The first day of school left me with my usual sense of dread. And I knew this time it would be worse. Because I was Charlie's daughter. The chief of police. At least I hadn't needed a ride to school from him in the cruiser. He got me an old truck from some friend that I was supposed to remember from summers long passed. It was loud and looked like it could break down at any second but it gave me freedom so I loved it. After that I hugged my dad for the first time since I was a little girl and had scraped my knees falling off my bike.
The school was easy to find and I picked the first spot I saw in the almost empty parking lot. I arrived half an hour early so I would have time to sign in. Charlie's vague directions said that the office was the building to my right so I entered the first one I saw and was happy to find the secretary Mrs. Cope, whose box-dye red hair I had assumed was a red balloon from across the lot. She eyed me up and down and broke out a huge smile showing a full set of yellow teeth and wafting the strong smell of stale coffee toward me. I hated coffee breath.
"Isabella! We have been expecting you! Your father is so happy to have you here. We all are. I remember seeing you when you were just a little girl with your mom. Shame what happened to her, she…" I drowned out Mrs. Cope's scratchy voice. She cleared her throat then and I could hear her swallow whatever it was that had caused her scratchiness. I resisted the urge to shudder. Instead I plastered a smile on my face and spoke in the sweet voice Samantha had used back in Phoenix when she wanted something.
"Mrs. Cope you are too kind! And can I say that your hair looks fabulous? I hope you don't mind but I'm in a bit of a hurry. See I'm new here," I laughed honestly at that. "Which you obviously know. And I would love some time to explore the campus before classes start." I showed her my blinding white teeth in return. Phil had awesome dental care plans.
She blinked at me once, then twice. I worried that I had done something wrong, I just had absolutely no interest in the town's gossip speak about my mother. Then Mrs. Cope slid all my papers towards me and said kindly, "You have a good first day hun."
The old Bella might have felt bad for interrupting Mrs. Cope, to whom I was probably to most interesting occurrence of the year, but in Phoenix I had changed. At the insistence of my mother Renee I had actually tried. Tried to be social and make friends, tried to have a good time. Of course I mainly did this because she promised me this would be our last move before college. And I needed to finally be a teenager. She had Phil now to take care of her. Not that she had made me move here. I could just tell that it was tearing her apart to have to stay home with me while Phil travelled the US with his minor baseball league. And so I decided to let the old Bella come out to play one more time, before closing that box and shoving it away forever.
I was starting as a junior so I had two years to make friends and have a great time. I had lightly coated my freakishly long but stubbornly straight lashes in mascara, and pulled on my favourite pair of black skinny jeans and a dark blue v-neck sweater. You could just see the slightest hint of cleavage. Samantha had always said to keep it classy after all. She had been my best friend in Phoenix. The first true friend I had ever had. I was sad to have parted with her, but the truth was that I had never felt a hundred percent comfortable in my role as her friend. With her I was always pretending to be more. I wasn't the old Bella but I also wasn't Samantha's Bella. I was somewhere in between. And Forks would be the perfect place to discover that person.
I walked back to my truck to grab my bag and hurried up the stairs to the school when the light drizzle turned into rain. The student parking lot had started to fill with cars and I was happy to notice that my truck didn't start out terribly. Except for a shiny silver car and what looked like a red BMW it actually fit in. Satisfied I turned and pushed on the door that clearly read pull. Before I could pull the door was pushed open from the inside and a boy with blonde hair came out backwards laughing at someone behind him. He knocked into me and I "oofed" as I fell on my ass, all of Mrs. Cope's papers landing in the puddles around me. The boy turned quickly and looked at me confused before realization dawned on his face. Here we go.
"Ohmygosh I am so sorry Isabella." He hurriedly bent down to grab all of my things but the sodden paper ripped in his hands.
"Uhm that's okay," I blushed. At least I wasn't wearing white pants. But I was sure that my jeans were absolutely soaked and maybe even stained. Before any of us could make another move, a tiny wraith of a girl with chin length black hair came over and pulled me to my feet.
"Hi I'm Alice! You must be Isabella, you are all anyone has been talking about last week." She bent down to my papers and took the ripped ones out of the blonde boys hand. "I can ask Mrs. Cope to make copies for you if you want." Her smile was absolutely dazzling and for a second I forgot how to breathe. She definitely had a good dental plan.
"Just Bella."
Her smile grew even wider, "Okay just Bella, I have some pants in my car you can borrow, They might be a bit short but the cropped ankle look is totally in right now. I'll bring them to you so you can change and I'll get those copies for you."
Before I could even process what she said Alice was back with a pair of white jeans. Blonde boy mumbled "sorry" to me again and then took off shooting a nervous glance at Alice. Maybe he had a crush on her? She was absolutely breathtaking. If she wasn't so short I'm sure she would be walking the runways in Paris right now.
"Thanks, you didn't have too." I gingerly took the new pants out of her outstretched hands.
"Nonsense Bella! It's no problem and you'll want to make a good impression, it's your first day." She started walking back to the office then turned around and said, "first door on your left."
I picked up my backpack and walked into the school heading quickly to what I hope she meant was the closest bathroom. Thankfully it was. I took of my booties and jeans not even bothering to enter a stall before pulling on her white pants. The were a bit tight around my butt and definitely fit the cropped ankle look but I absolutely loved them. I had planned to wear white jeans with my outfit this morning but had worried that something like this would happen. I looked at my black pants and saw that the puddle I fell into was muddy and left brown stains. That would have been seriously embarrassing. I quickly turned them inside out so I wouldn't get my bag dirty and stuffed them in. Thank god for Alice. I would totally bake her some of my awesome chocolate cupcakes for this.
Just as I was leaving the bathroom the bell rang. If this was anything like Phoenix this was just the warning bell but I had no idea how things worked in a small school like Forks High. Thankfully I saw Alice right away with my new papers in her hand. She was walking with some ridiculously good looking guy with dirty blonde hair slightly longer than hers.
"Bella! Hey this is my boyfriend Jasper. Jasper meet Bella, my new best friend." I waved shyly at him and gladly accepted my papers. He smiled briefly and then walked in the other direction with a pained look on his face. I must have looked hurt because Alice quickly told me, "not to worry," and that, "Jasper was just a bit shy." Her voice was so honest that I had no trouble believing her and gladly accepted her help in finding my first class. It had been a warning bell after all. She informed me that we had lunch and last period gym together and I was relieved to know that I had already made a friend in Forks. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. My first class was English where the teacher Mr. Berty made me, to my utter horror, introduce myself to the whole class. I quickly stammered out that my name was Bella and I was new here (duh) and then sat down in my seat. After a few second of calming my racing heart I sighed. Being put on the spot was something I had never grown accustomed too. I was much more normal if I had a few seconds to collect my thoughts first.
The blonde boy who knocked me over this morning was in my class. He introduced himself as Mike and apologized again. Then I caught him checking out my butt as I leaned over to grab my bag and he said that I looked hot. I blushed crimson and mumbled my thanks. At that moment I wanted to get as far away from Mike as possible. Especially because I saw the brunette that sat in front of me giving me the stink eye. But we had the next class together and I still wasn't sure of the layout of the school. Stink eye unfortunately was also in my class. Which also happens to be trig. Thankfully the teacher Mr. Varner didn't make me introduce myself. Even if I had thought of a funny line about how I liked long walks on the beach in the rain. I figured it was appropriate for Forks weather. The class passes slowly and I already knew that this hour would become the bane of my existence. Next was lunch to which Mike invited me to sit with "them" which I assumed included stink eye, who I now knew was Jessica Stanley, because her face turned bright red and she made a little squeaking noise. I politely declined saying that Alice had already invited me, which was technically a lie but she was the one who mentioned that we had lunch together and that I was her "new best friend."
Jessica gawked at me. "Alice Cullen?!" I feigned nonchalance and shrugged my shoulders. Hopefully I hadn't made a mistake by telling them that. Maybe we didn't have lunch together or maybe she never ate in the cafeteria. There had to be some reason why Jessica was so shocked. Before I could doubt myself more I turned on my heel and walked out of trigonometry.
I decided to look for my locker first so that I wouldn't get to lunch before Alice. My lock was old and rusty and didn't work until the fifth try but I finally got it open. I put a few papers inside and then locked it back up. No one was left in the halls so I wasn't sure which way the cafeteria was but a assumed it was at the other end of the building where I had seen Mike and Jessica go. The mindless chatter was easy to follow and I quickly found myself standing at the entrance to the caf. I scanned the room looking for Alice but couldn't see her anywhere. Mike and Jessica were sitting at one of the large tables with a few students that I recognized from my morning classes. My heartbeat sped up. Maybe Alice hadn't invited me to lunch with her. I quickly checked again but I couldn't find her or her boyfriend Jasper anywhere in the room. They definitely would have stood out with their ridiculously good looks.
I could eat lunch in my car. As soon as the thought entered my head I shook it back out. This was just the universe's way of punishing me for lying. Mike seemed nice enough, a bit too nice in fact, so I walked over to his table before I could lose my nerve and tapped him on the shoulder. Six heads shot up to look at me.
"Hey Mike do you think I could sit with you?" I could feel my cheeks heating up. A smug smile played on his face before he pulled out the chair beside him.
"Yeah totally Bella, you can sit next to me."
A girl I don't know giggled, then leaned over to Jessica and whispered loud enough for all of us to hear. "I guess Bella didn't get the memo that she wasn't cool enough to sit with the Cullen's."
My already prominent blush spread down my chest is red splotches.
"So Bella what are your other classes?" I quickly sat down and smiled relieved at Mike, I could have kissed him right now, ... or maybe shaken his hand politely. After checking my schedule and pulling out my pre-packed lunch I rattled off that I had Bio and Gym left, at which point a small groan left me, and a big smile lit up Mike's face reminding me of a golden retriever that just spotted his owner holding a tennis ball.
"Hey Bella those are the same classes I have! This is like fate we can sit together all day." I cringed inwardly and shot him a polite smile. This is not the kind of puppy I want.
I was introduced to the rest of the table where I met Lauren who had made the snide comment about me to Jessica, Angela who waved shyly with a book in her hand and the two other boys that sat at our table Erik and Tyler.
"Cute glasses Angela," I grinned. "Isn't Sarah J Maas a genius?"
Angela beamed back at me excitedly. "Thanks Bella. I love her books." She paused. "I think I'm in your English and gym class as well." I wanted to hug her. I told her that was great and asked if I could sit next to her in English tomorrow. That way I could at least get Mike off my back for one class.
DTD
Lunch passed uneventfully after that. I finished my stir fry that I had made the night before and packed up my bag. When the warning bell rang I escaped Mike by claiming that I needed to use the washroom. He quickly explained where the science wing was and I smiled in thanks. In the washroom I quickly peed having realized that needing to use the washroom was not a lie after all; and washed my hands. I pulled a stray hair off my shoulder and looked in the mirror. My blush and red splotches had completely disappeared. Grabbing my backpack off the floor I made my way to biology just as the second bell rang. Every student turned to look at me from their seats and Mr. Banner shook his finger at me.
"Ms. Swan, I have a zero tolerance policy for tardiness. Now please get to your seat." He pointed vaguely to the back and I noticed that only a single seat was left open. As I was walking towards the spot I looked up from my feet to see who my seat partner would be. There, in the last row next to the windows, sat the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. If I could even call him a boy. He sat gracefully in his chair with his elbows resting on the desk. His copper unruly hair was thick and begged to have fingers be run through it. I imagined that this was exactly what cosmo was describing when they talked about sex hair. This man, for he looked far older than a high school student, was an absolute god. His long fingers drummed on the desk and he turned to look towards me. To piercing black eyes looked straight into my soul. My breath caught and at that moment my feet tangled and with horror I realized that I was falling.
I saw a god, and I tripped. His face twisted into a look of disgust. If I were a god I would be disgusted too. I landed hard on my hands and knees, the shock vibrating through my skeleton. My hair fell in a curtain around my face and I bit my lip looking up at the god through my lashes. His mouth had fallen open slightly, his eyes glazing over. The strap of my bag had pulled down the shoulder of my sweater and the top of my pink lace bra, as well as much more cleavage than I had intended, was out for the world to see. For a moment all I could do was stare at him. Then his eyes snapped up to mine from my chest. Again I felt as if the world stopped. Good thing I was already on the ground because otherwise I would have fallen to me knees all over again. Let me worship you.
That thought brought me back to reality and I quickly pulled up my sweater. I sat down next to him. His whole body had gone tense, both of his hands clenched tight into fists. I peeked at him through my hair and saw that he was staring straight ahead. He looked as though he wasn't even breathing. My heart started to race. Had I done something to offend him? Surely me making a fool of myself didn't warrant this. The tell tale feel of tears pricked my eyes and I blinked as fast as I could to make it go away. It's from my fall. I am not crying because some boy won't look at me. I sighed. He was no boy, and I was definitely lying to myself.
Mr. Banner droned on through the rest of the period but I couldn't concentrate on anything other than the wave of hate I felt rolling off of him. It felt as if two weeks had passed by the time the bell rang. He was packed and out of the door before it even stopped ringing. I slowly packed up my bag and pulled it over my shoulder. Mike and Jessica were waiting for me when I turned around.
"You ok there Bella? That looked like it hurt." He gently rubbed my arm. I stepped away slowly so that I wouldn't hurt his feelings.
Before I could answer Jessica piped, "Which part? Where she fell or where Edward Cullen looked like he wanted to kill her?"
I blushed again. Today is not my day. "I'm fine really," I smiled fakely. "Let's head out to the gym."
DTD
The girls changing room was filled with chattering teenagers. Jessica quickly explained what happened in biology, both the fall and about Edward Cullen. Edward Cullen. So he's Alice's brother. Good genes must run in the family.
Angela stood beside me as Coach Clapp took roll call. "Don't worry about Edward. He's always been a bit unfriendly." Her smile was probably meant to be reassuring. But by "a bit unfriendly" I doubt she meant looking at people like he wanted to eat them alive.
As gym continued on, from which I was excused from today due to my lack of exercise clothes, I remembered that Alice was supposed to be in my class. Maybe I could ask her what her brothers deal was. But as I looked around the room she was nowhere to be found. Doing so made me look at Mike right as he turned around. He smiled and waved. "Hey Bella!" And for a second I thought Jessica was going to hit him with her badminton bat. I didn't wave back. Alice must have gone home sick before lunch. There was no reason for her to lie to me about her schedule.
DTD
The drive from the school was only about fifteen minutes and I was glad to be home. The crappy radio in my truck didn't work so all I had were my thoughts. And all I thought about was him. His eyes more specifically. And how they had devoured me whole.
If I were in Phoenix my mom would have been waiting for me at the door ready to hear about all the tribulations of my first day. But I was in Forks, and after a day like today, that suited me just fine. I couldn't even make sense of what had happened myself, let alone been able to explain it to my mom.
There was still rice left over from when I had made the stir fry yesterday, so I just heated up some beans and put a sweet potato in the microwave. It was 7 pm now and Charlie would be home any second. The microwave finally beeped after minutes that only felt longer when I was forced to do physical exercise. Or have Edward Cullen stare at you. My expression turned sullen. Just then I heard Charlie unlock the front door and come inside.
"Bella?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah dad it's me." And then softly, "who else?" As he came through the door the smell of pizza assaulted my nose.
"I'll just make a bowl for myself and join you on the couch?" I smiled convincingly
"Yeah Bella that would be great." I heard him shuffle into the living room and turn on the sports channel. It had only been two weeks and I was already dying of boredom from watching men in uniforms perform team sports together. Though to be honest I had been this bored on the first day too. But it makes Charlie happy. I added all the ingredients to my bowl adding a generous serving of salsa and avocado on top and joined Charlie on the couch. I focused on my food while I could and then brought my dish and Charlie's half eaten pizza into the kitchen. I grabbed two glasses of water and quickly downed mine before bringing Charlie one to the coffee table. He thanked me without looking away from the tv. Then I sat back down beside him. Another ten minutes passed. When I figured I had spent enough time in the same room with him to get my "good daughter" points I mumbled about having to do laundry and went upstairs. Still crumpled in the bottom of my bag were my dirty jeans from this morning. Wow that feels like a million years ago. I took off Alice's white jeans as well and changed into some sweatpants. Grabbing both Charlie's and my laundry hamper I pulled them behind me down the stairs and into the mud room at the back. I treated my black jeans for the stains and put on a load of whites so that I could be sure her pants were ready for tomorrow. In her pocket I found a small folded up piece of paper that had a doctors appointment written on it for today at 12pm. I smiled relieved, she must have just forgotten in the morning when we met.
My mom called and I spoke to her briefly about my first day being careful to avoid anything Edward related. She laughed good heartedly when I told her I fell and wished me a good first week. "Love you baby girl." Tears pricked my eyes, "Love you too mama."
I put on another load of laundry making sure to let Alice's pants air dry as they looked expensive. The tag read rag & bone which sounded like exactly the kind of jeans that should not be put in the dryer. Lastly I made a small batch of double chocolate cupcakes, setting them on top of the oven to cool before heading to bed.
Tomorrow was a new day.
But tonight, I dreamt of Edward Cullen
all
night
long.
