Disclaimer: I don't own anything, though I wish I did…c:

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Chapter One: The Story of My Life

When I was about three years old, my mother, Renee, decided that it was time for her to spread her wings and, well, just get out of Forks. She wasn't happy with my father, and he knew it. When I would ask why mommy didn't want me any more, he would always tell me that it wasn't me she didn't want, it was him. He told me that they couldn't get along with one another, which led to arguing, which led to the leaving of my dear, deadbeat mother. I never really cared that much, because I barely knew Renee. I knew she was my mother, she lived in Phoenix, and she was remarried to some guy named Phil that was almost fifteen years younger than her.

She didn't even invite me to the wedding. The only reason I even found out was because when I called her (once a month to "catch up") to ask her where she was when I called the week before for our little chat, she admitted that she was on her honeymoon. I'd have to admit, that I was a little hurt by that. I mean, even though we weren't close, I was still her daughter! She blamed it on her forgetfulness and I blamed it on the fact that she was completely harebrained sometimes. But, she did try to make an honest effort for all of about a month. When I was around the age of eight or nine, Renee told me she wanted me to come spend the school year with her, so I packed up some stuff and went to spend my second grade year with my mother. The troubles started as soon as I got there.

I had been off the plane now for about an hour and Renee still wasn't there. I was just about to walk, but then I realized that she said she lived pretty far away from Phoenix International. Even if she didn't live God knows how far away from the airport, I still had no clue as to where, exactly, she did live. So, instead, I just waited. And waited, and waited, and, hey, guess what, waited some more. I finally got sick of waiting around and asked one of the flight attendants if I could use their phone to call my dad, because I didn't know what my mother's number was either. When I called, let's just say that Dad was furious and about to come down to Phoenix and strangle my mother, but instead just called and yelled at her. When she finally did get there to pick me up, it was about nine at night and I had my first day at school tomorrow.

I just hoped that Renee would remember to wake me up and take me. Well, she did, but that was about all she remembered. About four weeks into my stay, I called my dad and told him I wanted to go home. Renee was always going out with Phil and leaving me to fend for myself. My clothes never got washed until I finally figure out how to do it, I learned how to cook really well since she didn't do that either, and I had absolutely no friends (they all thought I was weird because my skin was all pale). The washing of my clothes wasn't so bad, the cooking came in handy seeing as Dad can't cook in the least, but I could not deal with the no friends thing; I had lots of friends back in Forks. To say the least, I was extremely homesick.

I was on the next flight back to Washington State and Renee couldn't care less. If you ask me, she actually looked happy while taking me to the airport. That's not the point though. The point is that my mother is always absent when I need her. She doesn't even call once a month any more; it's more like whenever she could get around to it. But I didn't care, because I had my dad and that was enough. I loved my dad more than anything. He was Police Chief Swan, my hero. But, unfortunately, the chief couldn't save me from what was only a mere hour away. High school. Freshman year. All I can say is thank God for friends with parents that the only car they drive isn't a police cruiser. I had been getting a ride to school every day since the fifth grade. I couldn't thank Lila's mother enough. I shuddered to think about the ridicule that would come of my father driving me to school. Now, I love my dad, but nothing slows down traffic like a cop.

So I get to school and Lila and I jump out of her mom's minivan and run to the shelter of the covered sidewalks of Forks High.

"Where's building eight?" Lila is trying to locate our first class. We have all of them together but two: English and History. And the first is next hour and then, the next one is the period after lunch, so I try not to fret until I get to those places. I hated not having classes with Lila. She was my best friend and we had been extremely close since the first day we met. I loved her like a sister and she was one of the very few people who understood me.

"Probably next to building seven…" I asked in my usual sarcastic manner.

"I'm serious Bella! We have about five minutes to get to this stupid Geometry class and we have no clue as to where it is," Like I said, I love Lila, but she just takes things a little too seriously some times.

"Okay, fine. I'm guessing that it's that way," I said, pointing to my left, "because building two is right in front of us and building one is on the right. Oh, and hey, look building three is on the left, so I'm pretty sure if we keep going left we'll make it to building eight eventually…"

"Ha, that's very funny Bella. Make a joke out of all my distress. You know, sometimes I wonder if you even like being my friend…"

I just let her rant on. She didn't mean anything she said. She was just trying to muster up some inner soap opera for her drama class next period. Trust me, I know these things. Lila had been doing this since the beginning of the summer when she found out she'd be taking theatre this year. Sometimes I couldn't help but laughing at the girl. My best friend was hilarious when it came to her being mad. I know it's not right to be laughing when someone is mad at you, but I couldn't help it.

"Okay! I'm sorry. My God…" I finally just apologized so we could get on with life. We still had a class to look for, so we made our way down the sidewalk without speaking. Sure enough, we found building eight. We walked in and thanked the lord that there was no assigned seating. If I had to sit next to Jessica Stanley again because of the whole alphabetical seating thing, I think I might shoot myself, because, yes, she was in my class. Again. That's one thing I hated about small towns. The saying 'keep your enemies close' didn't come out of nowhere. Although, I don't think it's used in the literal form as it is here. With a school this small, you're bound to be in at least one class with almost everyone in your grade, which included your enemies. I had only two enemies and that most definitely included Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory. I don't know how this happened, though. I'm nice to everyone; even them.

I think it's because Jessica was in love with Mike Newton in the sixth grade and, by that point he was uselessly in love with me. I had no interest in this boy and still don't. I had gotten sick of him always hovering over me and staring at me, so I just told him that we would never be anything other than friends. He didn't accept this until I had told him the same thing at least one hundred times and Jessica never got over the fact that he liked me more than her. She was pretty vocal about the fact that she thought me to be plain and unbeautiful. That's how I knew that we could never be friends. Lauren, on the other hand, was different. I had no idea why she didn't like me. I figured it was because she was best friends with Jessica, so that just gave her an excuse. I honestly don't think Lauren likes anybody. She's just a perpetually nasty person that thinks she's better than everyone.

"Here we go. Are you ready for this?" Lila asked as we made our way to the very non-crowded back corner of the classroom.

"Gee…I don't know Lila. Geometry might be a little much. I mean, really, all those shapes. I'm not sure I can handle it," sarcasm was dripping from every word. I did it just because I knew it would get on her nerves, but, much to my surprise, she laughed. I was just about to ask her if she was on drugs when I was tapped on the shoulder.

"Excuse me. Could you please move over just a smidgen? I would like to sit in that desk you're standing in front of. That is, unless you're planning on sitting there."

I couldn't believe my eyes. An unfamiliar face was staring at me with a polite smile on her lips. This was not normal. I knew everyone in this school. I guessed she was a sophomore or something. But that couldn't have possibly been it unless she failed this class last year, because this was one of the few "freshman" classes.

"Err…sure," I replied after breaking myself from the trance I was in from staring at her face. Her uncanny beauty was amazing. I am not going to lie. I was jealous. No one should be that pretty.

"Why thank you," she said. She took her seat and unloaded notebooks, mechanical pencils, and a ruler out of her bag before turning back to us, "I am Alice Cullen. I'm new here."

Well, that explained it. She was new. "Hi. I'm Lila Peru and this," she started pointing, "This is Bella Swan." Lila was quicker than me and the look on her face said that she was thrilled that there was a new face walking the halls.

"Oh! It's nice to meet both of you. I was wondering if you could help point me in the right direction for my next classes." Alice smiled this wide-toothed, brilliant smile and looked at us with hopeful, wide eyes.

"Of course we'll help. Let me see you schedule and we can point you in the right direction," Lila may be quick, but, when I was at it, no one could be faster than me.

"Hold on just one second…" she turned in her seat and started digging through her bag, "I know it's in here some where…uh…ah ha! Here it is." She handed me the paper and I noticed that her next class was the same as mine.

"We have next hour class together. Building twelve is towards the back of the school. I'll walk with you," I offered.

"Really? Would you? That would be so helpful. My brother is in that class, too, so do you think we could wait for…" her face went from false surprise to kind of blank and then she continued, "Never mind. He can find it on his own."

Her face confused me. I wonder why she changed her mind so fast. How strange. I was going to ask, but the bell rang and the teacher began. This one didn't waste any time. He passed out geometry books and told us to take notes on chapter five, so I didn't have anymore opportunity to converse with the new girl. I did, on the other hand, pass a note to Lila about all the new happenings going on at our school.

Did you hear her? She's not the only new kid. There's a brother! Oh, I hope he's something worth looking at. The guys around here are so boring, but if he looks anything like her, we have NOTHING to worry about, I had written to her.

She giggled and started writing her response. I was finishing up the notes on the chapter when she handed the paper back.

I know! You're so lucky. You've got next period with them. If you don't tell me about him at lunch I will probably murder you, you know that? It's really not fair that there are people out there that are that pretty. Bella, I'm extremely jealous. Please slap me or something…, was her response.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to reply, because the bell rang and signaled us to hurry to our next class. I gave my friend a quick hug and turned around to find an expectant Alice Cullen. She started following as I walked out the door. Well, I almost walked out the door. I don't know if you can call tripping on the door frame walking or not. I expected Alice to giggle or look at me like I was retarded or something, but she didn't. Instead, she caught and steadied me. This was a hard sight to believe seeing as I was almost twice her size. You see, Alice was a small girl. She had ear-length jet black hair, tiny, perfect features, the whitest pale skin I had ever seen, and she was about four foot eleven in height it seemed. She couldn't have weighed more than ninety pounds. I thanked her and walked, a little faster than usual, for I was sure she had seen my embarrassing blush, quickly ahead of her. She caught up quickly and that's when I noticed the amazing graceful, dance-like steps she took as she walked. This girl was perfect. That's one more person that's more extraordinary than I. Lovely.

"So," the pixie-looking girl beside me began, "what other classes do you have?"

"I have Spanish after this next class, History after lunch, P. E., and then Biology."

"Oh," she looked like she was kind of freaking out, but quickly recovered, "My brother's in the History class after lunch."

"What about you? What are your other classes?" I asked her this quite absently, because I was trying to figure her out. She was a very odd person if I'd ever seen one.

"Well, I have P. E. next, French after lunch, then I have a study period, and then History," she answered. "Say, are you okay?" she was observant, but not quite on the bulls eye.

"I'm just thinking," I explained to her.

We walked into Language Arts and sat in the back, close to the door. She looked a little nervous.

"Umm...are you okay? You look a little nervous," I was starting to worry, too, and I didn't even know what there was to worry about.

"No, no. I'm fine," she seemed to think about her response, but it took less than a second and I'm not quite sure how I even noticed. "I'm just a little worried about this class." Her answer sounded honest and supported her expression, so I let it go. For some reason, I was still nervous. I had this feeling that too much homework wasn't going to be the worst thing to happen today. All my suspicions receded as the most beautiful creature in the world walked through the classroom door. I knew who it was before I was introduced. This God-like boy was tall with the strangest color of auburn hair I had ever seen against the same color white skin as the girl sitting next to me. He also had the same strange, liquid gold eyes as Alice. The hair was the only feature the two of them didn't share (not counting the extreme height difference and them being the opposite sex of each other). They both had the same skin, eye color, and purple, bruise-like shading under those same eyes. He came in the door smiling wildly and I then noticed they had the same penetrating, bleached white, toothy smile.

The feeling of ease didn't last long, though. As soon as the beautiful boy's eyes met mine a look of sheer torture mixed with the hideous look of pain, confusion, and hatred crossed his face and his eyes seemed to get darker by the second. He almost seemed to hold his breath, but he couldn't have, because I had been watching him for the past five minute and he still hadn't released it.

I realized I was staring and quickly turned my attention to the teacher who, until just about two seconds ago, I had no idea was even speaking. This was not something I wanted to do, which was odd, because I usually loved the introductions of the novels we would be reading this semester. I caught the end of the list and heard the inevitable Romeo and Juliet. I was not surprised at this since we read it every year. Don't get me wrong; I love Romeo and Juliet. I just wish that there could be something a little more original on that reading list. You see, I had already read all of the books and bought just about every book in the only bookstore within a hundred miles of our town. I didn't have my license yet, so I wasn't in much of a position to be going in search of a more populated bookstore in Seattle. All I'm saying is that I can't wait until I turn sixteen. My birthday is in one month and five days and Lila and I are planning on driving strait to Seattle that very weekend for an all day shopping event. I wasn't supposed to know it yet, but one of my childhood buddies, Jacob, who's like a brother to me, couldn't keep it a secret that, since Billy, his diabetes-diagnosed father, couldn't drive anymore, my father was buying the Black's truck that I've been eyeing for a long time now for my birthday this year.

I was having a hard time not smiling whenever I was over at the Black's or even just thinking about it. It was, after all, the coolest truck I had ever seen in my life. It was old and sturdy, but it didn't look like a piece of junk at all. It had a rusty red "paint job" and was one of those bulky numbers with a large cab. I could just picture myself driving in it, working the windows down inch by inch, the wind blowing through my hair. Another plus: if I were to crash, there probably wouldn't even be a scratch. Trust me; I've seen it after some pretty rough ones.

Jacob used to drive around in it after he got his learner's permit, but he stopped as soon as he ran into that tree. It wasn't only a tree though. Oh, no. You see, we were riding along the road, just me and him (it was easier to break the law when you knew that your father would let you off easy), when he decided to mess with the radio. All of about two seconds later, we were drifting off the road at about thirty miles per hour and miraculously missing the trees in the thick forest at our side. We soon realized that this was only so, because we were headed toward the old abandoned Victorian mansion about five or six miles from Forks, and the next thing I know, we were driving through the front yard, heading for the small building I assumed was a garage. All I can say is that there wasn't even a pole left standing when Jacob got through with it. Then, finally came the tree. We had slowed down to about twenty miles per hour, and probably wouldn't have even hit the building if Jake had of had his eyes open, but no, they were closed, and we ran strait into the tree. That had stopped the truck, so I pulled Jake out to survey the damage. I was surprised to find that there was not even a scratch on that old truck, so I quickly pulled Jake back inside and took the driver's seat, for I had much more experience, and got the hell out of there before anyone could figure out what we'd done.

I was quickly snapped back to reality when an annoying ringing came to my ears. It was the dismissal bell. I got up and turned to find that Alice and her God-like brother were already gone. I left the room, almost at a sprint, and raced to Spanish. I had forgotten that I had balance issues/not being able to walk across a flat, stable surface without finding something to trip over issues, and tripped over my feet. Apparently I wanted to get to know the floor better. I got up as quick as I could, and walked at as fast of a pace I could manage without falling again to my next class. When I got there I saw that Lila had saved us two seats and near the back and was waiting for answers.

"How does he look?!" she blurted before I even had the chance to get into my seat.

"Amazing…" I said this pretty absently, and I could tell that she was confused and a little hurt that I wouldn't tell her everything. But I just couldn't tell her what was going on yet, because I wasn't exactly sure myself.

"So, you're not going to tell me how it went are you?"

"I can't talk about it right now."

"Why not," she half-shrieked.

I just pointed to the front of the room and gestured to the teacher who just walked in the door. God, this man had perfect timing. Thank you Lord!

"Buenos días, me llamo Señor Burk," the teacher said. The only part of that I came even close to understanding was Burk, and that was because I saw on my schedule that his name was Mr. Burk, "For all of you beginners in here, I just said 'Good morning, my name is Mr. Burk.' The first thing I'm going to teach you is the different greetings you'll be using during this class. Their differences are the time of day you say them. Now repeat after me, Buenos días."

"Buenos días," the class repeated.

We went on this little activity for about another fifteen minutes and then were handed worksheets on what we had learned. That's what we were supposed to do, but I found that I couldn't pay attention for my life. When the bell rang for lunch, I had only answered three of the twenty questions on the paper. The teacher saved me, once again, by telling the class that we could take it home for homework. I think I'm really going to like this guy…I thought to my self.

Lila and I walked silently into the lunchroom and stood in the shortest line. What food was at the end was unknown. I wasn't all that interested in food anyways and, quite honestly I was trying to think up something to say before Lila remembered about or conversation at the begging of class.

"So, are you ready to explain what your issue is?" she asked sharply. Apparently I was too late.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I was just going to play dumb and hope that she dropped it. But unfortunately, that would only happen in my dreams.

"What is your issue on the whole 'new kid' subject? You like, flipped out when I asked you about Alice's brother," she clarified.

"Oh," was all I said. Speaking of the new kids, I was wondering where they would be sitting today. I knew how the lunch tables always filled up, and even though I was one hundred percent positive that Alice's brother hated me, I wasn't going to give him even more of a reason by not at least offering for them to sit with Lila and me today. For some reason, I shuddered at the fact that Alice's brother didn't like me, and was willing to do almost anything to fix it. How strange. I usually just let people feel the way they felt about me. If it was good, great, but if it was bad, oh well.

"So, will you tell me now? Please? I've been dying to know. How hot is he?!" Did this girl never quit? I was just about to answer her when I saw the oddest thing I had ever seen in my life. There was an entire table that included five of the most beautiful people in the world and no one else. Of course, those five people were Alice and her brother along with a ginormous, burly boy with ringlets of chocolate-colored hair that looked to be the age of twenty rather than in high school, and a tall, very slender blonde with the most amazing figure I had ever seen. She had the fullest, softest looking hair and I was instantly jealous (who wouldn't be?).

Then, there was another blonde. This one looked on edge and was nervously tapping his foot on the ground. He was just as beautiful as the rest of them and had a long, slender figure only he looked to be even older than the curly-haired, large boy. Did these people fail fifteen grades or something? Now that I look at them, none but Alice and her brother from Language Arts looked like they belonged in this age group, but even Alice was pushing it. Her brother looked to be the youngest and definitely looked to be the most boyish of the three males. I found myself staring at him and it wasn't I who caught my self this time.

"What are you stare—Oh! Look at that. There aren't two new students, there are five. Amazing, there is a God. Those guys are hot!" She was practically drooling over them. No, scratch that, she was drooling over them.

"Lila! What are you doing! Stop staring at them!" I was panicking, because I was afraid that they were going to turn around and catch us staring at them. That would be beyond embarrassing.

"Wha—," she blinked a few times and then said, "Oh. Sorry." She looked down at her feet, all embarrassed. I felt kind of bad for her. She wasn't the only one having trouble keeping her eyes to herself.

"Hey, why is Jessica going over to their table?" I was asking myself the same question and then I saw her start to flirt with the bronze-haired boy. This made the strangest surge of jealousy surge up in me. At that point, if I didn't distract my self, I was about to walk up to her and slap her in the face. How dare she think that she, of all people, can talk to him?

"Let's just go sit down, okay? I think I'm going to be sick," I told her honestly. I felt nauseous, and standing there, watching Jessica giggle and toy with her tight, curly locks was not helping in the least. We walked to a table all the way across the room and sat down near the exit. I don't know when this happened exactly, but I found my self staring at them again—all of their perfection and uncanny beauty. This was good and bad. It was good because I didn't miss Jessica storming off with the most hideous scowl on her face, but it was bad because I felt strange and out of control. It became even worse when, as I was staring, the bronze-haired brother of Alice's eyes flicked up and met mine. I, of course, glanced down immediately, waited a few seconds, and then glanced up at him real sneaky like from under my eyelids. He was still staring, and had a scowl on his face. That was it; that proved that he hated me.

I wonder what I did to upset him so. Why, I do not know, but I felt the sudden urge to redeem myself. I looked away and spent the rest of lunch staring at my shoes. When the bell rang I hadn't eaten anything, so I took my coke bottle with me to my next class and threw the rest away. I said my goodbyes to Lila and headed toward building six. Walking alone down the hallway was an unnerving thing. I felt kind of paranoid; like I was being watched. I even turned around a couple of times, but no one was looking at me. About the third time I turned around though, someone was behind me. Of course, he wasn't staring me down or anything, but he was stealing glances the same as me. Alice's brother, I couldn't call him his real name, for I had not yet learned it, was an odd person if I'd ever seen one. What else could I call some one who takes an instant disliking to people to whom he's never met before and made the most menacing glares at her that same day at lunch?

I didn't think about it a minute more and just ignored him the rest of the way towards class. When I made it in the room there was a picture of a seating chart on the door. I looked over the tables that were in groups of four people to a table and saw, to my relief and discomfort, that I was the only table with just one person. All of the rest of the tables were completely filled. I was relieved because I would not have to indulge in some awkward conversation with some person I'd never met before, and I was discomforted to find that I wouldn't get the chance for any conversation at all. Never the mind, I went to my assigned seat and took out my supplies. Our text books were already on the table in front of us, so I picked it up and moved it aside.

When the book dropped to the surface next to me, my papers in front of me were blown off to the floor by the breeze. I reached down to pick them up, and when I was in the upright position again, I had a visitor. It was Alice's brother, and he was seated in the seat directly in front of me. He had a mean scowl on his face, and his eyes were black as pitch. It seemed he was as happy about the situation as I was: not at all. I was going to at least ask his name, but the teacher, Mrs. Tubbs, was already announcing it to the class.

"Class, I would like to introduce you to a new student. His name is Edward Cullen and he comes here to join us from," she glanced down at the paper in her hand, "Denali, Alaska. Why don't you come up here and tell us a little about yourself Mr. Cullen?"

"Umm…Okay. My name is Edward. I like music, running, and hunting," he looked over toward the teacher and she motioned for him to sit down.

"That's lovely Edward. Thank you," her attention was given only to Edward, and when she realized this she turned back to the class, "Now class, we've got a lot to do this year, so I want to go ahead and get started. Turn to page ninety-eight in your text books and read chapter nine. When you're finished, answer all the review questions and turn them in to me." We all got started right away, and I had most of the chapter read in ten minutes. The questions weren't going to be hard. We used the same book in every history class, and, let's face it; history is never going to change. I was done with about an hour to spare, so I looked around to see who else was done and saw Edward was already on his way back from the teacher's desk. I got up, walked to her desk, placed the paper on the table, and walked back to my seat. There was nothing more for me to do, so I laid my head down and closed my eyes. When I got bored of that and sat up to look at the clock on the wall, Edward was staring at me again, and he looked utterly confused. What was his problem? This whole ordeal was really starting to get on my nerves. I only wished that I had the guts to ask him about it. But I didn't, so, instead, I just stared right back.

We sat like that for about five minutes, and then he turned away. He picked up his things, walked towards the teacher, said something to her, and the next thing I knew, he was walking out the door. I looked at the clock to see that we only had about five minutes left of class, so I got my things together and went back to resting my eyes. The bell rang what felt like seconds later. The rest of my day went smoothly and Lila's mother gave me a ride home as usual. I wasn't prepared for the information I was about to get from Jacob, Jacob's father, and my father himself.

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Author's Note: Thanks for reading the first chapter. I hope you like it. REVIEWS for LOVE!