If you had walked by Forks Elementary School at 12:08 on Thursday afternoon, you would have seen a little girl sitting on the bench at the side of the playground. She was five years old with long wavy mahogany hair and deep brown eyes. She was only five years old but, already, people could tell she was bound to be beautiful. "A real heartbreaker," her mother's friends had said. This girl's name was Isabella Swan, though she had been called Bella from birth. She was counting and had only reached eight.
Across the playground, a little blonde-haired girl named Rosalie was hiding behind a tree while a pixie-like girl with black hair named Alice was attempting to push two trashcans together to give her some cover. They were both silently giggling and shooting amused looks towards each other.
If you had looked to sand box in the middle of the large open space, you would have seen a little green-eyed, bronze-haired five-year-old boy named Edward glowering toward the girls. You might have thought that he disliked these girls, but that was not the case. In fact, it was just the opposite. He longed to play with these girls, but his friends, Emmett and Jasper, had already warned him against it. Girls had "cooties" and spending time with them only made you susceptible to the horrid disease. Edward didn't know what "cooties" were, but he was not willing to find out. All he knew was that he was not allowed to play with the girls, even though that's exactly what he wanted to do.
Edward looked up at Bella as she yelled "TWENTY!" at the top of her voice and took off at top speed to find her friends. He watched as she tripped and spilled forward, scraping her knee along the rubber ground of the playground. He barely moved as Rosalie and Alice rushed from their hiding spots to tend to their friend, who was pitched forward, screaming her head off, even though she wasn't bleeding.
It was then that Edward understood why he could not play with these girls. They were weak and girlish. They wore dresses and Mary-Jane's. They were tattle-talers and cry babies. Edward was just too good for them. Yes, this is what he told himself, even though he didn't believe a word of it. But he would have to pretend he did. He was not willing to give up Emmett and Jasper for these "inferior beings."
The teacher came over and brought Bella inside, Rosalie and Alice following close behind, worry written all over their features. Edward stood up and brushed the sand off his pants before going off to find his friends. The whole way, Edward was thinking. He was wondering what "cooties" actually were. He had always been really smart for his age and, while the other kids accepted this new disease, Edward questioned it. Maybe it wasn't so bad. What actually happened to you when you got "cooties"? Edward didn't know.
He heard the whistle that meant it was time to go back inside. Edward went and stood in line with the other children, still wondering.
"Hey, Ed." Edward turned around to see Jasper and Emmett standing in line behind him. He gave them a smile and a nod.
"Why didn't you come play with us?" Emmett asked. He was very big for his age and his mother prided in his attractive curly brown hair.
"I was playing in the sandbox," Edward answered.
"Oh," Emmet said, before the three boys walked back into the classroom and sat down on the story time rug, the conversation forgotten.
Bella had been sitting on the nurse's table with her pink sundress pushed up past her knee. The nurse had helped her tie her hair back so she could get cleaned up. The nurse had just finished putting some antibiotics and a BandAid on it. Bella slowly stood up, putting a little bit on weight on her leg. She smiled at the nurse and started out the door with Rosalie and Alice.
"Why was Edward staring at us so mean today?" Alice asked. She sounded a little hurt, but Bella knew it was all for show.
"I don't know. Do you think hates us?" Rosalie asked.
"I don't think so. I'm gonna ask him," Bella said. She didn't want to think that Edward hated her, because if she was completely honest with herself, which she usually was because she was only five and not very familiar with lies, she would have to say that she liked Edward. He was funny but very polite and he was normally very nice, too. Whenever they had played house in the classroom, Edward would always play the dad if no one else wanted to.
When they walked into the classroom, however, everyone was sitting on the story time rug and listening to their Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Honey, read from "Jack and the Beanstalk." Bella sat right down so that she would not miss another minute. She loved it when Ms. Honey would read because she would do all the different voices for the characters. The conversation with Edward would have to wait till later.
After Jack had made it safely back to his house, which was a relief to Bella, she stood up and walked right over to Edward with a huge smile on her face.
"Hello!" She said.
Edward look slightly surprised that she was talking to him, but he greeted her just the same.
"Why were you looking at us so mean today at recess?" Bella asked, indicating her friends at their desks. She didn't mean to come off as mean as she did but she was only five and didn't understand the difference yet.
Edward did. He heard the edge in her voice and got mad.
"Because you were being so loud and ruining my day!" Edward shouted back. Bella looked shocked for a minute before she broke down crying and fell down into a heap on the floor. Edward immediately regretted yelling at her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you sad," Edward said. He got down on his hands and knees and started patting Bella's back.
"EW! Edward's got Bella's cooties!" someone yelled from behind Edward. Edward immediately stood back up and started rubbing his hand on his pants. He didn't think he could get a deadly illness just from patting a girl on the back, but he didn't want to test it. He walked back over to his desk by Jasper and sat down. Jasper angled his chair away from Edward and started laughing at the crying Bella, who was now being comforted by Rosalie, Alice and Ms. Honey. Edward wanted to comfort her, too. In fact, he wanted to be around her all the time.
Maybe that's what "cooties" are!, thought Edward. Maybe that's the way a girl gets you to carry her shopping bags around like my sister's boyfriend always does for her!
Edward sat silently through the rest of the day, trying hard not to look at Bella.