Twilight Fan Fiction
Title: Daybreak
Daybreak
Author's Note: Hey everyone! This is my first Twilight fan fiction and I would really appreciate some constructive criticism or just praise about what you all think! This chapter is un-betaed but if anyone would like to volunteer to be my beta reader that would be fabulous!
Chapter 1.
I don't really know what happened. It's a little blurry, but I think there was a car. Yes, there was. I remember Debbie, my foster mother, was sitting in the front seat driving too quickly for such a slick, rainy day. The window was rolled down so she could dangle her cigarette out of it, and the icy January air was hitting me in the face. And Kenneth was in the back seat next to me. Kenneth, her son, who hit on me all the time, was leaning too close and breathing too heavily, and all I was thinking was how much I wished I was anywhere else on the planet. Then Debbie screamed, and the car skidded. We were on a bridge, weren't we? The last thing I saw was Kenneth's face. He looked like a toad with his eyes bulging out in fear, and his big double chin wobbling.
But that can't be right. If we went over a bridge, why am I still sitting in the car? Shouldn't I be dead, drowned? I opened my eyes and stared dumbly at the dashboard in front of me. "How…?" I breathed out. There wasn't a dashboard in the backseat of Debbie's car, only the back of her seat. Glancing up I stared in confusion. I was in the front seat now, but that wasn't even the strangest thing. I was staring at a long stretch of barren highway, surrounded on either side by the greenest trees I had ever seen. The sky was overcast and grey, and there was the threat of fog in the heavy sky. Little rain droplets were hitting the window.
Suddenly a movement to the left of me caught my eye. There was a strange man sitting in the driver's seat next to me. He had pale skin, short brown hair and a big handlebar mustache. He was probably around 40 years old, and I wasn't sure how I felt about being in a strange car in a strange place with this strange man.
The man squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, letting out a little groan. "Bella, are you alright?" he asked me.
Whoever this man was, he knew my name. I was still in too much shock to be scared of him, so I just nodded mutely. Thinking about the question, I realized that I actually did feel okay, despite whatever had happened to me. My head hurt a little bit, but maybe I just hit the dashboard?
"Alright, that's good," the man said. He chuckled, and continued with "Well, honey, I'm sorry that's the reintroduction you got to Forks. It was a darn moose, it just wandered out and I guess I swerved too hard. I think we should stop at the hospital and get checked out just in case."
What? Forks? Like the city in Washington state in the Twilight book series? And why is he taking me back to a house? Without waiting for an answer, the man restarted the car and pulled back out onto the highway.
"Well," he said into the silence I was leaving in the car, "It's probably a good thing I got you that truck. It can stand up to almost anything. An accident like this wouldn't phase it."
"Truck?" I asked. I couldn't really think of what else to do. Despite not knowing this man at all, I didn't feel like he was a danger to me. And trust me, growing up in foster care in downtown Washington D.C., you hone your danger-sense very quickly.
He shot me a glance. "Yeah, Bels, the one I bought from Billy Black down on the rez. You know, you used to hang out with his daughters Rachel and Rebecca a lot during the summer. He has a son too, Jacob."
I could feel my heart rate start to pick up. Billy and Jacob Black were characters in the Twilight books too. What was going on here? I don't know how long I sat in silence with a racing heart trying to stay calm about everything that was happening but I was pulled out of my thoughts by the man – Oh God, was this Charlie Swan? – parking the car in a spot right in front of a sign that said "Forks Hospital" in bold black letters.
I got out of the car and trailed after the man who I was starting to suspect really was Charlie Swan – a feeling only enhanced when I glanced back and saw that we had emerged from a patrol car. Inside the hospital my suspicions were confirmed when the woman sitting at the front desk greeted him with a hearty "Hello Chief Swan, what can I do for you today?"
He smiled and glanced back at me and said "Swerved to avoid hitting a moose, and the car ran off the road. I think we're both ok, but I wanted us to get checked out just in case."
The woman glanced back at me after Charlie said "we" and her eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, is this your daughter, Isabella? I thought you were picking her up from the airport today…"
No. I'm not Bella Swan, am I? My name is Isabella Mercer, and shouldn't I be dead right now? Our car definitely went over the bridge. Oh my God, is this what death is like? You just become a fictional character?
"Bella!" Charlie snapped me out of my thoughts. "Come on, we're going back to see Dr. Cullen. He's the chief doctor and he's just going to check both of us out real quick and make sure we're okay."
Oh my God. Vampires. The Cullens are real in whatever whacked out universe I'm somehow in. This wasn't helping my heart rate, I could feel it hammering around inside my chest as my body automatically followed Charlie and the woman from the front desk down a hall into a large room with a couple chairs and a hospital bed next to some medical machines.
"I'll leave you two to wait here, Dr. Cullen will be in in just a minute," the woman said with a smile before exiting the room.
Charlie and I sat in silence. Charlie, from what I remembered from the books, was a pretty quiet man, and he didn't seem to expect that I talk to him, which suited me just fine. I was not in the mood to try and talk to a man who thought he was my father.
Probably after about five minutes the door knob turned and in walked a beautiful man. He was very tall, probably over 6', and he had collar length wavy blond hair and deeply golden eyes. He was undoubtedly gorgeous, but there was something unsettling about him. His skin was so pale, and beneath his beautiful black eyes were enormous, dark purple shadows. I knew this must be Carlisle Cullen. This revelation did nothing to calm my beating heart, and I was sure that there must be blood pumping very quickly and loudly throughout the rest of my body, but nothing in Carlisle's face showed that he was affected or concerned by it.
"Good afternoon, Chief Swan," he said. Then turning to me, he smiled and said "You must be his daughter, Isabella. Welcome to Forks. I'm sorry that the first thing you have to do here is come to the hospital."
I think I smiled back, but if I did it wasn't a very good one. Carlisle checked Charlie and I out very quickly but there didn't appear to be anything wrong. Charlie was totally fine except for a large bruise on his chest where the seatbelt cut into his skin, and I didn't even have the chest bruise, just a bump on my forehead from when my head hit the dashboard, but that didn't even hurt unless someone touched it.
We were back on the road to Charlie's house very quickly, and we rode in silence. My mind was blank on the way back, I couldn't begin to wrap my brain around what was happening. I was broken out of my non-thoughts when I felt the car turn and rumble into an uneven gravel driveway. I looked out the front window and saw a small, two story white sliding house. It had green front steps and a mahogany wood door and I loved it. It already looked so much more like a home than the little apartment I had shared with Debbie and Kenneth in DC, or any of the other foster homes I had lived in throughout my life.
I got out of the car and walked around to the back to help Charlie with whatever bags Bella would have brought with her from Phoenix – because I had to face it, I was somehow in Bella Swan's body and I was inside the Twilight books. As I grabbed two duffel bags (Charlie had the rolling suitcase and a red backpack) and turned around I saw the truck. It was beautiful, an older model with a huge cab that probably sat three and a little bed stretching out behind it. I loved it, and felt a huge surge of warmth towards Charlie. I know he hadn't bought the car for me, but for his daughter, but I couldn't help feeling as though he really cared about me. It was an alien feeling. I know foster care isn't all bad and there are some genuinely loving, caring families out there, but I was never lucky enough to land with one.
"I love it!" I gasped, turning to Charlie and smiling at him. "Thank you so much!" He looked away with an embarrassed smile and said, gruffly, "I'm glad you like it Bels."
It only took one trip to get all of Bella's stuff up to her room and I smiled the whole way through unpacking it. When Charlie yelled upstairs that pizza was here for dinner I was feeling a whole lot better about being stuck in an unfamiliar body in an unfamiliar world, but with a man who obviously cared about the girl he thought I was.
This happy feeling persisted until I caught sight of myself in a hall mirror, and almost screamed. The girl looking back at me was me, but different. I was still me, I had the same features as before, big eyes with long lashes, a small nose, and a mouth with the top lip a bit too thin and the bottom lip a bit too full. But I was different! My hair had always been long and layered, but I had dirty blonde hair with light blonde highlights from the sun. Now it was dark brown with just a hint of red highlights in it. My light brown eyebrows were a lot darker and my grey eyes were now brown. My skin used to be tanned and freckled with some acne on it, but this girl I was now looked like a doll. My skin was so pale now that it was almost translucent and I didn't have any acne or scarring at all. It was jarring. Where before I had looked like a healthy, all-American girl, now the combination of my dark hair and eyes and super pale skin made me look small, delicate, and almost sickly. I probably could have stood there for forever if Charlie hadn't yelled up the stairs "Bella, did you hear me? Pizza's here!"
Dinner was a quiet affair, thankfully. I suddenly wasn't in the mood to try and make small talk with a man I had met this afternoon when he had known the person he thought I was for her whole life. After dinner I quietly cleaned up the dishes while Charlie boxed up the leftover pizza. He half-heartedly asked if I wanted to watch some sports with him but seemed to be a little relieved when I said I was tired from traveling and just wanted to go to bed.
Up in Bella's room – I guess it was mine now – I got ready for bed and faced my reflection again in the bathroom mirror. On second glance it wasn't as shocking. Sure, it still didn't look like me, but I could definitely get used to it. And at least I wouldn't have to wear any makeup now that my skin was so clear!
Despite feeling a little better about everything I still started crying almost as soon as I crawled into Bella's big double bed with the lavender sheets and dark purple comforter. It wasn't that I was sad, or that I missed my old life and wanted to go back to it. I had been 17 years old for about a month and I was already looking forward to turning 18 so that I could get out of Debbie's house and away from Kenneth. My old life was crap. College wasn't an option unless I paid for it myself, which I couldn't do. I didn't really have any friends because I was the weird foster kid and I had just switched schools at the beginning of the year when I moved into Debbie's house. She never abused me, but she was just so neglectful and she never let me forget that she was only keeping me in her house so that she could get a check from the government.
But here, I could tell that Charlie cared about me. I presumably had a mother and a step-father somewhere in Phoenix, or Florida, or wherever it was that they lived. I was going to go to school tomorrow and meet a whole family of beautiful, incredibly rich vampires, I was child-hood friends with a family of werewolves, and everyone at Forks High had been so nice and friendly to Bella in the books, so I was probably not going to have any trouble making friends. This life was already about 20 times better than the one I had somehow left behind. So why was I crying?
I must've fallen asleep pondering that question because the next time I opened my eyes it was to a foggy, drizzly morning. Bella had a lot of jeans and cute shirts but she also had a couple cute dresses, and it was to those that my eyes were drawn. Even though it was chilly outside I still wanted to look nice for my first day so I grabbed a black mini dress with white polka dotted sleeves and threw it on over some thick tights and black rain boots. Since my new skin was so clear I didn't bother with any makeup other than a little mascara before going downstairs to eat breakfast before heading into my first day at a new school.
Breakfast, like dinner the night before, was quiet, and I loved it. After my crying jag last night I was feeling a whole lot better about this whole situation. I was feeling really nervous, but it was a good nervous, an excited-about-what's-to-come kind of nervous. Charlie left first to go to the police station so I finished my bowl of Cheerios alone in the kitchen. It was a cute kitchen, small and a little mismatched but well kept. There was an oak table with three mismatched chairs in the center. Along one wall were the counters and bright yellow cabinets. The walls were dark and paneled and the floor was white linoleum.
I finished my Cheerios and cleaned up after myself before throwing on my big green parka and venturing outside to drive my beautiful new truck to school. I had a map in the glove compartment, but after consulting it I realized I just got on the highway from yesterday and took a different turn off from it and the school was right there.
The only thing that made me stop outside a large collection of maroon buildings was the sign that said "Forks High School." My school from before was one large brick building surrounded by a chain link fence and security guards that patrolled it. I was never sure if they were supposed to keep people out or keep the students in. I had been to one other high school before but it was a private school from the family before Debbie and Kenneth. That one was also one big building but there was no fence because it was in a much nicer neighborhood than the public one I went to last. I liked the way this school was set up much better than my other two high schools.
I parked the truck in a spot in front of the building with a large number 1 posted on it. I was pretty sure this spot wasn't for students but Charlie said I was supposed to go pick up my schedule from the main office when I got here. Reluctantly, I got out of my warm truck and practically ran up the stone path into the building. Inside was a warm, brightly lit little office. It looked just like the main office at my school before: padded chairs lining the wall to form a little waiting area and a long desk with one woman sitting behind it. Behind the desk I could see a couple more closed doors which I assumed led to the offices of the administrators and counselor.
The woman behind the desk looked up at me when I entered. She was older, probably in her mid-forties, with red hair and a purple t-shirt on. "Can I help you?" she asked me.
"Hi, I'm Bella Swan, I need to pick my schedule up…" I trailed off. When I said my name a light of recognition flashed in her eyes and she began to dig through a pile of papers sitting on the desk.
"Of course! Here's your schedule, and a map of the school. I went through and circled your classes for you and highlighted the quickest way to get there. Have your teachers sign this slip that says you attended their class and bring it back at the end of the day. Have a great day, dear!" She handed the papers to me with a smile. I smiled back and went back out to my truck. By this time there were a couple more cars arriving, so I followed them back to a parking lot behind the buildings of the school. After I pulled into a parking spot I stayed in the car a little while longer, studying the map to figure out where my first class, English with Mr. Mason in Building 3, Rm 1 was.
I got out of the car and quickly figured out where building three was. It was identified in the same way building 1 was, with a large black number on a white plaque stuck up on the school building.
I walked quickly to get towards the building so that I wouldn't be stuck out in the cold, drizzly air too long. Just inside the building was a small hallway with a classroom on either side of it. I walked into my designated classroom and hung my coat up on one of the hooks inside like I saw two girls in front of me do.
I took the slip of paper up to Mr. Mason at the front of the classroom. He stared at me when he saw my name, but signed the slip and sent me back to a seat at the back of the classroom with the syllabus for the year. Despite sitting in the back of the room I could feel the stares of my classmates on me for the whole class. I didn't look at anyone and just tried to concentrate on the novel we were supposed to be reading during class today, Wuthering Heights. I had never read it before and the class was supposed to have up until Chapter 5 finished by the end of the week.
At the end of the class period a boy leaned across the aisle and asked me "You're Isabella Swan, right?" He was gangly and vaguely Asian. He looked like a chess club kid.
I nodded. "Just Bella is ok, though." I said, and he inclined his head in acknowledgement.
"I'm Eric. What's your next class?"
"Government with Jefferson in Building 6, Room 2," I said, checking the schedule sticking out of my backpack.
"I'm going to Building 4, but I can show you the way…" he trailed off.
He was being nice and helpful and I appreciated it, especially when everyone else was just trying to stare at me without being obvious about it. "Thanks," I said, smiling. We got our coats and walked back out into the drizzling wetness.
I would have been content to walk in silence, but Eric was clearly curious and wanted to know all about me. "So, this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" he asked.
I would have been curious and suspicious about how he knew Bella was from Phoenix, but in a town this small, and with a dad who was a well-liked and respected police chief it didn't seem odd that everyone would know where Bella was moving from.
"Yeah," I answered, even though I had no clue if it actually was different than Phoenix.
"It doesn't rain there much, does it?" he followed up with.
I shook my head. "Nope, it's pretty much a desert." That sounded right, anyway.
"Wow, what's that like?" he asked.
"Um… just really dry and sunny," I said. Again, no clue if that was true or not, but he seemed to know about as much about Phoenix as me, so if I was wrong he wouldn't know.
"You don't look very tan," he said, and I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I just shot him a look and didn't say anything. Despite the awkward atmosphere that had developed between us after his comment he still walked me right up to the door of Building 6, even though it was clearly marked.
"Good luck," he said. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together." He smiled at me, and turned around to go to Building 4. I thought he was nice in a kind of awkward way.
Government went pretty much the same as English had, as did my next two classes, Trigonometry and Spanish. Mr. Varner, my Trig teacher, was the only one who had me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I wouldn't say that I was petrified of public speaking, but it does make me a little nervous, especially with all these kids I didn't know staring at me. But I made it through a quick little introduction ("Hi, I'm Bella Swan, I moved here from Phoenix") before I was allowed to go back and sit down.
I sat next to the same girl in both Trig and Spanish. Her name was Jessica, and I seemed to remember from the books that Bella didn't really like her. I liked her just fine though. We walked to lunch together after Spanish and she chatted with me about how I was liking Forks, and my classes, and whether or not people were being nice.
I found her easier to talk to than Eric had been, but I also think that the two of us just had more in common that Eric and I did, and she didn't say anything about my skin tone, so that helped. She assumed that I would be sitting with her and her friends at lunch, which I was grateful for. She introduced me to a tableful of about six people, but the only names I recognized were Lauren and Angela.
It was as I was sitting at the end of a table of curious strangers that I glanced up and noticed five beautiful people. I immediately knew that these must be the Cullens.
After seeing Carlisle at the hospital I had assumed that the younger Cullens would be just as beautiful as he was, and I was not disappointed. I could tell them all apart immediately. Emmett was enormous, probably at least 6' 5" with huge, bodybuilder muscles. But other than that he looked like a big teddy bear. His hair was dark brown and curly, and I saw dimples in his cheeks as he smiled at Rosalie, sitting next to him.
Rosalie was easily the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life, even beyond the rest of the Cullens. Although she was sitting, I could tell that she had a tall, slim build, and her golden-blonde hair fell in silky ringlets down to the middle of her back. When she smiled back at Emmett I could see that her teeth were perfectly even and white, and her facial features were perfectly proportioned.
Across from her was Alice. She had always been described as pixie-like in the novels, but I had never realized how true that statement was. She was tiny, short and extremely thin with short, black hair that was spiked up in every direction, and small, but nevertheless perfectly proportioned, facial features. She should have looked like a child, but her choice in clothing and the way her hair was so artfully done up made it obvious that she was a young woman.
Sitting next to Alice was Jasper. He also looked very tall, especially next to Alice, but not taller than Emmett. He looked like a very scary angel, with his tall, leanly muscled body and a halo of honey blond hair curling gently around his face.
Edward was last. He was sitting at the far end of the round table, with no one across from him. He was the shortest of the guys, but I still thought he was over 6'. Bella hadn't been lying when she called him an Adonis. His hair was a beautiful bronze color, and was disheveled so attractively there was no way he didn't style it at least a little bit.
But through all their differences they had some similarities. Their skin was so pale, on par with Carlisle's skin from yesterday, they made me, even with my new translucent skin, feel tan. They also had the same purple bruise-like shadows under their eyes, which I could see even from across the cafeteria. On a normal person, I think the white skin and dark shadows would have made them less attractive, but on vampires it just enhanced their beauty, albeit in such a way that they all looked vaguely menacing and predatory.
As I was sitting there watching them, totally ignoring the conversation all around me now that I was thankfully not the focus, Alice got up from the table and walked over to the trash can in the center of the room. Although I think "walked" is a bit of a misstatement. She danced her way over to that trash can, looking for all the world like a tiny fairy, where she threw away her tray, holding an unopened soda and uneaten apple.
I didn't really mean to say anything, but memories of not having enough to eat, and of the school lunch being my only meal of the day flitted through my head, and, staring straight at her, I muttered "Wasteful."
Of course she heard, and looked right at me. I froze. Before I had time to do more than stare at her with my mouth hanging open like an unattractive fish, she just gave me a curious look and then danced her way out of the cafeteria.
I looked back at the table where the rest of the Cullens were still sitting to see if they had noticed the exchange between Alice and me, but they were all still sitting there with their uneaten food and ignoring everyone else.
"….Earth to Bella!" I heard from my left and I turned to a slightly annoyed Jessica. "Are you ok?" she asked. "You were spacing! I said your name like three times."
"Sorry," I said vaguely, glancing back at the Cullens' table. Jessica followed my gaze, and said "Oh you noticed the Cullens, did you?"
As she said this, Edward suddenly flicked his head in our direction, looking first at Jessica and then me for a fraction of a second. It was the same type of response as if someone had called his name and he reacted involuntarily. Then I realized, that was probably exactly what happened; Jessica thought his name or something else similar and he heard it. Well I had been thinking all their names all lunch period and he hadn't noticed us until Jessica thought something so I think I was safe in assuming that he couldn't read my mind even though I'm a different person in Bella's body.
Turning back to Jessica I nodded. "Yeah. They're all very attractive." I said noncommittally.
"Edward is the one with red hair, Emmett's the big wrestler type, and Rosalie and Jasper are the two blondes. There's another girl, Alice. She must've left already. They're all Dr. Cullen's and his wife's foster children. Rosalie and Jasper are biological twins though, I think, and their last name is Hale, not Cullen."
We both looked over at them while Jessica was talking, and I could see that Edward was moving his lips very quickly, presumably talking to the other three even though none of them were looking at him. I felt a thrill of something as I realized Edward might be talking about me and my cloaked mind.
I nodded slowly as Jessica continued, in the lowered voice one used for gossip, "They're all together though. Rosalie and Emmett and Alice and Jasper I mean. And they live together." She sounded shocked and excited to be talking about it. Maybe it was because I was a foster kid myself, but it didn't strike me as weird. Obviously they weren't foster kids and weren't at all related, but even foster kids dating within families wasn't all that strange back in DC. It wasn't common, but it definitely wasn't like dating a biological sibling or even a step-sibling.
"It must be easy to hook up if they live together," I said. "Dr. Cullen and his wife probably leave them alone all the time." And okay, maybe I was looking for a little reaction from Jessica with that comment, but it was Emmett that I caught cracking a smile. I didn't know if it was because of me or something that one of the others had said, but it made me feel a little sense of pride.
Jessica didn't seem to know how to respond to that, so instead she said "I heard that Mrs. Cullen can't have kids, though," as if that was a bad thing and a reason to dislike the family. Suddenly I knew why Bella wasn't so fond of Jessica.
I frowned into my tray of food and took a bite of my watery spaghetti, ending that conversation.
Once Jessica realized I was done talking with her and she started up a conversation with the boy sitting next to her I looked up again, straight into the eyes of Edward Cullen.
He was blatantly staring at me, and I had to fight the urge to turn away to avoid awkward eye contact. But I fought it, and met Edward's gaze with what I hope was an expressionless face, until he finally looked away, with a slightly dissatisfied expression.
The four remaining Cullen's got up immediately after and left the cafeteria, all of them just as graceful as Alice had been. I have to admit, it was more than a little unsettling seeing big brawny Emmett walk with just as much grace as Alice was able to.
The group I was sitting with got up soon after and Angela offered to walk with me to Biology since we were in the same class. Neither of us said anything on the walk to class, her because she was shy and me because I was lost in thought about what to say to Edward when I met him next class.
When we walked into the classroom Angela broke off to go sit with her lab partner and I went to the front of the classroom to get my attendance slip signed by Mr. Banner. I glanced down the aisle trying to find Edward and saw him sitting by himself next to an empty seat.
As I walked by he shot up in his seat and glared at me. I saw his coal-black eyes and I think my heart just about stopped and all the blood drained from my face I was so scared. Black eyes mean hungry vampires, and I was his singer. Even though Edward had managed to not kill real Bella I was still terrified as I handed Mr. Banner my slip to sign. My heart was hammering in my chest, which was probably doing absolutely nothing to help Edward avoid killing me.
Mr. Banner handed me my book and syllabus and directed me towards the only empty desk in the room, right next to Edward. I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and, heart still pounding away, walked slowly down the aisle and took my seat next to Edward.
I immediately pulled all my hair over my right shoulder so that the scent would be a little bit farther away from him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his fist clenched around the edge of the table. He was leaning as far away from me as he could and had his face averted.
Rationally I think I knew that Edward wouldn't kill me and that I shouldn't alert the vampires to the fact that I knew there was something weird about them, but I was so scared I couldn't think straight, and if Edward had been able to read my thoughts I don't think he would have even gotten any words out of it, only feelings of blind panic and terror.
Those feelings might explain what I did next. I glanced down at my desk, pulling out a notebook to start taking notes and just barely breathed "Stop breathing, stop smelling," just loud enough that only Edward would be able to hear.
I saw a movement in my peripheral vision that was probably him whipping his head around to stare at me, but I forced myself to not react, and just copied down the notes Mr. Banner had put up on the projector.
This first Biology class was probably the longest hour of my life, both because I didn't calm down from my first intense encounter with Edward and because he never said anything to me. I didn't notice any visible relaxation on his part, but he was sitting so still I doubted that he was breathing, although whether it was because I had told him to or because he would have done it anyway I didn't know.
Every so often I would peek at him out of the corner of my eye, and every time he was looking straight at me. It didn't look like he was angry, or about to eat me. He looked curious, which I guess was to be expected since I did tell him to stop breathing, which isn't something that is normally said to one's lab partner.
I was glad when the bell finally rang. I had started to develop a headache in the middle of class, but it seemed to disappear when I stood up to leave. Of course, Edward had shot out of his chair and was out of the room almost before the bell was finished ringing.
On my way to the door, I was intercepted by a cute boy with slicked back blond hair. He looked like one of the popular lacrosse players back home: tall, but not too tall, and I could tell he had a good body underneath the jeans and red long sleeve T with "Newton's Outfitters" printed on it.
"Aren't you Isabella Swan?" he asked.
"Just Bella," I said with a smile.
"I'm Mike." Aha. So this was Mike Newton. I was surprised I hadn't met him yet today, although, come to think of it, I think he might have been in my English class this morning.
"Hi Mike," I said.
"Do you need help finding your next class?"
"I actually just have Gym, so I know where that is. Thanks though," I said, consulting my schedule.
His eyes lit up. "That's my class too!"
So Mike and I walked to class together. He was a chatterbox, but was still interested in what I had to say, and the conversation we had about English class as well as how much both of us missed the sun (he had lived in California for 10 years) did a good job of distracting me from thoughts of Edward.
As we entered the gym though, Mike said artlessly "So did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or something? I've never seen him act like that."
"He's not always like that?" I asked, playing dumb.
"No," Mike said earnestly. "I mean, he's not going to win any awards for being nice, but he looked like he was in pain or something, sitting next to you."
I shrugged and began to walk towards the girls' locker room. Instead of breaking away to the boys' locker room, Mike followed me. "If I were lucky enough to be sitting next to you I would have talked to you."
I smiled vaguely at him and walked into the locker room.
Coach Clapp, a slender, obviously fit woman was the gym teacher. She helped me find a gym uniform that fit, and told me I didn't have to dress out today. But after everything that had happened, the last thing I needed to be doing was sitting still and dwelling on it, so I asked if I could dress out anyway.
We were currently doing volleyball in gym, which was fine. I could hit the ball pretty accurately when it came at me, and most of the time it went in the direction it was supposed to go. And it served its purpose in keeping my mind off of Edward and that terrible Biology class.
When the final bell rang I quickly changed back into my regular clothes and made my way to the main office.
When I entered the door I was presented with Edward's back. He was arguing with the receptionist in a surprisingly low, musical voice. It was incredibly attractive, and I wondered if it was because of his vampire nature or he just naturally had a lovely voice. He was asking her if there was any way he could switch out of our Biology class into a different one. I knew it was because of me, or rather, my scent and I didn't take offense.
I did clear my throat so that he would be aware that I was in here and that he should try not to breathe.
I don't think it worked because his arms stiffened at his sides and he turned around to glare at me with his terrifying black eyes. I wasn't as scared this time, probably because I'd been so frightened by him in Biology I just didn't have any energy left. And my headache from earlier was coming back.
He turned around again and muttered "Never mind, I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help," before glaring his way past me and out of the office.
I waited until he was completely out of the office before I walked up to the receptionist's desk to hand her my attendance slip.
"How did your first day go dear?" she asked me maternally.
I shrugged. "It was okay." I wasn't lying. Aside from the incidents in here and Biology, the day had really been perfectly fine. My headache had also vanished as quickly as it had come.
On the drive home to Charlie's I thought about what had happened today, and wondered how they would affect the events that took place in Twilight. Would Edward leave school for the rest of the week like he did in the novel, or would he show up? Although I hadn't meant to at the time, I had changed a lot of stuff already, what with my comments to Alice and Edward.
I sighed as I pulled into Charlie's driveway. I guess there's nothing left to do but wait until tomorrow to see what happens.
AN: Well that's the first chapter! Please let me know what you guys think! I have a couple things I would like to say about this story as well. Firstly, I do not have it planned out at all, so if you have any suggestions or requests for things you want to see happen just let me know and I'll probably work them into the story! Secondly, I do not have a planned pairing for this story, although I would like for there to be one. I'm open to writing any pairing (or threesome or foursome, etc.) that you guys want to see so just let me know! I would really like for this story to be interactive on some level, with the things you guys request in reviews making their way into the story! Finally, I am in college and I'm very busy. So while I do promise that I won't abandon this story and I will finish it I can't promise any regular updating schedule. Thanks for reading!