Emmett was already a senior so we didn't have any classes together but thankfully, I had English with Alice just before lunch. I needed to see a friendly face to pull me back down to earth and reality. I wanted to tell her about the mysterious and beautiful girl in my Biology class but I was at a total loss of how to explain my strange reaction to her. If I could tell anyone it was Alice – she had a very open mind to these kinds of things.

She was already seated when I walked in to class but didn't even notice me when I walked in as she was clearly flirting with the blond guy who was sitting in the chair to one side of her. I sat down at the empty chair next to hers and leaned over and flicked her on the shoulder.

"Hey," she whined at me, "what'd you do that for?"

"Just trying to get your attention," I said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, well…I was just talking to Jasper," she replied. "Isn't he gorgeous?" she added, leaning closer, whispering.

"Uh, oh yeah, gorgeous," I mimicked, rolling my eyes for effect. She ignored my sarcasm and turned back to Jasper, effectively tuning me out.

"Hey, Alice, I have to tell you something!" I implored, trying to infuse my voice with enough seriousness that she would turn away from the guy she was fawning over.

"What Edward?" she said, irritated, looking me square in the face.

"I met a girl, well, kind of, well…" I could tell by her look that she wasn't going to have the patience to wait for me to figure out how to articulate the details of my experience with the girl in Biology. I would have to tell her when we got home.

"Never mind Alice, I'll tell you later."

"Okay," she responded, already shifting her body back toward the blond guy, Jasper, and immediately picking up where I had interrupted.

Even when the teacher walked in and approached our tables, asking for our schedules to sign, Alice never looked away from Jasper. I had never seen her so infatuated with anyone before and I was a little worried for her. As the teacher pulled a battered copy of George Orwell's Animal Farm out of his bag and began to lecture in monotone voice, I craned my neck to look over at this guy. I was reassured as this "Jasper" guy seemed as entranced by Alice as she was with him – he had a dopey smile on his face and kept nervously running a hand through his blond hair.

They kept up a steady whispered conversation through the teacher's entire lecture on Animal Farm's relevance as a work of political satire. Instead of allowing myself to be bored to tears like the rest of the class, I vacillated back and forth between watching Alice and Jasper's interchange and in trying to clearly visualize the features of the exquisite dark angel from Biology. Her face, her thoughts, and even her intense hostility haunted my mind. She had bewitched me.

After English, we had lunch. Jasper had invited Alice and I to sit at his table and I agreed only because I wanted to keep an eye on him – and her. Alice was practically drooling over this guy and I was going to make sure that she didn't get too close too fast. It was only our first day and we didn't really know the social dynamics of this school yet and I wasn't about to let Alice become a victim of the school stud.

As we entered the cafeteria, I couldn't keep from hoping that I would see her again. I scanned the room, trying to look as casual as I could, avoiding the stares from various girls who I could sense were trying to garner my attention. I noticed Jasper getting a few stares as well and I chuckled under my breath to see that like me, he didn't seem at all interested in being eye candy for the female population of Forks High. Maybe he was a good guy after all.

Jasper led us through the lunch line, making suggestions of the least offensive food choices and steering us away from a few entrees that he claimed would "camp out in our stomach for a few weeks afterward." I actually found myself liking him and his easygoing manner. And the way that he was fawning over Alice and drinking up her every move, every word – I know it should have bothered me – but it didn't. I don't know why, but I trusted him – I got a sense from him that he really liked her – maybe even worshipped her. It made me happy for her.

We followed Jasper to a table near a window on the edge of the large room where a blond girl was already sitting on the far side. As we got closer I saw that the girl was incredibly beautiful – statuesque, like a model. I couldn't help think she looked a little artificial, like someone you would see on television but not real life. Her eyebrows rose infinitesimally at me as I put my tray down on the table. She openly scrutinized Alice as she sidled down next to Jasper and I felt an instinctual surge of protection. I slid down onto the bench between the blond goddess and Alice and looked directly at her too-perfect face. I was about to challenge her steely gaze when I felt a huge paw of a hand come down on my shoulder – Emmett.

"Eddie, who is this gorgeous goddess you're sitting next to?" Emmett said with a smile, turning on the charm, eyes twinkling, and dimples bursting.

"Oh, hey, sorry…Alice, Edward, this is my sister, Rosalie," Jasper gestured toward the blond.

"And I'm Emmett. Alice and Edward are my sibs," Emmett explained as he reached out a hand to Rosalie. She surprised me by grasping Emmett's hand and shaking his firmly, locking eyes with him the entire time.

"I know who you are. Everyone knows who you are. This is a small town, after all," Rosalie said, pretentiousness and snobbery clear in every syllable of her words. But Emmett, being the confident beast that he was, was entirely unaffected by her superficiality.

"You are going out with me tonight and tomorrow and the next day," Emmett told her with perfect conviction. Rosalie just looked on him in complete consternation. She was clearly a girl who wasn't used to being surprised.

"Uh…um, okay," she answered robotically.

"Yeah! I'm going out with the prettiest girl in the world!" Emmett exclaimed a little too loudly, attracting the attention of the students at the near tables, and hustled off to where a group of jock types were hanging out. I turned to see the smallest hint of a smile bending the corner of Rosalie's full lips before her face became totally impassive.

With Emmett's departure, the rest of the lunch hour became uneventful and dull. After I ate a piece of pizza that tasted like cardboard, I spent several minutes sitting silently while Alice and Jasper were wrapped up in their own cocoon of hushed talking and flirting. I tried to talk with Rosalie but she was just as shallow as she first appeared and I found it more interesting to watch her twirl her hair in her pretty fingers than to try to strike up a conversation with her.

At the end of the day, on the car ride home both of my siblings were soaring with happiness, both having already found someone to occupy their most intimate thoughts. I had also discovered someone at Forks High that I couldn't get out of my head but our first encounter was less friendly. In fact, I had no reason to believe that my gorgeous lab partner didn't hate me.

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to see her again. I had never been so excited to go to school before. And yet, I was a little afraid. Would I be able to hear her thoughts again? Would I be able to clear my head enough that I could talk to her? At least long enough to ask her name?

I just had to see her again, to speak with her, and to find out why her thoughts were so disturbing. I was resolved to fight the confusion and stupor that was caused by being near her so that I could make some sense out of the mysterious bits of her mind that she had inadvertently shared with me. I was drawn to her and would pursue her - even if she hurt me. My worst fear was that the dark images she shot at my brain were somehow in reaction to my presence. I couldn't help but suspect that I was "the boy" she mentioned and that it was from me that she wanted to escape.