Vale woke up to the pitter-patter of rain on his window and the songs of crickets playing in his room. Groaning, he turned to the digital clock his father had placed on the desk. It was 6:30 in the morning. School started at 8:00. He pulled himself from his cocoon of blankets and stumbled to the bathroom. His father had left a note, and Vale had to try three times to pick it up with his sleep-numb fingers.

Peanut -

You don't have a jacket, do you? I left my old one on the kitchen table. I'm sorry you have to walk in the rain, so maybe this will help. It won't really protect your head or anything, but you shouldn't catch a cold now. I won't be home until around seven or eight tonight, so you can eat out or there's cereal, I think. Well, you can take care of yourself. If you go out, don't stay out long.

-Dad

He loved his dad, he really did, but he couldn't care less that it was raining and really, he doubted he would go out on the first day of school. He doubted he would even make any friends to go out with. It was nice he cared so much, though. When Vale finished his shower and brushed his teeth, he carelessly dried his hair with the towel he used to dry himself off and wrapped the damp thing around his waist. He then stumbled back to his room in the dark and shielded his eyes from the blinding light when he turned his bedroom lamp on. Since he hadn't unpacked anything yet, he pulled out the pair of dark-wash skinny jeans and a bright red t-shirt with long sleeves from in his black duffel bag. It had what appeared to be gold paint splatters all over it. It was one of his favorite shirts. His grandma's golden chain was hastily fastened around his slender neck, and he pulled a silver metal swiss army pocket knife from the jeans he wore yesterday and took a long slash at his exposed wrist. Even if there was no point to it anymore, he had to admit. He was addicted like a chain smoker to cigarettes. He rolled up the sleeves to hit his elbows and walked back to the bathroom, where he admitted to himself that it was extremely stupid to have just done that as he pulled white gauze from under the sink. He bandaged the new gash and took the liberty to cover a few of the pinker scars. He'd rather people see bandages than gashes. Then started covering up the bruises on his face with the cover-up he had left in the bathroom before he showered. Deeming it passable, he trumped back to his room and threw the pocket knife onto his bed. He figured it was around 7:15 now, and he had to figure out just where exactly the school was still, so he jumped down the stairs two at a time and directed himself to the kitchen where he found a black leather jacket. He had to admit, his dad had a good sense of style. And it would cover up his arms. That was lucky. Vale rummaged through the pantry before settling on a pack of twizlers and shoved them in his jacket pocket, and then ran for the door to begin his walk. Hanging on the handle was a tan canvas messenger bag. "Thanks, dad," he muttered to himself as he threw it over his shoulder and unlocked the door. And then he was off.

It was freezing, pouring, and windy. It was at that moment that Vale thanked jesus for his father's jacket as he walked down the deserted road in the direction of town. He had walked what felt like 15 minutes when a green pick-up truck pulled over beside him. Ignoring it, he continued walking, but he heard voices behind him so he sped up. "Hey!" called a voice that sounded like that of a girl. When he didn't repond, she called again, and this time chucked a pebble at his head. Annoyed, Vale turned around.

"What?" he called back, making sure to sound ticked off.

"You need a ride?" He noticed that she wasn't alone. There were 3 of them, two girls and a tall-looking guy. The bitch who threw a pebble at him had long, straight blond hair and was wearing the shortest skirt he had ever seen with a pink tank top. He wondered how she wasn't freezing her ass off in weather like this. The other girl was wearing practical clothes and had on green Capri pants and a short-sleeve black t-shirt with a white hoodie. She had short brown hair that was cut longer in the front than in the back, and had a slightly oriental look to her. The guy, a blonde, was wearing loose fitting jeans and a blue polo. The brunette girl looked nice enough, and the guy looked like sort of a jerk.

"Uh, sure, why not?" he decided, figuring as much as he thought he would regret it later, he would rather not walk in the rain anymore and started back toward the car. "Who are you?" he asked. The girl smiled at him and giggled.

"Oh, I'm Anna and this is LeAnne. And he's Michael," she jerked her thumb toward the guy. "We saw you walking and we figured you must be new here, since we've never seen you."

"Is this town that small?" he questioned her when he reached where they were parked and where Anna was leaning out the window. She flashed brilliantly white teeth and twirled a piece of her hair.

"Yeah, sort of," she giggled. Vale had decided she was annoying by that time. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Vale," he muttered. He really hated his name. Why hadn't he lied? He really hoped no one would think to google what it meant. He doubted anyone spoke Estonian.

"Oh! That's so pretty! Is it another language? What does it mean?" It was then that LeAnne, the brunette, spoke up.

"It means mistake, or zero." she whispered to her friend. Vale did a double take, and Anna frowned.

"You speak Estonian?" he asked her curiously. She nodded and blushed. He decided he liked her. She didn't look like a self-obsessed prat. "Well, yeah, you're right. My mother named me. My father is Akin, the cop," Vale added. They might as well know where the hell he came from. Michael spoke.

"Your dad hates me," he grinned, "Says I give him too much trouble. Guess he'll be surprised we're friends, eh?" Vale was sorely tempted to say he wasn't Michaels friend, but decided against it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Anna said, trying to steal Vale's attention back, "Let's go! We'll be late." She pulled open the passenger door and then looked at Vale. "There isn't any room. LeAnne sits in the middle and Michael drives, so you and I will have to squeeze in." She smirked at him. Her flirting was seriously getting on his nerves, but he decided to have some fun and screw with her. He could tell her about his sexuality later. Everyone stared at him expectantly, so Vale stepped around her when she jumped out to allow him room and sat down in the center of the seat.

"That's cool, you can sit on my lap," he said as sexily as possible, to which she giggled and nearly dove into his arms.

"Great!" she yelled enthusiastically as she slammed the door shut. His backpack was sitting at his feet along with everyone else's. Michael shot a glare Vale's way, as if he was offended he got Anna to sit on his lap, to which Vale fake gagged and winked. Michael's mood brightened considerably. Well, he wasn't too stupid then, to get what he was trying to convey. He wondered how many of his jokes the guy would get, though. A lot of his jokes were for smart people. He decided to see just how smart he could possibly be by trying out an array of offensive gestures toward the slut that was seated a bit to comfortably in his lap. Anna sat totally oblivious to the chuckling the two boys were trying to surpress throughout the entire ride to school, because every time Michael glanced over at Vale, he would gag. Okay, so maybe this Michael wasn't so bad.

The school could have quite possibly been the tiniest thing he had ever seen. It consisted of a total of five buildings, a small parking lot, and what looked like a miniature football field. "Would you all mind showing me around?" Vale decided to ask. He just prayed Michael or LeAnne would show him instead of Anna, whom he now deemed the slut.

"Sure!" Anna replied cheerfully! "Here, Mikey, would you pull up to the office so we can get him his schedule?" Vale groaned. Oh shit. He was not going to be able to handle a full day of her.

"Yeah, hang on, baby," he smiled over at her, then winked at Vale. Vale stifled a laugh. They pulled up to the side of the building, and Anna opened the door. Once she had gracefully hopped out, Vale pulled himself free and joined her to walk to the door. The lady who gave him his schedule was extremely nice to him, and if he didn't know better, he thought she might have a thing for him. She was in her 20s, so it wasn't so creepy, but it was still awkward.

"Oooh! Let me see!" She snatched the crisp white paper from his hands. Her smile faltered. "Oh no! We only have one class together! And it's gym! We'll hardly see each other!" She turned to him, frowning, devastated. She looked at him expectantly, like she was waiting for him to voice his discontent.

"Uh…" he tried, "Oh no?" It sounded like more of a question.

"Oh no is right!" She hadn't picked up on his tone, "Because Mike and LeAnne have the same schedules as me! We won't get to see you until last period!" Vale frowned at her, then took back his schedule and walked toward the car.

"Well, we have lunch." He said sarcastically. He doubted he would go within 15 feet of that girl. Anna just huffed.

"Hey, so is your schedule good?" Mike asked as the two got back into the car. Vale decided to let Anna talk for him.

"No! he only has gym with us!" the slut exclaimed as Mike pulled into the parking lot. He snagged a spot near the sidewalk that led to all the buildings. Vale could only guess it was so they wouldn't all be soaked when they got back in the car. He assumed he would be getting a ride home.

"It's not that bad," Vale admitted.

"No, it's awful!"

"So, what's your first class?" LeAnne asked him, trying to keep Anna from eating Vale alive. Vale would have to thank her later.

"Uh, trigometry."

"Oh, that's Building A. Your schedule should tell you the building and the room number." she smiled at him, then pointed out all the buildings. "That's Building A, to the right is B, and then the cafeteria. Then to the right of the cafeteria is the gym, and we just came from the office, which is right next to it." As she spoke, Vale tried to memorize where everything was.

"Great, got it. Thanks." he smiled at her. "Uhm, I'm gonna go now," he informed the group. "I'll see you guys…" Anna pulled open the door and hopped out for him, and LeAnne tossed him his backpack.

"Bye!" they called, Anna's perky voice overpowering the rest. Vale shook his head and headed through the rain to trig.

He was one of the first ones to class, which he decided he liked. He only hoped that meant he could pick where he sat and that he could stay under the radar. He would rather not have everyone ogle over him. There was only one person in the class, and tall muscular teen with bronze hair. He was the hottest guy Vale had ever layed eyes on, and in that moment he was glad he was bisexual. The boy was sitting, staring at the wall, and he appeared to be lost in thought. His chin was rested on his hand. He had sharp features and he was deathly pale. "Ah, Mr. Swan, the office informed me of your arrival. You're early," the teacher flashed him a warm smile. He glanced down at his schedule. Mr. Monroe. "Great, great! Well, why don't you take a seat by Mr. Cullen?" Well, he didn't get to pick his seat, but sitting next to that guy wasn't awful, either.

"Uh, sure," he answered, and, assuming "Mr. Cullen" was the one he had noticed early, headed over to the empty seat beside him. The teen tensed as Vale came near. "Hey," Vale waved, attempting to make friendly conversation. When the boy didn't respond, Vale tried a different approach. "I'm Vale, I'm new." The boy still didn't respond. Deciding it was better to take the hint and stop trying, Vale rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Fine, be like that." He had to admit, it was childish, and the boy must have herd, because Vale could have sworn he saw him smile. It faded quickly, though, and he watched, stunned, and the Cullen boy scooted his chair as far away from Vale as possible and sat on the extreme edge of his seat, his expression rigid. One pale hand one clutching the side of the desk for dear life and the other was fisting under the table. Vale widened his eyes slightly, then turned away. Whatever was wrong with this kid, it didn't look good. The bell rang, and almost instantaneously, kids began filing into the cramped classroom. It was getting a little warm, Vale noticed, and watched as Mr. Monroe flipped the switch to the fan. When it finally hit Vale, he sighed in relief. The boy, however, tensed worse, and glared at him as though Vale had just punched him.

Vale felt like he should punch this kid. He wanted to turn around and demand what his problem was, but he resisted. The Cullen boy looked lethal. And, as if punctuating his thoughts, Vale watched in shock as the kid's nails dug into the hard plastic surface. Holy shit! Trigometry passed like this, with Vale trying desperately to pay attention to everything Mr. Monroe was saying while he watched as the holes from the boy's nails dug deeper into the desk. The moment the second bell rang, the boy was gone, leaving Vale to wonder what just happened.

The rest of Vale's morning classes were uneventful. Other than getting loaded with pointless homework and being forced to carry around loads of text books, he didn't do much work in the classes. He figured out that this was a "lecture" school, one of the ones where the teachers assign the classwork for homework and spend the school hours "explaining." He didn't see the blonde-brunnete kid again. And when lunch came, he really didn't feel like facing the jock, the slut, and Asian. He decided to skip lunch in the cafeteria and instead headed toward the gym and turned to camp out between the gym and the office. When he got there, however, he saw the last thing he expected. Standing there was two girls and two guys, all of whom were strikingly beautiful and who bore a resemblance to the boy from trig. They appeared to be having a hushed conversation, and not wanting to intrude, Vale attempted to back up out of the alley. Unfortunately, he backed up directly into a swiftly moving object that felt unnaturally hard and hit him with the force of a speeding bull. He lost his balance and instead of successfully escaping, he fell flat onto his face. Of course, everyone turned to stare at him, and he knew this was not a good situation. There were two girls, one of them tall, slender, and beautiful with long golden hair and the other short and slight with black hair and a short pixie cut. Then, there were two boys, one tall, well muscled, and blonde, and the other a blonde as well, but smaller with leaner muscles. Instinctively, Vale turned his head up to catch a glimpse of what he had run into, and came face to face with the boy from trigometry. "Oh, jesus, I'm s-so s-sorry, I didn't-t m-mean to… I was just going to eat lunch out here-" The boy from trig glared at Vale. That was the last straw. And it was as if a fuse had bee lit within Vale. "GOD FUCKING DAMNIT, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" He demanded. He had had enough of this charade. The pale teen snarled.

"You." He answered simply. Then his expression softened, as if he felt bad for being so rude, "Go inside, Vale. You'll catch a cold in the rain." Wait, how did he know his name? Oh, yeah, right. In trigometry, "Hey. I'm Vale, I'm new."

"S-so?" Aw, fuck stuttering. He didn't give, though.

"So, I don't think your father would be happy if you got sick." It was almost caring in the way he said it.

"Right," Vale said, a confused look on his face, and he finally gave, heading to the cafeteria. When he was gone around the corner, the Cullen boy's eyes lingered a little too long on the spot where Vale had just been. This did not go unnoticed by the short girl with the pixie cut.

"You care for him, Edward. But if you keep pushing him away because you're scared you'll loose control, he'll never know, and you'll never get your chance." She spoke, and placed her hand on her brother's shoulder from behind.

The beautiful blonde girl rolled her eyes and bore her pearly teeth. "He's a human, a worthless human. He's not even handsome." The muscular boy grabbed her before she could say more. The slightest, blonde Cullen grimaced at the emotion rolling from his siblings.

"It doesn't matter," he murmured. "He shouldn't be with a monster like me. He's a singer. I'll hurt him." And if he could cry, Edward was sure he would be sobbing right now.

As soon as he entered the nearly empty cafeteria, he was glomped by someone.

"Vale! Baby, we were so worried!" Aw, great. Anna.

"Uh, sorry, I ran into a few people on my way here," then he laughed nervously. "Literally." Michael, who was towering over the pair on the floor, laughed.

"Who?" he questioned. Vale frowned.

"That's the problem. I'm not sure who it was. There were 5 of them three guys and two girls. They were all really pale but, like, stunningly gorgeous." He replied as he and Anna stood up and brushed off.

"Oh! Honey, those are the Cullens. Don't mind them, they keep away from everyone." Anna said, patting Vale on the back.

"Right…" he said, "But who are they?"

Anna nearly snarled in disgust. "They're Dr. Cullen's adopted kids. The short girl with the Pixie cut, she's Alice. And the scrawny blonde one is Jasper. And the pretty blonde girl is Rosalie. But Rosalie and Jasper didn't take Dr. Cullen's last name. They're the Hales." Vale nodded. "And the other blonde guy is Emmet. But it's gross, because they're dating. And they're brother and sister. Emmet with Rosalie and Jasper and Alice." Vale looked at her.

"Yeah, I know right?"

"Well," Vale tried, "Who's the other one? I think he hates me," Vale mused.

"Oh! That's Edward! Don't be offended or anything, he's just like that." Alice said, brightening. "He's the hottest. But, like, he isn't with anyone. Apparently no one here is pretty enough for him. Don't waste your time. Although, you're a boy, so you wouldn't try anyway." She snickered. Vale shifted in place.

Sensing his discomfort, LeAnne changed the subject. "So, did you all get anything Mrs. Henderson said during sci-tech?" She asked conversationally. Vale smiled at her, and kept to himself the rest of lunch. He still wondered what it was exactly Edward had against him, but he put it at the back of his mind. He only had to deal with him first period, right?

The rest of the day passed extraordinarily uneventfully. Literature was painfully torturous, but only because the teacher wasn't bashful in voicing her awful opinion on the book they were assigned to read, the Catcher in the Rye. Lucky Vale. That was it, though. Even gym wasn't much of a spectacle. They played dodge ball, Vale was out right away, if not first, and then he walked with Michael, Anna, and LeAnne, who purposely forfitted the game of dodge ball to sit with him, back to the car. They invited him to the diner with them, and after actually considering getting out, Vale turned them down, deciding he would rather go home and think about "The Cullens." Anna continued to badmouth them the entire car trip back to Vale's house, but the only one he cared about was Edward. What was his problem?

Back at home, Vale dropped his back near the front door, neglecting the homework he had been given to go up and relax on his bed. When he got up there, he closed and bolted the door, then plopped down and wrapped himself into a cocoon of orange and black. He fell asleep that way, worrying about Edward, and didn't wake until early the next morning.

"Hey! Vale!" Michael called when Vale finally made it out of the house, munching on the twizlers he had neglected yesterday. Today he was wearing his All Time Low t-shirt and his black skinny jeans, and a pair of ratty black converse he had worn everyday now for about three years. He would need a new paiir soon, and it was a miracle he wasn't grown out of them. Vale waved slightly and trotted over to the passenger seat, today throwing his backpack in the trunk before swinging into the car and ending up on Anna's lap. She giggled and pushed him out of the car again so they could switch places. He had to admit, these three were growing on him.

"Hey, Michael, 'sup?" He greeted cheerfully. Vale had decided he might as well act happy around these people. They had that affect on him. Made him feel like a real person and not a nobody. Michael chuckled.

"So Mr. Grump-I'm not fucking talking to anyone is speaking?" he joked. Vale nodded and snapped into another bright red twizler. LeAnne swiped at the bag and succeeded in snatching two.

"Hey! Share!" she giggled and slurped one up. Wow. LeAnne sure had a lot of personalities.

"I see I'm not the only different one today." he stuck his tongue out playfully at the brunette. She did the same. After offering the bag to Anna and Michael and ending up with a considerable amount less of candy, Vale began sobering. The car trip passed then, with Michael and LeAnne joking, Anna giggling, and Vale munching on his licorice thoughtfully.

They went through the same routine as the day before. Michael parked in the same space, and they headed to building B while Vale shuffled through the rain to trigometry. He had a little trouble finding it this time, it being only his second day, and arrived in class after everyone has already filed in. It was then that the entire teenage population of Forks, Washington noticed that there was a new kid in town. Vale sighed. Well, it had to happen eventually. He made his way to his seat next to Edward Cullen, ignoring the staring eyes and giggling girls, the random and scattered, "heys!" and the occasional flirting girl. They were pretty, a lot of them, but none of them stood out. He kept his head down and stared at the floor, then nearly tripped into his chair. Edward wasn't there. Vale sorely hoped he got sick standing in the rain yesterday. Deciding he wouldn't be able to stand the entire class period with everyone staring at him, he looked up and glanced around at everyone in the class before waving shyly. Apparently this must be the international symbol for, "leave me alone now," because everyone looked away from him then. It was going to be a long day.