Lily Dwyer

When I first arrived at school, I was anything but comfortable.

First a very elderly woman named Ms Cope told me to get my teachers to sign a slip she gave me, and having to try to sneak into the class late and having to approach the teacher. Of course, the majority of them were sympathetic, but it didn't matter. There were still thirty sets of eyes staring at me constantly, and it didn't make me feel any less nervous about being new to the school.

The first truly interesting thing happened to me shortly after lunch began.

"Hi, you're Lily, aren't you?"

The words came from a boy in my class, and I had to look up at him, his head towering over me. Just like everyone in Forks, his skin was pale and his hair, although blonde, looked dark in contrast to the white skin. His eyes were dark and blue, shining with curiosity. There was something overly hopeful in his expression, and to be honest, I couldn't help but think that the five words he uttered to me could be interpreted as flirting.

"That's me," I said, trying my best to smile. This was not the first boy to approach me, and I very much doubted he would be the last. It was a strange experience for me. Although I'd been asked out on a few dates last year, no one seemed quite as interested and focused as those in Forks. I supposed they had fewer opportunities here.

"Hi, I'm Peter Jacobs," he said, shaking my hand. Peter was still smiling in a way that made me feel uncomfortable, but I didn't stop him. Seeming that antisocial on the first day certainly wouldn't do wonders on my popularity, even if I wasn't looking to be the centre of attention.

Peter led me to lunch, where he pulled me quickly to his table. There were several people already sitting there and, abandoning their own conversations, came over quickly to speak with me. They were all eagerly asking me questions about Phoenix and, in particular, my family. Lunch was passing ever so slowly, and it seemed as if it would never end.

But then I saw him, and I knew.

When I first saw him, I knew.

I could have been in a room with only him, or in a room with a thousand people, but I still would have focused on him and him alone. It didn't matter that I was just as bit of an outsider in this school as he were, or perhaps even more so. It didn't matter how different things were here now, it didn't matter that everyone saw him as strange. Because only I had been warned about him by my mother.

Edward Cullen was certainly not an average boy. Even his looks were strange, his skin paler and pastier than anyone I'd ever seen from Forks, and his eyes a strange golden shade.

The words echoed in my head as I watched him. He wasn't Edward Cullen; I knew that he couldn't be. But at the same time, it all seemed to fit. His hair was not bronze, as the pictures Renee had showed me had claimed, instead black and shining, but everything else about him was identical. His skin was chalk-white, lighter than anyone else in the room, even if all of them had been born and bred in Forks. And his eyes… His eyes were golden, perfectly round, exactly as I had imagined them when Renee told me about him. Exactly the same as in the wedding picture.

"Who is he?" I whispered quietly to no one in particular, my eyes still fixed on the mysterious boy sitting across the cafeteria. There was no doubting that he could have been a movie star, with his muscled body and his deep golden eyes, his shiny black hair perfectly attractive. He was staring at the tray of food before him, but I could imagine them flowing with the happiness that had showed in the eyes of Edward when he had married my sister.

Silvia Matthews, the girl sat beside me, seemed none too surprised that I was asking about… Whoever he was. "That's Ryan Hale. He's a bit of an outsider, like you, except a lot weirder. He moved here a few years ago with his older sister and her fiancée, Edmond Evenson and Rachel. Rachel goes to school here now, but you don't see Edmond too often. I hear that he spends a good part of his time camping. Ryan and Rachel could befriend anyone in the school, and I swear every female student here has a crush on Ryan, but they don't really talk to anyone apart from each other. A strange pair, if you ask me."

Hale… Hale was the name of two of Edward's siblings, was it not? It could be a coincidence, but there was something strange about it. Edmond sounded suspiciously similar to Edward or Emmett, and the name Rachel only reminded me of Rosalie, even if the first letter of the name was the only similarity. I might have been paranoid, but… Well, this all seemed too coincidental. Hale wasn't a very strange name, but it was certainly not that common, and Forks was a small place. The chances that two of two Hales in Forks in sixteen years that were unrelated were very, very unlikely. What's going on?

"Where's Rachel sitting?" I asked. That would surely satisfy my curiosity, wouldn't it? Rosalie had attended the wedding, and she had been one of Bella's bridesmaids. She was in plenty of pictures, smiling brightly and revealing her beauty to everyone who attended, almost stealing all the attention away from Bella. She had been standing beside a particularly muscled boy named Emmett, who had apparently been nineteen at the time of the picture, but he could have easily been twenty-five. Renee had told me that they planned to marry later that year.

"Rachel's out sick, apparently going with Edmond on one of his camping trips. I wouldn't believe her so easily, though. If you've ever seen Rachel, you can tell that she's not the type to lift a finger for herself, never mind spend days on end in the wild, sleeping outside and catching her own food to eat. I think that she and Edmond just wanted a day to themselves. Of course, that means poor Ryan is left here alone with no one to talk to." Silvia paused to stare dreamily at Ryan, something that I didn't miss.

"I wouldn't bother staring at him for very long," Silvia cautioned me, as if she hadn't been doing the same thing only a few moments prior, and would surely return in a few more seconds. "Ryan doesn't talk to anyone around here, least of all people who haven't even established themselves with the normal students of school. I wonder if he dates, though…"

I raised an eyebrow, but my head was turned away from Silvia, so she didn't see my expression. There was no doubt there was interest none too hidden under Silvia's advice, and I wondered if she was not planning an encounter with Hale. Someone that beautiful would have no problem breaking a girl's heart, least of all someone as dramatic as Silvia. If only I hadn't asked…

"Come on," said Peter, taking my hand. I was beginning to wonder if acknowledging his presence had been a mistake that I would regret. He seemed quite eager to speak to me alone, even though it was clear that no one else had left before us. "Class is about to start. What have you got?"

I slipped my hand out of his hand, glancing at my schedule unwillingly, unhappy to look away from Ryan. Leaving with Peter might be a bit of a mistake, but making him think that I was welcoming to all those from Forks High would probably make a better impression than flatly refusing to stare at some boy I had yet to meet. "Math, building three."

I could practically hear the smile light up Peter's face, although my eyes had drifted back to the table where the sole Hale sat alone. I was silently bidding him goodbye, because it was obvious that Peter was about to take me away. As expected, he quickly said, "Good. I've got Math as well; I'll show you where it is."

Giving Ryan one last glance, I set off after Peter. He seemed eager enough to get my eyes away from Ryan, even if no one else seemed the least bit interested in what he was doing. I supposed he had been new long before me, and wasn't quite as bit amazing as he had been at first, but at the same time, I was surprised. Ryan seemed cold, and I couldn't help but find him a bit vain. It was true that no one in the school looked pretty enough to be pictured standing beside him, but was that any reason for him not to pay any attention to them? No other explanation seemed truthful enough. There was no doubt that these people would be willing to accept him, if he ever paid any attention to them.

We arrived at Math ten minutes early, which was, in all likelihood, Peter's intention all along. He talked to me for a long time, none too subtly slipping in hints about the sports teams he belonged to and all the extra curricular activities he participated in. I was almost glad when the bell rang and the teacher, Mr. Silverman, came in. Almost.

"You must be Lily!" he said as soon as he spotted me standing awkwardly near his desk. It seemed as if the rest of the students had assigned seating, and I was the only one left standing by the time he arrived. Mr. Silverman didn't seem all that bad at first, but there was something about the permanent expression on his face that told me and the very subject he taught that his lessons would be none too interesting.

Mr. Silverman quickly signed my slip and directed me to a desk near the back. There was no one sitting at it, and I almost thought that I would be able to get away with sitting alone in at least one class. It might be nice to have some company later in the year, but for the moment I was the new girl. The new oddity that everyone had to learn about.

But a few minutes into class, I was surprised to see the door open, and another student slipped in. It took me only a few moments to realize who he was. Even in a dull raincoat and a hood pulled over his head, he was easily identified by his perfection. Ryan Hale quickly muttered an apology to Mr. Silverman for interrupting his class, and hurried over to the seat beside me.

"Don't be late again, Mr. Hale," Mr. Silverman said, clearly upset that he had been interrupted while completing his introduction into algebra. The growing-more-boring-by-the-second teacher continued, and Ryan sat down beside me. I was surprised by how glad I was that he was sitting beside me.

Ryan paid absolutely no attention to me at all, and for that I was grateful. After all, everyone in the school seemed to need to know exactly what was going on in my mind. But for the lack of distraction from neither the teacher nor the student sitting beside me, I was able to think a bit too freely. Golden eyes… Hale… Rachel and Edmond…

The class seemed to last for hours, but eventually the bell rang, and students began filing out. I was gathering up my books when I was surprised by a tap on my shoulder. It would have been normal, if not having come from my right side, where Ryan was sitting…

"I'm Ryan Hale," he said, giving me his hand. I shook it gratefully, surprised by how cold he was to the touch. It felt as if he should have had hypothermia, but he seemed to be in perfect health. He was smiling, flashing a perfectly white set of sharp teeth. "It's nice to meet you, Lily."

All I could do was smile back, for fear that words would not come. Ryan Hale was truly the most beautiful boy I had ever seen, better looking than anyone I had ever seen in a movie or on TV, better than a supermodel or any other celebrity. Better looking than even how Steve looked in my eyes.

Ryan pulled his hand away suddenly, and I realized that the classroom was almost empty. Blushing hard, I scrambled to gather up my books and fled the classroom. Gym was next on the list, easily spotted because it was the biggest building I could see. I went quickly and refused to look back, because I knew that Ryan would be leaving just behind me.

In gym, I met another boy.

His name was Ethan Jackson, and he was just as friendly as Peter, if not more so. He decided to guide me all the way to the door of the girls' change room, although there he was forced to leave me. Ethan spent the whole gym class attempting to speak with me, even though our class was in the middle of a baseball team. Thankfully, I am naturally athletic, and found it easy to lose him in the game. But when I realized that I had forgotten a book in the Math room, he was quick to come with me.

"You don't have to wait for me," I told Ethan when he reached the door, but he only shook his head, a stupid grin on his face, as if leaving me alone in a classroom was the stupidest thing in the world to do. Instead he followed me in eagerly, and I wish that he hadn't. Because if he hadn't, he wouldn't have seen Peter. And the tension would not have been tangible in the air.

I'm not sure how it happened. But one moment, everything was fine. The next Peter was standing in front of me, shielding me from an angry looking Ethan. And Peter looked none too happy.

Being a new student shouldn't be this hard.

I'd been at school for only three hours, and already issues were arising. It might have turned out differently if I had turned down the first overly friendly stranger who offered to help me, and perhaps accepting the help of a second hadn't been the best idea. But I hadn't expected such competition, such… aggressive behaviour. Besides, weren't small towns supposed to be calmer?

"Calm down, Peter," I said quietly, but he didn't seem to hear me, or if he did, he didn't want to listen to me. The boy looked ready to attack, to throw a good punch or two. I was sure that this was where this was leading, and I'd need to get someone to stop them, now. It certainly wasn't a job I was up to…

Peter was standing near the door, blocking the entrance. Leaving the building wasn't possible, then. Ethan was standing between Peter and me, shielding me protectively. I could try to throw myself between them, but they'd probably be fighting by the time I moved, not to mention the danger of getting between them mid-fight. There was nothing I could do…

Just as I swear I saw Peter's hand start to form a fist, the door swung open.

Peter and Ethan both froze in place, eyes shooting to the figure standing in the doorway. He was tall and lean, obviously stronger than both Peter and Michael. He didn't look surprised to see Peter and Michael about to fight, and was instead smiling calmly. "Can I help either of you?"

Peter looked like he might have killed Ryan Hale then and there, but the tension and danger of the fight had passed. There was anger obvious on his face, but it would be nothing short of idiotic to fight with someone who had nothing to lose by reporting him, not to mention two good witnesses. Instead of attacking him, Peter grunted something under his breath and pushed his way past.

Ethan paused a while longer, seeming unwilling to leave. He stared at me for a long, hard moment, but I knew what my eyes would be telling him to do. They were still anxious and tired from how close they had come to a fight, and there would have probably also been a tinge of fear. Without even looking at Ryan, he left building three in a hurry.

The boy, still standing in the doorway, finally focused on me. The tension faded away from his eyes in an instant, replaced instantly by concern. "Lily, are you… Are you feeling all right?"