I make no money with this story, nor am I planning to.

Black sheep

Isabella was late for school. She was never late for school. Maybe that had to do with the fact that up until that day she had to ride with either her father or Angela, so it was never really up to her. It was hard to enjoy her first independent ride when all she could do was worry. I hope they don't call Dad. He'd probably take the car away first thing. She also feared that this being her first real taste of independence meant it was a significant moment. This was the first time she had to be self-reliant, and that her running late meant that she was terrible at it.

When she was finally able to find a free parking spot she got out of the truck as fast as she could and ran all the way to her first class. Before opening the door she took a steadying breath, then just went for it. Everyone looked up in shock. The perfect Isabella Swan had a flaw after all.

She didn't get in any trouble in the end. The teacher was just concerned. 'Is everything all right, Isabella?' What a stupid question. Couldn't they see that nothing was all right? Isabella continued to be in a sour mood all morning, but then at lunch she got sufficiently distracted to forget her troubles. She was just about to enter the cafeteria when two Juniors came bursting out, giggling about something. She was able to catch a few words of their conversation before they were out of hearing-range.

"...guy here by far."

"God, I could just like, lick that scruff off his face!"

"I know right? And his sister..."

Isabella was admittedly a little shaken by their topic of conversation, but decided she was too hungry to be frozen in shock. The minute she was inside she realized who they were talking about. New York Dude and his sister, Ms. Fancy. They were ridiculously easy to spot, not only because they hadn't had any newcomers in years, but also because they just... stood out. They were sitting in the far left corner, looking sort of intimidated and horrified, while everyone else was gawking at them without restraint. Both of them were dressed way too urban for a place like Forks, but the girl's clothes were the more shocking of the pair. She worse these shorts that looked kind of like they were intended for men with black stockings, blue and glittery high heels and a gray sweater that was made out of very thin material, which was why it didn't obscure her figure, because goodness knows, it was way too big for her. She looked more like a movie star than a regular high school student. Isabella wasn't surprised that the first question out of Jessica's mouth when she sat down at her regular table was: "Sooo?"

Like mother like daughter, Jess loved to gossip.

"I don't know Jess. They look like city kids."

Jessica rolled her eyes dramatically, but didn't give up.

"The guy's totally hot, right?" Isabella glanced at the pair of newcomers again and tried to judge from a distance whether or not she found him attractive. He had weird hair, like super messy and though she couldn't see it from where she was sitting, he was also apparently unshaven. His clothes looked kind of dirty too. Or at least ratty. His face seemed symmetrical enough, and he wasn't morbidly obese. She supposed he wasn't exactly revolting.

"He looks okay, but he needs a shower or something."

"No way, that's the whole point. He's like, effortless. Total bad boy."

Jess and Lauren started giggling then, no longer paying attention to Isabella, which she was grateful for. Bad boy. Why would anyone want to date a bad anything?

"Hey" said Angela, slipping into the space next to her. She glanced at Jess an Lauren and smiled in this knowing way.

"What?"

"Nothing. I think they're cute." 'Cute' is not the word I would use.

"According to Jess he's good looking because he's unhygienic and a bad person" Isabella snickered.

"Are you sure those were the exact words she used?" At that, they also started giggling. Was it something to do with the air that day? Maybe these kids brought some of the pollution over from New York with them, making everyone dopey.

While the girls giggled, the guys who usually sat at the table arrived.

"Hey ladies" Tyler greeted them. Mike just nodded at no-one in particular, and Eric mumbled a 'hello'.

"So, the new kids seem interesting" Mike said, at which Jessica's head whipped up.

"Really? Do you think the girl's interesting as well?" Jess and Mike had this on again off again deal going on, with lots of PDA for the former and lots of annoying jealousy for the latter. What anyone could see in Mike, Isabella had no idea. He was dreadfully unimaginative. Then again, so was Jessica.

"Duh. Hence my use of the plural." Jess huffed in annoyance, then promptly started telling Lauren just how hot she found Mr. My Sex Appeal Is Grime in a loud enough voice for Mike to hear. Which meant everyone else at the table had to hear it as well. Isabella took that as her cue to leave and headed straight for Biology. It was a class she liked, if for no other reason than that she didn't have a partner. She preferred to work alone.

You know how there's this saying 'Nothing lasts forever'? Yeah.

So it turned out that Mr. I'm Too Cool For Clothes Without Holes was actually called Edward Cullen, and he was assigned as Isabella's lab partner, because he came from an AP class (which Forks didn't offer) and she was top of the class. For a moment she worried he really didn't shower, but that wasn't the case and that wasn't a very nice thought anyway. She stored it away for when she'd be doing confession. They exchanged quiet greetings and Isabella introduced herself, as was polite, but they didn't interact further than that. Up close he did look somewhat nice, attractive even. Still disheveled though. Mostly, he had nice eyes, very green. Like Forks.

After school Isabella was heading for her truck, which she would then take to The Lodge to have early dinner with her father, like they did every Monday. She was busy on all other days, with debate club meetings on Tuesday, math club on Thursday and now the Children's Center on Wednesday and Friday. She was opening the door of the car when she heard a very loud, very rude exclamation coming from the car opposite hers. Of course. New York and the Black sheep. Emmett's 'fuck yeah' was still bouncing around in her head when she sat down in her and her father's usual booth. He was already there, which was unfortunate. Isabella felt like he could see inside her head and condemn her on the spot for those words. It's not my fault he's an insensitive buffoon Dad! Sorry!

While they were discussing nothing in particular Isabella's mind wandered. Emmett used to be such a nice guy, before Rosalie. There were rumors going around that he was considering a life devoted to serving God when he was old enough. Then Junior year everything changed. He started to skip church, then he started swearing loudly not caring who heard him, his grades slipped, until finally he and Rosalie made their relationship public. That seemed to shift the public's perception of him as the one to blame to Rosalie. Isabella wasn't so sure. He was still to blame at least for his reckless attraction to a known... that sort of girl. Then things seemed to get a little better. He brought Rosalie to church a few times, even youth mixers and even though he wasn't the perfect Emmett he used to be Rosalie wasn't as bad as she used to be either. People were starting to get hopeful: maybe this would turn out to be a story about going wayward then finding redemption. It didn't. It was never clear how it got out, the point is that it did, but Emmett...

"Isabella, are you paying attention at all?" Her father looked at her sternly and she nodded.

"Yes sir, sorry sir."

"I was asking how the truck was working out?"

"It's great, thank you again." He seemed pleased at that, or perhaps his good mood was due to the tastiness of the stake he was eating.

"I'm glad. It's a good model, if a little old, but it's fixed up nicely. You know Billy's son, Jacob?"

Isabella nodded. Billy used to be the town mechanic, until his accident. They lived down at the reservation, La Push. Truthfully, she didn't know much about Jacob, just that he was trouble. Most kids from there were.

"Turns out, he's looking to take over his old man's business some day. He fixed your truck, with Billy's supervision of course."

"Wow" said Isabella, a little unnerved from that revelation. Jake hangs out with Emmett.

During the next two days the school was still buzzing from its 'new kid high'. Alice, or Ms. Fancy, became less and less fancy with every coming day, but she still had much nicer clothes than anyone. Edward on the other hand didn't change his clothing habits at all. Isabella would have felt bad about mentally dissing his appearance if she could reasonably believe that he just couldn't afford anything better. Looking at Alice, this clearly wasn't the case.

Apart from mimicking a homeless person Edward was all right. Polite and respectful, at least during class. They talked a little on Wednesday because they had to work together and it would have been rude and uncomfortable to stay silent. They had to correctly identify cell phases so they had to pass the microscope back and forth and Edward looked even more bored than usual, so Isabella had to speak.

"So... what do you like it here?"

He raised his eyes at her for a moment then he was back to gazing out the window. He shrugged. Maybe not so polite after all.

"I mean, it's certainly not New York, but..."

"So you've been?"

"Been what?"

"To New York" Edward said with a little condescension coating his words. Definitely not.

"Uhm, no, but it isn't exactly a wild guess. Forks has three thousand inhabitants, while there are what, twenty million people in New York."

"Yeah" Edward said with a sigh. He stretched his legs under the table and ruffled his hair with his left hand, then ran it over his face roughly, like he was very tired.

After that they didn't talk at all, except what was necessary for the assignment.

If this was what bad boys were like, Isabella could now be sure she wanted nothing to do with them.

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