Chapter 3

EPOV

Phoenix sucked.

It literally made my skin hurt. I had been at risk of getting sunburns more over the last two days than I have ever had in my entire life. That wasn't saying much, considering where we were moving from, but we had often vacationed in the sunniest places.

I didn't want to be here. I wanted to go back home, back to my old room, my friends, my old life. I wanted to be angry with my family for making me leave everything behind to come here, but I couldn't. I understood why we left, my father had been offered a wonderful position at the hospital and my mother had always wanted to live somewhere with more sun. So, my sister and I pretty much had no choice. She was on my side in the beginning, not wanting to leave her life here, but as soon as she caught glimpse of the mall as we left the airport, I knew I was on my own. Traitor.

We had barely gotten the boxes unpacked and settled, and we had no clue of where anything other than the school, hospital and grocery store were. We had practically no neighbors because we had moved into a newly built neighborhood, and so far we had only seen two older couples. It sucked here.

I'd looked over the options for clubs at the school I would be forced to attend, they had no music program other than band, and I was not about to join the marching band. They had a chess team, which currently held no members. The only decent option for me out of all of them was art, so I signed up for it.

My sister, Alice, had chosen drama. I wasn't surprised. She was the drama queen. Back in Alaska, she was involved in anything theater, claiming to want to become a famous dancer or actress on Broadway. She had what it took to get there, I was sure of it. And that wasn't me being biased because she's my sister either. If she sucked, I would have told her. We were very honest with each other like that. If she didn't like something I played on the piano, she would walk by and drop the cover over the keys, even if my fingers were still playing. She almost broke a finger last year.

My parents believed my sister and I should start school that Monday, since we had already put together our schedules for our new school.

And that leads us to the now. Camelback High School. What a name. I was already less than enthusiastic about having to be here, and now I find out that the name of my school is Camelback. Great.

It took twenty odd minutes to get to the school from our new house. I thanked who it was that invented air conditioning in cars the entire way. I wouldn't have survived the drive without it. I parked my Maserati Quattroporte GTS far away from the rest of the cars in the lot. I'd more than likely cry and commit sin if something happened to my baby . I used to drive a Volvo, but my dad had bribed me into leaving peacefully with this little piece of heaven. I liked to go fast and he took advantage of my weakness. Smart man.

Yeah, my family was loaded. My great, great, great, great grandfather, whom I was named after, got lucky and struck oil. My family thinks he was some sort of seer though, because he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, like he knew what was going to happen. Personally, I think he was a guy who just got lucky a few times. Our fortune didn't come from him completely though. My family is full of successful people, my father is one of the best doctors of his generation, my mother is a well known designer. My aunts and uncles own companies. There are wings dedicated to us in the libraries of Harvard and Dartmouth.

I know I'm making it seem like I'm full of myself, by going on and on about how well off my family is and talking about my expensive as shit car, but I assure you that no one in my family is like that though. I just had to get my point across that we were well off. My family would more than likely kill me if I turned out to be some spoiled rotten rich child. My mother didn't raise her children to be that way. We were to treat everyone as if they were our equal, be polite and courteous. The perfect lady and gentleman. Besides, I didn't really feel the need to flaunt my family's money, because technically it wasn't mine to flaunt. I hadn't earned one penny of it. But I had plans to add to my family's bank account in the future. Doing what, I don't know, but I would.

Walking toward the entrance of the school, I could feel the eyes staring at me and my sister. They followed us through the hallway. I hated this. I didn't want to be like the new toy at school, I hated being the center of attention.

I looked at my sister, surprised she was keeping a steady pace with me. She was usually all over the place. "Why are you so calm? I thought you would be excited being here starting up your new life."

She turned her nose up to me, rolling her eyes, "Edward, I know you think I'm being some traitor or whatever, but I'm not. I'm trying to make the best of this situation. We moved and I don't see us going to be going back to Alaska any time soon, so you might as well get comfortable here and try to make some new friends."

She made sense. I hated it when she made sense. "Fine. I'll try, but I'm not going to make any promises." I looked forward as we walked down the hall. Everyone was still staring. I knew that people found me attractive, hell everyone in my family was attractive. It was actually creepy in a way, but we accepted that we were blessed with good genes.

We were heading toward the office to gather our schedules, if we could ever find it that is. "What the hell, why is this place so fucking big?" We had been walking in what felt like circles for ten minutes now.

Alice was standing on the tips of her toes, not like it was helping, looking for a sign for the office. "Why don't we just ask someone?"

I looked around the hall, no one was there except for a group of cheerleaders, they were smiling at me. I wanted to throw up, I didn't have a good history with cheerleaders. I looked to Alice, letting her know with my eyes that I felt she should approach them. She gave me a soft smile before heading over to them.

I turned to look at the murals on the walls while she spoke to them, I didn't want to see them hound her with questions over me. I knew they would. I could practically hear them talking about it in my head. Alice skipped back over to me, pretending to wipe sweat from her brow. "Goodness, you'd think they would have let us get settled here before trying to pry into our lives."

I chuckled, my sister may have been small, but she had the attitude of an average sized person.

"So, did you find out where the office was?"

"Oh, yeah, we were on the right track, its to the left at the end of this hall. I barely got that bit of information out of them, they were too busy asking about you. Why? I don't know, I mean, there's nothing too special about a guy who can't comb his hair and walks slouched over. I don't get what it is about you that gets to them." She lifted her hands palms out and shook her head playfully.

"Oh and you're supposed to be a knock out? Guys are probably too scared to come up to you, you look twelve, flat chest and all. And I do comb my hair, thank you very much. It just…won't stay that way is all." I ruffled her hair, laughing as she squeaked trying to remove my hand.

"And what about the slouching? Don't forget about the slouching."

I rolled my eyes, "That's the easiest one. I don't want to look at people looking at me."

She snorted, "Conceited much? You just assume people are looking at you. Edward, you may be cute, but you're not that cute. Especially not when you have to walk next to me, I mean, look at me. I'm the shit." I just laughed at her and continued walking, I could see the sign to the office.

There were two girls standing by the lockers closest to the door. There didn't seem to be anything too special about either of them as we got closer to them. I noticed one wore glasses with a pink frame, she was thin, long black hair in a ponytail. Jeans and t-shirt. Cute. But not my type.

I don't even really know what my type is anymore.

The girl next to her was pale, not as much as me, but still too pale for this place, she must not be from here originally. Her hair was nice, long, brown and wavy. Her eyes were dark brown and big, she had cute lips too, pouty is what you would call them I guess. She wore something similar to the girl with glasses, nothing too special. She was cute as well.

As Alice and I passed them, she locked eyes with me and I smiled politely to her. I looked at her over my shoulder after we passed, she looked confused for a moment. I held the door open for Alice, but before I could walk inside I heard a slamming sound and a loud 'Fuck'.

I turned back around, only seeing the two girls and the exact group of cheerleaders that I had seen earlier. The girl with wavy hair was pushed against the lockers, she looked like she was in pain. If the loud sound I heard before was her being pushed into the lockers, then I was pretty fucking sure she was in pain.

Alice came back out of the office, hearing the commotion. I could hear the cheerleader up front, the captain I guess. She was talking about something, but I couldn't really hear. "I may not be able to hear them, but I can tell whatever it is isn't too nice though, she looks like she's being a bitch."

"Well, she is a cheerleader. Come on, this isn't any of our business and we have shit to do. Now scoot." I kneed her in the butt to get her moving. I followed after her slowly, still wanting to know what was going on even though I had just told Alice it wasn't our business. I was nosy and I knew it, it ran in my family. Right before I was completely in the door I did catch a bit of what was being said.

"Fuck you Mallory!" It was the cute girl with wavy hair.

"Bet you'd like that, wouldn't you dyke?"

Wo ho! Dyke? Cute girl was a dyke?

I wanted to go back out of the door and find out what was going on, but Alice and the receptionist were both already giving me weird looks for my slow motion entrance. "Edward, hurry up. We already wasted enough time, the bell will ring soon and we need to go. Like now."

We got our schedules and maps quickly, heading back into the hallway. The cheerleaders and the girl with glasses were gone, but the cute one was still there talking to a blonde cheerleader quietly.

"A dyke. I can't believe it."

Alice stopped walking, grabbing my hand. "What did you just say?"

I pulled her along, nodding my head slightly in the direction of the two girls. "The brown haired one is gay apparently. Actually, I don't know, I just heard one of the cheerleaders call her that. They could have just been being mean to her and calling her names, it wouldn't be too far fetched coming from one of them." They were bitches like that.

Alice pursed her lips, "Edward you can't just stereotype all cheerleaders because you had one bad experience with one. Not all of them are like that. Although I do feel you may be right in this case, maybe not all of them are that bad. Look, she seems to be getting along just fine with that cheerleader."

I glanced behind, she did seem to not be upset anymore. "Ok, maybe not all cheerleaders are evil bitches from hell, but the majority of them are."

"Whatever you say Edward." she sighed, looking at her schedule. "Shit, I think my class is way on the other side of the building, C block. What about yours?"

I looked at my own schedule, "Uh, I got Chemistry, A block. And from what I see, almost all of my classes are in here except gym and art. Looks like I'm already where I need to be." She stuck her tongue out at me, I grabbed for it.

"Ew, Edward. I don't want your hands anywhere near my face. Only God knows where those things have been lately."

"Oh, you want to know where my hands have been?" I laughed, putting my hand inside pants, on top of the boxers of course.

I pulled my hand out reaching for her, she swatted it away frantically. "That's disgusting Edward! Move! Stop it! Fine, if you're going to force your scrotum juice on me, I'm giving you my underwear to wash when my period starts." We were both laughing now.

Yeah, me and my sister could be gross like that sometimes, but we honestly didn't give a shit. It was how we joked around and it wasn't like we did stuff like that all the time and in front of people. Except for just now of course, that was one of our rare moments.

"Alright, now get the hell out of here and go to your class. Dad will go ballistic on us if he finds out we're already getting tardies." Honestly, our dad wouldn't have cared too much, he was pretty laid back like that.

We went our separate ways to our classes. Even though I was already in the building of my class, it took forever for me to actually find it. Lucky me, I get to climb three flights of stairs to get to my class, what a way to start the day.

By the time I made it to class, everyone was already seated. There were three empty spots that I could sit in. One was next to a cheerleader who looked like a mouse, the other was next to a guy putting on lip gloss, at least I think it was a guy. Yeah, it was guy. I hope it was a guy, because if it isn't, I'd feel really bad for having to call her ugly as shit. Because she looked mighty mannish to me. The last open seat was next to the girl, dyke girl, that I had seen before. That was my best bet, so I sat down next to her.

"Hey." She didn't respond. She looked like she was daydreaming. I decided to get my things out and ready for class, it didn't look like she was up for introductions just yet. After I got all of my things settled, I turned to her once more. She was cut from a distance, but up close…my god she was attractive. Her face was heart-shaped, she had a wide forehead with a widow's peak, not saying she had a big forehead or anything. Her eyes were large, wide, and a chocolatey brown. I personally preferred blue eyes, but hers were still pretty. Her lips were a little out of proportion, the bottom being a little bigger than the top, that little bit intrigued me the most. All of these traits and they fit her perfectly. She wasn't a beauty queen, but damn was she attractive.

I leaned forward on the desk, propping my head up, watching her. I entertained myself for the time being wondering about what she was thinking. Could it be a girl? Her face was flushed. Was she fantasizing about girls right now?

The bell rung a few minutes later and startled her from her daydream, she seemed to finally notice me.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

She shook her head, "You wouldn't want to know my thoughts."

"Oh well, that doesn't make me curious at all. I'm Edward Cullen, just moved here a few days ago." I held my hand out to her. She looked at my hand like it was dirty and I had to make sure it wasn't the one I had previously shoved down my pants, it wasn't. I pulled my hand back, whatever. "Or not." I was just trying to be polite.

"Uh, sorry. I'm Bella. Swan. Look, I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but I don't think we should be friends. I'm not exactly the best person for you to socialize with." Bella Swan. I wonder if that was short for something. The name suited her nicely, even though it seemed like a character's name from a book or a movie.

"And why exactly is that?" She didn't seem like someone to avoid.

She let out a small laugh, grinning sardonically. "Trust me. You just don't want to be caught talking to me around these people. Their like cannibals, they'll eat you alive for it."

I frowned. "Well then it's a good thing that I don't really give two shits about what people think of me. You'd actually be doing me a favor by getting them to stay away." I grinned. She looked confused. "I guess you could say I don't like being the center of attention."

She looked at me curiously. "I'm a lesbian." Ah, so the pack of hyenas from earlier were telling the truth after all.

My eyes shifted left and right, I shrugged my shoulders, "And? Is that supposed to freak me out and make me haul ass?" I laughed. That made it all the better for me in the end, she wouldn't be attracted to me and make things weird between us.

The teacher walked in just then, ending our conversation. After having to introduce myself to the class like I was seven years old again and trying not to roll my eyes at the girls smiling at me (and that one he-she), I tried to get Bella's attention a few times during class but she was really paying attention. She wasn't ignoring me…When the bell finally rang we both gathered our things, heading out of the door.

"Bella." She turned around, I wasn't really expecting her to.

She looked annoyed, "What?"

I reared back from her tone, "Jeez, I just had a question." I waited for her to give me the ok to continue, she waved her hand impatiently. I pulled out my schedule. "Do you know where the World History class is? I mean, I know its in this building on the second floor, but can you point in the right direction? This school is like a maze and the numbers keep changing." Yes, I used my schedule as an excuse to get her attention again, but I did need to find the class.

She rolled her eyes, huffing and pointed to the staircase to the left of us. "Take those stairs to the second floor, stay on the right side. When you get there, go to your left and keep straight until you reach the end of the hall. The class is in the corner, you won't see it until you're right in front of the door." She walked off without another word.

What the hell is up with her? She said people don't talk to her, I get that that can make you a bit mean, but damn. I made my way to my class, I couldn't find it. I had walked pass the same bathroom twice already before finally just heading back upstairs to start over again. I found the exact staircase, at the bottom there was a blonde boy leaning against the wall, looking at me as I got off the stairs. He looked amused as I stood and looked around the hall, confused out of my mind.

"You look like you need some help."

I laughed, running my hand through my hair, "Uh, yeah, you could say that. I'm trying to find World History."

He walked over to me, nodding his head, "Come on, that's my next class anyway."

I walked next to him, feeling awkward. I didn't feel weird next to Bella. "So, if that's your next class, why are you out here? Unless of course you're the rebel type." I was joking. I hoped he could tell, I didn't want have to deal with a fight on my first day. Esme would kill me. She was pretty strict and what she says goes, no matter what Carlisle thinks. She wore the pants. I often wonder what she did with my dad's balls after they got married.

He laughed, "I was on my way when I saw you pass by for the second time. I figured if you were as lost as you looked, you'd be by again soon. Seems I was right about that. Jasper Hale." He held his hand out to me.

I shook his hand, "Edward Cullen."

He looked thoughtful, "Cullen huh? You wouldn't happen to have a sister would you?"

I nodded, "Yeah, Alice. About five foot nothing, short black hair, and in serious need of tranquilizers?"

He laughed, smiling. "Yeah, that's her. I got first hour with her. Now I got you, lucky me."

He had an accent that I hadn't noticed before, "Where are you from? You have an accent."

He nodded, "My family is originally from Texas. They moved here years ago with my sister, I stayed behind with my granddad until about two years ago. What about you guys?"

"We just moved here from Alaska. You have a sister, too? Does she go here?"

"Yep, Rosalie, my twin. Tall, blonde, captain of the cheerleading team. I'm pretty sure you'll notice her before the day ends. Every other guy does." He grimaced. I almost laughed, it was the same facial expression I wore when I knew guys were eye fucking Alice.

I smiled as we reached the class, "Well, if I do see her, I promise to try not to drop my jaw." Bella was right, I hadn't even seen the door until we reached the corner.

World History didn't seem like such a bad class, the teacher was cool enough, even though he looked like he belonged in the Mesozoic era. I found out Jasper was a senior here, taking this class for the second time since he bombed it last year. Afterwards he offered to show me to my next class; gym. It was in C building, on the first floor thankfully. He was giving me the quick tour as we walked.

"Now, the people here are full of their own shit. So, if you want to get in good with practically anyone just talk up their shit. With girls, compliment their hair or their breasts, whichever looks best. Guys though, you just gotta play it safe and act like you want to be taken under their wings or something."

I looked at him from the corner of my eye, trying to memorize the route we took. "Believe me, I'm not looking for anyone's approval. I don't even want to be here. But I do want to ask you about one person though."

"Oh yeah, who?" He was trying to keep his hair out of his eyes.

I smirked, "Man, your hair is just as bad as mine, give it up. Anyway, what do you know about Bella Swan?"

He had been laughing at my hair comment, but as soon as I mentioned her name he sort of froze up. "Bella. Its actually kind of fucked up, what went on with her and all."

"What is it?" Was it that bad?

He looked away and to the ground. "Let me just say that, I personally don't have any problems with her. I've never really spoken to her, but I do talk to her friend Angela every now and then. And from what I hear about her from Ang and see of her around the school, I think she seems pretty cool. She's in the art club, really good too."

I scratched my head, "Ok. You think she's ok. So why does everyone else not like her? Or at least that's what she made it sound like."

"That's exactly what its like. She's a lesbian."

I nodded, "Yeah, she told me that earlier. We're partners in chemistry, first hour. I don't get what's the big deal with her being gay though. Its nothing to avoid her over."

"I know that, and no one else thinks it's a big deal either. They just like to fuck with her."

I looked at him, pissed off, "That's it? They just want to fuck with her just because she's gay? That's retarded." I scoffed.

He agreed. "I know. But they also give her shit because apparently she had a crush on my sister. Lauren Mallory, co captain on the cheer squad, saw her drawing a picture with hearts and shit with Rosalie's name all over it. That was the most entertaining thing that had happened here for a while and it all just sort of blew up from there. People were callin' her all kinds of names and leaving stuff in her locker. They were just doing all kinds of crap to her because everyone else was." He looked like he felt bad for her.

"What did your sister say about it?" Jasper seemed like a calm and pretty chill dude, I'd hate to find out his sister was a bitch.

He sighed, reaching for the door of C building. It seemed like it took forever to get here. "Well, she didn't say anything about it at first, but when people started questioning her she gave in and did the same as everyone else. Though I give her a little credit for effort, because I've never seen her be cruel to Bella. She makes fun of her every now and then, calling her names and all, but she speaks to her in the hallway and stuff."

I rolled my eyes, "Let me guess, the cheerleaders run the place and since they don't like Bella, no one will step up and talk to her because their afraid of what will be said or done to them, too, huh? Am I on the money or getting warm?"

He patted me on the shoulder, "Right on the fuckin' money, my man."

He showed me to the gym, inviting me to join him for lunch later before heading off to his own class. I waited in the gym office to speak with the coach, thinking about the new information I had just gotten about Bella Swan. Some cheerleader saw her drawing a picture of Rose and made a scene out of it and blew it way out of proportion, thus ruining Bella's social life. Figures it'd be a cheerleader. They had a knack for ruining other people's lives.

I spoke with the coach, getting my uniform and locker number. I changed into the gay uniform of blue pants and gray shirt, there were shorts to go with the uniform as well, but I would have felt so fruity in them. How was someone supposed to take me seriously with my nuts practically hanging out?

I leaned against the wall and people watched as the coach took the roll. Gym was coed, which I had no problem with other than girls staring me down. They were even trying to play it off, they were like gaping fish. A few guys didn't look too happy with me over that, but one came over.

"Hey, sup man. I'm Mike Newton." I shook his hand. He sort of reminded me of a golden retriever, so eager for no reason at all. I tried to hide the grossed out look on my face as I saw he was wearing the nut crunching shorts.

"Edward Cullen." I hated having to introduce myself so much, it felt like I had said a billion times today alone.

"So, uh..you're the new guy." he looked behind him, noticing all the girls staring and giggling. "You're already turning into Mr. Popularity. Anyway, uh, you can feel free to join my team for now, if you want."

They were playing basketball today, not my favorite sport. The coach had given me the option of sitting out this one day, since I was new and all. I hated gym, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. "Nah, I'm just gonna sit this one out. Thanks for the offer though." I would have thanked him properly, but I couldn't remember his name.

I made my way to the bleachers, as I sat down I noticed someone else was sitting there as well.

Bella Swan.

Before I knew what I was doing, I had moved over to sit next to her. She looked like she was daydreaming again. She looked tiny in her gym uniform, opting to wear the pants as well. I let myself drift off, thinking about her and how the people here could be so cruel to her. She looked so fragile, so small. I don't know how she took all that they threw to her.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I blinked, not realizing that I had seemed to drift off that far.

Bella Swan was speaking to me, with a small smile on her face. I felt one side of my mouth go up, repeating her exact words, "You wouldn't want to know my thoughts."

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Ok, I finally got that one out! Whoo!

Hopefully I'll have the next one up for you guys soon enough, but for now Merry Christmas to you all! Or to be fair, Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!