Thanks so much to lil artist and ..wolf. I really really appreciate your comments, and will definitely try to update once a day (except on the weekends, when I'm out of town). Feel free to keep reviewing for every chapter if you want to tell me you liked something.

This is a good time to stick to the story. The introduction is out of the way, and we're getting into the fun parts. :D

Please, if you start reading and like what you see, leave a review so I know you enjoyed it!

Prince and Princess

Maureen walked to her next class—English—navigating through the crowded hallway in the quick, side-stepping maneuver developed by teenagers in order to avoid bumping into each other. She made it to her class quickly enough, and found the seat she'd sat in the day before. Today the room looked a little clearer—probably due to the fact that she wasn't so angry that it blurred her vision. But it wasn't until she'd put her backpack down and opened her notebook on the table that she realized one of the albinos from lunch was sitting next to her.

He was in the desk directly to her right—the one with the douchy hair. He was wearing a pair of dark, well-cut trouser pants, and a long-sleeved gray turtleneck, probably lambs wool. Now that he wasn't towering over her, Maureen was struck again by how flawless and pale his skin was. Maureen imagined this was what a man would look like if he covered his body in Bioré pore cleansing strips every morning, then hid from the sun in a basement. Maureen looked down, and marked today's date and the lesson title from the blackboard on a fresh sheet of loose-leaf paper.

"Snnnff."

Quiet though it was, the strange noise cut through the buzz of chattering students like a knife.

Maureen turned her head, just in time to see the boy leaning back in his seat. He had a puckered expression on his face, like he'd just bitten into a lemon.

Did he just sniff at me? Maureen thought. Eh, he's probably just got a cold.

The boy wasn't looking her way, but he obviously knew Maureen was looking at him. He kept glancing at her repeatedly, out of the corner of his eye. It seemed to Maureen that he was torn between reacting and not reacting.

Enough of this middle-school bullshit. Maureen turned in her seat to face him

There was a moment of silence. This kid was good at those.

So…you gonna explain to me what all that was about?" Maureen prompted. "At the cafeteria?"

The boy looked at her then, full in the face. His eyes were a bizarre color…they reminded Maureen of those blocks of amber that had five thousand year old bugs trapped in them.

Freaky. Maureen thought.

The boy nodded his head, the motion looked stiff and forced. "I'm sorry." He said. The boy smiled. It was a dazzling smile, all in all. But it looked awkward, and just as forced as his nod. "My brother can be very protective."

His voice had a strange lilt to it, almost musical. Maureen hadn't noticed that about the other two when they'd spoken earlier. But now that she thought back, they'd sounded odd too.

"That's your brother? The big guy who has too many muscles in his torso?" Maureen grinned back.

The boy's smile vanished.

"No offense. He's very well built." Maureen said hastily. She hated how people could be so sensitive.

"Well, he…takes a lot of pride in his appearance." The boy smiled again. This smile was less forced. More than that…it was patronizing.

He's laughing at me on the inside. Maureen thought. She was more curious than angry. Why?

"It seems like you all do. "Maureen said out loud. "Once again no offense, but you kind of look like you all stepped out of a J. Crew catalogue."

"I know, you—" The boy abruptly stopped speaking. His face once again became impassive.

There was another pause. The boy seemed to have lost his ability to speak.

Obviously I'm dealing with a special needs kid here. Maureen thought. Not a problem, not a problem…if Cathy had her way, I'd have 'SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD' carved into my forehead. I can be nice to him.

I can start with formalities. Maureen decided. She knew how to introduce herself politely; she should have done that first

"My name is Maureen Stanley." Maureen said. "I didn't get a chance to introduce myself at the table. You must be…?"

"I'm Edward Cullen." The boy replied through his teeth. Somewhere in the last five seconds, his blank face had become a mask of badly disguised anger.

"Pleased to meet you." Maureen held out a hand. Edward didn't take it.

Maureen put her hand down. "You're being a little rude." She commented. Crazy or not, he ought to know how to shake hands.

Edward's response was to laugh—it was more of a scoff, though. And his scorn was almost visible.

"I'm being rude?" He said. "You've been nothing but rude!"

"Hey now!" Maureen's face darkened. "I said 'no offense' for the jokes, and I was polite at the table. It was that blonde girl who turned her back on me in the middle of a sentence."

"My sister, Rosalie." Edward's face sobered from anger back to the blank look.

This kid has more mood swings than a bi-polar with ADHD. Maureen thought.

The corner of Edward's mouth twitched visibly, a full-on tic.

"She…she actually wished to apologize to you." Edward said. His words were clipped, as if he were exerting great control over his voice. "Rosalie, that is."

"Well, if she hung around the parking lot when classes let out, we could talk then." Maureen said. "You wouldn't have to be the go-between."

"That would certainly be possible. She's actually sorry for her behavior."

You say that like she's usually not sorry."

Edward laughed again, his short patronizing scoff. "That would be a fair observation."

I bet you're not sorry often, either. Maureen thought. You have a look of entitlement about you. Like everyone here is an ant, and you're the kid with the magnifying glass. Except…except instead of frying the ants, you put the glass in your pocket and tell them how lucky they are that you're so generously sparing their lives. And then you laugh at them offensively.

Edward's face twitched again. It looked like he was struggling to choose an emotion.

He opened his mouth to respond, but the teacher abruptly began to talk. Edward shut his mouth, and turned to face the black board. Except for the movement of his hand as he wrote, he became still as a statue.

Maureen glanced at him, confused and annoyed. Shrugging dismissively, she faced forward in her own desk, and reached for her knitting needles. She spent the rest of the class writing notes, and finishing the beetle hat.

Maureen's next class also had Edward in it—though he sat in the back, and Maureen had a desk closer to the front. She could practically feel his eyes boring into her head, though. Or she was just being paranoid.

Maureen took time during the lesson to examine her classmates further. She'd been so upset yesterday she might as well have been sitting in a room by herself, for all she'd noticed her peers. They seemed a decent enough lot. Outside of their pointless excitement over having a new classmate from the mythical state of California, they were just regular kids. Most were paying attention to the teacher, and almost all of them looked like they wanted to be elsewhere. One boy with gelled hair—Maureen remembered him talking to her yesterday morning, though she couldn't remember his name—caught Maureen's eye as she scanned the room, and he gave her a smile in greeting—it was brief, but very sweet.

The rest of the day went by quickly, despite Maureen having nothing to work on. It wouldn't always be that easy, though. Maureen made a mental note to bring extra supplies to school each day, in case she finished a project before school ended. Hefting her backpack over one shoulder, Maureen exited the school and headed towards the buses at a leisurely pace.

She looked across the parking lot, trying to see if the blonde girl, Rosalie, was hanging around. It didn't take much effort to find her. She stood clustered with her pasty-skinned comrades next to a silver Volvo, and all five of them stuck out of the crowd like a sore thumb. Maureen made her way towards them, but they all turned towards her before she'd taken three steps in their direction. Rosalie separated from the group, and walked over.

"Hey. Rosalie, right?" Maureen said. She held out a hand.

Rosalie looked down at Maureen's hand like she didn't know what it was. Then she slowly raised her own, and the two girls shook hands.

Girl needs a pair of warm gloves, and a lighter grip. Maureen thought. Ah well. Better than limp and sweaty, anyhow.

Rosalie sniffed. Her face twisted slightly, and she pulled back her hand to brush it across her nose.

"You're Maureen Stanley." Rosalie said. "Edward says you're Jessica Stanley's cousin."

"Well he never asked me if I was, but yes." Maureen was irritated, but not surprised. If the grapevine at this school was as starved for news as it seemed, more than half the student body would know who Maureen was related to.

Rosalie shrugged. "Edward's usually very polite. But he lapses sometimes, especially when he takes offense to something."

The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. "Actually, he's cross over how rude you were to him. But I think he's blowing it out of proportion, so it's really just funny."

"Er…good to know." Maureen said.

Maureen was struck again by Rosalie's beauty. It wasn't just the way her white pants rested on her hips, or the way her dark red silk shirt accentuated her curves. It was in her face, in her eyes; in the way she carried herself. Even Forks agreed, giving Maureen a playful nudge—Rosalie's appearance was unmatched.

Here's the fairest of them all. Maureen thought.

"I wanted to apologize for walking off at lunchtime." Rosalie said. Her tone was pleasant, but she sounded like she'd prepared her words beforehand, and rehearsed them. "It was rude of me. But I don't talk to many people outside of my family. I'm a very private person. We all are. We like to keep to ourselves."

Maureen nodded. "Okay."

"So I hope you won't take offense when I say that we like to sit alone." Rosalie finished. "It's not your problem, but ours."

"Uh, sure." Maureen said. "Yeah, that's fine. I understand wanting to be insular, and having a close-knit group of friends."

Oh boy, do I.

Rosalie smiled, which made her look even more stunning. For some reason, it made Maureen think of violet silk.

"You'd look good wearing purple, you know." Maureen blurted out. She resisted the urge to say more, to wax poetic—the excessively descriptive language that Forks favored was tugging at her mind.

Rosalie looked surprised for a moment, then smiled.

"Yes, I've heard that before." She said. There was a shade of smugness in her tone, reminiscent of Edward's patronizing smiles.

Well, so much for humility. Maureen thought, frowning. I suppose she thinks she's superior too. Like brother, like sister.

It didn't matter. Much like everything else here, it was more of a contrived conflict than an actual problem.

"I've to got catch the bus." Maureen said. "Maybe I'll see you around. What year are you?"

"I'm a junior." Rosalie had stopped smiling. "You probably won't see me around."

"…well okay, have a good day!" Maureen said, as she turned to walk away. It was an obnoxious farewell, but better than the awkward 'oh' that had been Maureen's first reaction.

Poor social skills indeed…what kind of response did she expect from that last part? Maureen thought grumpily as she climbed the steps onto the bus. Edward and Rosalie were a piece of work. And for all she knew, so were the other three.

It didn't matter. Annoying peers aside, Maureen knew she could handle living like this, coming here day after day. It wasn't hell.

Unless I make it so. Which I won't. Maureen leaned her forehead against the window by her seat, and smiled.

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