A/N: I do not live in the USA. Therefore, while every effort is taken to maintain accuracy to life in the USA, I am unfamiliar with certain aspects such as the USA school system and some mistakes may be evident.

Later, this story will contain themes of domestic/sexual abuse, depression and self-harm. They will not be graphic or detailed but please proceed with caution if these upset you.

My foot jiggled anxiously under the desk as Miss Langdon began her lesson. I could see the girl out of the corner of my eye.

She was so beautiful and in such as different way to Renesmee. I wasn't exactly tall, but she was shorter then I was and the delicate shaping of her face . . .

I tore my eyes away and focused intently on Miss Langdon. Or, tried to. Despite my eyes being on the art teacher my mind was still on the girl beside me. With her short, styled hair she really did remind me of some soft of fey creature from a fantasy movie. She's looking at me. Why is she looking at me?

It wasn't straight out gawking, but her shoulders were turned towards me and I knew she could see me as well as I could see her. Invisible. I just want to be invisible.

I hunched down in my seat, cursing myself for wearing a blue sweater and jeans instead of my usual bomber jacket. I picked at the hem of my sweater and tried to focus.

Calm down Alex. She's probably looking past you. Yeah, that's it.

I forced myself to breathe in as deeply as possible and waiting for the ringing in my ears to fade.

"So, that's what we'll be doing today." Miss Langdon smiled. "As for the class rules, whatever is a school rule applies in here. I don't mind if you talk quietly to your neighbor so long as you're being productive. If the noise level in the room gets too loud we'll work in silence. I'll be wandering around if you have any questions."

I blinked as she moved to a radio on her desk and flipped it on. Quiet music filled the classroom.

Crap. I had no idea what we were supposed to be doing and she hadn't written it on the board.

I looked down at the desk, examining the flecks of paint dried there. Hopefully I would be able to figure out what I was supposed to do from the other students were doing.

"Hi!" A bell-like voice said with a giggle. "I'm Alice Cullen."

I looked at the girl sitting beside me, fingers still worrying at my sweater. "Alex."

"It's nice to meet you Alex." She grinned, a blinding flash of white teeth that had me pulling back for reasons I wasn't entirely sure of.

"N-nice to meet you too?"

She smiled, without teeth this time and opened her sketch pad. "So, we're meant to be drawing our summer. What did you do?"

"Not much . . ." She was so friendly, she acted like we were already friends. "Hung around home mostly. What did you do?"

"My family and I visited some friends," she picked a pencil out of her sequined pencil case, "I did a lot of shopping."

I nodded and noticed her clothes for the first time. She was stylishly dressed – her blouse, her skirt, her purple scarf and blazer - it all coordinated with a sense of flair.

Realizing that while I had been distracted she had began drawing I quickly opened my own sketchbook and grabbed a pencil. My summer. There were a lot of things I could draw, none of them exciting. Playing piano, reading, going to yoga with Aunt Lauren.

I sighed heavily and began to slowly draw the outline of the porch swing at the back of our house. It was one of my favorite places in the whole house and I'd spent a lot of time sitting there this summer.

O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O

"Wonderful work, Alice." Miss Langdon praised. "Excellent proportioning."

I tensed up as she peered over my shoulder. I hated people doing that. "Fabulous use of shading Alexandra."

Breathing a sigh of relief when she left I continued to attempt to sketch the wooded background.

"What are you drawing?" Alice asked, flipping her sketch book to show me her own work. It was a moving truck, complete with stacks of boxes. That makes sense.

I gazed at my own work and hesitated. Hers was easily better then mine, and it made sense with the prompt of 'your summer'. I didn't know where her family had moved from but with 9 people it would have been a pain in the ass.

"I won't laugh." She promised. After another few moments of hesitation I slowly turned my book.

She was beaming as she looked at it. "The teacher was right, you did a great job with your shading. Is this somewhere in town?"

"My backyard." I muttered and quickly turned the book back around. "Like I said, I mostly hung around home."

She nodded and snapped her sketchbook shut a few seconds before the bell rang. I blinked in surprise. She must have been watching the time.

"It really was nice to meet you Alex." She smiled. "I have a feeling we're going to be great friends."

I blinked at her again as she stood and walked out of the classroom with a graceful lope that sent a pang of pain through my chest. Becca walked like that. Like every step had been choreographed, it had been the result of years of dance classes and a fair amount of natural grace.

Blinking back tears I stuffed my belongings in my backpack and hurried out. I had biology next, which was on the opposite end of the school building. Thanks for that administrators.

I made it to the classroom just before the final bell rang. Anna smiled and waved at me from a lab bench at the back. I headed towards her, swiping the moisture in my eyes with my sleeve. She looked like she wanted to say something, but Mrs. Peters was already standing at the front of the classroom.

O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O

Biology was intense. Mrs. Peters got straight into it and by the end of the lesson my hand was aching.

"Freedom!" Anna whispered to me as I hastily scrawled down our homework.

"She'll hear you." I warned, remembering the detentions Anna had gotten last year for 'inappropriate comments'.

She waved me off and hefted her bag onto her shoulder. "Who gives homework on the first day back? It's cruel."

I shrugged and followed her downstairs to the student car park and to my secondhand, slightly dingy Nissan hatchback. I ran my hand over the bubbling paint. It had its flaws, but it was mine and I loved it.

"I can't believe my parents refuse to buy me a car." She huffed as I unlocked the passenger door for her. "'No Anna, get a job.' They want me to suffer, I swear."

I knew better then to comment as I walked around to the driver's side. Honestly? I was super thankful Aunt Lauren had gotten me a car, but I understood that Anna's parents couldn't afford to buy cars for all three of their children.

"Anyway," she huffed and threw her bag into the back. "How was your day? I couldn't ask you in bio with Peters watching us. She has it out for me."

"It was good." I started the engine and carefully pulled out. "I'm looking forward to Wednesday, I have double periods of both art and music."

"Lucky." She whistled. "I have gym and English. Though, I'm planning on ditching one of those so . . ."

I snorted and braked, the traffic was always atrocious of an afternoon.

"Hey?" Anna lent forward and wound down her window. It had briefly stopped raining. "I think one of the new kids is looking at us."

"Yeah?" I didn't take my eyes off the car in front of me. "Which one?"

"Uh . . . Alice?"

I followed her gaze and sure enough, the tiny girl was leaning against a much taller honey blond male who held an umbrella over both their heads. Catching my eye, she grinned and waved.

I quickly looked away, pulse quickening. Calm down. Act normal. All she did was wave.

Anna laughed and slowly wound the window back up. "Funny, she and her sister barely spoke to anyone in the classes we had together."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She turned on my CD player and groaned. "Seriously? You were listening to this same CD two weeks ago when we went to the mall."

I shrugged, not sorry. "I like it."

"Classical music makes me want to sleep." She fanned her hair out and turned the heater up. "Like, I get that you play the piano, but would the occasional pop song kill you?"

"It might." I joked, pulling out of the school parking lot. "Are we heading straight to your house?"

"Nah, stop at the grocery store. I need chocolate if I'm actually going to do the bio homework."

Nodding, I headed in the direction of the nearest grocery store. Despite complaining about my choice of music, Anna hummed along and even tapped on the dashboard. I smiled and flipped on my windshield wipers as it started to drizzle again.

By the time we reached the grocery store it was pouring. Anna, muttering curses, pulled up her hood and raced inside.

I watched the rain drops run down the windscreen as I waited, miming playing along to the CD on my steering wheel. She wasn't gone for long, but when she climbed back in she was soaked.

"This better be worth it." She unwrapped a Mars bar and stuffed it in her mouth. "If is."

I cracked a smile and headed in the direction of her house. She didn't live far from the grocery store and in no time, I was pulling up to the whitewashed double-story home.

"Text me!" She yelled as she jumped out of the car and made a mad dash for the door. I watched until she was inside and then headed for my own home.

Aunt Lauren's car wasn't in the driveway when I pulled up, but I'd anticipated that. As a 5th grade teacher she would be late coming home, there would be parents wanting to meet their child's new teacher. I hung my raincoat on the rack and took off my boots, heading into the kitchen to pull a frozen dinner from the freezer. That was one of Lauren's genius ideas. Every Sunday we prepared a weeks' worth of food and then just had to reheat or cook it as we needed.

I turned the oven on and stuck a lasagna inside, setting the timer for 40 minutes. Hopefully by then she would be home.

I walked to my room and dropped my bag near my desk. I sunk onto the desk chair with a soft sigh. I'd made it through another day.

"Alex?"

I started at Aunt Lauren's call, realizing I had been sitting staring out the window for at least 10 minutes. I jumped up and made my way to the hallway where she was taking off her own jacket.

"Hey sweetie." She smiled, damp blonde bangs sticking to her forehead. "Sorry I'm late. How was your first day?"

"It was good." I lent against the wall. "I put lasagna in the oven."

"Aww, thank you." She kissed my forehead. "I'll make a garden salad to go with it. Did you get given much homework?"

"Just biology." I followed her to the kitchen where she washed her hands before opening the fridge. "Got a chapter to read."

"Alright." She placed tomatoes and lettuce on the bench before going back in. "Anything exciting happen?"

"There were some new kids."

"Were there?" This time she had cucumber and carrot. "Did you say hello?"

"Yeah." It was sort of true, Alice had said hello to me. "Sam reckons some of them are foster kids."

She paused and shook her head. "Well, it's hard to tell with gossip but it's possible. You aren't the only foster child in the country."

I folded my arms. "I know." Even if it felt that way sometimes.

"Regardless, you should make them feel welcome." She pulled a chopping board out of the dishwasher. "Plenty of room in Masonville for some fresh faces."

I nodded and nibbled on my thumbnail. I hadn't exactly been friendly today.

Tomorrow if Alice talks to me I'll . . . I'd what? I was just awkward. Sometimes I could barely carry a conversation with Anna and I'd know her since I moved here two years ago. Screw it. "I'm going to have a shower."

"Alright sweetie, I'll call when dinner is done."

I nodded and headed for my room. Tomorrow I'll be nicer.

O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O

My resolve had failed pitifully. Instead of introducing myself to Renesmee in music I'd chickened out and spent the whole class praying not to be called upon. In biology I'd justified that it would upset Mrs. Peters if we talked, besides, she sat all the way on the other side of the room.

It was lunch now and I was fighting the urge to hide in the restroom instead of eating.

"Coming?" Anna looked over her shoulder at me as I hesitated by the door.

"Yes." I swallowed my nerves and stepped into the cafeteria.

My eyes were instantly draw to the Cullen's, and Hale's I supposed, table. All seven of them sat at one of the larger tables near the outside exit. Alice was once again leaning against the honey blond, her arm wrapped around his. After a moment of consideration, I decided he must be the one Sam thought was 'too broody'. Across from her sat the 'bodybuilder' Sam raved about who I instantly knew I wanted nothing to do with. Beside him . . .

Wow. The blonde woman was an absolute goddess. Like Alice, her clothes were stylish, but she could have been wearing garbage bags and pulled it off. Her hair was pure gold, loose around her shoulders and back. Everything about her seemed perfectly proportioned. I didn't think anybody could be more beautiful then Renesmee and Alice yet here she was, another stunning beauty but in a completely different way.

My eyes quickly moved over the rest of them. Renesmee sat in the center of the table and was animatedly talking. One her left sat who I assumed was her brother by his own bronze hair and equally perfect features. On her right was a gorgeous brunette who gazed at her with . . . pride? Adoration?

Mind your own business Alex. I moved to the food line, quickly paying for a bottle of Sprite before joining Anna at our table. She once again was talking to Laura, though this time it was about a trending YouTube video.

I sipped my drink and looked around, trying not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of stimuli in the cafeteria. My attention wasn't held by anything particular, my eyes darting around the room. I saw Alice rise from her family's table and skip to the bin, dumping the uneaten food from her tray into it. Catching her gaze, I gave her an uncertain smile and a three fingered wave, hoping it seemed friendly.

She smiled and waved back as the blond approach. He was taller then her, a lot taller and intimating with his purposeful strides. He too dumped his tray before taking her offered hand. They smiled at each other and I looked away, feeling like I was witnessing something . . . well, intimate.

That's ridiculous, it was a smile.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Sam dropped down beside Anna. "Guess what I just heard?"

"Nobody cares." Anna replied drily.

"You will!" Sam insisted. "It's the biggest, most scandalous gossip I've heard well, ever!"

"Save me the drama." Anna turned away. "I was actually enjoying myself."

"Seriously!" Sam grabbed her arm. "You'll never believe it! Two of the senior Cullen's, Rosalie and Emmett? They're like a thing! Everybody has been asking them out since they arrived before hello, look at them! But Jessica Martian swears she saw them kissing in the library in third period! Can you believe it? And they're related!"