Disclaimer: We don't own Twilight or any of it's characters. But we own a lot of other characters in this story — Adrian, Jay-Jay, Alicia & Ethan...and some others; be jealous.

Like it, love it, live it, be it... but don't own it — it's ours.

This is a collaboration between myself and StarStrellaStar.

"I can stand up on my own
No one can bring me down down
I know I'm gonna shine shine, shine shine
I will hold my head up high
I'm gonna make it through, through
Because it's my time to shine shine, shine shine"

Shine by Raven Symoné

Chapter 1 — Forks, Fights & Freaks

It was raining.

The first thing I noticed as I strode off of the plane and out into the crisp, cold, fresh air of Port Angeles was the rain.

It wasn't even just raining. It was pouring.

Really, I shouldn't have even been so shocked. It was Port Angeles, after all, and just like Forks, under a near-constant cover of clouds. It had always been like this. Even when I was a kid and came to visit my father over the summers; it rained.

I sighed loudly. This was going to be my life for at least the next couple of years. I would have to boldly endure this rainy weather daily until I could finish high school and move onto college.

I grimaced at that passing thought, not even pretending to mask my distaste of Forks with a false cheery smile. I wasn't that type of girl. I was remarkably honest with people, so there was really no reason for me to hide behind being fake now. People would get to know how I truly felt about Forks soon enough, anyway.

I descended the stairs of the plane and went to get my luggage.

Or at least I tried to get my luggage.

I had about three suitcases and they were much too large for me to carry alone. There was no chance of me carrying all of them by myself.

Maybe I should have taken Charlie up on his offer to pick me up from the airport.

"You need some help?" I heard a voice from behind me.

I turned around. The first thing I saw was a pair of very light, airy blue eyes. They were unique — different than any eyes I had ever seen before. Sure, I'd seen light blue eyes before...but his were so much lighter. They were almost white, but still blue. The eyes belonged to a boy who seemed to be around my age — maybe a little bit older. His skin was a pale peach and he had a slightly round face with soft features.

His hair was covered with a black beanie, only small flicks of his short, shaggy silver blond hair sticking out. He was wearing a pair of low-rise grey skinny jeans and a black Three Days Grace t-shirt.

I ran a hand through my deep, dark chocolate brown, wavy waist-length hair and sighed defeatedly.

"Sure," I said. I was usually too proud and independent to allow others to help me with things — especially such small, trivial ones like carrying suitcases — but I was way too tired to fight right now. I just wanted to get to Charlie's place and crash.

He passed me his skateboard. Huh. How had I not noticed that before? He was practically the definition of "skater boy." I grabbed it from his hands and he turned to grab my luggage. I skillfully placed it on the floor using my feet and hopped on. I wasn't a skateboarder, but I knew how to ride one. When he turned back to me, he looked surprised and confused.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Flying," I replied sarcastically. "No, seriously, what does it look like I'm doing? Skateboarding, duh," I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world...which at this point, it pretty much was.

He rolled his eyes. "Good luck with that."

I glared at him. "Thanks."

"I'm Adrian, by the way," he said, effectively changing the subject.

"Bella."

"Well, Bella, lead the way."

I started skateboarding to the front desk. The lady behind it had her back turned toward me, so I pressed the little bell. She turned and faced me.

"Hello, dear," she said cheerily. "How may I help you today?"

I don't see why she was calling me 'dear'. She was probably only three years or so older than me. She had red hair and she was annoyingly smacking her gum.

"First, you can stop chewing your gum like a horse," I replied. "Second, you can not call me 'dear' because I'm not much younger than you are. And third, I'm here to get my car."

She gaped at me with wide eyes, then glared. "Why you li—"

I smiled sweetly. "Car, please?"

She must have thought better of messing with me and losing her job, because she just huffed and asked, "Name?"

"Swan."

After going over a little more information for clarification that the car was actually mine, she told me that it was parked in lot A, space 7.

"Thank you." I grinned, snatching the spare keys from her hand and skating over to Adrian.

"Lets go," I said, drifting the way to the correct parking spot.

"So, Bella, what brings you to Port Angeles?"

"Not Port Angeles," I shook my head. "Forks."

"Oh, really?" he asked.

"Yeah. My dad lives there and I'm going to be living with him for the next couple of years."

"Who's your dad?"

"Charlie Swan," I replied.

"Chief Swan?" he asked. I nodded. "So you're the infamous Isabella he's been boasting about for the last few weeks?"

I groaned and smacked myself in the face. "That's me," I said in a fake peppy voice.

He turned and looked at me, staring at my face deeply. "Yep, I can definitely see the resemblance."

"Are you telling me I look like a man?" I whisper-screeched.

He chuckled. "No, but you have the same hair and eyes as Chief does — you can tell that you're his daughter," he said. "Besides you're much too pretty to be a man." He winked.

We arrived at my car then. Adrian whistled.

"Wow. This is your car?"

I looked at him. "Yeah, this is my baby." I lightly stroked the hood of my sleek black Ferrari F430. I loved this car with everything I had. Seriously. Touch my baby and you die — and I don't accept excuses. I pressed the UNLOCK button on my key chain and listened for the little click as the car unlocked, sighing contently as it sounded.

I quickly ushered Adrian to put my bags in my car. When we had them all in, I smiled at him.

"Thanks for your help."

"No problem," he replied.

"So, I guess we'll see each other at school, right?" I asked.

"Sure, if you would give me my skateboard back, then I might be able to make it to school on Monday," he said, pointing to his skateboard which I now held under my arm.

"Oh, right," I said, slightly embarrassed. "Here you go." I quickly handed him his board.

Adrian chuckled quietly. I quirked my eyebrow at him, but he just he shook his head.

"See ya' around," he said, getting on his board. Before I could even reply, he was gone.

What a strange person, I thought as I shook my head. What was he even doing here at the airport anyway? I checked the time on my iPhone. It was only 12:30PM on a Monday, so shouldn't he be in school? I shrugged that thought away for now. I had to stop being so wary of people.

I hopped into my car and hastily sped out of the parking lot.

The drive to Charlie's place didn't take that long since I was driving at top speed. I had to slow down when I got close to Charlie's house though — he is the Chief of Police after all, and he didn't teach me to speed.

Charlie's house hadn't change much, I noticed when I pulled in his driveway. In fact, it hadn't changed at all. It still had the same old, boring plain eggshell white color painted onto the small expanse of the home. The yard surrounding the house wasn't large, either.

His police cruiser wasn't parked on the gravel driveway, but I hadn't been expecting it to be. Charlie would be sitting in his Chief's Office down at the station, no doubt sharing donuts and coffee with his co-workers and friends.

Sighing, I got out of my car and opened the trunk. I stared at the suitcases nestled comfortably in the back. I sighed again and then focused.

I didn't really need Adrian's help earlier at the airport. I could have done it myself. But the truth is, when you look like an average teenage girl, but you're carrying three large, full suitcases, people will stare at you funny. Like you're a freak.

I took a deep breath and let go of those unnecessary thoughts, allowing my mind and body to calm and relax. I felt as my human weaknesses left me and my inhuman strengths filled me, making me much less breakable than I had been moments before. The strength that was now coursing through my veins, making me feel almost as if I was on a never-ending adrenaline high, made my lips curve into a smirk.

I enjoyed the feeling. I reveled in it.

I grabbed the suitcases, having very little trouble holding them all at once. The only difficulty was that it wasn't the most comfortable position to hold three large-sized suitcases at once.

Readjusting the handles to more comfortable positions, I made my way up the stairs of the house. I entered the house and stood in the little corridor between the kitchen and the living room.

Much like the exterior of the house, the interior hadn't changed a bit. There was more dust on the unused shelves and high places, but besides that, there was nothing I could see that was different from my last visit.

I sauntered into the living room, which was to my right, and examined it quickly. It was a small, cozy room. One wall held a window that faced the front yard. Against that was a small couch, with a love seat beside it, and a bookshelf on the other side. The bookshelf shouldn't have even been called a bookshelf since it contained nearly no books. The only modern thing in the living room was one of Charlie's most prized possessions, the flat screen TV, which was hung upon the wall opposite of the couch.

The room suited Charlie's personality perfectly. Add in a fishing rod and some bait, and you'd have Charlie down to a T. The room was basically everything Charlie needed for survival, minus food and that fishing rod. He mostly lounges in front of the TV, watching baseball or football games that were on, or goes fishing with his buddies. That was literally all he did aside from work. It doesn't really sound good, but that was all that he needed — all that he wanted. He was a very simple person, and he didn't like to speak much.

I used to be practically a spitting image of Charlie — though with Renee's facial features — even my personality, but I had changed over the years. I was no longer the shy, quiet girl anymore. The only thing that Charlie and I still had in common, besides the matching hair and eyes, was the fact that neither of us liked to show emotion. It came in handy sometimes, not showing emotions. It helped me reign in unwanted changes.

On my way up the stairs to my room, I glanced into the kitchen. My suspicions were proved correct when I saw that it looked as if it hadn't been used in years. I made a mental note to go shopping for groceries after I was finished upstairs, and possibly drop in for a visit at the station to see Charlie on my way back.

My bedroom was one of the only things in the house that had actually been upgraded throughout the years. The walls were painted a soft plum purple with pure black trim. The single window overlooking the front yard let a nice amount of light in to brighten the room, and was covered with a see-through soft black curtain. My bed was queen sized and against the window wall, to the left, with an ivory white comforter. On the other side of the window, is a pure black desk, and upon it is my white Apple laptop. My closet was on the east wall, really large in size, and painted black on the inside. My room may have been dark, but I loved it nonetheless.

I set my suitcases down and looked at them. I really didn't feel like unpacking the loads upon loads of clothes and other necessities I had brought with me yet, so I decided to do that later.

I went downstairs and into the kitchen, checked through the cupboards, and wrote out a quick shopping list. It didn't take long, and I was soon out the door. I felt really excited to see my father again. I was nearly bouncing in anticipation. I knew that he'd be very happy to see me, too.

I finished grocery shopping as fast as I could and made sure that I had everything I needed. After that, I was on my way to the police station.

One of the few — very limited — advantages of Forks was that there were no long drives. It took me less than five minutes to reach the station from the grocery store.

After skillfully pulling into a parking spot, I stepped out and entered the station. I looked around in hopes of finding Charlie quickly, and spotted him over by a door labelled CONFERENCE ROOM. He was arguing with someone who looked oddly familiar.

As I walked closer, I realized exactly who it was.

"Adrian?" I asked, shocked to see the boy who had helped me carry my luggage at the airport.

Both Charlie and Adrian turned to look at me. "Bella!" they said, their voices holding different levels of surprise.

Charlie seemed to have momentarily forgotten about his current argument with Adrian, because he looked me in the eye and his lips curved into a bright smile.

"Hey Dad!" I said, careful not to call him Charlie to his face, then I grinned. "Do you mind explaining to me why Adrian is here?"

"Oh," Charlie said with a small frown set on his face, his formerly beaming smile gone. "You guys know each other?"

"Yes. Your daughter stole my skateboard. You should arrest her," Adrian stated.

I glared at him. He just ruined whatever first impression he made on me.

"Bella, is that true?" Charlie asked.

My eyes flicked to him. I resisted the urge to roll them. "No, Dad, I did not intentionally steal his skateboard."

"But you did by accident?" He quirked a brow.

This time, I did roll my eyes. "If you count him passing me his skateboard and telling me to 'lead the way' as stealing, then yeah, I guess I did steal it. But if it's like that, then that also means that he stole my luggage."

"Stole your luggage? Where exactly did you two meet?" Charlie asked confusedly.

"The airport," I said.

Charlie turned to give Adrian an accusing look. "What were you doing at the airport?"

"Chief Swan," Adrian said in mock shock and hurt, "Do you really think that I would skip school and stay in Forks? I was on my way to LA of course, but your beautiful daughter convinced me to stay here."

"Bella, I don't want you to talk to this boy every again. He's a bad influence," Charlie said, looking at me with a rare kind of strictness.

"Ouch, that really hurt my feelings, Charlie." Adrian placed a hand on his heart.

"Shut up, boy. I know that you're a good person, but you're too troublesome to be around her," Charlie stated. "I don't want you to corrupt my Bella's thoughts."

"Dad?" I tried getting his attention.

He continued. "If she were to hang out with you, she could end up in prison."

"Dad?" I tried again, dragging out the 'a'.

"Or even worse, she could end up pregnant with the child of some rebel guy who drives around on a motorcyc—" I cut him off.

"Dad!" I screeched loud enough to make him flinch.

"And it's Chief Swan to you," he mumbled quickly to Adrian.

"Dad!" I yelled again. When he looked at me, I continued my angry rant. "You may be my father, but that doesn't mean you have the right to tell me who I can and cannot be friends with."

"Yes it does, Bella," he said angrily.

I narrowed my eyes at him, and I could practically feel the steam wanting to come out of my ears. I needed to calm myself down and I needed to do it quickly.

"No, it doesn't, Charlie," I sneered. "Let's go," I mumbled, grabbing Adrian's arm and dragging him outside the station with not even a glance at Charlie. I pushed him to the passenger side and got into the driver's side. "Get in," I said loudly.

He must have heard the anger in my voice because he quickly hopped in. I reversed my car out of the parking space and quickly sped down the road.

"Um, not that I don't appreciate you bailing me out and all, Bella, but, uh, my car is still at the station," Adrian said.

"Shh," I shushed him. "I'm trying to think."

I sucked in a few deep breaths and released them slowly, attempting to calm myself down before anything drastic happened. My thoughts drifted to calm things: the sound of the ocean waves lightly splashes to the shore, the sound of the wind softly blowing in a light breeze, the smell of the ocean, the fresh air, the sound of crackling fire in a fireplace, the sound of the birds singing happily in the mornings, the smell of burning wood, the smell of grass...

After a few minutes, I was able to calm myself down completely, and I felt normal again.

"Sorry, Adrian, but you're going to have to pick up your car tomorrow," I said.

"It's fine, I guess I'll just board to school."

"No." I shook my head. "It's not really that far, but I'll give you a lift. I'm starting at Forks High tomorrow, anyway."

"Sweet," he said.

"So, where do you live?"

He quickly told me his address, and I did an illegal U-turn to go the right direction. He made no comments. The drive to his place was comfortably silent, except for a few words we exchanged to make small talk.

When I pulled up to his house, I nearly gasped out loud. It was really beautiful. It wasn't huge — it was gargantuan. Like mansion-sized. The outside was a pure white color with a lot of windows and it seemed like all of the doors were made of glass. It looked very light and airy.

"Wow," I said aloud.

Adrian chuckled. "Pretty extravagant, huh?"

"Very," I replied. "Who picked it out? Your mom?"

"No, I did. My parents — they, uh, died a long time ago."

"Oh. I'm so sorry."

"It's fine. Nothing can be changed now," he muttered.

"So, I'll pick you up in the morning," I said, changing the subject. "Is 7:45 okay?"

He nodded, getting out of the car. "Sure. Oh, and thanks for the ride. I'll see you tomorrow."

"No problem." I smiled lightly. "See ya."

"Bye." He grinned and waved, sauntering up the pathway to the door of his house.

I did a small finger-wave and gunned the engine, speeding off down the road.

As I sped down the uncrowded roads of Forks, I thought about my day. I had managed to make a friend — or at least something close to that. Hopefully I wouldn't be forced to hang around alone at school tomorrow.

Ugh, school. I really wasn't looking forward to being the new shiny toy — the main attraction — in this little town.

I pulled into the driveway of Charlie's — and my — home and saw that Charlie still wasn't back from work.

That was fine with me. I didn't really feel like continuing our fight from earlier. But it's not like it was my fault. He maybe my dad, but that didn't give him the right to tell me that I couldn't hang out with Adrian. He was the first person I had met in Forks, and not only was he really nice to me, he also helped me carry my luggage. If that wasn't nice and gentlemanly, I didn't know what was.

Sighing, I clambered out of my car and made my way into the house. After entering the house, I got to work right away.

First, I unpacked my suitcases. It didn't take nearly as much as I had thought it would earlier. When that was done, I went downstairs and started to prepare Charlie's favorite dish: lasagna. He absolutely loved lasagna. Well, it was his favorite next to fish, but surprisingly there was no fish in the house right now — he'll go fishing soon, I bet. I felt a little bad about our fight earlier, so I was hoping that the lasagna would lighten his mood.

After preparing everything and putting the lasagna in the oven, I decided to email Renee and let her know that I arrived here safely. She may have been harebrained and erratic, but she was still my mom.

I climbed the stairs and went into my room, grabbing my laptop and settling myself on the bed. I opened up my email and saw that there was one in my inbox from my mom. I clicked on it.

"Bella," it read.

Why haven't you called or emailed yet? Are you in Forks now? Is it raining? Are you still alive? Oh my God, you're not dead, are you? Bella? Please reply soon so I know that you're safe. I love you.

Love,

Mom

P.S. Phil says hi.

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself. My mom sent me an email asking if I was dead? Who does that?

Shaking my head silently, I hit the 'reply' button.

Mom, I wrote

Relax. Take a deep breath and relax.

I'm sorry for not replying sooner, but I was at the airport for a while — and I met a nice person — then I went grocery shopping, went to visit Charlie at the station — and got into a fight with him — then I had to come home and unpack. Plus, I had to start dinner.

To answer your questions: Yes, I'm in Forks. Yes, it's raining (what else did you expect?). No, Mom, I'm not alive anymore. I'm dead, can't you tell? I'm just a spirit now, and I've learned how to control technology so that I could reply to your message. Of course I'm alive, Mom. Why would you even attempt to email a 'dead' person?

You need to stop worrying about me and worry about yourself. You know that I can take care of myself. I've already met a really nice person and got into a fight with Charlie. So as you can tell, I'm perfectly fine. Oh, and say hello to Phil for me.

I miss and love you lots.

Bella

I finished typing the message and quickly hit the 'send' button before I could decide to erase what I wrote and make a message telling her that I was dead and now a ghost. It was much too tempting.

I glanced at the clock and saw that I still had plenty of time left before the food would be ready and Charlie wouldn't arrive home for a while. I decided to sit down in the kitchen and read a book. But not just any book. My favorite book, Wuthering Heights. I knew the entire story by heart, but I still could never get enough of it. After situating myself in a chair at the kitchen table, I began reading the book and was quickly lost in the story of Heathcliff and Catherine.

The smell of lasagna was the thing to pull me out of my own little world. I put the book down and quickly jumped up, pulling the lasagna out of the oven before it could start burning.

Just as I was cutting the lasagna and putting it on two plates, I heard a car in the driveway. I looked out the window and saw Charlie clambering out of his police cruiser. He looked exhausted.

I finished putting food on the plates and placed them on the table, waiting for Charlie to enter the kitchen.

He must have heard me while I was serving the food, because he shouted, "Bella is that you?"

"No, it's Abraham," I shouted back sarcastically, rolling my eyes though he couldn't see.

I heard Charlie grumble something unintelligible before he came into the kitchen.

"You better stop with that atti—" he started but cut himself off when he saw the food on the table. His expression completely changed. "Oh, you made dinner?"

"Yeah, I figured you might be hungry."

"Well, um...that was awful nice of you," he replied, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. It was moments like these when he didn't know what to do with himself that made me laugh.

"Sit down, Dad." I chuckled and took a seat myself.

Dinner was one very quiet event. Charlie spoke when we were nearly done.

"Bells, you know earlier today at the station, I didn't mean it like that," he said. "I'm just worried about you."

"I know, Dad. But you and mom have to deal with the fact that I'm not a little girl anymore."

Charlie sighed. "You're still our little girl," he said. When I gave him a look, he nodded sadly, clearly accepting what I had said. "I still want you to be careful with that Adrian kid. He really is trouble, Bells, it's not easy to deal with him — he's too flighty."

"I'll keep that in mind," I reassured him. I picked up his dish as well as mine and quickly cleared them.

Charlie stood uncomfortably in the kitchen and gave me a questioning look. "You want me to help you with anything?"

I laughed and shook my head. "Just go watch the game, Dad, I know you want to."

He grinned at me and left the room, his smile never faltering. I quickly finished cleaning up the mess I had made when I prepared the lasagna and when the kitchen was back to what it had been like before I was there, I sighed.

"Dad," I called, heading into the living room.

"Yeah, Bells?"

"I'm going to head up to bed now."

"Oh, alright," he said. "Um, thanks for dinner, Bells, it was great."

"It was no problem, Dad," I said as I walked over to him. I quickly planted a kiss on his cheek. "Goodnight."

He blushed and awkwardly muttered, "'Night, Bells."

I rolled my eyes at his shyness and left the room, grabbing my book from the kitchen before heading up the stairs. I went into my bedroom and grabbed my bag of bathroom necessities. I wish I had my own bathroom, but the house was too small for that, so I had to share one with Charlie. It wouldn't be too bad, though, because he didn't take long to get ready and shower. I just hoped he wouldn't use up all the hot water in the mornings.

I strolled lightly into the bathroom and quickly took a shower to get rid of the airplane smell. I hated flying on planes because they were so crowded and they really did smell strange.

After my hasty shower, I hopped out and pulled on a pair of ripped light gray sweat shorts and a black tank top for pajamas. I brushed my hair and shook it out a little so that the long, damp curls wouldn't stick to my skin — it was one of the most uncomfortable things ever — and then brushed my teeth with my vanilla-mint toothpaste.

I finished up in the bathroom and grabbed my bag and dirty clothes. I deposited the clothing into the laundry basket and went back to my bedroom. I climbed into bed and sighed as I snuggled into the warm sheets. I mentally thanked my heater as I closed my eyes and drifted off into a serene slumber.

My alarm clock went off much too early for my liking. I had been sleeping nice and tight and I was now being pulled out of my peaceful state.

I groaned and slowly sat up. The annoying beeping sound was still echoing in my room from the alarm, so I quickly turned that off and looked at the time.

6:30AM. I frowned. I had never been a particularly 'early riser' and I had definitely never liked getting up early — this was something that would never change.

I got up and out of bed as fast as I could, which was actually rather slow, and went to my closet. I threw on a pair of darkwash skinny jeans and a medium grey tank top with a black jersey shrug cardigan over top. I pulled on a pair of black heeled ankle boots.

Charlie was already gone for work when I got downstairs, so I only had to make breakfast for myself.

When the clock rolled around to 7:30, I dragged myself outside to go pick up Adrian. The drive to his house didn't take too long since I had the tendency to drive a little fast (okay, I'll admit I speed the majority of the time).

He was already waiting for me when I arrived. He was sitting on his porch, playing around with his skateboard.

"Get in, Skater Boy," I called to him. He grinned at me and quickly hopped up. He was wearing pretty much the same thing as he was yesterday; dark skinny jeans, a band tee and a beanie with skate shoes.

"Morning, Princess," he greeted when he was sitting in the passenger seat.

"Princess?"

Adrian shrugged. "Yep."

"Don't call me 'Princess' ever again."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to be called 'Princess'. Save that for your girlfriend."

"You don't want to be my girlfriend?" he asked, mocking hurt. "And here I thought we had something special."

"Cut it out," I snapped, rolling my eyes at him.

"Cutting," he answered with a huge smile lighting his face.

I rolled my eyes at him again, but a smile made it's way onto my lips nonetheless. He was such an easy person to get along with.

Forks High School came up quickly, and I pulled into the parking lot.

"Nice, I'm here with the new girl. Now I'm going to be the most popular guy in school," Adrian sang in a very annoying voice.

"Don't start any crap, is that clear?"

"Crystal, ma'am. Would you like me to show you where the main office is?"

"That would be nice."

We got out of my car and Adrian led me to the office. Everyone gawked at us — or more importantly, me — just as I had suspected.

One girl pointed her finger at me and whispered something to her friend.

I glared at where she was and strolled over to them.

They were both busily whispering so they didn't notice me when I was in front of them. I cleared my throat loudly, causing both of them to look up at me, startled.

"Is there something you would like to tell me?" I asked in a sugary sweet voice.

They looked at each other and quickly shook their heads. I opened my mouth to say something else, but I was hastily pulled away.

"You can scare little girls later, Bella. You don't want to be late for class," Adrian said.

"What?" I yelled in shock. "You're telling me that I should be on time? This is coming from the guy who skipped school yesterday to hang out at an airport...hey, you never really told me what you were doing there."

"Maybe I'll tell you some other time," he said with a grim expression on his face.

I sighed, but didn't push it any further.

"Mrs. Cope," Adrian greeted the plump woman at the front desk in an overly cheery voice. The volume that he spoke made me flinch.

"Ah, Mr. Skye. How nice to see you in school for once without having caused trouble somewhere," the woman, Mrs. Cope, replied in a sarcastic tone. I looked at her. She was an elderly woman with reddish-orange hair that had random gray streaks in it. She had glasses on her round face and was looking at a stack of paper in front of her.

"But the day is still young. You never know what else could happen," Adrian answered with a chuckle. "I brought the new student with me — y'know I'm trying to be a better person and all."

That's when Mrs. Cope noticed me and a bright smile replaced the deep frown on her face. Ugh. Do I even want to know what stories Charlie had been spreading about me?

"Ah, yes, Ms. Swan. We've been waiting your arrival for quite some time now. How are you liking Forks so far?"

I briefly wondered if I should tell her the truth. I was wracking my brain for an adequate answer when Mrs. Cope spoke again, already moving on from the topic of Forks.

"Here is your schedule, dear. Oh, and please have this slip signed by all of your teachers and returned here at the end of the day."

"Okay," I said.

"Have a nice day, dear."

I nodded at her as she gave Adrian a rather icy stare, then dismissed us.

"Let me see," Adrian demanded when we were out of the office, greedily sticking his hand out for my schedule.

I sighed, but handed it to him anyway.

"Sweet," he said. "We have Calculus and Gym together." He handed me back my schedule. "Calculus is up first."

I nodded wordlessly as Adrian led me into the school and to the Calculus room. When we entered the class, I tried to pretend that I didn't notice every eye in the room on us, but it was hard. Great. I just love attention. Please take note of the sarcasm.

"Don't mind them, they're just jealous of me. I'm the most handsome guy in the school, so I get these stares everyday — it's nothing new," Adrian joked. I punched him lightly on the arm. "What was that for?"

"For being you," I answered lightly, scoping around the room for any open seats.

"Oh, don't worry, you can sit next to me," he said when he realized what I was doing. He dragged me with him to a desk at the back of the room where a boy was already sitting. He really needed to stop pulling me around.

"Yo, Adrian!" The boy said. "I heard you're with the new girl. Damn, how did you manage to get that chi—" he stopped short when he saw me. Adrian kicked his chair, making it shake.

"Get off, Brian, my girlfriend wants to sit there," Adrian said with authority in his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry dude, I didn't know. I'm already gone," Brian answered with wide eyes, sounding a little scared.

"What? Hey! I'm not—" I began to protest but stopped when I saw that Brian was already on the other side of the room. He was talking to a small group of guys. He said something that made all of them look in my direction.

"Did you have to do that?" I asked in a voice that sounded slightly desperate and exasperated.

Adrian laughed. "Yeah, why not?"

"Because now the whole school is going to think that we're together," I hissed as I hit him on the arm again, a lot harder than before. This time, though, I purposely made sure it hurt.

"Ouch," he winced, rubbing the spot I hit. "No need to be so rough. My boys aren't running around the place gossiping, you know. So chillax, I'll tell them it was just a joke later, alright?"

"You better," I replied with narrowed eyes.

The teacher — a balding man with a slight beer belly — arrived then. I made my way to the front of the classroom.

"Hi, I'm the new student, Bella Swan," I said. "I was told to have this sheet signed." I put my hand out with the sheet in it.

He grunted. Other than that, he didn't really acknowledge my presence. He quickly signed the sheet and gave it back to me, ushering me away.

Ah, what a nice teacher, I thought sarcastically.

I sauntered back to where Adrian was seated and took my spot beside him as the teacher started his lecture. It wasn't at all exciting. But then again, Calculus never was.

I slouched back in my seat and started daydreaming of beautiful and sunny Phoenix. I remembered the heat and the dry ground...the sun that was nearly always brightly beaming happily in the sky...

"Yo, B," Adrian whispered to me, effectively pulling me out of my reminiscing and back into boring reality.

"What?" I hissed quietly.

"Wanna try?" he asked, holding a paper ball in front of my face and raising one of his blond eyebrows with a devious smirk on his face.

"What are you talking about?" I asked annoyed, and confused. In some ways, he was more of a kid than Josh, the 7-year-old boy I used to babysit for my neighbor in Phoenix. That kid was the most immature, childish kid I had ever met.

"If you hit Lauren's head, I'll give you 10 bucks, but if you miss, you owe me."

My brow furrowed. "Who's Lauren?"

"See that chick over there with the fake blonde hair?" He pointed at a girl two rows in front of us. "That's Lauren. She's a huge bitch, so don't feel bad about hitting her."

I looked at the girl he gestured to. When she turned to hiss something at a girl behind her, I caught a quick glimpse of her face. Her expression couldn't be classed as anything even remotely close to friendly, and she had so much makeup caked on her face that it looked like she had stuck her head in a bucket of flour and had a clown put the rest on for her.

"Make it twenty and I'm in," I told Adrian.

"You sure? I feel kind of bad taking money from you like that, baby girl," he said in a taunting voice. He was trying to provoke me.

I took the ball from his hand and threw it fiercely. It hit Lauren hard, directly in the back of her head. Before she could turn and see that it was me, I turned and faced the front of the room.

"Don't ever call me 'baby girl' again," I hissed at Adrian.

He acted like he was looking at the whiteboard at the front of the room, just like I did, while Lauren was looking around the classroom with a very pissed off expression on her face. Everyone in the class — besides the teacher — was having a hard time muffling their laughter, but I could tell it was worse for those closer to her, especially when Lauren screeched at them.

"Is there anything I am allowed to call you?" Adrian asked exasperatedly.

"Of course," I said. "You can call me Bella."

"How boring." Adrian pouted.

"Deal with it," I snapped while rolling my eyes. I ignored Adrian when he tried to say something again by acting like I was actually paying attention to the teacher's lesson.

The rest of Calculus was rather uneventful. When it ended, I was more than glad that it was over.

"Do you want me to walk you to your next class?" Adrian asked as we walked out of the classroom.

"Nah," I answered. "I'll be fine."

"Okay, but you have to sit with me at lunch," he insisted.

"Clingy much?"

"Just a tad," he said as he got on his skateboard and wheeled down the hall. I didn't really register the fact that he was actually skateboarding in the school until he had gone around a corner, screaming at people to get out of his way.

"Mr. Skye, how many times do I have to tell you not to do that?" I heard our Calculus teacher, Mr. Bergner, yell after Adrian. So he did notice things after all.

Even though Adrian was already far away, I could still heard his laugh echoing down the halls.

I made my way to my next class, English. I entered the classroom and sat down as far back as I possibly could. I didn't really want more people to stare at me. My plan clearly didn't work because somehow everyone managed to get a few looks at me anyway.

A moment after the bell rang, a very short girl came rushing in. She was beautiful, inhumanly so. Her short black hair flicked out at the ends, pointing in every direction. All in all, she was a very tiny person.

The girl quickly apologized for being late and then walked up to me, sitting gracefully in the seat next to me.

When she finally noticed me, she turned to face me. "Oh! Are you Isabella Swan?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah, but just call me Bella."

"Bella," she said. "I'm Alice."

She seemed to be an overly hyperactive person. But that's just my assumption, judging by the way she was bouncing up and down in her seat and her bright smile wasn't dimming even the smallest bit.

"Nice to meet you, Alice," I replied carefully, unsure of what to think of the girl.

"Wow, I love your sense of fashion," she babbled. "Oh, and you're so pretty!"

"Thanks," I said, then waited to see if she had anything else to say.

When all she did was smile flash me her bright smile once again and turn to face the front, where a small frown settled onto her face, I was actually fairly surprised.

What was up with this girl?

I shrugged the thought away and faced the whiteboard and began to listen to the teacher.

The rest of English went by pretty quickly. Spanish was after that and it went pretty much the same as English class — minus Alice Cullen. Neither of the classes were anything special, and nothing overly exciting happened. I did, however, learn to simpy ignore all of the stares I was getting at every moment of the day.

Finally, it was time for lunch.

I had no idea where I was going, so I just followed the largest crowd — though that was mainly in hopes of blending in. Thankfully, I ended up in the cafeteria. I wasn't too hungry, so I just got an apple and a lemonade.

After getting my little bit of food, I looked around the room until I found Adrian. He was sitting at a far table with a couple of other guys. By the looks of it, they were all "skater boys."

I smirked to myself and sauntered over to them.

I didn't bother greeting them when I reached their table. Instead, I simply put down my tray and pushed Adrian's leg off of the chair beside him so that I could sit there.

"Whoa, Princess. You could have said something," he said as I plunked myself down on the chair.

"Yeah, but that's not really my style." I grinned cheekily.

"And that is why I love you so much," Adrian answered, slinging his arm over my shoulder.

I looked at him evenly. "Unless you want to lose it, I'd move your arm right now."

"Ah, feisty. Just how I like it," Adrian said, as he removed his arm.

"What is with you and the overly excessive flirting anyway?" I sighed.

"So you're not his girlfriend?" one of the guys at the table asked.

"Do I look like I am?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually, no," the guy answered, then looked looked at Adrian as he said, "The only girls who have ever taken any interest in him are still in elementary school."

All of the guys at the table laughed, except for Adrian.

"Shut up, Michael," Adrian said absentmindedly, staring at something behind me with slightly narrowed eyes.

I found out that it wasn't something he was looking at, rather someone, when I suddenly heard an unattractive nasally voice behind me.

"Aren't you like, the new girl?" the voice asked.

I turned around and saw that the voice belong to Lauren. It didn't surprise me. Seeing her up close made me want to spit out the lemonade that was currently occupying my mouth. She looked even more ridiculous from here. Her followers — two girls that flanked her on either side — didn't look any better than she did.

"Yes, I am. What do you want?" I asked, trying my hardest not to laugh at her.

"I just like, wanna tell you that you are like, really pathetic to like, hang out with these like, losers," she answered with a disgusted look on her face.

"Do you even know what 'pathetic' means?" I asked her.

"Um..."

"Look it up in the dictionary," I said. "It'll be the one with your picture beside it."

Lauren looked at me with a blank expression on her caked face. "You think you're like, so cool but you're like, not," she said.

"Lauren, don't you have to go and powder your nose or something? It looks like it has little cracks on it and you don't want your face to fall off, do you?"

Her expression went back to it's previous state of blankness.

"Do you understand anything that I'm saying?" I asked.

Her expression didn't change at all. Was she really that stupid?

"Fine," I said. I grabbed a lock of my long hair and twirled it around my finger, smacking my gums together like I was chewing gum loudly and fluttering my eyelashes. "I was like, saying that like, you and your like, friends, should like, go and like redo your like, faces like, right now, because they like, look like crap," I said in a voice that imitated hers — annoying, nasally.

That got her expression to finally change. She looked at me angrily. "Don't think that you are like, pretty, because you're like, not."

"Wow, but you know what? I can actually speak without sounding completely retarded. How did you even manage to make it to high school?"

She didn't give me an answer to that. Instead, she flipped her hair — which was clearly dyed platinum blond, though it suited her obvious lack of intelligence — and stalked off, her two dogs trailing behind her.

"Nice job, Bella," Adrian said while he gave me a nod of approval. The other guys at the table did the same.

I simply leaned back into my chair, casually taking a bite of my apple as I said, "What can I say?" I shrugged lightly, "It's a gift."

He grinned at me. "A great one at that."

I nodded. "Who were those two dogs she was with anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Dogs?" He quirked an eyebrow at me.

I sighed. "The other two clowns..." I trailed off.

"Oh," he said. "The short one with light brown curly hair is Jessica Stanley. Out of the three of them, she's the smartest. The other one, with the dull reddish-pink hair with completely fried off ends, is Brianna. She was thrown out of the Jay Club because she wasn't pretty enough, so she figured she could start dressing and acting like Lauren. Now she looks a lot worse."

"What is the 'Jay Club'?" I asked confusedly.

"Just a bunch of girls," Adrian answered nonchalantly.

"A bunch of hot girls," Michael corrected, looking at them slightly dreamy.

"And why do they call themselves the Jay Club?" I asked, not really impressed.

Adrian leaned forward and pointed to the entrance of the cafeteria. "That is the Jay Club," he said.

I looked to where he was pointing and studied them. It was a rather large group of girls, all of them dressed up nicely and laughing at something. It looked like they had just stepped out of a scene from a movie. It was sort of cliché, but the only thing missing was wind to blow their hair around. Each of them carried a tray of food, except for one.

She was walking in the middle of the group and only held a few books in her arms. It looked like she was the center of this 'Jay Club'. She was very beautiful. She had short red hair with a little black touch to it. It was really short, not even quite reaching her chin, but she wore it perfectly. It was slightly wispy and looked a bit layered, the red of the shorter layers being a little bit brighter. Her complexion wasn't dark, but it wasn't light either. It almost looked like her skin had a natural caramel glow to it. She kind of looked like she was Hispanic or Asian. It was hard to tell from where I sat, but I was pretty sure her eyes were black — not just dark brown, but black. They were oddly entrancing, though. Her beauty was sort of hard to describe, but she had some kind of forceful flair to her.

"That is Jay-Jay Flamel, and she's the reason they call themselves the Jay Club."

"She has her own club?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep."

"Are there any other crazy people I should know about?"

"Well, see that girl over there?" Adrian pointed to a group of people who were all dressed in dark colors and seemed to mainly have dark hair, and at least one piercing of some sort. They didn't seem like they were even acknowledging each others presence.

"Which one?" I asked.

"The one with the black hair that looks sort of blue."

I looked at the one he was describing. "Yeah."

"I think that she's crazy," he said. I smacked him on the arm.

"You're the only crazy person here," I stated.

"No, I'm not, she really is crazy — she's really weird. I've never heard her talk," Adrian insisted.

"I wish I could say the same about you," I muttered, sighing as I began to examine the girl.

She was extremely beautiful, just like Jay-Jay, but while Jay-Jay was more of a forceful beauty, the black-haired girl had more of a flowing beauty. She wouldn't even need any make up, although she was wearing some, but not much. From here, it looked like she only wore black eyeliner and had impeccably long eyelashes. But even from this distance away, I could tell that she didn't wear any mascara — her lashes were too soft-looking, yet still thick, long, and pure black. Her dark clothes made her look a little pale, and her sleek, straight, jet-black hair went to the crook of her elbows with side-swept bangs covering her right eye and had a slight deep ocean blue tint to it. The darkness of it didn't help her skin tone, but somehow it suited her perfectly. As I looked at her, I didn't exactly get the "I'm crazy" vibe, so I wasn't sure what Adrian was talking about.

"Her name's Alicia Raine," he told me. Her name wasn't pronounced like Aleesha, though, it was like Alisha (ah-liSH-ah), with the 'lish' sound from delicious.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"Hmm?" He had clearly been quite distracted by something.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, turning to face him.

That's when I saw them.

"The Cullens," I heard Adrian answer.

The Cullens were absolutely breathtaking. The only people I had ever actually seen who could rival their beauty were Alicia and Jay-Jay. There were five people sitting at their table; two females and three males. I recognized the short, thin, pixielike girl from my English class, Alice. She was gazing lovingly at a honey-blond male. He looked tall and lean from where I was sitting and his blond hair was in waves and slightly shaggy. Beside him sat the other female. She was much taller than Alice and had golden blonde hair that cascaded in waves down to the middle of her back with a body to die for — slender, long legs, curves in all the right places. A huge, strong-looking arm was slung across her shoulder. It belonged to a man who was very clearly tall and hugely muscular. His dark brown, curly hair was short and contrasted greatly against his pale skin. There was only one other person at the table — a lone male. His hair was very dishevelled and a strange, reddish-brown color. It had golden tints in it too. I guess the best word to describe it would be bronze. He was tall, like the other males, but he was more boyish with his lanky body.

All of their faces had perfectly symmetrical features and they each had the same purplish bruiselike shadows underneath of their eyes. Although I couldn't really see from the distance between them and I, I was pretty sure that they all had the exact same dark onyx irises. They also all shared the same, extremely pale skin. It was so pale that they almost looked sick, but they somehow worked the fairness of it and made it look gorgeous.

"They're hot, huh?" Adrian questioned me.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and focused back on him. "Yeah."

"The short girl is Alice Cu—" he began, but I cut him off.

"Alice Cullen, I know. She's in my English class."

"Really?" he asked, surprised.

I nodded. "She sat beside me and introduced herself."

"Weird. The Cullens pretty much never talk to people outside of their family."

Shrugging, I asked, "What are their names?"

"Well, you already know Alice, so...she's dating the blond boy, Jasper Hale. The blonde girl is Rosalie — she's Jasper's twin — and she's with the big guy, Emmett Cullen. The other one is Edward Cullen, but he's dating no one. Don't get me wrong, though, practically every girl in the school has tried to be with him."

"Emmett is huge," I commented.

"Yeah, the only one in the school who can actually compete with his size is Ethan Clay."

"Who?" I asked confusedly.

"Ethan Clay — he's captain of the football team."

I looked around the cafeteria and my eyes were drawn to a table full of guys with mainly muscular builds or lithe bodies.

"Is that the football team?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Ethan's the one with the brown hair and green eyes."

My eyes flickered between the people at the table and stopped on the largest guy there. He was huge — body-builder huge — but not quite as big as Emmett. His dirt brown hair was in a slight mohawk and his green eyes kind of resembled moss.

"Hey! Don't ditch me for that Ethan guy," Adrian joked as I studied Ethan.

"I would ditch you for a piece of trash," I replied.

"Ouch," he muttered. "You know, you should really stop hurting my feelings like that."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Don't we have to go to class now?"

"Um...yes. Do you want any of us to walk you somewhere?" Adrian offered.

I shook my head. "Nah. Like I said, I'm a big girl — I can manage."

I smiled at him and left the cafeteria quickly, walking off to my next class.

Next was Biology. I entered the classroom and handed my teacher the slip. While he signed the sheet, he introduced himself as Mr. Banner and told me what they were currently learning about in the class. As he spoke, the classroom began filling with more and more students.

"You'll be sitting next to Edward Cullen," he told me, pointing at a desk. I turned and saw that it was the bronze-haired boy from lunch. But I already knew that.

"Thanks," I said, then sauntered toward the lab table. As I was walking, I noticed that Edward was glaring at me. Not just the "O-M-G I totally hate you for getting that shirt before me!" type of glare, but like a real glare — murderous and hateful. I felt a chill run down my spine and shivered a little. What had I done to that boy? I shrugged it off, though, and ignored him. Whatever his problem was, it wasn't mine.

I was trying my best to pay close attention to the lesson, but I was a little distracted because I could practically feel the guy glaring at me. What was his name again? Right, Edward.

I quickly whipped my head around and now it was my turn to glare the meanest, iciest glare I could muster. "What is your problem?" I hissed. "If you're trying to kill me by glaring, then let me inform you that it is not working. Just take a freaking picture and stop pissing me off."

Seeing the startled, shocked, and disbelieving expression take over his face gave me enough satisfaction to relax and finally follow the lesson.

When the bell finally rang, I quickly packed up my stuff and made my way to the gym. I went into the women's change room and was changed rather quickly. I was out of there and in the gym before any of the other girls.

"Bella!" I heard Adrian's voice shout.

I sighed. He was just too cheerful.

"Aren't you excited? This is gym," Adrian sang while putting his arm around my shoulder once again. "This is where you can get all of your aggressions and frustrations out, and later on, you'll smell manly. There's nothing better than the manly smell of pure sweat."

"Yeah," I answered slowly, pushing his arm away from me.

"Ah, baby girl, you're the only girl in this school who has ever touched my heart." Adrian sighed.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, a little annoyed with him.

"You're the only one that has ever dealt with me so coolly."

"Yeah, well, I'm experienced in dealing with annoying kids," I muttered.

"And once again you've wounded me."

"So what? You called me 'baby girl' again. We're even."

Adrian smiled airily at me.

"Are you ever serious?" I asked.

"I am. Sometimes."

"Really? 'Cause it doesn't seem like it. It's like nothing can upset you."

Adrian's face turned dark. He wasn't looking at me anymore, but at something far away — something that no one but him could see.

I must have upset him with my words.

So it seems that I was able to upset him. Good job, Bella!

"Hey, you okay?" I asked softly, nudging him lightly in the ribs.

"Yeah, no worries," he replied, his usual beaming smile returning to his handsome face.

The rest of the students made their way into the gym then, at the same time as the Coach arrived.

Gym wasn't exactly my favorite class, per se, but it was alright.

The Coach — Coach Clapp — told us that we were playing volleyball today and he divided us into two teams.

Adrian wasn't on my team, but I didn't mind too much. That way, I'd be able to beat him.

Well, that's what I thought.

After a fairly even game, someone on the other team hit the ball straight in my direction.

It didn't really bother me, but I heard a voice coming from behind me telling me to look out. I turned and saw that it had been Alicia Raine speaking. I didn't look at her for long, though, because I was suddenly slammed harshly on the floor.

A/N: Ah, dear readers, I'd just like to say that I'm going to be putting my other story, Alone, aside for a while and focus solely on this story. Hopefully no one hates me because of that, but this is more important to me right now. Sorry!

Don't forget that this is a special collaboration between a good friend — and amazing writer, by the way — StarStrellaStar (go check out her stories), and myself (YouAndMeUpInATree).

Please read and review!