-:- 4 -:-

Betas:Team Edward Rules All and Lost in a musical daydream

Summary (made by Ele05gs): New town, new school, new friends. If there's something Bella hates, it's being the new girl. The unwanted attention, the stares, the whispers as she walks by, it's all very annoying. But maybe being new has its advantages? Maybe she just needs to find a reason to help her ignore it all.

-:- Stolen Moments -:-

"Juniors!" the principal yelled. "Calm down!"

Bella flinched. Where the hell had she ended up?

Just because her mom wanted to move because she believed her art would be more appreciated here didn't mean Bella had to change her whole life, too. Unluckily for Bella, her mother wouldn't listen. So with or without Bella's cooperation, they'd moved out of sunny Phoenix to a wet and horrible town known as Forks. Bella had to restart all over in her junior year, regardless of how far she'd progressed in Phoenix. A new school, a new town, new teachers, new friends…everything was different here.

Forks High had dull hallways and filthy windows that smelt gross. Bella's school in Phoenix on the other hand, had been orderly and ideal. Here, the classrooms were colder and less friendly than Bella was used to. The other students seemed strange as well, as if they had their own little group that nobody else could be a part of. Nobody smiled at her, or even looked her way. Everyone was looking, or pretending to look, directly at the principal.

Bella didn't understand why everyone was already so punctual. These were just the formalities, orientation day; classes hadn't even begun yet.

"It's just school, not the military," she thought miserably. While sighing rather loudly, she earned a few annoyed stares from the pretty blond girls next to her. Those girls would never be her friends.

She missed Angela and Lauren, her best friends. Leaving them had probably been the hardest thing Bella had ever done. Even though they'd all promised to write and keep in touch, Bella knew how things like this worked. At the beginning it would be daily calls, then once a week, a letter or email every month and after that, with a bit of luck, a Christmas or birthday card. Bella kept her head high, mentally telling herself that she wouldn't lose Angela and Lauren over her mother's decision. Their friendship was stronger than most; they'd survive it.

The principal explained the rules of the school―which happened to be a very, very long list―and demanded that everyone took the time to learn and respect them. Bella grinned at the craziness of it all and pulled at her high ponytail in frustration.

"This isn't something to laugh about, you know." She heard someone say beside her. "You should be ashamed of yourself."

Startled, Bella looked up and noticed a guy standing next to her, smiling a gorgeous crooked smile that made her insides tingle.

"Err, sorry?" she tried.

"It's pretty obvious you're new," he went on. "Guess I just wanted you to know it's not all bad here." Bella relaxed a bit―at least there was one friendly face in this hellhole.

The guy pulled Bella with him by her elbow and in no time, they were standing at the back of the crowd.

"Don't take it too personally," he said lightly, his green eyes shining with humor. "Our principal likes to have control during the first few days of school. He loses it after the first week, though." He winked. "A pretty okay guy if you ask me."

Bella exhaled in relief. She'd been scanning the crowd for the past half hour, but nobody seemed to want to talk to her. They had their secluded groups, no newcomer allowed, and if she couldn't find someone to talk to now, then she most definitely wouldn't be able to find anyone who might be fun to hang out with for the remainder of her school life. This year was going to suck.

Bella looked again at the guy next to her. He was lean but you could tell he was well built by the way the muscles in his arms flexed under his blue sweater. Even more attractive to Bella than his muscles were his gorgeous green eyes and untidy bronze hair. He seemed nice, and if he was nice, maybe his friends were too. For the first time today, Bella smiled, something that didn't go unnoticed.

"What are you smiling about?" the guy with the pretty green eyes asked, coming closer to her so that he wouldn't disturb the row before them.

"No apparent reason," Bella replied, shrugging. "I'm just happy. A few minutes ago, I was ready to bolt out of here and ask my mom to have me homeschooled. But it just got a bit better." The guy seemed to like the compliment and nudged her shoulder in agreement.

"I guess we'll see a lot of each other this year," he said casually.

"I hope so," Bella whispered, not loud enough for him to hear.

After the endless list of rules and a long speech from the principal, he finally gave the cue to leave. Three more days and the summer holidays would be over. Bella's stomach churned just thinking about it.

She watched the guy out of the corner of her eye, and concluded that he wasn't exactly her type. He looked a bit too old to be a junior. Maybe he was a senior? But the way he smiled, the way he laughed and talked, made him totally swoon worthy. Angela and Lauren would kill to see a picture of this new eye candy.

He noticed that Bella was checking him out and smiled slightly to himself. "Well, I hope you'll like it here. It's really not that bad as it looks right now."

"Will you be here in three days?" Bella asked, trying to make sure that he wasn't just a security guy or something.

"Oh, I will be here, more than you'll like." He laughed, messing up his hair with his hand. Bella found it a strange answer, but let it go.

"Funny." She grinned, and the guy grinned back. This was going well too easily. She felt too comfortable around him, and it was too soon. Would she kiss him goodbye? Or give him a hug? She decided to do neither.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around?" she sort of asked. "It's Bella, by the way." She held out her hand.

"Uh…Edward," he said, seeming a bit uncomfortable, as he shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Bella."

She nodded and left the room, feeling Edward's gaze burning holes in her back.

The last three days of summer went by incredibly fast. While most teens used the time they had left to hang out with their friends, Bella spent most of her time unpacking paintings for her mom, only because she was too busy creating her next masterpiece.

Without even realizing it, Bella set her alarm clock for the first day of school. A chill coursed through her body. She really didn't do well with new people; she never knew what to say. But then her thoughts shifted, and they landed on Edward. He'd make tomorrow better, she thought. He'll help me find some new friends. Maybe they would have some classes together, which would be nice. Very nice, indeed.

His crooked smile had been stuck in her mind constantly for the past three days, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get him out of her head. Not only that, but his soft voice filled her ears before she went to sleep each night as well. Bella couldn't ignore the tingly feeling in her stomach that arose whenever she thought about him. She knew she liked him, he'd made a great first impression, and maybe if she spent more time with him, got to know him better…then maybe this year wouldn't be that bad after all. She took her purple monkey from under her bed, and crushed it against her chest.

"Oh, Edward," she murmured, and fell asleep in no time.

The next morning came way too soon. After her morning routine and a good luck from her mom, she made her way to school.

Bella walked nervously toward her classroom, trying to ignore all the stares from her peers. She felt like an animal in a cage, trapped with no way out.

Biology was her first period. Her eyes scanned the crowd, but Edward was nowhere in sight. Maybe he was sick, she thought. She scolded herself for not asking for his phone number; maybe she could have called him, asked what was wrong or which class he had now. Though, maybe that would be too pushy. She'd only met the guy a few days ago for crying out loud.

The bell sounded again, when she'd just found the classroom.

"Great," she thought. "I'm the new girl, nobody wants to talk to me, and the only person that seemed remotely nice is nowhere to be found."

She took a seat at the back row, sighing softly while trying not to draw too much attention to herself, as she did so, even though her classmates were gawking at her already.

Bella looked frantically around. Edward, where are you?

The chatter of her new classmates went down as they heard footsteps coming nearer. Edward casually walked in, and Bella couldn't help the smile that instantly surfaced on her face. She was trying to get his attention, trying to say that it was okay if he wanted to sit with her.

Edward ignored her, and Bella felt a sting of rejection. She sagged back in her chair.

"Hi class," Edward said suddenly. "I guess most of you remember me from last year. I'm Edward Cullen, and I'm your biology teacher for this year." He smiled at his students. "Please, take your seats."

Bella's world all but crashed down.

"Oh, shit," she mumbled.