Chapter 1: FIRST SIGHT
My new dad, Charlie and I finally arrived at our house. It was a small, two-bedroom house but I immediately liked it. The surprise, parked on the street in front of the house, was my new truck. It was a faded red color, with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. Surprisingly, I loved it although I wasn't quite sure it would work for long. Its ancient quality was what drew me to it. At least I wouldn't have to go to school every day in a police car. So much for inconspicuousness. "Wow, Dad, I love it! Thanks!" I said. "I'm glad you like it," Charlie said gruffly. Wow, he gets embarrassed so easily. Its definitely going to be fun living with him.
It took only one trip to get all my stuff upstairs. I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellowed lace curtains around the window — these were all same from Bella's childhood memories. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the crib for a bed and adding a desk as I grew. The desk now held a secondhand computer, with the phone line for the modem stapled along the floor to the nearest phone jack.
One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled. It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to be as myself. I thought about the new high school I'll have to join from tomorrow. Forks High School had a frightening total of only three hundred and fifty-seven — now fifty-eight students. All of the kids here had grown up together — their grandparents had been toddlers together. And I've been on this earth since way before them.
I would be the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak.
I'll have to try hard not to get noticed. I was counting on my simple appearance but then vampires always attract the attention of humans, like a prey to the predator. I decided that I'll have to act awkward rather than being my perfectly balanced self. I'll have to hide all my powers and mingle among the humans if I wanted a quiet and peaceful life here. Sure, I could manage that. And who knows, tomorrow might be a start of a whole new chapter of my life.
After dinner, it was time to sleep. The problem is, vampires never sleep. As the human dinner was of no use to me, I decided to go out for my own "dinner". After feeding, I altered the memory of the young man who'd almost willingly provided me with his blood. After that, I decided it was safe to stay inside my room, in case Charlie comes to check on me. Even though I can't sleep at night, I like laying on the bed, eyes closed and drifting to my own imaginary world. It's the most peaceful part of my day and also doesn't attract attention. I concentrated on the drizzle and zoned out for the night.
Breakfast with Charlie was a quiet event. He wished me good luck at school. I thanked him, knowing his hope was wasted. Good luck tended to avoid me. Charlie left first, off to the police station that was his wife and family. After he left, I sat at the old square oak table in one of the three unmatching chairs and examined his small kitchen, with its dark paneled walls, bright yellow cabinets, and white linoleum floor. Over the small fireplace in the adjoining handkerchief-sized family room was a row of pictures. It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over his wife. Wow, true love did exist! To be honest, I've never been in love in my eternal life and sometimes I wonder if there's such a thing as love.
Finding the school wasn't difficult, though I'd never been there before. The school was, like most other things, just off the highway. I parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading front office. No one else was parked there, so I was sure it was off limits, but I decided I would get directions inside. A red-haired woman looked up. "Can I help you?" "I'm Isabella Swan," I informed her, and saw the immediate awareness light her eyes. I was expected, a topic of gossip no doubt. Great, at least it'll keep the humans from wondering about my other unusual things. "Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk till she found the ones she was looking for. Oh god, so tiring! "I have your schedule right here, and a map of the school." She brought several sheets to the counter to show me. She went through my classes for me, highlighting the best route to each on the map, and gave me a slip to have each teacher sign, which I was to bring back at the end of the day. I was already bored. Like I needed explaining for directions. Come on, I'm a vampire! I wanted to shout but I controlled myself.
When I went back out to my truck, other students were starting to arrive. I drove around the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad to see that most of the cars were older like mine, nothing flashy. The nicest car here was a shiny Volvo, and it stood out. Still, I cut the engine as soon as I was in a spot, so that the thunderous volume wouldn't draw attention to me.
The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, one a porcelain-colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least my skin wouldn't be a standout here.
I took the slip up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked at me when he saw my name — not an encouraging response. But at least he sent me to an empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my new classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow, they managed. I kept my eyes down on the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. I'd already read everything. That was comforting… and boring.
When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly boy with skin problems and hair black as an oil slick leaned across the aisle to talk to me. These humans never learn. "You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?" He was the overly helpful, chess club type. I didn't need mind reading to figure that out.
"Bella," I corrected. Everyone within a three-seat radius turned to look at me. Like seriously? What is wrong with these people?
"Where's your next class?" he asked. I unnecessarily had to check in my bag. "Um, Government, with Jefferson, in building six." "I'm headed toward building four, I could show you the way…" Definitely over-helpful. "I'm Eric," he added. I had to smile tentatively. "Thanks." So much for the unwanted company. I wanted to tell him I could rip off his head in less than a second but I couldn't blow off my cover on my very first day.
After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot. One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches. Her name was Jessica Stanley. We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to me. Well, they should be. The boy from English, Eric, waved at me from across the room. Wow, can high school get any more annoying?
It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them.
They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. They weren't gawking at me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught, and held, my attention. I knew exactly what they were. They were vampires. Although, a lot younger than me. I had not expected to stumble upon a whole coven of them here. There was something different about these vampires. They had golden eyes. What did that mean? I'd never come across any gold eyed vampire before. Interesting. Looks like I have a mystery to find out. But it'll be helpful if I can keep my cover even from them. They haven't noticed me till now. Looks like my human scented perfume(my own invention) works perfectly fine. Okay, time to find out their names first.
"Who are they?" I asked Jessica, the talkative girl. As she looked up to see who I meant — though already knowing, probably, from my tone — suddenly he looked at her, the thinner one, the boyish one, the youngest, perhaps. He looked at my neighbor for just a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered to mine. He looked away quickly, more quickly than I could, though in a flush of embarrassment I dropped my eyes at once. In that brief flash of a glance, his face held nothing of interest — it was as if she had called his name, and he'd looked up in involuntary response, already having decided not to answer. I had a nagging doubt that he was a mind reader himself. "That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She said this under her breath. Poor girl, I thought, they can perfectly hear each word you're saying.
"They are… very nice-looking." I struggled with a good enough reply. What would a normal person reply! "Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all together though — Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they live together." Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. They had to live together, they were so clearly a coven i.e. a family of vampires. I wanted to know more about them. Although I could perfectly hear their conversation. Edward said, "Jessica Stanley is giving the new Swan girl all the dirty laundry on the Cullen clan". Emmett chuckled under his breath. Edward spoke again I guess replying to Emmett's thoughts, "Rather unimaginative, actually. Just the barest hint of scandal. Not an ounce of horror. I'm rather disappointed." They clearly stayed away from the humans for their protection. I did exactly the opposite. There was a lesser chance of being caught if you learnt to mingle amongst the humans. Maybe with more maturity they'll eventually learn.
"Which ones are the Cullens?" I asked. "They don't look related…""Oh, they're not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They're all adopted. The Hales are brother and sister, twins — the blondes — and they're foster children." "They look a little old for foster children." "They are now, Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that." Nice background story, Cullens. Rather imaginative. "That's really kind of nice — for them to take care of all those kids like that, when they're so young and everything."
As I examined them, the youngest, one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity in his expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me that his glance held some kind of unmet expectation. I guess he is trying to read my mind. It's interesting to see him try and fail. I definitely feel grateful for my gift. At least he can't find out my secret the easy way. To irritate him further I ask, "Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" "That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he'd turned her down. I bit my lip to hide my smile. Then I glanced at him again. Edward was laughing too. I could make out even when his face was turned away.
The next hour was Biology II. I walked with the quiet girl Angela Weber. She was the only one in this school that I'd instantly liked. When we entered the classroom, Angela went to sit at a black-topped lab table exactly like the ones I
was used to. She already had a neighbor. In fact, all the tables were filled but one. Next to the center aisle, I recognized Edward Cullen by his unusual hair, sitting next to that single open seat. Mr. Banner signed my slip and handed me a book with no nonsense about introductions. I could tell we were going to get along. Of course, he had no choice but to send me to the one open seat in the middle of the room. As I walked passed, I came directly in front of the air vent. Edward wasn't impressed by my scent that quickly filled the room. His eyes went black with hunger. Oh God, he needed to feed. And perhaps my human scent was doing too good a job. Poor Edward! He'd have to endure this for a whole hour. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. What an irony! I hid my face behind my hair as I laughed silently at my inside joke.
Unfortunately the lecture was on cellular anatomy, something I'd already studied. I took notes carefully anyway, always looking down. During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the edge of his chair, sitting as far from me as possible. I could see his hand on his left leg was clenched into a fist, tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too, he never relaxed. Now, I was beginning to feel a little guilty about all this. After all, it was all my fault he was suffering so much. I couldn't even change my "human perfume" now even if I wanted to. Edward would then definitely figure out the change. There had to be some way out of this problem.
Finally, the bell rang. Edward leapt out of his seat and was out of the classroom in a flash. Even I was relieved his misery had ended. I had no idea I would meet him again that day. It happened when I went to the office to return my paperwork after the classes. Edward wanted to change from his Biology class but he did not have any luck. At that point, the door opened and the wind blew my scent inside the office room. Edward immediately aware, turned around and glared at me. Then he turned on his heel and disappeared out the door. What an awesome start to high school!