Disclaimer: The bad news is that I don't own Edward, Jasper, Emmett, Carlisle, James or even Jacob. Stephenie Meyer does. However the good news is that I know that they all WANT me to own them.

Prologue

"If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain" By Emily Dickinson.

I should regret having moved to Forks. It was undeniably one of the most dangerous mistakes ever made. Yet I can't deny the fact that I would do it again and again if ever given the chance.

Oscar Wilde once said, "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

This is exactly why I cannot find it in me to regret it; before we moved there I merely existed. But with the help of some extraordinary people- especially one person- I was given the opportunity to actually live.

I just hope those extraordinary people don't come to rescue me because I couldn't bear to put them in peril. I could not subject them to the repercussions of my own existence.

"Bellaaa," Charlie and Nessie cooed. I remained silent, hoping I was dreaming that they were trying to get me to wake up. Instead I burrowed deeper into the covers and snuffled at the delightful smell; it smelled of home.

"Bells?" breathed Charlie in my ear. Nope, they were definitely there. I ignored them hoping they'd let me be.

"Bella-Bella," Nessie sang. Christ! My sister is way too persistent.

"Sweetie? Sugar? Darling?" I attempted to put my pillow over my head to block out the endearments Charlie knew I despised but the old-timer snatched it before my drowsy muscles could. "ISABELLA!"

"WHAT?!" I yelled back impetuously.

It really sucked to have a half vampire sister with ADHD and an adoptive father who was a cop and reeked of authority.

"Oh good, you're awake," Charlie grinned back triumphantly. I had to give it to the old man; he really knew how to push one's buttons. I think that's why he made such a great cop. He antagonized criminals into confession.

I smiled back at Charlie in a silent confirmation that I would be up. He huffed and exited my room whilst I snuggled back down into the blankets to savor my last five minutes in bed for the day. Unfortunately my omniscient, annoying sister decided to accompany me in my haven. I laid out my arm for her to rest her head on my shoulder. Despite being a pain in my ass I truly did love my sister dearly.

***

The reluctance to get out of bed transpired from many factors. Firstly it was cold and raining. Don't get me wrong, I loved rain because it gave that sense of peace and calm. I just preferred to watch and listen to it in the comfort of my bed. Yet the foremost challenge of the day would have to have been our first day at our new high school, 'Forks High.'

Some people thrive on the idea of going to a new school: fresh start, new friends, new rules, attention, and you can most probably pretend to be who ever you want to be. This may all be well and good for most people, but for me it was not likelihood. You see I was different from the rest. Nessie and I may have looked like your average teenagers, but I doubted the average teen prefers a balanced diet of food AND blood.

***

How we came to be that way all started with a love story. In a nutshell: our dad Phil who was a vampire fell madly in love with our human mom Renee. Before you knew it 'mini me's were on the way. Everything was just peachy until difficulties arose with the pregnancy. Mom wasn't strong enough. Unfortunately the birth of my twin sister and I caused the death of her. Phil was devastated and took out his anger on us with physical and mental abuse until we were unintentionally rescued by the Volturi at aged ten. They had, by some means, discovered our existence as half vampires and come to engage in damage control. As far as we know, we were the only half vampires and this caused concern for the Volturi because they had no idea of our capabilities, demeanor or anything else to do about us for that matter. They predicted we would wreak havoc like a neophyte. No doubt we would have been annihilated on the spot like our abusive father, had it not been for the underground chambers we were hidden in. They assumed we had left the house because our sweet scent was diffused by the many meters of earth above us. It was a shame they hadn't given Phil a change to talk before his swift execution because he would have no doubt ratted us out. He'd be turning in his grave right now, knowing we survived being tortured or murdered by the Volturi. Thankfully Phil had never sexually abused us- he was too disgusted with us 'devil spawn' for that- yet he tortured us mentally and physically to our capacity. We waited down in that black hole beneath the house a week until we were rescued by the neighborhood cop, Charlie, who in turn adopted us. He never found our dark secret and I doubted he ever would. I loved him more for his unawareness but still, I knew that if he held such knowledge he'd still love us. Charlie, Ness and I had an unspeakable, yet unconditional love. He'd have to have an unconditional love to put up with Ness and her pranks.

Eight years later, I still had insecurity and trust issues. Our once father inflicted unmentionable things on his two innocent children. And not to mention a mob of vampire royalty were inconsistently on the hunt for us. Nessie was my anchor though. If anything, the calamities we endured only made her stronger whereas on me it had the opposite effect.

***

"OW!" I yelled at my sister. She pinched me really hard on my butt.

"Sorry. The thinking you were doing looked like it hurt so I had to stop it somehow," She didn't sound sorry at all "what were you thinking Bells?"

"Just about school…" I trailed off. It wasn't exactly the truth because I had been thinking about it first, but it wasn't the absolute truth either.

"School…" Nessie's face took on a dreamy look. Uh-oh, I know that look. "I can't wait!" She squealed.

That was not the eagerness of a dedicated, academic student; it was the eagerness of a plotting devilkin. Ness never exactly had the track record of a saint. She regarded school as a playground to display her hyper-ness and funny business.

"I wonder if the principal of Forks High is as bitchin' as principal Crawley…?" Nessie mused.

I snorted.

The only reason she thought Crawley was "bitchin'" was because when he finally reached his breaking point from Ness' antics he actually hired a hit man to take her down. She was that bad. Fortunately Ness conquered the hit man before he could do any damage to her. Otherwise I'd have been sister-less. It helped sometimes to be a half vampire and have a sheriff as a father.

At lunch that next day, the whole student body watched the arrest of principal Crawley, as Nessie promised him over the excited whispers of the students that she'd make sure the rest of the pupils keep in check. Mr. Crawley nearly blew a gasket at the irony of her words. She'd be the last person he'd appoint that task to.

I had to admit that she may have been a force to be reckoned with, but I loved her all the same. Sometimes I had to join in with her pranks in order to keep her out of danger. The last one I participated in was one of the last few leading up to principal Crawleys contracting a hit man. During the night Ness and I had snook into the school gym and rigged all the showers to spray out green fabric dye. The cheerleaders had to cheer the next day at the pep rally and home game like "the little green aliens they really are" as Ness had put it. Principal Crawley was furious to say the least. He had no evidence it was us but he knew without a doubt that Nessie was behind it all, as did the rest of the school. I tried to hide from all the attention that week when the majority of the student body came up to congratulate me on our "awesome stunt." Their constant focus on Nessie and I was unbearable, although Ness didn't seem to mind.

"Come on then Bells. Lets get up for the craptastic day of school" she said.

"You've changed your tune. A minute ago you were excited to scope out our new principal," I frowned, confused.

"I know. But I kinda promised the old man I'd behave for at least the first week" she grumbled. I chuckled. That's a feat I'd like to see, I thought.

***

I went downstairs to find Charlie sitting at the kitchen island, reading the newspaper and drinking a mug of coffee. I grabbed a sip of it before starting the breakfast. Other than a mock frown, Charlie said nothing. Just as the French toast was made for Charlie, Nessie entered the kitchen in her bathrobe. She must have just finished in the bathroom so I slid to her my untouched coffee and chucked her a cereal bar over my shoulder whilst I dashed upstairs to use the only bathroom.

"Why don't I get French toast like the old man?!" she complained. "Because you are a teenage girl and don't want to get fat!" I retorted. I heard Charlie huff. I thought it was because it sounded as if nobody would care if he got fat because he was already used to us calling him an 'old man.'

He wasn't really old to be honest. Sure, he was older than our eternally thirty year old father by about a decade, but forty was hardly ancient. He wasn't in too bad shape either because of his occupation and chasing after Ness twenty four seven, but you couldn't deny his slight beer belly.

As I washed myself in the steamy shower with my strawberry body wash and shampoo/conditioner my thoughts drifted back to school. I was really dreading the first day.

We'd recently moved from New Hampshire to Forks over the summer vacation for Charlie's job promotion. He was finally going to be a 'chief,' even if it was only in a small Podunk town. I wasn't angry about the decision to move here, but I wasn't too pleased about it either. With a population in the low hundreds everyone was bound to know each other and secrets and rumors were definitely a common occurrence. It wasn't an ideal place for two half vampires to stay inconspicuous. Yet it was hardly as if Charlie knew of our true genetic makeup, anyway. It's just in a large place we usually blended in.

Being the new girls at school we knew we would definitely attract unwanted attention. Especially there, where the pupils had remained the same since kindergarten. There was only one preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school in a fifty mile radius.

I left my sanctuary in the shower and got dressed, leaving my hair to dry naturally. I knew I'd regret that later as it would be in untamable curls, especially in the omnipresent mist there. Sometimes I felt a little bit jealous of my sister who had perfectly straight hair. I picked out my items of clothing without contemplation and donned the navy blue tank top and sweater and my black skinny jeans. Never much of a makeup person I only applied a little eyeliner and mascara, then lathered on my cherry flavored chap stick. I couldn't stand that lip gloss stuff. I personally thought it looked revolting, as if someone had a dribbling problem. I also had a weird image in my head of a guy getting glued to a girls glossed lips. I knew it wasn't possible but it was kind of off-putting.

Nessie knocked on my door as she hummed the mission impossible theme tune on her way downstairs. I think it was in retaliation of Charlie's expectations of her for the day.

I grabbed my brown messenger bag and chased down the stairs after her. Nessie was putting on the red chucks while I quickly grabbed the black ones. Between the two of us we had a rainbow assortment of chuck Taylor's which we shared (we owned other shoes and boots as well, but chucks were the most practical and versatile). Nessie regarded the raincoats with disdain whilst I snatched them up with our long grey knit gloves. They were a far cry from the skimpy leather jackets Ness was used to wearing. She liked to dress the part as well as act the part of a bad girl. But I noticed her attire was toned down a notch for once; instead of the typical punk/ bad girl attire she wore the same clothes as me, albeit a red tank top and sweater. We looked too much alike as it was, never mind wearing similar clothes. I didn't say anything or change though.

"PEACE OUT CHIEF!" Nessie hollered to Charlie in the kitchen.

"Bye Ness. Have a great day girls." Charlie called, and then added on gravely, as an after thought "Watch out for her Bells, please!"

"Will do dad. See you at dinner" I said.

Snatching the keys from the counter, I ran out to 'The Beast.' Nessie had named it, and I agreed that it suited it well. Not only did it look like one, it sounded like one too with its obnoxious rumbling.

***

I drove which suited Ness fine because she could have free reign of the music stations. She found an oldies station that played rock and roll from the seventies. The opening piano chords of 'Let It Be' by the Beatles began. It was slightly depressing to listen to it so early in the morning and on the first day of school.

The second song came up. That was more high spirited. It was "My Generation" by The Who. I peeked to my right to find Nessie grinning wickedly at me and nodding. She new this song was my weakness; it made me loose my inhibitions. She cranked the volume up high and we rocked out to it, singing, dancing (well bouncing), tapping and laughing. In my moment of madness I hadn't realized we'd reached the school. As I turned off the ignition there was a poignant silence.

I also hadn't realized it was that loud.

Nessie was already out of the truck and giggling as she retrieved the jackets from the back. When I stepped out I realized everyone in the car park was staring at our truck, or more accurately at us. Mortified, my cheeks burned and I tried to cover my face with my waist length hair but it was hopeless; the damage was already done. Ness cackled and swung an arm around my shoulders.

"Don't worry Bells. I'm sure they loved our rockin' out!" She chirped. She did that on purpose. She knew I don't like to make a spectacle of myself.

Humiliated beyond belief, I watched my feet as she dragged me towards the front office.

The small room was stifling hot in comparison to the harsh weather outside. The door clicked shut and a feeling of claustrophobia settled upon me. Adorning the walls were various plants and there was possibly only twenty square feet of empty space to begin with. Behind the desk sat a lady with fire engine red hair and rosy cheeks. As we had entered the room her eyes had lit up like a starved African kid spotting candy.

Nessie snickered quietly so only I could hear and I groaned in foreboding.

"You must be the Swan kids. Ooooh. It's not often we get new students. It's a pleasure to have you here at Forks High" she gushed.

I cringed. Even the weird lady knew who we were.

"Yup, that's us" Nessie said nonchalantly.

The lady seemed slightly put out by Nessie's lack of enthusiasm so I thought I'd put her out of her misery.

"Thank you very much…" I looked at her, realizing I didn't know her name.

"Mrs. Cope" she replied. I reluctantly forced out a quiet "happy to be here too."

"So here are your schedules. And here's a map each, although I don't think you'll need it because I have a committed student who kindly offered to show you around. Here he is now," she said as a short elfish looking boy squashed his face into the glass of the door, grinning like a dork.

"Have a nice day girls!" Mrs. Cope called cheerily. I doubted it. I held back a grunt but Nessie looked like she was ready to pee herself in excitement. We exited the room towards the boy.

"Hi beautiful ladies. My name's Mike." He eyed us both up and down slowly and held out his hand in greeting. I looked at it in trepidation. I feared for the sanitization of my hand if I shook his, firstly because he was a teenage boy, secondly I wouldn't have put it past him to kiss it, and thirdly I noticed his hair was gelled in hundreds of spikes. He probably still had gel on them.

"Hello," I said quietly "I'm Bella and this is Nessie." Even if I didn't want to shake his hand I could still try and be polite.

Nessie grabbed his hand and shook it forcefully while she honed her vision in on his hair. She too obviously found it freaky because she wore a look of amazement. I agreed with her. I thought the male population had grown out of that in the nineties. Mike obviously seemed oblivious to that and was bouncing up and down excitedly. Ness put a hand on his head to retain his bouncing and brushed her fingers through his hair. Instead of being annoyed with her ruining his 'do' he looked on adoringly at her.

"Well aren't you a little puppy?" She chuckled.

The first three periods went past successfully. We got a lot of stares and heard lots of whispers directed at us (our hearing was slightly advanced being a vampire/human hybrid) yet nobody approached us. Nessie was in most of the lessons with me and she even kept her promise about being good. Charlie would have been so proud.

***

Fourth period was different.

I had AP art. Nessie had AP music. She always liked to make a lot of noise.

As I stumbled into the art room I noticed there were only six people in it including myself. There was a division in the group; the table at the back and to the right consisted of a tall, thin, part Asian girl with long brown hair and eyes. She also supported some trendy black designer glasses similar to my own. Mine weren't for poor vision though, quite the opposite actually. I used them to tone down what I saw; especially when I was painting I got migraines because the intricacy of things was often hard on the eyes. With the advanced vision we can see follicles in objects. Sometimes when I painted without my glasses I painted things others couldn't see.

Next to the girl sat a boy: he wasn't extremely short, but in comparison to the girl he looked it. He had incredibly curly hair- spongy like an afro- which contradicted his skinny emo-ish apparel.

On the other side of the room sat two boys and a tiny girl. Their eyes followed me incredulously as I walked to the front to drop off my slip at the teacher's desk. I tried hard not to stumble, so I watched my feet and ignored their faces. Even if I couldn't see them, I could still feel their gazes burning a hole in my back.

I made it to a desk alone just behind the two groups and let out a deep sigh of relief when I noticed a peculiar smell. It was distinctly familiar but stronger than I had ever smelled it before. I just couldn't put my finger on what it smelled like though.

Turning my head to the right I discreetly breathed in the air of the tall girl and small boy. They smelled of the usual coppery fragrance of fresh blood and their own distinguishing aroma. Turning my head slightly to the left and leaning my mouth in my palm as if just resting it, I took a deep, slow breath. The scent was definitely coming from one of those three, if not all of them.

It was so potent.

I turned back to the front and listened as the teacher set our assignment. I knew I could figure it out later. The teacher set the assignment of drawing a picture that held a secret. I could hear Angela whispering to Ben about the Mona Lisa and the secrets it supposedly kept in the Da Vinci Code. To my left I only heard silence. It was if they hadn't even moved a muscle.

Before I started jotting down ideas, I took another deep, slow breath to try and figure it out again, but I froze in fear half way through exhalation as dawning came upon me.

Blood.

Or rather lack thereof.

The feeling of ice trickled down my spine as the recognition of what they were became me.

Vampires!

Their aroma reminded me of Phil's. I knew I had smelled it before.

But how could they stand being in a place inhabited by so many humans, I wondered.

To try and confirm my suspicions I assessed their pale, translucent skin and the lack of the barely distinguishable heartbeat I could usually hear from a human. Saving the worst until last I slowly raised my head to examine their supposedly blood red eyes, but shockingly I was faced with three pairs of curious, luminous gold eyes.

What. The. Hell?

Hey guys! This is my first fanfic, so please go easy on me. Though that doesn't mean I don't appreciate constructive criticism (just no bitchin' is what I mean). Also this is the first chapter so it is a bit descriptive and boring. Please forgive me, I promise it will get better! If you have any questions about my story I will be honored if you'd ask.

Reviews= Love...and I need a little bit of TLC. =P