Live to Die

Chapter One

She hated boys.

There was not a single thing about them that she found the least bit appealing in the sexual manner in which she was naturally to be inclined. Incidentally, there was also no inclination to be with any girl she'd ever met either, so her only consolation would be that she simply had not found the "right" guy yet.

However, if she couldn't find someone sufficiently likeable on the most social beaches of her last city of residence, what were the chances that she'd find someone in a gloomy, hermit town like Forks? That was it, she was just destined to be alone for the rest of her life whose only companion would be some fat form of cat.

"Bells?" That would be Charlie. He was way too scared to enter her bedroom without her express invitation, so he just situated himself right outside the door. "Sweetie, breakfast is ready. You'd better come down now or else you're going to be late."

Yes, Renee always was very strict about punctuality. She was more than conditioned to be on time. Leaning in to scrutinize her face in the mirror of the washroom, she groaned. Her face was pasty white and the bags under her eyes were evidence of her sleepless nights dreading this day. Her dark hair looked bushier than usual, and no matter how much she fed her brush through it it refused to cooperate and resemble anything less than Medusa.

"Coming." It came out far more stark than she had intended, so she cleared her voice and tried again. "Sorry, Dad. I'll be out in a second."

Taking a breath, she left the washroom and then her bedroom to come face-to-chest of her father. Damn her height. Ah, well. "You really didn't have to make me breakfast though. I don't usually eat until lunch."

Despite this, the sight of the slightly burned bagel with a tad too much butter was very welcoming, and she couldn't help but crack a smile. The past few meals she'd had since she'd come to Forks had been from a menu at a local diner, so this was certainly a change in atmosphere. The wooden table and chairs had been the exact same when she was younger, only know she was slightly taller and fit it better. Still, the familiar, uncomfortable hardness was just as she had remembered.

"I have a meeting with Mr. Cullens—the town's doctor—about an autopsy this afternoon. He insisted he have his son escort you on your first day. You know, to show you the ropes."

Suddenly the bread in her mouth tasted like ash and Bella Swan gave a sour look. The last thing she want or needed was someone whining to the rest of his buddies on what a dingleberry she was. Sighing, she glanced at the clock. "I see. So when exactly is this mystery man coming? We'll be bordering on tardy as it is."

As if on cue, a loud knock sounded at the door, and Charlie quickly ran off to greet the stranger who'd agreed to take the town's newest freak show to school. Sucking in her cheeks, Bella dumped her empty dish into the sink and swooped up her backpack from the ground beside her. Scooting back in her chair, she made her way to the front door just in time to see the most beautiful boy waltz into her kitchen. Colliding gently into him, her forehead smacked against his broad chest and she gave out a muffled whimper before he reached out in surprise and steadied her.

There was a pause that made her nearly want to die in embarrassment. She made the perfect first impressions. He was just staring at her looking mildly confused as he was most likely assessing her loser factor.

"That's a very attractive expression you've got there." Mr. Gorgeous said finally in an attempt to break the silence, and that was when Bella noticed she was still sucking in her cheeks like a fish. Relaxing her face, she reddened and swung the bag over her shoulder.

"Sorry about that. And thank you for taking me to school."

"And class."

"If you plan to survive a day with me, I advise you to keep your distance."

Now it was his turn to crack a smile—one of the something-behind-it, lopsided ones that celebrities usually gleamed to make her heart flutter. Not to say that he wasn't attractive enough to be a teen idol, but he was the first boy she'd ever met to cause her nerves to enter hyperactive mode.

"Bella, I'd like you to meet Edward Cullens. Edward, this is my daughter Bella."

"Hey." Edward said softly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah, you too." Bella replied, unable to shake off the feeling that he really had no interest in her whatsoever. The last thing she wanted was his pity for being such a weirdo. "Let's just go. We're going to be late."

Edward tensed immediately, probably because of her impoliteness, and the two of them said their goodbyes to the parental unit before heading out onto the driveway and into Bella's spankin' new old truck. She turned to him, surprised when he had extended his hands for the keys. Dropping them into his hand, she made her way to the passenger seat. "You don't have a car? How'd you get here?"

"I live nearby." He replied coldly, and now it was her turn to tense. Perhaps he had caught onto her curt response and decided to reciprocate. This type of self-fulfilling stereotype was something she had once studied in Psychology.

Without replying, she strapped herself safely into the seat and didn't even bother to tell him to do the same. She couldn't help but glance surreptitiously at Edward through the corner of her eye multiple times on the way to the school—partly because he was so annoyingly pretty, and partly because she couldn't shake off the egotistical feeling that he was staring at her.

He had the palest skin and wild, mahogany brown hair and the longest eyelashes she'd ever seen. His build and height was model-esque, and his driving skills led her to believe he was one of those popular punks who usually rode around breaking all traffic laws with a blonde cheerleader in the passenger seat. Perhaps it was better they didn't talk after all. That way, he wouldn't feel the slightest bit compelled to act friendly with her out of obligation due to this one act of charity.

"So," he said, disappointing her once again with a sudden moment of friendliness. "What's your schedule? You did print it off, didn't you? There are no computer labs at school."

"Uh," Bella quickly smacked her hands lightly against her chest, before withdrawing a folded piece of paper from the breast pocket of her vest. He chuckled. "Yeah. I've got English with Mason—"

"I'd switch out if I were you," Edward interjected quickly. "Anal is putting it nicely when it comes to that Grammar Nazi's marking."

"Right. I've got Advanced Functions with Hordes, lunch, Chemistry with Granger—" she could see him tense again, "—and Gym with Adams."

"I see." He then swung quickly into the parking lot and swerved into a very smooth parallel park inbetween a red Volvo and a silver BMW. Clearly the author did not do her part in researching when she wrote this segment because she had forgotten a) the gym teacher's real name if it was even mentioned, and b) she had completely guessed on the colors and companies of the Cullens family's cars. Stupid, lazy groupie. Quickly unbuckling her seatbelt, extremely glad to be alive, Bella reached to open the door when it swung open and she came face to face with Edward.

"Wha-?" She turned to the driver's seat. The engine was off, the parking brake was up, and the door was closed. The keys dangled in front of her as Edward rewarded her surprise with a smile.

"Your keys. Take them." When she did, he whirled around and jogged off to first period. Could be he was just repulsed by her and wanted to skedaddle as quickly as he could, or it could be because just ten seconds after he entered the school the bell rang like a foghorn. Giving a gasp, Bella locked the doors and sprinted off to Mason's class, falling only once and bulldozing as few students as she could.

From then until lunch, she'd encountered many faces that she was now quasi-familiar with. Some of the girls' faces she could now associate with name, and the same was true for a fewer number of boys. One particularly persistent person was Mike who would not quit asking her questions.

Another girl was Jessica. Common sense warned Bella of her infatuation with Mike, and she made a quick mental reminder not to do anything stupid to get on her bad side. She very rarely needed someone hating her guts on her first day. Angela, someone Bella was beginning to look more and more as more minutes of tranquil silence came between their bursts of conversation, had waved her over to the table. Not that she was particularly fond of sitting alone, but now she had no other choice but to be slightly social for the next seventy-two minutes.

"How was math?" She asked, stretching in front of her as Bella plopped down in the seat opposite the table. Almost immediately the table's remaining seats were occupied by other hungry (and inquisitive) students.

"Impossible." Mike whined, a response to which Jessica nodded her head enthusiastically in concurrence. "I think of my future, and I can't even imagine what I'd need to know rational functions for. What are applications of rational functions, anyway? I think they just ran out of stuff to keep us occupied until we head to work or college."

Actually, it had been quite easy in her opinion, but that was to be expected when her prep school went over everything relevant up to first year University courses. She didn't come here hoping to come off as the sanctimonious book-thumping nerd, so she knitted her eyebrows together and groaned her agreement.

Cognitive dissonance. This was something else she had gone over in Psychology.

Just then, something caught her eye. Rather, someone. Edward Cullen, the boy who had driven her to school that day, came from the cafeteria's servery and—catching her eye—made his way over to her table. She had been sitting at the very edge, so he set his tray at the head of the table and pulled up a chair with his foot. "May I sit here?" He asked, already seating himself and dropping his bag onto the ground.

"Uh, sure." Bella heard Mike said, although the whole table had gotten significantly quieter since his arrival. If this was not his usual seat, who was his usual clique? Moreover, why was he even here? Bella pushed around the leftover peas on her plate, stubbornly refusing to eat them. She hated peas.

Then she noticed that as the din of the chatter around her started up again, that she was not the only not turning down her lunch. Edward had not touched a single thing on his plate. Instead, he was staring at her again.

"Are you thinking?" He said, so suddenly and with a question of such a random calibre that Bella was actually startled.

"Yes. It happens."

"I have to go." Getting up abruptly, he picked up his plate and essentially bolted out of the cafeteria, soon followed by four of the most remarkably good-looking people she had ever seen. And here she thought that in Forks she would be considered the freak. But his good looks made up for everything, and she didn't give the strangeness of his action another thought—only what had caused it. Was it her?

"What was that about?" Jessica asked, leaning in close. "How do you know Edward?"

"I don't." Bella said quickly, before making a hesitant continuation. "Well, not exactly. I don't understand why he ran away."

"He's Edward. That's his thing."

"He usually takes off like a jackrabbit in the middle of a meal?"

Angela giggled. "The Cullens don't eat. Perhaps their organs are too fragile for our cafeteria food. They're loaded, so they're probably used to the good stuff. They usually don't sit away from each other too during lunch, so it's a wonder he even came over."

"Even if it was just for less than ten minutes."

"He doesn't normally go to class, either. His shoots usually go on pretty late at night, so it's no wonder he needs time to recuperate. Can't model if he's got gigantic bags under his eyes." Tyler shrugged as he bit heartily into one of the biggest apples Bella had ever seen.

"A model. So he is a model." Bella stated, just to be clear.

"They all are. Well, except Dr. Cullens. Couldn't you guess? The whole school is wild about them. You can't even flip open a magazine without seeing them on the covers or several spreads anymore. Not that it's a bad thing."

"Excuse me, will you? I need to talk to Mr. Adams about—" oh, she always had been miserable at lying, "—my Chemistry textbook." Before she could allow Mike the time and thus opportunity to do his thing of being nice and offering to take her to the Science office, Bella lifted her tray and left the cafeteria as quickly as she could. Now, where had Edward gone?

"You shouldn't be following me." A voice caused her to jump as she entered the stairwell she could've sworn she'd seen him disappear into. Busted. That didn't take much.

"I... I'm not."

"Right. Listen, you told me earlier today that if I wanted to live a day longer, I'd keep my distance, right?"

"Something to that effect."

"The same goes for you. I'm dangerous. You don't want to be around me."

Ah, so this was his game. It was pretty well-disguised, but it would have been much better received if he'd just told her the objective truthfully.

"I'm sorry. If you don't want me hanging around you, please just tell me so. I won't be offended if I'm told by a major mode heartthrob that I'm way too big of a charity case for you, because I'm not." Bella said quickly in a wild, improvised attempt to save face. Her heart began beating erratically, and she felt perspiration ooze out from every pore on her body.

He made a face. "Who said—you don't think I want you hanging around me?"

"I can see that you don't. You were nice when you didn't blurt it out to me at the cafeteria table, but was breath."

The anger and rejection that Bella felt at that moment was overwhelming, and she instinctively reached up and began brushing her hair out of the way, causing a wave of watermelon and vanilla to fill the air around them.

She could've sworn she heard him hiss as he grabbed onto the railing of the staircase.

"I have to go. Don't come looking for me again." Whirling around, he ran up the stairs and before she knew was possible, she could see him running across the parking lot from the large window.

"I wouldn't worry about him." A delicate voice piped up behind me, and it was a tall girl with an adorable pixie-cut. "He does that. I wouldn't take what he said lightly though. He is dangerous. We all are."

"Is that why everyone keeps their distance?" Bella blurted, before covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh, God. Sorry. That was rude."

"No, it wasn't. Anyone with half an eye would be able to see that we're different. And different we are. So please don't worry your pretty head over his odd behaviour. I know he won't be angry if you act like one of them. Those that keep their distance. Pretend we don't even exist."

"That's not true. I hear the whole school envies you."

"Maybe. Still, that's what Edward wants." She walked closer to me with dainty, dancer steps and held out a short silver string with a pair of glassy bells jingling crisply at the ends. "Here, a present. If you can stay away from him, I will give you this. Ring it if you're in trouble."

Okay, random, cryptic encounters in the stairwell with a stranger in a strange school in a strange town. This day was clearly taking the trend of being odd. When Bella didn't make a move, she touched her hand and rotated it palm-up before placing the bells on the center.

It hadn't been until Bella was alone in the stairwell did she realize that her hand was now freezing.