Summary: Seemingly the 'IT' couple in Forks High, Edward Cullen and Rosalie Hale's relationship was deemed unbreakable. But when Bella Swan moves to Forks, desperate for a new start, she manages to fall in the trap of falling for Edward. Only the attraction doesn't run on just her side, and Edward finds himself becoming one of the many boys tripping over backwards to get the attention of Bella.

Disclaimer: The only characters I own are any that you don't recognise.

CHAPTER ONE

Bella Swan had bid farewell to her life in sunny Phoenix only the previous day and already she was being made to go to school, as if living in boring Forks and having to suffer through the undecided weather (one minute scorching hot, the next freezing) wasn't enough. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hate her father for it, though, because he had bought her a new car since he knew she would be so sour about the move.

Bella loved her father, she really did, but after not seeing him for almost four years, except the occasional summer visit, and then having to move in with him, things weren't flowing smoothly. They shared an awkward breakfast before he revealed the car, and her face lit up when she released that it was her's. It may not have been a convertible or anything snazzy like she'd always wanted, but it was definitely so, so much better than riding in Chief Charlie Swan's cop car to school, especially since he thought it was cute to put the sirens on like she used to enjoy when she was 5 years old.

She arrived in the student parking lot and expected, and got, all eyes on her; for all the wrong reasons. The bust up car wasn't as great as she thought, as it broke down near the parking lot entrance and she had to run towards the office through the sleet. She even fell over once, and she knew that people were already laughing at her behind her back.

Not surprisingly, her first proper day in humdrum Forks hadn't started out brilliant.

"How can I help you?"

Bella ran her bony fingers through her tatted, wet hair and said breathlessly, "I'm new here," before tugging it into a messy ponytail as the office attendant sorted out some papers and poked around in a set of drawers. She casually looked around at the other students that passed her as they made their way through the office and out of a door that led to the main hall, and took a mental note of their heads quickly snapping away from her gaze. There was nothing worse than getting caught staring, but Bella wasn't one of those bitchy girls that cared what people thought of her, so she shrugged it off and turned back to the woman behind the front desk.

"Here you go, dear," the old lady who ran the office smiled at Bella as she handed her things like a timetable, a school map – not that she would need it with the size of the place – and useless other documents that would end up crumpled at the bottom of her bag by the end of her day.

"Thank you," Bella said and impatiently tapped her foot while the lady – her badge that Bella just noticed said Mrs Mann – explained some things. Her mind was like a filter, but she caught up on a few things and nodded every few seconds to stop her from being rude.

"Well," Mrs Mann shifted in her seat and poked her glasses up her rather large nose, "off you go, then. You don't want to be late on your first day."

Once out of Mrs Mann's sight, she stuffed all the papers in her bag, keeping only one out. She read and re-read her time table for the day and her stomach did a half-excited, half-nervous flip when she saw her first lesson was biology. It was her favorite, back in Phoenix, which had given her the reputation of the geeky-science-kid. And because of that, she was nervous, as she wasn't sure if that was how she wanted to be seen here in Forks, where being clever actually didn't seem the best thing.

Half the students were already asleep when she walked into the room. "Sir?" she said quietly, the words almost catching in her throat. "I'm Bella." Apart from the quick overview she did at the beginning, she kept her head down and didn't bother to look at anybody else, not even when the whispers started.

"Of course you are!" The over-excited Mr Marlin woke a few of the students as he tapped his hands on his desk and stood up. "And I'm your new science teacher," he said, holding out his hand and bowing slightly. Bella blushed, but shook it anyway. "Take a textbook from this pile" – he tapped the stack of books that were obviously kept from the previous year as they were so torn and drawn all over – "and take a seat. Here at the front will do, next to Mr Cullen."

Bella had to double take when she saw the boy sitting on the seat next to her designated one. He had bronze hair and gorgeous green eyes that she swore, no matter how cheesy it sounded, had a glint in them. Of course, he wasn't paying attention to her, and instead was jotting something down quickly in a notepad, reading from the textbook.

Not wanting to cause a scene by standing at the front and gaping at the inhumanely, unfairly gorgeous boy, she hurried to her seat and propped her bag up on the table, pulling out a new notepad that her father had bought her – with flowers and other girly shit that Bella wasn't into painted all over it – and a pen. Mr Marlin told the kids to copy the questions from the board and answer them using the textbook, before getting the right equipment and starting the experiment labelled in the book.

"Is he always this happy?" Bella didn't even look at the boy as she spoke. She felt more comfortable as the noise in the classroom had risen to a level to which she couldn't be heard. Still, she hadn't meant to speak out loud, and could feel a blush make its way to her pale cheeks. She flashed him a quick glance after he didn't answer her, but he was still writing quickly and staring at the paper. "I was …" she coughed nervously, "wondering."

The boy grunted and, still not looking at her, spun off his chair and went over to a table at the back to get the equipment. Bella looked away and raised an eyebrow before double checking – she lifted the shoulder of her jacket and sniffed and even covered her mouth to see if her breath still smelt of toothpaste. It did. So why was he acting so weird?

"Do you know what we have to do?" Bella continued once the boy sat back down, loosening up a little and shrugging off her jacket. The teacher obviously took advantage of the cold weather and placed the heating to an unnatural standard. Even though her arms now felt a little chilly, she didn't want to look like an idiot and put back on her jacket, so she rubbed them to get warm. When he ignored her again, she blew air into her cheeks and popped them indifferently. Normally, she would be racing through the activity, but her paper remained blank and she kept up the act that she was dumb enough not to know the most basic of experiments – discovering how much glucose was in the different plants provided. She was a master at this.

"I don't."

"Well then just copy mine," he finally muttered.

Bella's eyes went wide for a second before she nodded and copied out a table from his sheet that he nudged over to her. His voice was deep and musty and had the ability to make her blush even though he barely said anything. She took a deep breath and nodded. "Thanks," she said, playing with a loose strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail.

"You're wel–" He finally looked over to her and his breath caught in his throat involuntarily. He gave her a small, crooked smirk and put down his pen that was actually hot from writing so much. He didn't speak for a while, just stared at her face. "You must be new here," he decided. "I haven't seen you before."

Bella bit her lip. "Yeah. The teacher, um, said before. He introduced me and … well, I don't know, maybe you just didn't hear him. I'm Bella," she held out her hand.

The boy shook her hand, still smiling, "I don't usually listen to anything Mr Happy says. Edward."

They stared at each other for a few silent seconds. Bella biting her lip and Edward smiling. He had heard a lot about the new girl, considering that the town was so small and news got around so fast, and the fact that she was his father's good friend's daughter. Dr Carlisle Cullen had gushed about the Chief's daughter's arrival for a while now and his little sister Alice couldn't wait to have a new friend.

"Mr Cullen, Ms Swan, stop holding hands and get on with the work!"

Mr Marlin and the rest of the class laughed. Mr Marlin was laughing because he had made a joke and found it hilarious, while the class were laughing at Edward and Bella because they were both blushing like crazy. Bella quickly withdrawn her hand from shaking Edward's and copied out the rest of the table. Edward just let out a nervous laugh and finished the rest of the work, every so often giving Bella a few answers and letting her copy his work. She'd never admit that she had all of it worked out in her head (and that most of Edward's answers were wrong).

Luckily, the bell went a little afterwards and Bella could rush out of the room, not before Mr Happy (she decided she liked that name better) gave out their homework, "Finish the rest of the table for tomorrow and complete question 6!" Her stomach did that stupid flip thing again as she left the classroom. That meant she would have biology the next day with Greek God look-a-like Edward Cullen.

She caught sight of him one last time as she pulled out her time table. He was walking with a tall, muscular guy with black, curly hair who was smiling smugly as he seemed to be recalling a story to Edward. Uninterested, Edward merely looked around the hall, but stopped when he saw Bella. She blushed because she, like the kids in the office that morning, had been caught staring. Edward just shook his head dismissively and gave her the crooked smirk, to which she had to smile back because of how breathtakingly beautiful he looked.

A small cheerleader with sticky out brunette hair caught her attention next. She ran past her giddily with a huge grin on her face that Bella had a feeling had been there all day, "Be careful, he's got a girlfriend!" And with that, she turned into the P.E. hall with a little laugh.

Bella burrowed her eyebrows together; surprisingly not for the news that Edward was dating somebody, but for the implication that she was interested in him. After the disaster of with a boy in her old school in Phoenix, she didn't want to start a new relationship with anybody, never mind with somebody that was obviously adored (how couldn't he be with those looks?) like Edward. She wasn't usually the girl that everybody was interested in.

Bella's next lesson was P.E., anyway, which would guarantee she wouldn't see him. At least, she hoped not, because she always sweat loads and ran like a headless chicken in any type of sporting activity. Basically, she was terrible, and she wasn't up for the idea of being seen. Incidentally, her father had annoyingly (he would argue lovingly) bought her a P.E. kit so she would have to join in and not fake an injury, or blame her being new as a reason to why she can't play.

Tiredly, she got changed. And in that moment, as a bunch of giggling girls in short skirts made their way past her (none being decent enough to apologise when they ran into her), she wished she was a cheerleader, since they had a guaranteed absence from P.E. and had a bogus reason why they didn't have to join in.

...

Even though it was only 10 a.m., the rumor mill was already turning. Gossip was evident in the cheerleader's voices that surrounded Rosalie Hale. They spoke and giggled as they all made their way to the edge of the field. Today was field hockey day, for the rest of the juniors, but thankfully, the girls didn't have to worry about unnecessary sweating and could just watch the boys train for their upcoming football game instead.

"Enough!" Rosalie yelled, stomping her foot and throwing down her blue and white pompoms. Her miniature tantrum stopped the other cheerleaders from talking and they quickly shut up. "What are you trying to say? One at a time," Rosalie then added bitterly, a smile plastered on her face. She refused to believe that her boyfriend had taken a quick interest to the Chief's daughter – who she'd seen fall over hilariously that morning. When nobody answered, she turned to her childhood friend and raised an eyebrow, "Alice?"

Alice asked the nervous girls to leave politely before crossing her arms over her chest. She, like some other girls, had been in the same lesson as Edward and Bella when they were caught 'holding hands,' but everybody, except Rosalie, had seen the blatant eye sex going on in the hallway after first period. Alice reassured Rosalie that the girls were crazy. Her tone wasn't as interrupted as the girls as she wasn't nervous in front of Rosalie, having known her since the diaper days, "I wouldn't worry about it."

Rosalie slowly bent down and picked up her pompoms. She took a deep breath before regaining her composure, "Well, you best hope you're right. No Plain Baby Jane is going to stand in the way of my Prom Queen title" – at this, Alice rolled her eyes, but hid it from Rosalie by turning away – "now … girls!"

They practised their national's routine while their coach criticized their every single move. Alice was staring at the guy she'd had a crush on since forever, Rosalie's older and totally gorgeous rock band brother, Jasper, while Rosalie kept an eye on the hockey playing field. New Girl fell over at least five times on the ice during the whole match and, God forbid, had even had her eye on the boys' pitch while they played. Rosalie believed she was looking over in curiosity because she was new and therefore was nosy, and not because Rosalie's hot, hot, hot captain boyfriend was sweating – even in the cold weather – and looking like a Lucas Scott double in his blue football uniform.

"That's it for today!" Their coach yelled through one of those fancy speakerphones. "Get out of here! Go!"

Rosalie left Alice to sort out pompoms and made a beeline towards the boys' pitch. She heard some immature morons shout, "girl alert," a few times as she trudged in the disgusting mud, but she just placed her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes, ignoring them as she made her way towards Edward. Catching him off guard, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips adoringly, while he, although slightly confused at the PDA, wrapped his arms around her waist.

"What was that for?" he smirked. Rosalie just smiled back.

"Great job today. I can't wait for the big game," she said, then winked, blew a kiss and skipped off to join the rest of her cheerleaders as they entered the school building. Emmett McCarty, the guy who Edward's mom Esme had technically adopted when they were children, made a habit of laughing at Edward's girl troubles and walked up behind Edward.

"Still haven't broken up with her yet?" he patted Edward's shoulder and held his football helmet under his arm. He found having a girlfriend was too boring in the long run, and couldn't resist having many girls going at the same time. He rarely ever slept with a girl more than once unless she was extra hot. If not, he let them go gently, and had a new girl waiting for him in the next minute or so, some who didn't even go to their school. Some who were mothers, some who were married, some who didn't even speak English. He didn't discriminate.

"Soon," Edward said. He was going to, he was. But being Prom Queen meant everything to Rosalie, so maybe he could just make his way through junior year, give her the pathetic, plastic crown and then everybody would be happy. They'd mysteriously part during the summer, so she'd have enough time to find a senior boy or a lifeguard or someone else who she could cry to, and then eventually fall in love with, forgetting that Edward ever existed.

"Please," Emmett scoffed. "You'll still be saying that when you're 80 years old."

Edward went to punch his arm, but Emmett and the rest of the team were already walking back into school. Although he hated to admit it, Emmett was right. If he didn't break up with her soon, like he had said he would all the time for the past few months, he'd have to live with her for the rest of his life – always in his ear and annoying him, though not intentionally, at every turn.

…

Bella would lie if she said that her stomach didn't do the regular and flip when she saw the blonde bombshell in the cheerleading uniform go over to Edward and kiss him full on the lips for everybody to see. And she would also be lying if she didn't feel sick when the girl – obviously popular – walked into the changing rooms and gave Bella a glare that highlighted the 'if looks could kill' saying. If Bella didn't look away as quick as she did, she would have been in critical condition.

Forks High was starting to be liked by Bella, though, when they allowed her to take out her sandwich and eat it in the library. Where it was quiet, and where the head cheerleader, scary girl (Edward's girlfriend) wasn't eating her lunch. Bella ate alone in the corner and even rented out her favorite book by the end of lunch. At least after dinner that night with her father, she could escape to her room and read Wuthering Heights until her eye's bled.

And, the day was getting gradually better for other reasons, too, as when she ran towards her car at the end of the day, she didn't fall over. She slipped, truthfully, but it was right by her car and she only fell against the door before scrambling to open it and climbing inside quickly. After regaining her breath, she started the engine and drove away while the other students were still only just making their way out of the office.

After making her way into her favorite childhood diner that her father had told her to meet him in at last minute, she sunk into a chair opposite him, while he was pigging out with an extra-large burger and fries on the side with no salad. "Hey, Ch– dad," she said, placing her bag on the floor and managing a smile at him. He waved with one finger and mumbled something that sounded like how was your day?

"It was great," she said. She wasn't actually sure if it was. She may just have encountered the bitchiest girl in Forks who was subsequently dating the most gorgeous guy she had ever seen, living up to the teen movie cliché crap. And she was just the awkward new kid that would end up getting beat up or something by the girl. Perhaps she would be too worried about breaking a nail, though.

"You sure?" Charlie put down the scraps of his burger and lay back in his chair, loosening one of the buttons on his jacket so it didn't pop open because of how much he had ate. He eyed his only daughter suspiciously. "You don't sound okay."

"I'm just tired, okay?" Bella snapped a little rudely. She apologised quickly and asked her dad if she could go home and get some rest. He nodded, wiping his mouth with his napkin and ordering another beer, downing the last of his current one. Bella couldn't help but roll her eyes, but she did it behind his back so he didn't see. She made her way to her car, dumped her bag on the seat next to her and fought with the engine to bring her home so she could leave reality and enter the world of Wuthering Heights.

At this, she smiled and relaxed against the ripped leather seat. Disappearing from her reality seemed like a good idea at this moment.

…

Edward rubbed his head with his knuckles and entered the biology room with a yawn. Mr Happy gave him a quick grin and he simply smiled in response. He could probably get away with going to sleep if he sat at the back, but the room was already full, except one person, so he walked to his usual desk at the front.

She entered just moments later; looking flushed that was no doubt because of the newfound heat in Forks. Like yesterday, his breath caught in his throat again, just as the fan that Mr Happy had set up starting blowing against Bella's curly hair. He had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop smiling just as he saw Emmett from the back of the classroom, surprisingly not asleep or with a girl on each arm, giving him a death stare.

You've still got a girlfriend, his expression read.

Edward cursed under his breath as if Emmett could actually hear him, before turning towards Bella and smiling. "Hey," he said as she sat down. She merely greeted him with an apparent annoyed smile and pulled out her notepad with the work from yesterday on. He raised an eyebrow. How had their roles reversed in just 24 hours?

"What's up?" he asked in a completely casual tone. Bella shrugged.

"The usual," she said, as if he actually knew what 'the usual' was. Come to think about it, she didn't, either, but it was an answer that wouldn't start a conversation so she went with it.

Edward nodded. Whatever had made her in such a mood, he didn't like it. But he had a feeling what had happened, and he couldn't wait until the class finished and he could get out and find Rosalie. Maybe he could even break up with her and Bella wouldn't feel weird speaking to him anymore. Maybe they could even be friends, which, despite knowing next to nothing about Bella, he would like. It would be nice to have a friend that didn't throw themselves all over him at every single moment of every day.

Emmett tried his best to catch up with Edward after the lesson, but he only managed to when Rosalie was in front of them both. She shut her locker over and held her folder between her folded arms against her chest. She smiled. "Hi."

"Hey," Edward again rubbed his hair and felt extremely anxious for some unknown reason. He'd never broken up with a girl before. He had been dating Rosalie since he could remember. Well, since they were about 12, since that was the time that he discovered that girls didn't have cooties and they actually were pretty cool to hang out with. They had their first real kiss – not counting the ones when they were 3 years old and took baths together and didn't know what a real kiss was – just a few months after that.

"I was actually just coming to find you."

"Oh, really?" Rosalie batted her eyelashes and leant against the cold, metal lockers. Her heart did somersaults, in the best way possible, just seeing Edward's crooked smile that she had reserved to herself. Edward nodded, and Emmett, distracted by a busty cheerleader walking past, stepped away from them while they spoke.

"I need to talk to you."

"You do?"

"Yeah," Edward said, feeling out of place and uncomfortable. He, along with most of the other juniors, had a free period next so he didn't have a valid excuse to leave. "It's just …"

Rosalie did that thing again where she licked her lips, then bit them and her eyes lit up. Edward momentarily lost himself while staring at the blonde in front of him. The blonde that he was supposed to be breaking up with.

"I was just wondering if you would like to come to Mike Newton's party with me on Saturday?" he said so quickly it almost just passed in Rosalie's ear and out the next. But she heard, and so did Emmett, who snapped his head away from the desperate cheerleader to stare at Edward. What the hell was he playing at? He was supposed to break up with Rosalie.

"Oh, you," Rosalie joked, leaning forward to kiss his lips. "Of course. What made you think I wouldn't?"

Obviously it was a rhetorical question because she stalked off before he could answer. He turned and banged his head hard against the locker and repeated it before Emmett grabbed a hold of his shirt and spun him around. "You have been saying you'll break up with her for the whole summer," he glared down at Edward who now had a funny red forehead after hitting it against the lockers. "And then you invite her to Newton's party? What the hell is going on with you?"

"Why?" Edward questioned, not interested. "Do you want her for yourself or something?"

Emmett raised a sceptic eyebrow. "You know I'm not the girlfriend type. But she deserves so much better than you."

He turned then on his heel and went in the direction that Edward knew was Emmett's favorite spot in school: the courtyard, where he gets high with some other football jerks that Edward didn't want drilling in his ear about Rosalie and how he's playing games with her, either. So, he turned in the opposite direction and went to the place that Edward had never, ever been in, not in his whole time in the school.

The library, where he'd hope he'd find Bella, and where he knew nobody would yell at him.

…

Once again, Rosalie found the football jerks to be overly irritating as she walked through the courtyard. She hadn't expected to need to find Emmett McCarty, of all people, but after renting out a book for geometry from the library, she found New Girl and Edward enjoying a smiley conversation that she definitely didn't condone.

"Girl al–"

"Shut up, Ryan!" Rosalie hit the footballer over the head with her geometry book and carried on walking towards Emmett, her short, cheerleading skirt flowing as the wind passed her. Emmett looked up then, holding a joint between his fingers, which Rosalie quickly snatched and stamped on. After that, she definitely had his attention.

"What do you want?"

"McCarty, I can't believe I'm stooping so low," Rosalie admitted, sitting opposite him as the other footballers went back to smoking and talking about football and boobs and getting high. "But I need your help."

Emmett leant back in the chair and smirked. "Oh, really?"

"Yes, really," Rosalie rolled her eyes. "I need you to find out everything about Bella Swan and fast."

Emmett almost choked on the smoke that was still lingering in his mouth. "What?" he raised an eyebrow, laughing. "Are you high?"

"No, but you are," she said, smacking him over the head. "Snap out of it! And do as I say. If I can find a way to break her, she won't even have the chance to befriend Edward. Oh, when I'm finished with her …"

"Whatever," Emmett said, dismissively. As soon as Rosalie was happy and out of the door and in the school hallway again, one of the footballers turned to Emmett.

"Dude," he said. "Are you seeing her now or something? Has Edward finally done the deed?"

"No," Emmett put his feet up on the table and frowned. "He hasn't. But if New Girl has anything to do with things, he won't even need to."

AN – So this is the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed and let me know what you thought.