Preface

It was my first day of school at Forks when two very important things happened. The first was obvious to me, even then: it was the day I met Edward Cullen.

The second wouldn't resurface in my memory for almost a year, even though it was caused directly by him, just moments later.

To be fair, the second occurrence would've been looked over by anyone as a trivial, annoying effect, given the circumstances. I know that's how I saw it anyways. Or at least thought about it after. At the moment I didn't really think. I just focused on getting to the only empty seat in the biology class, which happened to be next to Edward Cullen. Mumbling a thanks to the teacher, I glanced up at the boy whom Jessica and I had been discussing no more than fifteen minutes prior. Sitting with his family in the cafeteria at lunch, my eyes had come to rest on him, captivated, long enough for me to recognize him.

Now, he was returning my glance with a stare, hostility in his ink black eyes. I was taken back by this. With difficulty, I averted my eyes to the spot next to him and made my way there, sliding into the seat left of him silently, my books making a quiet thump as I placed them on the table. As the teacher began to drone on about the lesson, I felt a string of emotions: Fear, nervousness, confusion, and to be honest, a little bit of disappointment...I was captivated by this boy at lunch, and now, as I doodled aimlessly in my notebook, I could see at the edge of my vision that his hands were clenched, his tendons white against his already pale skin. He was sitting as far from me as he could, his body facing away from me in his chair. Why? What had I done to him?

By now I was starting to feel a bit nauseous, a direct effect of the stress I was feeling. I inhaled deeply then exhaled. There was a vent directly parallel to me blowing too-warm air right into my face. No wonder nobody sat here. Aside from being uncomfortable, it definitely didn't help the knot in my stomach. Amidst the flurry of my body's sympathetic reactions to stress was when I first started to feel a headache coming on.

Except it happened fast, very fast and the pain was much stronger than what I'd consider the normal pain of the headaches I've had. That pain continued to build up in waves, quickly approaching my tolerance. I swayed very slightly, before placing my hand in front of me on the table to steady my self. The pain was generally all around in my head, but it was worst behind my eyes, and right behind my forehead. I took a quick breath, and closed my eyes. In that moment I thought I saw something. A girl, pale with dark hair. Holding something long in her right hand. I didn't have enough time to process what it was before the image was gone suddenly and completely, as if it had never been there to begin with. I exhaled as quietly as I could. The image was gone and the headache disappeared soon after.

This had happened all so quickly, I was barely aware I saw anything at all for that moment. So I resumed my thoughts easily enough, without interruption, on Edward Cullen. He was different, you could just tell. But I was too scared to even throw a quick look at him, so I just continued to draw flowers, up until the bell rang. He was up and out the door so quickly, gracefully that I only briefly saw him from behind.

For the rest of that day, and to be honest, the rest of that week, my mind lingered on thoughts of Edward Cullen, and why this beautiful stranger, whom I had never done anything to, seemed to hate me so completely.

It was only later that I was sort of thankful for the way he acted at the beginning of class, although I also later learned that he almost killed me right then too. In that moment he looked at me with those threatening eyes, my mind instinctively sent a message of danger. Enemy, even. And for a moment I was genuinely afraid for my life. I think that's what must have caused the brief flashback.

The brief, strong headache, as well as the quick image of a girl was pushed back into the fringes of my sub-conscious memory, as most of my thinking self became immersed in Edward over the next few months.