Edward's POV

September, 1995

Middle School. Purgatory.

I could not make myself feel excited for the beginning of this school year. There would be nothing remarkable about the seventh grade. My best friend had moved away at the end of last year, the classes would be tedious, and even if I was remotely interested in finding a girlfriend, I doubted one with half a brain cell would exist in this school.

Since the school consisted of grades 6-8 and I had been here last year, I found my classroom easily. It was a small school for a small town. We had lockers, but we did not switch classes. Therefore, I would spend all day in this cramped room with 25 or so other students and wish for death to find me.

I had a teacher that was new to the school this year, who had apparently just moved to Washington. Why he would choose to move to this small, rainy town was beyond me. I myself would love to get out of Forks one day – to where, I was not sure.

The bell rang, signaling the start of class, and I settled in for the dullness. The teacher began taking roll, and just then, the door opened and I felt a gust of wind blow through the room.

I glanced up at the person who had opened the door, and found myself having to do a double take. There stood quite possibly the prettiest girl I had ever seen. I didn't recognize her, so she must be new. And her wide brown eyes were boring into mine.

I analyzed her as she made her way into the room and walked up to the teacher. I heard him murmur to her to pick any seat because there wasn't assigned seating. I looked around and noticed the desk next to me was empty, and before I knew what had happened, she sat in it.

She glanced over at me and smiled, a small half-smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, but made me feel giddy all the same. I smiled back at her, not sure what kind of a smile it looked like. Was it an exulting smile of happiness? Was it a small, polite smile, that's only purpose was to acknowledge hers? I didn't know, and hoped that it didn't matter, and that she would be able to find friendliness in me anyway.

The morning class passed slowly, and I kept sneaking glances at her whenever I could. She wore a khaki colored skirt and a purple sweatshirt and converse-like sneakers with no socks. Her long, flowing brown hair was shiny, and even from where I sat, I could smell her clean scent radiating off of her. She was small, petite, though her body was more fully developed than most of the girls at our school. Her smooth legs were curvy and shapely, unlike the stick straight ones I was used to seeing around here as girls tried shamelessly to flirt with me. She wore no makeup, which was a blessing, considering most of the girls I knew wore a ton of it, as if they didn't know how to properly apply it at this young age. However, her face was smooth with an olive tint; flawless, except for dark shadows under her eyes. I wondered if she hadn't slept well, and then wondered what might have kept her up.

I decided to try and sit with her at lunch. No doubt she wouldn't know anyone else here, and might even be too shy to approach anyone herself.

The bell for lunch rang, and she hurried out into the hallway of lockers. I saw she had a locker near mine and she threw her books in and then pulled out a paper sack. She turned quickly and strode away, to a group of picnic tables, and sat at the one under a tree, farther away from where the other kids gathered.

I went and purchased my hot lunch and then came out of the cafeteria to make my way to her table. She still sat alone, staring off into the field where a soccer and football game was being played simultaneously, and I was pleased. I didn't want to have to fight for her attention with anyone else. I wanted time to get to know her myself.

I walked up to her and asked her if I could join her. She looked at me and nodded. So, maybe she was a bit shy.

"So, new to town?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," she replied, rather cryptically.

"Did you just move here?" I continued to prod.

"About a week ago. My parents are divorced, and I moved to my dad's from my mom's."

"I see. My parents are divorced too."

"Do you live with your mom or dad?" she asked.

"My mom. My dad lives about two hours away. I don't see him often." Why did I throw that in?

"Hmm," she said thoughtfully, then stared off into space again.

"I'm Bella," she said, without looking at me.

"Edward," I replied, smiling at her.

"Nice to meet you Edward," she said, smiling a small smile again, and turned back to her sandwich.

After that day, we were inseparable. We sat next to each other on the morning and afternoon busses, had lunch together, chose each other for gym partners. She told me about how it was her choice to come and live with her dad, Charlie, and away from her mom, Renee and her boyfriend, Phil. When I asked why, she wouldn't answer. Her dad had a girlfriend, Nadine, who lived with them, and she had two kids. She seemed to like her dad's girlfriend and said that they were close. I asked if they were going to marry. She just shrugged.

We liked some of the same music and foods. We both liked to read books, and exchanged them often. I learned her likes and dislikes, and she learned mine. Things grew comfortable.

We spent many hours on the phone with one another at night. It was always hard to talk during class. We talked about everything from the people at school to what we wanted to do with our lives and how we both hoped to get out of Forks someday. She told me about the stupid things that her younger sister, Rosalie, did, and I regaled her with similar stories about my younger brother, Emmett. For whatever reason, they got along well, and hung out just as much as Bella and I.

I tried to get her to hang out with me as much as possible. Honestly, I'd rather not be around my house if I could help it. My mom, Esme, had some issues, and I was tired of the consequences of those falling to me. Emmett seemed oblivious to all of this, and I wondered if that's because I instinctively sheltered him from having to see anything. If that was the case, then I was happy that he wouldn't know how much mom hurt, how drunk she got, and how many men she slept with.

So Bella and I would head to the elementary school playground and climb to the top of the jungle gym and lie down so that no one from the ground could see us behind the low walls. We'd lay there for what seemed like forever, sometimes talking, sometimes not. Our silences were never uncomfortable. Maybe we just liked the sensation of not being alone.

Most nights, she seemed as reluctant to go home as I was, though she never told me why, and I never asked. For some reason, I felt like I would be intruding if I asked. Maybe I just didn't want to know the answer.

Bella became my best friend. She knew everything there was to know about me, even though most of it I had never spoken aloud. She knew about my mom and dad and how I was more the caretaker than anything. I knew about her family and how they were gradually growing distant, yet she still didn't explain why.

We did make other friends, besides each other. She decided to become friendly with a girl named Jessica Stanley, and I befriended a boy named Laurent, who wasn't in our class but was in our grade. Sometimes they would eat with us, and sometimes they wouldn't. It was the two of them that told us that since we were always together and obviously were close, that we should just date each other.

I'd never dated a girl and I wasn't sure if Bella had dated a boy, and we weren't quite sure what it all entailed. Nonetheless, they literally pushed the two of us together, so as we stood not six inches apart facing one another, I reached my hand up and put it on her shoulder. She looked at me, surprise on her face, and then did the same with her hand.

Two days later, she passed me a note in class.

I don't really know what this dating thing is supposed to be about, but it feels weird.

I got out my pen and wrote under her words:

I know the feeling. Want to go back to normal?

She read the note and then smiled at me, and I knew she was agreeing.

Summertime rolled around, and we spent nearly every day together. It was hard to see the changes in Bella, since I saw her so often, but they were there. Her hair was getting longer, and the parts near her ears weren't as frizzy as they used to be and they were long enough that she could tuck them behind her ears. She didn't grow taller, but she grew wider. I don't mean that she grew fat, but more like her hips became wider, and before I knew what had happened, she had a round butt sticking out of her jeans. I tried not to notice.

I continued to grow taller, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

My mom got a job at the local bowling alley, since my dad cut back the amount of support he was sending, and we needed the money. Our house hadn't had a mortgage on it for years, but we still had utilities and food to pay for. I spent a lot of time at the bowling alley and tried to limit her beers. The staff cut me a break by allowing me to play as much as I liked. I became decent at the sport, and decided to join a league.

Bella's dad wouldn't always let her come to the alley with me, though I wasn't sure why, so most of the time I just watched over my brother and tried not to be bored.

Eighth grade rolled around and it was much the same as seventh and it went by way too quickly. Charlie and Nadine ended up getting married and Bella gave her father away, which I thought was cute but she thought was corny. She showed me some pictures from the wedding and I couldn't believe how pretty Bella looked.

By the summertime between eighth grade our freshman year, Bella didn't hang out with me as much as usual outside of school, and this made me sad, but I couldn't sit at home and watch my mother make an idiot out of herself every day. I hung out with Laurent more and spent more time at the bowling alley.

I decided I wouldn't tell Bella how much I missed her.