The clouds were still heavily debating whether it would rain or not as she walked outside. For now, they had settled for a light drizzle, as if they were determined to defend their record.
Breakfast had been quiet. Her dad had wished her luck on her first school day and that was more or less the most eventful thing that had happened all morning.
She turned the key and her truck roared to life. She had to admit, she kinda liked it.
It was very calm on the road. After all, no one lived here.
Her school was called 'Forks High School', clearly creativity wasn't valued here. The building mostly consisted of maroon-colored bricks, shaped like large rectangular blocks.
Her first hours went quite smooth. They had handed her a map and a schedule. The outline of the school was pretty simple: rectangular blocks, neatly labeled from 1 to 5, no way to get lost.
At her first class, English, the teacher had simply put her at an empty desk at the back and apart from the occasional glances of her fellow classmates, nothing had happened.
After that class, a boy had walked up to her. He had black hair that shined in a non-natural way and was quite gangly. He introduced himself as 'Eric'. Clearly, he was somehow connected to Charlie because he knew about her, only, he didn't really know about her, otherwise he would never say something like:
"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?"
"Bella," she said, inwardly cringing at the word 'Isabella'.
"Where's your next class?"
She checked her schedule and told him.
"Well I'm headed that way, so I could walk you there…"
As if there was any way to get lost.
Would you help me if I was a guy too?
Still, accepting help wouldn't hurt her, probably.
"So you're from Phoenix?" He said as they walked to building 4.
"Yeah."
"So not used to the rain then?"
"Not really."
"I thought people from Phoenix would be tanner."
"My mom's part albino."
He frowned. Either he didn't have a sense of humor, or, more likely, her joke was just terrible.
"Well, here we are. Maybe I'll see you around."
She nodded and he left her.
The only really interesting thing happened at lunch. She was sitting in a group of about half a dozen people (mostly girls) who had introduced themselves earlier, but Bella had forgotten their names. They were gossiping and talking about classes. Across the room, virgin-Eric waved at her, but she wasn't looking at him.
There were five of them. They sat at a table in the corner which was strangely isolated. People clearly kept their distances from them on purpose.
Although they had plates of food in front of them, none of them ate anything. That should have been her first clue.
All of them were remarkably beautiful, with smooth porcelain skins. One boy in particular had hair the color of burnt copper. He was the one that looked at her first. He narrowed his eyes, curious, as if there was something that didn't make sense.
That should have been her second clue.
He leaned in and whispered something to a girl with black pixie hair, without breaking eye contact.
Bella was completely mesmerised and kept staring at them.
The pixie girl whispered something back.
"Who are they?" Bella asked, not taking her eyes of them.
"The Cullens," a girl said. "Don't interact with anyone and always together."
"They are all siblings?"
"Not really. All of them are adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife. They moved here from Alaska."
That should have been her third clue. Who could adopt five kids with all the ridiculous paperwork revolving around adoption?
"The one staring at you is Edward," another girl added. "Don't bother with him, he doesn't date anyone."
Clearly, this girl had been rejected by him.
She saw Edward Cullen again at biology. He was the only one sitting alone, so, obviously, she ended up next to him.
He tried his best not to look at her. His hand was over his mouth and nose as if he was holding his breath. The other one was on the table, the fingers balled into a fist. She saw veins bulging in that hand.
The teacher put two vials between them for the practical exercise of that day.
He pushed one towards her without looking at her and then took the other one.
Bella smelled her hair.
It smelled of shampoo, there really wasn't anything wrong with it.
Right?
What was up with this boy?
She stared at him until he looked at her. There was something strange in his eyes.
Restraint. That was the word she was looking for. Edward Cullen was restraining himself. But against what? Was he a serial killer or something?
She had to be mistaken. Maybe he just didn't like her. But how was that possible? They hadn't even spoken yet.
The tension didn't wear off all class.
When the bell rang, he was outside before her brain had registered class was over.
She felt strangely rejected. The girl had said that Edward never dated, so this most likely wasn't personal, but he didn't have to act like that. Somehow, she still felt personally attacked.
Bella gathered her stuff and went outside.
"Every class is full."
She saw Edward arguing with an old lady outside.
"I'm afraid you'll have to stay in biology," the woman concluded.
"Fine. Guess I'll just have to endure it." His face was strained, as if just sitting next to Bella caused him great pain.
He turned around. His eyes found hers.
Edward quickly broke off eye contact and walked away.
Her legs were suddenly shaking.
Endure?
What was that supposed to mean?
He wanted to change classes because of her?
Bella turned around and left the room in the opposite direction of Edward.
She was going in the wrong direction for her next class, but it still took her several minutes before she circled back.
What had she done wrong? She inwardly screamed for an explanation.