Lex's POV

I watched Bella drive off with a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Usually I was fine in these types of situations – I usually worried about Bella more than myself. Yet as dozens of kids passed me on their way into the school, I wished that I were home – just anywhere but there.

I collected my paperwork from the front office and then tried to find my homeroom. It wasn't easy, because kids were everywhere. They were standing by lockers and drinking from water fountains and calling to one another from across the hallway.

"Room two seventeen, room two seventeen," I muttered to myself, hunching my shoulders over as I navigated my way through the sea of students. Luckily my grey-jacket-and-jeans ensemble didn't attract too much attention.

I gave my homeroom teacher, a Ms. Long, a slip to sign, and while she searched for a pen on her extremely messy desk I couldn't help but feel like a bug under a microscope. As more and more seventh graders trooped into the classroom, they all stopped and stared at, I was sure that they had already dubbed, 'the new girl'.

"Ah, here we are," Ms. Long said, happily detracting a pen from underneath a stack of yet-to-be-graded essays. She signed my slip with a flourish and a smile and told me to take any of the empty seats.

Where to sit? There was a scattering of empty desks around the classroom – one close to the door, one near the paperback-ridden bookshelf, and one by a window with a (what do you know) rainy view.

I placed myself in that desk and stared absentmindedly out the window, trying to ignore the pointed fingers and giggles coming from some of the girls. Jeez, what is so funny? I thought, annoyed. I know I'm new and everything, but it's not like I have three heads, or something like that . . .

Like I tended to do, I got so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't realize that someone had come over to stand by my desk. "What was that?" I asked, suddenly aware of another person sharing my personal space.

"I said, you're sitting in my desk," an amused voice said. I looked up to see whose desk I had taken and had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. Every stereotype pertaining to "football captain" was there: the slightly better-than-average looks, the Forks Junior High Football sweatshirt, the cocky expression on his face. Of course I would have sat in his seat, I thought, grabbing my backpack and standing up. "Sorry about that," I said in what I hoped passed for an apologetic tone.

"No, no, it's alright," Football Captain said, that obnoxious grin still plastered onto his face. "Are you new? I haven't seen you around here before."

"Um, yeah, today's my first day," I said, already inching myself to another empty seat that was - thankfully - across the room.

"Well, since it's your first day and all, I'll let it slide," he said, winking at me as he sat down. "Just don't let it happen again, alright?" This elicited snickers from the same group of girls as before, who undoubtedly had enjoyed watching the new girl be put in her place by Forks Junior High's alpha male. I sank into my new seat and prayed that it didn't belong to the head cheerleader or anything like that.

My prayers were answered when the bell rang, signifying the start of first period. Ms. Long, as it turned out, taught History, and I found myself only half-paying attention during her lecture on the Cold War. Of course it was the middle of the second semester – Bella and I could not have come at a more inconvenient time.

I sighed. Back in Phoenix we had attended a large public school, junior-high and high- school levels, made up of hundreds of little cliques. A person ended up knowing almost no one but those in their own social group, and personally, I had been fine with that.

But here in Forks it seemed as though everyone had grown up with one another, and they were not exactly eager to let me into their closely-knit circle.

At the end of the period I made my way to Math (my least favorite subject), Language Arts, and then a dimly lit room that was supposedly my Health classroom. While each teacher took their time signing my slip, I would find myself looking around the room, checking to see if there were any friendly-looking faces. But my efforts were in vain, and I sat alone in those three periods.

At the end of Health I was taking my time as I gathered my things – lunch was next and I couldn't really be late for that – when someone spoke behind me.

"You're Alexandra Swan?" A quiet voice asked, and I turned around to see a short girl with almond-shaped eyes and sleek black hair standing behind me. She was wearing a simple white button-down and black jeans, thick-framed glasses on the end of her nose.

"Yeah," I answered, smiling slightly as I stuffed my issued copy of Tom Sawyer into my backpack. "Your name is . . ."

"Oh, I'm Liu," she answered. "I keep hearing people talk about you all day, and I decided that I'd be the one brave person to introduce myself."

"Well, you're the first," I told her. Then I smiled. "You don't know how nice it is to meet you."

"Do you have lunch next?" she asked hopefully. I nodded, and she smiled, showing ultra-white, if crooked, teeth. "I'd love to sit with you, if you don't mind if I eat the duckthat my mom packed me."

I shook my head, intrigued. We started walking toward the cafeteria. "So, are you from China?" I asked.

She laughed. "Good guess. My parents moved here about a year before I was born." Her face fell. "But most kids in Forks treat me like I'm an illegal immigrant or something, just because I moved here last year from San Fransisco and I didn't speak English very well. We lived in Chinatown and my parents home-schooled me."

"Trust me, I know how you feel," I told her truthfully, and hesitantly I linked my arm through hers. "How about this – we can be outsiders together."

She smiled at me and we made our way to the cafeteria, where I decided not to brave the lunch line and instead just pulled out the peanut-butter-and-jelly that I had hastily put together this morning. Liu pulled out a sandwich as well, though hers contained what looked like chicken but what she assured me was duck.

I noticed that Football Captain was sitting with a rowdy group of boys, all wearing Forks Junior High Football/Basketball/Who-The-Hell-Cares t-shirts and sweatshirts. "So," I said casually, using my sandwich to gesture at the group of boys. "Who's the Andrew-Clark wannabe?"

Liu only gave the table a brief glance before taking a bite out of her sandwich and chewing. "I'm sure you're referring to Joseph Cartwright," she said disdainfully, which only made me like her more. "He's the quarterback of the Forks Junior High Football team, which isn't much of an accomplishment when you realize that we have a total of fifteen kids on the team."

"Hmm," I murmured, distracted by the buzzing coming from the bottom of my backpack. I fished around and found my phone, a message from Bella illuminated on the tiny screen. How's your first day going?

Ah, my overprotective older sister. I quickly texted her back. As you'd expect. I sat in the football captain's seat in first period. Only me. I knew that my response would make her smile, which she probably needed. If Forks Junior High was any indication, Forks High School must have been unbearable.

My phone vibrated. Hang in there. I'll be picking you up before you know it. "If only," I muttered, knowing that I still had two periods to go.

"Who are you texting?" Liu inquired, pulling out a small tupper-ware container of rice from her backpack.

"My older sister, Bella. She's a junior at Forks High School," I replied. After a few seconds of deliberation, I decided that Liu seemed like someone I could confide in. "I miss her, as weird as that may sound. We've kind of been attached at the hip since . . . well, you've probably heard that our mother and stepfather passed away last year and that's why we moved back to Forks."

Liu nodded, her expression sheepish. "The Forks grapevine is extensive."

Figures. "She's just the only person I have left, you know?"

We spent the rest of the lunch period making small talk, though I didn't find it as exhausting as I usually did. Indeed, time passed so quickly that I was surprised when I heard the bell ring. As everyone made a mass exodus from the cafeteria, I turned to look at Liu, who was putting an assortment of containers back into her backpack.

"Hey, thanks for making sure the new kid didn't have to eat lunch alone," I said sincerely.

Liu just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm pretty sure I'm the only one at this school that knows what that's like," she said, by way of explanation.

We left the cafeteria together, after it was almost empty: two fish that had missed the memo that it was time to swim upstream.