Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or Atonement
Say hello to Bella...
Resentment
The cold of an Edinburgh winter day hit Bella Swan like a wrecking ball in the chest as she stepped out that morning for school. Frost gilded the railings of the steps outside their flat and her breath came out in gossamer clouds. She pulled up her school scarf and walked briskly away from the flat she shared with her father and mother. Her boots thudded against the stone stairs and as she walked, her nose already pink from over the top of her scarf.
It was still dark, the moon looking pale and washed out as the sky streaked pale by the sunlight peaking over the crest of the hard lines of the rooftops of the Colonies. She tucked her fingers into her jacket pockets, her bag a heavy yet comforting weight on the place between her shoulder blades. The world had barely just started stirring. She heard the rumbles of cars against cobbles, the hack-hack of roadworks, the snaps and hushes of the bare trees.
She quite liked walking. Her father had made her do it since she was small and she found that the rhythm of footsteps gave and the steady way one could move allowed a space in her brain to clear and think.
She thought of a multitude of things. School mostly. Friends often. Memories sometimes.
On this particular morning, Edward Cullen chose to swim across her mind. As always, her stomach responded with a jumbled assortment of feelings, some of them unrecognisable. Some of them so strong they nearly obliterated the rest. Irritation. Awe. Hurt. Longing.
Edward Cullen. The clever, handsome, witty, arsehole. Bane of her existence, while being perfectly charming at the same time.
Bastard.
Beautiful bastard.
You're friends with him until you're 5, don't see him till your 13 and he ignores you from then on. Him and his elitist friends. Stupid class system.
Well, what do you expect? What's he supposed to say to his friends? 'Look, there's my maid's daughter. I used to play hide and seek with her when we were 5.'
They'd laugh at him. Those friends that have lords and CEOs for parents and have villas in South of France. Bella was just the girl who was supposed to clean their platinum toilets.
Unlikely for that now.
She was Potts Academy charity case. She had a music scholarship to the school that was described as 'The Eton of the North.' They didn't give out those scholarships for nothing. There were at most 5 in every year and they were the brilliant but poor types from 'eclectic' backgrounds, as the website put it.
Bit of a nasty shock for Edward when he saw her that first day.
Bella remembered with a shudder as he brushed aside her enthusiastic greetings and and pierced her with those bottle green eyes, "don't you have toilets to clean?"
That stung. Especially when his beautiful friends started to laugh. After a few days, she saw how much she didn't fit in. Nearly everyone at the Academy had posh English accents and would mimic her Edinburgh accent whenever she answered a question with cruel sneers. While they talked about their Spring's skiing in Val d'Isere and sunbathing in the Caribbean, Bella would reflect on the caravan holiday to North Berwick that she went with her parents. Everyone had Blackberrys and iPhones, while she still had her mum's old Nokia brick.
She didn't belong in Edward Cullen's world.
She had a feeling she never would.
So she stayed with the other scholarship kids, quietly studied in the library or her study and didn't attend the school functions.
As Edward put so eloquently on that first day, 'we move in different circles.'
Stupid charming twat.
Bella huffed irritably as she began to pass around the wrought iron school fence, enclosing an imposing gothic building with wide spreading lawns and a gravel car park.
A businessman, who died before the school was finished and was thus named in his honour, commissioned for it to be built in the 19th century. It was one of the many buildings that dominated the Edinburgh skyline and thus imposed its pretentiousness on everyone who lived around.
Bella sniggered to herself at that thought. Thinking bad of Potts Academy was like saying 'goddammit' in front of the Pope.
It's funny, because its true.
The junction outside the Academy was hectic as usual and she sneaked past the cars that were playing some twisted form of ballet and stomped up the main driveway before turning off right down towards the Science Blocks and Arnsbrae House. Arnsbrae House was part of 8 houses within the Academy, 3 girls, four boys and one 6th form house, the one Bella was headed to. It was supposed to promote independence as the last year headed to university. It had laundry rooms, a small library with computers, two common rooms and a large kitchen. Every boarder got their own room and day pupils like Bella got to share a study with up to three other people. The place was modern, with clean lines that juxtaposed next to the ornate old buildings. Bella pressed her thumb into the thumb scanner and waited for the beep and click. She had to do this 3 more times before the door finally beeped and clicked her through.
"Good morning Isabella," Mrs Goff, housemistress of Arnsbrae, smiled her Monday morning smile as Bella passed her in the foyer.
"Morning," Bella replied in passing before heading to the counter holding the signing in books. She asked the required question, "how are you?"
"Fine, thank you. And you?"
So polite. So bloody polite.
"Very well, thank you. Looking forward to the holidays." Christmas was just around the corner, barely four weeks away.
She couldn't wait. The combined stress of university applications, French orals, concert performances, piano recitals, essay deadlines and so much more had taken their toll on her. She couldn't wait to have just a few weeks to herself to recover before starting off again for her final exams. If she got the right marks she'd be off, preferably to a Parisian conservatoire to become the piano player she had dreamed of being since she was a little girl, listening to Rhapsody in Blue for the first time.
Bella Swan's future was bright indeed.
...and Edward comes next.
Quite long for a drabble but...I don't care. :D
Bones