"Bella!"
I turned to see Jessica Stanley walking at a fast pace towards me, her curly brown hair bouncing around her shoulders as she moved. Her face was alight with the excitement and determination that only gossip brought her. I recognized it all too easily.
I groaned quietly as I stopped and faced her, giving Jessica the best approximation of a smile I could manage this early in the morning. It didn't seem to dull her enthusiasm, however. In fact, she seemed undeterred by my less-than-joyous mood as she stood before me, almost bouncing on her toes.
"Bella how was your summer? Did you do much?"
Jessica was one of those people who were always peppy, no matter the situation. She loved to gossip, talk about boys, do her makeup, and giggle incessantly.
Sometimes I wondered if she put it on a bit, or if she was genuinely like that. I hoped for her sake that it was the former, because she was a walking cliché.
"Good, thanks, and yours? Umm, no not really, just hung out with Jake, like, every day…"
I trailed off when I caught a glimpse of her face, disapproval written all over it.
Jake was my boyfriend. We had been dating for two years; our close friendship had progressed into something more. Charlie and Billy our fathers had been best friends for years, so naturally, Jake and I had been forced together for the sake of their friendship, and we had bonded. Jake possessed the gift of being tall, russet skin and dark hair and eyes.
I also had dark eyes and dark hair, but that was where the similarities between me and Jake ended. I was slender and soft and pale, while he was tanned and big, like a giant, and insanely muscled. I had to crane my neck to look up at him.
"Bella, why are you still with him? I mean, you haven't even slept together yet, and you've been dating-"
Jessica's extremely loud voice was cut off by my quick shushing. I glanced around immediately to see if anyone had heard, my face as red as a tomato. Luckily, no one seemed to be listening in, all focused on their own conversations and their own lives.
Kind of how I wish Jessica would be.
"Yes, I know we haven't had sex yet," I whispered quickly, wanting to strangle her, "because I want to wait. And he hasn't pressured me. Isn't that demonstrative of what a good boyfriend he is?"
She eyed me skeptically.
"Bella, you've been dating for two years and you're still a virgin. And you're seventeen. If your 'not ready' by now, I don't think you ever will be. At least, not with him."
I looked down at the ground, unsure how to continue the conversation after her words. However, Jessica saved me by talking fast.
"So, anyway, back to what I came over here for. I have gossip!" She sang it in a tantalizing way, like it was the most important thing on earth.
Actually, to her, it probably was.
I was just thankful to have steered the conversation away from my sex life, or lack thereof, so I encouraged her eagerly. "Really? What is it?"
She looked pointedly around at the empty corridor, looking for people who would listen in. I just laughed. It was pointless of her to try to keep gossip to herself. We lived in Forks, Washington; the smallest town on the Olympic Peninsula. What could the adults who lived here do in their spare time if not gossip and spread malicious rumors?
And the teenagers were no better. In fact, I'd say they were worse. I wouldn't be surprised if students had recording devices stashed at convenient locales around the school.
"Okay, well, apparently – Lauren told me this so I don't really know how much truth is in it – but, anyway, two new kids are starting today. They just transferred from like some snowy place – maybe Alaska? – and – I haven't seen them myself yet – but, apparently, there like totally gorgeous! Like, I mean, supermodel gorgeous!"
"Really?" I asked. Curiosity, always my downfall, was beginning to form in me.
I wondered what was requisite for 'supermodel gorgeous'? Tall, blonde; with long limbs and tanned figures? Outrageous flashy clothes; little poodle that could fit into a handbag? Artificial attitude, dumb as rocks?
I sighed heavily as I realized that last description was most likely what we would be in for. If they looked like supermodels, they probably acted like supermodels. They would fit right in with people like Jessica and Lauren, people who fawned over Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton, girls who are more stupid than 5 year olds.
Not people who would ever fit in with me.
My heart sank as I realized I had been enjoying the possibility of perhaps being able to get to know someone who wasn't quite so…plastic, as the rest of the high school population were here.
"What year are they in?" I asked, wearily now. I was already tired of this conversation and just wanted to get to class.
"Our year, I think. One of them's a really hot guy, as well." She looked pointedly at me.
I smiled wryly. There it is.
Jessica's angle in telling me this gossip was to try to get me to forget my downer boyfriend – her words, not mine – and go out with someone better. Someone to her specifications.
Someone like the new kid.
Jessica didn't like Jake for several reasons. She thought he was too sarcastic and didn't like his Quileute heritage and the fact that he never showed an interest in her. Jessica's feelings for Jake were mutual; he didn't like that she was such a gossip and thought that she took up too much of my time. I agreed with him on the gossip bit, but that was who she was; why try to change her?
I defended Jessica to Jake more often than I did Jake to her, mainly because Jessica was my only real friend in Forks, and also because I knew that it wouldn't make a difference what I said to Jessica about Jacob, she would stubbornly ignore me and hold onto her negative views of him.
"I'm not interested, Jess."
She just rolled her eyes and 'tsked'. Clearly, she wasn't going to give up that easily. I berated myself inwardly for even daring to hope for that.
"Come on, first period is missing us!"
I zoned out in Biology class; Mr Berty wasn't teaching anything I didn't already know anyway. I could never study in this class again and still get a 4.0 GPA.
Instead, I plugged in my iPod, and thought about Jake and what I wanted to do after senior year.
I was planning on applying to Dartmouth, getting a law degree and becoming a lawyer later on, after I had worked my way through school. It was sensible, not too far out there, and very simple. My dad approved of my strait-laced plan, and I was happy to make him happy.
I had always been responsible; living with my dad, I had naturally become accustomed to taking care of him and the house. I cooked and cleaned, got the grocery shopping and did the laundry. I did everything for my father. People looked upon me as Sensible Bella, the straight-laced, smart girl who would exceed in anything she wanted to do if she really worked hard for it. I was reliable, steady, the comfortable choice. I was polite and knew my place.
I was boring.
The only thing about me that wasn't straight-laced was my taste in music. I loved alternative bands and music. Everyone else crinkled their noses up and declared that they thought they were weird and odd-sounding, but I found solace in my different taste. It was the only thing that set me apart; that granted me freedom and solace. It was something that identified me as me, not the perfect, boring girl everyone believed I was.
I wouldn't give it up.
Jake didn't like my music. He was always badgering me to try some good ole' country music, but to be honest, I couldn't stand it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that, though. He had inherited his love of country from his father and was extremely sensitive about it.
I smiled as my favorite song came on: Teenage Angst, by Placebo. I turned up the volume so it could crash in my ears.
Shine the headlight, straight into my eyes. At the drive-in, double feature,
Like the roadkill, I'm paralysed.
You see through my disguise
pull the lever, break the fever
and say your last goodbyes.
I was singing along to the lyrics – under my breath, I thought – when everyone turned to look at me. I didn't realize I had been singing that loud. I turned the volume down, blushing crimson as I did so.
"I would appreciate it if you saved singing for lunchtime, Miss Swan," Mr Berty said tartly.
A few people snickered while some openly laughed. Some gave me sympathetic, I've-been-there smiles. I sank down lower in my seat.
Everyone would now spread the story that I was the weird girl, singing lyrics that didn't make sense to them because they didn't stop to think about what it meant.
It wasn't that I had anything against them personally, but I liked to keep my private life just that – private. I didn't appreciate people gawking at me and whispering about me, although it was almost impossible to stop.
The bell rang and I shuffled out of class, eager to get away before more people could stare at me.
Soon enough, it was lunchtime and I rushed to the cafeteria, eager to have a chance to sit down and relax before my afternoon classes. Only two more periods to go and I could escape home and start cooking dinner for my dad and Jake.
I sat down at my regular table, saying hello to everyone before getting out my lunch.
"How was your weekend, Bella?" Mike asked. Mike was one of my few friends, and even though he followed me around a lot, which could be a tad annoying at times, at heart he was a good guy.
I didn't spend much time with my friends at school, though this year I had set a challenge to myself that I would be a lot more sociable. After all, I didn't have much time left with these people; I might as well see them as much as I could, while I still could.
"It was good. Jake came over and we just hang out. What did you get up to?"
Mike's face, which had fallen slightly when I mentioned Jake, perked back up when I demonstrated interest about his summer. He was about to answer me when Jessica interrupted him, her mouth hanging open in wonder.
"Oh my god," she almost screamed. Everyone looked at her in puzzlement, wondering what it was that had elicited such a strong reaction from her.
"Look at the new kids!" Jessica made a subtle waving motion towards the cafeteria doors and dropped her eyes down almost immediately, not wanting to be caught staring.
In unison, everyone at our table turned to look at what was so wondrous about the new arrivals.
I felt my mouth drop open in shock as I studied them, too amazed to look away.
They were devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. Perfection that you knew existed somewhere out there but never expected to have the pleasure of seeing in your lifetime.
There was a boy and girl, holding hands and walking with quick steps through the lunchroom. They sat down at an empty table on the left of the cafeteria, far away from everyone else. The boy sat facing us while the girl sat looking at the window, her back towards the rest of the students. They were clearly aiming to be alone and not to attract attention. Well, they were wrong on that part, I thought wryly. They didn't acknowledge the hundreds of stares that were aimed their way.
The girl was tiny. Thin in the extreme, - so thin, in fact, that she could be anorexic - with small features and a pointy, elfin face. Her cheekbones looked like they could cut glass. She had deep black hair that was arranged into wild spikes that stuck out all around her head. When she turned to scan the cafeteria, I saw the color of her eyes: a disturbing indigo.
Her face held a slight smile and her eyes were amused, probably at some joke the boy with her had cracked, which drew my attention to him.
Mussy bronze colored hair that flopped into his eyes, partially obscuring one. He brushed it away with one unearthly pale white hand, displaying the same odd color that the girl with him did. He had a perfect aquiline nose, the structure of his face straight, perfect, angular, just like hers. He was…godlike. Perfect. Too pretty to be real.
They had faces that I never expected to see in Forks; painted, perhaps, by a master, as the faces of angels seemed a much more likely vision for these two. They both had the same unnaturally pale skin, and the same strange blue eyes. The two of them looked like they had stepped out of the most prestigious place in the world, despite the fact that they both had very dark shadows under their eyes, almost purple in color and reminding me of a bruise.
Jessica was right – they were both absolutely gorgeous.
But she was also wrong.
She had compared them to supermodels…these two teenagers were the very farthest thing from supermodel that you could get; as astoundingly beautiful as one, for sure, just in a different way.
At a glance, they looked fierce; deadly intelligent, coldly arrogant, and compellingly beautiful.
It was then that the boy's eyes flickered towards me and our gaze locked.
I wanted to look away, to not be caught in the embarrassing predicament of blatantly staring at a stranger, but it was impossible. His compelling purple eyes held my dark ones, and I found myself unable to tear my gaze away.
All time ceased to exist and I forgot where we were. I forgot that we were in a crowded lunchroom with hundreds of excitable, chatting students talking, and probably more than a few of them watching us. I forgot everything but the scorching heat of his eyes, sending shivers through me, making me want to pull back and push forward at the same time.
I could read hunger, lust, and a myriad of other emotions in his beautiful eyes. All I could see was his bright stare, compelling, controlling, almost…demanding and making me feel shaky, hot, like a coal fire was running through my veins and he was the cause, but at the same time the only one who could extinguish it…
"Bella. Bella. Hello, Bella?" Jessica was snapping her fingers in front of my face. I blinked and looked at her, dazed.
Using my peripheral vision I could see that the boy was turned towards the girl again, not looking at anything past her. A rush of feral disappointment rocked through me.
"Sorry, what?" As I looked around the table, I noticed everyone was staring at me.
She giggled. "You were staring at the Cullen kid. It was like you were in a trance. I had to call your name repeatedly."
Four heads nodded emphatically, agreeing with Jessica.
I only took in part of her sentence. "The Cullen kid?"
"Yeah."
She leaned towards me conspiratorially, as if she was about to tell me a secret.
"The Cullen family just moved here from Alaska, right, for sure. There's, umm…five, that's it, five kids in the family, and they're all adopted."
"Is that all you found out?"
My voice was casual as I questioned Jessica's expertise in knowing all the gossip. On my other side, Mike snickered.
Jessica's eyes flared and her hand flexed a little on the table but her face remained neutral. She was annoyed with me for suggesting she didn't know anything else about them, and for showing her up in front of Mike.
I knew already that I was going to pay for that later.
"Yes, there's more, don't worry. Edward and Alice – that's the kids over there," she pointed to the table where the Cullens were sitting, clearly not caring if they saw; "They have just started their senior year, like us, and they are the youngest adopted kids in the family. There are three others that have been adopted before them, but they're college age and going to Dartmouth, I think…two more boys and a girl."
"Anything on the parents," I asked nonchalantly, as I unwrapped my sandwich.
It was weird, but I felt like I had to know everything about these two kids and their family, even the parents. I wanted to know their whole life story.
"Well, sort of…I found out that the father, well the adoptive father, used to be a doctor or something…but he lives at home now with his wife to help look after the kids, or something like that. It's a little sketchy."
Jessica shrugged her shoulders, picking up her yoghurt. It was clearly all I was going to get out of her.
"Oh," I said lamely.
I was watching Edward again, out of the corner of my eye. He wasn't focused singularly on Alice anymore, but was instead looking around the cafeteria, appraising it, as she had done earlier.
I wasn't sure, because I was using my peripheral vision, but I thought his eyes paused on me for a couple more seconds than was normal.
Lunch passed quickly, as it tended to do, and soon I was on my way to advanced Biology.
I had tried my hand at Chemistry last year, because my dad wanted me to, but I didn't end up liking it so I decided to switch to Mr Banner's class.
When I got to the classroom, Mr Banner was already there, putting people in seating charts. I hurried to his desk to find out whom I was sitting with. I hoped it wouldn't be Eric, last year I had gotten stuck with him as a partner in English and he had talked my ear off…
Bella Swan – Edward Cullen.
Well, that was interesting. I suppose I would get the chance to talk to him, see if he was smart, get to know him...maybe see if that bizarre heat flared up again.
I headed to my desk and sat down, wanting the day to be over.
Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it – Mr Banner had decided that today we were just going over the syllabus and wasn't going to bother teaching us anything today, thus subjecting us to an hour of boredom. Tomorrow would be considered our first proper lesson.
It was fortunate because I could spend this time listening to my iPod, I thought as I pulled it out.
It hadn't escaped my notice that Edward Cullen hadn't arrived yet, so my semi formed plans of introducing myself and getting to know him were out the window. It was good to know I had a backup plan, in the form of Placebo waiting for me.
I had just flipped on a song of his I couldn't remember the name of and was enjoying the first guitar and drum riff when I saw shiny black dress shoes walking leisurely down the aisle towards me. I kept my head down and focused more intently on the song, trying to place it.
Even through the pounding beat, I heard the screech of the chair next to me being pulled back and I realized – the dress shoes belonged to him.
My head lurched sharply upwards, but I looked straight ahead, instead choosing to spy on him in my peripheral vision. His head was down, focusing on his notebook.
He wasn't paying any attention to Banner, in fact he was drawing in his notebook, seemingly absent minded.
I waited for the moment when he would talk to me, even glancing in his direction once or twice to prompt him, but he never spoke.
I sat there in disbelief, wondering why after he had looked at me like he did in the cafeteria; he didn't talk to me, or acknowledge my presence at all.
Not that I minded, it was just...weird.
When the bell finally rang, I was relieved. I gathered up my books, noticing that he had gotten up too, and was packing up.
I finally noticed his attire. He was wearing a black sweater that clung to his body, showing off his muscled chest, and faded blue jeans. His clothes were unmistakably designer, and no doubt cost more than I was worth.
I discreetly watched him until he left the classroom, disturbing grace in every movement he made. Only then did I realize I would be late for Gym. I shook my head, disoriented.
In Gym, Jessica bounded up to me.
"What was that in Biology, Bella?" She asked as she pulled her uniform on.
"You're in my Biology class?" I attempted to deflect her as I struggled with my uniform. I knew all too well she was in Biology with me – I had seen her throw impatient looks at me all lesson.
"Yes, I am in your Bio class, now out with it!" Jessica was not to be put off.
"You're sitting next to Edward Cullen!"
Pushing my sweater in my bag, I half-turned to roll my eyes at her. "Yes, I am."
"Well, Bella, next lesson you are going to talk to him. Don't think I didn't see you ignoring him all lesson."
She giggled before prancing out the door, throwing me a wink as she did so. My feeble protest of 'he was ignoring me' faded away when the door swung shut.
She was so annoyingly persistent sometimes.
I came out and immediately spotted Jessica, warming up. I walked over to her and joined in on the exercises. Today, we were playing basketball.
I tried not to cringe. There was no way I could participate.
Forty-five minutes later, I was panting and sitting on a bench at the side of the Gym, out of breath. I had knocked myself in the head with the ball and had been miraculously allowed to sit out. I gratefully accepted, which brought me to where I was now, waiting for the last bell to ring so I could go home.
It was in this state of mind that I noticed Alice Cullen was in my Gym class. I hadn't noticed her before; being too focused on not getting myself injured.
She was talented, passing and bouncing the ball perfectly when it was her turn, but she didn't actively seek out the ball. She stayed at the back of the court, not really paying attention to what was going on in the game. It intrigued me.
When the bell finally rang, Alice Cullen was the first one out.