"Isabella Swan?" My new bio teacher at my new school just called out at the end of roll-call. It was as if he was trying to embarrass me more by putting more attention on "the new girl" who showed up in the middle of the year.

"Just Bella, please." I reminded him. Today was my second day at Forks High, and my strange desk partner from yesterday had begged the Mr. Banner to let him switch partners, so now, I am sat next to Jessica Stanley, and Edward Cullen can stare at me from the back of the room. Mr. Banner hardly acknowledged my request and just plugged along with his presentation, which consisted of some directions and a quick "just figure it out for yourselves." He then went on to read a TV and Entertainment magazine, doing his best to ignore us. It turned out that Jess was smarter than she had let on yesterday when I had met her. I had written her off as a bit of a airheaded gossip girl, I was pretty glad that she was proving me wrong, it would be nice to have some friends while I am staying in Forks.

I moved here so that I could live with my dad while my irresponsible mother traveled with her new husband who was in the minor league. Everyone keeps telling me how selfless I am being and how I am so generous to do the right thing for my mom, but to be honest, she all but kicked me out. I didn't want to come here to Nowhere, Washington. Renee had told me that she wanted to travel with Phil's team and that it would break her heart to continually disrupt my schooling. The thing is though, I really could have graduated last year. I am not a genius by any means, I'm just overly responsible and for some reason I genuinely enjoy doing school work. Basically her reasons don't make sense. The truth is that she just doesn't need me anymore. She took me away from my father before I could even walk, and made me responsible for our wellbeing while she pranced around doing whatever it is that she does. She has Phil to take care of her now, so it's time to trade in the old model for a more masculine prototype.

Jess and I breezed through the assignment which left us plenty of time to really get to know one another while we waited for the rest of the class to catch up. By the looks of things, Jess and I were probably done for the rest of the class period.

"So, Bella, what do you like to do for fun?" She asked me, her eyes wide and genuinely curious.

"Honestly, not a ton of different things. I write sometimes, mostly poetry and short stories. I really like to go for walks, although I am clumsy so I don't go all that often, but I really like to explore and take pictures. What about you?" I told her. It was pretty long-winded for me compared to normal, but somehow I felt immediately close to Jessica. She excitedly blabbed on and on about makeup and fashion and it made me wonder why exactly I felt such a connection to her. That said, Jess was really pretty. She had bold green eyes and curly brown hair that was almost black. She was pale, but still darker than I was.

"Maybe sometime you'd model for me? I can take pictures and you can really go crazy with your fashion and makeup…" I suggested. I was pretty embarrassed, that was pretty bold to me. I didn't have very many friends at all in Phoenix due to generally being the odd one out, and I also did not have much free time from having to parent Renee. I had very little experience inviting someone out and to try to make friendships. I was relieved when Jess excitedly squealed and wiggled in her chair, seemingly very excited by the prospect of being a model for me.

The bell rang after that, and we grabbed all of our things and made our way to our final class of the day, Gym, which we conveniently had together. Angela, one of Jessica's friends also had Gym with us and after changing into our gym clothes, we met up with her. The class was instructed to simply walk around the outside track today since it was only sort of misty and mild out instead of full on rainy and cold.

It turned out that I also got on with Angela really well too. I had that instant connection with her as well for some reason. It did seem to make a bit more sense with Angela though, because she was a lot more similar to me than Jess. She liked to read, which I did as well, and she liked to cook. I had also grown a fondness of cooking just from cooking for Renee all those years. It definitely seemed like even though he was a lot more self-sufficient than Renee, I would probably be cooking regularly for Charlie as well. Aside from those hobbies, Angela genuinely liked school work too.

I learned more about Jess with school too. She was a lot smarter than I initially thought, but unlike Angela and I, she had very little interest and motivation for school, so she really just managed to slide by in all of her classes.

That was when some blond kid I had seen around already, who was wearing a letterman jacket jogged up to us. He was kind of cute in a boyish way, and he had a warm expression on his face that was currently being directed at the three of us.

"Hey, I'm Mike. Mike Newton." He introduced himself as he ran his fingers through his hair. He winked at me. I could tell that he was not going to be my favorite person, but I wanted to be polite, so I let my hair fall from behind my ear and gave him a shy "Hello, I'm Bella."

"Guess what? Bella is a photographer! She said that she wants to use me as a model, how cool is that?" Jess said to Mike. He nodded and agreed that it was cool, this seemed to satisfy Jess who continued to excitedly go on about ideas she had for cool outfits. I had told her I like to do series of different themes, so she had that in mind, and I was interested to see how some of her ideas would come out. Mike's reaction hadn't quite set well with me though. While he had responded to Jess, it was clear that his attention was still on me. I wouldn't like the attention normally anyway, but I could also tell that Jessica really had feelings for him too.

Some guy from across the track called out for Mike, so he jogged away in that direction, and I finally felt at peace again. I decided then that I did not care much for Mike Newton. Jess was momentarily disappointed with Mike's departure, but snapped out of it as soon as he was far enough away that he couldn't hear us.

"Ohmygod. He is so cute." She gushed. I saw Angela roll her eyes and I just half-heartedly agreed with her to keep the peace. "He's so popular and good at everything."

"No Jess, he isn't good at everything and you know it. You're too good for him." Angela said. She seemed to be a fairly timid girl up until this point, so I knew that she must feel strongly about this guy. I decided to file this bit of information away so that I could ask her more about it later. I cared about Jess already and didn't want her to get hurt. Jessica was about to respond back to Angela but she was interrupted by the guy who had called Mike.

"Hey, new girl!" He shouted. "I'm Tyler, Bonfire in La Push on Friday night!"

I just awkwardly waved at him, unsure of what to say. There was no way I was going to yell across the track right now, I already had too much attention on me because of being the "new girl."

"Oh yeah I forgot that was this Friday." Jess said, then added, "Oh we have to go guys! We need to make an impression for next year! It's our last one before we graduate!" To clear things up it was currently the beginning of April which only left a month and a half left of the school year. Then we would have summer break and our last year of high school right after. It was a big moment really, although I felt like it probably meant a lot more to Jess and Angela than it did to me since they will have gone through all of their schooling in the sleepy town of Forks.

"I don't know Jess…" I didn't know how to turn her down, but I wouldn't know anyone and would just sort of be there, I wasn't feeling it.

"My boyfriend Ben and I will be there." Angela told me, hoping I would feel more comfortable with an extra friendly face, even if I hadn't met Ben yet. Jessica chimed back in, reminding me that La Push beaches were beautiful and there would be plenty of picture perfect moments, so I could bring my camera. Then she lost me as she went on about getting all dressed up for the occasion.

"Alright, alright, I cave! I'll go!" I laughed as I interrupted her as she was still going on and on about makeup. She squealed in excitement and Angela told me she was glad that I would be going. The rest of gym class just passed uneventfully as Jess talked about what she was going to wear and I thought about what camera accessories I would need to bring with me due to the mist from the ocean, the likelihood that it would be dark, and the possibility of rain.

The week had passed by quickly and I currently found myself in Jessica's pink bedroom getting ready for the bonfire tonight. She had insisted that we all get ready together tonight so I had reluctantly agreed. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that Angela wasn't going to be here because her boyfriend, Ben, was actually from Port Angeles, so she was meeting him. Jess had made me try on several different outfits of hers but I had vetoed all of them. I decided on my own clothes. A white long sleeve t-shirt, some slim-straight indigo jeans, and black booties. I also had a forest green flannel tied around my waist in case it got chillier as it got darker.

Jessica had picked out a light blue blouse that was tight at the waist and sort of tapered out below it. She wore black high-waisted jeans and flat, white keds. She had straightened her mass of frizz hair and had topped the whole look off with sunglasses on the top of her head and a full face of makeup. Jess looked at me disapprovingly but agreed to disagree as long as I let her do my makeup as well. It was a bonfire, I felt like makeup would just be too dressed up for the event.

"Oh come on Bella, you never know what could happen. You could meet your soulmate tonight and then what? You went without makeup?" She made it sound like the most dramatic thing in the world. I rolled my eyes at her theatrics, gave her a "yeah, right" and finally just allowed her to have her way and put my face on.

"Damn, you look hot!" She whistled as she pulled away, finally done poking and prodding at my face. She laughed at what I guess was my miserable expression and helped me up. She guided me to the floor length mirror that hung on the back of her bedroom door, and she was right. I looked good. I blushed as I took my reflection in. She had put some brown eyeliner, some mascara, and a dusky, mauve color for my lips. She'd kept it pretty simple, which was a surprise to me, but I liked it.

"You ready then, hot stuff?" She winked at me. That's when I realized that I had been staring at myself in the mirror for entirely too long as she had already gotten a jacket for later and her purse together. I just blushed once more, nodded, and grabbed my wallet, shoving it into my back pocket, and wrapped my camera bag around my shoulder.

The drive only took about fifteen minutes and thank god because Jess drove like a maniac. She had been all over the road and speeding like a mad woman. I hopped out of her sedan and felt the cool air around me. I couldn't help but smile because while it was not the sunny, warm Phoenix I was accustomed to, but Washington had its own special kind of beauty. The bonfire was on first beach which meant that we did not have to hike through the forest to get to it, this was good news for the moment because of my general clumsiness, but also because I was carrying the giant tupperware full of the brownies I'd whipped up for the event.

We headed to where the fire was lit, thankfully it was still pretty light out and I could see that there was a large crowd of Forks students, and I could tell that there were Rez kids mixed in too. I could feel myself getting excited even though this wasn't really my scene. I was ready to get some good shots of the ocean with my camera. I could see huge rock masses like little islands scattered and I wanted to capture them before it got dark

With that said, I set down the brownies on a fold out table that had been set up for people to put food on. There was an array of different treats there. My phone buzzed in my pocket as I prepared my camera to take the photos. When I swiped through the lock screen a text message from Angela popped up on my screen. I could see that it had been sent to Jess as well. She was just letting us know that her and Ben were not going to make it to the bonfire after all. I was a little disappointed because I wasn't sure who I was going to talk to once I was done taking pictures. I just shrugged off that feeling and got to it.

It wasn't long before the beach was too dark to get good enough pictures with the equipment I had brought. I had been so focused while I was taking the pictures that I didn't notice right away, but now that I was putting my things away I felt like I was being watched. I told myself to stay calm as I finished gathering everything up and made my way back to the snack table.

Upon reaching the table I realized that all of the brownies I had brought were already gone. This made me smile, I was glad that some of the other party goers had enjoyed what I had baked. I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched though. I felt my phone buzzed and when I looked at the text, it was from Jess.

Dude. There is a serious hotty checking you out. 3 O'clock. Was all she had said. I quickly looked up in the direction she had said and what did you know. There was a guy… or more a man looking straight at me.

He was easily the most attractive man I had ever seen. I allowed my eyes to travel from his bare feet all the way up his form. I took in his cut off shorts and his torso which was covered by a black sleeveless muscle tee. It may have been covering him but it couldn't hide the sinewy muscles bunched beneath the fabric. He was tall and his dark, warm skin seemed to almost glow in the firelight. When I met his eyes though, that was when I felt as if the Earth beneath my feet had fallen away and I was floating towards him like he had tied a cord to me and was pulling me in. I didn't know what it meant, but I bravely made my way to him and let out a slightly raspy "Hey, I'm Bella."

Author's Note:

Hello, welcome to Man of the Year! This story will definitely have some darker themes later on (it's just so easy with Paul).

Hope you have enjoyed the first chapter and will come back for some more as I upload.

Check out my other stories if you are interested:

Exposed: BellaxSam story

We Own the Night: BellaxEmbry story

Thank you and happy reading!

-Dahlia