A/N: According to the Fuse Channel (best channel ever!), nerds are better looking than geeks. So for anyone who wants to attack me about this topic…EDWARD IS NOT UGLY! Haha, are you kidding? Do you think I could write about an ugly Edward? You would be out of your mind. Think Clark Kent in Smallville, or whatever version of Superman you want, and just match your idea of Edward into that. You get the jist…

::A/U::

Disclaimer [also counts for future chapters: NEVER EVER MINE!!!

Chapter 1

Staring into the mirror in my room, I licked my index and middle fingers, raising them to my hairline. Gently…steady…there! My hair was somewhat free of frizz. I pushed my black- rimmed glasses up towards my face. I looked good today. Oh yeah. Forks, Washington, eat your heart out!

I like school. I find it interesting to learn about new things. It's the people that I don't like. Spotting my book bag on my bed, I reached over to grab it and left my room, shutting the door behind me. Just another day, I thought to myself.

I was never the kid with 'friends'. I was never popular. I wore the weirdest clothing and suspenders (although somewhat fashionable) stood in place for belts. I wasn't a geeky looking kid. I wasn't really a kid at all. I'm about ninety years older than the average high school student, and let me tell you that re-learning the same things every year gets boring. And even though I'm forced to be in high school to maintain a persona, it would still be great to just move on.

Move on.

It was those words that still rung in my ears, haunting me. For so many years, high school life was the only life that I knew. Isn't it weird that, since I've known this whole atmosphere for quite some time, it should be a given that I was popular? Apparently not.

My name is Edward Cullen, and I am a nerd.

Now, you may be thinking: how has he been in high school for eighty years and has had nobody catch on to this weirdness? Something you should know about me is that I am not human. I don't use special lotions or formulas that make me look young for an extended period of time. I am actually a vampire.

Yeah, a vampire.

I'm also not alone with this juicy piece of information. I have two brothers and two sisters who also share this secret with me, although, they aren't really my siblings. It's kind of hard to explain.

Before we were "turned", we were all regular people. We had lives and responsibilities and duties to fulfill. But all that changed for us when we were changed as well. Now we all live with our "parents", Carlisle and Esme. Carlisle was the one who took us all in. He found Esme when her life was almost over, and had saved mine from an epidemic in Chicago. We all owe our lives to him, really. He's the one who put and kept this family together. And although they can be a pain a lot of times, I still love them.

Also, my sisters and brothers are married…to each other. Now, before you get all frantic and think we're some weird, incest cult, we aren't blood related. We were all found just before our human lives had ended. My sister, Rosalie, had saved my brother, Emmett, from a fierce grizzly bear attack and had fallen in love with each other. It was quite touching, really. Then there's my other sister, Alice. She had seen Jasper (my other sibling) in a vision, when he was already turned into a vampire. That's a funny thing about Alice: she has visions. She can see things before they happen, and if it's something bad, she's able to prevent it. We all have our own little techniques like super strength and breathtaking beauty, but Alice, Jasper, and I are the ones with useful powers. Jasper can control people's emotions. I can read minds. At first, it was so amazing to realize that I could dive into other people's thoughts and daydreams. But after a while, it became boring and repetitious. I already figured out the latest news, what secrets were being hidden, and it was just reiterated. I am not able to stop hearing these thoughts at my own will. They just go on and on.

And I can hear what people say about me. Nerdy Edward. The smart guy who never gets below a 100 on a test. That weird kid who always keeps to himself or the freak who somehow finishes your sentences. Ugh, don't tell me that he's actually trying to talk to me!

Gross!

It hurts to hear these things about me. I'm not that much different than anybody else at our school. I have emotions too, although, something about us: we can't eat, or sleep, or breathe. I mean, we don't have the need to. And just like any other vampire that you may have heard about, we can't go out into the sunlight with a consequence that is presented.

Something happens when sunlight brushes our skin. We glitter and glow. It might be beautiful to the ordinary mind, but what human do you know that glitters in the daylight? And if anybody sees us like this, we could blow our cover. I like where we live. It's quiet, obscure and peaceful and nobody bothers us. Okay, maybe it helps having a creepy house dead set in the woods. But I like it. It's peaceful.

I took a glance one more time before I went downstairs to leave. Bronze hair tousled my head, and I had those black-rimmed glasses "emo" kids wear nowadays. I had no zits or pimples on my face; how could I? My suspenders weren't weird looking; they were similar to the movie A Clockwork Orange. I always thought the characters in there dressed all right. I didn't see the problem with it. My pants weren't ankle high, and I didn't wear collared shirts that were buttoned up to my neck. Alice was definitely the fashion stylist of the family; she made sure that I didn't leave the house looking like a complete and total dork. She would pull me aside by the front door and give me a once over before we'd leave, making sure I didn't go to school embarrassing her. Her eyes would run up and down my wardrobe, and a simple "good" was my ticket out the door. I grabbed my stuff and was on my way downstairs.

There was no breakfast aroma to smell. We didn't eat ever. I think that's the part I miss most about being human. I was so oblivious to everyday things that it was easy for me to take them for granted. When I became a vampire, I didn't realize how much I'd miss those treasures.

Eating.

Sleeping.

Breathing.

In the hallway, I passed by Rosalie and Emmett's room. I heard a couple of muffled sounds and a bang against the wall. I didn't even want to know. Since two years ago when I had caught them in the act, I kept my mind off of all that awkwardness. Plus, that was the scariest thing I had ever seen. I think I remembered thinking about Rosalie "How does she bend like that?!" To say the least, I was frightened beyond belief.

Zooming past the raucous, I took a turn to slip by Alice and Jasper's room before Alice noticed me. I didn't want to do these daily "Oh-Edward-you're-not-going-out-looking-like-that" rituals. With my heightened sense of hearing, I heard her playing a CD and softly humming to herself.

It was Muse, my favorite band ever. I knew everything about that trio of geniuses, and yet I've never been able to attend one of their concerts. What I wouldn't give to see Matthew Bellamy and company create such powerful and raw edge. And Alice was playing Absolution.

Sweet.

That was one thing I could definitely say about Alice; her music taste was phenomenal. From bands like Travis and The Spill Canvas, to Angels & Airwaves and even The Killers, Alice knew them all. And her music collection was mind blowing. CD after CD after record after album after EP, she must have owned basically everything alternative. I'm not sure how Jasper must have reacted when he saw his room graphically designed with punk rock art and sketches, but Alice made it happen, and made him accept it.

Two couples in love. I wish I had someone to love. But we'll get to that later.

One thing about Carlisle is that his "gift" is caring for people. He's a doctor at the local hospital here in Forks, and the most renowned doctor these people have seen in a long while. He's got a gift. I love and hated Carlisle, both at the same time. He saved my life, but also took it from me. I wasn't bitter to him, that much is true. But sometimes I lament the fact that he made me into some sort of monster. Earlier on, I felt as if I couldn't forgive him, but those feelings soon went away.

Yet emotions still lingered. And after almost a century, I still hurt.

My hand was on the doorknob. Yes! I thought to myself. One more step and I'm out the door. Free from Alice and her lectures about how my hair isn't perfect.

One more step, and…

"Just where do you think you're going, little brother?" perked a squeaky voice.

Busted.

I turned around to face that elfish figure, with a slight crooked frown on her face. I groaned to myself then smirked.

"Excuse me, but there is no way that you are older than me. Get used to it." I looked down at her, but she was looking down on me. Alice treats me with respect, but she still thinks I'm a little immature, just like a little brother.

"Listen, I don't care how the facts work. Anyway, let's do our daily look-over."

I must have looked uncomfortable, because Alice cocked an eyebrow, suggesting that I was to feel blessed that someone would help me dress myself. Wouldn't you feel frustrated?

Her butterscotch eyes trailed up and down my body, and I thought I looked fine. Alice, however, had other thoughts. This was getting to be a pain.

"Uh, you think you're leaving the house dressed like that?! Just look at you! Whoever told you that black and brown match well was seriously disturbed." And with that comment, she removed the black blazer that I was wearing, with force might I add, and turned to grab a corduroy jacket from the closet to the right of the front door. "Here, put this on."

I had to admit, it looked much better on me than my blazer. But that was my blazer. I saved up money to buy that coat. Emmett and I picked it out when we headed to Seattle for the monthly trips he and I go on together. We always loved traveling, so we would pick areas that weren't sunny (remember the freaky skin thing) but that had lots of places to see. Seattle was always our favorite place to go. It was close by and had great attractions to visit. Plus, Emmett and I would always head to the nearby beach and just sit around. And even though he was married, Emmett would always try to attract as many women as possible. He would also put me in the spotlight, shouting things when girls walked by, but making us look like we were engaged in a casual conversation. Such things shouted have been: "Jeez, Edward, I didn't know it was that big!" or "So, you modeled for how many agencies?" It would always leave me feeling embarrassed and smiling awkwardly, while the girls walking by would either laugh or gawk as if they were interested. When the attention was off of me, I punched Emmett in the shoulder, just so he knew how much he had embarrassed me.

"Come on, buddy, I'm doing you a favor! Don't you ever want to have a relationship? Don't you want one soon?"

Without my normal brothers and sisters drawing attention to me, I was a nobody. No one wanted to deal with me; no one wanted anything to do with me. I could hear it in their minds.

"There you go, Edward. Now you look good. And would you take off those glasses? You look like a freak." Alice's yell was nothing more than a musical squeak. It was cute yet somewhat annoying.

I don't really need the glasses. I just thought they looked cool when I saw them. They made me feel different. I guess that was the problem.

I took them off and stuck them in my pocket, for later purposes. I slowly bent my head backwards, and huffed to myself.

"I heard that!" Alice said. We made eye contact and then she giggled. "Edward, you look fine. Don't worry; I know what I'm doing. And forget what anyone thinks about you when you get to school. Aren't you used to the mocking and ridiculing yet?"

"Thanks, Alice" I grimaced.

"Oh, honey, you know what I mean. Just don't let anybody get you down. They don't matter. So just go about your day and let the others be." She stood tiptoed to rustle my hair some more. A brush couldn't tame the rug attached to the top of my head. Alice always said that of anything about me, my hair was the most dazzling. It could be unbrushed or knotted and it'd still look good. I was grateful for that, because I knew how much time Alice took to make her hair look absolutely perfect. And getting ready for school two hours earlier than usual was nothing I was going to do.

With those words of slight encouragement, I walked out the door. Our house is located on top of a hill, about half a mile from the main road. I jumped off of my front porch stairs, and then strolled to meet my baby girl. No, I don't have a girlfriend or a child; I have a Volvo.

A silver S60 to be exact, and my little bundle of love is my life. She's got a powerful engine, and a vroom to make your motor run, if you catch my drift. I hopped in the front seat and started up the heat. I wasn't cold, but the snow that had fell from last night iced up the windshield, so I couldn't see anything without it being defrosted. As I waited I cranked up the stereo.

Pounding piano almost shattered the speakers, so I had to quickly turn down the volume. This was definitely the work of Jasper Hale. He loved numbing speakers when he drove, and never turned down the volume. Why he doesn't use his own damn car, though, is unknown. He always takes mine out for late night cruises and it ticks me off, because on a weekday morning, I bother the peace of nature by almost destroying my stereo system, and I swear I could hear birds viciously chirping at me for waking them up.

However, I quickly forgave him, as I always do when he leaves Muse for me to shatter my eardrums to. If I were to ever turn gay, it would be for Matthew Bellamy, and Matthew Bellamy only. I can't imagine how anybody ever built up so much passion so quickly, and its genius how he and his band use that drive to make such tremendous music. I'm so deeply in love with Muse.

I watched the icicles from the windshield drip away, and started down the hill slowly. The dripping of the ice reminded me of the melting of my heart. It was true, I did dislike school.

But there was one reason why all that pain flowed away.