chapter one

I can't help but glance over my shoulder, noticing how Charlie is already driving off.

I'm both relieved at not having his police cruiser there for everyone to see him being a part of law enforcement, but I'm also kind of sad. The fact that I don't try harder with being a proper daughter to Charlie sometimes makes me feel guilty, but he has never tried on his end either. The only time we spend time together is during summer for two weeks in California.

Students move around me, all from kindergarten to 'high school' seniors. They are all dressed in their blue and white uniforms and make their way easily through the campus in order for them to arrive at their dorm buildings. I wrap my arms around myself and bite the corner of my lip, my duffle bag strap is hanging nestled against my left shoulder. My hair sways softly as I head up to the main building of the school, where the front office is.

I almost jolted out of my skin when I entered the nicely designed front corridor of the building, where there is the glass case with all the academic and athletic trophies on display.

A man is waiting for me with his hands folded behind his back, and he looks as though he's in his early to mid-sixties. His hair is combed down and silver, while there is a nicely trimmed beard that is the same color as his hair. He looks as though he could be what is considered a silver fox, and his muscles strain against his brown wool suit. His eyes don't show that much to me, they are deep, but he doesn't show complete disappointment in me.

"Miss Swan, I'll take it."

Biting the corner of my lip I nod my head before quickly realizing that I need to have better etiquette towards him. "Sorry, force of habit. Yes, I'm Miss Swan. I don't know if you do nicknames around here but I prefer to be called Bella instead of Isabella. I understand if you prefer to have a more professional approach."

"I'm Elliot Dwyer, but you'll be calling me Principal Dwyer. There is another principal, Principal Oswald and she's in charge of the elementary level students while I am in charge of the middle school and high school level students. I will note down the nickname that you have but don't expect us to always remember the name. Each grade in our school offers around 30 students. I'm certain that this is a lot smaller for you, considering the fact that you are coming from Phoenix, Arizona."

I almost want to tell him that he doesn't know the half of it but instead merely nods my head and follows him as he enters the front office.

Everything is clean, organized and there are photographs of every past principal that has been in charge of the school. There are the colors maroon and white, which are the most prominent color pallets for the school. A mural is painted on the left wall with a bunch of students gathered together, along with trees behind them. They are from all different ages and races, showing the diversity of how many students they have and their races.

The school was founded in 1980 so it's relatively new compared to other schools.

So, it's also not surprising that a good bit of things are still more aesthetically attached to that time period than here. There are the potted plants that are throughout the front office, any furniture in the room is of cherry wood and reminds me of a psychologist office or one of the Harvard Professor offices. Everything is in nice quality, even though I do question some of the styles that are throughout the white walled room.

There's a cherry wood thick counter that splits the room in half, with the newest computers on the lower half of the counter behind the front. There are mugs that have the school's name printed on them with pens that have the school printed on them too. Clipboards are sitting on the front side of the counter, along with wire baskets. An aquarium tank is closer to the glass office doors and there are all colorful fish peacefully swimming through the water.

Principal Dwyer helps me get my last bit of information settled with the receptionist.

There are two other people behind the counter, they are seniors and have their laminated school identification pictures attached to maroon and white sparkly lanyards. They both are dressed in their school uniforms and have blue ribbons tying their hair back. One of them has her hair in a stylish bun while the other one has her hair pulled up in a high ponytail. They both look at me with interest, since it's January and I'm probably a rarity.

The receptionist goes into an adjacent room and comes out with a garment bag that has my school uniform before she comes through the little gate that is part of the counter. She hands me the uniform and smiles warmly at me, sending a cute wink towards Principal Dwyer as though to let him know he shouldn't worry about his great nephew's stepdaughter. She and the other staff will take care of me, even though I don't want to have help unless I need it.

The last thing given to me is a map of the campus for me. I give an awkward smile towards her and then Phil's great-uncle, before leaving the main campus building behind me. I glance down at the map and follow the different pathways that lead towards the dorm building meant for those who are in the high school age group.

There's a fountain that is in the middle of the campus, where the water comes trickling from their heads. It's a simple but still beautiful tastefully decorated fountain with leaves and flowers. Something you would find in any campus of a school.

Some of my fellow classmates are sitting at the bottom part of the fountain and are conversing with each other, though one or two of them turn their attention and let it focus on me. They wave at me, to be polite, and I give an awkward wave back to them (to be honest it looks like I'm not used to even waving to people, so it's more than embarrassing). I quickly rush away from their hanging out spot and enter the dormitory that is meant for me.

Unsurprisingly the first floor of the dorm building is both for lounging, the freshman level students, and also there is a counter close to the front doors of the building. There are some seniors that are sitting behind the desk, one of them has a magazine out and she's reading it. Another is looking through the computer that is situated behind there (not as nice as the ones in the main building but that's to be expected), and the last one is busy talking to no one in particular, in hopes that someone will strike up a conversation with them.

It's the last senior that manages to have their blue eyes land on my meek brown ones. He straightens up and sends me too big of a smile. He's a shark and his eyes set themselves on me in the waters, all I have to do is approach him and he will sink his teeth into me. It doesn't help that he's pretty good looking either and makes that uniform look more like a fashion statement instead of a requirement when it comes to attending the school.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before. We don't normally get a new face around here. There's this huge waitlist for parents to have their kids attend. You must be Principal Dwyer's great-nephew's stepdaughter."

My face, which is already quite pale enough already, seems to have any color to it drain dry. I didn't want them to find out about who I'm connected to through Phil.

It's a small private boarding school, of course they would find out about it.

There's not that much to do when it comes to gossip around here, and unless you're in the high school part of the boarding school and have great attendance and grades then you'll be stuck not being able to leave the school until dinner time on the weekends.

"Um…yeah. I'm Bella, Bella Swan. Principal Dwyer already gave me my information pack and the receptionist gave me everything else. I'm here to get my dorm room key," I merely remarked, making disappointment appear in the magazine girl's face, she must have hoped I would be someone who was just as sociable as her.

"You also have to get your picture taken by one of us. We'll get your I.D. all done and ready for you by tomorrow. You don't look like someone who takes attractive pictures, so you'll be in a doozy when you get your picture back," the other girl comments, making my lips go straight and thin at the comment she has just made. Magazine girl elbows her and gets onto her, though it's obvious she's fighting the urge to start laughing.

Still, I know I have to be good.

I finished the process of officially being a student here at Northwest.

The picture does indeed make me look sickly, as though I just completed my last treatment for cancer and now can attend a dream boarding school I always wanted to go to. My dorm room key is 312 and apparently, I have a roommate. One that makes them snicker as they converse about the girl, I'm supposed to be sharing the room with. A conspiracy theorist, one who believes in Vampires and Aliens.

I sigh as I go up to the third floor and head down the linoleum floored hall. Each door has a whiteboard on it with the names of the roommates written in their favorite colors. Sometimes there are picture collages that are taped up on the wall, and favorite books/movies/actors. Each dorm door has a personality about it that isn't too much and makes me think about me eventually going wherever the hell I feel in the mood to go to when it comes to colleges.

I stop in front of 312, where there is just a whiteboard with lime green writing on it.

The name Ella is written at the top of the whiteboard. There are luminescent stickers that are taped on the whiteboard, little alien faces and planets. Along with the signature red lips with fangs peeking out of them. An I HEART DRACULA sticker is the newest one on there, while the other ones have some of the sides of the stickers rubbed off.

I literally have nothing to say about the sight before me. I just hope that the girl will be nice, and she won't judge me because of who I am connected to through marriage. Behind me I notice the handsome boy from earlier leaning against the doorframe of one of the rooms: RA. I should have known that he would end up being the RA.

"Goodluck, you're gonna need it. Chick is as weird as they come. My advice is... don't take what she says seriously. If you ever need someone to lend an ear to, you can always come to me," the RA remarks, giving me a wink. I hate how he has those pretty ice blue eyes and dirty blond hair that is in between messy and neat.

"I think I'll be okay, but I'll take your words into consideration. Anyway, I'll see you later," I state before I unlock the dorm door and enter.

The dorm room is a good size, not too small but not too big. There are two loft beds on either side of the wall, with desks underneath them.

The loft bed on the left is for me, it's just generic white bedspreads with the pillows monogrammed in NWS. There's a laptop sitting on the desk (complimentary but blocks anything that can be considered inappropriate), with a red desk chair pushed up against the desk. A modern aesthetic lamp that reminds me of a different take of Art Deco is plugged in and lets out a pool of light from underneath the bed frame. It's all just uniform and doesn't have any type of personality to it, and it's going to be my room for the next four months. Not really enough time in my opinion for me to form an emotional connection to it. It is what it is, and I'll take it.

The loft bed on the right has a lot of personality to it.

The bedspread is obsidian with what looks like glow in the dark stars and alien planets as the pattern. The pillows are lime green. There's the popular poster that says I WANT TO BELIEVE with the UFO floating above it and sending out its trademark beam shooting down towards the words. Another poster of the original Dracula Movie. A poster of VAN HELSING from the 2000's movie that stars Hugh Jackman. A lime green lava lamp is plugged in, there's a cork board with all different articles thumbtacked to it, some post it notes in vibrant, but color coated are stuck on the corkboard too.

Sitting in the desk chair with her attention focused on her expensive laptop is Elle. I don't know what her last name is, all I paid attention to was her first name. She has a Monster Energy drink in one of her hands, and her acrylic lime green fingernails are a stark contrast to her Ochre hued skin. Her hair is natural and spiraled. She's not wearing her school uniform, but there's no need to do so because it's not the first day back to school classes.

"Um…hi. I'm Bella, Bella Swan."

The girl plops the energy drink can down onto the desk and spins her chair so that it's in my direction. She's in a simple blue hoodie like me, dark sweatpants and some fuzzy socks. She gets off of the desk chair and skips towards me before she reaches me. She plucks the school I.D. I have to go over to where her laptop is. I follow her, not able to focus entirely on her laptop screen as she manages to hack through different things before, she nods her head and tosses the card back to me.

"You check out. So…I'm Elle. Elle Fitzherbert. Not my idea of a last name, trust me. Anyway, mi casa, su casa. I have to warn you that I'm an insomniac. So, I'll be up a good number of nights on my laptop or checking source material for my research articles. I also know that you've been forewarned about me from the seniors. I can smell their fear and judgment, it's a sour potent. Anyhow, I have a mini fridge in my standing wardrobe so go and get you something to drink or grab a snack."

I go over to where my own desk is and plop my duffle bag onto it. Sighing, I unzip it and begin pulling out my own things to put away. My eyes flicker over to where the bay window is. The sky looks murky, and depressing. I miss the sunshine, the clear and cloudless skyline. The local pool that I would go to and try to get a tan only to form a sunburn instead.

"Ah, so you're from Phoenix. Bet you're daydreaming about the weather down there," Elle randomly says from her side of the room. My eyes flicker over to her, a little tinge of annoyance coming to the surface. I don't say anything to confirm her guess.

Instead, I finish putting my things I had brought me away and climb up the stairs that lead up to the bed. I lay down and peer up at the ceiling, noting there are a few remnants of old posters taped up there but had been ripped off. Some of them must have been from when the school had been founded. Who knows how many Farah Fawcett posters were taped up there. Maybe some Patrick Swayze too.

I try to keep my mind off of Phoenix or even Charlie alone in Forks.

I try to focus on the positive things, I try to think about how I'm supposed to be attending one of the best schools in the country. I'm supposed to have doors opened for me without even having to step towards them. I'm making sure to let Renee and Phil have their first year together without having to have me with them.

Elle is too busy in her research work when the sound of a bell going off, signaling for dinner time, goes off. She merely waves her hand to dismiss me from even asking her if she wants to come down with me to the cafeteria hall. I leave her to herself and fidget with my new I.D. card that had come with its own lanyard, the colors of the school with the name boldly written on the straps. I feel like I'm more of a teacher than a student wearing the stupid thing.

Everyone is in the cafeteria hall.

It's one of the largest cafeteria halls I've ever seen.

Different sections for different age groups.

A stage is in front of me, at the far end of the room, with the heads of the school sitting at a cherry wood table, Principal Dwyer and Principal Oswald are sitting up there and conversing with each other. Principal Oswald is at least a decade younger than Phil's great-uncle and she's plainer looking than him.

As if he's sensed me, Principal Dwyer notices me and nods his head at me to acknowledge me before pointing at the table I'm supposed to go to. I go and get my dinner from the cafeteria staff and pay for my food with my school food card (parents and guardians are supposed to fill the cards at the beginning of the month, those that can't have just simple food the school offers instead of the extras they could have if they could afford it). I sit down at the table that sits about thirty students and notice that everyone is conversing with each other as though they are family members.

Picking up the plastic fork that comes in its own plastic bag, with a complimentary napkin, I scoop up some of the green beans and eat them–surprised by the freshness of the green beans. They are the freshest green beans I've ever had, and the same goes for all the other sides that are in their little square spots on the crimson tray. There's rotisserie chicken though I notice that there are vegetarian and vegan options for the students too.

"Oh my gosh, that's Principal Dwyer's great-nephew's stepdaughter. I heard that she got roomed with Fitzherbert. Poor thing, I hope that she'll know that she can't be friends with her if she wants to fit in here."

"Well, if you feel bad about your picture from the beginning of the year just check out hers. It will make you feel better. The girl is not photogenic at all. Let's just hope that Fitzherbert doesn't take pictures of her when she's sleeping. She'll probably think that she's researching if she's an alien but we both know that Fitzherbert is just a pervert. Remember what she did to our last R.A.? Had to change schools, couldn't stand her stalking."

The two girls are a few seats down from me and have louder voices than they think they do, or maybe they do know their voices carry. I merely strip off some of the tender chicken and take a couple of bites. If I were in Forks, Charlie would be giving me my favorite meal from The Lodge, the town's only decent restaurant.

I'm not that hungry, but I still force myself to eat what is on the tray. I don't want everything to get to me. It's going to be vicious with these students around me that are accustomed to a certain lifestyle or expectancy of a boarding school. I'm not boarding school material, but then again if I weren't boarding school material then Principal Dwyer would have been able to see that a mile away. He would have made sure I would have gotten back into that police cruiser with Charlie.

I only glance up when a person sits down next to me, making me glance up to see the R.A. settling himself in next to me. "You didn't tell me that your father is the chief-of-police of Forks. I knew your name sounded familiar; my cousin lives there. Mike Newton."

From the look on my face, he can tell that doesn't help. He reaches his hand up and rubs the back of his neck, before adding, "my aunt and uncle own the outfitter's shop there."

Acting as though I remember I give him false hope into thinking that he can have a potential to date me. I'm not interested in dating, at all, and if I did, I'd wait until I would attend college instead. The last thing I need is to start a relationship with someone at a boarding school, if things get awkward between us there's only so many places you can hide without running into each other.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it. What's your schedule for the semester? Maybe we have the same classes. Wouldn't that be great? We could have a study group, just between us of course. Not everyone can say they get to study with Rich Newton."

Deciding I've had enough with dinner, and the unwanted guest, I give him a small smile.

It doesn't make my eyes sparkle with flirtation or any positive emotion. My eyes are just tired, I'm ready to go to sleep and imagine myself waking up to head off to my school down in Phoenix.

Not waking up and being in the dreary boarding school I was currently volunteering to attend.

Not waking up and having to get dressed in that stupid blue and white uniform or having to conversate with my roommate.

I am not looking forward to having to have a decent relationship with Elle Fitzherbert, because I'm afraid if I have either a good or bad relationship with her, I will end up having her take pictures of me when I'm sleeping. I don't want to imagine what she'd do, if she'd start collecting chewed gum, I had thrown away so she could make sure I'm not an alien in disguise whenever she sees me acting a way which confuses her but is obviously not too big of a change.

Outside it starts sprinkling, hitting the grass and the stone of the campus. I pull my hood up over my head and stuff my hands into the pockets of my hoodie. My phone is still in my dorm room and Elle has probably gone through my whole history of my phone to make sure I'm not some secret spy sent by the F.B.I. or whatever else this girl would come up with.

The dorm door is already unlocked when I go to do it, cracked open a little bit. I enter and find Elle sitting upstairs on her bed while eating junk food. She notices the confusion on my face, and she merely says, "they don't care what I do at this place. My family has given a whole lot of money to the school, and as long as I keep my weirdness to this room then I'm allowed to do whatever I want…well anything that they can't legally trace back to me."

I literally have no comment on that, except that I don't know how I didn't have her as a classmate back in Phoenix. Arizona would have been the perfect place for her to be herself, for her to not have to worry about these prim and proper students that are here through connections or tuition scholarships, and or just very high social/financial standing.

I pull out my uniform from the garment bag and hang it up on a hook against the wall, so that I don't have to go searching for it in the morning. I glare at it, wishing that just looking at it would cause the uniform to go up in smoke, even though it wouldn't be good. Phil and Renee would have to pull money out of their bank accounts to replace the uniform.

It's barely a respectable time for me to go to sleep when I change into my pajamas and go down to the girls' communal bathroom. There are other girls that have changed into their pajamas and are in the process of cleaning their makeup off. Some girls have towels wrapped around their bodies after taking showers, putting on lotion to make sure their skin doesn't become dry in this freezing temperature. Steam is up against the windows of the bathroom, which thankfully are high enough up on the walls that no one can peek into the room.

With my toothbrush and toothpaste, I begin to brush my teeth, reminding myself I'm being a good daughter.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: you can't escape the Newtons.

as always: Twilight doesn't belong to me.

-it'semmynotemma