Disclaimer: This fanfiction is a canon divergence story. It is not canonical to the original source materials. I do not own Vampire Diaries or Twilight nor do I own its characters. They belong to their respected creators.

PART ONE

NEW MOON

Chapter One

He's been gone for months and yet it still feels like he was just here.

I wasn't sure what I was feeling nowadays. Numb, for the most part, robotic for the rest. I woke up every day, put on my clothes and went to school. But I never interacted with anyone. Slowly everyone got the hint that I wasn't the shiny new girl from Arizona, or the girl who had found a way to charm the Cull—them. I was integrated into Forks fully now. I wasn't some collectable anymore. I was just Bella, exactly how I had wanted it to be when I first started in January.

But now, I was just Bella all by myself. Jessica and Lauren had stopped talking to me, though there was no love lost between us. Lauren hated me because Tyler was interested in me. Jessica, like so many others, was just interested in my shininess until she wasn't.

The last I even heard about her; she was trying to get into the good graces of some new student.

Angela and Mike never left though. Ben and Eric were still around but they hadn't really been friends, just acquaintances. But Mike and Angela had taken to trying to bring me out of my 'zombie mode' as they called it.

It started with passing me notes in class cause they knew I didn't want to talk. Angela also helped me with notes and homework when I couldn't remember. Mike had taken to trying to make me laugh.

He hadn't been able to make me laugh the first month. The second month he had managed to get a small smile when he tripped over his feet. Taking that small victory, he had made it his mission to get me to talk by the third month.

He succeeded somehow. Now, I spoke to them in one to three words responses or just shrugs or nods.

I was still pretty much a zombie, but I was starting to feel like my old self. Bit by bit the large gaping hole in my chest was starting to heal.

A sharp poke at my arm broke me out of my reflecting.

"Ouch," I grumbled and looked at my assailant…which was a pencil? Well that wasn't what I was expecting. But I figured it was Mike trying either get my attention or referencing his first ever joke to me.

As if I'd stab him with a pencil. His skin was impenetrable.

"Oh shoot, sorry."

I blinked and looked over at who has spoken.

Holy crow.

"Sorry," she said again with an apologetic look. Her eyes, her pretty hazel eyes, showed just how sorry she was. But it also showed in the small smile she gave me. Just an upright pull of her lips and yet I was…it wasn't shock I was feeling.

No, this felt familiar. Like a dangerous territory I was not supposed to tread.

I quickly shut those thoughts down.

First of all, I was pretty sure I was not attracted to girls. I wasn't even sure I was attracted to anyone after him. Second, it wasn't like she meant to jab me. She had said sorry and it looked as if she meant it.

And third, I should really say something. I probably looked like an idiot. I wondered how I looked to her. I could recall how I had looked when I checked myself in the mirror on the way out of the house.

My hair was pulled back into a messy bun, which had become my standard hairdo since my zombification. The paleness of my skin wasn't as sickly now since Charlie had taken to cooking for us. He was on a sudden health kick after his last check-up so it was all leaner meats, plenty of veggies, healthier fats with little starchy foods and less beer. The only thing that continued to stick out were my eyes.

The nightmares made it hard for me to get a decent sleep, thus giving me almost permanent dark circles under my eyes.

"Um, hello?" the girl called to me waving a hand over my face. I blinked at the motion and found myself looking at her again. Did I ever stop?

"Sorry," I replied.

Her lips pulled into that smile again, only this time it was more playful. Like she was amused by my response. "I'm pretty sure that was my line,"

"Right,"

She snickered. "Not one for many words, huh?"

I shrugged.

"Well, guess I'm gonna have to get you to talk more," she said though it was more to herself than towards me.

Wait, what? I turned back to her and opened my mouth to say something when the bell rang. The girl stood, gathering up her backpack and then looked back at me when I didn't move.

"Aren't you coming? The lunch line is gonna get pretty long," she said it as if it was an invitation. But why would she want to talk to me?

I was the zombie girl. The only people who actively talked to me were Angela and Mike, who I saw out the corner of my eye waiting for me as well. My stomach chose that moment to grumble—loudly. For the first time in a long time, I felt my cheeks warm.

She laughed and reached out, taking hold of my hand. "Alright that settles it. Come on," she said and reached down for my book bag and pulled me from my seat. It was like I weighed nothing to her, the way she brought me to my feet. The gleam in her eyes, which now that I was up close, had a greener hint in them than just the soft notes of it, made her look even more beautiful.

"I…" I found my words stuck in my throat as I was pulled out the classroom. Mike and Angela followed behind her.

"Hey, wait up you two!" Mike called as he tried to match our pace. Angela was hanging back as we walked. As he got closer, I turned to him and let my eyes do the talking. They moved from the girl dragging me down the hallway to him: who was she?

He blinked back in confusion. Well that was a bust.

Angela must have noticed because she came to the rescue. "Hayley, don't you think you should introduce yourself? Bella is a bit lost."

That made her stop and it brought me with her. I bumped into her back and looked up to say sorry again when she whirled on me, looking just as shocked as she did when she jabbed me in class.

"I forgot you've been in zombie mode," she explained, and I expected her cheeks to turn pink. But instead, I caught the hint of red at the tips of her ears. Her voice hitched an octave and she grabbed me suddenly. "I am so sorry! I just assumed you knew who I was since we've been sitting next to each other for the last two months. Oh my god, this is embarrassing. Even worse than me stabbing you with my pencil."

Behind me, Mike stifled a laugh. I know exactly where he went in that moment and I was not amused. His laughing didn't seem to help the situation because Hayley seemed to back away from me like an almost skittish animal.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed.

"No!" I cried and reached out to approach her. She jumped at my exclamation and honestly, I was just as surprised. I hadn't raised my voice like this since the days after they left.

Swallowing back my own bout of embarrassment, I focused on Hayley. She really did look like she had done something wrong. She hadn't of course. How was she supposed to know that the zombie girl didn't even know who she was?

I took one step forward, lowering my hands towards my sides. "I'm...I'm sorry I yelled. I just…I've been out of it," I explained. It felt like a horrible excuse but it was the truth.

"I still shouldn't have," Hayley began and then turned from us.

"You didn't know," I said.

I looked back at Mike and Angela who just shrugged. They weren't going to be much help. I had to do this on my own; and that was like pulling teeth. I found myself moving to rub at my scar, trying to soothe down the sudden knots in my stomach.

"Look Hayley," just speaking her name made the knots in my stomach tighten. But I didn't know how to handle this. Before this, the only thing making me ever talk to people had been my curiosity about…people I didn't want to remember. It had been easier then, to talk to people, to interact with them.

Before I decided to snoop into the supernatural world, see if the family of vampires that lived in the woods would love me enough to make me one of them. After the incident in Arizona, I really thought it was written in the stars. I would have just had to wait until graduation to be one of them.

And then he ripped that away from me and left me to sink into the darkness.

The waters had been murky and deep enough that I couldn't bother to come back up. Angela and Mike had decided that they would do all they could to bring me back up for air.

"I know I've been out of it. I had a bad break up and it really left me, well a zombie. But not knowing who you were is on me, not you." I assured her and took another step forward. "You're just trying to be a good person."

Hayley glanced over her shoulder at me and I watched as it moved from looking at me to looking down at my wrist.

At my scar.

Just as quickly as she looked, she looked back at me and those hazel-green eyes seemed to get interested. She looked at me like she was trying to figure me out.

"So," I continued as if her gaze wasn't making me antsy. I held out my hand, the one with the scar, and tried to offer her a smile. I'm quite sure I looked ridiculous. "Did you want to grab lunch?"

Hayley took one last look at my scar and then grabbed hold of my hand and shook. Her lips pulled up into a full smile. It left me floored at how much more beautiful it made her.

"I knew I could get you to say more than three words," she winked at me and then turned, pulling me along towards the cafeteria. "Let's go, Zombie-girl!"