Disclaimer: If I was Stephenie Meyer, I'd be a pretty smart girl in high school. And I'd be really promiscuous too. Couple kids already, huh?


And it will be raining like this all day. Isn't that right, Pat?

Yes, it is, Dean. Can you believe the magnitude of this downpour?

Oh Pat, it's always raining like this! Today is a little much, though. The lower streets will probably be flooded over. Isn't that right, Pat?

Yes, it is, Dean! Those raindrops are large, violent and…

"Why is it always raining?" Bella whined to herself, "and why is it always weatheron the radio? Everyone knows it's going to be raining all the time!"

It had been raining far too much for Bella. While she admitted fully that the greenery in the town looked gorgeous because of it, it made her absolutely miserable.

It was hard enough in Forks for the citizens who lived there to endure the rain, and Bella had lived in sunny Phoenix her whole life. Rain was practically fictitious to her, and now she was metaphorically drowning in the downpour.

It wasn't that she regretted moving to Forks. She would have been miserable in Phoenix, in a lonely house, without her mom. Bella knew she would not have been happy with the other option, traveling around the world with her mom and Phil. This option, moving to Forks, was the smartest choice out of the bunch.

Bella now lived with her father, Charlie, in their small house. They did not talk very much, but that did not bother Bella in the least. In fact, she preferred to make this year as fast and painless as possible, like ripping off a band-aid. After this year, she would pack up and go to college or university and get a good job. Then her life would really start.

However, that did not mean that Bella did not want to make her year uncomfortable. She planned on having a social life and friends. Bella imagined it would be difficult, seeing as her classmates had known each other since they were in diapers. She figured she would just have to get lucky.

"Another two turns and I'm there," Bella muttered to herself, trying to see through the rain.

She hoped it wasn't going to be like this every day, or she'd probably have a seizure. Bella had never used windshield wipers in Phoenix, and now the useless tool could barely push off the huge raindrops off the window.

Bella groaned and found herself wishing for the school day to start sooner. That was new. Bella, like most people in the world, had never been a fan of school. In spite of this, she would rather be tackling a school full of new people and getting piles of homework instead of being in this crummy traffic, suffocated by unforgiving rain.

She nearly squealed as she saw the sign for her high school. Now all she needed to do was park. How hard could that be? Bella chuckled at her own joke.

"I may not be good at parking, but it's not like it's going to be a life or death situation," Bella told herself.

She entered the student parking lot to see, well, no spots left. Okay, so parking might be a challenge.

A car pulled out of its spot and Bella let out a breath she had not known she had been holding. She advanced toward the spot, groaning as she saw a red BMW convertible pull into the spot.

Bella rolled her eyes at the people who had taken her spot. How shallow could these people be? Bella had obviously been heading for that spot.

Bella was amused to see a very, very handsome boy walk out of the school to greet whoever was in the car. He had rust-coloured hair and was just, well, gorgeous. From around four meters away, Bella could see that he had an adorably cocky smile and a confident demeanor. He even held his umbrella handsomely.

About to talk to herself for the umpteenth time that day, Bella pushed her lips together harshly just in case the handsome could hear her gush over to him to no one in particular.

Slowly he turned to see Bella, though she did not know how he could see her through the rain-covered windows of her truck. His smirk turned into a soft, yet manly smile. Like the rest of his body his lips were a little damp despite the umbrella, making him even more delectable to Bella's eyes.

Bella swooned and tried to smile half as appealingly back.

Apparently the nameless boy thought she had succeeded. He winked charmingly at her, and Bella swooned once more.

A stunning blonde girl and an overly muscled man came from the BMW. The boy Bella had swooned over gave each of the two an umbrella. Bella was disappointed to see that his gaze had strayed to the pair and away from her.

Staring at him for just another moment, she turned and left to find another spot. An exuberant smile was plastered over her face.

This was going to Bella's first day of school in Forks… as long as she got her old truck to a parking space.

DOWNPOUR++DOWNPOUR

Ten minutes later, Bella had made her way into the school after parking her truck a street away. Parking really was impossible.

After the characters she had seen in the parking lot, she had expected a more… interesting school. There was only one level, as she had expected. After all, there were more students in Bella's junior class than in this whole school. The walls were drab and boring, gray in color with the occasional beige bulletin board. (AN: I know the setting is different in the book, but I'm too lazy to be particular.)

Bella let out a sigh as she went to the class lists. No one was there with her. There could not be any less students than listed, could there?

She looked over the list for a couple seconds to find her name listed:

Swan, Isabella – Classroom 3

"They can actually number the classrooms by single digit?" Bella grumbled to herself.

She walked through the halls nervously. There were a couple people in front of her with their coats on walking into the class. Practically hyperventilating, Bella followed them.

The two hung their coats on hooks in the classroom and Bella did the same. She walked up to the teacher's desk and checked off Swan, Isabella on the list after the two girls in front of her did.

The balding Mr. Mason gaped at her and Bella turned red. It was not the reaction she had been hoping for, but it was to be expected. Hopefully, the whole town would not be as narrow-minded as him.

'Especially,' Bella thought, 'not that boy. I wonder if I'll see him again.'

Bella was about to speak aloud her thoughts to herself, but quickly pushed her lips roughly together instead. She already had a reputation as the daughter of Chief Swan and his flimsy wife; she did not need to add mental insanity to the equation. As a substitute, she thought loudly in her head.

'If he announces me to the class, I think I'll die on the spot. And I'll take Mr. Mason down with me,' Bella thought.

"Mm…" He looked through the seating plan to find her name. "You can sit in the back, second seat closest to the window. And here is your timetable."

Bella nodded; thankful she would not get any 'special treatment' and went to the back of the room quickly. Her footsteps padded lightly and she was sure she felt eyes on her. That meant sitting in the back would be best. That way, fewer people would stare.

She fell into the seat softly. If she was forever to be seen like this, she was sure the year would be absolutely awful.

Bella barely noticed as Mr. Mason stood up and gave the class an obviously rehearsed speech that Bella would have preferred not to hear, or rather, pretend to hear.

While he went on in his bland voice, Bella let her eyes dart around the classroom. They settled on the bookshelves nearest her. Her eyes read the names of the authors slowly. Faulkner, Shakespeare, Bronte… She had read them all already. It was comforting, but excruciatingly boring.

Realizing she was about to let out a rather loud sigh, she ran the palm of her hand over the right side of her face. There were too many odd habits she would have to get over in order to make this year enjoyable.

After all, it did not look like she would be seeing the handsome boy anytime soon, though anything could happen in such a small school. Bella could still hope.

Subsequent to an extremely agonizing wait, the bell rang and a greasy-skinned, black-haired boy got up and started, well, talking to her.

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?"

Bella was not pleased.

"Bella, actually," she said politely, correcting him.

'And now everyone has an excuse to look at me,' Bella thought depressingly, noticing the eyes that had landed upon her, 'but this guy, geek as he is, seems nice enough.'

"Where's your next class?" he asked.

Bella realized she would have to look at the timetable she had clutched in her white-knuckled hands. Maybe she was more nervous than she realized.

"Um, Government, with Jefferson, in building six."

"I'm headed toward building four, I could show you the way…" A pregnant pause followed. "I'm Eric," he let her know.

She smiled hesitantly. "Thanks."

'Now I have a name to his face and a tour guide. Sounds okay,' Bella thought slowly.

Leaving together, the two took their jackets along as they exited. Eric had a rather bouncy step while Bella had a mature, but still feminine walk, making the pair look odd.

'Is it just me, or are there people stalking me?' Bella speculated, realizing that there were a number of figures that were following her a little too closely.

"So this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" Eric asked Bella.

"Very."

'Basic conversation question. Oh well, it's better than asking my favourite colour.' Bella had to think about why she was always mocking the boy. She rather liked him.

"It doesn't rain much there, does it?"

Hollowly, Bella thought: 'Don't you know it.'

Instead "Three or four times a year" was what she replied.

She noticed Eric's amazement. He was likely a native from here and rain maybe once every three months must have seemed like a strange dream. How narrow-minded it looked like people were here. Then again, there were narrow-minded people in the city but there were just a higher number of people to choose from.

"Wow, what must that be like?"

'Better than here.'

"Sunny."

"You don't look very tan."

'How nice is he? Jerk.'

"My mother's part albino."

He looked over me as if he did not know how to take the comment.

'Wow,' Bella thought, 'he actually takes me seriously. Rain must do odd things to people. If I stay here, I'll probably lose loss of my sarcasm and all-around humor.' She would have laughed at her own little joke if she wasn't so disappointed about Eric.

To Bella, it felt like her mother was walking her to her very first day of school as if Bella could not go on without her. Really, he walked her to the door. She could read the big, black writing.

"Well, good luck. Maybe we'll have some other classes together." Eric sounded hopeful.

Bella gave him a small smile and entered her next class.

'Or maybe not.'


Author's Note: This feels short compared to the fanfiction I've been reading. And I was planning to have a whole bunch of stuff in here that I decided to put into later chapters. I'm not very happy even though I worked on it pretty hard.

I totally ripped most of this chapter from Twilight, but I'm going to totally change it in the following chapters. Edward will be involved a LOT more. He wasn't too big in this chap.

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