Chapter 1

I'm Not Good Enough for You

Isabella's POV

I drove to school carefully, making sure that I was on time. The crisp morning air helped refresh my mind, and I felt buoyant as I stepped out of the fire-engine-red truck. Alice's bright canary-yellow Porsche caught my eye, and I grinned, hoping to catch up with her.

"Hey Alice! Wait up!" I cried, running to catch up with my best friend. Unfortunately for me, fate was playing a cruel joke on me this morning. As I was sprinting as fast as I could, a pebble decided that it should have the honor of tripping me.

"Ahh!" I yelped as the ground loomed up towards my face. I fell hard, scraping the heels of my hands on the rough ground. Malicious laughter rang all around me as half the student body snidely mocked my clumsiness. In the front, was the last person I wanted to have seen this.

Edward Masen was smirking at me, holding onto his most recent play toy, Lauren Mallory. I had a huge crush on him since freshman year, but he didn't even know that I existed. After all, the hot, popular, sexy playboy would not be caught dead knowing about an unpopular, plain girl like me. He poked fun at my present situation. "So, Clumsy, are you just gonna sit there and gawk at me? Cause, you know, I'll never go out with you."

I blushed furiously at Edward's rudeness, and heard more sneers from his followers. Lauren glared at me, then decided that I was not a threat and proceeded to announce, "Poor girl. She can't even get a date with a geek, let alone my boyfriend. The day that Eddie goes out with you, is the day that pigs will fly. So stop staring at my boyfriend as if you own him, which you do not."

Tears of anger welled in my eyes at her mocking words. I wanted so badly to dig a hole all the way to the Earth's core and fall in. Instead, I snapped back at her, "I don't care about your playboy of a boyfriend, Lauren! He'll dump you before the week is over! I don't even want him, because the day that I'll agree to go on a date with someone like him, will be the day that vampires exist! So shut your trap!" Oops. Big mistake.

"What did you say to me, you filthy bit of scum? Are you talking back to me? Me, the hottest girl on the planet, who has the hottest guy on the planet?" she screamed.

I couldn't help but blow up. "Yes, I'm talking back to you! Do you have a problem with that? Because it's about time someone put you in your right place! I don't care how hot you are, your clothes are so revealing, they make me want to puke on them, but it looks like someone already did! So why don't you stop torturing all the people in this school that are 'losers', as you oh-so-conveniently call them! They're regular people like you!" I finished my rant.

Lauren's eyes practically glowed with hatred for me, but I could care less. Because Edward Masen was glaring daggers at me and even went so far as to step forward to smack me. But Lauren beat him to the punch. She raised her hand to give me a hard slap that would've left my face marked for days, had Alice not stepped in at that moment.

"Isabella, are you alright?" she asked, glaring at her brother. Edward involuntarily flinched before he could compose himself. Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett came over to help me.

Jasper and Rosalie are twins, the cousins of the Masens, and they love me like I am part of their family. Emmett loved me even more than them, almost as much as his sister Alice. The four of them were my best friends. I still couldn't believe how they could be related to a jerk like Edward. But he is such a hot, sexy jerk. How I'd love to touch his toned chest, run my fingers through his smooth, silky bronze locks…stop, Bella! I scolded myself.

"—I'm telling Mother about this, Edward! Isabella is like our sister! Can't you be nicer to her? Her parents just died, and she has no one there for her, so be nicer, cause not everyone gets what they want in life like you do!" Alice was still shouting.

I got up and brushed off my sweats, hoping to get the dirt off. Lauren glared at me and mouthed, "You'll still pay for that." Truthfully, I didn't care one bit. Rose, being my almost-big sister, gave Lauren a look so dirty that if looks could kill, Lauren would be long dead.

But a part of me knew that she was speaking the truth. There was just no way in the entire universe that Edward Masen was going to even notice me. I'm just not good enough for him.

Edward's POV

I glared at the geeky girl walking away from me, her back turned towards the hottest guy in the school, me. She dared to turn her back on the king of the school? My siblings, Alice and Emmett, and my cousins, Rosalie and Jasper, followed her. They should be hanging around popular people such as me, Lauren, Jessica, Tyler, Mike, and Katie, not with a girl like Isabella Swan, if you can call her a girl. She was so plain that I wanted to chuck her into a roasting fire for being such a nerd.

Who was that girl, to think that she could talk back to my Lauren? I am going to give that Isabella Swan a piece of my mind, and she is not going to like it.

During Biology, I sat next to Isabella. Mike kept on coming over to me and asking me how many girls I've "banged", as he called it. I picked a random number, which happened to be eight. No way was I telling anyone that I was still a virgin. The whole school thought that Jessica Stanley was going to have my baby, and the slut actually liked it that way. Ew.

Before I could begin to criticize the nerd for talking back to my girl, Mr. Banner started class. I hoped that Isabella Swan knew that Lauren was still going to get back at her. This is going to be fun.

Isabella dutifully took notes, being the I-know-all-and-I'm-a-geek sort of girl she is. Uh. How can Alice, Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie actually adore this…this brainiac thing? I hate going to school, but my father and mother, Elizabeth and Edward Senior, would never let me drop out. I'm already a junior, so who cares about school when they're seventeen?

Today, we had to identify the phases of an onion root under a microscope with our partners. As usual, I ignored the worksheet set in front of me, allowing the know-it-all sitting to my right do my work for me. She was so scared of failing Biology; she is even willing to do my class work for me. Isabella scrawled 'prophase' onto the page, and then switched the slide expertly. Next, she wrote 'anaphase' and then 'interphase'. When Mr. Banner came around the room to check our answers, Isabella was already finished. Our teacher glared at me, knowing fully well that I did none of the work, yet I still got an excellent grade for the day.

With nothing else to do, I started to check out the girls in the classroom. Boring. I've already memorized most of their bodies, so I was quickly bored stiff. Glancing over at Isabella, I saw that she was wearing silver sweats that would've shamed any normal girl. There was no way that anyone could see her curves like that. Grr.

Her brown hair fell lankly down her back, a tangled mess of chocolate locks. Her deep brown eyes were lifeless and the dullest color I have ever seen. And her clothes, I don't even want to talk about the boyish clothes she wears. Man, this girl needed some improvements, and she needed them bad if she was gonna go out with anyone anytime soon.

But why do I care? I would never go out with that girl. Her entire existence screamed, "I'm a loser!" and trust me when I say this, she is never going to be seen hanging off my arm as my girlfriend. She's just not good enough for me.