I took an idea from one of my original novels (not yet published) and applied it to the Twi-Verse. Someday, if I ever get off my arse and publish the damn thing, you may read about Reya, Lucas and the Company that created them, but for now, we've got my idea's installation into fan-fiction. Stephenie Meyer owns all things Twilight related, everything else is mine and mine alone.
Chapter 1 – Bella PoV
Today, I became Bella Swan. The long lost daughter of the renowned Police Chief, Charlie Swan, of Forks, WA. Population of less than five-thousand people. According to our story, his high-school sweetheart Renée abandoned Forks right after high school, and didn't know she was pregnant with me. Furthermore, she never told Charlie about me, and now she's dead, so that left me to my next-of-kin, which according to my falsified birth certificate was one Charles A. Swan. The only truth about that is he really did have a high-school sweetheart named Renée, and that individual really is dead.
The truth is that Charlie Swan has been my friend and mentor for many years. He was fresh out of the police academy when we met the first time. He had been working private security to help pay for his schooling when he found out what the Company was doing to their "subjects." He helped me escape, found me a family, and kept me off the Company's radar for as long as he could. Eventually I became self-sufficient and he knew his presence was no longer needed.
We kept in contact though. Letters, pay-phone calls, even a telegram once or twice. Always something that was difficult or impossible to trace. I didn't want the Company to find me, and I didn't want them to know that Charlie was helping me. They'd kill him right away if they knew.
But even Charlie couldn't keep them away forever. A news story with my picture on it got out, and within a week, I was lured away from my house under the false-pretense of a young woman in distress that needed saving. I never could resist saving lives. It was built into my DNA. Literally. But no, there was no young woman. Rather, there was, but she was merely an actor, a pawn in the grander scheme to take me down.
While I was out on the wild goose chase, the Company swept in and killed my family. Parents, siblings, even the dog. Leaving me with nothing but the clothes on my back and a vengeful heart, I went after the Company. They thought that killing everyone, apart from Charlie, that I held near and dear would leave me nowhere to go, and that I'd return to them like a prodigal daughter. Little did they know that killing my loved ones left me nothing to lose, and I went after them instead.
I lost count of how many people's blood were on my hands, I lost the capacity to even care. They were evil, and they had to die. All of them. After I killed every single one of them, I went after the research, destroying every shred of evidence of my existence and the science behind it. As far as the world knew, Project Genexis never happened, and the subjects they tested never existed.
Once I had carried out my revenge, I truly had nothing left. I tried to drown my sorrows in vast amounts of drugs and alcohol, but nothing worked. I could down multiple gallon jugs of vodka and never feel a thing apart from a pressing need to pee. My metabolism burned off anything I put into it far faster than I could ever feel the effects. And forget injection drugs; the day they could work on my system, pigs would fly.
It was during one of these attempted binges that Charlie found me. He helped get me back into a better mental state and a month later, I had all the paperwork I needed to pass as Bella Swan, junior at Forks High, daughter of the police chief. Truthfully, Charlie was a father figure to me, sometimes more-so than my own adopted dad was. I looked forward to the change in environment, and the chance to start over with a clean slate. If only I could clean my memories away in the same fashion.
On this cold, rainy day, I made my way to Forks High School in my new-to-me truck. The truck itself was older than Jesus, but it ran and I loved it. It was the first thing that I felt I could truly call mine. Charlie bought it for me, but let me pay him back. It was in my name, well, the name of Bella Swan anyway, and it was mine to care for.
Pulling into the lot, I noticed that my behemoth of a truck wasn't all that out of place. It was perhaps the oldest vehicle in the lot, but didn't stand out as badly as the shiny silver Volvo that I saw at the other end of the lot. I wondered if the teachers had to share this lot with the students. No way did a teenager own a car like that.
I stopped by the office to get my schedule and was given a map of the school and a slip that I was to have all the teachers sign and hand back to the office at the end of the day. Right, like the Chief's daughter would be caught dead skipping any classes on her very first day. I'd sooner swallow a live chicken.
On my way to my assigned locker, I was accosted by a gaggle of high school boys. Groaning inwardly, I gave them my best smile and friendly greeting. Which of course practically had their pants dropping to the floor along with their drool. I should really have learned to rein that in, but alas. I was made to draw people in, my face alone got their attention, and the smile and natural twinkle in my eyes sent them over the edge.
"Hi everyone, I'm Bella," I finally said when no one spoke.
"Don't worry about the Neanderthals," a female voice from behind me chirped. "They'll get used to seeing another pretty face around eventually. You're like the shiny new toy today. I'm Jessica by the way." She thrust her hand out to me in greeting. I made sure to maintain intense eye contact with her during our handshake, so she wouldn't take notice of the odd texture of my skin. As long as I could keep people enchanted with eye-contact, they more or less ignored the subtle oddities about my appearance.
"Bella Swan," I replied, giving her a small smile. "Any chance one of you can direct me towards the English class with Mr. Berty?" I asked, checking the first class on my schedule. All of the guys immediately raised their hands and were fighting with each other to escort me to class. I doubted even half of them had the same class first period. Jessica rolled her eyes and I just chuckled at them. This was nothing new for me. I decided to play eenie-meenie-miney-moe with them just to get some amusement out of this ridiculous situation. The lucky winner was one Eric Yorkie, who proceeded to tell me he was the eyes and ears of the school. I doubted that very strongly, but let him live in his illusion.
I let him do all the talking as we strolled down the hall. The less I talked the better. Charlie always said it was better to be a mystery than an open book. That analogy confused me to no end, since many open books are in fact mysteries, but I digress. Once inside the class, I handed my slip to Mr. Berty, who promptly signed it and directed me to find any open seat. Eric was already waving me over to him. Evidently, the seat right in front of him was vacant. Awesome.
It was much the same for the rest of the morning. I had trigonometry with a pair of siblings that were about the most beautiful people I'd ever seen in my life. As the teacher went through roll call, I learned their names. They were twins named Jasper and Rosalie Hale. Jasper had tight curly golden hair that barely kissed the line of his chiseled jaw, while Rosalie had long flaxen waves that touched the small of her back. They had unnaturally pale and flawless skin and black eyes. I'd never seen someone with black eyes apart from myself, and that was only when I was in a state of extreme emotion.
They were very obviously inhuman, but I didn't know what else they could possibly be. I knew they weren't like me as I was the only one of my kind. History and science would dictate that the only other option was human, but it was so clear to me that they either had gone under extensive plastic surgery or something else was going on. Not that it was any of my business, but I couldn't help the curiosity.
The teacher made me give an introduction, which I thoroughly hated. "Um hi. I'm Bella Swan, Chief Swan's daughter. Just moved from Phoenix."
"Shouldn't you be tanner?" Rosalie hissed. As if she was one to talk. I was quite certain she'd turn into a lobster the moment her skin saw sunlight.
"Yeah, they say I'm part albino," I deadpanned. Half the class erupted in laughter, the other half were confused. Jasper was chuckling, but Rosalie just steamed. Clearly I was already on her bad side and we hadn't even officially met. The teacher calmed the class down and sent me back to my seat. I was thankful to be on the opposite side of the room from Rosalie. Something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. And it wasn't just the inhumanness about her appearance.
Finally lunch arrived and I was escorted by the same group of guys to a table where they all tried to pull out chairs for me. I ignored them all and opted for a seat between Jessica and a girl I remember being named Angela. "I'm Angela Weber," she said, repeating her name. I'd heard it twice already that day from two different teachers taking roll call, but she didn't need to know that I paid that close of attention. Well, it would seem as though I did, but really I just naturally remembered damn near everything.
"Yeah, you're in my trigonometry and Spanish classes, right?" She nodded, grinning at me, clearly pleased that I recalled her face in the crowd. Truly, she stood out to me because she was one of the few that didn't seem completely enthralled by my presence.
I met a few more students, one of which was Lauren Mallory, who apparently had it out for me before she even met me. She heard a rumor that Tyler Crowley had the hots for me, so that made me inherently evil and a bitch. I couldn't have cared less about high school drama and high school boys, so her dislike was unfounded, but I also didn't care about making any real friends. Then the atmosphere in the room completely shifted, pulling my attention to the door.
First came Jasper Hale, followed by a tiny pixie-like girl with short inky hair poking out in all directions. He twirled her around while miraculously keeping all the food on his tray, and she giggled happily. Next came the largest boy I'd ever seen, with a shoulder breadth the size of a football field. On his arm was the icy Rosalie Hale whose black eyes scanned the room for me and promptly glared once our eyes met. Whatever, bitch. I don't have time to care about your disdain for me, I thought.
Then it felt like all the air was sucked out of the room. A fifth student walked in. With hair that reminded me of the sunset and a face that belonged to a Greek god, he smirked slightly at some inner joke, I surmised and it only added to his beauty. His grin was lopsided and mysterious. Tall and lanky, he glided across the cafeteria floor with an inhuman grace, much like the four students that preceded him. They definitely were not human; though it was obvious they were trying very hard to be.
"Who are they?" I asked no one in particular.
"The Cullens," Angela replied, whispering lowly as if they could hear us talking about them from all the way across the noisy lunchroom. "The blonde is Rosalie, she and her twin Jasper are in our trig class." I nodded my understanding. "She's with the big guy Emmett, and Jasper is with the tiny girl, Alice. The last one is Edward."
"When you say 'with,'" I queried.
"Yeah, they're together… like together-together. I'm not even sure that's legal," Jessica interjected.
"Jess, they're foster siblings. Not actually related," Angela retorted.
"Yeah, but they live together… it's weird. They were all adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife. He's like this foster dad slash match maker. But Edward's single. And apparently intends to stay that way. He never gives anyone here the time of day."
"Okay, then why is he staring at me?" I asked. As if he heard me, he immediately averted his gaze. But the entire time Jessica and Angela were telling me about his elusive family, he was staring at me as if trying to figure me out. Yes, dude, I'm the new kid. Not that hard to figure out when the entire school population is under five hundred students.
"Figures you'd be the one to get his attention," Lauren spat. Apparently it was meant as an insult, but I could tell she was only showcasing her own insecurities. I rolled my eyes at the immaturity of it all. Ugh. High school. I had been so excited for the lunch break, and then all I could think of was getting to my next class. As soon as I was finished eating, I nearly sprinted to drop off my tray and left the cafeteria post-haste. My next class was Advanced Biology. One of the few advanced classes they even had in this school. Why Charlie had to live in this tiny backwater town, I didn't know. The resources and opportunities in Forks were abysmal.
Once I entered the biology room, I noticed it was already populated with a few students, Edward Cullen being one of them. He was seated at the back of the room at a table by himself. My lucky day. As I walked further into the room, my hair was abruptly swept up into the air by the fan on the teacher's podium. Brushing it out of my face, I got another look at Edward. His face was contorted in a menacing scowl, and his already black eyes seemed impossibly darker, nearly taking over the entire sclera of his eyes. If there was any doubt about his inhumanity before, it was squashed at that moment.
I had thought Rosalie glared at me with pure hatred, but that had nothing on this. If looks could kill, I'd be a pile of ashes, blowing about the room in the breeze from the ridiculous fan. Though even with the evil-incarnate that inhabited his face, he was still the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Finally after three agonizing seconds, I made it to the teacher's desk and had him sign the paper. My luck continued when he told me the seat next to Edward was the only available one in the class. I had been really excited about that notion, but now that Edward apparently hated my existence, I was dreading every step that brought me closer to him.
Eventually, I sat down, keeping to the far side of the table. As far from Edward as I could get. It seemed he had a similar notion and kept to the edge of his side as well. I was thankful that the day was dedicated to a lecture and we wouldn't have to interact with each other for any reason. "Bella, I understand you were in advanced program in Phoenix, so you may have already gone over this. Just let me know and I'll give you some more challenging work, if you need." I nodded at Mr. Varner, having every intention of doing no-such-thing. Even the most advanced biology work wouldn't challenge me, so it wouldn't make any difference to me. I'd just make straight As and then move on with my life.
As soon as the bell rang, Edward was out the door and down the hallway. Faster than any human had a right to be. Did he have any clue how obvious he was being? Even I knew how to hide myself better than that.
I glanced at my schedule again, already knowing my next class was Gym, but hoping that the letters on the page would magically rearrange and I'd have any class but. My awesome luck kept on when I got to the gym and saw Alice and Emmett Cullen were in my class. At least Spanish, English, and History were Cullen/Hale free. I'd have to revel in those classes and enjoy the relief from their presence. Though Emmett unnerved me least of all of them, which seemed odd considering how ginormous he was.
After roll call, we were divided into groups to play volleyball. I had to decide if I was going to play the role of super athletic student who was amazing at every sport or super clumsy girl that trips over her own two feet. I couldn't play somewhere in the middle, it was too obvious that I was faking it, I had learned before.
As my luck would have it, Emmett was on the same team as me. He grinned at me as if we shared some secret and then winked. What the hell was that about? I gave him a confused expression, but he just guffawed at me in response. Alice was on the opposite team, also smiling conspiratorially. It was as if they both knew something that I didn't and were waiting for me to figure it out. I opted for the super athletic role, as Emmett and Alice were both rather adept at volleyball. Even though she couldn't have been taller than five feet, Alice could jump with the best of us and her serve was unparalleled.
On my way out of the gym, Mike Newton stopped me. "Hey Bella, um, if you ever wanna hang out. You know, after school or whatever. That'd be cool."
"Thanks," I replied, giving him a small grin. "I have to cook dinner for my Dad most nights, but I'm sure there'll be times when we can hang." I didn't want to get his hopes too high, but I could see that I'd done just that. I knew Jessica had her eyes on him, and I didn't want to get in the way of that, and I already had made an enemy of her friend Lauren. It wouldn't take much for them to completely ostracize me. Not that I cared about popularity, but it was easier to be part of the in-crowd than be the outcast. That much I knew. And not that Charlie wouldn't love for me to have a social life, but he knew as well as I did how dangerous it was for me to be more than casual acquaintances with most people.
After I cleaned up from Gym, I made my way to the office. Edward Cullen was in there, of course, and it sounded like he was trying to get out of Biology. Did I stink or something? Jeez, even Rosalie didn't seem to hate me that much, and Emmett and Alice seemed to actually like me. So what the hell was his problem? Turned out he was about as lucky as I was and ended up having to stay in Biology. He thanked Mrs. Cope for her help and dashed out of the room, but not before shooting me another icy glare. Calm your tits, dude, I thought.
I handed Mrs. Cope my completed slip and made my way to my truck. Eric, Jessica, Mike, Tyler, Angela and Ben were all standing around it. "I think that if your car had a social security number, it'd be 'one,'" Mike joked.
"Don't bash Betsy," I retorted, deciding right then and there that my truck had a name. I said goodbye to everyone, hopped in Betsy and headed out of the lot. But not before seeing the Cullens walk to their vehicle. It shouldn't have surprised me that they owned the shiny silver Volvo I'd seen that morning. What really surprised me was that Edward wasn't with them, nor anywhere else in the lot. Curious, that.
I hope you enjoyed my re-entry into the Fan-Fic world! I haven't decided if I'm going to re-post my old stories on here or not. My Fifty Shades of Grey fics are over on wordpress. You can find me there at wrenegadewriter dot wordpress dot com. I hope to be adding my Twilight Fics there, soon. Once I have the time to do so.
Edward's PoV of their first encounter will be up next! For the most part the alternating PoVs won't be a retelling of the same chapter, but there will be some overlap here and there. I think it's important to get Edward's initial reactions to the new girl. They certainly won't be the same as they were in Midnight Sun.
See you soon! I'll try for weekly updates. :)