First day at high school. I was nervous. No, scratch that. I was fucking terrified. Not only was I the new kid. I was the dorkiest looking newbie you've ever seen. Think about the geekiest character you've ever seen in a made-for-TV movie. Then times it by about a zillion and one. And there you have it. Me.
Anyway, as soon as I walked through the gate, everyone stopped and stared. The whole parking lot went completely silent. Then the silence was broken by the cruel cackling laughter of a group of the skinniest, most beautiful and downright evil looking girls. Then, as I was wondering how it could get any worse, a boy wandered over.
And not just any boy. The most gorgeous guy you've ever seen. Seriously, this guy was hot stuff. Perfect face, bright green eyes, golden tan, just the right amount of muscle, and the shiniest, softest looking wavy bronzish coloured hair in casual disarray on his perfect head.
This was not going to end well.
"Hey, I'm Edward" he smirked. I blushed and said to the floor "I-I'm B-B-Bella" I'm sorry did I say "said"? I meant STUTTERED! He said smugly,
"Well Bella, sorry but I think you're lost. The dork gang is over THERE" he sneered pointing at a little huddle of glasses and braces. I tied to ignore him, cheeks burning, but of course, I couldn't. I stalked off in the opposite direction head held high. Of course, I tripped.
Another thing about me, I'm so clumsy, I may as well be disabled. And of course the girls and Edward thought that was hysterical. My eyes filled with angry tears and I blinked them away furiously. People think nerds have no emotions? Bullshit. I. Was. Piiiissed.
I don't even usually swear, but today was becoming worse and worse, and had I said half the things I'd thought in the space of the five minutes I'd been there, the air would've been blue and everyone's ears would've been bleeding.
I was about to run home. Yeah, run the two and a half miles home, when three more girls walked out of the building, took one look at the situation and ran over to me. "fan-fucking-tastic" I thought. But just as I was about to turn and leave, the tall blonde grabbed my arm.
"Don't." she whispered. "Don't let them think they've won." I clenched my jaw and nodded. The tiny girl opened her mouth and let loose a string of profanities that would've made a trucker blush.
"Run back to your fucking man-whores bitches, since they're the only ones who want you! Yeah that's right, go take your fucking diet pills sluts, since they're the only things that are keeping you on top of the damn school. That and your peroxide hair and your plastic surgeons!
Yeah that's right Jess, you think we didn't notice your nose change shape? And Lauren, my dad told me how much your boobs cost your mom and lemme tell ya, you aint worth it! SLUTS!"
She turned around, cleared her throat and said in a pleasant, chime-like voice
"Ahem. Where were we? Oh yeah, introductions."
We all laughed, although I was still pretty tentative.
The tiny one introduced herself as Alice; she had spiky hair in a carefully styled disarray around her little elfin face that was ink black (hair not face, she had skin like porcelain) and she was teeeeny. Seriously, I bet I could've fit my hands around her waist, and my hands aren't very big.
Her twin sister was called Rosalie, and they couldn't have looked less similar if they tried. Whilst Alice was teeny and elfin, Rosalie was tall and blonde and heartbreakingly gorgeous.
She made the other girls who'd laughed at me (who by now had slunk off, muttering sulkily) look like Freddie Krueger. I didn't even want to imagine what I looked like next to her. She was incredibly toned, not thin but athletic looking, but still somehow managed to be curvy. The only features she and Alice shared as far as I could see (besides making every girl in school except the one next to them look like Shrek) were big blue eyes and a perfect petite nose.
Finally, the third girl introduced herself as Angela. She wasn't as tall as Rosalie but wasn't as short as Alice. She was about the same height as me. She was petite, not as curvy as Rosalie but equally toned. In fact, all these girls looked like they spent all their time in a gym.
It wasn't fair, I spent hours every day swimming or running, mainly because I loved it, but it wouldn't have hurt for it to have some kind of effect on my figure. Which as far as I could tell, it hadn't. Anyways, back to Angela. She had incredible turquoise eyes with long black lashes and bright red short hair. It was obviously not natural, but looked awesome.
I introduced myself and they gave each other a sly look. Rosalie stepped forward and asked, smirking slightly
"Bella, are you tired of being called the geek? We were and we decided to do something about it. Alice had huge braces until we moved here and found a new orthodontist. I had awful skin problems until I found a good dermatologist. And Angela had huge nerd glasses which hid her whole face and made her nose and forehead look waaay bigger than they actually are-"
"Hey!" Angela interrupted mock-indignantly. "You told me I didn't look that bad!"
Rosalie grinned cheekily.
"I didn't tell you I hated your orange satin D&G clogs either. Did you really think I tripped when I pushed you in the hot tub fully clothed?"
"Oh!" Angela huffed grinning. "Well did you think I really don't know where your god-awful lime green Versace monokini went? Look in the rose bushes behind your pool house!"
Rosalie began to retaliate when Alice raised her voice.
"Ahem! Rose, you wanna get to the point?"
Rosalie blushed and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry Ali. Anyways, as I was saying, we were all nerds, and although we disagree, that's how everyone sees you at this school right now. No offence, I'm just saying how it is."
"Oh no no, none taken, trust me, I know I'm the nerd. Always have been."
"Exactly!" Rosalie exclaimed. "But you don't have to be! You're a babe, it's just that at this school, and in the world generally, people see what they want to see. They see glasses and plaid skirt, and you're labeled. But that's where we come in.
"Call us the un-labelers. No don't call us that, that's dumb. But you get what I mean. So, you interested? You wanna be unlabeled?"
I grinned and nodded.
"Hell yeah!" I laughed and they all joined in.
I sat next to Rosalie in school and I was protected by the little group from boys and bimbos. Whenever anyone so much as looked at me the wrong way, Rosalie gave them a look that would probably haunt them till the day they died. Seriously, we're talking, back-off-bitch, mama-bear, look-at-her-again-and-you're-pushing-daisies glaring.
After school, we went on a shopping spree. And when I say shopping spree, I mean a shopping MARATHON. They delicately brought up the subject of money when we were in Rosalie's car (cherry red BMW, of course) but I pulled out my platinum card and told them money was no object. And it really wasn't. But more about that later.
Gawd, note to self: NEVER again go shopping with Alice. She's the Hitler of all things Gucci, and the Stalin of all things Dolce & Gabbana.
We bought enough clothes to clothe an entire population, and enough shoes to supply every model in New York Fashion Week with two or three pairs of new shoes, and less than a tenth of them were flats. Where do these girls think I'm gonna wear any of this stuff?
Not to mention the makeup, I think we probably bought out the entire store!
Then they dragged me to Alice and Rosalie's house.
Oh, I'm sorry, did I say house? I meant mansion. It was freaking enormous! But before I could really soak in how huge the place was, I was dragged inside, shoved into the elevator (yeah, elevator!) and dragged onto Alice's floor. Yep, floor. They have a floor each. Her bathroom was about the size of a pretty big living room, and was twice as pretty. I looked around for a moment before I realized how I recognized her décor.
They quickly got to work, Angela chose my outfit, Rosalie styled my hair and Alice was in charge of my make up. I had no idea what was going on, I just sat back in the (incredibly comfy) stylists chair and closed my eyes and drifted off.
When I was (none too gently) shaken awake I was spun around and jerked by my arms upright. I stumbled and flung an arm out and grabbed the dressing table to keep myself from falling.
"Crap, I'm sorry!" Rosalie apologized.
"Don't worry" I reassured her "I fall all the time, you get used to it."
Angela and Alice dragged me by my hands into Alice's ballet studio (yep, she has one of those too)
"Right!" Alice chirped up. "You ready to see the new you Bells?" I gave her a funny look at the nickname she gave me then grinned and decided I liked it.
I took a deep breath and nodded. They pulled the sheets off the wall-to-wall mirrors and I gasped.
My thick brown hair had been taken out of its babyish pigtails (hey, it's the only hairstyle I can do neatly!) and curled with lowlights in it. It shimmered softly in the soft lighting and all the different shades in it shone as I shook it.
My thick glasses had been taken off, and I had contact lenses in them, showing off liquid brown eyes, which were framed by long eyelashes, lengthened with black mascara and powdered with three shades of green, so they looked all…liquidy and doe-like! My cheeks were glowing with a soft pink blusher and a nice neutral lipgloss plumped my lips, making them look fuller.
I had on blue stilettos, tight pale blue jeans, and lacy peasant style blouse, showing just the right amount of cleavage. Yes, I have cleavage! Or did I forget to mention? Yeah, they forced me into lots and lots of very…French underwear. But I have to say, they're AMAZING at what they do. They could probably make money from this. They're like a fashion SAS squad. But prettier.
They showed off a figure I never knew I had. I was transformed. I was literally transformed. I didn't recognize myself. And I loved it. The girls all whistled slowly, proud of their handiwork. They promised to come round at eight am to help me decide what to wear. Yes! 8! Like, there are TWO 8 o' clocks in the day! After I spent all that time planning classes so they didn't start until 11am at the EARLIEST! Ugh!
I wondered briefly whether my mom would disapprove in the car on the way back. We had so many bags that we had to take Rosalie's other car, a huge 4X4. and even then, me and Alice were perched on top of piles of shoe boxes, hanging on for dear life as Rosalie drove like an escaped convict with me weakly calling directions from the back whilst trying to get Alice's bony elbow out of my ribs and Angela laughing like a lunatic from the comfort and sanity of the front of the car.
Anyway, it turned out I had nothing to worry about. My mom freaking loved it. She sobbed and laughed and fetched her camera from her college days. Now lemme tell you. That is a big deal. Mom bought this camera with most of her inheritance from her grandparents and it helped her to pass interior design in college and pretty much got her to where she is today.
So for her to be hopping about, snapping pictures and shoving the camera on one of the girls whenever she decided I had too much oxygen in my system and needed the air crushed out of my windpipe once more was a pretty big thing for her.
After the girls had collected up all my old clothes (probably to douse in gasoline and burn) and gone home, and mom had run off to some obscure corner of the house to upload the photos and do something mad with them, I lay in bed in my new silky babydoll nightie. And as I drifted off, thought to myself "Edward Cullen, look out. You won't know what hit you."