Hey Guys!

I'm so sorry that this took so long to be updated again but here is the long-awaited first chapter of the newly rewritten Dreams of a Life in Twilight. I'll let y'all get on to the story, but I'll be putting in a longer note at the bottom of the chapter. Happy reading!


DREAMS OF A LIFE IN TWILIGHT


1.

"Do you have all of your things?" Aunt Maggie asks, shifting the old Jeep into park as she turned to look at me.

I take a deep breath and nod quietly, my hand adjusting the strap for what felt like the hundredth time that morning. She nods in return, accepting my silent answer with a sigh.

"Now, I have meetings all day, but if you need anything just call Mrs. Roberts. She has agreed to take you home if everything gets to be too much. I know it's been hard, Lydia, but you need to stay strong." I know that what she is saying is true, but I can't really think about what has been going on without my emotions taking control.

I put my hand on the handle to open the door, and turn to look at her one more time. Looking in her eyes, I see some kind of emotion, but not as much as I hoped there would be. While she shows concern, it doesn't seem like a genuine concern, and I am afraid to find out what that means for me. I open the door and climb out of the front seat, barely closing the door before she is pulling out of the lot as quickly as she can. I turn to the building looming in front of me and try to square my shoulders as an effort to steel myself for whatever may come.

Walking into the building, I try to keep my head down and avoid all of the glances from the teachers with morning duty. I bypass the crowded and cacophonous cafeteria to make my way into the quiet hallway and open my locker, testing to make sure I remember the combination. No books to put away yet, but I'll get them through the day. The only good thing about being a senior is having the choice of locker placement, and I was able to get the one I wanted, centrally located for all of my classes making it unnecessary to carry a backpack all day.

I shut the locker with a soft click and make my way to my homeroom. The teacher is one of those with morning duty, so her room is open, but she isn't there. I pick a desk and sit down, pulling my hood over my head as I lay it down on my desk. I must have nodded off because the next thing I remember is the bell is chiming and students start filing into the room. I see Caroline walking in and she smiles at me, but I can see the sympathy behind it and I know that she is getting ready to treat me like a China doll. I try to smile back at her, just trying to be friendly and make an effort to be more like myself. She comes and sits in the desk beside me.

"Hey there girlie. How are you?" Again, the sympathy shows through and I have to bite back the urge to scream. All of the sympathies are almost worse than what happened in the first place.

"I'm fine. Going to make it through today, and just take it one day at a time." She smiles at me and thankfully quits talking as Mrs. Carpenter stands to get the attention of the room. She passes out our schedules, just in case anything has changed since we came for orientation two weeks ago and gives us the rest of homeroom to do as we please.

I don't think I like her. She seems so cold. But maybe I'm just biased. I miss the woman she replaced, Ms. Belle. She was the one person that I knew I could turn to in this school, and now she's just gone. I understand that there was a family emergency, but it still hurts. Thinking of her reminds me of what happened and I have to excuse myself to the bathroom before I break down in tears in front of everyone.

I run down the hall and lock myself into a stall as the thoughts invade my mind, unable to hold them behind the mental walls I attempted to build.

FLASHBACK

"Hey, babe! I got done with my test early, so you ready to go?" I say, looking up from where I was finishing the text to my Aunt.

What I saw in front of me was something that I had hoped to never see. There was Travis, making out with another girl. And not just any girl. No, this girl was Elizabeth, a person I considered my best friend. What the hell is going on?

The way that he held her, you could tell that this wasn't the first time they had done this, and he was so absorbed in the betrayal that he didn't even look up when I called for him. Rage soared through me and I picked up the closest thing and chucked it at them, hitting him in the back. He turned to look at me, eyes wide and her burgundy lipstick smudged all over his face.

"I hope you two are happy together," I scream, tears streaming down my face as I turn and run, headed to the one place that I knew would be safe right now, Ms. Belle's room.

Ugh! Why? How could I have been so stupid? The tears start to slow and I exit the stall and make my way to the mirror. My eyes are drawn immediately to the flaws, like always. The curl of my hair causes frizz, making the auburn locks look messy despite my best efforts. My emerald eyes are red-rimmed from crying, enhancing the color making them seem almost alight with a fire and passion that I don't recognize. The spattering of freckles that mark the time I've spent in the sun running away from the world almost look fake compared to the pale skin underneath them. Ms. Belle always said that she thought I looked like an old Scottish princess, gifting me a copy of Brave as a gag gift.

That was just one of the few things she gave me, including a journal to write down my thoughts and a set of the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. These she left for me in my locker on the last day of Junior year. She already knew she was leaving and instead of saying goodbye, she left those gifts behind, knowing that it would be too emotional for the both of us. I honestly thought of her as a mother, she was the closest thing I had to one even though she was only four or five years older than me.

I splash some water on my face and grab a paper towel, hoping that my face won't show the signs of emotional distress. Just as I finish patting my face dry and trying to straighten my hair, the door to the bathroom opens and in the mirror I see Elizabeth walking in. We make eye contact through the mirror and then I turn looking at her. This is the first time we had been in a room alone since the incident and I don't know whether to walk out, scream at her or punch her. She looks like she is about to say something when suddenly she ducks into a stall and I can hear her getting physically sick. My instinct tells me to walk out, but a voice inside my head tells me to stay and be the bigger person. I grab a paper towel and wet it before reaching in and placing it on the back of her neck, trying to help with her nausea.

"Are you okay?" I ask her quietly. She wretches again and my nose scrunches up at the smell, but I swallow back the feeling of disgust and try to be there for this person who has hurt me. She slowly moves out of the stall and tries to sit down against the wall. Once she is out of the way, I reach in and flush for her, hoping to get rid of the smell. I grab another wet paper towel for her and sit down beside her. She wipes her mouth with it and then pulls out a mint from her pocket like she was expecting this.

"I'm sorry for what I did," she says breaking the silence. I look straight forward and clench my teeth, waiting for her to say more. "I'm not even sure how it started, and I tried to stop many times. But then it kept happening. I wanted him to tell you, to end things with you. He wouldn't. And then even after you caught us, I wanted to end things but I kept going back. It was like I was addicted or something."

I didn't know what to say in response. It just didn't make any sense to me. I had been with Travis since 8th grade and suddenly he started making out with my best friend? No, something was off about the whole thing.

"When did it start, Lizzie?" I call her by the nickname I gave her when we were 7, pleading with her to answer me honestly. As soon as her head lowered again, I knew I didn't want to know the truth anymore.

"The beginning of sophomore year. You were going away for that weekend trip with Aunt Maggie. I ran into Travis at the movies, so we sat together and it all snowballed from there." I push off the wall and stand in front of her, almost shaking with the rage I feel coursing through me.

"You were basically dating my boyfriend for two years by the time I caught you making out? What the hell was wrong with you?" I scream at her. She starts to cry and instinctively her hands go to her stomach. That's when I look down and notice what has been in front of me the entire time.

"Is that his?" I ask her, looking pointedly at the rounded stomach she is attempting to hide under her baggy top. She just nods, tears streaming faster down her face. I can't hold it back anymore and I let out a growl, and it almost feels as if time stops. I run out of that bathroom and go by my locker to grab the bag I had put in there this morning. From there I go down the AG department hallway and sneak out one of the multiple school doors.

I keep walking away from the school, no destination in mind. I couldn't stay in that building any longer. I had never been so thankful to live out in the middle of nowhere than now, as no one could see me make my escape, no one could stop me from running from the information I had learned. I continued to walk, and I didn't stop until I found myself in a clearing, somewhere in the woods that fell behind the school. I take off my backpack, leaning it against one of the trees at the edge of the small flowered area before standing in the middle, throwing my head back and screaming as loud as I could.

I screamed until my throat hurt and I fell to the ground emotionally exhausted and it wasn't even 9 AM yet. I lay back in the middle of the clearing surrounded by flowers and close my eyes, wondering if this is how Bella felt when she laid in Edward's clearing. I start to feel sleepy, but before I completely fall asleep, I pull my phone from my pocket and make sure to turn it off of silent and set an alarm for 2:30 so I can get back to school for Aunt Maggie to pick me up. As I drift off into sleep, I start to wonder how it would be to live Bella's life…


DREAMS OF A LIFE IN TWILIGHT


I slowly opened my eyes, my head pounding and the exhaustion from a very unsatisfying nap filling my being. I pulled the quilt over my head, stuffing my head under my pillow.

Wait!

Quilt and pillow? Where did these come from? I fell asleep in the clearing, so when did I get in a bed. I sit up slowly, looking around at the strange room that surrounds me. Where am I?

I get out of bed and pad over to the window, trying to catch a glimpse of something familiar, but all I can see is fog, a thick grey covering that blocks everything in sight. What is going on? The forecast was clear all week. I shiver, pulling my arms tightly around my middle and look down to see what I'm wearing. It's a pair of short shorts and a tank that I have never seen before. Did someone change me?

Suddenly I'm hit with the urge to pee and I make my way out of the room, trying to find the bathroom. It's right outside of the door I exit, and I quickly do my business. I go to the sink to wash my hands and out of the corner of my eye, I see a strange flash of color I don't recognize. I look up at the mirror and jump as I cover my mouth to muffle the squeak that tries to escape my mouth. I lean closer and start prodding at the strange face in front of me, the brown eyes that seemed dull and the darker hair that hung with barely a wave to it, seeming lifeless. The biggest shock was the lack of freckles. My face seemed plain, and I didn't like it one bit. Am I dreaming?

"Bells, I got the coffee brewing. Do you want cereal for breakfast?" I hear a man's voice call up the stairs. Bells? Suddenly, I remember the strange thoughts that had entered my head as I began to fall asleep in the clearing. Am I Bella Swan? Am I dreaming? I must be, right? What other explanation could there be for this?

"Bells?" he calls again, sounding closer. I shake my head, pulling myself from my thoughts.

"Um, yeah, Dad. That sounds good. I'll be right down," I answer, trying to prevent him from coming upstairs. I hear faded footsteps walking away and make my way back into the room I woke up in. I begin to pace, holding my hair in my hands and trying to process what is going on.

"You have to be dreaming, Lydia. That's the only way to explain this. You fell asleep wondering what it would be like to live Bella's life, and now you are," I mutter to myself. "Now, you have two options: you can either try to wake yourself up and go back to reality, or you can have some fun and embrace this dream for what it is: an escape. If this is a dream, why don't you see it through, but do things your way? You've read the books, you know what is going to happen. Why not fix things?"

I stop my pacing, a large smile gracing my face. With this plan in mind, I go to the closet and try to find an outfit that will really make me stand out today because it's the first day of school. Wait, how do I know that? I wrack my brain, but can't seem to find any other information that I shouldn't know. Maybe I get tidbits to help the dream flow more smoothly? It makes sense, I guess. Plus, it's a dream. If I decide that this is Bella's first day of school at Forks then it is Bella's first day. I internally laugh and continue filtering through the clothes. I stumble across a flowy jade green top with light gold accents. Digging around a little more, I find some brown boots and a pair of dark blue jeans. It almost looks like a Merida Disneybound, but I think that's what makes it fun and it reminds me of the good parts of reality. I dress quickly, pulling my hair into a loose braid over my shoulder and grabbing my bag, checking inside to make sure I had at least a pen and notebook to take with me to school on the first day and see what I needed.

I head downstairs to have breakfast with Charlie and he smiles seeing me walk into the room happy. I don't know why Bella thought breakfast with him was quiet. He tried to talk to me about school and what to expect, even attempting to quell any doubts I might have about going or fears that arose in my mind in general about living here. He finishes his coffee and heads out to go to work, but not before telling me how to get to the high school and wishing me good luck.

I cleaned up the mess left from our breakfast, quickly rinsing the dishes and putting them on the wrack to dry. Once I'm done with that I go to the closet next to the front door, getting out a coat, making sure I have a hood to protect myself from the always impending rain. I exit the house, making sure to lock the door behind me before getting into my truck. It starts with a rumble, but the sound is comforting, not loud and embarrassing like Bella kept saying. Gosh, this girl was crazy! Nothing is like she thought it was in the books.

I pull out of the driveway, turning onto the main road and follow Charlie's directions, finding the school easily. I will admit that Bella was right in thinking that the inside of the truck was warm and dry compared to outside and I dreaded moving outside of it to enter the office once I pulled up to the outside and parked in front of it. It was very different for a high school to be set up like this, in multiple buildings similar to a university, but I also thought that it made it very interesting and truly prepared people for their future as an adult. Each building was clearly labeled with a number and I was sure that I could find my way around easily once I learned my schedule.

Walking inside the office, it was brightly lit and welcoming with its warmth, despite the small space that it was situated in. It was only a waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked carpet, notices, and awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly. Despite the abundance of greenery outside, there were plants in large plastic pots, and I liked the atmosphere it created. There was a long counter that cut the room in half, covered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a large, red-haired woman wearing glasses and a purple t-shirt. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Can I help you?" Her voice had a very motherly tone and it was comforting.

"I'm L-Isabella Swan," I say with a smile. I have to stop myself and remember to say the right name, knowing that it would not be good to raise any red flags now. The dream would end too soon if I mess up. Her smile grew when I said this.

"Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk till she found the ones she was looking for. "I have your schedule right here, and a map of the school." She brought several sheets to the counter to show me.

She went through my classes for me, highlighting the best route to each on the map, and gave me a slip to have each teacher sign, which I was to bring back at the end of the day. Glancing at the classes myself, I decided this would be the perfect chance to make my first change.

"Mrs. Cope, I hate to be a bother, but when Dad signed me up for classes I think he forgot about the AP courses I had taken in Phoenix. I've already taken an equivalent to Biology II there and I'm afraid I'll just be sitting through a class and not be learning. Would there be a way to change that for another class?"

"Oh of course! Hold on, let's find your records and see what you've taken and what we have open." She moves back away from the counter and goes to a set of filing cabinets on the back wall to search for my file. She comes back over to me, bringing a highlighter with her and then we spend the next ten minutes looking through all of the credits that Bella had taken to this point. I was honestly very impressed, as was Mrs. Cope, who admitted to me that if I really wanted to I could graduate in May because of their course requirements. This made me very happy and I nodded my head. We decided to leave most of my schedule the same, only changing the biology class to the AP Drawing course and completely removing the Gym class from my schedule, allowing me to leave early. She actually noticed that there was a note in my file that had been previously overlooked that exempted me from the gym class in Phoenix due to medical reasons and didn't see a need to fill the slot because I would be finishing my credits with everything else.

"Thank you so much for your help, Mrs. Cope. I really appreciate it!" I tell her with a smile. She smiled at me and hoped, like Charlie, that I would like it here in Forks. I smiled back at her, genuinely pleased with how things were going so far.

When I went back out to my truck, other students were starting to arrive. I drove around the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad to see that the school seemed like the one in my reality, a mix of older cars like the truck I was driving apart from the shiny Volvo that Edward had chosen to drive. I cut the engine after pulling into a spot and took out the map trying to familiarize myself with how the buildings were laid out. I knew that Eric would approach me after the first class was over and made a promise to myself that I would attempt to be as friendly and welcoming with all of them. Part of Bella's problem is that she didn't try to make friends and then became obsessed with Edward. I wasn't going to be that girl.

Getting out of the truck, I pulled up the hood of my jacket to protect my hair from the mist of rain, trying to prevent any frizz if possible. I made my way around the cafeteria, easily spotting building three. A large black "3" was painted on a white square on the east corner. I felt the light mist of rain invading my hood and knew that any wishes I had for my hair were lost. I followed to unisex raincoats through the door.

The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, one a porcelain-colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least my skin would stand in here in the land of rain and clouds.

I took the slip that Mrs. Cope gave me and approached the teacher, a tall, balding man I knew to be Mr. Mason. He gawked at me when he saw my name - not an encouraging response- and of course, Bella's body reacted involuntarily flushing tomato red. He sent me to an empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow they managed. I tried to keep a smile on my face and make eye contact with each of them. This caused them all to look away, allowing me to focus on the reading list that Mr. Mason had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. I'd already read everything. That was… disappointing. As he taught, I debated on whether I should ask him to do more of an independent study in the course that would allow me to challenge myself but still get the credit. I couldn't take the senior English course like Mrs. Cope suggested because Bella had already taken the equivalent in Phoenix in the form of an AP class.

When the bell rang, a nasal and offputting sound, a boy with acne-riddled skin and dark black hair that he definitely needed to wash leaned across the aisle to talk to me. I really needed to talk to him about hygiene once we became better friends.

"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?"

"Yes, but my friends call me Bella," I say, trying not to be as brash as Bella was in the books. I could see the people listening in as they perked up when I said this, but I ignored them trying to focus on Eric and what he was saying.

"Where's your next class?" he asked.

"Government, with Jefferson, in building six. Do you think you could point me in the right direction? The map that Mrs. Cope gave me is just too confusing."

"I'm actually headed toward building four, I could walk with you. I'm Eric," he offers.

"Thank you! It's great to already be meeting new people."

We got our jackets and headed out into the rain, which had picked up.

"So, this is a lot different from Phoenix, huh?' he asked.

"Very. It maybe rains three or four times a year there, but I'm enjoying the rain and green here. There's too much sun there and I always stood out because I can't tan."

We walked back around the cafeteria, to the south buildings by the gym. Eric walked me right to the door, trying to come off as a gentleman.

"Well, good luck," he said as I touched the handle. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together." He sounded hopeful.

I smiled at him and went inside.

The rest of the morning passed in about the same fashion. My Trigonometry teacher, Mr. Varner, who I normally would have liked very much as I adore math, was the only one who made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I smiled at the room, blushing once more despite my ease, and I managed to trip over my own boots on the way to my seat.

After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be kind and learn all of their names so I could forge some form of relationship with all of them. I was always able to follow someone to my next class, not needing the map again.

Jessica was in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. She rambled about teachers and classes and I just smiled and nodded trying to keep up.

We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, including Lauren, Angela, Eric, Mike, and Tyler. I still needed to learn some of the other names, but I was happy to have made the relationships that I had made so far.

It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with my new friends, that I first saw them.

They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. They weren't gawking at me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught, and held, my attention.

They didn't look anything alike. Of the boys, one was big- muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. Another was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and honey blond. The last was lanky, less bulky, with untidy bronze-colored hair. He was more boyish than the others, who looked like they could be in college, or even teachers here rather than students.

The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a git on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixie-like, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction.

And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. Paler than Bella, who claimed to be part albino. They all had very dark eyes despite the range in hair tones. They also had dark shadows under those eyes - purplish, bruiselike shadows. As if they were all suffering from a sleepless night, or almost done recovering from a broken nose. Though their noses, all their features, were straight, perfect, angular.

The Cullens were everything I expected them to be.

Their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who I liked the least- Edward or Rosalie. They knew that they looked beautiful and both conveyed a look of utter distaste for those around them.

They were all looking away- away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, Alice rose with her tray- unopened soda, unbitten apple- and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's step, till she dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought possible. My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchangingly.

"Cullens caught your eye?" Jessica asks, interrupting my thoughts. I can only nod and I can see her observe the table as well. This garners Edward's attention as he reads her mind and his eyes flicker to me, looking at me, and then a look of confusion crosses his face as he is unable to find anything in my head. Jessica giggles, continuing her observation of their table.

"The one who left is Alice. The others are Emmett, Edward, Jasper, and Rosalie. They all live with Dr. Cullen and his wife."

I glanced at Edward, who was looking at his tray now, picking a bagel to pieces with long, pale fingers. His mouth was moving very quickly, his perfect lips barely opening. The other three still looked away, and yet I felt he was speaking quietly to them.

I understand why they had such old fashioned names, but I wish that Stephenie could have been a little more creative. There were so many things that drew attention to the Cullens when they should have been trying to fit in.

"They are.. Very nice-looking." I tried to keep my response even and like she would expect from me.

"Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all together though- Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they live together." Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. Just like it would be back home in my own reality.

My eyes flickered again and again to the table, watching them as they looked at the walls, not touching their food. I pitied them. They tried to blend in with everyone, yet stay distanced, and in this, they had completely ostracized themselves. That wasn't even including the fact that they were awful at blending in. There were so many things that they could have done to keep them out of the spotlight as much as they were.

Edward kept meeting my gaze, trying to read my mind but getting frustrated time and time again. It made me chuckle, and I had to hold myself back from letting the sound slip past my lips and alarming my tablemates.

"Which one is the boy with the dark curly hair?" I asked. I peeked at Emmett and knew that I had to say a variation of what Bella had said when she asked about Edward. He looked at me, our eyes meeting for a fleeting second and just that glance caused my heart to race. I saw the tiniest hint of a smile on his face.

"That's Emmett. Personally, I think Edward is the more attractive one, but he is equally as gorgeous. He just seems so scary, all muscled and intimidating."

I bit my lip to hide my smile. I glanced at Emmett again, and I could see his shoulders moving slightly as he laughed. How anyone could think that he was intimidating was a mystery to me. He was such a big teddy bear.

After a few more minutes, the four of them left the table together. They all were noticeably grateful - even Emmett, with his big brawny build. It was unsettling to watch. Edward didn't look at me anymore. I watched as Rosalie and Edward just dumped their trays, much like Alice and walked out, not sparing a second glance. Jasper and Emmett were a little behind them and took the time to put their untouched food in the take-home bucket that allowed people to trade for something they wanted or to grab a snack for later. This made me smile, as I always knew that these two had had the most compassion for others, and it pleased me to see that they were trying to do more than their siblings and help the less fortunate at school.

I sat at the table with Jessica and her friends longer than I would have if I'd been sitting alone. I was slightly anxious not to be late for class on my first day. Angela would have been able to walk me to Biology II, but now I had to find the AP Drawing class on my own.

It wasn't as hard to find as I feared, and as I entered the room I was pleasantly surprised to see Emmett sitting in the back of the room. I went and introduced myself to the teacher and she signed my slip, directing me to the open stool in the back. Of course, my workspace was right beside Emmett, and I had to contain the feelings of joy that entered me at this. I looked over at him, observing him, and I noticed that they were the beautiful butterscotch color associated with their "vegetarian" diet. I wondered how they could look so vibrant when I noticed a thermos sitting beside him. Smart boy.

The teacher started the class, telling us all that we had to complete at least one piece for the school showcase at the end of the semester. I thought that this would be easy, and knew that I would have a few options to pick from for the showcase. With her announcements over, she allowed everyone time to get started independently before coming over to me to discuss where supplies were, what I could use while at school and what I would need to buy to use and provide myself. Honestly, the school didn't have much in the way of supplies because of the fund cutting for the sports programs.

I glanced over to see that Emmett had pulled out a new sheet of paper and was starting on a new sketch. It looked like he was sketching a person, but I couldn't be sure. My eyes were drawn to the set of pencils that he had set out to use, and I gathered all of my courage to ask him if I could borrow a pencil today.

"Excuse me…" I trail off, waiting for him to look up at me. "I'm sorry, but I just started today and I don't have any supplies. I had to change my schedule this morning and didn't know they offered a drawing course. Would you mind if I borrowed a pencil or two? I'll give them back at the end of class."

"Sure, it's not a problem." His voice is deep and husky, sending a pleasant shiver down my spine. I wanted to listen to him talk for hours. He hands over the pack of pencils, letting me choose the ones that I want to use. "How is your first day so far?"

"It's going good, and I'm actually almost done. Mrs. Cope and I looked at my transcript from Phoenix, and with the equivalent credits, I didn't have to have another class and I'm actually graduating in May. My dad signed me up as a junior." I pass the pencils back and start to pull out a piece of paper that the teacher said I could use, but am surprised when Emmett passes over one of the high-quality pieces that he is using.

"The stuff they give us in here barely counts as paper. It tears as soon as you go to erase. But that's cool that you're graduating earlier than you thought. Do you know what you want to do after? I know it's a little late to apply to some colleges, but some of the local ones are still accepting."

Talking to him was so easy, and the conversation continued like this for the rest of the period as we both sketched, moving our stools closer so we could talk. I completely lose track of time when suddenly the bell rings, making me jump. This causes Emmett to chuckle and I blush reactively.

I pack up my things and move to give him back the pencils that I borrowed, my hand grazing his and a feeling of electricity shoots up through my arm, making us lock eyes. We are frozen like this until I hear someone clear their throat and I look over to see Rosalie standing there, her arms crossed and a sour look on her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I need to get going," I excuse myself. I grab my bag and leave the room, sparing a glance back to see Rosalie pull him into a deep kiss, looking at me over his shoulder. The sight of it angers me and I leave before I say anything that I shouldn't.

I make my way to the office and give Mrs. Cope my slip, smiling and going through the small chat of how my day went. Getting in my truck to leave, I realize that it was a good day, and I hope that this doesn't end with this dream.


DREAMS OF A LIFE IN TWILIGHT


So.. Was it worth the wait? This is a very long chapter (around 6,613 words without my notes) and please keep in mind that my chapters going forward in this story should be around the same length because of the way that I am formatting the chapters and the story. Other updates of my other stories are forthcoming, but I would love if you guys could leave a review and tell me what you think. If you've read the old version (Sucked into Twilight), please let me know what you thought of the changes or if there are any problems that you have. I want to know everything. I appreciate every single one of you, and expect a reviewer shout out at the bottom of the next chapter!

KelseaMBrown