Chapter One: New Kids

Smile, Bella. I told myself. They're all watching.

I smiled once at myself in the rearview mirror. It was a pathetic smile, a lifeless one, but it satisfied the masses and kept the questions at bay, and that's all that mattered.

I took a deep breath as I pulled the hood from my hoodie over my head. It was raining-as per usual. It is Forks. I stepped out of my truck and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to retain any warmth that the heater from my truck had provided, and made my way to the picnic tables closest to the Spanish room, where I knew Jessica and Angela would be, with their umbrellas up and their hoods down-God forbid the ruin their hair.

Angela wasn't as superficial as Jessica by any means, but she still cared about normal teenager stuff. How their hair looked, if their clothes were fashionable. Things that I couldn't care less about.

"Hey Bella!" Angela called to me when I was in ear shot.

"Ang, Jess." I greeted with a smile.

Jessica smiled at me, and then launched into a pointless story about some gossip she had heard. We sat at the table for five minutes as she prattled on, but suddenly, she cut off.

"What's wrong?" Angela asked as Jessica stared out at the parking lot.

Jessica nodded forward towards the parking lot. "New kids." She said as an awe struck look passed over her face.

I looked up to see what could have caused her to act so strangely, and for once, I felt as though I understood Jessica.

There were two kids standing near a silver Volvo in the parking lot. The girl was short, barely reaching up to the top of the car, and very thin. She had short black hair that was spiked into a fashionable disarray, and was dressed in clothes you could tell were expensive just by looking at them.

But the awe stuck look was not caused by the beautiful girl or the car. It was because of the guy standing next to the car.

He was tall and lean, but was obviously very fit. His hair was an unusual shade of bronze, almost like a penny. His hair was tousled, as if he had just rolled out of bed or had run his hand through his hair repeatedly. He was pale with a very angular face that looked as if it had been chiseled. And even from where I was standing, I could see his brilliant green eyes that were full of such deep emotion that I was staggered.

"He is gorgeous!" Jessica exclaimed as she examined the beautiful boy. We watched him as he and the girl walked up the pathway leading to the main office, presumably to get their schedules.

I shook myself out of the haze the mysterious new boy had induced and stood up.

"I've got to get to class, guys. I'll, uh, see you later." I mumbled.

They both said good bye, neither of them really registering I was leaving because their eyes were focusing on the main office.

I walked into my first period English class and sighed as I sat down. I was alone for a moment, the students refusing to come in until the last second and the teacher always coming in a few minutes late.

Since I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, due to a drunken father and his friends being obnoxiously loud until they finally passed out at 4am, I laid my head down on my desk to get a moments rest.

It was cut short though by the sound of the door opening.

"Is this the senior English class?" A bell like voice asked.

I looked up to see the new girl standing there with a beautiful smile on her face. She was holding her schedule in her hand, which was already slightly damp from the rain.

"Yep." I said with a nod.

She smiled at me and sighed. "Ok, good. I hate moving to new schools. You can never find anything."

I smiled back at her as she sat down in the desk next to mine.

"Have you moved a lot before?" I asked curiously.

She nodded as she pulled a binder out of her back pack. It was hot pink and had the word English written on it.

"About four times. My father is a doctor." She said with a shrug.

I just stared at her. Normally doctors don't require moving around a lot.

She laughed at my expression. "My dad is a very good man. He wanted to be at a hospital where he felt that he was really needed. We started out at a hospital in New York, but they were over staffed anyways, so he wanted to find some place that actually needed him. We went from there to LA, to Oregon, and now here. He had heard that the hospital was really short staffed since the main surgeon passed away, so my dad decided this is where he needed to be." She shrugged.

"Wow. That's really great of him. We did need a new doctor desperately around here."

"You couldn't find a better one than Carlisle." She said with a smile. "My dad is great."

The class started filtering in at this point, as well as the teacher. The girl smiled over at me as the bell rang, signaling the start of class.

"Oh! What's your name?" She whispered as the teacher started class.

I smiled at her, and this smile, though not completely real, felt more lively than normal. "Bella. What's yours?"

She smiled at me again. "Alice Cullen."