Bella sat in her fist period class, her pencil working furiously across the papers in her binder. She knew she had to keep up with her school work, her father had made that clear when he was alive. That, and the boys back at the factory would jump down her throat if they found out her school work was lacking.
Not that it much mattered either way to Bella. If she planned on getting a college education someday, she knew her grades had to be exceptional. There wasn't any way that she could afford school; if she didn't get there by scholarship, she wasn't going there at all.
She heard the snickers and snide jokes of the students around her. Bella was usually at the butt end of their jokes, because teenagers were cruel and cut throat that way. Because they were stupid, and ignorant, and didn't understand.
But Bella understood that. And she knew her limits. She'd be damned if she was going to let any of the students test them.
The teachers tended to ignore Bella for the most part. She got her work done, even if it was done during their lectures, and she knew the answers to the questions that they asked. They didn't see any academical problem with her, so they focused on the other adolescents.
First period for Bella breezed by, leading quickly into her second period class. It was English, and Bella loved it. Romeo and Juliet was the play they were currently studying, and Bella already had most of it memorized by heart.
Oh, but she was a sucker for the classics.
She shook her head at the buzz going around the school about a handful of new students at school. Pathetic, she thought detached. Were their lives that lacking?
Bella shoved through the mass of kids to her third period class, History, on the opposite side of the school. It was boring as hell, she would admit, but certain parts were fairly tolerable.
There was a crowd of kids gathered together at the front of the classroom, stealing glances over their shoulders every few seconds.
Cocking an eyebrow, Bella glanced down the aisle of seats towards the back of the classroom.
A boy sat in the far corner of the of the room, alone. His pale arms folded across his chest, pale blond bangs hanging in front of his eyes.
The new meat, Bella decided. Poor boy.
Ignoring the chittering of the hormonal teenage girls in the classroom, Bella made her way to her desk, taking her seat with an ungraceful thump.
No one noticed the noise she made. Not that she expected anyone to.
Taking out her notes from the day before, she set them carefully to one side of her desk. Opening up her text book, she flipped to the end of the chapter they were currently reading, working on the Topic Questions that were assigned for homework that night.
The bell rang, sending the kids running for their seats.
One student, Jessica, passed by Bella's desk slowly on her walk down the aisle. Bella could feel the smirk turning the short brunette's thin lips.
Bella's movements froze as her book was unceremoniously snatched from beneath her, making a loud smacking noise as it hit the floor.
"Oops," Jessica's nasily voice sneered. "You might want to watch yourself next time, Swan." She cackled all the way to her seat.
I hope she chokes on her own spit, Bella thought to herself, bending over to pick up her battered text book.
Looking unruffled, and unemotional, Bella righted her text book in front of her, continuing with her homework.
She wouldn't let them win. Wouldn't let them know it bothered her. She could deal with their silly little shenanigans. No big deal.
Bella didn't once glance up from her work during the entire period; taking her notes and finishing her homework instead. She could hear the whispered conversations of her classmates going on around her, as was per usual. They didn't seem to take school as seriously as they should.
Whatever. It wasn't any sweat off of Bella's back.
When the bell rang, signaling that it was time for her biology class, Bella headed off first towards her locker to exchange her books, then to the science building in the center of the campus.
She was usually there with enough time to set up her supplies and start the homework, the way she liked it, before the bell rang for the class period to start.
The class room was only half filled with students, the others trickling in at a leisurely pace.
Bella went to her table in the middle of the class room. She was the only one who had a table all to herself. Which she preferred. If there wasn't anyone sitting at her table, then she didn't have a lab partner. And if she didn't have a lab partner, then she would get an A on the lab.
The mind was a wasted thing on half the population of students attending Forks High.
Bella was immersed in the world of atoms when the bell rang and the teacher began the lesson. Nothing but review today for their test tomorrow. An easy class period for Bella.
Fifteen minutes into the lesson, the door opened to reveal a late comer.
Bella pictured the heads of the students moving as one to look at the door. Like children with a shiny new object to play with.
Bella rolled her eyes. Small town life was ruining them.
Mr. Banner stopped mid sentence, and she could hear him conversing quietly with the student.
The soft, velvety cadence of the student's voice was not lost on her.
Bella didn't know this voice. She looked up, confused, towards the front of the classroom.
Her eyes widened slightly, a blush creeping its way up her neck.
He was gorgeous. Bronze, messy hair perfectly astrew atop his head; pale skin contrasting wonderfully with the color. His muscular physique was hinted at with the casual, but brand name clothes he was wearing. He was tall, she noted. At least a head taller than she was. He was handing a square, white slip of paper to Mr. Banner.
A schedule, Bella recognized. He was one of the other new students.
She noted with dismay that the seat next to her was the only opening.
There went her science grade.
She forced her eyes back down to her work. She figured it wouldn't take much convincing on her part to get the new student to let her do most, if not all, of the work. She just might be able to salvage her GPA.
Bella heard distinctly when the chair next to her scraped against the tile floor. She tensed slightly. She wasn't used to people being in such close proximity to her at school.
Man up Swan, she commanded herself fiercely. Just ignore him.
And to her utter humiliation, she couldn't. Ten more minutes of the class went by before her curiosity overcame her.
Peeking through the veil of her dark brown hair, she gave the new student a once over.
He was a piece of art come to life. She had to draw his portrait, she concluded. His face was just to perfect to pass up.
As if he could feel her gaze on his face, he turned to look at her.
Bella nearly flinched back at the look of pure murderous hate on his face. His black eyes burned into hers, his fists clenching on the table tops.
Whoa. Quickly snapping her eyes back to her own work, Bella let her hair become a barrier between her and the new kid. Scratch that thought. No portrait.
Bella didn't exactly feel comfortable drawing beautiful men that looked like they wanted to eat her. Call her crazy, but it didn't sit well with her.
She was agonizingly aware of him for the rest of the period. His fists remained clenched, though he had rested them in his lap now. His pitch black eyes were glaring straight ahead of him. It looked like he was barely breathing.
Her annoyance piqued. What was his problem? It wasn't all that terrible to be sitting next to her. She didn't smell. She did happen to bathe on occasion.
Stupid boy.
The bell rang, and he went up like a shot, out of the door before anyone else had finished putting away their belongings.
Overly annoyed, Bella shoved her binder into her bag, flinging it over her shoulder and stomping her way to the cafeteria.
The new kid had issues. And he be damned, but she was letting it get to her.
Her moody exterior was blatant to anyone that even glanced her way. When Bella was mad, people knew. She had a big temper, for someone so small.
She froze mid step in her tirade to her table.
Her solitary, rectangular slab of heaven in this hell hole was occupied. Four students sat together, two on one side, two on another. Ironically, one boy and one girl to each side. How balanced.
They must all be new, she deduced. Everyone here knew that was her table. Which was inevitably why it was avoided like the plague.
Bella half turned, ready to make her way down to the library. It wouldn't be the first time she spent the lunch period in there. Sometimes she had school work to catch up on before she left for work.
But she stopped herself. That was her table dammit. And she would sit there if she damn well pleased.
Stealing her nerves, Bella righted herself, heading straight for her table without meeting the eyes of the new students sitting there.
Bella quickly pulled out the chair and sat down in it, keeping her eyes forward. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see everyone turn to stare at her.
Choosing to ignore rather than acknowledge, Bella kept to her schedule. She placed her bag on the table in front of her, pulling out a granola bar and her sketch pad.
Chewing idly on the bar, Bella found that it was rather simple to ignore them once she started drawing. Nothing of great importance today, she had decided. Just another scape of the view of the woods outside her window.
If any of the new kids happened to look at her work, she didn't want them to see anything to personal or embarrassing.
A voice like the tinkling of a bell sounded next to her. Bella glanced up to her left - or, down, rather.
The new girl, who was currently staring at her with a sweet smile on her face, was unnaturally short. Probably not even five feet tall, with short, spiky black hair.
Her eyes seemed to sparkle when Bella met them. The girl's irises were a liquid topaz color.
Unnatural, yet unique, Bella thought.
"Hi," her delicate voice greeted Bella cheerfully. "I'm Alice Cullen. I can tell we're going to be great friends."
Bella's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, she was so taken aback.
Maybe the girl, Alice, was just unnatural.
"Bella," she introduced herself, turning back to her drawing.
"You're a wonderful artist," Alice persisted. Bella glanced up at her, halting her movements. Alice gestured down at the land scape expertly forming on her sketch pad. "How long have you been drawing?"
Bella appraised the short, pixie-like girl, assessing her bubbly personality and seemingly chatty self.
It looked to Bella like her and Alice came from opposite ends of the spectrum.
"Awhile," was her answer.
Bella took the opportunity to get a good look at the rest of the students at her table. The blond boy from her history class was sitting next to Alice. Across from him, a huge boy, with dark, curly hair and the muscles resembling that of a body builder, sat grinning next to a model. She was blond, with a perfectly symmetrical face, and pouty, plump lips. She was dressed to impress, showing off all of her assets, managing to look classy rather than slutty.
Bella glanced back down at the pixie.
Unnatural was definitely the adjective for these kids.
Alice's smiled widened. "Let me introduce you to everyone." Without waiting for a response from Bella, she turned to the boy next to her. "This is Jasper Hale. He's my boyfriend, and Rose over there is his sister. They're twins. Emmett's her boyfriend, the one sitting next to her. Emmett's my brother, and we have another brother, Edward, but he doesn't seem to want to grace us with his presence today. I'm sure I could introduce the two of you tomorrow. You seem like the two of you would get along perfectly."
Bella didn't like the knowing smile on Alice's face. She didn't like it at all.
She looked up to meet the eyes of the others at the table, nodding her head once in greeting at each of them.
They all had the same pale skin and topaz eyes.
Unnatural.
"What's up with this town, Bella?" Emmett boomed from his side of the table. A wide grin crawled across his lips. "What does anyone do for any fun around here?"
"Each other." She held his gaze, unwavering.
Emmett studied her her for a moment, then threw his head back in a rumbling laugh. Rose scowled at Bella from where she sat, turning her focus on her tray of food sitting in front of her.
Bella turned to find Alice with a pleased smile on her face. "I told you we would be good friends."
She glanced away from Alice to look at Emmett, still busting up at her ridiculous remark.
She found herself fighting a smile. Maybe sharing her table with these kids wouldn't be so bad after all.
"You, Emmett, and Edward are triplets then?" Bella found herself asking, in context of the explanation Alice had given her.
Alice's smile grew. "Not triplets - actually, we're not related. Emmett, Edward and I have been together so long, we like to consider ourselves brothers and sisters. We're all adopted."
Bella took in Alice's smiling face and Emmett's shaking shoulders as he calmed down.
She didn't feel sympathy that they were adopted. No, she did not pity them. They looked happy to Bella, and that was what mattered.
She nodded, showing Alice that she understood.
Socially awkward, Bella escaped back to her drawing, not wanting to come off as inept towards the new kids.
"What are your last two classes, Bella?"
Alice again. Bella met her gaze for a fraction of a second, before returning her eyes to her drawing. "P.E. and art."
"That sounds like fun." Bella could just picture the smile on Alice's face. "Art must be really easy for you."
Bella shrugged, a noncommittal answer. Was art easy for her? Probably, if she ever attended class.
Out of habit, Bella glanced down at her watch. Stuffing her sketch pad and pencils into her bag, Bella rose from her seat.
She nodded once to Alice, turning, and heading out of the cafeteria, down the hall and to her locker.
From here on out, she hoped, things would be the same old same old.
On Bella's way out, a fine mist was coming down from the sky. She glanced around the parking lot as she crossed, making her way down to the bus station.
Sitting in the driver's seat of a shiny, silver Volvo, sat the bronze haired kid from her biology class.
And he was glaring at her.
Her temper boiled beneath her skin, an off set to the cold drizzle. Turning from him, she set her eyes straight focusing on the bus stop that was just out of sight.
Feeling his gaze on her back, Bella let her arm come up, flipping him the bird over her shoulder.
Ass hole.
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-GrumpySunshine