Isabella Swan

It's been three weeks at the Cullen's. Life is good, seriously. I feel like I'm living in a never ending dream. The routine I follow is pleasant and easy enough – I wake up, eat breakfast, have lessons, eat lunch, do homework, play the harp, have dinner, play the harp with Edward, do homework, sleep. I like it immensely. Lessons are fantastic – chemistry is such an awesome subject, the way the molecules bind to each other, the forces required to break them apart. Literature is pretty cool too, and Professor Felix makes things so interesting. I enjoy learning, studying. Esme tells me what a good student I am, and I feel happy every time she says that. I don't think it's quite true. If I was such a good student, I would be in school with the other students, not at home. But I cannot bear the thought of going to school again.

I cringe when I hear the locker room's door swing shut. Heavy footsteps follow into the locker room where I am in the midst of changing out of my gym attire. I try to change quickly. The bruises on my body are no pretty sight, and I don't want Tanya or Jessica to see them. It would give them more ammunition to tease me with. As if they don't have enough already – my prepubescent figure, my lack of any curves, my ugliness in general, my stupidity…

I hear the footsteps approaching, and I pull on my shirt before swinging my locker shut. I try to escape through the other door, but too late.

Tanya is standing there, with her group of friends grinning menancingly at me. Her friends include… guys.

What are they doing in the girl's locker room anyway?

I shudder involuntarily, and try to side step Tanya, keeping my head down.

I don't want anything to do with them. But apparently they do, with me.

"Now now, ugly duckling. Where do you think you're going?" Tanya sneered at me.

"She doesn't think, Tanya." A male voice called out tauntingly.

I keep my eyes on the ground, trying to make myself invisible.

"We came all the way to see you, Isabella. Surely you must be honoured! What does an ugly being like you deserve, anyway? No wonder your mother beats you up all the time, you're so … useless, ad retarded!"

I blink back the tears, and try to walk past Tanya.

She pushes me back sharply, sending me sprawling into the lockers behind me. My back hits the lockers with a resounding clang. They stalk towards me, sadistic grins on their faces.

The largest male grabs me roughly, and pushes me over to his friends.

"She may be ugly, but her cherry's definitely not popped yet, dude. Want to try this one? I'm sure she'd be tight."

I wince, and struggle to get out of his grasp. What are these people up to? I don't want to know.

"No no, Isabella. You're not going anywhere."

Tanya's friend puts her hand on my shoulders, restraining me. I struggle against her grasp, and that enrages her. She reaches over and grabs a metal pipe from god knows where, and raises it above her head. Before I have time to react, it's came crashing down on my neck.

My neck cannot move, suddenly, locked in position by the pain reverberating through my entire spine. I cry out, and it amuses them, for the guy starts to rip my shirt off me.

"She'd be feisty, James. Look, she can actually make noise! Who knew, I thought we'd have a mute fuck."

I struggle to keep my tears at bay, as my heart beats wildly. No, please no. I've kept Renee's boyfriends from doing that all these while; please don't let James do that to me.

James pull off my bra, and yanks off my jeans, leaving me naked in my underwear. I cower into a ball, shrinking into the nearest corner. Suddenly, they all produce metal blades from their pockets.

The sharp shiny metal sends me spiraling down into darkness, and I cannot hold back the tears anymore. I sob violently, and beg Tanya to let me off.

"Tanya, ple-please! Please! Please! I do-don't want-"

"Oh, look guys, she can talk too! This is such an amusing discovery, ain't it! I might just need to duct tape her…"Tanya muses, paying no heed to my desperate pleas.

They approach me, and the large guy hauls me up by the arms violently, breaking it in the process. They begin pulling the blades over my body. I scream, and beg for them to stop. Blood soaks the white tiles of the locker room, and the metallic smell fills the air. I kick and scream, trying to escape. They kick me, and continue carving shapes into my skin. I scream and scream for help.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see James unbuttoning his pants. I scream even louder, and Tanya puts her hands over my mouth to shut me up. I bite her, and continue screaming.

James pins me to the ground, and straddles me. The other guy rip off my underwear. I try to fight him off, clawing at him, kicking, and screaming.

It' such a nightmare. Please, god, let me wake up.

He is about to enter me, when suddenly the gym door swings open again, and the stern voice of the principal rings out.

"What's going on here?"

Suddenly, everything turns black.

I shake myself out of the nightmarish memories, and concentrate on my task at hand. I want to give Esme something in return for all her kindness and generosity, and I want to make her a musical box.

I had already recorded the music, tuned the machine. Now all I needed to do was to fit the machinery into the box, and decorate it.

I return my attention to my mini-project, and hope to hell that Esme likes it.

I am working diligently on painting the box, when Edward enters unannounced.

"Bella! There you are. How's your day today?" He booms, placing a hand on my shoulders

I jump, startled, and turn around abruptly, brush in hand, painting his chin blue in the process.

"I didn't mean to startle you, sweetheart! Are you alright?" Edward asks, concern lacing his handsome features.

I nod, and try to apologize for his blue chin.

It's no matter, he tells me, laughing.

He looks over at my handiwork, and I blush. It's nothing; I try to tell him, shaking my head.

"It looks wonderful! What is it, exactly?"

Just a little something for Esme, I type into the hand phone he hands me.

"Oooh, well, I'll leave you to finish it then. Find me when you're done, I bought a new music score and I want to play it together, yeah?"

I nod, shyly, looking into his green eyes. They are kind, and gentle, yet masculine. I find myself inexplicable drawn to them, and I look away, embarrassed. What is this strange feeling that Edward invokes in me?

I ignore the fluttering of my chest and the beating of my heart, and concentrate on painting the music box blue.

Edward Cullen

Bella is such a sweet thing. She's making something for Esme, to thank her for her kindness. The goodness in Bella never fails to amaze me. She is helpful, sweet, and doesn't take things for granted.

Bella has been here for three weeks, and each day, I find myself drawn to her more and more. The short time I spend with her each day has me yearning for more. We play the piano and the harp together every evening for a short while, before we retire to bed.

I treasure the time I can spend with her, even if we're physically not exactly together.

It's dinner time at last. Isabella is at the table, the blue music box hidden from Esme's view on her chair. She twists her hands nervously, unsure if Esme would like the gift.

I grasp her hands lightly in mine, preventing them from twisting together.

"Esme will love your gift, Bella. Stop worrying over it." I whisper, leaning down.

She looks up at me with her big, wide eyes, and smiles shyly.

God, what wouldn't I give to see her smiling every moment of my day.

I am jerked out of my thoughts and daydreams by Carlisle clearing his throat loudly. I glance at him, and he raises an eyebrow at me, smirking.

I release Bella's hands, and we dig in to the food.

We eat in a comfortable silence, only breaking the silence to commend Esme on her food.

When dinner is almost over, and Esme stands to clear the dishes, Bella stands too. She grasps Esme's arms lightly, catching her attention.

"What is it, Bella? Is anything the matter, dear?" Esme asks, concern lacing her features.

Bella shakes her head, and with a trembling hand, holds out the music box, thrusting it into Esme's hands.

Esme's eyes widen. "Oh, Bella, is this for me? You don't have to get me anything, you know! Oh, how sweet of you, darling!"

She pulls Bella into an embrace, which Bella returns with more enthusiasm that I had ever seen from her before.

Carlisle smiles at the scene, and claps Bella on the back in a fatherly gesture. She returns his smile.

Truly, our family has done much good for Bella.

Isabella Cullen

It has been a couple of weeks since I gave Esme the music box I had made. She seemed to like it a lot, which made me happy. Renee never did appreciate my gifts.

I am cooking dinner for the family today, because Esme has left the house to run some errands. For some reason though, there is a pain and ache in my lower belly that will not go away. My abdomen seems to clench itself periodically in a stubborn manner. I cannot fathom what is wrong, and I worry that there is once again some injury that has recurred. I hope it's not the case- I don't want to cause any more trouble, and anyway I have been taking my medicine religiously.

Shaking my head to clear the worrisome thoughts, I will the pain away as I cut up more chicken breasts to grill.

Edward Cullen

I smell the lovely aroma of grilled chickens coming from the kitchen, to see Bella cooking at the counter, a hand clutching her stomach. I frown in concern, why is she clutching her abdomen? Is she in some sort of pain?

I walk across the counter, approaching Bella from the back, when I see a dark red stain on the back of her shorts.

I panic for a moment, before I realize what is happening.

OH.

With mild embarrassment, I tap Bella on the back.

"Ahem.. uhm, Bella, I think you've gotten your period, there's stain at the back of your shorts."

I try to keep my tone neutral, attempting not to let her on to my embarrassment. I may be going to become doctor, but approaching such topics of the female sex was still uncomfortable for me.

She looks back at me in confusion.

I gesture to the back of her shorts, and she turns around. Seeing the blood, she shrieks silently, a look of panic covering her face.

"It's no big deal, really, Bella. Do you want to go and change, though?"

She looks at me in confusion through her mild panic.

Grabbing my phone from my pocket, she types, "Why am I bleeding? I haven't cut myself! What period? What's going on! Tell me, Edward!"

It was then I realize that this was probably Isabella's first period. I stare at her in astonishment, how could a 16 year old girl not have her period yet? But then I remember how skinny and malnutritioned she was, and it makes sense. I nearly slap my forehead at my stupidity. Doctor Cullen my ass.

And then I realize that there was no one else at home to help me broach the topic to her, but me. I couldn't leave her panicking and bleeding all over her shorts while waiting for Esme to come back.

"Ahem, Bella, relax. A period is perfectly normal for girls who have reached puberty. Uhm… it's just the shedding of the eh… uterine lining. It's really alright, you're fine, Bella." I stumble through my explanation, and she stares at me like I'm speaking ancient Greek.

Obviously, this was not the right approach. She had not been schooled properly, and had probably never had a sexual education lesson in her entire life. Her own mother was even more unlikely to have explained these things to her. And Esme probably had not known that she hadn't had her period yet.

"Here, Bella, let's get you cleaned up first, alright? I lead her to her bathroom, while she looks at me in shock. I hunt around the cabinets, and find a packet of tampons Esme had placed there for Bella's use, not knowing that she had not had her period yet, until now.

"Bella, this is to…um, stop yourself from bleeding all over yourself. Just follow the instructions on the cover, okay? You get cleaned up in here, and I'll find some clean clothing for you." I was probably blushing by now. Imagining Bella naked down there was probably not the best thing to do when I was so crazy about her already. It made a particularly enthusiastic organ of mine crazy too.

I step out back into her room, closing her door lightly, and find a pair of clean shorts and underwear.

I stick my hands back through a gap in the door, and pass her the clothing.

Now all that's left to do is to hope she knows how to use the tampon.

Sitting on her bed, I wait for her to re-emerge in case she needs help. Granted, I probably won't be much help with this kind of stuff. Her sweet scent from her blanket and stuff permeate the air, and I cannot help but drink in all that is Bella.

After what seemed like an awfully long while, she opens the door, toweling her hair dry.

I stand up, and ask her, "Did you know how to use… uhm, it?"

She nods, blinking. Thankfully, at that point, we hear the front door open. Esme has returned, to rescue me from this embarrassing task.

Esme Cullen

I step into the foyer, to see Edward sprinting down the stairs towards me. "Mom, Bella had her, uh, period. She's never had it uh, before, so she's uh, confused..."

He trails off into a bunch of incoherent mumblings, his face turning entirely red. I rush upstairs, to see Bella confused, holding a box of tampons, standing at the bathroom door.

I mentally berate myself for not knowing earlier, and set out to ease her embarrassment and discomfort, and to educate her about the birds and the bees.

Isabella Swan

Apparently I just had my first period, which is the shedding of the uterine lining. It signifies the sexual maturation of a girl into a women, and most embarrassingly, Edward had seen it.

I blushed in mortification when Esme had told me.

Now though, I had to go back down for dinner with the rest of the Cullen's. I contemplated acting sick to avoid seeing Edward, but knowing that I couldn't avoid him forever, I make my way down.

He is already at the table though, and I avoid his gaze in embarrassment as I take my spot next to him.

He, however, does not read my embarrassment.

"Bella, are you alright? You look kind of flushed. Are you ill?"

I shake my head.

"Alright, then. I just hope you know that it's nothing to be ashamed of, really."

I nod, still not meeting his gaze.

"I'm training to be a doctor, Bella. Such things are just normal bodily functions to me."

I nod once more.

He sighs. "Well then, play the harp with me later?"

He still wants to play the harp after this incident? He doesn't find me a freak?

"Bella?"

I look up at him, and see his ernest eyes looking back down at me. I nod.

How could I ever say no? Edward Cullen is so gentle and so kind. Although it must have been embarrassing for him to have to explain to me all that, he still did so, putting my welfare above his discomfort. Really, sometimes I wish he wasn't so nice to me.

Esme Cullen

I see my son attempting to ease Isabella's embarrassment, and I smile to myself. Edward has certainly matured a lot, emotionally, since Bella came. Obviously, he is very, very fond of her. I am glad that my son has found his happiness, at long last, and hope that things will be alright for them. While I do not know if Isabella likes my son in that way yet, I hoped that she would- she is the perfect match for my Edward, and I would very much like to keep her as a daughter, even after she turns 18.