For this chapter, you need to youtube the song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons and when the song begins in the story, play it as you go, it makes it so much more awesome.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing and no one.

Chapter 1 - Radioactive

To say that teacher training is a difficult process would be the understatement of the century, but I Isabella Swan had finally passed and become a certified English teacher! Yay! At the age of 28, I could have finished it earlier, but after attempting various degrees and not really finding my calling, my friend Alice suggested becoming a teacher. Apparently I have a great knack for giving evils and shouting at people. What can I say? I have a gift. But from there I applied with absolutely no experience and somehow, I made it through! Although who knows if I'll make it past this evening? The memory of Alice 'planning' my party this morning still gave me a hint of nausea.

"Oh but Bella come on it'll be great! We could go to a club, dance the night away and get completely pissed on the way!"

I frowned at her, not forgetting the addition of my 'natural' evils.

"Alice you know I'm far too old for that kind of thing. In fact, I was far too old for it when I was 20, so let me put it nice and clear for you. NO." I didn't mean to be grumpy and unsociable all the time, I just didn't like going out. I'm not the girliest of girls and so the dressing up (which Alice so conveniently seems to love) is torture. Not even mentioning when you get to the club and all the men are staring at you like some piece of meat. Ugh. No thank you!

"But what about Rose? She LOVES going out, and she hasn't been out for ages. She has to look after little Tommy all the time, and you know Emmett never helps out." A little frown formed over her eyes. Alice never quite warmed to Emmett, he was a man through and through, and if there was a choice of looking after your son of watching football, he'd choose the football. He and Rose have been married for 4 years and they have a little boy called Tommy who's just turned 1. Tommy is ADORABLE. He's the spitting image of his father, but with blonde curly locks and sharp blue eyes, and not to mention the chubbiest cheeks on the planet. But Rose not only has to look after Tommy all day, but she runs her own online site for mechanical bits (I don't particularly understand it, but it involves cars) whilst Emmett is at the garage being a full time mechanic. And when Emmett comes home, he sits on the sofa and doesn't move until bed. It's true, I've watched him do it.

"You know Rose is busy Alice, she probably doesn't have time to come celebrate. I don't have time to celebrate, I have to prepare for my classes which start next week, and I can't get it wrong. It's an all-boys school I'm working at, they'll annihilate me!" The fact that I had already got a teaching position was incredible, however it was at the local boys' school in town and it didn't have the best reputation, so I imagine they were desperate for any kind of teacher.

Alice merely scoffed at me.

"Who cares it's in a week? Today is Saturday and we are going out!"

I didn't even bother to look up at her from my phone. "Alice, no. I just want to stay in and do some lesson planning."

"Hmph." She grabbed her own phone and started to tap furiously. That couldn't be good. A couple of seconds later, her phone buzzed and a gleeful look returned to her face.

"Bellaaaa…" She looked at me with her big brown eyes, pretending to be nice but really planning some mischief.

"Yes Alice?" I tried not to sigh in annoyance, she can be so persistent.

"My little brother just text me about a gig his band have got tonight and he wants me to come. You know you wouldn't abandon me to a bunch of adolescents? I can't say no to him, but you being there would just be the best!" She looked at me so innocently, my resolve cracked a bit.

"Would we have to dress up?" Her eyes flashed a little but she quickly composed herself.

"Not really. I mean, smart casual would be good. You could wear a skirt, or OH wear that new dress I bought you, that would look gr…" I cut her off.

"Alice, you said not really. So jeans it is." She frowned again.

"But we don't have to drink lots. We can combine supporting my little brother AND celebrating your teaching degree all at the same time! Please Bella, come on!" She was actually proper pleading. My resolve was crumbling.

"FINE! But you have to buy me at least 2 drinks." I got up and walked out of my room into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I could hear a distant noise, and it suspiciously sounded like Alice celebrating.

So here I was, sitting at a table in a large pub with a Disoranno and coke in one hand, and my other hand desperately trying to pull my skirt down. Alice did manage to get me into a black tube skirt, but it felt like 2 sizes too small. But my top was a flowing purple strappy top that covered up some of the tightness. But not much.

"Oh Bella, the band will be on in a minute, you want me to get you another drink?" She looked at me gleefully. I looked at my half full glass, downed it in one then passed it to her.

"Sure, why not?" I might as well get a little drunk. I had never met Alice's little brother. I think his name was Edward or something? He was probably some dopey teenager trying to get a girlfriend by being 'cool'. Well that's what a lot of boys and my school did back in the day, and usually rather unsuccessfully. Either way, he was the singer, and then a guy called Jasper (who I think Alice was trying to hook me up with) was the bassist, Mike was a guitarist and another guy called Jacob was on the drums. Maybe one of them will be worth trying to hook up with, I hadn't had sex in MONTHS. The problem with being near your thirties (I dread to think about it) is that all the men start to become unattractive and unfit and only just want sex, and can't be bothered to do any more of the more interesting stuff. When I was younger, sometimes you didn't even have sex, you just fumbled about and experimented on stuff to see what felt good. I genuinely miss those days, and the fact all the guys (or at least they all seemed to be) physically fit and had buckets of stamina.

I was just remembering a fantastic night back when I was 21 when a man spoke over the microphone.

"Ladies and gentleman, let's hear it for the new up and coming band in town, Breaking Dawn!"

Breaking Dawn? Sheesh, who came up with that? I watched as the drummer came out, my goodness he was huge. Genuinely he was at least 6"4 and his arms were just muscle. I would not mind spending some time with him. Then followed the guitarist Mike, who looked positively weedy in comparison, and then Jasper, who was more lean than weedy, with golden hair and an awkward way about him. He was pretty cute I guessed. But then Edward came on. Boy was I wrong about him.

He came on with his head down, put his hand on the microphone and looked up. I nearly died right there. He was tall, about 6"2 I guess. And he was lean, not quite as much as Jasper or Mike, he definitely had a bit of muscle on him, but he was still thin compared to Jacob. He wore a black shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbow, undone to show a plain white t-shirt underneath and dark denim jeans, and some dark shoes I couldn't see from here. But it wasn't his shoes I was concentrating on. His face was just perfect. Everything was angles; eyes, jaw, cheekbones, but not too harsh like you would cut yourself on them. His skin looked fairly pale (probably not as pale as me), so his dark eyes stood out. And his hair was a gorgeous reddy-brown, in fact edging towards bronze or copper. I couldn't tell in the light but it had the kind of mussed up, just got out of bed look. Just as I thought that, he ran his hands through it. It worried me how much I wanted to do that.

While I was lost gawking at this Adonis in front of me, the band had begun playing. They were covering an Imagine Dragons single to start with (I secretly loved them, Alice hated them) and one of my favourite songs, 'Radioactive'. Mike and Jasper started backing vocals, but then, with eyes closed, Edward started to sing.

I'm waking up, to ash and dust. I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust. I'm breathing in the chemicals.

He did the breathing in part, and as he breathed out he opened his eyes and stared right at me. I was a deer in the headlights. I couldn't look away. But he carried on singing.

I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus. This is it, the apocalypse.

Unfortunately at this point he looked down again and I was free from his gaze. It was so intense, it sent some weird feeling into the pit of my stomach. But he looked up again for the chorus.

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems blow. Welcome to the new age, to the new age, welcome to the new age, to the new age. Woah, woah, I'm radioactive, radioactive! Woah, woah, I'm radioactive, radioactive!

As he continued singing, I was captivated. Not only was he a fantastic singer, he sung with feeling and a sense of urgency. Also, he kept looking back at me. It's not like when you think someone is looking in your direction and it turns out they're looking at someone behind you. He was looking at me dead in the eye, and it felt a bit like he was undressing me with those eyes, slowly discarding each bit of clothing. But I put that down to being unreasonably horny. Edward's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and he was looking at me again, his eyes smouldering with intensity.

All systems go, the sun hasn't died, deep in my bones, straight from inside.

Then all the band all nodded their heads and jumped up for the big chorus finish. This song has definitely moved from one of my favourites, to my favourite of all time. Ever.

The song came to an end, and everyone cheered and clapped. I clapped but a little belatedly as I was still in a bit of a trance after the song. I couldn't believe how much I wanted to be near him, to talk to him, to touch him. And I was scared of that, scared of my emotions.

What had I gotten myself into now?

Thanks for reading! This is the first story I've written in a long time so please review to let me know how I'm doing!