This was kind of hard to write because it's sort of like a transition chapter: just something I had to get out of the way before I get in to the real stuff. Anyway, this one's kinda short but the next one should be pretty lengthy. I'm moving back in to school soon so there probably won't be an update til next weekend. Enjoy!

Bella

Forks, Washington
September 2008

I paced the parking lot anxiously, taking mouthfuls of air. I was not in the greatest of moods.

Some new kid in school just traipses in and ruins everything.

The air in my lungs helped but I couldn't get the absolutely glorious smell his blood gave off out of my head. I saw him at lunch today but there wasn't much interesting about him. He had a strange reddish hair and a tall build but nothing out of the ordinary. Then he sat next to me in History and I could think of nothing else but killing him. I have been a vampire for quite some time. I've had blood smell blissful to me before but this… this was something else entirely. I had so many scenarios in my head that would lead this boy to his death. I had millions of ways I could be rid of his singing blood. If I could just ask him to take a walk with me, to follow me somewhere cut off from everyone else I could taste it…

Ugh, what am I saying? I did not go all these years without human blood to kill some stupid child and ruin it all. I haven't been trying to build up my immunity to blood to waste it all away for this.

Carlisle, Carlisle, Carlisle… I said ritually in my head, over and over again. Carlisle: the man who took me in, who taught me his ways, who changed my life. I couldn't betray him like that. I was doing so well. I was finally starting to feel rid of the ghosts who haunted me at every turn.

And Esme, who had every confidence in me. Who believed I could change. Both of them took me in when I was lost. I couldn't give up now. I could never give up.

I gritted my teeth and my decision was made with a steely resolve. I would save this little boy's life and not kill him.

Just then, Alice was before me. Her face was extremely curious, "Oh, you didn't kill him. What changed your mind?"

I glared at her. "Because I can't. I can't ever do it again."

Alice nodded and leaned against the Volvo while I continued to pace. "Hmm. For a while it seemed like the decision was already made." You could always count on Alice to be blunt.

I raised a brow, "So were you just going to let me kill him?"

"I was in the middle of class," She said with an eye roll, "And your decisions were changing every minute… If I had gone with one way you would've changed it the next second. Then what help would I have been?" Alice threw me a cheeky grin. Despite Alice's power of foresight, the outcome wasn't always the same. It changed with every decision the persons future she was looking in made.

I leaned next to her and sighed. "You're annoying." I grumbled.

She laughed, "You know you don't think that. You're just in a bad mood."

I gave her a look. She was right. Not about the annoying part (she was definitely annoying) but about the bad mood. We were all on edge because we hadn't fed in a while. Adding what happened this afternoon to that made it ten times worse. I knew I needed someone to talk to who wasn't going to giggle in my face or twirl around while I talked. I guess I was making a trip to the hospital.

"Tell Carlisle I said 'hi'." She gave me an innocent smile.

I went to stomp on her foot but she side-stepped me. I ended up slamming my foot in to the black top. It left a large crack in the cement. Sometimes it was really irritating when Alice knew your future before you did. The toothy grin she smiled after was too much for me so I flicked her ear, quicker than before. She wasn't fast enough this time. As I slid in to the car, I watched her stick her tongue out before turning back to school.

--

"Bella," He looked up and stood as I walked in to his office, "this is a nice surprise." Carlisle greeted me with an affectionate shoulder squeeze.

I smiled at him. Neither Carlisle nor Esme turned me away when I told them my life story, despite the fact that I'd killed so many people. They welcomed me with open arms to join them, if that's what I wanted. I never looked back. I haven't fed on a human since. "I need to talk to you."

He sat back down and I sat across from him. I bit my lip and I knew he saw the anxiety in my face. His brow scrunched in concern, "What is it?"

I played with my hands nervously. I almost felt like a child admitting to their father that they had stolen a cookie or something. I suppose that's the best scenario, seeing as Carlisle had become a surrogate father to me. "There was a new child in school today…Evan something…"

"Edward Masen?" Carlisle asked curiously.

I shrugged, "I think so… How did you know?"

"His father is a new doctor in Forks. He's rather good, I hear. I have only met him in passing but he did mention a son Edward."

I went rigid. "Do you think his son will come here to see him?" I said it fast and fearfully. I can't have him near me again so soon. Just the very thought of it made my throat burn in agony.

Carlisle looked alarmed now, "Bella, what's wrong?"

I grimaced and bowed my head. "This Edward… his blood… it's unnaturally potent. He sat next to me in one of my classes and I could barely contain myself. I wanted to kill him—I wanted to—" I took a deep breath; the ache in my center was starting to throb. The reminder of my life before Esme and Carlisle—of the people I killed—always brought on that familiar pain. "I've smelled fantastic scents before but this blood is like…" I couldn't find words for it.

Carlisle was sympathetic, "I'm sorry. Perhaps you can transfer your class. That would be the best thing, for you and for him."

I hadn't thought of that. "That's a good idea. But even so, just the thought of his blood..." I swallowed hard, trying to appease the fists of fire scratching at my throat. My words were coming out a mile a minute. Any human listening wouldn't be able to catch a single word of it. "I just don't— I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to kill him but it was so hard. I don't want to leave here. Every one likes it here… You're doing so well. I don't want to ruin everything." I felt the hitch of a tearless sob deep in my chest. I ignored it.

Carlisle was before me, kneeling in front of me. His eyes were worried but he had a small smile on his face. "Bella, you're not going to ruin everything. Your immunity to blood has been progressing immensely. Remember when you couldn't even stand to be around an open wound?" He paused and waited as I nodded slowly. "As long as you don't want any of those things to happen than they simply won't. I know you well, probably better than you know yourself. When you apply yourself to something you always achieve it."

It sounded like a speech straight out of a TV sitcom but my conscience felt at ease. Carlisle always had a way of making me feel better. I mirrored his small smile. "Thanks." I heaved a sigh. "I guess I should swing back to school and pick up the rest of the family."

"Did you skip your last class?" His eyes were disapproving.

I laughed. "Not exactly. I told Mrs. Helby I had an emergency and I needed to go home. She wrote me a dismissal." It was almost too easy to charm people sometimes.

He guffawed and we walked out of his office and toward the entrance of the hospital. He ruffled my hair teasingly as I walked out the doors. I waved behind me and hurried to the Volvo to pick up the others. They were probably waiting for me already.

--

Edward

Gym was boring. We played volleyball for forty-five minutes. I needed something to distract me from my thoughts but all volleyball did was intensify them. I was doomed.

Jessica would wave or wink at me every now and then from the other side of the net. I tried to smile back but I wasn't really all that worried about what Jessica was thinking. I knew what Jessica was thinking. I didn't know what Isabella was thinking. That was more frustrating than anything.

After gym was over, Mike and I walked out of the gymnasium and towards the parking lot. Suddenly, I was glad that my dad never bought me any fancy cars. Most of the cars in the parking lot were old and beat up. Having an expensive car would've been a little embarrassing, for me at least. My mustang fit in just fine.

I was showing Mike the mustang when I heard, "Edward! Wait up!" Jessica was scurrying behind us. I winced.

"Is this yours?" She asked, halting to a stop next to me.

"Yeah. Bought it myself." I couldn't help but be a little proud. It looked pretty nice on the outside but I knew my mustang was a piece of crap.

Mike tapped the hood with a finger, "How's it run?"

I chose to be honest. I was never all that great at lying anyway. "Barely runs but it gets me places."

Jessica laughed, "At least you don't have to drive your mother's minivan like Tyler." She pointed to one of the guys I met this afternoon driving by us in a blue "mom" car. We all chuckled a bit.

As Tyler passed us, another car snuck in behind him. A sleek, silver Volvo sped in to the parking lot and stopped in front of the school doors. Four of the Cullens walked slowly up to the car and jumped in swiftly. They barely spoke again and looked even wearier than they had at lunch. The only one who had a smile on their face was the pixie one: Alice.

The Volvo turned a corner and waited behind a line of cars on their way out. I watched as Isabella looked at me from the driver's seat. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw before turning away from me, revving the engine and speeding out. My jaw dropped. I looked at Mike and Jessica. They looked smug.

"Told you the Cullens were snotty." Jessica said in a sing-song voice. Mike nodded.

The two said their goodbyes to me and told me they would see me on Monday. I silently thanked the stars that it was already the weekend. Being the new kid was hard enough. Now, I had a slight break to reassess my thoughts.

I looked in the direction that the Volvo left. What the hell could I reassess about that?

--

Bella

"Bells, you have no poker face." Emmett laughed deeply.

I sped up a little, racing to get out of the parking lot. I looked sideways at Emmett, who was in the front seat. "What?" I wasn't exactly paying attention to his words; I was just fighting the urge not to slaughter the boy who we had just driven by.

"You should've just growled at the kid, it would've made a better statement." He turned up the volume on some stupid rap song. I instantly changed the channel. "Well hopefully he'll just stay away." I knew what I must've looked like to Edward—a freak. I spent all of class stretching away from him and now I just gave him a death glare (no pun intended). Maybe this way he'd stay far, far away from me.

Alice was bored with our subject. "Guess what? There's going to be thunder in a few days! Most likely Sunday night… Who's up for baseball?" While the rest of us were all grumpy today Alice was her usual cheerful self. Although we hadn't eaten in almost two weeks, she was still a bundle of energy. I wondered how she could be in such a good mood while being so thirsty.

Rosalie rolled her eyes, "We're going hunting Sunday night. I doubt we'll have time." There was obvious displeasure in her voice. Rosalie was abnormally aggravated at this time. She would be the first one to lunge for your neck.

Jasper was never the talkative type but he was unusually quiet today. He was also very stressed at lunch. His thirst was clouding his conscience, especially surrounded by sweet smelling blood. I felt for him the most. He and I had somewhat similar histories, both very different from the rest of the family. I gave him a small quirk of my lips through the rearview mirror. He sighed back at me.

We were home within three minutes which is definitely quicker than normal. I was going a little faster than necessary. Esme met us at the door, as she usually did.

"Welcome home everyone! How was school?" She was comparable to Alice in a way. They didn't let their thirst ruin a good mood. I envied them.

"Bella almost killed someone!" Emmett called from the TV room, already watching a sports game.

I restricted the urge to tackle him right away. Later I would make him pay… Now, I had to explain to Esme. She looked at me curiously. I sighed and launched in to my story.

--

Edward

As I drove home from what felt like the longest day of my life, I noticed something I hadn't really noticed before. Just how terrifyingly green Forks was. I felt surrounding by trees and bushes. Everywhere I looked was green. I took a moment to remember my old home: the sounds of the city life, the interesting and diverse people, the howling of wind at my window, and the grey colored buildings and bright city lights… Chicago. My mood had hit an all time low.

I scowled at the green shrubbery. Stupid, stupid Forks.

As much as I hated to admit it, my day wouldn't have been half as maddening if the Cullens didn't exist. I feel so dumb for being worried about what some snotty girl thinks of me. I should just listen to what Jessica said. Stupid, stupid Cullens.

When I stomped through the door, my mother was dusting the shelves. I wondered if dust even had time to settle before she began cleanings. She smiled brilliantly at me, "Edward! How was your first day? Meet any cute girls?" Her usual enthusiastic voice boomed.

That was a low blow. I shook my head and trudged up the stairs and in to my room. I threw my bag on the ground and lay on my bed in my empty room. I stared grumpily at the ceiling. I listened for any sound outside my window, any noise at all.

Nothing.

Pure and infuriating silence.

Hehehe. Lemme know what you think of all the Cullens! Is anyone out of character? I'm trying to stay as on point as possible. Gimme feedback and review!