Characters are property of SM and I own nothing/am paid nothing.

Bella stood in the doorway of her childhood bedroom and assessed the changes Charlie had made to make it more accommodating for the 17-year-old. It felt warm and welcoming after the year she had spent living with her aunt and uncle in Phoenix following her mother's car accident. Not that they hadn't tried.

Charlie had painted the walls a soft heather gray, to match an overcast evening sky, if Bella had to guess. In addition to the fresh paint, he had provided her with a computer desk nestled between two windows on the far wall, complete with a wheezy old computer and monitor. A full-sized bed sat centered along the door wall, decked on one side with a bookshelf and bedside table topped with a lamp on the other. Next to the closet stood a muted, dusty lilac-colored dresser with crystal knobs that the two of them had worked on sprucing up a few summers previously.

"What do you think, Bells," Charlie asked from behind her, having carried a box of books and odds and ends up the stairs.

"It looks great, Ch-dad," Bella offered with a smile as she entered the room, setting a box filled with clothes on the floor next to her dresser. "I like the color of the walls," she added, hoping to express her gratitude.

"I'm glad. Sue Clearwater, Harry's wife, helped me pick it out," Charlie set the box he was carrying next to Bella's bed before continuing, "she thought that the little bit of pink and purple in the gray would be better than the off-white the room was before. Egg something or other."

Bella grinned at her color oblivious father, "I think you mean eggshell."

"That's the one! She said it was boring and that teen girls tend to like colors. I considered going brighter but it would be a pain in the–," he cut off, as though his daughter had never heard him swear, "Well, covering it would have been tough if down the road we wanted to change it or sell the house."

Bella raised an eyebrow at her born and raised in Forks, father, and asked, "You thinking about selling?"

"What–, I–, no. I just don't want to do anything too permanent to the house just in case. You never know."

Bella smiled at his logic and began her least favorite part about moving, unpacking.

"Well, that was the last box. If you want, we can get you a new comforter from Port Angeles sometime next month. Try to get things feeling normal," he offered with a frown.

That might be a bit of a stretch, Bella thought grimly. Being able to change into any animal at will around the full moon is the cherry on the not-normal-sundae that is my life. No, normal most definitely doesn't apply to this situation.

"Don't worry, Dad, I'm fine with the blankets we have. You've done so much already and it means a lot to me, that you want to make me comfortable here," Bella replied, nervously tugging on the ends of her long hair. Neither were very good at expressing their emotions, especially to each other, but it went unsaid that Charlie was happy to have her home. "Unless you can magically stop the rain and clear the clouds, you've done everything humanly possible," Bella added with a snort to lighten the mood.

"That, I can't do, unfortunately," Charlie answered back with a chuckle. "Well, I'll leave you to get everything settled and order in some pizza later, if that's okay with you?"

"Sounds good," Bella answered as Charlie headed back down the stairs. She turned back to pulling clothes from the multitude of boxes and unloaded shirts, sweaters, jeans, socks, and underwear to their appropriate drawers. When she had finished, Bella sat down on her bed, fiddling nervously with the soft white, lace embroidered blanket that surely had been a purchase of her mother's doing, as she contemplated what her new life in Forks might look like.

Thanks to my long list of expulsions, I'm a junior with a three-strike write-up policy. I have no friends. I'll be shifting alone. Fantastic.

If Bella was being honest with herself, she was grateful to Charlie for going to bat for her with Forks High, even if it meant she was on a very short leash. After understanding the anger issue she had been experiencing stemmed from the trauma surrounding her mother's death Bella had started taking better care of herself, which included shifting fully, even though she hated being alone, and burning off her excess energy.

Snapped out of her daze by the pattering of rain against the window, Bella opened the box Charlie had set on her bed and grabbing a handful of books, she got to work organizing her things on the bookshelf. Bella soon completed her task and carried the box, which now held only CDs, a pencil holder, pens and some pushpins over to the desk and sorted her music by favorite to least favorite.

With nothing left to unpack, the girl sat back on the edge of her bed and accessed the torrential downpour of rain through her window. She would definitely have to shift into an animal that didn't mind a little rain and would offer her warmth against the cold that January brought to the Pacific Northwest.

Maybe I can try going for a bear if I get cold, she thought, a grin tugging at her lips.

A glance at the calendar on the wall above her desk confirmed what she already knew: she wouldn't be able to shift until Friday evening which meant she'd have to get through a week filled with restless irritability on top of being the new girl in school. Fantastic. Tomorrow would definitely be interesting.

Bella woke in a panic as she realized her alarm hadn't sounded. She flung off her blankets and was treated to a bitterly cold morning, meaning that thanks to the rain, the roads had essentially turned into one long ice slick. She showered quickly and blow-dried her hair, then dressed in a pair of leggings, a long-sleeved black shirt and topped it off with a loose-knit forest green sweater. She raced for the stairs to wolf down a breakfast that comprised of only a glass of milk and a fruit and nut granola bar.

She dashed to the bathroom to brush her teeth then headed for the door. Opting for a pair of lace-up boots, Bella shoved her feet inside, yanked on her coat and grabbed her backpack before locking up and venturing out towards her truck.

Bella pulled into the school parking lot with no more than 10 minutes to spare to locate her first class. At least, after starting three different high schools in less than a year, she was a bit of a professional at navigating the first days as the new girl. Find the front office. Get my schedule, locker number and combination, and a map if they have one.

Hitching her plain black backpack over her shoulder, Bella, followed her intuition and set off for what had to be the main building. Made entirely of brick with bright red doors and flanked by 4 or more portable unit classrooms, Forks High didn't appear to have been updated in a few decades, if ever. She pulled on one of the doors and located the front office almost immediately off to her right.

Sighing with relief, Bella stepped up to the counter and waited for the receptionist to finish taking notes for the call she was on to notice her. A minute ticked by and in that time, Bella heard the main doors open and a presence take place in line behind her. Fighting the urge to turn around and see who had entered the building, Bella merely waited her turn and fiddled with the hem of her left sleeve.

The receptionist finally set the phone she'd been holding onto her desk with a small thud before turning and catching sight of Bella and the unknown person behind her.

"Oh, hello, dear! My name is Marla. You must be Isabella Swan," Marla bubbled with more enthusiasm than Bella thought necessary.

"Yes, but call me Bella, please," the girl requested with a small smile of her own. "Do you happen to have any class and locker information for me?"

"I sure do! Let me just find it real quick and you can be on your way." Marla frowned at her desk and turned in her chair to look at the desk adjacent to hers. Spotting a file, Marla hopped up to grab it. She flipped it open and right on top was a sheet containing a class time table stapled to a scrap of paper with her locker number and code.

"Here you are, dear!" Marla passed the papers through the window to Bella before adding, "Unfortunately, I don't think you'll have time to check your locker right now but why don't you check over lunch and if there are any problems just let someone up here in the office know and we'll sort you right out."

"Thank you, so much," Bella answered politely. "One more question, though. Could you tell me where this first class, my "home-base," is?"

"Of course! So, you're going to want to head down this hallway," Marla pointed to Bella's left, "and take a right at the next hallway and it will be two doors down."

"Thanks again!" Bella exclaimed with a relieved smile and turned quickly, eager to make a good or at least decent impression by making it before the final bell. In her haste, Bella jostled into the person that had been in line behind her. Luckily, the body she'd backed into was planted quite firmly and didn't even stumble as she righted herself.

"I'm so sorry!" Bella started to launch into an apology before making eye contact with the body she had bumped into.

The mystery presence was a tall, muscled young man with soft, wheat-colored hair and topaz tinted eyes, set in a face of creamy porcelain. His soft pink lips were pressed firmly in a line of mild annoyance. Bella felt her jaw drop as she took one step, then another, away from the gorgeous stranger, mouthed the word, "Sorry," one more time and turned quickly around to dart off for her class.

She made it through the door just before the final bell, still mildly dazzled by the mystery man.

"Ah, you must be Isabella Swan," a dark-haired man with a mustache seated at the front of the room remarked. "I'm Mr. Murdoch. Why don't you take the remaining seat at the lab table next to Jessica."

"Please, just call me Bella," she answered for the second time that day and headed for the lab table at the back of the room before setting her bag on the floor as the other students had.

"Very well, Bella. Alright, everyone, since it's Bella's first day I'm just going to recap what we're working on so we can get to it. The news will start in a few minutes. Normally, we watch and encourage open discussion for the following 20 minutes. However, since we have certain school spirit projects in the works, we are using that time to decorate posters to hang around the school to encourage our football team to beat the Sequim Wolves to a pulp." Mr. Murdoch droned on in a bored tone, clearly not feeling the school spirit himself.

"We have posterboard, markers, glitter, glue, scissors, and even some feathers. We brainstormed as a class yesterday and for the rest of the week, you all can finish it up," Mr. Murdoch finished as the severely outdated neon intro for student-led news flashed across the television mounted to the wall. The class remained mostly silent as the reporters, Lauren and Tyler, made announcements about the upcoming game, and lunch menu options, before a reel of current national events played.

Bored with the monotonous ramblings, Bella's table partner turned to face her and whispered enthusiastically, "Hi! My name is Jessica, well, Jess, as you obviously heard. How are you liking Forks?"

"It doesn't seem all too bad, but I'm not used to all the trees, and quiet to be honest," Bella whispered back with distaste. "Everything feels so closed off and it's a lot colder than I'm used to but I'm sure I can adapt. Did you grow up here?"

"Born and bred, sadly. I'm hoping to someday move to a bigger city, maybe somewhere in California. I'd like to be an actress, to be honest! Even just getting out of Washington would be nice, though. I've been to Seattle a lot and don't mind the hustle and bustle of larger areas." Jessica answered easily and carried on with a lengthy reply that created an almost white noise sort of effect while Bella's thoughts drifted back to the man she had almost knocked down this morning.

Is he a student? He didn't look old enough to be a teacher, but those muscles...

Bella was practically drooling when she realized the news segment had finally ended and Jessica had slowed her babbling. Students were scooting out of their chairs and heading to the front of the classroom for crafting supplies and Jessica briefly outlined the concept they had come up with and instructed Bella to start on block letting.

The rest of the morning passed without any other unpleasant stumbling or embarrassing incidents in what could be considered a very predictable pattern of first-day newness. Much to her amusement, Bella found that Forks was behind the Phoenix school system and most of what her classes were working on was content she had covered earlier in the year. At least keeping her grades up wouldn't be an issue.

It was finally time for lunch and seeing as how she hadn't been listening to the morning broadcast, Bella had no idea what was being offered for selections and had to come to a quick decision between greasy looking pizza, a chicken patty sandwich, or a salad. Not knowing what was edible in this school, Bella settled on a salad and a bottle of water.

Next, her least favorite and most anxiety-producing moment of her first day:

Sit alone with a book and establish myself as a private eater or try to see if anyone I spoke to earlier in the day would be interested in having me sit with them.

She was spared from any awkward dithering as Jessica popped up in line behind her and started chattering immediately, inviting Bella to follow her to a table that was filled with a few other students that she could recognize by face, but not name.

Bella took a seat next to Jessica and smiled tentatively at a raven-haired girl that was introduced as Angela, a blonde boy she recognized from math class named Mike, the girl from the student news named Lauren, who was soon joined by Tyler, her co-host and eventually, a boy named shy-looking boy named Eric. The salad wasn't awful and Bella was happy to find the conversation light and friendly. No one pressed her too hard for information about her past other than that she was living with her dad because her mom had died in an accident.

Then again, losing a parent is probably just one of those things that people don't want to pry about, Bella reflected. It was a quality she appreciated, as, while she was able to make it through most days without falling back down into the pain, the edges were still raw.

She was torn from her reverie and forkful of salad when she happened to glance across the cafeteria to see the golden-haired man-god from the early morning seated at a table with four other equally radiant beings. Bella's jaw dropped and her fork fell into her salad in her stupor. Naturally, this sent Jessica into a giggling fit as she followed the girl's gaze.

"You guys, Bella just noticed the Cullen family," Jessica whispered conspiratorially to her group of friends.

"I can't promise you'll ever get used to seeing a family with excessive levels of gorgeousness, but you probably won't drop your silverware every time you do," Angela offered with a smile while Lauren rolled her eyes.

"The Cullen's, huh," Bella asked while averting her gaze and picking her fork back up. "They're all related or what?"

"Well, actually, the two blondes, Rosalie and Jasper Hale, are brother and sister while the thin, pixie looking girl, Alice Cullen, and the broody, frowning boy with the reddish-brown hair, Edward Cullen, are another brother and sister set. Mr. Muscles, Emmett Cullen, is unrelated to the others. Anyways, Rosalie and Muscles are dating," Jessica explained the complicated situation with gusto, happy to dish the details for the new girl. "They were all adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife, though Rosalie and Jasper haven't taken their name."

Bella's arched one shapely brow as she asked, "What, did Dr. Cullen and his wife decide to only adopt attractive children?"

Jessica snorted. "I think the real question is, how awkward is it that two teens adopted into a family are dating each other," she waggled one eyebrow suggestively.

Bella shrugged and turned back to her salad before stealing a few more glances at the table of gods and goddesses and noticed that none of them were touching their food. Rosalie and Emmett, seated next to one another, were having a conversation of their own, while the tiny one, Alice, was talking to her brother, Edward. Jasper appeared to be zoning out but a moment later, locked eyes with Bella.

Startled by the intensity of his gaze, she couldn't breathe, let alone look away. Bella felt like a deer in headlights, and, having been a deer in headlights once or twice, she would know. Heart racing a million beats a minute, it wasn't until a student walked between the two that the spell was broken, and Bella was able to look back down at her tray.

Instincts screaming at her to run, Bella grabbed her empty water bottle and tray and said her goodbyes under the pretense of finding her next class so she didn't have to ask for help later. Standing, she bolted to the trash to dump the rest of her lunch and plastic container.

Bella was sure of one thing; Jasper Hale is dangerous.

Bella made it to her very last class of the day: Biology with Mr. Murdoch in the same room that her home base had been held in. Yet again, she was instructed to take the last remaining seat which was, unfortunately, next to Edward Cullen, adopted brother of Jasper Hale.

Bella smiled grimly and took her seat, letting her thick, chestnut hair fall like a curtain between the two of them, hoping to ward off any conversation. Glancing through strands of her barrier, she noticed Edward frown; at her clear unwillingness to communicate or something else. Thankfully, he didn't seem to want to push his luck.

It wasn't until he was preparing a slide for their shared microscope that she allowed herself to look at him. Though, Bella told herself it was so she could watch for any mistakes Edward could make, not because her instincts clamored that she track his movements. Luckily, he didn't make any mistakes and she wasn't forced to speak to correct him.

Edward set the slide in place and peered into the microscope, then jotted some notes on what he observed and angled it towards Bella to look into. Though she had anticipated his movement, her muscles tensed, almost as though she were about to bolt out of her seat. Legs stiff and arms rigid, she stood and leaned over the eye piece, once again, her instincts screaming at her.

Danger! Don't look away from him! Don't let your guard down!

She could easily pinpoint that these internal reactions most likely had something to do with the fact that as a shifter, she could sense danger more acutely than human beings could, especially this close to the full moon, but she had never had this reaction to another person. Bella reminded herself that she was in a classroom, in broad daylight and some pale, moody kid wasn't going to hurt her. All she had to do was look at the slide, take her notes, clean up and go home. She could do that.

Breathe. Take notes. Go home.

Bella exhaled a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and set to work, taking note of the differences between the plant and animal cells, then helped clear her lab table while Edward returned the microscope, giving her a moment to collect herself. Backpack packed, she waited impatiently for the final bell to ring in four minutes, hoping Edward wouldn't initiate any sort of small talk in the interim.

Luck was no longer on her side, however, as no sooner had he sat back down from returning the microscope, Edward turned in his seat to face her. Seemingly determined to start fresh with the girl he said, "Hello, my name is Edward. I started as a mid-year new student a few years ago. Is Forks painfully behind for you as well?"

At least this was an easy topic of conversation, despite the vibes she was picking up from him and his adopted brother.

"Yes, actually. I can't believe how far behind Forks is in World History and English. This means school is boring, but it also means I can just do my own thing in terms of what to read," Bella beamed at the thought of reading whatever she wanted to.

Edward chuckled and replied, "Where did you come here from?"

"I moved up here from Phoenix. It's definitely darker here," Bella noted with a glance out the window at the overcast skies. "I'd kill for some sunlight."

That remark caused her lab partner's lips to curl up in a grin. "I'm not too sure I share the sentiment, but I can see how you'd miss the sunlight up here, compared to the south."

The two sat in relative silence for the next 30 seconds until the final bell rang, at which point, Edward turned back to Bella and parted with, "See you tomorrow."

Talking had done little to quell her mental hangups on the boy and his family. If anything, she was more unsettled. Her muscles were still tense as she speed-walked to her beat-up, red truck. Bella didn't relax a single iota on her drive home and upon parking and exiting the truck, her tension increased tenfold.

Skin crawling and arm hair standing on end, she sensed something off and turned to inspect the wooded area that flanked her father's home. Though she saw nothing, her body stiffened further, causing even the hair on her head to raise slightly as she shivered convulsively and backed slowly to her front door.

Hands shaking, and without turning away from the woods to see what she was doing, Bella took her keys from her coat pocket and unlocked the door to let herself in. She bolted it behind her before lowering herself to the stairs, shaking.

She could feel, even if she couldn't see, that someone or something had been watching her from deep within the trees.

Bella had resorted to cooking a spaghetti and meatball dinner as a means to soothe herself, though that hadn't stopped her from checking the windows facing the trees multiple times for any new developments. There had been none, and Bella had even gone so far as to step outside onto the small porch to investigate and felt that whatever it had been, was no longer in the area.

Feeling better knowing that Charlie was getting home in the next 15 minutes or so, Bella turned back to dinner prep and added noodles to the boiling water, let them cook, then drained and returned them to the pot. Checking the fridge for a vegetable of some sort, she found a bag of salad that looked decent enough and a bottle of ranch dressing.

Hearing the familiar crunch of gravel as Chief Swan's police cruiser pulled into the driveway, Bella relaxed further. She got two plates and two glasses out from the cupboard as well as two forks from the silverware drawer and laid them out.

Charlie walked into the kitchen and gave an approving sniff. "Smells great, Bells! Spaghetti?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs, actually," Bella replied with a smile. "I figured since I get home earlier than you, I could take over cooking some nights. I know we didn't talk about it, but you don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all! I didn't know you could cook, and it will mean less pizza and takeout for me, which is a good thing," Charlie answered with a chuckle. "Tell you what, why don't we go grocery shopping and we can pick out some things you want for meals and snacks."

"I wouldn't mind picking up a few things before then if you need. I know there's fish out in the freezer but I could pick up some meal things tomorrow after school if you wanted, just to round things out until this weekend," Bella offered.

"That would be great!" Charlie exclaimed, clearly relieved at not having to do the shopping and looking forward to home-cooked meals for the rest of the week. "I'll leave my card on the table tomorrow morning and text you my pin so you can get what we need. I'm going to go wash up for dinner and then you can tell me all about your first day."

"Sounds good, dad," Bella grinned and started to dish up the plates, feeling the tiny beginnings of what she hoped would become a routine in the weeks to come.

The two enjoyed a mostly quiet dinner sprinkled with a few questions about Bella's day and the names of the classmates that had been welcoming. Charlie had only nice things to say, having known most of the families for the past two decades.

Bella wondered if Charlie knew anything about the Cullen's and decided to ask. "I did meet a group of somewhat standoffish kids this afternoon. Do you know much or ever hear anything about the Cullen's?"

Charlie set his fork down and his demeanor became somewhat defensive, "I don't know what you've heard at school, Bella, but I do know that not everyone in town can appreciate that we have such a wonderful doctor willing to stay in Forks despite the much smaller paycheck.

"Aside from him, there are only two other doctors, and they both travel between Port Townsend, Sequim, Port Angeles and Forks. We're lucky to have someone dedicated to Forks at all, not to mention someone so family-oriented. Both Dr. Cullen and his wife are very young and to take on five children is something I can admire. Not only that, their kids haven't caused a single lick of trouble, something I can't say for most of the locals."

It was quite possibly the longest speech Bella had ever heard her father deliver and she backtracked slightly, hoping he didn't get the wrong impression from her. "They seemed nice enough, and I'm biology partners with Edward Cullen. I was just curious. They seem to stick to themselves," she shrugged anxiously out of habit.

Charlie's face softened and he nodded along, "I could see that. I'm sure they must feel like outsiders. They moved here a year or two ago and I could see, in a family that size, it might not want to bother with people outside of their circle."

Bella nodded in silent agreement, though her curiosity wasn't sated. There was definitely something different about them, something that had set her internal alarms.

After dinner, Charlie headed to the living room to watch some TV while Bella cleared and washed the dishes before settling in at the table to do homework and tried to not think about the Cullen's. She finished her Geography homework and got a head start on her 2000-word History essay on how ancient trade routes impacted modern-day imports and exports in Italy when Bella decided to call it a night.

Bella took a few moments to tell Charlie to have a good night and to check that the front and back doors were locked before heading up the stairs to pick out a pair of flannel pajamas. After she changed, she crossed the room to check that her bedroom windows were locked. A sweep of the yard reassured her that nothing was out of place and the night mostly calm. Finally, she padded over to her bed and sank into the warm covers while trying to clear her mind for sleep.

Surprisingly, it wasn't as far off as she'd thought it would be and within minutes, Bella drifted into a mostly dreamless sleep.