Chapter 1

Small Fish in A Smaller Pond

Edward Cullen stared nervously at his shoes. He had been delaying leaving the relative safety of the neighboring wooded area to enter the school. He had only been in Forks for three days now. There had hardly been time to unpack his meager belongings, let alone prepare himself for entering a new school.

A sharp pain ran through him as he thought about the reasons why he had had to come here. His mom and step father had been killed in a car accident less than two weeks ago. He had had no choice but to move here with his dad, stepmother and adopted siblings. He hadn't seen his dad since he was four years old, until he had come to the funeral. Edward had been surprised to meet his new step mom and to find out that they had four adopted teenagers. They were all close to Edward's age. He had never hated his father more than that moment. Carlisle; the name was like venom in his mouth.

His mother had been the epitome of kindness and love. She had been not only his mother but one of his best friends and his only confidante. He had gotten along with his step dad fine. They were never particularly close but they didn't hate each other either. His Father was another story. He found him cold, distant, and frankly a little creepy. Kind of like a doctor Frankenstein now although his early memories of his father were much different. Even the way Carlisle had looked in his early memories was entirely contrary to how he looked now.

The sound of the school bell snapped him out of his daze. There was no more time to procrastinate.

May as well go and face the inevitable. He thought to himself.

Edward was, by anyone's standards, a classically handsome young man. There was an air of mystery about him, brought about by his quiet moodiness. The fact that he had never had any real interest in his peers made him inexplicably popular. He found people of his own age to be boring, always concerned with trivial things. Since the loss of his mother, their superficiality was even more glaringly irritating to him. While it was no big loss to leave his old school behind, he wasn't looking forward to meeting new people to ignore here either.

Edward was no more than 10 feet away from his hideout when he was assaulted by a bouncing, fluffy blonde girl.

"Hi!" she practically screamed. "I'm Jessica! You must be Edward Cullen, Dr. Cullen's son!"

And you must be on crack and Red Bull, he thought wryly.

"Let me show you around. I'll take you to the office to get your pass. You're all the talk around here you know. Nothing exciting ever happens in Forks so you are big news. I was talking to ……."

Edward was desperately trying to phase her voice out. She was so damn annoying. The first person he meets at school turns out to be more torturous than anyone he had encountered back in Phoenix.

"Jessica," he interrupted, putting on his best smile, "I appreciate your offer, truly I do, but I think I need a few minutes to look around. You know, get acclimated."

A look of utter disappointment crossed her face for a second but was quickly replaced by the peppy, annoying smile. "Sure, no problem, I guess. Maybe I'll see you in some classes."

Edward seriously doubted it. He couldn't see this chick in Calculus or any of his other advanced classes. Knowing his luck though, she would fall into the book-smart-but-lacking-common-sense category.

The rest of the morning was excruciating. Every class was a veritable festival of torture. Having to introduce himself and tell something about himself was like a mini-hell every hour. Thankfully he did not have any classes so far with Psycho-Cheerleader. Lunchtime did not allow him the same fortune. She was lurking by the door when he entered the long hall.

"Hello again! I thought we could go through the lunch line together. And I could introduce you to some people, you know, if you want."

Edward was too mentally exhausted to refuse. Maybe he could bore her to death while they ate. He took notice that all she picked up from the food selection was celery stalks and bottled water.

I can't stand salad girls. How bland. How predictable. He thought as they looked for a place to sit.

He heard a laugh from his right. It was the most musical laugh he had ever heard. He turned his head to look down; his gaze was met by a stunning pair of golden brown eyes, a color that he had never seen in his life. He audibly gasped when he took in the rest of the face the eyes were set in.

Her skin was pale and translucent. Her thin face was surrounded by an amazing mane of dark chocolate brown hair. She was staring back at him, although her look seemed to be changing to one of horror.

Suddenly she slapped a hand over her mouth and nose and turned her head away so quickly it was almost a blur. Edward stood rooted in his spot, unsure of what had caused her reaction. He heard a hissing sound followed by a growling voice.

"Get away from me!"

It didn't take him long to realize that it was the girl with the golden eyes who was ordering him away. What the hell? He felt an insistent tugging at his sleeve. Jessica was urging him along. Her possessive actions were really starting to piss him off. He yanked his arm away.

"Come on, Edward. She's a freaking weirdo; you'd do better to just walk a wide circle around her." Jessica's voice was urgent and whiny. Edward would rather not deal with her at all but realized that she might be able to give him some info about this mysterious, hateful girl whom he was finding irritatingly intriguing.

As they sat down at a table on the other side of the cafeteria, Edward noticed that Jessica was eyeballing him like someone who was appraising a car they might buy. He felt annoyed as her eyes lingered on his chest and arm muscles.

"So, that was weird, huh?" His feeble attempt at starting a conversation seemed to thrill Jessica. How could she not hear the thinly veiled contempt woven in his voice?

"Bella Swan is a complete and utter nut job. Her dad is the police chief, he's a fruitcake too. A drunk actually. I so cannot believe he still has a job! Anyway, she always sits alone, never eats a thing, and misses a ton of school. She probably drinks too. She must hate the sun because she never comes out when the weather is nice. She's so emo. It's like, gross and stuff."

"Maybe there are things no one knows about her, like another side to the story that might make her make more sense." Edward strangely wanted to defend the girl, even though she had been so rude to him.

"Whatever. Like, all the boys have tried to get with her since she moved here a year ago. She turns them all down. I bet she's a lesbian. Eeww! I bet she like, looked at me in the locker room before! GROSS!"

It took all Edward had not to pick up his hard plastic lunch tray and smack Jessica in the face with it. She had to be the most irritating creature he had ever met. What a bitch!

"Like, oh my god, the freak is staring at me right now!"

Edward turned his head slowly to look in the direction Bella was sitting. She was staring alright, but she was staring at him, not the hateful she-beast beside him. Her brows were furrowed, her eyes narrowed to slit, and her hand was still clamped over her nose and mouth. When she saw him returning her look, she stood up and walked swiftly out of the cafeteria.

"Thank baby Jesus she's gone!" The laughter in her voice was stopped short by the glare Edward bestowed upon her.

"I've lost my appetite. I think I'll go and look for my next class." Edward stood up and stomped away before Jessica could torture him any further.