Chapter 1
It was a bright and sunny late August morning, as I climbed into my parents Toyota Prius. I was squished in between numerous suitcases and bags, and was beginning to feel very claustrophobic, in realizing that a long drive was ahead. My parents climbed into the front seats of the vehicle, and reversed it down the tree shaded driveway. Thus our journey began.
My parents worked in a plantation business, which centered on growing environmentally friendly java beans. The centre where they met with other pro fair trade coffee-goers had recently been relocated to Seattle, Washington.
So here we were, Vancouverites through and through, on our way to live in the states. This wasn't so bad, or so I had though, at first. But then came the news that the house we had wanted in Seattle had been taken off the market, and we were stuck with living in Forks now, a tiny rainy town outside of the high rise infested and beautified city. I detested the idea of actually living a small town. The idea revolted me, all I could think of were middle aged middle classed farmers and their wives, taking up multiple seats in the nearest McDonalds, discussing the latest results on reality TV, and polishing their riffles.
"Alex, we'll be near the border soon, so you should probably text your friends' goodbye now, so you can turn off your phone until we get a new plan for it." My mom said, with a tentative smile in my direction. Both my parents had been slightly cautious towards me for the past few days. They knew that I wasn't exactly looking forward to moving to a small town in the U.S, and yet they hadn't let me stay here by myself! Okay, so I was a bit young to be living without parents, but I had always been responsible, sort of. When I had even broached the topic of living at my friend's, or my 19 year old sister's place, they had laughed, not even taking me seriously. And I was very serious about it; I knew nothing good would come out of me being relocated to Forks.
Still, I consented, and pulled out my Samsung slide phone. I typed for a couple minutes, and came up with as much of a non-cynical composition as I could manage.
I quickly inserted the names of a few of my friends from my contact book, and tapped my finger on the touch screen "send" button. I turned off my phone with any degree of permanence for the first time in my life.
"Oh", continued my mom, after a few minutes, "I have you signed up for Forks' high school, and I got an e-mail from the administration office there. They have everything figured out, so you can start there just like every other student on the 3rd. I printed out a list of the materials you will need and the recommended electives."
She handed me a sheet of paper, covered with text about binders and text books, and a miniature map in the bottom corner to find the school. I doubted it would be too difficult to locate – everything there would probably be just off the highway.
I had paid attention to how my mom was delivering these sentences; trying to place me in with all the other students. Like one of the many. She had always been like that, encouraging my sister and me to stick up for ourselves, but not to claim the spotlight all the time. Naturally, we had rebelled slightly from this, both of us enjoying attention from people – especially those of the opposite sex.
"The 3rd?" I asked, not even attempting to hide the disdain in my soprano voice. "That's two weeks earlier than Waldorf".
"Oh, but you'll be so ahead of all your old friends in academics then," said my dad, grinning at me in the rearview mirror.
To say he was thrilled at us moving was an understatement. He had always dreamed of moving to a town or the country, so he was ecstatic – something I couldn't comprehend to any miniscule degree. He wasn't even trying to hide the fact that the people I had known and loved my whole like would now be christened my "old friends".
That's how the remainder of the ride was spent. My parents occasionally commenting on trivial things such as the flat dung-obscured scenery or how the music blaring from the iPod dock (courtesy of me) was obnoxious. The journey was only a few hours long, and having driven to California every year, I had endured much worse. We didn't stray from the highway often, and the flat, black 6 lane expanse of concrete was easier to stomach than the winding roads farther south.
I resurfaced from "Interview with the Vampire" when a small kelly green dirt splattered sign caught my peripherals. "Welcome to Forks, WA" was printed in white chipped paint. I clenched my teeth together, a habit I had picked up when anticipating rather unpleasant scenarios. The shops and dinners that were scattered along the sidewalk weren't unique and hippy-esque as I'd been secretly hoping, but rather the same chains you could find pretty much anywhere in North America.
We turned onto a tree shaded residential street, and then another, and finally pulled up to a dark rust coloured two story house. Our real-estate agent had informed us that the house was 7 years old, and in good condition. It appeared so, as the paint on both the walls and white window sills remained unscathed. The house had been furnished the previous day by the movers, and we simply had the leftovers and our personal items to store ourselves. I was not one to be afraid of change, I embraced it rather, but I was still slightly apprehensive to move into a completely different small town.
The interior of the - my new house – was simple and functional, but served its purpose. I picked one of the remaining 2 bedrooms (my parents had gotten the other largest one). One was a square open room, situated at the top of the stairs, overlooking the street with large windows. The other was at the end of the hallway, on a corner of the house, so it faced the back yard that led into a forest. It was rectangular and had an adjoining bathroom. I picked the latter, because below the windows on the back wall, there was a trellis that ran over the patio outside. It was an ideal place to sneak out – not that I would be doing that in Forks, but I wanted to keep my possibilities open. Besides, the high school I would be going to here would be much larger than the private one I went to in Vancouver, I thought, not without nostalgia. There would be plenty more people, specifically guys…
The following days passed in a blur. I finally caught up the day before school would start, aware that everything had been moved in, the rooms painted (mine a bright overpowering yellow, much to my parents' dismay), that I had a new cell phone (yay!) and that I was suddenly anxious for the following day. I had no idea what to expect.
I had discovered a couple years ago, that when I was avoiding something, or even thinking about something, I would turn to cooking. So it was no surprise that night, when I discovered I had made a gourmet four course meal, and elegant dessert. The mood at the table was tense; my parents were also worried about my being in Forks High School. They knew that I adored attention and guys, and didn't want me to receive an unnecessary title prematurely.
************************************************************************
My alarm sounded at 7:01am, and I instantly sprung up. I couldn't help it, I was so excited. I had lots of nervous hyper energy, so I decided to do a workout. In Vancouver I had been a dancer, and here in Forks I didn't know what type of academy's they had here. So in order to keep up my thin, athletic body, I had a lot of stretching to do.
I finished around 8am, entered my bathroom, and took a shower. I didn't want to appear like I had planned my outfit, or cared how I looked, but in truth, I wasn't sure what was "in" in small towns. It was overcast, but not too cold, so I finally decided on high waisted dark wash jeans, and a gray and white vertical striped collared shirt. I put my hair in a messy bun, grabbed some cereal and rice milk, brushed my teeth and went out the door.
"Alex" I heard my mom call from inside.
"Yes?" I replied
"Do you want a ride, it's your first day" she sounded scared. I went back inside, to console her.
"It's fine mom, the school's like 3 blocks away, I think I'll survive. And once I get my license and oh, maybe a Vespa, you won't have to worry about it.
"Alex, your 14" she reminded me.
"Oh, a minor detail" I grinned at her and went back outside.
I couldn't believe I was still only 14, I felt so much older. I knew I wanted to make change in the world, spread my vegan ways. But I was already at the school, so I didn't think of this longer.
It was a series of brick buildings. Students were sprawled in the parking lot, gossiping, comparing stories and clothes, flirting; the usual hubbub of teenage life. I sighed internally, this seemed very cliché. I retrieved a list of my classes from the office, and learned that my first class was English. To my dismay this teacher didn't make me introduce myself in front of the class, he probably assumed he was doing me a favour, but I really enjoyed talking infront of people. They're forced to listen then. In tests and school, oral was my favourite. I laughed internally at that thought; okay so maybe I'm not actually older than 14. But my mind was drifting into dirty realms, and I had to listen to what the teacher was droning on about.
I glanced around at my class mates. Most had a glazed look on their faces. A couple of the guys were okay looking, but these were all 9th graders. I was more into the older guys.
My lessons before lunch flew by, my mind was on hyper mode, and I was taking everything in –from the teacher's lecture, to the font on the student's nametag on their backpack infront of me- at inhuman speed. Everyone in the classes stared at me. I didn't mind, but if it got really annoying, simply asking "is there something you need?" or "can I help you?" effectively worked to get their eyes fixed on the ground. At lunch a girl from my 9/10 Spanish class offered me a place at her table. She delivered the offer as though it was a great favour, but I could barely remember her name. Oh yeah, Jessica.
The food was greasy and "small town" American looking. There weren't many vegan options, so I got some dry lettuce, and an apple. Yum yum. Jessica's table housed many other students. They stared at me. I grinned back, unashamed. They were talking about the latest gossip – apparently someone had been dared to eat a live fish at the beach a week ago. I frowned in distaste, part of me was laughing at the stupidity and redundancy of their gossip, while the vegan part of me was seething with anger. Another animal should never suffer for a human's fault.
"Hey Jessica" I said "Can you fill me in on the cliques here at Forks High?"
"Oh my god, I totally forgot, sorry" She said, practically inhaling her fries with excitement. "Of course, okay, see those guys to the left of us? They're like the jocks, 11th and 12th graders. So-o-o-o hot. But they also like, you know, get with a lot of people; they don't really have steady girlfriends. And they usually stray away from all 9th graders, and most 10th." She threw a glare filled with apparent jealousy at a pretty curvy blonde girl sitting at our table. They were both in 10th grade.
"Okay, next table, are like the classic grade 8 wannabe It Girls. Not worth your trouble. Next table; the artsy emo people. Barely any of them are strait – just putting it out there. Next, is the nice, kind of boring, nice to look at guys? Lots are from your grade. The next two tables are mostly 8 and 9th graders some are okay but"-
"Oh my fuck!" I suddenly exclaimed despite myself. A couple people looked around curiously, but I ignored them and lowered my voice. "Who are they?" I indicated with my head to a group of students sitting at a corner table.
"Those are the Cullens" Jessica nearly whispered, excited. "The small pixie one is Alice Cullen, the blonde guy next to her Jasper Hale, the blonde girl beside him is Rosalie Hale – his sister- , the muscled dark haired one next to her is Emmet Cullen, and the like bronze kinda haired hottie next to him is Edward Cullen."
"They are so gorgeous" I said, in stunned disbelief. "What are they doing here?" I said without thinking.
Jessica ignored my last jibe, and explained further on the sexy group. "They were adopted by Carlisle and Esme Cullen; they can't have kids I think. They all live together, and they're like together together."
"Damn, but how are they all together. There are 7 of them, or do they do like freaky incestuous threesomes?" I asked, knowing I would freak Jessica out, but I really wanted to get my paws on at least one of the guys.
"Ew" said Jessica. "No, Edward –the bronze coloured guy- is single. But he's not interested in any of the girls here, so you shouldn't waste your time." She looked pointedly in the opposite direction. I grinned.
"Hmmm" I said slyly "We'll see. And anything involving that" I indicated my head towards him "Isn't a waste of time.
"Hey Jess, Alex" a blonde guy named Mike at our table called our attention. "Jason Smearth is having a back to school party on Friday, you coming?"
Jessica blushed with excitement at being noticed by Mike and stuttered a wimpy agreement.
"Great" he said smiling at her. She now resembled a beet. "Alex? You coming"
"Yes, sure" I agreed still distracted by the Cullens.
I had never seen such beautiful people. All of them were extremely pale, like me. They also had strong angular defined features. I couldn't quite distinguish their eye colours from this distance, but they looked pretty dark. This matched the bruise like shadows surrounding them. As Jessica had explained, Alice was obviously the smallest. She had spiky short black hair that suited her body. Even sitting I could tell that Jasper was tall, and fit. Rosalie was really, just gorgeous. It hurt my ego to even look at her. I had thought that I had an okay body, but in comparison to hers, I looked like a regurgitated slug. Emmet was huge! I couldn't comprehend it. Even as he picked apart a granola bar, I could see his biceps tensing and releasing. It took a couple minutes for me to look a way. But my distraction came in the form of Edward. He had run his pale, long hands through his tousled fucking sex god hair. How could I not get distracted by that? His hair was an unusual shade of reddish brown. Bronze. Its contrast with his pale skin was amazing. And though in comparison to his super muscular brothers he didn't appear too ripped, my trained eyes could tell that he was still way fitter than any other guy in here - even the jocks.
And he was single; amazing. I wanted to get under that; pronto. I was nearly fantasizing about him already. He looked up at me from across the room, a puzzled small smile dancing across his features. I winked at him. After a few long, tense, beautiful seconds he glanced back to his family.
"What's your next class?" A loud voice broke my trance; Mike Newton.
"Oh let me check" I replied, distracted, and hastily searched through my bag for my schedule. "Drawing."
"Really?" He replied excitedly? "Mine too, oh but you're in 9th grade"
"I was in a bunch of AP programs, and sense they don't have them here they bumped me up to Drawing 10/11" I tried not to sound too smug.
"Great, I'll walk you there" He offered and we left the table and an insulted Jessica behind.
Mike was cute. Kind of. He had blonde subtly spiked hair, and was easy to please. I was being a walking vacuum cleaner, sucking up everything around me. The art room was plain, organized by wooden shelves that housed the utensils and different mediums. The walls were decorated with student's paintings. Mike took his assigned seat, but I, not knowing where it was, waited by the teacher to ask. He was busy organizing paper and graphite pencils.
People were slowing filling the room, I noticed a certain guy with bronze hair, and attempted to hide my grin. Once the class was filled, the teacher had me introduce myself and take the only empty seat – which happened to be next to Edward Cullen. Lovely. I slid onto the chair, scooting it into the two person desk; all the while repressing the herculean urge to do a victory dance. Or to throw myself on this Edward Cullen; I could smell his cologne from here, and it was intoxicating. I glanced at the person occupying the other end of it, and was slightly startled by his peculiar expression.
From here I could tell that Edward's eyes were black, and startling against his complexion. Startling and fucking hot. I could barely see his pupils, but they were visible enough to notice that when I looked at him, they dilated to take up most of his iris…was he high? Or...turned on? He looked away as soon as I thought these things, but not before I noticed the rest of his face. It looked as though his expression was battling another expression, a mixture of pain, anger, smugness, happiness, and a look I got whenever I was drunk - and also extreme hotness.
Mr. Banner was passing out paper to everyone, and a tin of pencils and charcoal.
"Welcome to Drawing 10/11 my pets. After I do attendance we can begin the scrumptious lesson I have planned." He seemed a bit eccentric, I loved weird people. Excellent. He began to call our names.
I waited until the C's were over, so that I could talk to Edward.
"Cullen, Edward" Mr. Banner called in a sing song voice.
"Here" The gorgeous being beside me replied, in a sexy nonchalant masculine voice. Wow. I didn't know one word could hold so much beauty till now. Here. I had to hear that voice again.
"Hey Edward, I'm Alex" I said with a smile, biting my lip, looking up through my lashes.
"Hello Alex" he replied coolly. Ahhh, deep sexy voice. He opened his mouth to say something else but just then –
"Xeno, Alex"
"Yes, here" I replied, annoyed at the interruption.
"Alex Xeno" Edward said slowly, testing it on his tongue. I grinned. "That's not very common –the consecutive x's.
"Why go for what's common? Besides, I'd prefer 3." I smiled, flirting easily. It was like a game, you didn't want to make it too obvious, but set little traps that make it unavoidable for the other person to start flirting back. Like so:
"You like triple X." He murmured. We both smirked. My eyes lingered on his face, and he looked back curiously, but slightly guarded. He had a very defined jaw, it was exceptional. I could feel that I was getting my creeper grin on – an expression one gets when reading about or looking at someone extremely sexy. So I turned my focus to Mr. Kettel, who had begun speaking.
"Yes Mr. Newton, this is what you will all be drawing today" He held up a large thing. I had no idea what it was; it was brownish green, sort of like a dead tree root, or clumps of molded seaweed. There was also a disgusting stench coming from the thing, which the first couple of rows were visibly recoiling from.
"I want you all to find what you think is beautiful in this" Mr. Kettel continued, as if the classes response was imaginary." He set the thing on the display table at the front, adjusted the work light so that it cast interesting shadows for everyone's perspectives, and signaled us to begin.
I stared at the thing for a few minutes, trying to decide which aspect or portion of it I wanted to capture. The base of it had a tree like form, and grooves, unlike the top which morphed into tentacle territory. I wasn't sure about the latter, but I knew I could draw trees, so I began to roughly sketch out the bottom left side. Most of my classmates were still appraising the thing with confusion or disgust, but I was trying to find the beauty in it. Trying, and succeeding; my drawing was looking pretty good. I decided to draw the object as if it were negative space, so I grabbed a piece of charcoal in my left hand, and slid it along the perimeter of the sketch.
I glanced up at Edward, to see how his image had progressed. He wasn't drawing anymore. He was staring with thirsty eyes - at me. Well then, fancy that, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I looked him up and down, to make it slightly obvious that I was checking him out. He looked back at his drawing, a slightly embarrassed look set on his perfect features.
"Do you mind if I look?" I asked innocently, indicating with my charcoal at his drawing.
He nodded his head and tilted his drawing so that I could see it. Wow. Holy fuck nut. It was amazing; reminiscent of all the old masters and the new avante garde artists. In 40 minutes he had somehow managed to combine every single type of art into that one drawing of a random gross thing. I was flabbergasted, so I couldn't come up with a convincing reply to his art. I simply looked stunned and mouthed "wow".
"Would it be possible for me to view yours?" He asked in perfectly articulated English.
"Hmm, in comparison to that" I indicated my head to his drawing "I think not".
"Please Alex" he breathed, his onyx eyes staring intently into my green ones. Alright, his eyes had seduced mine; I guess I could show him. I limply adjusted my drawing board to his direction, and heard him catch his breath.
"Alex, that's amazing" he said in yummy sexy macho voice. Oh well, I guess it was pretty decent. Even more decent of him to compliment it, fancy that.
"Thanks" I smiled.
"So what do you think of Forks?" He asked politely.
"Eh, its, erm, kind of ah, interesting?" I tried. Ha. "Wait, how did you know I'm not from here?"
"Everyone knew you were coming from the big city up north. Newcomers here are few and far between." Ah, I knew it would be something like that. Now I would be something like a topic of discussion. I was hoping for it anyways.
"Have you always lived here?" I asked him quietly.
He took a moment to reply, searching my face for a bit as though the answer lay there. "No, my family and I moved down here a few years ago – from Alaska."
He had already answered the question that had been sitting in my head, Alaska. "Alaska, I love it up there, really great scenery."
"You've been there?" He sounded surprised.
"Yeah, I travelled around the globe two years ago."
"You seemed quite worldly". We shared a smirk again.
"Was it weird coming here from Alaska, especially if your family is like together?" I asked, hoping I wasn't pushing the boundaries. I really wanted to get somewhere with this.
He frowned in thought. "It was an adjustment at first, but once people got over the initial gossip it was fine. We've mainly kept to ourselves anyway. And my siblings being together, as you say, that hasn't been a problem."
"And why is it that you seem so adamant against getting with the females here?" I asked casually. "I understand that someone like you" I checked him out again for emphasis "might not be interested in the people here, but really, is it that awful to build up some experience?" I was doing what the girls here for years had probably been too shy to do. They fucking owed me.
He looked very amused. Excellent, keep it light. Although, I wanted to get heavy with him. Hot and fucking heavy. "It's not that I have anything against the girls here, simply that I have no interest in them. Frankly, their mundane predictable activities and thoughts hold no interest of mine."
I nodded, understanding. "How old are you?" I asked. He looked and acted older than a high school student, but I knew if he were in gr.11 he could only be like 17 or 18.
"17". He smiled at me. Yum. "And you?"
"Ah. 14" His eyebrows shot up like rockets. I nodded.
"I find that surprising" He murmured. The bell rang signaling the end of class. I grabbed my bag, as did Edward.
"See you tomorrow, Edward" His name felt nice on my tongue – I wondered what else of his would feel nice on it too. Dirty thoughts again; oh dear Alex.
He had an amused expression on his face again as he nodded his sexy head in farewell. I walked to my next class – gym – with a bounce in my step. I was feeling happy – even if I wouldn't become friends or anything with Edward, at least I got to sit next to him everyday.
I changed into the horrendously oversized gym strip in the girls' locker room with an appalled expression on my face. The shorts were at least 15 centimeters too long. I rolled them over a few times, and that helped – slightly. The shapeless t-shirt was baggy and unflattering. Oh well. I was still on my Edward high.
We played volley ball, and although I tripped a few too many times, I didn't hit anyone in the face. I changed back into my tight jeans and shirt, grabbed my bag and walked outside. It had begun to drizzle lightly, and I rubbed my arms to prevent the inevitable shivering that would ensue. Despite living in Canada (to most people aka frozen wasteland) I got cold easily, and would be caught often wearing sweatshirts - in the summer.
I walked home at a brisk pace, trying to stay warm. The door was open, as my parents were both home, so I let myself in, picked up Alice my cat, and curled up on the sofa. Just then my parents walked in the room, both wearing apologetic expressions.
"Sweety, we're going to be away more than we thought. This new job requires us to be in Seattle quite often. We have to stay overnight there this Friday; do you think you could manage staying over at a friend's house?" My mom said this, as she made dinner, further explaining their plans in the city.
"Yeah sure, mom, great." I replied. That was the night of Jason Smearth's party; perfect.
The rest of the week past in a blur, I developed some tenuous friendships with the people I ate lunch with, and would occasionally speak with Edward in Art. At times he would consent and speak when I asked him a direct question, but other times he would act coolly towards my presence, all the while starring me down like a piranha. It was a bit odd. Overall though, I was adapting to Forks a lot quicker than I had anticipated.