one of us saw it coming, not even Alice. No one could have predicted it, no one could have prevented it. Once we saw, we knew that we could never be the same.

. . .

"Calina Rose," Allison shouts up the stairs at me.

As nearly every other day, I'm more than fifteen minutes past when I'm supposed to leave for school.

"I promise I'm coming." I call back, desperately trying to toss everything I need for school into my backpack.

My laptop is nowhere to be found, so I toss my backpack over my shoulder taking the stairs two at a time in my haste to get out.

"Have you seen my-" I stop when Allie holds out my laptop to me, rolling her eyes as I shove it hurriedly into my bag.

"You really should be more organized." She quips, handing me a glass jar of juice, and rushing me out the door.

"Yeah, I know, you remind me all the time." I shoot her a teasing glare as I unlock my car.

"Have a good day." She waves from the door, shutting it behind her when she sees me get in my car.

The drive to school is less than exciting, the only thing that keeps me from falling asleep behind the wheel is the fresh layer of snow atop the week old foot from the first of our winter storms.

"Jesus." I groan, holding my wheel tightly when I realize how full the parking lot already is, if there's anything I hate, its parking in the far lot. It's still dark out, and by the time I'm done at school, it will be dark all over again, meaning a trek in the snow and dark for me.

Resigning to the fact that I will in fact have to park in the back lot, I turn the familiar curve to the back lot, raising my hand to wave at Kate who rushes into the school, leaving Tanya to trail behind her talking to the new family.

So far they haven't spoken a word to anyone besides the Denali clan, which part way irritates me, but I would never tell Kate.

Wrapping myself up tight, I hurry into the school. They didn't manage to ice the back lot in time obviously, because multiple times I have to catch myself as I slip on the ice in my rush.

The warning bell rings right as I run in the front doors, the warmth from the heater hits me, and I welcome it, jumping up and down to stay warm.

I don't even bother taking my coat to my locker, knowing that I'll be late if I do, and Mrs. Dowis has promised me my third detention of the month if I'm late one more time to homeroom.

I barely manage to make it into Mrs. Dowis' room before the bell rings. She raises her eyebrows at me, and I toss her an innocent smile, making my way to Kate in the back.

"Well, you actually made it on time today at least. You know you almost ran over Sheri Hill again this morning." Kate laughs, handing me a bagged cinnamon roll.

"Oh my God, tell Carmen she's literally the best." I grab it greedily, putting it in my bag.

"Will do." She rolls her eyes, focusing on tearing the paper on her desk into a thousand tiny little pieces.

"So, how are the newcomers?" I joke, but Kate just looks frustrated.

"It's just weird, ya know. They're really good at keeping to themselves." She sighs, and I can tell that there's more, but I don't push it with her, instead I turn my focus on Mrs. Dowis who's giving the class a lecture on snow safety as though any of us need it.

When the bell rings, I give Kate one last look, she still looks bothered, but gives me an attempt at a smile when I bid her goodbye until lunch.

I walk down the hallway slowly, pausing when I reach my locker. One of the new girls, the tall one who looks like the stepped right off a magazine gives me a small smile as she puts away books in her locker. I return the smile, instantly feeling awkward next to her.

I let out a sigh of relief when she walks away, and quickly toss my stuff into the locker, slamming it shut quickly before anything falls back out.

"Hey, Lina Rose!" Marlee startles me as she appears next to me, hooking her arm with my own.

"Hey Mar." I grin, letting her lead the way to Advanced Literature Four.

"So, Max asked me to homecoming last night." She smiles big, squealing some kind of high pitched screech as we walk through the door.

"Really?" I feign enthusiasm, hating the idea of someone as sweet at Marlee with a boy like Max.

"Mar, Lina." Anna greets us as we make our way to the table in the back.

Marlee starts in telling Anna the full story of Max and homecoming and I tune her out, waiting for the bell to ring so we can start our day.

Lit wears on for what seems like forever, with Mr. Carlson constantly calling on me like he knows I didn't finish any of the reading last night. By the third time he calls on me, Anna is snickering as well as the rest of the class, and I swear my embarrassment is starting to slowly eat me.

All I want to do is go home and crawl in my bed, but as the hour drags on, the embarrassment seeps away, and I manage to sit calm in my seat. It feels nice, for once, to not feel anything but calm. It's been a while since I felt anything close to that.

I pass from class to class, pretending I don't hear the anything being said about me behind my back. It seems to me like after four months, the rumors would stop, but at this point I'm not sure they ever will. When Kate is around, I never hear anything, everyone is too scared of her, but when she isn't it's easy to hear the things being said about me.

"Hi." I skid to a stop on my way into the cafeteria when one of the new girls stops right in front of me, smiling at me like she's never been more excited in her life.

"Hey, uh you're one of Dr. Cullen's kids, right?" I try to converse with her, making desperate eye contact with Kate across the room, she just smirks and goes back to talking with Tanya.

"I'm Alice, and you are Calina Laraunt." She smiles again, and I can't help but be a bit freaked out by the girl in front of me.

"Yeah." I nod, smiling something that probably looks more like a grimace.

"You're going to sit with us today." She grins, grabbing my arm and leading me towards her table where to my relief, Kate is sitting.

"Hey, C." Tanya calls barely looking away from the bronze haired boy who doesn't seem near as interested in her as she is him.

His head snaps to mine, giving me a look I can't even begin to describe, but he looks welcome to the distraction of Alice and I joining the table.

"Jasper, this is Calina." Her voice reaches a new octave as she shoves me into the chair next to him. I'm immediately freaked out, and like the supermodel blonde from the lockers before can feel it, she hisses at Alice to calm down before she really freaks someone out.

The boy next to me barely says a word, which is even weirder, and I begin to think of every curse I can at Kate for not stepping in and helping me.

"Calina, this is Rosalie," she points at the blond who gives me another small smile, "Emmett, Edward," the bronze headed boy across the table gives me a crooked grin and a wave "and Jasper, of course."

I pretend not to notice the way she shoves my chair closer to Jasper next to me before she sits down, inspecting the apple in front of her.

Jasper finally makes eye contact with me, and I suddenly get nervous all over again, he frowns, but still says nothing.

Kate moves to sit next to me, and I feel myself slowly start to relax. Rosalie even has a small conversation with me, but it's slightly reserved like she's trying to decide whether she likes me or not.

"You were right about weird." I whisper to Kate, and her face breaks out into a grin.

"I told you, I'm just glad you got roped in today." She laughs.

I don't respond, instead focused entirely on the cinnamon roll in front of me.

"God you look like you're having a relationship with that roll." Tanya quips from across the table, rolling her eyes at me.

I think about throwing the cinnamon roll at her and ruining her perfect hair, but I think better of it and continue to eat it. Edward, or Emmett, the bronze one looks up at me again, clearly amused although I'm not sure why.

Most of the rest of the lunch period consists of the big new kid trying to see how many grapes he can put in Rosalie's furry hood before she notices, and Alice looking at me like I hold the answers of the universe. All of it just makes me feel like an outsider in their small world. Clearly they are alright with sticking to themselves like Kate said.

"Calina, what class do you have next?" Alice chirps as we all stand from the table.

"Photography, I help teach it." I nod towards the art hallway, surprised when Edward tells me that he's just switched into the class.

"Have fun, I'll see you later." She says with such finality, like she's going to make sure we see each other if her life depends on it.

I awkwardly nod at Edward, shuffling my hands back and forth because I honestly have no clue what has happened today.

"Sorry about Alice, she's just a bit excitable, I think she thinks you two are going to be best friends by the end of the year. She's a little lonely here." Edward smiles easily, but it doesn't ease my nerves.

I glance back at the table, smiling at Jasper and Rosalie who are still sitting and whispering together. Jasper smiles at me, and just as butterflies erupt, they are again replaced with ease and what feels like happiness.

"No, it's totally fine, I get lonely sometimes too." I nod, trying to get my mind off of why I'm lonely.

Edward just nods at me, looking entirely conflicted.

"So what was her deal with Jasper?" I laugh, starting to feel more comfortable with Edward.

"She's constantly trying to make him be friends with people. Jasper doesn't do as well as my other siblings with people. He had a very different life before our foster parents acquired him."

I frown at his statement suddenly feeling horrible for the boy who sat next to me. Promising myself that I will try to talk to him next time I see him, Edward and I walk into the Photo Lab, I take my place in the front of the room, and he walks to a table, sitting down next to a boy in the front row.

Mr. Baker starts to teach, and grateful to not have to, I sit at his desk and work on my history project. I've never been a huge fan of history, and I have Kate's older sister Irina to help me with everything. She practically knows every last event in American history and even World history. Often Kate and I use her like a human encyclopedia.

I click link after link, reading as much as I can about the Civil War before the bell rings and I sigh in relief.

"You did a lot of helpful teaching back there." Edward jokes, and I punch his arm, it isn't hard, but it definitely hurts like hell.

"What are you made of, concrete?" I laugh, holding my hand and glaring jokingly up at him.

We joke easily all the way back over to my locker where I bid him goodbye for the evening, and Kate comes rushing over to me, glaring at Edward as he passes.

"Woah, what was that all about?" I ask, frowning at her behavior.

"It's nothing, come on, we're hanging out."

I don't argue, just follow her with a small smile, sending one glance back at the weird new family as I leave, Jasper's eyes boring into my own.

"So weird." I mutter to Kate, laughing along with her as we walk out of the school and into the freezing Alaskan night.