. I really wish I hadn't missed the lesson that Mr Goff had everyone take their exams. I was sick it wasn't as though I missed it on purpose, and now it's like I've got an after school detention or something."

He nodded, "I know what you mean, he could have just let us do them at lunch or something. Mind you, I wasn't sick and was pretty much skipping lesson so I probably shouldn't be complaining."

I laughed.

He opened his mouth to say something then he paused a frown on his face and closed it again, seeming to have an internal debate before saying "So, Bella, I was wondering…"

What? I thought, what were you wondering? Finish your freaking sentence. But before he could speak again someone came barging into the library and stood right behind Edward tapping him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Edward, we're playing football out on the field, wanna come?" Tyler asked him.

"Err, yeah, okay." Edward stood from his seat picking up his bag, "I'll see you later, Bells."

I nodded in dismay, "Yeah, see you later."

And he was gone. And right at that moment, I hated Tyler with all my being. What the hell was Edward going to say?

The rest of the day was dull to say the least, English, my favourite subject by far, was filled with boring note taking from the board – Sir had a sore throat and could hardly speak. And seeing as that lesson was a double and my only lessons of the day, it hadn't been a good day. Especially with the added treat of Leah showing up and Tyler's interruption and … oh yeah, the whole Spanish exam thing, I had to wait a whole hour after the last bell rang signalling the end of the day. There was no point going home to just drive all the way back to school. So I found myself sat in the library alone, while the rest of the students and the majority of the teachers, went home.

At four o'clock I'd had enough of continuously glancing at my phone to check the time and decided to head to Mr Goff's classroom, I didn't care if I was early he could just deal with it.

But when I knocked on his classroom door there was no answer. I debated just going home but then he'd kill me. Or rather make me come back again another day and I really wasn't up for doing that. I decided I would just wait in his classroom and wait for him to turn up but the second I cracked open the door I heard voices.

I peeked inside. The curtains were drawn and the lights were on. I glanced to the front of the classroom and there was a man, bald though probably in his early thirties dressed all in black – it was the same man I had knocked into earlier – he held something in his hand pointing it at the floor but I couldn't see what it was, Mr Goff's desk was in the way. It was then that I realised he wasn't pointing whatever it was at the floor, he was pointing it at someone who was laying on the floor, I could see their feet and from what I could see of their shoes it was a man. Mr Goff? What was he doing on the floor?

"You're a traitor is what you are." The bald man hissed, his face scowling menacingly.

I heard Mr Goff gasp, "I'm not, Peters, I swear."

"Your word is worth shit. Should have made it clearer where your loyalties lay." I heard something click. "I'll see you in hell."

Then the loudest bang I ever heard sounded throughout the room, making me jump out my skin and something red splattered across the wall. It looked like…no…it couldn't be. It looked like…blood. It was blood. Then it dawned on me, the man, he was holding a gun, he had shot Mr Goff. He was dead. He had killed him.

I gasped in horror unable to stop myself and clapped my hands quickly over my mouth but the man heard. His head snapped up and his cold, dark, furious eyes locked with mine. I stood frozen in shock. My mind was screaming for my body to move, to run, to get as far away from here as possible. But I was petrified.

Then the man smirked, then smiled. It was harsh and disturbing. Then he chuckled which turned into a full out laugh. I thought I was going to be sick, my head was spinning, I was going to pass out and then…he raised his hand and the gun was pointed at me.

I screamed and bolted. The door slammed shut behind me but the noise was blocked out by another loud, ear-splitting bang but I could hardly even hear that. All I could hear was the furious thudding of my feet on the floor as I ran down the corridor, practically flew down the stairs and sprinted across the parking lot to the reception. I could hardly even hear my feet over my gasping terrified breaths and the fast pounding of my thumping heart.

"Help!" I screamed as I charged through the door startling the receptionist, Mrs Cope.

"What, what is it?" She asked frantically, jumping up from the desk and rushing to me.

"Man!" I cried breathlessly, my arms waving, my body trembling, "Man…with gun… shot… need help." I put to my hand to my head feeling lightheaded wobbling on my feet and the receptionist steadied me.

"I think you need to just calm down dear, take deep breaths."

"No time!" I shrieked, "He has a gun, he shot Mr Goff, you have to call the police!"

And then the world went black.

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