A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long. I wanted it to be perfect, but of course nothing ever is. I hit some blockages, but I managed to press through them with help from younger members of my family. We all love these characters and we love you.

Now that we got that out of the way—Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Worth More than a Bad Reputation-Alternative World

"Everyone, take your seat," my chemistry teacher commanded while I and the other students entered the room. It was already October of my junior year. I chose a seat relatively to the side so not to draw too much attention to myself. Ever since my family moved to this nice neighborhood area, I felt like the new kid. It's been years, but I never let myself get too close to anyone personally. My dad was the head chemist in this pharmaceutical company and he came up with this cheaper formula for a medication, making it also more effective. It was good for the people and good for the company, so he got promoted to a vice president. It came with a nice raise, a nice new house in this beautiful neighborhood, and a membership to the local country club. Everything was new since I finished 7th grade. I had to switch schools and then had to switch again because I graduated and needed to go to high school. So here I am in 11th grade dressed like I belong, but never feeling like I did. What would've been the point in making friends?

Don't get me wrong. I had acquaintances, people I talked to, but I didn't let anyone really get too close, so they couldn't rule over me. Before my dad's "Great Discovery" I had three really close friends and one secret boyfriend. We used to walk over to this wide street divider that had trees and a very large boulder. He kissed me there every day after school. When there was a dance at the teen center, he asked me to dance, but that was when everything got messed up. He and I stepped outside for some fresh air and we went behind a tree to make-out, but my friends caught me. We were thirteen at the time so the girls freaked out and told me I could get pregnant kissing a boy like that. I would get a reputation and they would get one by association. I'm not stupid, two parents in the field of science, I knew I couldn't get pregnant, but I did a stupid thing anyway and abandoned my secret rendezvous with my guy. He and I never spoke or kissed again (to my dismay) because I didn't want to lose my friends. The "Great Discovery" made me lose them anyway. My social life now was mediocre at best because I didn't want to have a reoccurrence of the past. I kept people at a distance though I did have the occasional boyfriend.

"Bella, can I take this seat?" Eric asked as he sat down on the seat with the desk beside mine.

"Whatever," I responded without looking up at him. I tried not to peer at him too often for fear of nausea. He had an unfortunate skin condition which rather disgusted me. There was a cream the company my dad worked for made. It would theoretically clear that up, but it wasn't my place to say anything.

I shifted over slightly and my pen rolled right off the desk. I removed myself from my seat to retrieve it, when another boy walked into the class. I didn't pay much attention to his introduction, only that he was a real "new kid". I glanced up for a split-second as I returned to my seat and busied myself with the textbook and my writing material. He asked to sit in his own way and Mr. Banner asked him about his preparedness for class.

"No books I see. This is going to be a long semester."

I looked over at the boy's direction just as my teacher asked who would like to share their book with him. He had his head down and turned away. I kind of felt bad so I volunteered.

"He could borrow mine."

"Very well." Mr. Banner began writing the first part of his lesson onto the blackboard. I got up and handed the book to the student.

"Here you go." He lifted his face and we made eye contact for a brief moment. I tried to smile, but I faltered by the look of bewilderment on his face. I guessed no one had been nice to him before.

I sat back down as Eric was shifting his desk over to share with me, but the new boy followed me and spoke over at my book partner. "Move."

"Excuse me?" Eric responded.

"Move."

"Is there a problem?" the teacher piped up.

I gazed up at the new kid. His dark hair was held back in a pony and he held a nice leather jacket.

"No problem," he responded. "He's just in my seat."

When he said it, he looked down at Eric and I caught another glimpse of his deep brown eyes. They were so familiar. My acne covered companion grabbed his stuff and went over to the empty seat by the door while this kid sat down.

"You could use the book," I whispered. "I just write notes anyway."

"Volcano."

"Sorry?" I questioned.

"That's what I go by." He blinked lazily as he opened the book.

I turned it to the correct page. "Bella."

"Yeah," he minutely smiled.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing," he dismissed, but that smirk never left his face.

The chemistry lesson began and I tried to ignore him, but it was difficult. I could feel him staring.

"Stop it," I angrily whispered and looked at him. He looked down before I met his face.

As the hour passed, I knew he sporadically lifted his eyes to glance at me. I was particularly done up today with my dark auburn hair layered in wavy portions so I understood the attention, but it was unnerving me. As soon as the bell rang, I packed up my notebook, grabbed my jacket and headed out the door.

-o-

I spent my next two classes just trying to shake that creepy feeling off me. When I headed to the cafeteria, I was myself again. I was more than happy to see my usual table empty. After I had a short meeting with the lunch crew, I hastily carried what appeared to be a meat loaf to the table, and sat down. After a few moments, Jessica and Jane came in and sat down too. We eat lunch together most days.

"Hey Bella."

Jessica Stanley was the first girl to speak to me in high school. She had brown curly hair and blue eyes. She was always the attention getter which was fine with me. Jane Reece was the new student last year. She was a little on the heavy side and a bit reserved then. We met when she and I shared a few classes including drama. One day the drama teacher, Ms. Goff assigned a play for the class to perform right after spring break. During one of the small auditions, I headed backstage to wait out the auditioning process and heard Jane mumbling something facing the mirror. She became quiet when I got close. I gave her a suspicious once over taking in her appearance.

She looked at me for a moment and spoke up. "I wasn't talking to myself or anything."

"I'm sure you weren't."

"I was just saying some lines from a movie to get the right feelings for Emma Jean's part."

"I'm sure it will help."

"I know I won't get it though. I'm not the right body type," she stated.

"You could lose the weight if you tried," I encouraged. "Emma Jean is supposed to be pretty and you would be if you did your makeup right." I took out a mini package of makeup wipes I carried in my purse when I smudge. "Let me show you." I began to roll a square around the tip of a pen and thinned out her gunky eyeliner over her lid. Then I cleaned off the black shadow from below her lower lids. I instructed her to completely remove her blush and chose a more rosy tone that complemented her skin tone from the stuff backstage. The look was finished with a swipe of my subtle red-toned chapstick (I told her she could keep it). Her face looked so much better without the heavy makeup.

"Thank you," she said.

"Not a problem. Good luck." I left her back there and I heard her begin to mumble the lines. She only got a few out before Ms. Goff called her up. I discovered later she got the part. I just got picked to be one of the stage hands.

She started coming over to my house after school uninvited, to get more makeup tips and hair styles. After two weeks of it, I went straight to the mall after school. It looked like she caught on to a right style alone and stuck with it. Another thing was her waist line began to shrink more and more. Her personality changed as well. She looked so good; she was starting to get more attention from the male student body. It turned out she was a better actress than she let on. She played shy and subdued, because she was on probation with her parents from being too popular at her last school. The decreasing of her weight was the shedding of pregnancy pounds. She had delivered over the summer. By spring break she was back to her original pre-pregnancy size. She was asked out a lot, but after dating Aro (a senior) for a month, she began turning everyone down. She never said why. She was phenomenal in the play by the way.

A couple of tables over, I saw the blonde hair of Rosalie Hale. I knew her from the Country Club. She wasn't half-bad as a person. If I hadn't been preoccupied with some guy over the summer, I might have spent more time with her. She waved and smiled slightly to me then shifted her violet eyes to her two friends as they sat down with her. She flipped her locks over her shoulder and spoke to her companions. I turned my attention back to Jessica.

"So Jane, I heard there's a new biker boy in school," she uttered. "He probably knows nothing about your dating record yet." Jane's eyes dropped to the table as Jessica mocked. "At least he's fresh meat."

"I think I met him," I revealed. "There's a guy like that in my second period chemistry class. He's kind of creepy if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you ... Is he cute?"

"You're asking now?" She shrugged. "I don't know because he creeped me out." I gave an involuntary shiver as the chills ran through my body. "He's kind of tough-looking with long hair."

"Sounds like that might be him," she replied. "I heard this is his third new school. He got expelled from the last one, because he beat up the teacher."

"Oh, shit!" I swore.

"What?"

"I left my textbook with him. Crap! And there's homework. I've got to go spot him before lunch is over. Can either of you watch my stuff?"

"I'm coming," Jessica countered.

"I'll watch it," Jane claimed, "but only until lunch is over. I'm not lugging your things around."

Jessica and I wandered through the cafeteria trying to find him with no success. I pushed through the exit doors to check if he might be outside. Sometimes the less appealing crowd sat out there like "The Three Stooges." They were the scariest kids in our school. Since neither of us knew their names, Rosalie and I nicknamed them during one of our summer conversations. The one that was hugely muscular with curly hair we called "Curly." The extremely tall one was "Larry." And the one called "Moe," had the ugliest face I've ever seen. It was scarred from one too many punches.

The new guy was sitting by the front steps clad in his leather jacket and dark denims. I was about to call out when I noticed him pull out a Swiss Army blade and start slicing at my book cover.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I grabbed the handle pulling it out of his hand. In retrospect, I realized I could have cut myself. "That's my book!"

"I was wondering when you would remember."

"Can I have it back now?" I asked.

"What will you give me?"

"Your knife." I held it out for him.

"That's not mine," he said a little too loudly.

My brows furrowed contorting my face. "Excuse me?"

"Miss Swan," an authoritative voice spoke from behind me. "I hope that isn't a weapon you hold in your hand."

My jaw dropped as I turned around to face Ms. Brown. Jessica was nowhere to be seen.

The teacher took the item from me. "Principal's office now. Both of you!"

"What did I do?" the troublemaker uttered.