If my heart was still beating it would be racing at a hundred miles per hour. If my sweet blood was still able to journey to my cheeks they would be a delicate pink. If I was able to perspire, I would have beads of sweat on my forehead. I took an unnecessary breath in as I gazed up at Edward sitting by me in the driver's seat. Even in my new vampire form, would I ever really get used to the way his smouldering eyes dragged me away from reality? I didn't think so. He was driving at full speed down the road, then suddenly he stopped the car and parked to the side. He sighed at me, his beautiful, angelic face creased, staring at me quizzically. I took his hand and squeezed it before tearing my gaze away from his eyes so that I could concentrate as I spoke.

"What's the matter, love?" Edward asked me affectionately.

"Are you scared too?" I asked him. He stared at me almost confused before replying.

"Bella, are you telling me that you're scared of some fragile humans?"

"No, not scared… Just nervous. Maybe scared for them though." I whispered, still knowing that he would hear every word crystal clear.

"Bella, love, if I didn't think you could do this, I would turn around and drive us right out of Alabama and take us to Alaska to hunt penguins." I laughed at the memory he brought back. The first time we had mentioned Alaska and penguins was only a couple of years ago. But it seemed like eternity, and my brain didn't register my human memories with as much clarity as it did my vampire ones.

"Bella?"
"Sorry." I mumbled still smiling. He was always one for distracting. "But, what if I slip up?" I asked, any previous smile now wiped from my face.

"Bella," I loved the way he started each sentence with my name, it brought a thrill to me each time… "You have an exceptional hold on yourself. I can guarantee that you won't slip up. We are here to protect you as well." Edward reassured me, however I could see the frown starting to creep up silently on his forehead again.

"You're frowning. You don't believe in me." I told him. He stared at me, his butterscotch eyes boring into my own, and burst out laughing.

"Actually Bella, I believe in you more than I do in myself. Starting somewhere new is always hard… But I am frowning because something different has just occurred to me. The amount of people that will be staring at you today. I don't think I'll be able to keep myself from losing my temper. I can already hear the thoughts that the boys will have as they take in your beauty." Edward looked sad.

"Hey…" I whispered. "It's you I want, nobody else."

"I know," he chuckled, "It will just be so difficult to keep control of myself." And then he leant in and kissed me with his gentle lips. I pulled away before I could get sucked in. He chuckled again.

"Old habitats never die. Always the best at distracting." I muttered teasingly.

"I can't help the fact that vampires don't have a very good attention span." He chortled, throwing at me my favourite crooked smile that never seemed to faze me. I grumbled at him, as he restarted the car and drove more slowly than before. I took in another unnecessary breath simply out of habit, trying to calm myself as we rounded the corner. What came into my view was my new high school. It was prettier than the one in forks. If pretty was the right word. I took in the name on the sign post. City of Alabama, Mobile High School. Funny name for a place. Mobile. When I first heard it I thought it sounded like a mobile school which travels from place to place. I told Edward my theory before, but he laughed and said it must be the perfect place for us because we move around so often. I smiled back at that memory, as clear as glass.

As soon as I saw the school, I knew the school and its fragile inhabitants could see us. I groaned in disbelief as about fifty faces turned around to gawp at us. I knew it was a mistake coming in Alice's Porsche. I didn't ever think to ask Edward why he wanted to take such an obvious car. As if he was reading my thoughts he turned to look at me and said, "I am sorry, it's just Alice had already taken all the less conspicuous cars and this was all that was left." I nodded in grimace as Edward tried to find a parking spot. I noticed a shiny, silver Volvo parked in the corner of the car park, and he drove neatly into the space left for him just by it. I think I knew why Alice had taken the least obvious car and left us with the most. She seemed like she was still eager to have me in the limelight, even as a vampire. I could sense Edward by me, laughing to himself about the thoughts he was already listening to, and growl in response to a couple he didn't like the sound of. I sighed as he rolled his eyes at me.

"Right, got your bag?" Edward asked me.

"Check." I replied, holding a bag close to my chest full of books. Props, in Edward's case. He could probably memorize every book in his satchel backwards, but for me, I still wasn't as confident.

"Then let's do it." He told me, squeezing my hand for the last time as we both got out of the car. I was immediately greeted by stares. Some suspicious, some friendly, some envious, some scared, some even admiring. One boy flaunted past me wolf whistling as Edward came to stand by me.

"Ignore them." He muttered as he locked my hand in his and we walked to the entrance of the school. As I caught my reflection in the glass door, I imagined what each person was thinking, probably exactly the same as what I first thought when I saw the Cullen's, walking so gracefully, looking like a march of angels, so beautiful it hurt. But now I was one of them. I, Bella Cullen, nee Swan, and I was here with Edward. I smiled to myself as I kept that thought with me as we made our way to the reception desk. Edward snickered to himself, as I looked at him puzzled.

"Always the same." He whispered to me, a sound so silent even a human right next to us would've have heard.

I followed his gaze at the receptionist that was now gawping at us. She just about managed to close her mouth as Edward and I made our way towards her at an annoyingly slow pace for us, but we had to keep up the charade.

"Good morning. My name is Edward Cullen and this is Bella Swan, we are new students here?" He informed the receptionist politely.

"Oh yes," She replied slightly dazed, just as I had been when Edward first spoke to me. "I think I have already met the others…I mean…your siblings or girlfriend or something no?" She replied, getting all mixed up with her words as she tried desperately to not look at Edward or I in an attempt to get her act together.

"Anyway, here are your timetables, if you need anything just come and ask." She told us curtly. It reminded me exactly of my first day at Forks. I exhaled as I threw her a small smile and a thank you as we made our way down the corridor to the first lesson of the day… Calculus. I made a face when I read the timetable, but Edward just smiled and told me I'd have to get used to it.

"Alright for you," I mumbled, "You've been doing this for decades."

"Even more the reason I should be the one pulling faces." He muttered at me, chuckling happily though. Suddenly out of nowhere Alice appeared.

"Bella!" she replied happily, giving me and Edward a huge grin as Jasper appeared behind her.

"Wow Bella… For a first timer, you don't seem very nervous?" Jasper asked me… "Oh now you do, sorry. I'll fix that," He said laughing lightly. I sighed heavily, as my nervousness disappeared as quickly as it had come when Jasper had mentioned it.

"Anyway Bella," Alice pulled me to the side, talking so quietly suddenly, I almost, even as a vampire, had to strain my neck to get a better catch of her words.

"I have to go through the story with you one last time… okay?" Alice told me. I grunted at her words.

"Alice I know already!" I am Bella Swan here, and was adopted the most recently with my…" I paused to make my fingers into quote marks, "…Sister, Renesmee. It'll be fine!" I promised, as Alice looked suspiciously at me.

"And what about Jacob?" She asked me. "Somebody's going to notice when he comes down for continuous visits."

"Alice I really don't think anyone will be paying that much attention to us…" I started and then looked past her shoulder at the small group of juniors who were staring at us in awe. Alice raised her right eyebrow as she followed my gaze.

"Well he can be the nanny or somebody!" I exclaimed.

Alice pursed her lips, and then stuck out her bottom lip in defeat. Edward laughed beside her.

"What?!" I asked him.

"Nothing, Alice is just annoyed, she though just this year she would have somebody to boss about… she should have known you'd be up to scratch on the story." He chuckled again as Alice glared in his direction. Soon a new booming laugh joined us as it echoed down the hall. We looked up to find Emmett hand in hand with Rosalie as Jasper grumbled something faint under his breath.

"I thought we are meant to be acting human? This gathering is getting too comfortable… come on guys." He moaned.

"Chill brother!" Emmett beamed at all of us as he said it, "I feel this year might be different from the others, you know it might actually be fun." Always the enthusiast. I sighed but couldn't help but grin in response as Edward pulled me away and we walked to our first lesson. I turned behind to watch the rest of my family walk in opposite directions. Maybe Emmett was right… this year could be fun… couldn't it?