A.N: This is a bit of an experiment, but give it a read if you like :-) please, no flames. thanks again.

Chapter 1 - Forget Sophomores, Be A Junior

'Seth! C'mon, we're going to be late!' I called angrily, shoving my cereal bowl into the sink with unnecessary force. My brother could be a massive dick head sometimes, especially when something was important to me. My first day as a Junior was important to me - and his first day as a Freshman should have been equally as important.

But no. Because he was an arrogant dick.

'What's taking so fucking long?' I yelled up the stairs, slinging my backpack over my shoulder. 'Look, Carlisle's giving us a lift to school in the people carrier, so we should really be ready by now!'

I stopped at the end of my rant, waiting for an answer. It came in an instant.

Heavy breathing. A strange choking sound - I recognised it. In an instant, I'd thrown my bag down onto the floor, not really caring for the contents - just books and homework, and what did that matter? Seth was hurting.

I burst into his room, almost knocking the door off of its hinges - and found my little brother sat in the middle of his bed. His arms were wrapped around his knees, and his face pressed into his knees as he tried to stem the flow of tears that streamed from his eyes.

I sat down next to him on the bed, slung my arms around him and pulled him close, comforting him.

'It's okay,' I said; but it wasn't.

It had been hard, the past year. With Dad... and now Mom wasn't around as much. She kept taking extra hours at work so that she could be away from the house - she wanted to move at first, but she'd changed her mind when Seth and I told her that we wanted to stay in Forks.

'I don't want to do this without Dad here,' Seth said.

'I know,' my own eyes had filled with tears too. 'I get it, Sethy. I really do. Do you want me to get Mom to phone in sick for you?'

'No,' Seth replied. 'Give me a minute.'

He wiped his eyes with his sleeve, so I disappeared to grab a box of tissues in typical mother hen style. Mom was at work now, so I was left to get us to school on time - and Carlisle helped a lot, being the awesome guy that he was.

I supposed it would look odd to an outsider, seeing the fourteen year old that had hit puberty way too early clinging to his sister and sobbing his heart out, but Seth had been through a hell of a lot, and he was only young.

'You sure about this?' I demanded as Seth chucked the tissue towards the bin. It fell short - he sucked at throwing.

'Yeah,' Seth replied firmly. 'I want to go.'

'Tomorrow you're not going to be saying that,' I told him. Seth smiled and stood up.

'Come on Sis, I'll race you down,' he called.

I dived onto Seth, our heart to heart a moment ago passed, and grabbed him in a headlock. We staggered into a wall, fighting as Seth threw punches at my stomach. We fell backwards, the back of our heads hitting the floor - both of us stunned for a moment.

And then the doorbell rang.

We looked at one another for a split second, before I was upright, running towards the stairs; but behind me, Seth lurched forwards and grabbed my ankle, bringing me down hard as he released me and tried to jump over me to get to the door first.

I wasn't going down that easy.

I grabbed onto Seth's ankle and brought him down, just a few metres from the stairs. He jumped upright as I stepped over him, and tried to grab me in a headlock - so I wrapped an arm around his torso, and we promptly fell down the stairs.

The crash was probably huge as we fell to the ground in front of the door. I could make out Edward's outline through the translucent glass. He was the skinny one.

Seth and I both clawed our way up and opened the door at the same moment, both of us looking suitably dishevelled.

Edward's eyebrows raised as he took us in. My hair was a mess - Seth's T-shirt was lopsided and creased. We both looked as if we'd been sumo wrestling - but we hadn't, not really.

'Hi!' I said brightly. 'We're ready,' I added, picking up my bag from where I'd discarded it a few minutes ago.

Seth grabbed his red backpack from the peg beside the kitchen door and nodded with enthusiasm.

'You sure that you don't want to... correct your hair?' Edward asked me, looking at the mess that was becoming a living thing on top of my head.

'It's fine!' I replied airily.

'You look like you've been in an accident,' Edward told me.

'I'm fine!' I said stubbornly. 'Let's roll.'

The people carrier that Carlisle had for the school run alone was pretty cool. I mean, for a people carrier - I didn't think that they could look cool. It was navy blue, and sparkly clean all the time. I'd never seen Carlisle out washing it, but it was always sparkling.

'Leah! What happened to your hair?' Alice demanded as soon as I'd climbed into the car. She looked scandalised, and hurriedly produced a can of some hair product from nowhere, along with a hairbrush. I caught sight of myself in the mirror - I shouldn't have bothered styling my hair that morning.

'Fight,' I replied, grinning at Seth. 'I won.'

'I won!' Seth protested.

'No, it was definitely me,' I replied.

'Children, children,' Carlisle said from the front seat. I bit my tongue and shut up, glaring at Seth. He stuck his tongue out - just as I was ready to attack my brother again, Alice pulled me back by the hair.

'Down girl,' she said.

I glared at her, and Emmett laughed loudly. His laugh rocked the car.

We'd been friends since Seth and I moved to Forks. Emmett, Alice and Edward lived two houses away from us, in the big expensive looking one. Emmett was the joker - and he made sure that we knew that every April Fools Day. Edward was the quiet, talented one - his piano skills were amazing. Alice was the fashionista - always making a statement. They were awesome, despite their annoying-ness.

We were a massive group, actually. As well as the Cullens and us, Rosalie Hale and Jasper Whitlock were part of the gang.

Rose was the standoffish one - she hated new people, and she went out of her way to make people uncomfortable. She was like a model, too - she was tall, and her features were very defined.

Jasper was a bit brooding too - but he was very sensitive towards people. He was the comforting, big brother type. If you had a problem that you didn't want to share with, say, Emmett, Jasper was the one to go for. He was surprisingly in tune to people - and he wanted to become a therapist.

As Emmett said: 'If Jasper becomes a therapist, he'll take over the world with his feeling stuff.'

Eloquently put, as always.

To change the subject, and probably to stop me from murdering Seth, Alice piped up. Her high pitched voice and enthusiastic nature meant that almost everybody listened to her - except Edward, but that was his job.

'It's my birthday in two weeks!' she squealed enthusiastically.

I smirked. Who didn't know that? Alice raved on about her upcoming seventeenth birthday. She was the smallest girl that I knew, and yet she was one of the oldest people in the grade.

'Happy birthday,' I said, sounding a little sarcastic.

Alice hit me with one of the spare shoes that she carried around in her bag. Don't ask.

'Oh, shit,' Emmett muttered from the front.

'Language,' Carlisle said, but he sounded relatively calm. Apparently Emmett's brain to mouth filter didn't work when he was at home either.

'I still need to get her a present,' Emmett whispered to Edward from the front.

'What?' Alice squeaked.

I decided not to mention that I still needed to buy Alice's present too.

'Dude, you better hurry up,' Seth commented. He was the youngest of us all - he was the only freshman in our group. I quietly hoped he'd been okay during class. I had Edward, Alice, and Rose in my grade. Emmett and Jasper were seniors now - I was sure Emmett would start lording it over us once we arrived at Forks High.

I kept my mouth firmly shut, looked out of the window in the hope that Alice wouldn't bring me into this.

'I bet that Leah's already got my present,' Alice said. 'Right Leah?'

Shit.

'I bet she hasn't!' Emmett countered, turning in his seat to look at me. Suddenly, they were all looking at me - apart from Carlisle, who was focused solely on the road.

'Um...' I said intelligently.

Alice's eyes went from trusting to angry in a heartbeat.

'I already know what I'm getting you!' I said quickly, trying to dig myself out of a hole. 'I just need to buy it.'

'But Leah, last night you said -'

'Shut up, Seth,' I glared at him - but he'd given my game away.

Alice's eyes filled with tears as she looked at me. 'Don't you love me at all, Leah?'

Oh jeez.

'No, no Ali!' I said. Emmett and Edward sniggered from in front - I kicked the back of Edward's seat. 'It's just that two weeks is a long time. I've been looking for stuff, I swear.'

'I can vouch for that,' Seth called, trying to appease me.

'I'll get you the most awesome thing ever, I promise,' I vowed.

'You better,' the threatening pixie said darkly.

I chose not to say anything else as Emmett, Edward and Seth launched into a detailed discussion about the latest football game.

Rose and Jasper were waiting for us out at the front of school when we arrived. Other students were hung about, talking about nothing in particular. As we stepped out of the car, it felt as if all eyes were on us, everybody was staring at us - we were popular, everybody loved us...

Ha. No.

The reality of high school is that everybody loves the jocks and the cheerleaders. People don't care if you're an amazing swimmer like Rose is. They don't care if you win awards for your musical ability, like Edward. They don't give a damn about fashion, as Alice does - they only care about climbing the ladder themselves, so that the fickle population of high school will maybe like them too.

Or maybe that's just my pessimistic attitude.

I scrambled across the seats to climb out, and hopped out of the car. Carlisle waved goodbye, and we crossed to stand with Rose and Jasper.

Jasper's hair was long and blonde - but not too long. He didn't look like a hippie, or anything. It hung into his eyes, curling up at the last minute so that he could still see. His eyes were blue. Rosalie's eyes were also blue, and her hair was also blonde - but they were very different while they were similar.

Rose was from England - well, she lived in England until she was five, and she never lost the accent. It was quite fascinating, actually - I loved English accents. They were so varied. Rose's Dad left when she was just a kid, so her Mom moved them to Forks so that they could have a fresh start.

'Alice!' Rose exclaimed, and she hugged the tiny pixie. Then, she turned to me and we hugged too.

'Jasper!' I said enthusiastically, and I launched onto him.

We staggered backwards into the wall, and I jumped off of him again, grinning at the very surprised expression on his face. Alice was in hysterics - I wasn't sure why she found it that funny.

'How was your Monday morning?' I asked him.

'F-Fine. Have you had sugar today, Leah?" he asked.

I grinned. 'Nope! It's just fun to scare you.'

His expression dropped. 'I hate you,' he said.

'I wouldn't have it any other way,' I replied, and then I pretended to be hurt. I looked at him with wide eyes. 'You hate me?' I asked.

'Oh god,' Jasper muttered. 'Emmett, stop her.'

'Leah, stop. Sit.'

'What is with the dog jokes today?' I demanded, turning on him.

'Whoa, get back she's on her period!' Emmett yelled, looking pretty alarmed as he backed away. 'Don't hurt me, I'm sorry! I've got chocolate!'

What the fuck?

I stepped towards him - and Emmett stepped back. Jasper disappeared to stand beside Edward, who was furthest away, watching us with amusement clear on his face.

'No!' he yelled. 'I'm sorry! Don't shout at me!'

'EMMETT!' I yelled back. 'I'm not on my period!'

The chatter around us didn't stop, but people were suddenly looking at us with confused expressions. I felt embarrassment course through my veins, and I hit the big oaf in the stomach.

The rest of them burst into laughter.

'Ow!' he protested.

I rolled my eyes. 'Can we go inside now, please?' I begged.

Unfortunately, our lockers were all in different parts of the school, so we split up. Edward's locker was in the corridor just off of the Maths corridor, which is where my locker was, so we walked together. Seth's was on the other side of school with Emmett and Jasper's, and Alice and Rosalie's were both upstairs. We said our goodbyes - I'd see Rose in home room.

'What have you bought Alice for her birthday?' I asked Edward as we made our way towards the Maths department.

'Some CDs,' Edward replied. 'She told me what she wanted, so I just bought it.'

'Right,' I said. 'Great.'

Edward laughed. 'I can give you a hand looking, if you want.'

'Would you?' I questioned. 'I thought boys were allergic to shopping.'

'I was thinking more along the lines of internet shopping,' Edward told me, looking shady all of a sudden.

'What if she wants clothes?' I countered.

'They sell clothes online,' he replied.

'But the sizing could be wrong,' I shot back.

'Take that risk,' Edward told me.

We shared a moment of stalemate, before we both laughed.

'I'll think of something,' I said, hoping desperately that I would.

'She'll kill you if you don't,' Edward said.

'Got that, thanks,' I replied tightly. Edward laughed at my expense again.

I stowed a few books in my locker and grabbed my pencils for Art. I was in Alice's class for Art - but she was much better than I was. Alice was all about clothes though - she adored drawing out designs and erasing them, considering the ins and outs of different materials during art class. She and the art teacher didn't really get along.

Cutting off that thought, the bell rang. Edward had already disappeared to his own locker, so I made my way back towards home room alone, my mind filled with various ideas for Alice's birthday present.