In my haste to get to school, I tripped on the loose gravel outside my house. I had screamed like bloody murder when my hand came into contact with a sharp piece of corrugated iron next to Charlie's driveway. God hated me, I knew it.

He must have seen me steal that plastic beaded bracelet from a cheap market when I was 10.

Obviously, this had cursed me with ineptness to the point that I should have a caution sticker stuck to my forehead and bubbled wrap around me. I was on my hands and knees, the hot, metallic smelling blood trickling kind of quickly onto the ground. My stomach lurched. I covered my mouth with the back of my good hand.

It was Charlie's day off today, so he wasted no time in barging out of the front door and gathering me up in his arms.

"Bells, what the hell happened?" he demanded, pulling me inside. I sniffed, even though I was used to this. I gingerly raised my palm to let him study it.

He sucked in a breath, I tried to think about rainbows and unicorns instead of the hot pulsing redness coming from my hand. "Jeeze, Bells. You've gotten it right down to the bone!" he breathed. I frowned because he sounded more impressed than concerned, even though I didn't like attention in any form.

But of course, my clumsiness made sure I was at the forefront of attention whenever I clipped the door jam and tripped in class or fallen in the drive way and sliced my hand on some rusty metal. I hated to admit that this had happened more than once. Sigh. "Uh, I know how much I hate hospitals and everything, but I guess we should get it checked out, right?" I asked sheepishly, knowing I needed a tetanus shot. I chanced a peek at my wet palm held carefully in Charlie's hands.

"Yeah." He agreed, pulling me out of the house, taking my bag off my shoulder and throwing it back inside. He locked the door then and motioned to the cruiser. Instead of insisting that I drive my truck, I reluctantly got in Charlie's police cruiser, another part of my life that seemed painful and embarrassing.

The small population and therefore interesting news in Forks, kept the residence in on everything, especially who the police chief was and his daughter. Everyone knew me here now, even leaving out the fact I had only arrived three months ago. Back in Phoenix, I'm sure there were still plenty of people who didn't know who I was or recalled what I looked like in school. A healthy student body of hundreds of people ceased the ease of getting to know everyone.

Like it was possible, anyway. Not like in Forks. I was pretty well aware of almost everyone's name in my year, almost all the juniors.

I watched the rain spatter against the tinted glass of my window as my dad drove me to Fork's seldom used ER.

Seldom used because there were hardly any emergencies other than the rather rare car accident or heart attack. Never before had Forks seen the likes of me, I had been to the same ER at least three times in as many months. I sighed, greeting the receptionist—she knew me by name now.

I had my hand wrapped up like a present in a now bloody wash cloth that Dad had grabbed on the way out of the house.

We walked straight in to an examination room, no need for a wait. There was hardly anyone here today.

I glanced around me at the standard, clinical-ness of the room. The white paper thing that covered the bed, the office chair that the doctor sat on, wheeling back to the desk to write something down once in a while, the fluorescent light above, the dull green of the walls, the incredibly breath taking model/doctor standing before my eyes—wait.

Holy crap on a cracker!

My word, why was he even living in a dead-end town like this? He smiled warmly at Charlie and me before introducing himself.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Cullen, but please, call me Carlisle." He leant down to Charlie, stretching his hand out to shake it. He offered a hand to me too, but withdrew when he saw the bloody cloth. He could be working for Calvin Klein, never have to work another day in his life with that face of his, yet he sat down anyway, taking my hand in his and looking closely at it before turning to his desk and pulling out a syringe and a bottle of clear serum. I closed my eyes, decided that it was best not to watch unless the good doctor wanted to get new shoes.

I heard a soft melodic chuckle. "I read your chart, Miss Swan. It seems this happens quite a lot." He commented. I repressed a groan. "Yes." Was all I said. Charlie piped in then. "Thank you for doing this Dr. Cullen. Not just for fixing Bella up but for coming to such a small town and blessing us with your expertise." I wanted to roll my eyes. "Absolutely." Dr. Cullen replied. "Again, call me Carlisle. Dr. Cullen feels too formal."

I left the emergency room with a freshly bandaged limb, my fingers a little stiff and numb from the anaesthetic.

It was only ten-fifteen so I told Charlie to take me to school. He grumbled half the way, stopped to get my bag and then let it go, knowing I would whinge if he forced me to stay home today. I arrived just in time for the start of third period. I managed to live through History, boring enough to make me slip into a coma and made my way to fourth period—Biology.

I sat down at my usual seat, Mike, again, following me and asking me about my hand. I shrugged and told him I always had something wrong with me.

He laughed a little too much at my dry humour. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him and bat him across the head with my cinder block of a text book. I had told Mike in the past that our relationship was and always will be plutonic, but he just saw it as another challenge to overcome.

He heedlessly ignored Jessica—the girl who was in love with him—when I was around. She resented me for this, and I didn't feel like defending myself. I felt horrible about it. But when it came to Mike and his unwillingness to let me be, I couldn't find it in me to feel guilty about rejecting him.

Besides, its not like he would suddenly give up and go all depressed about it. That wasn't who he was, he would ask again the next day, slip in a hint or suggestive comment into one of our conversations. "So, does your nose hurt much?" he asked, sitting on the edge of my desk.

I looked up at him and blinked before realising I had a door smacked into my face yesterday. I had totally forgotten. "Oh, yeah, um, it's fine. Thanks." I said, smiling half-heartedly, knowing a full grin would just encourage him. "No problem," he half-smiled. I stared at him for a moment and wondered if he was trying to be seductive.

I bit back the urge to laugh or vomit. My saviour—the teacher walked in then, disrupting Mike's attempts to flirt with me. I averted my attention to today's lesson and trained my eyes to the board at the front of the room. Mr. Banner let us out three minutes early for lunch. The class rejoiced, stampeding out into the halls.

I wanted to wait until everyone was gone, but instead, Mike waited for me. We walked to the cafeteria together. I swear he almost tried to hold my hand.

To make him understand that was not okay, I stuffed my hands into my hoodie pockets. Rounding the corner, my face came into contact with something—someone.

Before I could stagger back and retort a "watch where you're going!" A pair of arms caught me, pale, long, lean yet muscular. I smiled.

"Oh, sorry. Edward, I didn't see you there." I apologised, my cheeks colouring. He shrugged. "That's okay, Bella." I beamed, he said my name. Um, you're an idiot.

My subconscious told me. Shutup! The other voice told it. Sigh. "I'll see you in sixth period." He murmured. I just nodded vigorously. He smiled half-heartedly.

It wasn't a real smile, like it was painful to do so or something. He brushed past me, his forearm connecting with my shoulder. The zap. I could feel it.

He harboured some serious static with him, maybe he'd been rubbing his feet against the carpet in the library. Mike interrupted my thoughts by tugging on my arm, trying to pull me through to the cafeteria. "Who was that guy?" he asked sullenly. I bit my lip.

"The new kid." I felt suddenly guilty for branding him as "The New Kid" just like everyone here had branded me when I first came to their school.

I followed Mike to our table and stole glances at Edward who sat at the far end of the room.

Alone.

Again.

Ahem *whistles for attention* Please R&R if you would like the coninutation of this story. The best is yet to come...obviously coz this stuff seems all kinds of crap and unnecessary fluff. But anywho, I would love to hear what people think of it. If I should continue writing for your enjoyment and mine or if I should stick to my day job (reading better fan fiction than this, which applies to everyone) Onward!