Some information before you dive into this story:

Charlie will be very OOC in this story, due to the abuse storyline. Rosalie will also be slightly OOC as she won't appear hostile towards Bella etc and will have a relationship to Bella similar to that of Alice and Bella. At the moment, I don't plan to incorporate Jacob or any wolves into this story, but it may change as I keep writing. I may also change from Bella's POV for some chapters so we can see what is happening at the Cullen's.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or it's characters, these belong to Stephanie Meyer.

Bella stood from her bed slowly, groaning as her whole body throbbed in pain. She stretched each limb out carefully, assessing for any injuries. Thankfully, she felt nothing major other than bruises. Charlie had been angry last night. Bella wasn't sure exactly what triggered his outburst, but he was always unpredictable. She suspected he had some sort of mental illness going on. Most of the time, he appeared quite quiet and left her to it. Other times, he had extremely violent outbursts which always ended up with her getting injured in some form. It was difficult, because she couldn't predict which Charlie she'd get. She was trying to piece together what caused a lot of the outbursts, but hadn't quite managed to date.

Renée was too busy touring with Phil for Bella to tell her what was going on in Forks. Phil was a minor league baseball player, and spent a lot of his time away. Renée always struggled to be away from him, so Bella moved to Forks to be with Charlie so Renée could go off with her husband. Bella knew deep down her mother wouldn't understand the situation anyway, and to the outside world, Charlie seemed like a normal respectable man. He was the chief of police in the small town of Forks and no one would believe Bella if she tried to explain what went on at home. Besides, it was only occasionally that these outbursts of his happened. Bella would be fine.

Bella carefully dressed, being mindful to pick an outfit that would hide the tri-colored bruises scattered across her body. She popped into the kitchen to grab an apple and a granola bar for breakfast. She didn't really have a care for food at the moment. She had slowly been losing weight over the last few months, but now the weight seemed to be rapidly falling off her. Charlie didn't withhold food, but the budget for the groceries kept getting thinner, and Bella wanted to make sure her dad had everything he needed first. She could go without; it wasn't a big deal.

She climbed into her truck cautiously. She didn't need to trip before she'd even started the day. The drive to school was slow and boring. It was raining lightly today, which wasn't unusual for Forks. The weather was always a bit gloomy. Bella pulled into a parking space just in time for the first bell. She tried to hide the slight limp as she headed to her first class. Her foot didn't seem to have any injuries, but the constant force of bruises was making her limbs and bones ache in protest.

Bella zoned out usually during the school day; too tired and too unfocused to really pay any attention to what was going on in classes. Her grades were fine; she had been ahead enough in Phoenix to not fall behind. It didn't take her long to complete work like some of the other students, so she didn't need to focus so intently.

It was lunchtime when Bella finally came out of her glazed state. Something in the cafeteria had caught her group's attention. Jessica had started talking about new people in town, and this spiked Bella's interest slightly. She followed Mike's gaze across the cafeteria to one of the tables at the back.

There were five people sitting at the lunch table. They weren't talking or eating but that's not what caught, and held, Bella's attention.

Of the three boys, one had an extremely, burly muscular build. His hair was a mess of matted curls, a strange shade of dark black and dark brown, styled in casual disarray. Another was leaner but still muscular, with honey blond hair. The last was lanky, less bulky with untidy, bronze-colored hair. He was more like Bella's age than the others, who looked like they could be in college.

The girls were opposites of each other. The tall one had a beautiful slender figure, the kind you would see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Her long golden blond hair was flowing in large ringlets down her back. The short girl was pixie-like, thin with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction.

Despite the differences, they strangely were exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale, with swirling topaz eyes. That wasn't what kept Bella staring at them though.

They were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except on a fashion magazine. It was hard to determine who was the most beautiful.

"Who are they?" Bella asked to no one in particular in her group, but Jessica seemed to be in the know. It didn't surprise Bella that Jessica would be one of the first to know everything about strangers in Forks. It was a very small and usually uneventful town.

Jessica smiled, her eyes refusing to leave the faces of the new people in the cafeteria. "That's Edward the youngest, and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. Alice has just gotten up to put her food tray away. They all live together, with Dr. Cullen and his wife. They're all together though – Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice I mean. Dr Cullen is really young. They're all adopted. The Hales are brother and sister, twins, and they're foster children."

Bella was struggling to keep up with Jessica's gossip, but she was too intrigued to stop listening. It was though she suddenly needed to know everything about these mysterious strangers.

As Bella examined them again, the youngest one looked up and met her gaze with evident curiosity in his expression. "Who's the one with the reddish-brown hair?" She asked Jessica.

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous of course, but don't waste your time. I tried to talk to him this morning and he's not interested in what anyone has to say." Jessica appeared hurt by this, turning to pick at her food. It was unusual for Jessica to get rejected by a boy, and Bella felt a small smile pulling at her lips.

The rest of lunch passed slowly, as Bella couldn't help but keep looking over at the strangers, particularly Edward. He met her gaze a few times, and she couldn't quite read the expression on his face. He seemed almost frustrated, and eventually Bella looked away. She knew her cheeks were flooding red with embarrassment as she got caught staring.

Towards the end of the school day, she saw them again in the car park. There was a new red convertible car parked next to her battered pickup truck, and the blond – Rosalie – was leaning against the driver's door. Bella needed to get close to her to get to her truck, and Rosalie offered a seemingly friendly smile her way. It seemed a little off, but Bella smiled back cautiously as Rosalie stepped aside slightly to let her past, mumbling an apology as she went.

Bella sat in her truck for a few moments, shaking slightly from the encounter and not exactly knowing why. She could feel Rosalie staring at her, but she didn't look up. She didn't want to meet her gaze and get caught looking at them again.

Bella was staring at the steering wheel when she heard new voices mixed in with Rosalie's. Bella could see from the corner of her eye that Edward and Alice were approaching Rosalie's car. Once they had all gotten in the car, Bella looked up but met Edward's gaze from the back window. She looked away again embarrassingly until they had left the parking lot.

She waited a few more moments to pull herself together before heading home herself. She had no idea why these strangers were affecting her so much. They just seemed so perfect, so fascinating, and it was the most exciting thing that had happened in Forks in a long time.

Bella wanted to wrap herself up in the mystery of it all, instead of having to go home and wonder which Charlie she would get today.