AN: 'Ello, Twilighters! I'm baaa-aaack! Big hugs and cookies to Ally Dawn (thank you!), shharper (stay tuned, my friend, it's about to get better!), paramore fanitic (I see our taste in music is similar), and starzsv (ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies…;D) for reviewing the last chapter. You guys are AWESOME!

Now, I know you've been wondering how Bailey fits into the Cullens' world, so…here's the explanation! (or at least a hint of the explanation)

Chapter 3: Another New Student

Exactly three months and four days had gone by since the Cullens' arrival before I noticed a deviation in their normally stoic behavior. Frowns replaced emotionless expressions; quiet, intense discussions were held over lunch; Edward and Bella spent biology class in fervent whispers rather than loving glances; and instead of Jacob and Vanessa riding to school on their bike, Leah Wolfe appeared in an army green pick-up to drive the pair to and from school. The second time they pulled into the parking lot, I saw Bella sitting in the passenger seat, though Edward still drove the Volvo. That caught my attention more than anything—it was the first time I'd seen them apart since their arrival in Center Harbor.

That was two days before he came.

On Monday morning, as I rumbled into the parking lot and parked my Harley in the space beside Annabelle's VW van, I noticed something different about the Cullens' shiny little corner of the asphalt: a striking black Honda claimed the space next to the familiar silver Volvo. Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, and Jasper all stood around their car, their golden gazes burning into the Honda's tinted windows, though its owner was nowhere to be seen. The five siblings did not relax their posture until Jacob, Vanessa, and Bella came by after Leah dropped them off. I didn't see them the rest of the morning, but they were just as tense at lunch, their piercing gazes flitting over every face in the cafeteria as if looking for someone in particular.

I myself learned a tasty bit of gossip during lunch that day—a new doctor had arrived unexpectedly to work at the hospital, a woman. Curiously, however, no one knew her name or if she brought any family with her. This struck me as odd; small towns like Center Harbor are known for getting accurate gossip fast, especially when it pertained to locals or new arrivals. It was a huge credit to the new doctor's discretion that everyone knew so little about her.

In Biology that day, I learned a little more.

I sat silently in my normal seat, my head buried in Jane Eyre, oblivious as usual to my surroundings while I read. I heard my classmates file in at the bell, Matt and Annabelle sitting in front of me, Bella and Edward behind. The latter pair was still engaged in a whispered conversation, speaking so quietly and quickly that their words blurred into a comfortable humming at my back. Quite suddenly, the humming stopped, along with all other noise in the room. I looked up, befuddled at the abrupt change in sound.

The most beautiful boy I had ever seen stood before Mr. Medina's desk, waiting patiently as the teacher signed his new student slip. That task completed, the boy thanked Mr. Medina politely and turned to face the class.

Disheveled, sandy hair encompassed every color between dark brown and platinum blond. The planes of his face were as pale and perfect—no, more perfect—than those of the Cullen siblings. A navy blue fisherman's sweater hung over strong, broad shoulders, and its pushed-up sleeves revealed forearms lean with muscle. One large, marble-white hand loosely gripped his books, while the other rested in the pocket of faded, just-baggy-enough jeans. Butterscotch-colored eyes scanned the room for an open seat from beneath edgy commas of that glorious hair. They found one in the spot next to me.

As he made his way toward me, I wondered vaguely if someone had mysteriously managed to bring Michelangelo's statue of David to life. That was the only explanation for this perfect male inquiring softly if he may sit here. I nodded mutely, moving my bag. He smiled at me in a polite, bland way, but then his eyes widened minutely. His nostrils flared. A flicker of uncertainty passed behind his topaz eyes. And then just as suddenly, he's sitting next to me, looking toward the front of the class. I couldn't stop staring at him.

"All right, class," Mr. Medina said, attempting to draw attention away from the newest arrival. "Obviously, you've noticed our newest new student, but you know that I don't tolerate socializing in my class. Save it for after the bell, kiddos. In the meantime, you can set up for the cellular lab. Bailey, share your materials with your new lab partner."

The new boy turned to me with a shy smile. "Bailey, is it?" he asked formally.

I managed to recall some of my misplaced wits. "Yes, I…my name's Bailey Swanson." I stuck out my hand for him to shake. He did so, his touch as icy as freezer-burn. Goosebumps rippled up my arm, but not just from the cold. A strange, fluttery sensation entered my stomach area, and refused to go away until he released my hand. Some nameless emotion flashed in the golden depths of his eyes once more.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Bailey Swanson," he replied to my introduction. "I am Lucas Rockwell. My family and I just moved here from Maine."

I put two and two together. "Oh, is your mom the new doctor in town?"

Lucas nodded. "My adoptive mother, Dr. Olivia Rockwell."

Though I was fairly certain I knew the answer, I had to ask, "What happened to your real mother? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

Lucas shrugged indifferently. "Both of my parents died a long time ago."

I winced. "Sorry," I whispered, somehow more morose at hearing his story than at hearing Bella and Edward's.

"It's perfectly fine. My family is with the Rockwells now."

"So you have an adoptive dad, too?"

"Yes, Gideon Rockwell."

"What does he do?"

"He's a computer programmer. He works from home."

I made a face. "Uh, sorry, but that just doesn't sound like something I could make a living out of. Anything involving math over a Trigonometry level gives me the chills."

Lucas laughed quietly, a wonderful, smooth, joyous sound that I could've heard a thousand times over and never tire of. "I thought as much from your reading selection," he informed me, gesturing to my well-loved copy of Jane Eyre. "Are you very romantic, then?" he inquired, amusement twinkling in his hypnotic eyes.

"Oh, absolutely," I replied solemnly. "I am so romantic that I spend my weekends watching movies such as The Lord of the Rings and the Firefly series."

"Peter Jackson and Joss Whedon—two of the greats," Lucas agreed. "Tell me, do you prefer the Brat Pack or the Rat Pack?"

"Yes," I stated. "Both Ocean's Eleven and The Breakfast Club are cornerstones of cinematography as we know it today."

"But Molly Ringwald couldn't sing," Lucas pointed out. "The Rat Pack had Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin…"

"And a lot of other old white guys," I cut in. "Except for Sammy, that is. Don't get me wrong, Sinatra and Dean both rock, but there isn't a lot in the Rat Pack for a girl to identify with."

"True," Lucas conceded. "Very true. What kind of music would a girl identify with, then?"

I grinned. "Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Evanescence, Nickelback, Sarah McLachlan, Sinatra, various Italian operas, and a drop of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, just to mix things up."

"If you two are quite finished?" Mr. Medina stood in front of our desk, arms crossed, eyebrow raised. I glanced at Lucas; he smiled at me, seemingly unperturbed by the teacher looming over our workspace.

"My mistake, Mr. Medina," he said smoothly, rising from his seat in one fluid movement. "Bailey was telling me what materials we'd need, and I distracted her. I apologize." Looking at me, he added, "I'll get what we need."

Catching on, I nodded. "Remember, one worksheet, one microscope, and a box of slides."

"Yes, ma'am." My ravishing lab partner moved away to collect the aforementioned materials. Mr. Medina, his wrath satisfied, disappeared as well. I pressed one hand to my flushed cheek, exhilarated by my closest encounter with flirtation to date.

That's when I saw Bella and Edward.

They sat rigidly at the black-topped desk behind me, their lab completed. Bella watched Lucas warily, and Edward stared critically at me, as if he wanted to know the answer to a question without asking it.

"What?" I demanded. Neither one acknowledged me. "What is it?" Still nothing.

"Bailey?" Lucas's heavenly voice asked. I turned back to him. He was looking over my head at Bella and Edward. "Is there a problem?" he queried frostily, his topaz eyes as hard as the jewel they resembled.

"No," I assured him hurriedly. "No problem. Let's get to work, shall we?"

Lucas complied with my suggestion, but remained tense throughout the rest of class, despite my attempts to lure him into our previous conversation. When the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, he gathered up my books along with his. "May I walk you to your car?" he asked sweetly, his slow, sincere grin returning to his angelic face.

I gulped. "Sure," I croaked, hypnotized and intimidated by his mind-bending perfection. On our way out of the classroom, he caught the door and held it for me like a real old-fashioned gentleman. I mumbled my thanks and managed to trip over the threshold. Before I had time to process my loss of balance, Lucas had caught me and set me upright, his expression concerned.

"Are you all right?"

I straightened, but didn't pull away from his hand. "Of course. That kind of thing happens a lot."

A faint line of disapproval creased his marble brow. "I see," he said dryly. "Somehow, that does not surprise me."

I giggled at that. "I have that impression on people," I informed him as we walked outside.

"Really? What impression is that?"

"Clumsy, eccentric, and too hyper for her own good."

"You make those things sound bad." I looked up at Lucas, startled. He stared back at me, his blinding smile causing my heart to stutter against my ribs.

"Well, they are, to most people," I stuttered, taken off-guard once again by his unbelievable beauty.

Lucas snorted. "Most people don't know what they're talking about," he lectured. "Uniqueness is a dying trait. And you, Bailey, are blessedly unique."

I looked away, blushing, embarrassed that I couldn't express my thoughts about him with such candor. "Well, this is me," I said, waving a hand to take in the navy blue Harley.

"You drive a Harley Davidson motorcycle?" Lucas demanded incredulously. "With your magnetism to trouble? Are you trying to get in a wreck?"

I raised my eyebrows in my patented Excuse You? look. "It suits me fine, thank you very much."

"She's had three accidents this year," a friendly voice called out. "She just got the cast off her arm from the last one about a month ago."

Traitor, I thought to Annabelle as Lucas gained a stubborn gleam in his eye.

"I think I should take you home today," he told me. "If not for your own sake, then for the sake of the other drivers on the road."

"We'll take Bailey home," Jacob Wolfe's low voice intruded. Lucas made the same face when he first met me—eyes slightly widened, nostrils flared—as he spun to face the bigger teen. Jacob stared at Lucas with suspicion, distrust, and something remarkably like fear.

"I can manage, thank you," Lucas replied, stepping almost imperceptibly closer to me. Jacob shifted on his feet, plainly uneasy about something.

"But her bike will fit in the back of Leah's truck," Bella put in smoothly, nodding to where the army-green pick-up idled at the curb. "And I don't know that letting a complete stranger drive you home is the smartest thing in the world to do," she added to me. My mind made logical sense out of this, but something in my heart protested that I knew Lucas would never do anything wrong by me…in fact, it felt like I'd known him for years before today…

Lucas stood perfectly still at my side, his golden eyes flickering between Jacob, Bella, Leah's truck, the group by the Volvo, and lastly, my face. Finally, he sighed, and my chest constricted with the knowledge of what was coming next.

"I suppose it would be better for you to go home with them," he murmured softly to me. "I'll see you tomorrow, Bailey." He walked off toward his black Honda.

"Bye, Lucas!" I shouted, feeling a hard lump of regret well up in my throat. Jacob kicked the kickstand of my bike out from under it and wheeled it toward Leah's truck—apparently, they were really giving me a ride home today. Bella took my arm and gently, but irrevocably led me away. I watched Lucas pass by the Cullen crowd and slide into the driver's seat of his car; Edward said something to him, leaning down towards his window, and I could barely see Lucas's lips move in response before he gunned the black sedan into reverse and sped out of the parking lot.

For the strangest, most inexplicable reason under the sun, I felt devastated that I wasn't sitting in there next to him.

AN: Dun-dun-DUUUNNN! New OC in the house! w00t!

I'm a little disappointed—212 hits on this story and only 10 different reviewers. And only one reviewer reviewed more than one chapter! (Thank you, paramore fanitic!) So, here's what's going to happen: If you review, I will send Carlisle to patch you up the next time you get hurt (either emotionally or physically!). But, if you do not review, I can blackmail Aro into sending a few choice members of the Volturi to hunt you down. Yes, I have that kind of power (:3). REVIEW FOR YOUR LIVES!