Hello readers! If you really like this or have favorited this story, PLEASE review! Reviews are nice! This chapter is a lot of in Nessie's head… Sorry if there isn't enough dialogue… I like writing dialogue, but I also like writing in a character's deep thoughts. That's why I don't like writing in third person. It's too jumpy for me. :/ Anyways, thanks for reading! More reviews = more frequent updates!

Chapter 3: FIRST DAY

I WOKE UP THE NEXT day with my hunting trip burned into my mind. It was rare for me to only think about one thing at a time, but this was just too important for me not to think about. If I didn't know so much already, I'd be screwed when it came to school, because I devoted most of my brain power to this one subject.

I picked out a very simple outfit from my new clothes. I wanted to put on my older clothes from New York, but I didn't want to stand out too much. They were too bright and attention-grabbing. My awesome sense of fashion combined with my natural beauty would definitely grab the attention of the students here. Most of the girls here were very plain, from what I'd seen. None of them were exceptionally beautiful or had great clothes. If I was as much of a spectacle as I was in other places, I would be the only spectacle in Forks.

I left my hair down in its usual bronze curls and put of very little makeup. I didn't need it at all, but it would probably help me fit in with the modern teenagers. Seventy years ago, makeup was primarily for movie stars like Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. Regular girls had no reason to, and here, the girls needed all the help they could get.

I drove to school with my parents, which was honestly the last thing I wanted to do. They were still afraid; afraid I could and would snap at any moment. It wasn't entirely impossible, but I was sure enough of myself to know that I wasn't about to go on a killing spree. Like I'd said a thousand times before, I didn't kill just to kill. Being that wasteful would be a shame.

When we arrived at school, Alice handed me my schedule and I stuffed it in my jacket pocket. She frowned at my choice of clothing. "Seriously, Nessie?" she whined. "Did you really have to pick the plainest outfit out of all the gorgeous clothes we bought you?"

"Don't want to be too conspicuous, Alice," I excused. "Sorry."

She sighed. "Whatever. Do you know where you're going?"

I shrugged. "It's a small enough campus. I'll figure it out."

"Okay. Meet us for lunch!" demanded Alice.

"Sure thing," I agreed, going my separate way from my family. They all waved goodbye and wished me good luck as they went off to their first class of the day.

My day wasn't horrible. It wasn't brilliant, either, though. My teachers were nothing special, but I could tolerate them. They wouldn't be hard to tune out. I could just live off of my own knowledge. I'd been to college eight times, so I was already pretty well educated. My intelligence exceeded that of a human high school student, so I would definitely get straight A's without even trying.

I didn't put myself out there too much. I didn't want to stand out. I already stood out amongst my family and I hated it. I wanted to blend in as much as I could. However, when I walked into my English teacher's classroom, I introduced myself right away. With a smile on my face and a firm handshake, no less.

"Good morning Mr. Russo," I greeted. "I'm Renesmee Cullen, but I prefer being called Nessie." Explaining my names was difficult. All I could say about my full name was that I was named after all four of my grandparents by combining the names of my grandmothers into my first name and the names of my grandfathers into my middle name. 'Nessie' was a nickname given to me by my dear Uncle Emmett, who had strongly believed in the legends of the Loch Ness Monster, and hoped to discover it someday. He had no such luck, but the nickname still stuck.

Mr. Russo was a surprisingly very handsome man. With his dark, messy hair, ice blue eyes, and outrageous jawline, he could easily be a male model. He looked to me like he was in his mid-twenties, but still looked a bit too young to be a teacher. He reciprocated my handshake and politeness with a polite compliment.

"It's a pleasure, Miss Cullen," he said. "You're quite the outgoing young lady, aren't you?"

"Not always, but today, yes. This is my fifth school in the past two years and this is where I'm staying, so I'm allowing myself to get used to everything and everyone." That was a lie. Almost everything I'd said and everything I was going to say throughout the course of the day was untrue as well. Just as untrue as the story that my father was my older brother.

"That's rough," my teacher sympathized. "I moved around a lot as a kid, too."

"Yeah, well, my dad's a doctor, so he keeps finding better jobs – I don't know how – and we have to keep moving," I lied.

"Oh, your father is Dr. Cullen, isn't he?" Mr. Russo realized.

I nodded. "Yes. Well, not biologically. He adopted me and my brother. And the rest of my siblings. Some of us are related by blood, but the only one I'm related to by blood is my brother, Edward."

"I've heard you have a bit of a full house."

"Yes, I do. I have three sisters and three brothers. And we're all teenagers, so you could imagine how rough that is."

"I actually can't," he revealed. "I'm an only child."

So was I, but I wasn't about to say that. I gave him a sad smile. "Then I guess you can't. Believe me, it's not all it's cracked up to be. My family's insane. And I'm the youngest, so they love picking on me."

"Well, if you make yourself an easy target…" He winked and laughed.

"I can already tell that this is going to be my least favorite class," I predicted with a roll of my eyes.

"Don't worry about it," Mr. Russo insisted. "I always choose my most outgoing student to tease for the whole year. Banter is fun, don't you agree?"

"Alright," I allowed. "I just want to let you know that I can dish it out as fast as you can serve."

The bell rang and he started the class. His first lesson wouldn't be until Friday, which I thought was amazing. Everything about him was just really cool. He would definitely be every student's favorite teacher, if he wasn't already. I looked around the room and saw that lovestruck look in every girl's eyes. He would definitely take on the role as "the hot teacher" as well. I didn't blame the girls, but being around vampires my whole life, I'd seen much more beautiful people.

About ten minutes after class began, a late student burst in the door. Mr. Russo sighed in exasperation. "You must be Jacob Black," he assumed. "Nice of you to join us."

"Sorry," the boy apologized. "First day of school, still trying to find my way around."

"It's alright, take a seat." He picked up right where he left off with his story, but my attention was elsewhere.

Jacob hadn't looked away from me since I first caught his eye. It wasn't the most unusual thing to happen. I was used to the stares, open mouths and wide eyes. His reaction to seeing me was different, though. Sure, he was staring at me, but he was also looking at me like I was the most glorious thing in the world. It seemed impossible – he hadn't even ever talked to me before or even heard me speak. He didn't know anything about me, so I just figured that he was awed by my physical appearance and left it at that.

Except, I couldn't stop looking at him either. I would try to focus on whatever Mr. Russo was talking about for a minute, and then I'd steal a glance in Jacob's direction. He caught me several times, smiling when he did, and I caught him doing the same thing. It was odd. A human had never caught my attention so much. Of course, I'd dated humans and even pretended to like them, but no one had ever made me do this. It was so silly, so childish. So far beyond my level of maturity.

"So," Mr. Russo said loudly, smacking his hand down on my desk to get my attention, "I'm not going to do any real teaching until the end of the week, but I'm going to give you guys your first assignment."

The class loudly "Booed" at him, and I heard quite a few groans and whines. I shook my head at the upfront disrespect they showed him. When and where I was growing up, that would be completely unacceptable. It wouldn't even get to that point – no student or child would ever think about doing or saying that. This made me worried for the future of the world.

"I want you to write a biography about the person that I pair you up with," our teacher announced.

Now, this, I had to complain about. "Mr. Russo, doesn't that seem a bit juvenile? I mean, we're in a high school honors class. Shouldn't we be writing more mature, adult pieces?"

"No," he disagreed. "And you know what? Mr. Black seems a bit juvenile, so you're going to be partners with him."

Mr. Russo assigned everyone else's partners, and Jacob came over and sat next to me. We smiled at each other for a brief moment before we both started cracking up. I hadn't laughed this hard or this long in a really, really long time, and it felt nice. I was a little embarrassed about my laugh, how loud and obnoxious it was, but it didn't really seem to matter around him. Jacob just laughed right alongside me, enjoying the light moment as much as I was.

"That little staring contest was… interesting," he commented. "I'm Jacob."

I nodded. "I know." This made him chuckle. "I'm Renesmee Cullen, but everyone just calls me Nessie." I reached out to shake his hand. The moment our skin touched, I was flooded with what felt like an electrical shock. His hand was also every bit as warm as mine was. For some reason, vampire hybrids had a body temperature even higher than that of a human. I wondered if Jacob was feeling well, especially because of the cold rain outside. There was no way he could be that warm.

"Ah." He looked at me with a confused expression. "That's a… different name."

"Yeah…" I explained the modified version of the giving of my names to him. "I suppose I should start telling you my life story, then. I was born in London, England on September eleventh, nineteen-ninety-five."

"Wow, how did you end up here?"

"My parents were very young when I was born and even younger when my brother was born. My mother was sixteen when she got pregnant with my brother and he's a year older than me. When I was a few months old, they immigrated to the United States. And then they decided that they were too young to have such a big responsibility by having two babies, so they put us up for adoption."

Jacob frowned. "I'm sorry. That must be so hard."

"It's not too bad. I still wonder what it would've been like to have been raised by them, but I had a good life. Carlisle and Esme are amazing and I couldn't have been raised by two better people. They're twenty-six, and I've only been with them for a few years, but they're the only parents I've ever known. I have two other adopted brothers and three adopted sisters."

"Big family, huh?"

"Yeah… So, tell me more about you. I've basically shared almost my whole life story with you."

Jacob sighed, but it was more of a sign of adoration. He'd watched me and talked to me in such an admiring way. "I have two older sisters, Rebecca and Rachel. They're twins and they graduated last year. My dad has been raising us by himself since my mom died when I was six."

For the first time in a long time, I felt bad for a human. I'd nearly killed my mother before I was even born, and if I'd had to live for the rest of eternity with that guilt on me, my father resenting me, and living on my own, I would probably be even more miserable than I was with my life. "I'm so sorry. That's horrible, losing your mother so young…"

He shrugged. "You lost your parents before you were a year old."

"That's different," I insisted. "My parents gave me up, they didn't want me. I was rejected. I didn't even know them, but you knew your mother. It would've been a whole other story if my parents had given me up for adoption five years ago rather than when I was five months old."

"That's true…" I could tell he didn't want to talk about it, so he changed the subject. We talked for the rest of the class and I even smiled a few times. It was so different to talk to a human instead of rip their throat out… I hadn't actually talked to someone like this in years, even if I was telling lies the entire time.

"Class is going to end in five minutes," warned Mr. Russo. "Please, exchange phone numbers, e-mail addresses, whatever so you can finish these papers. They're due by the end of the week."

I took a sheet of paper out of my notebook, ripping it in half. I kept one half for myself, writing my contact information, and giving the other half to Jacob to do the same. We exchanged the papers and tucked them away in our backpacks. We waited patiently for the bell to ring, and when he got up, he grabbed my arm. He was stronger than I'd anticipated, but he didn't hurt me. It would take a lot more than a strong teenage human to even scratch me.

"What did you say your last name was?" he wondered.

That was what he wanted? That was it? "Oh. It's Cullen."

"Cullen," he repeated. He then turned on a bright smile, one that may or may not have made my heart melt. "I'll call you or… something."

I smiled back. "I'll answer your call or something."

His smile turned into an all-out grin as he let go of me and turned to the left while I turned right. "See you, Nessie."

"Bye, Jacob."

As I strutted down the hallway, I was soon joined by a fashionable Latina girl. She was taller than me by a significant amount, but she was wearing pretty tall heels. She was curvy and fit, with long, silky black hair, and a beautiful face. From what I could tell, she was definitely Puerto Rican. She looked down at me and smiled.

"Hi, I'm Cristina," she introduced. "Cristina Santiago."

"Nessie Cullen," I said.

"I know that. You're new here, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes, I am…" I elaborated no further and continued walking to my locker.

"Wait!" Cristina exclaimed. "You're in my Spanish class, right?"

I thought back to my second class of the day, wondering if I'd actually looked at any of the other students. She seemed vaguely familiar, so I took her word for it. "Yeah, I am."

"When do you having lunch?"

I looked down at my schedule. "Now." We'd arrived at my locker, and I began switching my books around.

"Will you eat with me and my friends?" offered Cristina. "We'd love the company, and my boyfriend and his friends sit with us, too. You'll never stop laughing, they're great."

I considered this. I certainly didn't want to sit with my family. I was still not on good terms with them. So, I accepted Cristina's offer and followed her to the cafeteria. When I got there, I called out for my dad in my head. His head snapped in my direction, focusing entirely on my thoughts and my thoughts only.

I made some new friends, I guess, I thought. I'm going to sit with them.

My father nodded, and his attention was taken by whatever Alice was saying. I listened closely to hear him explain to the table that I wouldn't be joining them for lunch. Alice and Emmett whined, complaining that I hadn't spent any family time with them since my return. I frankly didn't care. I loved Alice and Emmett dearly, but "family time" wasn't exactly what I wanted to do here. I didn't want to do anything here. I wanted to go back to New York, still.

Cristina and I both got salads, and I knew I wouldn't eat mine. I would pick at it, but I definitely wouldn't eat the whole thing. As much as I wanted to fit in with the humans in Forks, I wasn't willing to sacrifice eating human food. I liked blood, even if it wasn't human blood. I wish I could say that blood was blood, but that wasn't true. However, any blood was much better than anything else.

When we arrived at Cristina's lunch table, I was a bit surprised to see none other than Jacob Black sitting at the table with his and Cristina's friends. I panicked momentarily, hoping that Jacob wasn't the boyfriend Cristina was talking about. And then I stopped myself from thinking that entirely.

Why do you care if she's his girlfriend? I mentally scolded myself. That shouldn't matter to you. You barely know him and you barely know her.

Much to my unexplainable relief, Cristina kissed one of the other boys right on the mouth. He must have been her boyfriend, and obviously, one of Jacob's friends. Jacob's friends and Cristina's friends all introduced themselves to me, and I enjoyed each of them as soon as I met them. Before anyone exchanged any introductions, though, I greeted Jacob.

"Fancy meeting you here, huh, Jacob?" I teased. "Who would've thought that we'd be in the same circle? I mean, you just seem so popular that I never thought I'd be on your level. And Cristina, you're way too glamorous for me to be friends with."

Cristina rolled her eyes and there was something very sassy about it. "Oh, please. You might be whiter than snow, but you're gorgeous. Don't kid yourself."

This made me laugh. She was a real firecracker and I enjoyed her feistiness. And I was willing to bet that her boyfriend did, too. I supposed I was wrong about the girls at forks. Cristina was probably the sexiest, most attractive female human I'd ever met. Her friends weren't trolls, either. They individually introduced themselves to me. The first to address me was a beautiful, petite Jewish girl.

"I'm Faye Morreti," she said, letting me know that she had an accent that I was very familiar with.

"Are you from the Bronx?" I inquired excitedly.

She nodded. "Yes. I'm a New Yorker. Have you ever been?"

"Yes," I answered. "I lived there before I moved here. I love it and miss it every day. I lived in Manhattan, but the Bronx is close enough. I frigging love the Bronx."

"Me too!" she squealed, showing that she was indeed Italian. As if I couldn't tell by her olive complexion and loud voice that she was Italian. I could tell by her curly hair and hooked nose, too, that she was Jewish. Others might call her nose ugly, and she might have even been told a few times that she needed a nose job, but I thought it completed her. She wouldn't have looked right with any other nose. She seemed to have as bold of a personality as Cristina.

"Well, I'm a born-and-raised Forks native," a blond girl said. She astonished me with her beauty, too. She had a pale complexion and a very English-looking face. Her hair was shoulder-length and suited her perfectly. "I'm Valerie Harrison." Definitely English. Her voice was sweet and soft, but it carried to me over the roar of the cafeteria without trouble. "No relation to George Harrison."

I laughed. I could get along with this girl. The Beatles were my favorite band and had been since before they came to America in the nineteen-sixties. I'd been living in Liverpool at the time, and I'd followed them around Europe since before they were officially "The Beatles" and before Ringo Starr became a member of the group. When they made their journey to the United States, I myself returned there, and followed them to every concert that I could. I owned each of their records and each of them were personally signed. I'd even met them a few times. My obsession with them was one of my only obsessions ever. I was devastated when they broke up, but I'd have the memories forever.

Back in the year two-thousand-twelve, I addressed Valerie with a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Valerie."

"I'm Svetlana Todorov, but you can call me Lana," said the only girl at the table that I didn't now know.

My eyebrows pulled down in thought. Her large, chocolate brown eyes and long chocolate brown hair were definitely indications of her ethnicity, as was her name. "It's a pleasure, Lana. Are you Romanian or Russian?"

"Bulgarian," she clarified. "I was born in Bulgaria." I knew she was something foreign, but I didn't know she was from a foreign country. Her radiance was almost distracting. She seemed like such a selfless, gentle person. Her voice was deep and soothing and her manner was so kind and friendly.

"I was born in England," I disclosed. "So, I guess we're both immigrants."

"I am, too!" proclaimed Cristina. "I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I don't even speak English at home."

This completely took me by surprise. What a cultural, ethnic group of girls. They were all so different, so rare. I wondered how they'd all come together. That story must have been interesting. The differences between the girls and how easily the operated around each other reminded me of the differences in ethnicity between all the people in New York. It was so comforting.

Jacob's friends were another story. Both of them, including Jacob, where Native American. They all had the same appearance if you didn't study them close enough. All tall, all the same black hair cut the same way. They seemed to be good friends, too, like they'd grown up together. They probably had, living in La Push, the small reservation for their tribe, the Quileutes. Embry introduced himself as Cristina's boyfriend, and Quil introduced himself as Jacob's best friend. Embry and Quil then argued back and forth over who was Jacob's best friend. They came to the conclusion that they would be each other's best friend, leaving Jacob without one.

They were good for a laugh. I enjoyed myself in their presence. They were crazy, wild, lively, and I was thankful for it. It had been a long time since I'd had actual people in my life. I'd been so solitary and so alone for so long that I felt incredible being with companions that might even turn into friends. I almost felt as if I fit in with them, which was entirely new to me.

About ten minutes before lunch was going to end, another tall young man strolled over to our table, taking a seat next to Lana and kissing her on the cheek, greeting her with and adoring, "Hello." I studied him closely. Skin just as pale as mine. Slight blush in his cheeks. Impossibly beautiful features. Musical voice.

Had I just encountered another hybrid?

Sorry for the cliffhanger! I'm really excited about the next chapter, it mine be even longer than this one ^.^ Also, who is this boy that's kissing on Lana? How do you like the OCs? They're completely, 100% mine! REVIEW!