Chapter 3

It was now one month since the events of that day in the cafeteria, and I was best friends with Angela. We did everything together, but though Mike asks me out every Friday at work, I'm single, so Ange had Ben to go to the winter dance with - they'd been dating for about four months - I was going solo. That day we were going to Port Angeles, to buy dresses. I was a little unenthusiastic.

When we arrived outside the only dress shop in town we noticed Jessica inside. It brought back vivid memories of a day about two weeks ago...

I was in the toilets washing my hands when Jessica came in. She flounced up to the mirror to check her hair, and then noticed me. She turned around, shoving me against the wall, and began shouting in my face.

"I hate you, Bella Swan," she yelled. "Just because Cullen left, you think you can steal my boyfriend?"

I winced as she mentioned Edw - him, but it also acted a as a galvanisation to my already inflamed temper.

"Jessica, just listen to me, okay?" I said, pushing her away from me. "I don't like Mike! I'm not going out with him, and I never will be. Just back off, okay?" But my little speech didn't have quite the result I was expecting - Jessica slapped me with as much force as she could muster: the force sent me sliding backwards. I hit the wall and slid down to the ground, my legs giving way beneath me.

Leaving me on the floor, Jessica whirled round and walked out of the bathroom. I barely had the chance to move before Lauren rushed in. She picked up Jessica's bag and sneered at me, her eyes reading "Worthless, worthless, worthless" and her lipstick-ed mouth reading it too.

When she had gone, I stood up and looked in the mirror to see a bright red mark covering all of my left cheek. It extended from my eye all the way down to my chin. I poked it gently. The brutish mark was throbbing painfully, showing up scarlet against my pale skin - it was tender to the touch, too. I could barely look at it, though it seemed to draw my eyes and it was hard to tear my eyes away. From behind me I heard footsteps.

"Bella," someone whispered from behind me. "Are you okay? I saw them" It was Angela.

"I'm fine," I muttered, the skin of my cheek stretching painfully against the mark.

"You need to get some ice on that," Angela warned me. "It'll bruise otherwise..."

"It's okay, really," I told her, making an effort to seem fine.

"Why not go to the infirmary?"

I frowned. "I don't want to sneak. Please, I'm all right."

"Well, if you must..."

I blinked, returning to the present at the sound of Angela's voice.

"Come on, Bella, let's go and eat first!" Ange said, nudging me as she noticed Jessica and Lauren entering the room - they weren't exactly my best friends. While Ange was always willing to reach out a helping hand, their little posse was always willing to reach out a foot to trip me up, and the favour extended to Angela, too. It was a combination of this and Mike's arduous efforts to win me over that made my life pretty much hell.

"Bella?" Angela said, shaking my shoulder and jerking me out of my daydream. "Bella, I said, do you want to go eat?"

"Oh... um... yeah. Sure."

"How about Bella Italia?" she said with a smile.

We turned around and began walking down the road - that was, until I heard cat calls from behind us. It was Jessica, at first, of course, but where she started Lauren had to finish.

"Ooh... Look at Bella and Angela, the social outcasts..." I couldn't make all the words, but it didn't really matter. I got the gist. I tried to carry on walking. Just ignore them, just ignore them, just ignore them, I chanted to myself silently.

"Poor Bella, she must feel so sad."

I stopped despite myself. Their voices were raised in a sarcastic fake-conversational tone that just made my blood boil.

"Yeah, sad about the fact that she's such a loser!"

I turned around and headed back. Angela tried to stop me, but I continued to stride down the street.

"Even after her mom chucked her out to live here Edward goes and dumps her!"

"You'd have to be pretty sad not be good enough for Cullen..."

"Oh, just shut up!" I shouted at them. I was fed up of them constantly aggravating me, picking on me every chance they had - and though that was bad enough, having Angela get hurt as well was even worse.

"Ooh... poor little Angie," sneered Jessica. "Let's just hope she'll realise what kind of person hangs out with Swan..."

"Yeah, when Ben dumps her!" chimed in Lauren with a giggle.

A mist descended before my eyes, and I took a breath to steady myself. "First, let's get a few things straight. First, Edward did not dump me - he moved away! Ever wondered why his whole family left too? Or is that too much for your little minds to comprehend? Second, Angela is the kindest, sweetest person on Earth and a hell of a lot nicer than you..." Jessica gasped. I knew I should end it now, I knew I was pushing it, but I just couldn't. All the rage bottled up inside of me had to get out somewhere; once I'd started I simply couldn't stop. "And third! Mike doesn't care about you anymore! He doesn't give a damn! Just forget it, okay? I don't like Mike, I never will and never have, but he likes me, and that's the end of it!"

And with that. I turned away and rejoined Angela, leaving Jessica' and Lauren's - and a few other people's - eyes fixed on my receding back, burning a hole through the thin fabric of my shirt. But I didn't turn around, and we continued on to the restaurant without stopping.

We ate quietly, and then went on to the dress shop. It didn't take long to find dresses, what with the notoriously small selection here, but I liked what I got - a floor-length reddish number that Angela complemented lavishly (and, I suspected, a little untruthfully) - and so did Ange, with her purple choice. We didn't talk much on the way home, either, and I remained immersed in my own thoughts all night.

"Hey, Bella, did you just hear me?" Angela asked, jerking me out of my day dream, as we sat at lunch the next day.

"No, sorry... I was off in La La Land," I grinned ruefully, hoping she hadn't noticed my preoccupation yesterday as well.

"I said, you'd better be on your guard."

"What?"

Ange leaned across the table with a little smile. "Yeah, after that little outburst of yours yesterday Jessica and her little gang-of-one will be out for your blood..."

Huh. That was funny, out for my blood. Funny in a painful kind of a way. But before I had the chance to reply, a fake-tanned hand with a perfect French manicure landed on my tray and I heard a nasal hiss in my ear.

"You know you're not going to get away with your little bit of fun -" she twisted the word bitterly in her mouth; was I right to detect a hint of shame in her voice? "- yesterday, right, Bella?"

But somehow I wasn't in the mood for a fight. "Yeah, whatever, Lauren," I sighed.

She looked at me with her fish-eyes stretched wide. "All I'm saying is I'd watch your back, Swan - if you can turn your head far enough without falling over..."

"Well, someone's obviously been taking a few too many paracetamols recently!" Ben laughed out loud at Lauren's receding back. "Who does she think she is?"

Angela smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, Bella. She can't hurt you - I was just kidding earlier, you know that?"

I reassured her that I did. Katie - the new girl - broke in. "Lauren couldn't hurt a fly..."

We looked at her in amazement. "... and not for lack of trying!" she finished. Everyone laughed, and pretty soon conversation started as normal again. I knew who my friends were, and it wasn't Lauren and Jessica, that was for sure. I guess I should have been offended, hurt even, that those two hated me so much, but it just didn't mean anything to me. So Jessica, my first friend in Forks, hated me. So what? It wasn't my fault. I didn't even care anymore - there was a time when I would've. There was a time when I cried myself to sleep every night. This wasn't that time.

Ange and I made our way to gym, still giggling, and we didn't even notice that Katie had stayed behind, so when she rushed up to us in the locker room, hastily shoving her phone into her bag, face flushed and red hair flying, I was kind of surprised.

"What's up?" asked Ange.

"Oh... my God, haven't you heard?"

We hadn't.

"Okay, so basically, there's this new family moving to Forks!"

That was great. Gossip. Whatever. Angela was kind of interested, though. "Wow," I muttered, turning away.

"No," Katie persisted, "you don't understand... there's, what, seven of them, and oh my God, apparently they're all like adopted and the boys are meant to be fine, you know what I mean?"

Angela knew what she meant. I tuned out, knowing that whoever arrived would not be anything compared to what had come before.

A/N –

Sorry about the wait bit of writers block but I have the next few chapters lined up. Please review it will make my day