I couldn't believe my eyes. Or my ears, for that matter. A Cullen, a beautiful beyond reason, mysterious, atheletic, smart and rich, a so-much-cooler-than-everyone-else Cullen, was talking to me. Me, the most insignificant person in our entire class.

"Hey, you didn't seem to hear my question. Is anyone sitting here?" he asked again.

"N-n-no," I stammered.

"Okay then, may I?" he asked, to my utter amazement.

"Um..yeah..um…I guess. If you want, I mean." My tone implied that he obviously wouldn't.

I could not think of one reason why he would want to.

"It's the only remaining seat in the class," he said, as if in answer.

Okay, one reason. And a sane one. And I chided internally for not seeing it sooner. Great, now he would think I was a dork. Which was the one thing I wasn't. I scored pretty much more than others generally. Since they'd arrived, the Cullens were pretty good with their studies too.

Along with every thing else. But I was a geek.

"Sure, then. "

He got seated very smoothly beside me, looking better in his casual T-shirt than that new popstar everyone seemed cazy about nowadays. I reminded myself that whether he thought I was a dork or not was of no consequence, since he probably wouldn't even remember Cullens (and all of them) had not even acknowledged the futile attempts of our school's most popular kids (cheerleaders, jocks, class presidents even) of being involved romantically. My chances were hmm….below zero. As were my chances with everyone else. God, I was starting again. Think of something else.

The one beside me was called Jasper, I think. Actually, I was sure. He had beautiful honey-blond hair, straight out of a commercial, and their common pale white skin. His eyes were golden, matching his hair perfectly. Stop ogling! So, with some difficulty I turned towards the teacher.

Mrs. Shaw was a really old teacher who'd been at our school since, well, very long. She was also quite indifferent to people talking in her class. She was teaching something about indeterminate forms of limits. I knew that, but still had difficulty understanding what she taught. And I knew why that was. I looked at him again. Jasper was looking at our teacher.

"So who can tell me name of the person who invented this theorem?" she asked in her high voice.

No one seemed to have listened.

"Yes, Mr Cullen?"

"The Bernoulli brothers, ma'am."

Some people giggled. Mrs. Shaw didn't seem to notice.

"That's correct. Within his book, L'Hospital thanks the Bernoulli brothers for their assistance and their discoveries. An earlier letter by John Bernoulli gives both the rule and its proof, so it seems likely that Bernoulli discovered the rule."

So it was right. The Cullens were smart. But definitely not like people like were definitely not the studious, book-club type.

By now, Mrs. Shaw was telling us the situations in which L'Hospital's Rule cannot be applied.

I was surprised to see even Jasper looking bored.

I looked at my book and tried to concentrate.

Suddenly I felt a change in the atmosphere.I looked up to find that Mrs. Shaw had been called into the office, and she'd left us for the lesson with some work. Nobody did that. Instead everyone was talking about the new mall, the new hit single by GoldenEyes, and, the Cullens.

With a smile, I bent at my book again. This was regular.

"Hello. I think we didn't get the time to introduce each other. I'm Jasper Hale."

Hale? Okay, I didn't know that. But only a small part of my mind registered that. The rest of my mind was reeling with the fact that he was talking to me! Not asking if he might sit on the seat next to me, but talking, introducing himself.

"And you are?" he asked, helpfully.

"Oh…I'm…er.. Emily…Emily Gellar," I said, rather lamely. Why couldn't I not make a fool out of myself in front of him? It was not everyday that some popular kid talked to me. Or make that just some kid. You can do better!

"I thought you were a Cullen." As soon as the words were out, I knew they were rude. I'd made a fool out of myself again. And this time I'd probably offended him too. A Cullen? Sure, the rest of the school called them like that as if they were somehow separate, like they were a group of some different people, they were the Cullens. But I'd said that to one of them. I am stupid.

"No, my twin sister Rosalie and I are foster kids. So are Bella and Renesmee Swan and Jacob Black. Edward, Emmett and Alice are adopted and have the names Cullen," he said, smiling.

I was surprised he wasn't angry or anything. Maybe he was used to curiosity. Maybe he was nice. I hoped both. But why was he telling all this to me?

I also thought of all that he'd said. It would have been confusing if I couldn't match a face with a name. But I could. I knew most kids in our school could too. That's why he must have spoken so. He knew too. They knew we all obsessed over them too. Oddly, I found that personally embarrassing.

He noticed that.

"Did anything I say make you uncomfortable?"

"No, its not that…" I trailed off, unsure how to reply.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes?"

"Why do you think of yourself so?"

What? Was he really saying all this? Did he mean what I thought he meant? How could that be?

"So, as in?"

"As in being unworthy of some things you do deserve."

Wow. That's a nice way to put it. I would've used worthless, insignificant, nerdy. I checked to see this wasn't a joke. I wanted to believe Jasper wouldn't be involved in something of that sort.

But the bigger question was how he knew what I felt. It wasn't like I wrote a diary or anything. Maybe it was written on my face. But then I would've faced a lot of other stuff by now.

Maybe the Cullens had special psychic powers. Yeah, right.

I wanted to reply something intelligent, but all I could come up with was,

"Am I not right?"

"No." He seemed kind of surprised at my reply. "No, you're not."

"I guess then that its because everybody else in the world seems to think otherwise."

I wasn't particularly liking where this conversation was going. Soon he'd be asking about my Dad's death and its impact on me and all…

And shouldn't we be talking about him? About his mysterious family? That would probably make better conversation. So I tried changing the subject.

"Anyway, why are you in this class? I didn't know you took Calculus."

He seemed to have expected the abrupt change in our topic of conversation.

"I decided to take Calculus instead of Trig," he said shrugging. "Bella and Edward are taking it, though."

Though he hadn't said so, I guessed that was probably the reason he decided to drop Trig. To give them a subject alone.

This was another of the reasons why the Cullens made for such gossip in our school. Their relationships. They all were together – Bella and Edward, Rosalie and Emmett, Renesmee and Jacob, and Jasper and Alice. Our school students thought that that was against...I dunno, rules, morality, social standards, the law, I guess. I knew they weren't related, but everyone made a big thing of how they all lived together. Right. As if those of us who didn't live together were very much better.

The bell rang suddenly. School was finally over. It had been a long day. Except this last hour.

"Sorry, but I have to leave really soon. We have this thing today at home and Esme wants everyone present there."

I must have looked slightly confused, so he said, "Our adoptive mother."

"Right. Sure. Bye, then," I said looking down now.

He was gone before I had my head up. The rest of the class was leaving too.

I got up, and then my knees gave away. I had talkedto Jasper Cullen! People who had seen that were looking at me strangely. The Cullens never spoke to anyone but themselves, except for really important or unavoidable things.

I pinched myself. Yes, I was awake.