Chapter One

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I do not own any nor claim to.

Bella Swan sighed as she rolled out of bed and shut off her alarm. She yawned and stretched her arms over her head before getting up and heading blearily to the bathroom. She looked at her messy brown hair and bloodshot eyes in the mirror and shook her head at herself before starting the shower. Once it was warm enough, she stripped of her clothes and stepped in carefully. She tilted her head back, letting the water wake her up before doing what she needed to do. Once she was done, she turned the shower off and grabbed her towel. She quickly dried herself off and dried her hair before stepping out of the shower and standing in front of the mirror. She wiped off the steam and looked at her reflection again as she brushed her wet hair. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she walked back into her bedroom and opened her closet for something to wear. Settling on a long sleeved brown shirt and dark blue jeans, she quickly threw them on before heading downstairs.

"Good morning." Her mother, Renee greeted as she walked into the kitchen.

"Morning." Bella grumbled in response.

"I made you some pancakes, are you hungry?"

"Yeah I guess." Bella said. She took a few pancakes and put them on her plate. As she was eating, footsteps were heard coming down the stairs.

"Good morning, Phil!" Renee exclaimed.

Bella looked down and rolled her eyes.

"Morning." He replied, kissing her cheek before sitting at the table. "Good morning, Bella."

"Morning."

"Boy I am starved. These pancakes look great."

"Thank you." Renee had the decency to blush and Bella rolled her eyes again. Her mother sometimes acted younger than she did.

"So, Bella, you excited to start at a new school?" Phil asked.

"Ecstatic." Bella said sarcastically.

"Bella, no need to be rude." Renee scolded.

Bella rolled her eyes for the second time that morning and stabbed at another bite of her pancakes. Once she was done, she got up, put her plate in the sink and grabbed her backpack.

"I'm leaving."

"You still have ten minutes, don't you honey?" Renee asked.

"Yeah, mom, but it is my first day and I should probably go early and get out of the house."

"Oh, okay honey. Have a good day."

"Thanks." Bella said as she grabbed her coat. She groaned when she opened the door and saw it was raining. Again.

"Good luck, Bells." Phil said.

Bella cringed. She hated being called that. "Yeah thanks."

Bella shut the door behind her and sighed as she put her hood up. She walked over to her beat up pickup truck and climbed in. She sighed and laid her head back against the headrest, just glad to be out of the house. Ever since her mother had forced her to live up here with her boyfriend, Phil, Bella had been less than pleased. Though she never had been a huge fan of Phoenix, she would miss her friends, the neighborhood, the familiarity of the town and, she leaned forward and looked out her window. And she would definitely miss the sun.

Bella started her truck and turned her windshield wipers on before heading for her new school, Forks High School. She was less than pleased than to have to go to a new school when she only had two years left, but there had been no arguing with her mother. Bella rolled her eyes to herself as she remembered that conversation.

"But Bella, Phil asked us to move up there and he's just been so generous. It's about time we leave this house and start something new."

"Mom, I don't want to start a new school! This isn't fair to me!"

"Bella, please, just try, please for me?"

Of course Bella had given in. It would've been better than have her mother be unhappy for a couple of more years. Bella had too much compassion to deal with that. She arrived at school a few minutes later, of course it hadn't been hard to find, it was right off the highway and her mother, Phil and herself had taken a tour a week earlier. School had already started a few weeks earlier so Bella wouldn't be too far behind, for that her mother was grateful. Bella, not so much. This school had no second floor like the one back in Phoenix and it was half of the students. Of course, the whole freaking town was not even half the population Phoenix was. Bella didn't think she was going to like small town life.

"Hey, you new here?" Bella heard from behind her. She turned around and saw a boy with jet black hair and brown eyes smiling at her. He was pretty short, shorter than Bella, and scrawny.

"Yes." Bella replied.

"My name's Eric." He said, extending his hand.

"Bella." She replied, shaking the offered hand.

"Well welcome to Forks High School, Bella. The main office is that way." He pointed.

Bella had figured that out herself after seeing the 'Main Office' sign on the door, but she kept her mouth shut.

"Thanks." She said with a small smile.

"No problem." He grinned. "I'll see you around."

"Okay."

Bella walked into the main office and walked up to the desk where a woman with curly, wild red hair and glasses that perched on her nose. She looked up and smiled.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"My name's Bella Swan."

"Oh right!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "The new girl!" Bella groaned inwardly. She hated that label. "I have your schedule here somewhere." She searched her desk until she finally found a couple of papers. "Here we go." She slid them over the counter to Bella. "There is your schedule and a map of the school. Do you have any questions?"

"No." Bella replied as she looked over her schedule. She wanted to try and memorize it and not look like a total newbie.

"Alright, well good luck dear." She said with a smile.

"Thanks." Bella replied, faking a smile back to her before leaving the building.

She sighed as she headed for Building Six where her first class was. She knew this was going to be a long day. As she stepped inside the building, she rolled her eyes to herself when she saw everyone stare at her like the newbie she was. She walked up to the desk where the teacher was sitting.

"Isabella Swan I take it." He said.

Bella cringed. "Bella actually."

"Okay, Bella, my name is Mr. Irving, welcome to English. Here is your text book," he said, handing her a heavy book, "and a syllabus of what we will go over. You actually came at the right time, right now we're working on sentence structures and will be starting a book soon. You can go ahead and have a seat unless you have any questions." Bella shook her head. "Alright, well go ahead and sit down and I'll start class when the bell rings."

Bella smiled slightly at him before turning around and blushing slightly at everyone staring at her. She used all the confidence she could muster as she headed for an empty desk and sat down.

"Hey."

Bella turned her head and saw a cute, preppy blonde boy smiling at her. "Hi." She replied.

"Mike Newton."

"Bella Swan."

"First day huh?"

Duh. "Yeah."

"It's not so bad here, everyone's pretty cool. Just ignore them, though, we don't have a lot of new people coming here."

"Oh." Just great.

"They'll stop by the end of the week hopefully."

"Yeah hopefully. I hate being stared at."

Mike chuckled. "Me too."

The bell rang then, a soft, tinny sound, and Mr. Irving got up to start class. He announced they were going to start reading a book, 1984, which Bella had read already. They had the rest of the class to read the first five chapters and there was going to be a quiz on it the next day of class. This would be easy for Bella, but she figured she'd brush up on her reading anyway, just in case.

"Man I hate reading." Mike complained.

"It's not so bad." Bella shrugged.

"You like reading?"

Bella nodded. "Yeah."

"Mr. Newton, no talking please." Mr. Irving said.

Mike went back to his book and Bella sighed, glad to have a few moments to herself. She opened the book and slouched down in her seat as she turned to chapter one. She heard Mike tapping his pencil against his desk next to her and bit her cheek from saying anything. Bella only knew this kid for maybe ten minutes and already he was getting on her nerves. She sighed softly. Man, she really needed to loosen up or something, it wasn't a good sign if she was already getting annoyed with the kids in her class.

The bell rang, startling Bella of her thoughts. She put her things in her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She got up to follow everyone out of the classroom when someone stopped her.

"Hi."

Bella turned around and saw a perky blonde girl wearing a pink polo and shorts smiling at her.

"Hi." Bella replied.

"My name's Jessica. Jessica Stanley."

"Bella."

"I know. I saw you talking to Mike." Bella didn't miss the adoring look she gave him.

"Oh. Are you and him?" She trailed off.

"No. We're just friends." She said with a shrug and a small laugh. Bella had a feeling it was something more, at least on her part. "So where'd you move from?"

"Phoenix."

"Oh really? But aren't the girls like, tan there?"

"Guess that's why I'm here now. They kicked me out."

Jessica looked at her and Bella sighed. Obviously jokes were going to go over this girl's head.

"Oh. Well, I think you'll like it here. It's a pretty good town."

Bella nodded and decided that keeping her thoughts to herself was probably going to be a good idea.

"So where are you going now?" Jessica asked.

"Um," Bella bit her lip as she thought, "History." She was proud of herself that she didn't have to look.

"Okay well I've got to Science so I'll see you later."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye." Jessica said with a little more enthusiasm than necessary before heading in the opposite direction.

Bella sighed as she headed for her history class and wondered if all the kids at this school were overly friendly and bubbly. She hoped not.

After her third class, Spanish which she had with Jessica, she headed for lunch. Jessica had followed her, saying she could sit with her and soon Bella was following her to a table already occupied with kids. She recognized both Eric and Mike and they both smiled when they saw her.

"Hey Bella!" Eric greeted.

"Hey there." Mike said with a grin.

"Hi." Bella replied as she sat down.

"How's your day going?" Eric asked.

"It's okay."

"Who do you have for History?" Mike asked her.

Couldn't she just eat her lunch in peace? "Locke."

"Oh, I hear she's tough." Mike said as he ate a french fry.

"Yeah she is, I have her too." Eric said.

Bella shrugged. "She's alright."

"That sucks, man, at least we have an easy English teacher." Mike said with a smile.

"Yeah." Bella shrugged again as she ate her pizza.

"Oh, sorry, Bella. This is Angela and Lauren. This is Bella." Jessica introduced her to the other two girls at the table. One, Angela, had dark hair, wore glasses and had brown eyes. She smiled shyly at Bella. Lauren had blonde hair a little past her shoulders and blue eyes. She more glared at Bella than anything else. Bella shifted uncomfortably under her gaze and looked away quickly.

It was then Bella noticed a group of kids walking into the lunchroom. The first girl was tall, had long blonde hair that flowed to the middle of her back, and blue eyes. She had her arm on a taller boy with huge muscles, definitely a football player, or at least, looked like one, short black hair and brown eyes. He had dimples when he smiled and was pretty cute. The girl, however, was gorgeous. Bella had the feeling she was the envy of many. She had a perfect body that most girls dreamed about and Bella could tell she definitely knew she was pretty by the tight shirt and short skirt she wore. The guy she had her arm in was wearing a letterman jacket and blue jeans, looking every part of the jock There was a girl behind her with short, black hair that wisped out at the ends and a small, pixie like figure. She wore the latest fashion in clothes and had her arm on a scrawny boy with wild light brown hair and brown eyes who was wearing a plain shirt and jeans.

"Who are they?" Bella asked, interrupting the conversation at the table.

Jessica followed her gaze and giggled. "Oh them. The first girl, Rosalie Hale, she's dating Emmett Cullen. Emmett's the captain of the football team and she's captain of the cheerleaders. They're like the most popular kids in school. The two behind them are Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale . They're dating too, but they're kind of weird. They're not as popular and kind of like keep to themselves. They're all adopted too, the Cullen's live with Dr. Cullen and his wife and the Hales live with their aunt and uncle or something like that. They don't really socialize with the rest of the people."

Bella was about to ask another question when another boy came in. Bella's breath caught in her throat as she saw him. He was a skinny boy with wild bronze hair and green eyes that mesmerized Bella. He was wearing a black leather jacket and a fitting white t-shirt underneath and ripped blue jeans. He walked over to the table and sat down across from the other kids.

"Who, who's that?"

Jessica giggled again. "That's Edward Cullen. He's gorgeous, of course, but he's a total bad boy. I'm surprised he even showed up for school today." She rolled her eyes.

Bella watched as Edward slunk down in his chair with his leg sticking out from underneath the table. He didn't talk much to the others at the table, mostly keeping to himself. He looked up at Bella and Bella sucked in a breath as they stared at each other from across the lunchroom. There stare was broken when the bell rang and Bella flushed, looking down at her tray.

"Come on, Bella, bell rang." Jessica said as she stood up.

Bella followed her over to the trash and threw away the rest of her food.

"So, where ya headed?" Mike asked with a smile.

"Um, Biology."

"Awesome. Me too. I'll walk with you." Mike grinned.

Jessica seemed a little put off. "Well I'm going the other way. Bye Bella." She sounded a little jealous. She turned to Mike and smiled sweetly. "Bye Mike."

"Bye." He replied.

Mike followed Bella to class, talking on the way about the football game that weekend. Bella could care less about that kind of thing, but listened to Mike anyway.

"Hey yo, Mr. Molina, this is Bella, the new girl." Mike said to the teacher as they walked into class.

Mr. Molina looked up and nodded. "Bella, right. Here's your book." He handed it to her. "Let me just get you a seat." He looked down at a seating chart he had on his desk. "Alright there's a free seat next to Mr. Cullen if you just want to sit down and I'll start class soon."

"Okay." Bella replied.

Bella turned around and froze when she saw Edward Cullen sitting at a table by himself. She took a deep breath before heading to the table and sitting down in the empty seat. She bit her lip.

"Okay so today we're going to be working on a lab. I'll come around and give you the slides and then begin immediately. When you are done, raise your hands and I will come around to see if you have it right."

Mr. Molina walked around and put the slides on the table and Bella cleared her throat. She looked over at Edward and saw him leaning back against the chair, arms crossed over his chest and sighed softly. Looked like she would be doing this on her own.

"I already did the first one." Edward mumbled, startling Bella. She looked over at him and saw him looking at her. She cleared her throat.

"Oh, um."

Edward sighed and sat up, placing his arms on the table. "I wrote it down. Do you want to check it?" He asked with a smirk.

Bella bit her lip and shifted nervously under his gaze. "Um, n-no, I-I believe you."

He nodded. "Well you can do the next one."

"Okay." Bella said softly. She shakily reached for the next one and looked at it under the microscope. "It's, um, anaphase."

"Should I check?" Edward asked with another smirk. And now Bella was starting to get angry. This guy didn't even know her and he was acting so rude.

"If you want to, but it's right." Bella snapped.

Edward raised his eyebrow, an amused smile on his face and Bella sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Edward replied with an amused chuckle.

Bella sighed again and ran her hand over her hair. There was something about this guy that got her worked up so fast, and she was never normally like this. She blamed it on the stress of everyone staring at her like she was from another planet.

"So you're Bella?" Edward asked as he looked under the microscope at the next slide.

"Yes."

Edward looked at her and nodded before turning back to the microscope. He wrote down the answer and told Bella what it was. He cleared his throat and looked at her.

"So what'd you move to rainy Forks for?"

Bella looked at him, slightly surprised. No one had asked her why she had moved here all day. Actually, it seemed a little odd now that she thought about it.

"My mom's boyfriend lives here so she uprooted us."

"And you're not happy." Edward gathered.

"No not really, but what can I do?"

Edward chuckled. "Yeah life sucks."

"No kidding." Bella muttered.

"I hear you. The name's Edward by the way." He said.

Bella smiled and nodded. They both looked away, not sure what to say and sat there uncomfortably. Mr. Molina came by a few minutes later to check their work, nodded at it, and headed back to his desk, leaving them in an awkward silence again.

"So you play any sports or anything?" Edward asked.

Bella scrunched up her nose in distaste. "God no." Edward chuckled. "Not that I mind them, sports just never were my thing."

"Where did you move here from?"

"Phoenix."

Edward nodded. "That's cool. I wish I could move away from here." He sighed.

"Is it that bad?" Bella asked.

Edward laughed, a high musical sound and Bella found herself smiling at the way Edward smiled.

"No I guess not, but I didn't really move here under happy circumstances either."

"Yeah me either. Where did you move from?" Bella asked curiously.

"Cleveland."

"Oh that's cool."

"Yeah." Edward said evasively, looking down at the desk.

Bella frowned at his actions but knew it wasn't her place to ask anything else. She definitely didn't want to come off as nosy. She sighed softly and slunk down in her chair, unsure of what to say next. Edward seemed to have the same problem and they spent the rest of class in an awkward silence.

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Finally. Bella thought as she left Forks High. She was so relieved she had survived her first day of high school. She walked into the parking lot with a sigh and caught a flash of silver. Looking up, she saw Edward Cullen standing against a shiny silver Volvo looking her way. Bella blushed and looked down quickly, but not before she swore she saw Edward smile at her.