Bella

I noticed him right away. The absolutely cutest brown-haired boy with the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. His dark brown hair was always a mess, like bed-head gone all right, little bits sticking up here and there, the hair on one side of his head just slightly longer than the other, emphasizing those pretty blue eyes. It looked like an actual style, but I figured it was like Edward's hair, not one you could achieve by trying. I had noticed that he ran his fingers through it a lot when he was thinking or off in his own little world. Matthew was often in his own little world.

Matthew stood out from the crowd almost as much as we Cullens because he was beautiful and quiet. He seemed very delicate for a boy with his pale skin and willowy form. He was short for a boy as thin as he was too, only about 5 foot 6. It seemed like shorter guys tended to be stocky but not Matthew. Matthew seemed to have a preference for simple clothing, almost always clothed in a white tee-shirt and black pants. If it was a chilly day, he put on a black sweater over the rest. I kind of wondered what he would wear once it started snowing. I wasn't sure he could find a warm coat simple enough for his tastes. For all I knew, maybe he wouldn't be able to afford one.

People didn't like Matthew, for the same reason they didn't like us. He was handsome, efficient in his classes, talented. Matthew's talent came in the form of music I discovered when I walked into Music Appreciation a bit early one day. The class was right after lunch and sometimes I tired of the charade of pretending to eat. We were only a few weeks into the school year and I wondered how much longer I could take it. Edward, Alice, Reneesme and I were playing juniors, we still had almost two full school years ahead of us.

Coeur d'Alene was really lovely and Lake City High School was actually kind of pretty. It was in a little forested area and fit prettily with it's surroundings. Sometimes the glass exterior made it kind of problematic if the sun decided to suddenly break through the clouds though. Thank God for Alice. The huge phone store across the street was ugly as sin and it's animated billboard was the height of everything I hated about the world, plus people's constant thoughts about choosing the best new phone tended to drive Edward up a wall. Not to mention the fact that this weird hairstyle that involved completely covering one of your eyes was really popular in the area. It was really hard for Edward to keep a straight face when many a boy's thoughts involved the fact that they had narrowly avoided walking into someone or the wall. It seemed that obscuring the vision in one of your eyes wrecked havoc with your depth perception. I loved our house hidden in the trees almost as much as I loved the Cullens' house back in Forks, even so, the third time around, much like the first time around, high school was kind of drag.

The first time I heard Matthew play, all of the grievances I had about having to attend high school yet again completely fled my mind. He played the old piano in the music room with such emotion and expression that I was reminded of Edward. Matthew played with his eyes closed, feeling the keys rather than seeing them. After finishing his song, opening his eyes and coming back to reality, he seemed startled to find me watching him. He jumped up from the piano bench with such grace and fluidity that despite his striking blue eyes, I pondered not for the first time if he weren't in fact one of us. There was certainly something about him though. A strangeness, an otherness that set him apart.

"I'm sorry to have startled you, Matthew", I spoke, "You play beautifully."

"You know my name?" Matthew blinked, looking startled.

I laughed, "I'm good at remembering things." It was hard for me to forget things, even when I wanted to.

"You must be very good at remembering things if you remembered my name." I didn't like the way he said that, it was degrading.

"On the contrary, I remembered your name especially, Matthew." He blushed and I laughed in my head. He was truly adorable. It was no wonder that despite him having no friends, Edward had told me that half the female student body had at least a slight crush on him, most were quite frankly in love with him. There were a few boys wondering if he might swing the other way as well. "My boyfriend, Edward, plays the piano. He plays wonderfully, but I think even he might be a little envious of your skill. Where did you learn to play like that?" I had wanted to have a reason to talk to Matthew for awhile. I was glad to have finally found it.

"I taught myself how to play when I was seven. The first foster home I was in then wasn't that great, but they had an old upright piano and they didn't mind if I entertained myself playing it." Matthew shrugged and went to sit down in his seat.

"That's terrible and wonderful all at the same time." I moved to sit in the seat next to him, stowing my bag under the chair. Matthew hid it well, but his blue eyes betrayed surprise that I was going to sit next to him. It was not my usual seat. I smiled at him, knowing full well what a smile directed at someone sitting right next to me could do. He sucked in a breath, biting his lip. His eyes were startling up close, a sparkling twilight blue. They, like my smile, held a strange power.

I had known Matthew was in a foster home. I hadn't known he had been in them as far back as age seven. I wondered what his life had been like and what had happened to get him planted in foster care. I had asked Edward but it seemed Matthew kept such thoughts locked tight up inside him. Most of the time, Matthew was thinking about music. According to Edward, he had a sort of internal radio that was constantly playing some song or other, even in the background of other thoughts. Edward said he found it rather impressive for a human mind. Most people couldn't focus with something like that going on in their mind. I finally understood it now, Matthew lived and breathed music.

I noted from the corner of my eye the searching expressions of our fellow classmates as they began to filter into the room. My sharp hearing caught the whispered comments even as I carried on a conversation with Matthew who was, as usual, completely oblivious to the attention he garnered. "I took this class since Edward is so into music. I wish I could understand it the way he does. Why did you take the class if you can play piano like that though? It must be boring for you."

"I taught myself. I know nothing about real musical notation and theory. This school doesn't really have a music program, my old school didn't either. This is the only music class so I took it on a whim. I hope someday to really learn how to play the piano."

"You have a real ear then. You made that old piano sing. The piece you were playing must be one of your own then?" I prompted.

Matthew blushed again. His skin was so milky pale that it would show any slight flush. Probably bruise easily too. "No...I learned it from listening to an old CD."

"You learned it from just listening to it?" That was impressive. He was probably a prodigy and he made such light of the fact. Maybe he didn't even realize it.

Matthew nodded his head sheepishly, "My current foster parents are looking for someone to give me lessons. They bought me an old keyboard when they heard I was interested in piano but it's not the same as playing a real piano. I enjoy having the opportunity to play this one."

"I'm a foster child too, you know. My foster parents, the Cullens, well, they're wonderful people." I hoped talking about that would make him more comfortable. I wanted to know more about his past.

"Are all of you foster children then? I mean, you and the people you sit with at lunch."

Oops, not exactly where I wanted him to go. Cracking Matthew was going to be harder than I thought. "Yes, although they have formerly adopted my brothers and sisters. I'm their newest acquisition. Everyone else has been with them a long time." That wasn't precisely true, but that was the story we told. It was so no one made a big deal about me being with Edward. In truth I was still Bella Cullen, forever and always, even if I was forced to go by Bella Swan at school again. It was the same reason Rosalie and Jasper went by the last name of Hale, so no one questioned why they were with Emmett and Alice. It made a few less problems for us at least.