Chapter 1

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something…You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after." – The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

She observed the scenery from the passenger's seat of her aunt's car. The passing trees were covered in squashy, green moss at their bases. In fact, everything here was too green. There was a light splattering of rain on the windshield. She'd forgotten this place was also really wet. It rained here more often than not, and already she was yearning for the sunny weather back home. She missed the warmth and the light. She could still imagine the heat from the sun as she laid on the sandy beaches, inhaling the salty breeze from the sea. This place was not home, at least not in her heart; however, she had to think of it as home now.

Lilah had been in Forks, Washington for six days, two hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty seconds. Her parents had been dead a week longer than that. Lilah had been at a friend's house when the county sheriff's deputy found her. He'd delivered the notification and asked her who she needed to call. She vaguely remembered naming her father's sister before she blacked out from the overwhelming grief. She had visited her Aunt Helen Bell in Washington three times in the sixteen years she had been alive. She suspected that her Aunt Helen came to Georgia more often because Lilah complained about the rainy state. Lilah didn't like to be cold or wet. Lilah's mother and father had been victims of a home invasion. They had left their dinner date early, because her mom was feeling unwell. The surprised burglars had shot them, and the ambulance hadn't been needed at all.

Lilah shook those thoughts from her mind. If she allowed herself to reflect on it, she would cry, and right now she really didn't want to cry. Her aunt was driving her to a car dealership in Seattle. Her parents had left her a great deal of money along with their house. She sold their cars because she couldn't bear to see the reminders. She had elected to have the house cleaned up and made marketable so that it could be sold as well. She would never return to the house. She couldn't see it without seeing them. Lilah's Aunt Helen presided over all of Lilah's major financial decisions until Lilah became of legal age. Helen had offered to move to Georgia so that Lilah could continue on with school, but Lilah had been adamant that she had to get away from the piteous stares of her classmates and neighbors. She needed a new start, something different. So, she was here, in Forks, Washington, and she would remain here until she left for college, wherever that would be.

Her aunt pulled the car into the dealership parking lot and they both stepped out of the vehicle. Her aunt was the prosecuting attorney for Clallum county. She always dressed in smart pantsuits, or if she was feeling girly, a pencil skirt with a blouse and suit jacket. Her aunt's demeanor exuded confidence and her attire always reflected that she was well off. She was a short woman, about five feet three inches, and she had long, wavy brown hair. She usually wore it in a chignon or a bun, Lilah wasn't sure she had ever seen her aunt's hair down. She was pale with a bridge of freckles across her nose and her chocolate brown eyes were too large for her heart shaped face. She was a very beautiful woman, but she had never married. Lilah had asked her aunt once why she hadn't married or had kids and her aunt told her that men were intimidated by her.

"Good morning, ladies," a young, overenthusiastic man in a navy-blue suit approached them. He had sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, and a wide smile to match his exuberance. He appeared to be around thirty years old.

"Hello. My niece and I are here to shop for a new car for her. If you don't mind, we'd like to browse and we will call for you when we are ready for a test drive," her aunt greeted and dismissed the man in the same second. Sometimes, Lilah was in awe of her aunt. She was a fiercely independent woman and Lilah had always admired her. Helen looked down at her niece and kept herself from frowning. She saw so much of her brother and his wife in the young girl. Lilah was an inch shorter than she was and wore the long black curls gifted to her by her mother. Thankfully, they were soft ringlets and not frizzy kinks. Her skin was sun-kissed, but Helen knew that it would fade to white soon enough. The golden color would be gone with the lack of sunshine here. Lilah had the emerald green eyes of her father, eyes that Helen had been envious of in her childhood. Lilah had a dancer's body, probably from the ballet lessons her mother had her participate in. Lilah was a child prodigy. She was extremely intelligent, she could play the piano and the violin, and she could sing. Usually, she could do anything she set her mind to. She was very determined and stubborn. Helen was sure that trait came from her brother.

"Don't you think that buying me a Porsche is a little superfluous?" Lilah followed along behind her aunt as they looked at the cars on the lot. Lilah wasn't exactly mad about the dealership her aunt had taken her to, she knew she could over afford a car on this lot. Her mother had come from old money and her father had been a very successful investor. Her aunt clicked her tongue, effectively silencing any further argument from Lilah.

"Do you see one that you like?" Helen had a Porsche herself, and she found that she liked the cars. Lilah pointed to a blue one that was a newer model of her aunt's car. Helen nodded in approval and they moved closer to inspect it. The car was a 2005 Porsche 911 Turbo S in a metallic lapis blue. The interior was all leather and black. It was sleek and it screamed sports car. Lilah noticed the manual gear shift and the clutch and held back a squeal of excitement. She had always preferred manual transmissions to automatic. This was definitely the car that she wanted. She looked at her aunt and nodded excitedly. Helen was pleased to see some light on her niece's face. She motioned the salesman over, and he handed Lilah the keys for a test drive.

Lilah was in heaven. The car's engine was quiet, and it handled curves and turns like a dream. Unfortunately, she couldn't really test the speed right now, but she definitely would later. She made sure to keep her face passive and not show too much excitement to the salesman. He would probably try to gouge her aunt out of more money if she did that, not that her Aunt Helen was dumb enough to fall for it. She pulled the car back into the lot and gave a short nod to her aunt to let her know that she wanted the car. Her aunt and the salesman disappeared into his office while Lilah waited. She further inspected the car and was pleased to see that it had a CD player in it as well. She was contemplating which CDs she would want to keep in the car when her aunt returned clutching the paperwork for the car and the keys. Her aunt had paid in full which gave a big discount and the salesman had a bit of a sour look on his face about it, but money was money and it was still a good commission.

Lilah followed her aunt back to Forks and winced when she noticed the curious stares of the townsfolk. Of course, everyone knew her aunt and they had all been curious to see Lilah. The last time Lilah had visited the town was six years ago when she was ten. No one had seen her in years, apart from pictures that her aunt shared with some of her friends. She pulled into the driveway of her aunt's two-story house and parked her car in the garage beside her aunt's car. All of her things from Georgia had arrived three days ago. Lilah had unpacked the boxes and realized that none of her clothes would be serviceable for the weather in Forks. Everything she owned was crafted for warm, sunny weather. She and her aunt had gone on a shopping spree the next day.

Her aunt's house was modest and had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was painted blue on the outside and had a porch with a swing. Her aunt kept a flower garden in the front yard, and the house boasted a cement driveway with a two-car garage. Lilah's room was big enough and had a four-poster full size bed with a six-drawer vanity dresser, both in cherrywood. The mirror on the dresser was rectangular and Lilah had placed pictures of her and her friends on the sides. She had two large bookshelves that took up the wall of one side of her room. They made the room a little cramped, but Lilah would not be parted with her books. Her bedroom had beige carpeting which Lilah contrasted with her emerald green curtains and bed covers. Emerald was her favorite color because it was her birthstone.

The kitchen in the house wasn't very big, but her aunt usually had a lot of takeout anyway because she was always working. Lilah decided that she would probably try to cook for her aunt if she was home in time. The living room was minimally decorated, and it contained a smaller television set than Lilah had back home. Her dad had been a huge sports fanatic, and he had to have a big TV. Lilah presumed that her aunt hardly watched TV. It was fine with Lilah because she usually preferred books.

"I ordered some Chinese if that's alright with you," Helen stood at the door of Lilah's room as Lilah was sorting through her books. Her room was still slightly messy with all of the unpacked boxes.

"That sounds great, thank you," Lilah looked up from her books to smile at her aunt. She was trying to take her mind off of her nerves about tomorrow. Tomorrow would be her first day at Forks high school. She was already expecting that she would get a lot of stares, it was the middle of March after all. Her school in Georgia had done things differently, and she had so many credits that she would be able to graduate this year. She would be seventeen when she graduated, because her birthday was two months away. Thus, she would be a sixteen-year-old senior. Her aunt left her room and told her she would let her know when the food arrived. Lilah nodded and continued to sort and shelve her books.

The next morning Lilah woke up an hour before her alarm and couldn't go back to sleep. She was too nervous for her first day at a new school. She had never been the new kid before and she was somewhat terrified at the prospect. At least everyone here wouldn't be staring at her in pity because of her mom and dad. None of them would know about it and she liked it that way. Lilah showered and used a blow dryer on her hair. There was a light drizzle outside her window, so she left her hair down in soft curls. She pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and paired them with a V-neck emerald sweater that she pulled over a white camisole. She slipped on a pair of leather brown wellingtons and grabbed her messenger bag from the floor. She grabbed her copy of Interview with a Vampire and stuffed it in her bag, it would do for light reading until she could sift through the rest of her books.

Her aunt was downstairs brewing coffee and heating up a couple of bagels. She declined her offer of coffee and spread cream cheese over one of the bagels. She swallowed it down with some orange juice and journeyed back up the stairs to brush her teeth. Her aunt bid her a hasty good-bye as she exited through the garage door to speed off for work. Lilah read her book for about thirty minutes before she grabbed her umbrella and drove off in the direction of the high school. Compared to her school back home, it was relatively small in population. Her graduating class would have been about five hundred kids, but here she was one student in a total population of less than four hundred kids.

She pulled into the parking lot and noticed the stares directed at her as she searched for a spot to park. She found one closer to the front of the school and pulled her car in slowly. She was grateful for the blacked-out tint on her windows right now. No one could see her. She grabbed her bag and umbrella and got out of her car. She locked the doors behind her and slowly trudged to the front of the school keeping her eyes down to avoid contact with the kids gawking at her. It didn't take long for the whispers to start and she could hear snippets of their conversations. She overheard one student wondering if she knew the Cullens. She rolled her eyes at that. She didn't know anyone here. She walked into the front office and saw a middle-aged woman with red, curly hair sitting at a desk with a plaque that read Ms. Cope.

"Good morning. I'm Delilah Bell. I was told to come here to get my schedule," Lilah cleared her throat before she spoke to get the secretary's attention. The woman looked up at her and then looked down at her files. She pulled out a few sheets of paper and handed them to Lilah.

"You will need to get the top sheet signed by all of your teachers and bring it back to me at the end of the day. The second form needs to be signed by your guardian. The last sheet is a map to help you navigate the school," Ms. Cope smiled at her. Lilah thanked her and left the office. She stood just outside the door and studied her schedule along with the map.

First Period: AP Calculus

Second Period: AP English Literature

Third Period: French II

Lunch

Fourth Period: AP Physics

Fifth Period: AP World History

At least she still had the opportunity to take her advanced placement classes. She looked at the map and saw that her Calculus class was on the complete opposite side of the building from the front office. She was glad she had gotten here early. She looked up from the map and looked at the numbers on the top of the hallway to her right to determine which direction she should go.

"Hey, do you need some help?" a tall lanky Asian boy with jet black hair offered. His eyes were brown, but he was fairly pale despite his heritage. Lilah thought that it was probably the lack of sun in the area. She smiled at the boy whose cheeks pinked a little in return.

"That would be great. I need to find this classroom," Lilah pointed to the map. The boy looked at it and grabbed her schedule at the same time. Lilah frowned at his forwardness.

"I thought you were sixteen! You're in all senior classes," the boy exclaimed as he looked over her schedule. Lilah was beginning to get a little annoyed.

"I am sixteen, but my old school had different scheduling, so I have enough credits to finish as a senior here," Lilah explained. The boy nodded.

"Well, Delilah Bell, I'm Eric Yorkie. I'd say you were big news, but another new girl moved here last week. She's a junior like the rest of us. Her name's Bella Swan. She wouldn't let us do a feature of her for our school paper. Do you think you'd be willing?" Eric introduced himself as he gave Lilah her schedule back and began walking her toward her math class.

"It's Lilah, and definitely not. Sorry, but I like my privacy," Lilah refused his article offer. No way would she allow herself to be on the front page of the school paper. Eric glumly nodded. He and Angela would have to find something else to write about.

"Thank you for showing me to my class," they had reached her classroom and Lilah was once again subject to the stares of the student population. All of them were watching her curiously. Small towns were an oddity. Still, it wasn't pity and she could handle curiosity a lot better than pity.

"Not a problem. You're welcome to sit with me and my friends at lunch," Eric offered over his shoulder as he sped off toward his first class. Lilah walked into the classroom and looked at the available seats. Most of them were occupied since she was one of the last to arrive. She sat beside and extremely pale and beautiful girl who actually wasn't staring at her. Another extremely pale guy was sitting next to her, and they were holding hands. It figured that two such beautiful people would be a couple. The girl had platinum blonde hair that fell in loose waves down her back. She was a classic beauty like the noir film stars of old. The boy had short cropped brown curls and he was all muscle. His face was tilted in a wicked smirk, like he was in on some joke that no one else knew about. Both of them had topaz colored eyes, and Lilah found that peculiar along with their skin color. Something was off about them, but Lilah wasn't sure what it was. She internally shrugged and pulled out her notebook and pen to take notes. She didn't catch the two pale teens watching her closely.

Lilah listened to the teacher's lecture and found that she had already learned this material in her old school. She forced herself to focus on taking her usual meticulous notes. She could just think of it as a review. She liked to keep her mind occupied so that she didn't think of anything else, like her parents. The teacher finished the discussion on limits that do not exist, and Lilah packed her bag up. She looked down at her map and saw that her English class was on the same hallway. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked to her English class. The guy from her Calculus class kissed his girlfriend good-bye at the doorway and she walked off to another classroom. Lilah followed him into the classroom, and he took a seat next to another pale student.

Lilah's gaze narrowed as she saw this guy also had topaz eyes. Something made the three of them similar. This guy was shorter and a lot slenderer than the bigger guy. He had honey-blonde curls that stopped just below his ears. His face was a mask of anguish. What would cause him to look so pained? She realized that the only seat available was in front of the guy with the honey-blonde hair. She set her bag down, pulled out her notebook, and kept herself facing forward. She would not look behind her, no matter how much their peculiarities intrigued her.

It was finally time for lunch and Lilah was relieved to find that none of the pale people were in her French class. She walked into the cafeteria and saw the kid she had met that morning waving at her frantically. She grabbed a bottled water and walked over to the table. She was too nervous to eat. She wasn't even hungry.

"Everybody, this is my homegirl, Lilah Bell. She's a newbie like Bella," Eric announced to the table. Lilah glanced at each person seated at the table and nodded. There was a sandy-blonde hair boy sitting beside Eric with blue eyes and the face of an eager puppy. Beside him was a girl with brown eyes and very light brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. A girl with jet black hair, brown eyes, and glasses was wedged in between the girl with a ponytail and another girl with dark brown hair and brown eyes. All of them were pale. She supposed that being pale here was a thing. She sighed, thinking about her beautiful golden skin color eventually being gone.

"So, I'm Jessica Stanley, this is Angela Weber, beside her is Bella Swan, and next to me is Mike Newton. Way to fail on the names Eric," Jessica introduced herself and the others that Lilah had not met. Bella nodded to her shyly and Angela smiled at her. Mike winked at her and Lilah felt herself shudder in revulsion. The blonde pretty boy was not her type.

"Anyway, where are you from?" Lilah sat down beside Eric as Jessica directed the question to her.

"Georgia," Lilah offered the one-word answer. She really didn't want to talk about it.

"What brought you here?" Jessica was persistent, Lilah would give her that.

"Just looking for a change of scenery," Lilah was tight-lipped. She wasn't going to talk about Georgia or her parents, and God she could feel her throat clogging up. She took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Jessica seemed to get the hint because she didn't talk to Lilah anymore.

"Oh, look. Edward Cullen is back," Jessica remarked. Bella's head snapped up quickly to look at the table that Jessica pointed at. Lilah looked over curiously and noticed that three really pale kids from her classes were sitting at the table, too. There were two other people sitting with them. One was a girl who looked very tiny with short, spiky brown hair and the same eyes as the others. The other one was a guy with messy brown hair that glinted red at its tips. His face looked like it had been carved from marble and his eyes were topaz, too. He had the classic features that Lilah would have attributed to the god, Adonis. He looked up and his eyes clashed with Lilah's. He stared at her, almost like he was angry. He didn't know her though, so that would be ridiculous. Lilah looked down and away from him and picked up her book.

The lunch bell rang, and Lilah threw away her plastic bottle as she walked to her physics class. She caught Bella glancing back at the table with the pale kids before she left for her class. Lilah shook her head, it looked like Bella was infatuated with the Edward boy. Lilah arrived in her physics class and noticed that the only open seat was next to pale Adonis. She couldn't avoid these kids at all. Oh well. She sat at the bench and took out her book and resumed reading where she had stopped a few minutes ago. She was able to finish the chapter just before the teacher called the class to attention. She began taking notes for the lecture. Adonis raised his hand to get the teacher's attention, effectively distracting Lilah from her notes.

"Yes Mr. Cullen?" the teacher stopped his lecture to address Adonis' raised hand.

"May I go to the nurse? I'm not feeling too well," the boy grimaced. Lilah looked up at him and noticed that the only differences in his appearance was his grimace of pain and his now black eyes. That was definitely odd. The teacher nodded and the boy quickly exited the classroom. Lilah resumed taking her notes and groaned when the teacher assigned a project for the class. She had to find Adonis and give him the information, or one of his siblings? She wasn't sure what they were to one another. Lilah sighed in relief when she saw the tiny pale girl from lunch. She knew the Adonis guy.

"Hey. I know you don't know me from Adam, but I was assigned a project in Physics and the guy you were sitting with at lunch is my partner. He left before the teacher made the assignment, and anyway, I made a copy of the assignment and my notes. Could you make sure he gets it?" Lilah offered the copy of her notes and the assignment paper to the girl.

"Of course. I'm Alice Cullen, by the way. His name is Edward. He's my brother. You should probably sit next to me. It's the only open seat in here," Alice smiled as she introduced herself.

"Thank you. I'm Lilah Bell, although I suspect that everyone here knows that already," Lilah sat down beside the girl and they both immersed themselves in the lesson. The bell ending the school day rang out and Lilah dashed to her car. She wanted to get home as fast as possible. She'd had enough of people for one day. Lilah sighed in relief when she made it in the door of her aunt's house. She set her bag down and began to make preparations for dinner.