"Of course it's raining." I muttered to myself, as I peeked out at the miserable weather through the yellowed curtains. I thought about wearing the same clothes as yesterday, but I didn't want to blend in - I wanted to be completely invisible today. I chose a heavy cable knit forest green sweater that hid my slender frame and some battered mom jeans. The sweater was new, but I was certain that by the end of the day I will have managed to gnaw so many holes into the sleeves that it'll look ancient. Mom always hated when I did that, so she'd slap the back of my head everytime she caught me. I wondered why she cared - I've always bought my own clothes.

When I was dressed and packed with the stationary and paperwork I needed for the day, I headed downstairs to make food for Charlie. I did the eggs the same way I do for mom and served them with some buttered toast before calling him to breakfast. I wasn't hungry this morning. He grumbled as he came down about a sore neck - I made a mental note that he might need a new pillow. He woke up a little more once he started digging in and I decided to try my luck in conversation.

I cleared my throat. "Hey dad, would you mind giving me directions to the highschool?"

"Oh, it's just off the highway, like most things. Wait, hang on. You don't know where that is. Of course." he motioned to my backpack asking for a pen and paper.

"It doesn't really look like a highschool, just a bunch of buildings. Look for the sign and you'll find it, you're smart."

"Thanks dad."

He grunted in response. The rest of breakfast was a quiet event and he wished me good luck before heading out the door. "If you need anything, call me, I'll make time. Anyone bother you, remind them who your dad is." He told me, pointing to himself fiercely.

I smiled, imagining how that would have gone down at my old school, with its chain-link fences and metal detectors. Small town living was something else. Once I'd done the dishes, it was hard to stay still anymore. My body was coiled in anticipation of the day I was about to have. I wished that I could go for a walk, but the rain was doing it's best to make it as unappealing as possible. Still, I couldn't stay in the house anymore. I donned my jacket - which had the feel of a biohazard suit - and headed out into the rain.

I hurriedly locked up and walked quickly to the dry sanctuary my truck provided. I started the engine and wondered idly if I was going to name it. If I did, I'd need something suitably oldman-ish. The engine roared to life, then idled at top volume as I waited for the heating to come on. It was significantly louder in the silence than I had remembered, but I didn't mind. I smiled to myself. It reminded me of Charlie and his poor neck this morning.

I decided to drive in silence today and let the calm early morning light and beautiful scenery wash over me. Plus, I wasn't sure if the radio worked yet. Following dad's directions, finding the school wasn't too difficult. He was right that it wasn't obvious that it was a school, and only the sign reading 'Forks High School,' made me stop - there were so many trees and shrubs I could barely see it at first. Wait. I startled. I just called Charlie dad, and not to his face. I pushed the thought aside. I'd deal with those thoughts later, when I'm not in potentially hostile territory.

I parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading 'front office.' I was sure it was off limits, since there were no other cars in the lot, but I have to report to the office anyway, so I may as well ask for directions. I stepped unwillingly out of the now toasty truck cab and walked down a little stone path lined with dark hedges. I took a deep breath before opening the door.

Inside, it was brightly lit, and warmer than I'd hoped. The office was small; a little waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly. Plants grew everywhere in large plastic pots, as if there wasn't enough greenery outside. The room was cut in half by a long counter, cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a large, red-haired woman wearing glasses. A couple of people were sitting inside, but it was mostly quiet and empty, the only noises being the clock and heating unit.

The red-haired woman looked up from her computer when I walked in. "Can I help you?" She sounded impatient.

"Um," I began, walking towards the desk. I caught my foot on one of the folding chairs and it scraped across the floor loudly, sending heads turning in my direction. I tripped, banging my knee on the metal seat and wincing. I was less concerned about the bruise that would form later, and more about what an idiot everyone must think I am.

The woman waited until I reached the desk. "Are you okay?" It didn't sound as if she cared about the answer.

"Yes, thank you." I blushed. "It's my first day."

"Name?"

"Isabella Swan." A flicker of awareness lit her eyes.

"Of course you are." She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk until she found the ones she was looking for. "This is your schedule and map. You can park here. Get these slips signed by each of your teachers." She pointed at a location so quickly that I didn't catch it. Guess I was resigned to wandering around in the rain - no way was I going to ask her to show me again.

"Thank you, have a nice day." I smiled shyly.

"You're welcome." She went back to typing furiously.

I blushed again in embarrassment. I didn't feel welcome. I felt like dying. To my relief, other students were starting to arrive by the time I reached my truck. I hopped back in and followed the line of traffic. I was glad to see that most of the cars were older like mine, nothing flashy. As soon as I parked I cut the engine, hoping that the thunderous volume wouldn't draw attention to me like the opposite of a moth to the flame.

I needed something fun to distract me. I looked through truck names while I waited for the parking lot to fully populate, but struggled to find something that fit the grumpy nature of my truck. A truck should have a full name, I thought, not a name like 'The Beast' or 'The Punisher.' I went with Eames Jameson, E.J. for short. Then, my good old man can have a full name without me having to say it everytime. It's silly, I know, but currently my truck is the only friend I have at this school, and I want it to feel welcome, unlike me.

With that out of the way, I left E.J.'s warmth, and walked towards the nearest building to try and orient myself with the map. I cursed at myself for wasting my time looking for truck names instead of memorising the map I was given. Now I'd have to walk around with it stuck in front of my nose all day. Way to not call attention to yourself, Bella. I was notorious for getting lost, even with the best of maps. Luckily, once I stumbled upon the cafeteria, building three was easy to spot by the large black '3' painted on a white square on the east corner. I had biology first.

I felt my breathing gradually creeping toward hyperventilation as I approached the door. I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me. When I entered the classroom, a strange sight greeted me. The classroom was filled with black-topped lab tables exactly like the ones I was used to. They were all filled except one, as if everyone had purposefully kept their distance, like people trying to escape the radius of an earthquake. This wouldn't have been too surprising - every school has a few designated 'weird kids' people tend to stay away from. Except this boy looked nothing like you'd expect one of them to look like.

He was lanky, with untidy bronze-colored hair. He was pale in the extreme, almost marble white. He looked like a ghost, with purplish bruise-like shadows under his eyes. His eyes… They were black - coal black. Yet despite this, he was devastatingly, inhumanely beautiful. The face of an angel painted by an old master, more luxurious than the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. It was almost impossible to comprehend.

I hadn't decided if I was in awe or fear of this boy until I walked down the aisle to introduce myself to the teacher and get my slip signed. As I came closer, he went rigid in his seat, sitting impossibly straight and betraying his tall height. He met my eyes with a gaze I'd never thought would be directed at me. Hostile, furious, murderous even. I looked away quickly, shocked and hoping I had imagined it. How could this beautiful stranger hate me this much?

Unfortunately, I wasn't watching my feet. I tripped over a book in the walkway, falling into him. Laughter erupted around me, but I barely noticed. A white hot brand of fear flashed through my body as he caught me with burning cold hands I could feel even through my jacket. He had a vice grip around my upper arms. He levelled his black, stormy eyes with mine and leaned close. "Will you be more careful?" He threatened menacingly. I felt the blood drain from my face and I imagined I looked as ghost-white as he did.

"You're hurting me." I whispered. He let go of me as if I was the one who had burned him.

"Is everything alright over there?" Demanded the teacher sternly. All of a sudden, the boy's demeanour changed and a brilliant smile with teeth white and predatory, fell across his face like a flash of lightning.

"Of course Mr. Banner. She tripped and I was just reminding her to be careful."

At this, the teacher looked dazed for a moment, and then shrugged it off. I couldn't believe it. Was this his normal behaviour? Was this what the school was like? And the teachers just accepted it? It looked like he was hypnotised!

I walked in a daze of my own to Mr. Banner. He signed my slip, handed me a book and allowed me to sit down without giving an introduction, thankfully. Of course, he had no choice but to send me to the open seat next to the boy. I didn't look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw his posture change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. Inconspicuously, I sniffed my hair. It smelled like strawberries, the scent of my favourite shampoo. It seemed an innocent enough odour. I let my hair fall over my right

shoulder, making a dark curtain between us, and tried to pay attention to the teacher to no avail.

During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the edge of his chair, sitting as far from me as possible. I could see his hand on his left leg was clenched into a fist, tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too, he never relaxed. He had the long sleeves of his white shirt pushed up to his elbows, and his forearm was surprisingly hard and muscular beneath his light skin. I was afraid of the enormous advantage those muscles would give him over me. I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase 'if looks could kill' suddenly ran through my mind. He was giving me frostbite.

At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump, and the boy was out of his seat. He rose fluidly, his back to me, and was out the door before anyone else had even moved. I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after him. I began gathering up my things slowly and tried not to cry.

"Hey are you okay? Cullen was intense there." a male voice asked. I looked up to see a cute, baby-faced boy, his pale blonde hair carefully gelled into orderly spikes, smiling at me in a friendly way. Huh. He obviously didn't think I smelled bad. Or he was just feeling sorry for me.

"Cullen?" I asked, barely managing to speak.

"Edward Cullen. I've never seen him act like that. You're Isabella, right? New girl? I'm Mike"

"It's Bella, thanks. He certainly was… intense. I didn't really speak to him."

"Weird. If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you." He smiled, and I smiled back.

We quickly swapped schedules as we headed out the door and it turned out we had a class just before lunch together. He offered for me to sit with his table in the cafeteria. I agreed, since he seemed nice enough, and I didn't want to be on my own after the incident with… Edward.

After that, no one really talked to me much. I wasn't very interesting and I walked around, predictably, with the map glued to my face. I was glad that I had succeeded in being mostly invisible, but I felt even more alone than I thought I would. When lunch arrived, I sat with Mike and his friends, Angela, Jessica, Eric and Tyler.

Angela was a shy, tall Asian girl with black hair and gentle brown eyes. Jessica was a little more forward, a chatterbox with curly light brown hair and pretty blue eyes. Eric was an Asian boy with black hair, brown eyes and with his head in a graphic novel. Tyler was cocky and apparently pretty popular, with dark skin, brown hair and eyes.

They were nice enough but I mostly smiled and nodded at small talk. My mind was elsewhere and despite being around friendly faces, I still felt just as alone. It was only when the mention of the Cullen family came up, that I really paid attention.

"Hey Bella, have you met any of the Cullens yet?" Jessica turned to me, an excited, gossipy look on her face.

"Hell yeah she has, Edward was being super weird with her earlier. He looked like she had stabbed him with a pencil or something." Mike responded, before I got a chance to.

Jessica frowned. "I wasn't asking you."

"Yeah he was acting pretty strange earlier. I barely spoke to him and it seemed like he wanted to murder me or something."

"You did trip over him." Mike pointed out.

"It was an accident!" I protested. "And besides, he grabbed me really roughly." I muttered. I rubbed the spot where his hands had burned into me, and it was still a little sore. Tyler started ribbing Mike then, and the boys left the conversation to chase each other around, play fighting.

Angela looked worried. "Did he actually hurt you? Let me see."

I took off my coat and sweater, shivering slightly. Sure enough, there were slight bruises on my upper arms. Great, they'll match my knee.

"Oh my goodness, you have to tell someone!" Angela looked horrified.

"No!" I said immediately, pulling my sweater back on. "I mean, no, it's no big deal. I bruise really easily, it's not his fault." They all looked unconvinced.

"You should at least tell one of his siblings though. Maybe they can tell him to back off." Jessica supplied.

"Maybe… Who are they?" I looked around, searching for them, before settling my eyes on a table in the corner, as far away from me as possible. It was obvious when I found them - they were all exactly alike. Every one of them with the same pallor, dark eyes and bruise-like shadows that my arms now matched. There were five of them, each with a tray of untouched food in front of them, not talking.

"Well, you know Edward. The big one's Emmet, the gorgeous blonde is Rosalie, the little one is Alice and the one who looks like he's in pain is Jasper." Jessica said, lowering her voice conspiratorially and glancing at them surreptitiously. Edward looked like he wanted to glance over as she spoke, but kept his eyes fixed on the wall. Surely he couldn't hear her all the way over here?

Her descriptions were apt, I thought. Emmet looked like he could be a weight-lifter with his huge muscles, yet he didn't look as unapproachable as the others. He had a soft expression, sort of baby-faced, and yet still old and gorgeous at the same time. Each one of the Cullens were riddled with contradictions like this.

Rosalie was model-like, tall with a beautiful figure that made every girl around her take a hit on their self-esteem just by being in the same room. She had shiny, perfectly and gently curled golden blonde hair that she shook every now and then in the light.

Alice was tiny and pixie-like, the opposite of her model sister. She was impossibly thin with tiny delicate features, contrasting with her deep black hair, cropped short and pointing in every direction.

Jasper was taller than all of them, mediumly muscular in comparison to his brothers and with curly, honey blonde hair. He had the darkest shadows under his eyes and his mouth was set in a tight thin line. He looked akin to Edward in biology, but without the hostility.

"They're all super gorgeous." Angela supplied in admiration.

"Yes!" Jessica agreed with a giggle. "But it's weird! They're all adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife. And Jasper and Alice? They're like, together!" I furrowed my eyebrow at the statement in both shock and confusion and the group giggled.

"They're not related. The Hales are twins - that's Rosalie and Jasper - But the rest are all adopted. Dr. Cullen-" Angela explained.

"Is really hot!" Jessica interjected

"Yes," She blushed, "But what I meant to say is that Dr. Cullen is really young, he's in his twenties or something."

"Wow, that sounds nice of them, adopting so many kids when they're so young."

"Oh they're super loaded!" Jessica gushed "And they probably don't even have to do any parenting 'cus they're older."

"That's true." Angela agreed.

The conversation turned to other matters then, and it wasn't long before we had to go back to class. I had to admit, it was nice to talk to Angela and Jessica.

At the end of the day, when the final bell rang at last, I walked slowly to the office to return my paperwork. The rain had drifted away, but the wind was stronger, and colder. I wrapped my arms around myself. I had been thinking of what to do about Edward all day and I had come to the decision to ask to transfer classes. Surely in a school so small they'd have room for me in another class? As I reached the front office, I got the sense that someone was watching me. Waiting by the door was Rosalie Hale, Edward's sister. I Instantly tensed as she waved me over.

"I thought I'd find you here," she said smoothly. "I heard what happened with my brother today."

"Oh!" I stammered, "I-I'm so-"

"I'd like to apologise for his behaviour. He's not the most welcoming of our family." She paused, her lip curled in disgust. "If I can do anything to help, please say the word. I'll do my best to ensure he stays away from you."

"Thank you so much Rosalie but I started it, really. I tripped into him at the start of class."

She laughed bitterly. "And yet you're the one with bruises. Please, men like my brother have a tendency to put their hands where they're not wanted." She started to walk past me.

I bit my lip and thought about her words. "Rosalie!" She turned back to me instantly. "I was planning on transferring out of my biology class, but I'm not sure if they'll agree… Will you switch classes with me?"

"What, and spend a whole period with my brother? Absolutely no chance." She laughed.

My heart sank and I opened my mouth to apologise-

"But I will switch with him."

"And if he doesn't agree?" I asked anxiously.

She smiled deviously. "Then I'll make him."