This story is canon to my other stories but it CAN be read as a separate story. Only a few things may confuse you but they will be explained

I need to mention two very important people before I start this story, Way of Life and KleoCullen. Without either of you two this story would never have happened so thank you. This story is for you both :)

September 2146

Clara Cullen-Taylor

"There once was a man born hundreds of years ago. He lived in England in the capital city of London, he couldn't remember much of his early life but he was a son of a pastor and someone who hunted vampires, werewolves and witches. When his father grew old he decided to take over and it wasn't long before he came across a real vampire lair, he was a fool enough to try and kill the vampires, leaving him to be bitten and left for dead. This man was smart and hid through his transformation, and finally emerged three days later as a vampire, he was so distraught and horrified by what he was that he tried to kill himself lots of different ways but none of them worked, he starved himself and lived deep in the woods, it wasn't until he fed off a herd of deer that he released he could live off animals and not have to kill humans. This man was called Carlisle and he was the beginning of a long line of powerful and endless descendants. Carlisle Cullen built his family by saving people in danger or close to dying; he made a coven for himself consisting of just seven vampires to start with. The seventh member was a young boy, only turned at the age of seventeen and was the only one in the Cullen coven without a mate, after one hundred years of being alone he finally met the one person he wanted to be with, only she was human. The human decided she wanted to be turned so she could be with the Cullen boy forever but on their wedding night the human fell pregnant with a demon baby; it ripped its way out of her body and ate everything in its path.

"RAWR!" I screamed at my sister, she screamed back and I just laughed.

"That's not the whole story!" my baby sister moaned at me after she was over the shock, it had been so quiet in the room as I told her the legend of Carlisle Cullen that my shout made her scream so loud I was surprised our mother didn't come running into the room. "It wasn't a demon baby, it was a beautiful little girl that was half vampire half human and she married a werewolf and they had werewolf and vampire babies and then they had human babies and they had human babies and so on until we were born."

I rolled my eyes.

"Sure Sophie. Our great great something grandpa is a vampire," I told her and kissed her forehead before I tucked her quilt around her.

"I think it's true. Mommy says shes seen Carlisle, the vampire the story starts with."

"She says she has… but I haven't and I won't believe it all until I do. There isn't just him there's all them other vampires that could have met us already but they haven't, they don't care about us Sophie, if they existed and they were so friendly and loving and family orientated as the stories say they would have come to see me by now. I'm seventeen soon. That's a lot of years they could have met me in," I explained to her. I didn't believe any of it. The vampires hadn't come to see their great great times something granddaughter because they didn't exist, my great great great what every grandpa was dead, somewhere buried or cremated, I didn't know and didn't care.

"I like the stories of the Cullen's."

"Except we only know Carlisle's name, I think it was all just made up Sophie. Im sorry, it would be nice if Carlisle was real, magical even but it's not true," I told her and gave her another kiss. She pouted.

"I dream about the little girl, the half human half vampire one that grew up to have children with a werewolf. All the time, I think shes real."

"Oh so what's her name?" I asked her with a laugh, she frowned then.

"I don't know," she replied.

"Go to sleep Sophie, dream of your half human half vampire friend, just don't get too scared when she comes to suck your blood," I teased her, her eyes widened at the thought.

"They're good vampires! They don't drink human blood."

"That's right Sophie, if you ever see a vampire make sure they have gold eyes, if they have red you have to run," I told her sarcastically.

"I will!" she chimed, completely oblivious to the sarcasm in my tone. She closed her eyes and I shook my head in disbelief, my five year old sister was so gullible it was ridiculous, I loved teasing her.

"Were you telling your sister stories again?" my mom asked as I walked out the room. I shrugged.

"She likes the legends, I just put a twist on them," I smiled. She rolled her eyes.

"Only you think they're not true Clara, I've met Carlisle, he's a kind and gentle man." She told me.

"Yeah yeah," I laughed. "Of course he is… a kind and gentle vampire that never wants to hurt anyone and is a doctor and has saved thousands of lives and survives off animal blood," I said with another laugh.

"It's true." She told me.

"Of course mother," I rolled my eyes and walked to my room, still chuckling. It was the opposite of what a vampire was supposed to be, how did she expect me to believe that?

"You're going to be so sorry when you're proven wrong!" my mom called out.

"No I won't because I'm not wrong," I laughed back. My mom was my best friend; we teased each other just as much as I teased my little sister. My mom was only young when she had me, she was just seventeen, her and my dad were childhood sweethearts and he got her pregnant in high school. It wasn't until I was eleven years old that they had another child, after much persuasion from me. I didn't want to be an only child, I wanted a baby sister and thanks to technology my parents chose the gender of their child and Sophie was born. Sophie was named after my mother's younger sister who died of leukaemia when she was only four years old. I always asked why I wasn't named Sophie and my mom told me that Carlisle named me. This was something I refused to believe after all I had never met Carlisle and the idea of him giving my mom name ideas was just too surreal for me. She claimed she met him when she was pregnant with me and he hasn't been back since. I think part of the reason I was so bitter about my legendary vampire family was because if they had been real they would have saved my dad. He died in an accident the year my sister was born, it wasn't quick, and he was in the hospital for days before he died. I remember, being only eleven years old holding my baby sister in my arms as I watched my mom crying over my father. If my vampire family were real they would have saved him, they would have changed him and he'd still be with us now. We supposedly had some legendary twins in our family, twins that could control when someone died; I didn't believe it for a second but the day my father died part of me wondered why they weren't there. Why couldn't they have been there when he died? I wanted my father back more than anything but I knew I had been dreaming of a false hope. It was then that I knew the legends weren't true. I stopped believing them the second my dad was taken away from me.

After finishing my homework I crawled into my bed, smiling at the frame that held a picture of my dad and saying goodnight to him before falling asleep.

"Clara! Wake up!" my mom was banging on the door. "It's an exciting day today!" she called. I groaned and turned over in my bed, checking the time. It was 7am, time to get up for the first day of school. I was a junior now.

I dressed like a zombie, grabbed my sketch book and shoving it in my bag before lazily making my way down the stairs.

"Good morning beautiful," my mom chimed at me.

"Hi," I mumbled and sat down next to my sister who was already eating her chocolate covered cereal, it grossed me out that she was eating chocolate for breakfast. "Why are you so excited?" I asked my mom.

"Well you wouldn't believe it if I told you," she told me and put my cornflakes in front of me.

"Try me," I mumbled.

"Carlisle called," she answered.

"Of course he did."

"Really?! What did he say mommy?" Sophie asked.

"Why do you encourage her? She's starting school today, her friends will think shes weird talking about vampires and werewolves," I told my mother.

"I don't encourage anything; you're the one that tells her all the stories."

"That you told me," I clarified.

"Well you may have some new kids in school today that's all," she told me and continued to make her coffee.

"Right," I mumbled in return and quickly finished my cornflakes, I didn't believe what she was saying, I just didn't understand why she was encouraging Sophie to believe in all the stories, I knew I told her them but I always reminded her they weren't true, was I the only one concerned for her school life? I had seen bullying first hand in middle school, I wasn't exactly popular growing up, I kept to myself and didn't like attention. I hate birthdays for that very reason, all I wanted to do was draw and listen to music and hang out with my best friend, Elijah. We had met in kindergarten and been best friends ever since. Most people thought we were dating but I had never seen Elijah in that way, he was my best friend and I told him everything, including the legends about my family. He laughed them off with me and was the only person I knew that didn't believe them. I had cousins that lived by me, they were practically my siblings I saw them that often, my mother was close to all her siblings which meant we didn't live far from their family home where my grandparents lived. They all believed the stories too.

"Clara!" my mom called just as I left.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Don't make plans for tonight, you're staying home okay?" she asked, I frowned.

"I'm going to Elijah's after school, I always do," I reminded her.

"As long as you're back before dark. Promise me Clara," she begged, there was something in her voice that concerned me.

"Sure mom, I promise," I said, I didn't understand why she was so adamant but as I made my way to school I wondered what had her worried.

I arrived at school early and found my usual seat in the library to do some sketching before school, I loved to draw, even though I didn't think I was any good it kept my mind off things. It distracted me and I listened to music as I drew what came to my mind, I could spend hours like this.

By the time school started I was in my own little world, I completely missed first period and quickly made my way to second period. It was English and our teacher had left last year, English was my favourite subject next to Art so I didn't want to be late and make a bad impression on the new teacher.

"Clara where were you for History?" Elijah asked meeting me outside the English room.

"Drawing," I shrugged, he laughed, looped his arm with me as we came into the room. The teacher had his back to us; he was on the tablet, writing on the board.

"The new teacher is so hot," Kara winked at me. I rolled my eyes as I sat next to her. Elijah was my best friend who knew everything about me but I did have other friends, ones that weren't really my friends but people I spoke to. Kara was one of them.

"What's his name?" I whispered.

"Good morning class," the teacher announced, Kara didn't reply to me, she just smiled up at him. As he turned around my breath caught in my throat. Kara was right, he was hot, he was gorgeous, and he was also in his thirties, pale, with dark hair and most importantly, yellow eyes. I quickly looked away from him and down to my bag to get my things out.

"My name is Zac; I don't want to be formal in this class room. It's first name basis and we're all friends here, I'm not mister, I'm just Zac." he said with a smile, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, he was dazzling.

"He's so gorgeous," Kara whispered to me.

"He's like thirty!" I glared at her.

"So?" she laughed. I laughed back with her.

"Let's get to know each other shall we?" Zac asked us all. He grabbed his tablet and the register came up on the screen.

I scanned and saw my name under Cullen and frowned. All the teachers knew I went by just Taylor. I'd have to correct him.

"Kara Atten?" Zac called. Kara raised her hand with a stupid grin on her face. "Good morning Kara," he smiled back at her. A few names later he reached mine.

"Clara Cullen-Taylor?" Zac asked, his tone was strange as he said the name. I raised my hand, not looking up at him. "What an unusual name," he said almost in amusement. I lifted my head.

"Actually I go by just Clara Taylor. You need to change your register sir," I told him spitefully.

"No need to call me sir Clara. I'm Zac." he said.

"What's your surname?" I blurted. I was staring into his golden eyes at this point. So familiar and yet it gave off an aura of danger. He just smiled at me but moved on. As he listed more names I dropped my head to my book.

"Elijah Jenkins?" he asked. Elijah raised his hand but I noticed he was looking at me, with wide eyes as if to say 'wtf'. "Nice to meet you Elijah," Zac announced as he moved further down the list.

After English was over Elijah pulled me towards him in the hall.

"What the hell was that? Is he a vampire?" he asked me.

"Shut up Elijah!" I nearly yelled. "No of course not, they don't exist."

"Well he was pretty damn interested in you. What if he's one of your relatives?" he asked with a smirk. I rolled my eyes when I realised he was joking.

"See you at lunch Eli!" I said giving him a pat on his shoulder and hurrying to my next class.

By the time lunch came around I was begging for the day to end. I couldn't stop thinking about our strange new English teacher, since when do teachers ask you to use their first name?

"Hey Clar," Elijah called walking over to me in the cafeteria. He sat by me and observed what I was doing, "not eating again," he frowned looking at my juice carton and sketch pad in front of me.

"I'm just not hungry," I said in return and going back to my drawing.

"What are you drawing?"

"Just doodles," I answered. I had actually been drawing Zac's strange yellow eyes without thinking about it, I often did this. I got so caught up in my thoughts my hand would draw without me realising, on paper, tissues or even the desk. "So what's new?" I asked closing my drawing book and looking up to my best friend. He had just been in sociology and he always found out about school gossip there. The class definitely lived up to its name.

"You heard about the new kids?" he asked raising his eyebrow, New kids… my mom said there were going to be new kids in school today, how did she know? Elijah loved to find out the gossip, he tried to pretend he was cool when really he isn't.

"Nope," I answered and looked around the room, I didn't see anyone I didn't recognise, and it was a pretty small school.

"There are loads of new kids today. One boy was in my math class. And then there's a whole group joining together, they had the morning off for some family meeting or something; they came in for the last period. They're like really rich and they're all siblings but they're also together," he said raising his eyebrows.

"What do you mean together?" I asked.

"Like incest," his eyes bulged.

"Er, that just sounds like an awful rumour," I said, not believing a word. Poor kids, first day and already awful rumours going around about them.

"No I'm just joking, it's not incest because they're all adopted, they're all coupled up though," he told me, I frowned.

"Still sounds weird."

"Look!" he said pointing to the door of the cafeteria, I followed his gaze to see six students walking in, each paired and holding hands. They looked so alike it shocked me; they were all pale and frankly beautiful.

"And do you know what the best part is?" he asked.

"What?" I asked

"Their surname," he said excitedly.

"Are they Hitler's or something?" I laughed

"No… they have the same surname as you," he dragged out dramatically.

"What? So?" I laughed; Taylor wasn't exactly an unusual surname.

"Well your surname isn't exactly common," he said.

"Taylor? Not common? There are three Taylor's in this school alone," I responded

"No not Taylor, Cullen," he said and rolled his eyes.

"Cullen isn't my surname."

"Well it is, you just refuse to go by it for some reason." He said as he started eating.

"Because it's a family name on my mother's side, I don't see why we keep it, when I have kids they're just going to have one surname, two is a pain," I said.

"well I think it's really interesting that they're Cullen's and you're Cullen-Taylor," he responded, I decided to take a quick peak at the so called Cullen's, they had found an empty table to sit at, one of them, the boy with bronze hair was watching me, at first I thought he was just looking in my direction but he really was staring at me, the brunette at his side was following his gaze and locked eyes with me. I quickly looked away and down at my drawing book.

"What's up Clara?" Elijah asked when he saw me acting nervous.

"They're staring right at me," I mumbled with my head down, I tried to use my hair to cover my face. Elijah turned around. "Don't look at them!" I nearly yelled at him.

"Why? They're not looking at you, they're talking amongst themselves," he responded. I frowned and decided to take one last peak. He was right, they were, the bronze and the brunette were talking with each other, I watched the brunette as she spoke, she was really pretty, like super model pretty. It made me a little self-conscious to look at the girls, the blonde was pretty too and the little one with black hair looked like a pixie or a fairy. I expected her to sprout wings any second and fly off. I looked back at the brunette to see she was looking directly at me again, this time she was smiling. She had caught me looking and I involuntary blushed and looked down, using my hair again to cover my face.

"Where are you going?" Elijah asked.

"Library, I've got homework to do," I responded quickly and left the cafeteria. I didn't know what to think… they were Cullen's? Maybe Elijah had got the surname wrong, the only thing is they fit the description of the vampires in the stories I told Sophie, their eyes, they had golden eyes and they were pale and they were beautiful and they didn't eat a thing.

I shook my thoughts off, put my music on and started to draw.

Was it just a coincidence that six new kids and a teacher looked exactly like the description of 'vampires'? All of them had the golden eyes and piercingly beautiful.

"Erm hi… can I sit here?" I heard someone ask. I looked up to see a boy in front of me. He didn't have golden eyes, thankfully. He had warm brown eyes.

"You can't sit on the other twelve tables?" I frowned. He smiled at me.

"This table has the best light. I promise I won't disturb you," he said. He was right. It was the reason I always sat at this table, it was also set back from all the other tables in a bay window. "I like looking out the window as I work. If it's too much bother I'll go somewhere else," he said with a smile, the smile made my heart beat faster than normal.

"Sure," I mumbled, looking away from the boy. I went back to my drawing but I was hyper away of the boy sitting across from me. I took a sneak peak at what he was doing. He was drawing too. "You like drawing?" I exclaimed. He looked up.

"Yeah," he smiled.

"Me too," I returned the smile.

"I'm Axton," he said extending his hand to me. His name was unusual but I liked it, it made me smile more.

"Clara," I answered, shaking it. His hand was strong and large around mine. "You're new here right?" I asked.

"Yeah, my first day," he shrugged.

"Have you made any new friends?" I asked.

"Not yet," he shrugged.

"I'm surprised you don't have twenty girls all over you," I laughed.

"Why would you say that?" he asked. I cringed as I realised what I had said.

"Well er… you're really handsome," I laughed awkwardly. It was the first thing I noticed about him. "Did you come with the other new kids?" I asked trying to change the subject. He was a different kind of handsome to the Cullen's, the Cullen's were strikingly beautiful, alluring and quite frankly painful to look at, Axton was like warm sun, he smouldered and seemed less intimidating.

"There's other new kids? No I didn't I'm on my own," he said sadly.

"Oh right." I said slowly. The conversation just got awkward. It didn't seem like he wanted to be on his own and that just made me feel uncomfortable.

"I have a sister but she isn't around anymore," he told me.

"Sorry to hear that," I said, not sure what he was implying. Luckily the bell rang to signify next period. I shot up and grabbed my things. "Nice to meet you Axton," I said and quickly scurried off. My heart was still beating rapidly from his gaze. A boy had never had that effect on me before and I was slightly stunned.

I went straight to Biology and sat down, it was a new year and new lab partners would be picked but Elijah and I always picked each other.

"Okay class I don't want you to have the same lab partner as last year. You need to make new friends. Pick someone else," Mr Harrison called.

"What no!" Elijah called out.

"Mr Jenkins is there a problem?" Mr Harrison asked.

"Yeah, Clara and I are always lab partners," he frowned.

"Well this year you won't be. Pick someone else," he demanded. Elijah huffed and moved from the seat next to me. I didn't move. I assumed someone would sit next to me, or the kid that was left would have to.

"Kara?" I heard Elijah ask our friend.

"Sure," she grinned as they sat next to each other. I knew Kara liked Elijah, more than just a friend but he was completely oblivious to it.

"Clara?" I heard a familiar voice ask, I looked up to see Axton there. "Mind if I pair with you?" he asked uncomfortably.

"Er sure," I said with wide eyes and moved my stuff to my side of the desk. He sat next to me as the others paired. I saw Elijah watching us curiously. I was about to go back to my drawing when I saw two of the Cullen's walk in.

"Edward and Isabella?" Mr Harrison asked. They smiled and Edward began talking to Mr Harrison, Isabella was holding his hand but ignoring the conversation. She looked around the room and when she saw me looking at her she smiled. I blushed and dropped my head down to my drawing. I was aware of them walking towards me but I didn't look up. They both sat on the empty desk in front of Axton and me. I stared at them from behind.

"How come the new kids don't have to separate?" I heard Elijah ask.

"Because it's their first day. Give them time to settle Elijah. I may allow you to change around again next semester," Mr Harrison answered Elijah. Elijah huffed in response and the class started. I was paying more attention to the two people in front of me than the class itself. Every now and then Edward would turn to Isabella and smile or nod or shake his head as if she was speaking to him but I never saw her mouth move.

"I want you to share your results with a table by you," Mr Harrison said after we finished an experiment.

"Hi I'm Bella, what did you get?" Isabella asked, turning to look at Axton and me. I was too shocked to answer her. Axton happily exchanged results with her and Edward.

"I'm Axton this is Clara," he said afterwards.

"This is my boyfriend Edward," she smiled having already introduced herself as Bella not Isabella.

"I hear you're new too," Edward said to Axton.

"Yeah it's overwhelming," he laughed.

"I agree," Edward smiled warmly. Before they could speak anymore the teacher called our attention back. One thing I had noticed during our brief encounter with Edward and Bella was their facial expressions. They were always so controlled and now I could see them up close their eyes burned gold.

They couldn't be what I thought they were.

They just couldn't. Could they?

Hope you all liked the first chapter!

If you're interested in who I envision as these characters pictures are on my blog, as well as a family tree connecting Clara to Edward and Bella.

Blog: BellaNessieCullen. Blogspot. Com (remove spaces)