Twilight and all its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. My warped view of the story belongs to my imagination.
I have to give a special thanks to my beta and best friend, perpetualfangirl. Without her this story would have never been created and I would have never gotten the balls to post it.
Checkout her blog at perpetualfangirl(dot)blogspot(dot)com
BPOV: I sat in my car glaring at the stone building. I was about to have another "fresh start" with nothing fresh about it. Here I was about to start my first day, yet again. I've had so many first days at so many high schools that they all seemed to blur together in my memory. I had enough experience with high schools to know they were all exactly the same. They all had the same ridiculously strict teacher. They all had the same teacher who cared too much about making friends with the students. They all had the same teacher who just did not give a damn anymore, whom I always empathized with. It was exactly the same with the student body. Each school had its share of jocks, geeks, cheerleaders, over-achievers and stoners. They were all the same no matter where my family moved. By the mass of students loitering in the parking lot, I knew Forks High school would not be any different.
The mass began to vacate the parking lot which must mean school was about to start. I slipped out of my mini coop which I had parked in the far corner of the lot in an attempt to avoid as many people as possible. Then I took a steadying breath as I headed to what had to be the school office. The few students lingering in the parking lot turned to stare at me as I walked by them. I rolled my eyes. The first week of school was always the worst. As if it was not bad enough that would I attract attention by being the new girl, that attention would only be magnified when everyone in the school immediately found me stunning. This was not my vanity speaking. It was simply a truth. I certainly took no pride in something I had no control over. At this moment, it was going to be a nuisance. For the next week, I would have the coveted honor of being the entire school's shiny new toy.
I entered the office and the secretary behind the desk looked awed as she gawked at me. Yep, the ENTIRE school's shiny new toy. I did not have to feign impatience as I stood there waiting for her to come to her senses.
"I-i-i-is there something I can help you with?" the secretary asked. She stumbled over her words as her embarrassment over being caught staring battled with her eagerness to win favor with the beautiful creature in her office.
"Isabella Swan," was my only reply. I could always count on brusqueness to put people off. When the secretary began to look confused, I added "new student" in a tone the implied she was stupid.
"Oh yes," she said with chagrin, "I have your schedule right here."
As she searched through the papers on her desk, she prattled on about my teachers in a conspiratorial tone which made me a little uneasy. Were people in Forks ridiculously forgiving? What did I have to do to make this women hate me? She placed my schedule within my reach as she began to reorganize her papers. All the while, she chattered her friendly advice. I snatched up my schedule and was out the door before she looked up from her desk. Through the door, I heard the secretary's gasp of outrage and grumbled insults. I had to fight a smile as I walked to my first class. I no longer had any doubts that I would be the frigid bitch of Forks High school before the week was out.
EPOV: The lunchroom was buzzing with gossip as I walked to the table where my siblings and their significant others were already seated.
"Edward, have you seen her?!" my sister, Alice, asked me in excitement before I had even sat down.
"I assume by her you mean the new girl," I replied just to tease Alice.
"Is there any other her worth talking about?" Alice teased back. This annoyed Rosalie, my brother's girlfriend, who thought she was entitled as the only her worth talking about in Forks.
"I haven't seen her, but I've heard she's the most beautiful girl Forks has ever seen," Jasper, Alice's boyfriend, added as he couldn't resist getting a dig at his older sister. Rosalie gasped in outrage.
"Babe, no one could possibly be more beautiful than you," my brother, Emmett, consoled Rosalie. Alice, Jasper, and I rolled our eyes.
The buzz of the lunchroom suddenly came to a halt. Emmett was proven wrong as she walked through the door. I had heard that her name was Isabella Swan and that she was hot but no one had told me that she was a goddess. Everything about her demanded adoration - her full lips, her delicate face, her porcelain skin, even the way she walked. No one spoke but everyone stared as she made her way through the lunch line and to her seat at an empty table. The spell lifted slightly when she sat down. We all turned back to our lunches but the chatter was much quieter than before and everyone kept stealing glances back at the goddess.
It amazed me that ridiculously social Forks High school seemed to have decided to leave the goddess alone. Perhaps the student body was too much in awe to disturb her. I was wondering how long their admiration would keep them in their seats, when Mike Newton approached her table. I felt an odd pang of envy as Mike smiled brightly and sat down across from the goddess. She didn't look happy, actually she looked pissed. Her table was too far from my own for me to actually hear the exchanged. The entire school watched as Mike quickly got up from the table looking wounded. The goddess just looked irritated and bored.
"Yeah, I heard she was a total bitch," Rosalie commented smugly to our table. I guess that was one title Rosalie didn't mind giving up.
"Unlike the ever pleasant Rosalie?" Jasper asked. He was only voicing what everyone at the table was thinking.
"I can be pleasant" Rosalie attempted to defend herself.
"When you want something," I replied truthfully. Rosalie glared at me.
"I think having the entire school stare at me would make me pretty bitchy," Alice piped in, which brought us back to the original topic.
"Well as the new girl, she really doesn't have any room to be bitchy," Rosalie continued in her snotty tone that always reminded me of nails scratching down a chalkboard. I could tell she was about to launch into a thirty minute bitchfest.
"Rosalie, you are just jealous because you are not as beautiful as Isabella," I snapped. I just barely avoided referring to Isabella as the goddess out loud. I had successfully cut off Rosalie's tirade which was the whole reason I opened my mouth. Now, I had four pairs of disbelieving eyes staring at me. Rosalie's look immediately turned into outrage. Her eyes quickly turned to Emmett, wanting a denial. When none came, she jumped up and stormed out of the lunchroom.
"I guess I'm in trouble. Thanks a lot, Edward," Emmett grumbled but didn't make any move to follow her.
"Edward didn't stop you from jumping to Rosalie's defense," Alice replied. It was typical of her to take my side. Since we were twins, we tended to be protective of each other.
"I couldn't really argue with the truth," Emmett said with a shrug and I knew I was already forgiven. "Isabella is hot. Edward should totally tap that," He added much to my frustration. One of the joys of being the constant fifth wheel to the two most legendary couples in Forks was that everyone felt the need to set me up with someone. It was as if my singleness was a crisis that I had to be rescued from.
"The whole Mike situation gave me the impression that Isabella isn't looking for a relationship," Alice countered.
"Maybe that was Mike's problem. Maybe she's only interested in getting her toes curled," Emmett replied crudely. "Ew!" Alice exclaimed. appalled. Jasper was trying, unsuccessfully, not to laugh. Just when I thought I would have to comment, the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.
Alice walked by my side as I headed toward the door. "I guess you are about to find out if Emmett was right," She commented quietly.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"I just have a feeling Isabella will be in your next class," Alice explained so low I had to strain to hear her. Occasionally, Alice would get a feeling about something before it happened. Her feelings tended to be vague and they weren't always accurate. For this reason, she didn't talk about them often or with many people. As many times as we had discussed her feelings, she still seemed uncertain of my response. Honestly, I didn't know what to make of her feelings but I loved my sister so I always tried to be supportive.
"But do you have a feeling that she's going to asked me to curl her toes?" I asked, emphasizing the last part with my best Emmett impression. Alice immediately laughed as I hoped she would.
"I'll let you find that out for yourself," She answered. Then she turned to hurry to her next class before I could respond.
I walked into my biology class to find that Alice was right. I had spent over half the year seated at my lab table all alone and now I would being sharing it with the goddess. I wasn't completely sure how to feel about giving up my solitude for her. I was too much of a loner to be thrilled about the end of my isolation, but was it really so terrible to get to spend an hour everyday next to someone so beautiful? Then again, in my experience, the more beautiful a girl was on the outside, the uglier she was on the inside. Isabella looked like a goddess, so did that mean she had a huge character flaw? Would she be a complete moron or horribly boring? Would she be worse than Rosalie on a PMS day as her treatment of Mike seemed to prove? What if she was all of these things? Or perhaps Alice was right and the goddess was just having a harsh first day? What if she was completely different from any girl I had ever met before? What if this beautiful stranger turned out to be intelligent, deep, interesting and kind? I began to feel optimistic about the rest of my school year at Forks.
The goddess had taken the seat closest to the aisle meaning I had to squeeze between her chair and the table behind ours to get to my seat. I noticed she stiffened abruptly as I moved past her. When I took my seat, she quickly turned her face to the aisle. I was left staring at a curtain of her chestnut hair as she stared at . . . the wall? There went my optimism. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this development. Obviously, she was trying to ignore me. I just wasn't sure why she was avoiding me. Did she not want to share the table with anyone or was it just sitting next to me that was the problem? In any case, I refused to let Isabella's upset over seating arrangements bother me. I decided I would just ignore her too, maybe I wouldn't have to give up my solitude after all.
Class started and I figured it would be easy to ignore her if I paid attention to the lecture. Isabella had to turn her head toward the front of the class or risk getting called out by the teacher. Of their own volition my eyes slid to her face in profile to me. Her satin hair shielded most of her face from my view. For some unknown reason, my fingers itched to brush her hair back out of my way. Angry with myself, I forced my eyes back to the teacher.
It wasn't long before my eyes strayed back to her. Her arms were wrapped firmly around her upper body and she fisted her hands so tightly at her ribs that it had to be painful. Concerned, my gaze shot up to her face. She had turned her face more toward me and this time our eyes meet. The look she gave me was so full of hate that it chilled my bones. She quickly turned back to the teacher. I sat there stunned and wondered what the hell I had done to her. I was never one of the popular kids but I was certain I had never been hated before. I tried to focus on the teacher but I kept turning the idea around in my head getting angrier by the second. Who the hell did she think she was to automatically hate me when she knew shit about me? I wonder if she gave Mike that same look. Did she hate all of Forks? What gave her the right to assume that I was like Mike or anyone else in Forks? Stupid bitch!
After turning back to the teacher, she stayed completely rigid not moving an inch. I wanted to ignore Isabella completely. I knew she wasn't worth my time, but I was ridiculously aware of her. I hated her for hating me but I still found something captivating about her. Normally, I don't give a damn about what people think of me but I couldn't tolerate her irrational hatred. I couldn't allow things to continue like this for the rest of the year. I decided to confront her. I figured at the very least I could give her an actual reason to hate me. Plus, I worried that if I did nothing Isabella would think I was afraid of her, which was intolerable. Biology ended and I decided I couldn't keep quiet for another second but before I could utter a single word Isabella was gone.