Preface

When observing a family unit, you can tell a lot about them by the way they behave around one another.

Study the child, and all secrets about the parents will be revealed. Study the parents, and you can absorb the families' dynamic.

I was always interested in the Psychology field. Upon moving to Forks, Washington, I received the most hands on learning experience I ever had.

My subjects?

The six most interesting people you will ever encounter.

The morning that first day was very bleak. The clouds were a dark, depressing shade of gray. The September wind blew gloomily and made the trees moan in protest. The temperature was unusually frosty for such a time of the year.

My mood was reflective of the weather.

Today was the first day of school, and my fourth day living in Forks.

My mother and Phil insisted I stay with them, but I fought back and told them I needed to spend some quality time with my dad, finally.

Though I was bitterly regretting it as I looked out my upstairs window, I knew I would not have done things differently if I could go back a week in time.

I slipped on my shoes and coat and trudged unhappily out to the cruiser and flopped inside. Charlie joined me a moment later and started the engine.

I was not optimistic at all. I had a feeling that school was going to be hell. My own personal prison. Trapped with materials I probably learned in ninth grade, and stuck with people I was surely not going to like.

I found the office, got my schedule, then took a seat in my first class; which was Art 4.

It was in this class that I met my very first Forkian, Alice Brandon.

I could say only that I was amazed by her entrance into the room. The moment she stepped through the door frame, the whole classroom became fluffier.

Not lighter; because the conversation did not take on an airy atmosphere. Everything just seemed to become, well, fluffier!

Her pale gray eyes spotted me instantly, and she slid into the chair next to me at the two-seater table.

"Hello! I'm Alice. Are you Isabella? You fit the description." Her chirpy voice didn't startle me. She looked like the excitable type, with her wild hair and bright eyes.

I couldn't help but smile at her. She was infectious.

"Call me Bella, please."

"How long have you been in Forks, Bella?" she asked, sounding more interested then I expected anyone to be when they met me.

"A few days. I settled in on Friday." I shrugged.

It had been, in twenty seven minutes, exactly sixty-six hours from the moment the cruiser crossed the 'Welcome to Forks' sign.

Yes, I was keeping track of my suffering time. The moment the bell rang, letting me know I was free for the day, seventy-three hours would have passed.

The teacher entered the room and went over the syllabus he passed out. Shortly thereafter, we were given our first assignment. It was to draw and color a still-life shot of a piece of fruit with whoever we were sitting with.

"What fruit should we do?" Alice asked me.

"An apple," I suggested lamely. It was a classic. "Or maybe an orange," I added.

Did it actually matter?

Apparently it did because she looked affronted.

"Those are too obvious!" Her voice implied 'duh'.

I grinned. "There's a such thing as an inconspicuous fruit?"

Alice scoffed theatrically. "Of course! Take the mango, pomegranate, or the tomato for example. They hide in the depths of everyone's brain, acknowledged only by the rare individuals who care to put in the effort to seek them out."

My partner smiled brilliantly, and her eyes twinkled.

Alice was swiftly proving to be one seriously random, strange, little girl.

I was swiftly starting to like her.

I couldn't help but play along.

"I think I know the perfect fruit," I announced.

She leaned in close. "And?"

I smirked a little bit. "We will be drawing a kumquat."

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Our picture would be started later, once we had a model. It wasn't long before Art ended, and I was headed to my second class, Home Economics.

The class was mostly full by the time I entered it. I was instantly unnerved. The kids were hanging around in tight-knit groups of friends.

I was not about to take the chance of being either sucked into conversation or shunned, so I ducked to the left and sat at the only table that had room.

Two other girls were with me. One was rather tall and had glasses; the other about my height with caramel colored hair. They both offered me a smile, which I returned, but none of us made small talk.

I could get used to this.

The teacher passed out her papers, talked a little, then went into an explanation of what the class would teach us. (That being life-long skills and whatever.)

Her first assignment was to talk to the others at our table and learn three facts besides names.

We were assigned to talk?

Wonderful.

Neither of them showed any inclination to start. My cheeks turned pink when I realized that I would have to initiate the conversation.

"So, I'm Bella." That was all I said.

"I'm Angela." That was the taller girl.

We both looked at the third. She was the one who kicked up a real conversation.

"I'm Esme. Something about me is… Well, my favorite color is silver." She shrugged a little bit.

"Mine is Yellow." Angela declared. "It's a very soothing color. I like it."

Did I have a favorite? Not really. "I like darker shades, but none in particular."

What could I tell them that was even mildly interesting about me?

I came up with something simple. "I'm an only child."

"Me, too." Esme agreed quickly, keeping her eyes focused on the desk.

Angela smiled fondly. "I have twin brothers. They're seven."

It was now Angela's turn to pick the question.

She cheated. "My next class is Geology."

All three of us chuckled a little bit. "Mine is Geology, too!"

"Mine is History," Esme added. Now that three things had been said, she turned her attention elsewhere.

I talked to Angela about nothing in particular for the rest of the period.

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The two of us said goodbye to Esme and found our next class. We sat by each other in the back of the room, looking at a book of rocks.

After a while, two people caught my interest.

The female was sitting on the male's desk. She had silver-blonde hair and an annoying laugh. The male was sitting ram-rod straight in his chair. He had curly blonde hair and looked uncomfortable.

"Who are those two?" I asked Angela curiously.

She looked up, then promptly rolled her eyes. "Lauren Mallory and Jasper Whitlock."

"I think she's annoying him." The observation wasn't that hard to make.

"She's been annoying him since fifth grade when his mother married his step-father." That information instantly intrigued me.

"What difference would that make?" I'm sure I looked a little too eager, but I couldn't help it. She had just supplied me with a premium fuel to my obsessive analyzing.

Angela's voice was little more then a whisper when she leaned closer and began the explanation. "He has a step-sister who's our age, Rosalie Hale. Tall, blonde, super-model pretty. Trust me, you'll know her the second you see her.

"Anyway, Lauren has been trying to make friends with Rosalie since middle school. She's a climber of the social ladder, and Rosalie is a golden ticket right to the top."

I rolled my eyes, too. How shallow some people were! What sort of a person uses some poor guy for her own stupid aspirations?

After the teacher explained a little about the class, Angela and I spent the rest of the time arguing over the difference between granite and slate in its roughest form.

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My last class before lunch was English. I had gotten myself lost, so I arrived exactly two seconds before the bell rang.

I would have just sat down, but I had to jump back and avoid some blonde kid as he stumbled through the doorway.

"New faces! I'm Mrs. Porter, you two are?"

"I'm Mike," he announced proudly.

"I'm Bella." My voice was notably quieter then his had been.

There were three tables in the classroom, Two that had six chairs and one with three. They formed a U shape around the center of the room, where the teachers desk was.

I followed Mike to the short table and took one of the two empty chairs. I settled in between him and a boy with messy bronze hair.

"Is anyone sitting by somebody they have a problem with?" The teacher asked. After a short silence she clapped once, "Grand! This class is going to have five permanent groups of three, so get used to the people near you."

Why was every teacher in this damn school forcing us to inter-depend? I hated group work!

The teacher passed out a novel to each of us, Wuthering Heights.

"Your first assignment is to finish the first three chapters by Friday. When you finish, discuss what you have read with the group."

She floated behind her desk, and I cracked open the book. I read it last year, but I wouldn't mind doing it again.

I was soon lost in the world of Heathcliff and Catherine.

Teaser for c2: I glanced over my shoulder and felt my heart flutter. Standing there was the singularly most gorgeous boy I have ever laid eyes on.

All reviewers who say more than "update soon" or "great chapter" will get an extended teaser!