AN: Just thought I'd give a heads up vampires in this fic are different from traditional Twilight vampires. They are more a mix of Twilight and more Classical vampires.

For those of you who were concerned the endgame will be an F/F(with possibly another F) relationship.

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Chapter 1

"On the run for your life from the most powerful vampire coven in the world and you want to go to high school," said Victoria derisively, shaking her head in disgust. "Only you would want to do something this stupid."

"Well excuse me for wanting to have some semblance of a normal life," replied Bella tiredly, not really wanting to rehash the argument they'd had at least a dozen times before. "Besides you said we should be safe here for a while."

"Should be is not a guarantee. It's my opinion. I've been wrong before," she said, turning her head from the passenger seat to bore a hole into Bella with deep chocolate brown eyes. Victoria's penetrating look made Bella squirm in her seat.

"Look," said Bella, her voice giving away a slight tremble, "decision is made. I'm sure you'd prefer it if I lived in a bomb shelter until I died of old age but I refuse to live that way. I can't live the rest of my life scared and hiding under a rock. I can't let the Volturi take anything more away from me. I just can't. I mean you can understand that can't you Tori?" Bella asked, eyes pleading.

If Bella was expecting sympathy from the vampire she was disappointed. "Your feelings will mean exactly shit if we're dead," she said before getting out of the car without another word.

Bella flinched a little at that as it reminded her how Victoria's life was tied to her own.

She got out of the car after Victoria and was not terribly surprised that nothing in the other woman hinted at the argument they'd just had in the car. Her face was smiling as she turned towards the sun and she clasped her hands over her head in a long languid stretch. The material of her tank top stretched dangerously against her generous chest and Bella had to fight to tear her eyes away. She had been around Victoria since she was eight years old but in the last couple of years it had been getting harder and harder to not let her eyes linger longer and longer on her protector.

If there was any small blessing in the universe it was that Victoria at least seemed not to notice her few stolen looks or her occasional blatant staring.

Bella jumped slightly at Victoria's voice. "Ready to go BB?" she asked using her childhood nickname, her voice brightening as she enjoyed taking in the morning sun.

Bella shouldered her backpack and walked next to the much taller redhead who stood nearly a whole head above her. "I thought you weren't going to call me that anymore, I'm not a little kid. Besides you can't call be BB here. My new papers say Isabella Swan remember? Not Isabella Black."

Victoria gave a chuckle, a deep rumbling sound that made Bella feel goose bumps up and down her arms. "You'll always be a kid to me BB," she said, turning to look at her with playful and amused eyes.

Bella had to stop herself from flinching at that. She wasn't a kid, she hadn't been one or felt like one in years. It stung badly to hear that Victoria thought of her that way. Not that it was exactly news to Bella.

"Let's just find our schedules," she said and sped up to walk in front of the redhead.

She walked ahead of Victoria the whole way, pointedly ignoring the looks they were getting from the students. Or rather she ignored the once over she got before everyone's eyes settled on Victoria. While Bella was an attractive girl Victoria looked like a wild Irish Goddess with her supernatural good looks and unruly red hair. Whenever the two of them were together it didn't take much for Bella to fade into the background.

Eventually she found her way to the administration office. With a forced smile she greeted the lady manning the desk.

"Isabella Swan and Victoria Lake. We're new today and we need our schedules?"

"Sure thing dear," the lady said amicably, "now, Swan and Lake, Swan and Lake," she muttered to herself as she looked through her papers.

If there was one thing Bella had never predicted about her vampire it was her need to make stupid jokes and puns. Making their names 'Swan Lake' was one of the least groan worthy things that Victoria had come up with over the years. It was irritating and endearing at the same time.

Things like that made it easy to forget that Victoria was a remorseless killer. When they actually got along it was oh so easy to forget.

The vampire in question strode up next to Bella and leaned against the counter close enough that their shoulders were almost touching.

"Still can't believe you insisted on separate classes. Ever hear of Columbine?" she whispered.

"As much as I like you we could both use a little time away from each other," Bella whispered back. "Besides if I'm in any danger you'll be able to feel it. Just relax, if we're lucky we're going to be here a while." She said referring to Forks in general.

Victoria said nothing but her body language said she wasn't happy. Bella sighed and hoped all of this didn't antagonize Victoria too badly. When Victoria was pushed too far she tended to lash out often with bloody results. While she couldn't hurt Bella directly she always found other ways of making her displeasure known.

When the secretary gave them their schedules Victoria turned on her heel and walked away without a word. Looking at her retreating back Bella wanted to call her back and say something to fix the tension between them. The problem was that Bella couldn't think of anything that would help. Victoria was all about safety and survival and Bella just wanted to have a life. Sometimes they just couldn't see eye to eye on some things.

Feeling a bit down Bella left to find her own classroom. She found it with plenty of time and took a seat near the back. When students started trickling in she had her book open but surreptitiously watched as they came in. They mostly all watched her in turn as they came in openly gawking at the new girl in school. It made her uncomfortable being the focus of so many people. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she had been the center of attention.

A kind of cute blonde haired guy entered the classroom and brazenly approached her when he spotted her. He may have been attractive but the entirely too arrogant little smirk on his face turned Bella off to anything he might have to offer.

"Hi," he said to her, "mind if I sit here?" he asked pointing at the desk next to her.

"Sure. Be my guest," she said politely though she was fairly sure she was going to regret being raised to have such good manners.

"Hi, I'm Mike Newton," he said eagerly, holding out his hand for her to shake.

"Bella B.. Swan," she said. It didn't seem like Mike noticed her little slip. She cautiously took his hand and he shook it a little too enthusiastically.

"So er…" he began, "nice jewelry. Is that a common thing where you're from?"

Bella wondered if he realized he was being subtly insulting or if it was unintentional. She looked down at her hands. On each wrist she had a bracelet with various charms and on each hand she had two large rings that were a bit too large to be fashionable. The two bracelets were foci for her power and each ring had been spelled by her. Making all of them had taken months and it had been meticulous and time consuming work. She was quite proud of them so Mike's clumsy insult irritated her greatly.

"Just my own personal style," said Bella before pointedly turning back to her book.

"Cool. It's, uh, sort of nice," he said.

So maybe he was trying to be nice now but Bella was soured to him already. Then again Bella thought that maybe she was being too hard on him. Being around a vampire nearly two centuries old almost exclusively had probably skewed her idea of what teenage interactions should be like. After all didn't television say it was almost mandatory for things to be awkward at first?

"Yeah… thanks," she said.

"So, has anyone shown you around Forks yet? Because I could. You know, show you around. We should like totally make a date of it."

She was right. It was awkward.

"Listen Mike you seem like a nice guy but I don't think I can date right now," Especially since a certain vampire would probably kill me if I didn't run it by her first, "I just moved in with my roommate. Things are really crazy with coming into school in the middle of the year. How about we just keep it friendly and see if there's anything there later on?" Though I doubt it. Sorry Mike.

"Oh come on Bella don't be that way. What harm would it do to have one date? And hey you can bring your roommate along. The more the merrier for me you know?" he said, waggling his eyebrows.

He probably thought he was funny but it only made Bella wish she was good at Evocation, the branch of magic that allowed a Wizard to shoot fire and lightning and lances of pure force. She was unfortunately utterly hopeless at Evocation. What Bella was gifted at was Barrier magic, the art of shaping the primordial forces of the universe towards the strengthening of things and to the creation of protective shields. She briefly entertained the thought of trapping him in a self-sustaining barrier but that sort of thing would be way too much trouble to waste on one annoying guy not to mention it could possibly bring the wrath of the Circle down on her.

She briefly considered setting Victoria on him but that would just be too cruel.

"No thanks," she said again in a polite but chilly voice. He opened his mouth but was interrupted by the bell signaling the start of class.

As the class began Bella couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to date a boy like Mike Newton. Not Mike himself but a normal, average, everyday guy who didn't know about vampires, the Volturi, Wizards or the Circle of Magi. Sadly it wouldn't be much of a relationship. She was obliged to keep the existence of the supernatural secret and in most ways it completely defined her life. She had a vampire bound to her for God's sake! The only sort of person she could date would be another Wizard.

Or a vampire.

Tori's face flashed briefly in her mind before she shoved it down and tried to push it out of her head completely.

After class ended Mike stopped her with a hand on her arm as she was getting up to leave.

"Hey, how about you join me and my friends for lunch? I promise I'll lay off asking you out and I'll introduce you to some new people," he said.

Bella was surprised by the seemingly reasonable turn around. She politely agreed and Mike went off with a big goofy grin on his face. Shaking her head she went on to the next classroom. She doubted he would be paying much attention to her after he met Victoria in any case. Most likely he would start bugging her to set him up.

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Classes came and went more or less without incident. She did hear some boys in letterman jackets talking about the new 'stacked' redhead and heard them say she was the only girl who could hold a candle to someone called Rosalie. It irritated her to hear some stupid boys objectifying Tori like that but there wasn't much she could do about it. When they started talking about how much they would love to 'tap that' she strode away in disgust and anger.

Irritated she marched into the lunchroom and got in line to buy lunch. After she got it she looked around and was slightly disappointed not to see Victoria even though she had been expecting her to skip out. A waving hand caught her attention and she could see it belonged to Mike Newton who was smiling and waving at her to come over. With a slight trepidation Bella plastered a smile on her face and went over to his table.

"Hey Bella, good to see you," he said. She took a seat across from him and next to a dark haired girl who smiled at her shyly.

"Well let me make introductions. As you know I'm Mike, but you knew that right? This here is Lauren and next to her is Jessica. This is my man Tyler and next to you is Angela. Everyone this is Bella Swan, new girl at our school," he said proudly. What he was proud of exactly Bella couldn't fathom.

"Hi, nice to meet you all," she said politely to the group.

Next came a barrage of questions which put to the test the knowledge of her cover story. She and her best friend met when they both became emancipated minors in Seattle. Yes she might need to get a part time job soon. No neither of them had boyfriends. No she didn't have a type. They moved to Forks because of the lower cost of living and they were both originally small town girls. Bella thought some of their cover story sounded kind of weak but Tori assured her it would all hold up.

Finally Bella had had enough and did a not so subtle change in topic. "It's really sunny outside today. I heard that it was supposed to be really overcast here all the time."

Angela seemed to take pity on her followed along with her conversation about the weather. "Yeah it's kind of a freak thing really. This almost never happens. Maybe it's a good luck omen for your first day of school," Angela joked.

"It is a nice day, I wish I could have blown off today and gone down to the beach in La Push," Jessica said wistfully. "I'm jealous of the Cullens. They probably all blew off today to go enjoy the sun."

"Are you kidding? They always blow of school on nice days," said Lauren, "family camping trips my ass. I don't know how their parents can excuse them all missing school every time there's a nice sunny day. Have you seen the cars they drive? Those guys are all spoiled rotten."

Something about that nagged at the back of Bella's mind. "The Cullens?" she prompted.

Lauren was all too happy to fill her in. "They are like this perfect stepford family that think they are just too good to interact with anyone else. There are five of them, all of them kids of Dr Cullen and his wife. The thing is four of them are dating each other!"

"You make it sound so bad Lauren," said Angela, "they are all adopted. It's not like its incest or anything."

"It practically is! They all live together."

"Wait a minute," said Bella, the gears in her head turning, "why did you call them perfect and stepford? Are they super snobbish or something?"

"No, nothing like that," said Jessica, "it's just that well… the guys. I mean all three of them are like Godly good looking. I swear they're the three best looking guys in the school."

"Hey! We're here too," said Mike pointing to himself and Tyler.

"Well if you're going to be like that then it should also be said that Alice and Rosalie by far the hottest girls in school. Fair is fair, and it's true," said Tyler with a grin, trying to get a rise out of the girls.

"I hate that bitch Rosalie. She's such a snob," said Lauren with a look of disgust on her face.

"But she's hot!" insisted Tyler.

While they quibbled like that Bella processed the information she had just gotten in her mind. Five unrelated but apparently incredibly attractive teens who lived together. They always stuck together and didn't associate with anyone else. Plus they missed school on sunny days supposedly sanctioned by their parents. A cold feeling of dread clawed at her stomach.

It was just circumstantial. There couldn't be a coven of vampires living in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Washington could there?

"Bella, aren't you going to introduce me?" said a slightly rough female voice behind her that Bella knew extremely well. The voice sent a shiver up and down her spine. The table had gone silent and all of them were gaping at Victoria in her tank top, cargo pants and leather wrist cuffs with the ever present platinum choker around her neck. Victoria could really play the punk/rocker teenager and she made it look good.

"Tori, these are Jessica, Lauren, Angela, Mike and Tyler," she said with a little trepidation. "Everyone this is Victoria Lake, my best friend and roommate."

"Hey guys, nice to meet you," said Victoria with a dazzling smile before squeezing herself in between Bella and Angela. "Just making sure you're treating my girl here right," she said to the group jokingly.

Bella looked at the faces around her to get their reaction. Predictably the two boys had yet to pick their jaws up off the floor and to her disgust Mike was blatantly staring at Victoria's chest. Jessica seemed in awe and Lauren looked upset and if she had to guess more than a little jealous. Angela just looked overwhelmed by having the new strange girl all up in her personal space.

"I always look out for Bella here you see. She tends to attract trouble like a magnet. I swear she'd be dead by now if she didn't have me watching out for her ass," she said, turning to Bella with a smile that let everyone know she was teasing.

Of course Bella knew better. Victoria liked to say things out in the open in a way no one would pick up on. Making sure she's being treated right is Victoria speak for making a threat assessment of the people she's suddenly decided to associate with. Teasing that Bella would be dead if it wasn't for her wasn't a tease – it was a reminder that Bella would be dead many times over if it wasn't for Victoria's meddling so she had better not get her hackles up about her sticking her nose into her business.

"So err Victoria… why, why don't you join us for lunch? You aren't eating or-or drinking, we could get you some uh juice or something," said Mike stuttering badly. Lauren looked at Mike and sent Victoria a death glare.

Victoria for her part let a slow wicked grin spread across her face as she looked at Mike. Bella was sure they boys couldn't decide whether to be scared or excited.

"I never drink… juice," she said with amusement shining in her eyes. The boys and everyone at the table looked confused and Bella had to suppress the urge to groan.

Victoria, the vampire, was quoting the famous line from Bela Lugosi's famous 1931 rendition of Dracula. It was a bad pun. A bad vampire pun. Of course Victoria couldn't resist. The fact that only she and Bella would get why it was supposed to be funny didn't seem to bother the vampire in the least.

Victoria only stayed for a few minutes making the two boys at the table incapable of full coherent speech for the duration. Bella made sure to steer the conversation so the subject didn't come back around to the Cullens. If Victoria had all the information she had Bella wouldn't be surprised if the vampire demanded they leave Forks that very day. That just would not do. Bella would verify on her own if there was a vampire coven in Forks and then go from there. She did not want to be dealing with a paranoid overprotective vampire especially not on her first day of school. If it turned out to be nothing then Victoria would be none the wiser.

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There was another pun in there I didn't explicitly mention. Can you find it?