"First Day"

Bella's POV

All was right with the world. The Cullens were back in Forks, Edward was safe and he still loved me. Graduation was only a month away and I was in no way ready. I had missed a calculus test while in Italy that I needed to ace to pass the class and I hadn't applied to any colleges. I didn't plan on going, but Edward was dead set on it.

"Oh." The knock on the door startled me. I practically ran to answer it and when I did, Edward was there, perfect as always. His bronze hair was flecked with rain and his eyes were golden and warm. He had left an hour ago, after promising to return, to hunt and get his car. I let out a sigh of relief and hugged him as hard as I could, while kissing his neck.

"Don't leave me again," I begged.

"Alright, I promise. I'll never forgive myself for doing this to you." He said quietly. "Come on, or we'll be late."

I released all of him but his hand while we walked to his car. He held the door for me as I climbed in and he was in the driver's seat in the next moment. He peeled out of the driveway and started speeding towards the school. I had to get used to Edward's manic driving again, but it was worth it. We pulled into an empty space in the school parking lot and everyone was shocked at the sight of the silver Volvo.

Edward chuckled and I gave him a questioning look. "This is the most exciting day for them since you arrived," he explained.

"Just because the Cullens are back?"

"Yes, that and there's a new student starting today."

Amara's POV

I had stayed on the Kent Farm from June until the end of April, then I had decided it was time to explore. I had read the books I had gotten in the first dimension, the ones about the vampires in Forks, Washington. I knew about the upcoming war with the newborns and had decided I could help.

So here I was, at Forks High School. I had never had an education quite like this. I knew how to read and write and some basic math skills, but that was it, everything else was new to me.

I came out of the attendance office with my new schedule, trying to figure out where I was going. I had used my powers of… persuasion to get myself into classes with the vampires, the Cullens, so I could watch them. Of course, that would be a lot easier if I new where the bloody hell I was going.

I smiled at the group of boys that were staring at me and they looked like they would pass out. One of the boys detached himself from the throng and started making his way over to me. He was taller than me by a few inches and he had blonde hair and blue eyes, classic American. He had on a pair of jeans and a green rain jacket. Weird. I hadn't felt any rain. I looked up and it was drizzling, but I wasn't getting wet. Crap. The shield I had put around myself to protect my thoughts from Edward must have become a physical barrier somehow. I quickly reworded the spell, felling the miniscule dip in my strength as I did so, and within seconds, the rain started penetrating my clothes. Great. I'm here for five minutes and I've already made a mistake. The boy reached me, then.

"Hi. You're new here aren't you?" he asked. As if anyone could not notice me with such a tiny student population. I nodded.

"Yes. I'm Amara Potter," I said, noticing my English accent after hearing his American one. He noticed too.

"Transfer from England, huh? That's awesome. I'm Mike Newton, by the way. I can show you to your first class, if you like."

"Thank you," I handed him my schedule. "My old school was a lot bigger than this and yet I'm having trouble finding my way around." You could fit five of this school inside the Hogwarts castle, but there I could fly or super speed my way around. Mike started leading me in the opposite direction of where I was initially heading.

"We have first period together," he stated. "What was your old school like?" I began reciting the story i had thought of last night.

"It was a boarding school and my brother and I graduated last year. My dad is in the military and he was just transferred here. My brother stayed in England because he has a girlfriend and I decided to come here. I didn't know I'd have to go to school, though." By the time I finished, we had arrived at our English class. We were some of the last students in the room, so I noted my seat was behind one of the vampires I was following. According to the description in the book, this bronze-haired, golden- eyed angel was Edward. That means the fairly pretty girl with brown hair and eyes and pale skin sitting in the desk next to him was Bella.

The teacher had me go up to the front of the classroom and introduce myself. While all the other kids oohed and ahhed at my accent, I could feel Edward trying to read my thoughts, but I knew he wasn't getting anything. I finished and walked back to my seat. Bella turned around.

"Hi, Amara. I'm Isabella Swan, but I prefer to go by Bella." I saw her hit Edward lightly on the hand. He sighed and turned around, too.

"I'm Edward Cullen. It is a pleasure meeting you," he said with perfect enunciation in a velvety smooth voice. But I wasn't going to get sucked in.

"It's nice meeting you both." Edward seemed surprised at my lack of googly eyes, but didn't say anything because the teacher wanted our attention. He was passing out a test on 1984 by George Orwell. I assured him I had read the book, even though I had never heard of it or the author and I took the test. I picked all the answers out of Edward's head and used my perfect memory to save the information for later. By the time everyone had finished, the bell was about to ring. Bella turned to me again.

"I was new here last year, so I know what it feels like. Edward and I can show you where your next class is if you like." She smiled.

"Thanks, that would be great." I couldn't believe this was so easy; Bella was so friendly. Edward was still trying to read my thoughts and I kept my face perfectly smooth to keep from showing my amusement at his frustration. I gave my schedule to Bella.

"Oh. We have gym together next. And the next two classes you have with Alice, I think." Bella looked to Edward for confirmation. I pretended not to know who they were talking about.

"Alice?" I inquired as we walked.

"My sister. I'll introduce you later," Edward answered. We had arrived at the gym by then. Edward leaned in to kiss Bella on the cheek.

"Goodbye, Bella, Amara." And he walked away in the opposite direction. Bella looked longingly after him, then turned to me.

"If you haven't noticed, Edward and I are dating." Bella blushed. We went into the locker room to change.

"He certainly is a gentleman. Does he have any other siblings?" As if I didn't already know.

"Yes, he has three other siblings and the five of them are adopted. His father, Carlisle, works at the local hospital, while his mother, Esme stays at home. Alice, Edward and Emmett are all Cullens. Emmett graduated last year with Jasper and Rosalie Hale, Edward's other siblings. They're all dating, too; Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, and Edward and me," she explained.

"Wow. Carlisle and Esme are such good people to take in so many children."

"Yes, they are." The coach was telling us to team up for tennis, whatever that was.

"I'll be your partner," Bella offered.

"Thanks. You're the only person I know here besides Mike."

"Mike is a nice guy. He's dating Jessica Stanley, the blonde over there." Bella pointed to an unimpressive girl in the corner with Mike.

"Okay," I said. I'd have to get Bella to introduce me to more people. I didn't want the fact that I was following the Cullens to be obvious.

"I have to warn you," Bella turned serious. "I am so clumsy, I'm almost disabled and I'm really bad at sports." I laughed

"That's okay. I'm pretty good at sports, so we can balance each other out." Bella laughed too.

We began playing against Mike and Jessica after Mike had explained the rules to me. I knew nothing of sports in this dimension, but the game was fairly simple. Airball was much harder and I was the current Airball champ. I let us lose, so I wouldn't draw too much attention to myself. Bella and I had become fast friends and we were laughing about the whole thing when we exited the locker room.

Edward was at Bella's side as soon as we entered the hallway and he kissed her hello.

"Amara," he greeted me, "how did gym go?"

"We lost, but I kept Bella from hurting herself," I said. In fact, I had placed a spell on her to increase her coordination so she wouldn't have quite so many accidents.

When we got to my third period music class, a small girl, whose eyes were the same color as Edward's and had spiky black hair came up to us with as much grace as anyone could ever have. She looked how a child would imagine a pixie would look.

"Good morning, Edward, Bella. Who's this?" she asked in a bell- like voice. Bella introduced me.

"Amara Potter, Alice Cullen. Alice, Amara," she said pointing to each of us in turn.

"It's lovely to meet you, Alice. Bella has told me so much about you." I shook her unsurprisingly cold hand.

"She just started today," Edward added. He said something else that was too fast for me to understand, so I perked up my super hearing in time to hear Alice's reply.

"Don't worry, Edward, I'll keep an eye on her," then, slower, "You two had better get to class."

"Bye, Alice, see you at lunch," Bella called. When Edward thought I was out of earshot, he started expressing his concerns to Bella.

"I don't know if we can trust Amara, Bella."

"Why shouldn't we? She's been perfectly nice."

"She seems like one of our kind, even though she isn't, and I can't read her thoughts," he added.

"Like you can't read mine?" Bella wondered.

"No, this is different. Your thoughts just aren't there. With hers, its like I'm hitting a wall."

Alice and I moved into the soundproof music room, so I couldn't hear the rest. For the next two periods, Alice and I talked, but when she wasn't talking, I could see her looking into my future. I decided to take a jog after school and do my homework, so that's all Alice could see. Finally, it was lunch time.

Edward's POV

I watched and concentrated as Alice and Amara entered the cafeteria. I could hear Alice's thoughts, but not Amara's. Alice was 'speaking' to me.

Edward, I don't see anything unusual about her. I admit she moves like a vampire, but there must be some other explanation.

Bella was watching me. "Stop worrying, Edward. There's nothing wrong. Over here, Amara!" she called over the din in the lunchroom. I could just hope Bella was right.

Amara's POV

I turned as Bella called my name. I had been listening to Alice's thoughts and Bella's reassurances. There had to be some way to get Edward to trust me.

Alice and I reached the table where Edward and Bella were sitting with four others.

"Amara, you already know Mike and Jessica. This is Angela and that's Ben," Bella gestured to a girl with dark air and glasses and a boy with olive toned skin. Bella had her calculus book out on the table.

"What's that for, Bella?" Jessica asked.

I'm making up the calculus test next period," she explained.

"Right, you were in L.A." Ben supplied.

"L.A.?" I asked. "Why were you there?" Alice explained.

"This is my family's first day back to school since we move back from L.A. Carlisle was offered a job at a hospital there, but Esme didn't like it."

"I see. I've never been to California," I mused.

All of the humans were eating, but Edward's, Alice's and my plates were untouched. Bella noticed.

"Aren't you hungry, Amara?"

Grr. Problem. If I don't eat, Edward will be more suspicious. On the other hand, the food in this dimension was disgusting. Especially school food. I mean, I could smell the pesticides on my plate full of fruit and vegetables. I smiled at Bella and passed my hand over the plate, pretending to decide what to eat first. I was actually using my magic to cleanse the food, making it as if the pesticides had never been used in the first place. There was nothing I could do about the bread which was fluffy and white. Gross. I would have to remember to bring some of the elfin bread I had been saving since I learned how to make it myself.

I picked up my apple and bit into it, loving the clean, fresh taste. I realized how hungry I was; I had not eaten since I had arrived in this dimension the night before. I had been too busy setting up camp high in the mountains, where the vampires wouldn't hunt. Even if they did go up there, my camp was protected by wards that made it invisible, untracable and impenetrable.

I looked up and saw Edward and Alice watching me. They had noticed my food smelled different from the others. Bella was watching me, too.

"I'm still not over the jet- lag," I lied. The bell rang then. Whew.

I was glad when school finally ended. I started making my way back home, walking until I was deep into the forest. I made sure no one was around before I turned invisible myself and flew back to camp.