Chapter 1

Bella walked out of the airport and looked around at the semi-busy street around her. Cars where pulling up to pick up and drop off passengers, but there was one car that stood out more than the rest. Bella smiled softly and started walking towards the police car and the older man standing next to it.

His gray hair had been creeping back more and more over the years, and he just had a few left on his mostly bald head. His smile was as genuine as ever and Bella leaned into a hug as soon as she got near her father.

"Hey, Dad." She said, making sure not to squeeze too hard. He'd had a hip replacement surgery just a couple of months before and she knew it was taking a little bit longer than normal for him to recover.

"Bells." He said gruffly into her hair. "It's so good to have you home."

She leaned back and smiled at him.

"Is this all you have?" He pointed to the case she was pulling behind her.

"Yep." She picked it up and threw it into the trunk.

Charlie walked slowly back around to the driver's side of the car as Bella hopped into the front seat.

"How was your flight?" He asked as they pulled out of the airport's parking lot.

"Hot." She said, gazing out of the window at the trees lining the road. It was a cloudy day in Washington, and she was surprised that it wasn't raining yet. It was always raining here.

He grunted.

"Do you still live in that little house on Park St?" Bella looked over at him.

"Of course I do, Bells." He laughed. "I can barely get the lawnmower out of the garage these days. How do you think I would manage a whole house?"

She smiled. "Just checking." She looked out of the window again. "It's been awhile."

They sat in the quiet for a few minutes. Outside the sky finally decided that it wanted to rain.

"How are you doing?" He asked quietly.

Bella rubbed at a dirty spot on her jeans. "Fine."

She looked over and sighed at the disbelieving look on Charlie's face. "We were expecting this, Dad."

"I know." He nodded. "That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

"I never said it didn't."

Bella looked out the window again. "Mom had lung cancer for 5 years. I'm surprised it took her this long to pass on."

"Yeah." He said quietly. "How did Phil take it?"

"As well as you can." She said. Phil, her step-father of over forty years, had been sad to see her leave Phoenix and the house she had shared with them since her mother's illness began. She felt slightly guilty leaving him behind, but she needed to get away more than he needed her to stay. Bella looked over at Charlie. He was older than her mom was, and there were more physical complications every year it seemed. She hated thinking about what was inevitable for him.

They arrived at Charlie's house a few minutes later. It looked the same as Bella had remembered it – on the smaller side but still nice, and situated conveniently in the middle of town. She didn't have a car – had never owned a car – and so getting around in public was going to be easier with the house being so close to the school she would be attending.

Bella got her suitcase out of the trunk and walked up to the house with Charlie. She smiled fondly as she walked inside. The kitchen had a few pizza boxes and used dishes strewn around the room, the living room had a baseball game on and a few empty beer bottles near the couch, and what she could see of the laundry room had piles of laundry along the floor. Nothing had changed.

"You remember where your room is?" He asked as he walked over to the fridge and grabbed a beer.

"You remember what your doctor said about all that beer?"

He chuckled and headed over to the couch. "I'm gonna just sit and watch the game for a few minutes, Bells. Let me know when you get hungry."

Bella's room was the same as the rest of the house. It hadn't changed in the decades she had lived with Renee. Situated at the top of the stairs next to the little bathroom they shared, it was pretty small and just housed a bed, desk, and a few bookshelves next to the only window. She threw her suitcase onto the bed and opened the window, sitting on the ledge with one leg dangling out.

It had been too long since she had visited Charlie. He was getting older and time never stopped, no matter how much Bella wanted it to. She knew she would never get as much time with them as she wanted. He had come out to see her in Phoenix for years before traveling just got too hard for him. She hadn't been to Forks in at least a decade. Her mother's illness had taken all of her time and attention.

Bella closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the window frame. The loss of Renee was still raw. She knew that she was lucky that they got to say goodbye – that they knew that this was coming – but she had lost her mother. Her mother, who had accepted her even though Bella was different, who had comforted her when she was confused and lonely, who had never thought of Bella as anything less than her daughter.

Bella wiped away a tear and started unpacking her things.

Dinner was a quiet affair for them both. Charlie had never been a talker, and Bella had inherited that quality from him. It was a big change from her mother's constant need to verbally process every thought she had and Phil's willingness to engage her.

"I got you some things you might need for school." Charlie said as they were cleaning up their plates.

Bella groaned internally at the thought. "Do you really think I have to go?"

"You've never been in this town with me for more than a few months, Bells, and it was years ago." Charlie said. "No on even knew I had a daughter until I told them about you when you said you were coming." He smiled grimly at her. "You look eighteen years old. It's not like I could have told them that you've been through high school three times and have degrees from a couple of Universities too."

"I guess that wouldn't go over well." Bella sighed.

Charlie pointed into the living room. "The supplies are over there."

Bella walked over and looked at her new backpack filled with notebooks and some folders. "Thanks, Dad."

"Try and make the best of it." He said. "Who knows?" He winked at her. "Maybe you'll find the boy of your dreams hidden in those grimy halls."

"Or girl." Bella said.

Charlie nodded. "Or girl."

Bella shook her head. "You don't have to worry, Dad. I don't have any plans on dating any pre-pubescent teens any time soon." She crinkled her nose in disgust. "That's bordering on pedophilia if you think about it."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Just don't rule it out, Bells." He walked over to her and laid his hand on her shoulder. "I don't want you to be alone." Bella could see the worry in his eyes. She knew what he meant – that he didn't want her to be alone when he was gone. When the last of her family was gone.

Bella turned around and started wiping off the table. "So, when do I have to start my time in the new prison?"

Charlie chuckled. "Tomorrow."

"What?" Bella whirled around. "I just got here."

"And tomorrow is the first day back from summer holidays." Charlie said. "School starts tomorrow, and you are going to be there."

Bella groaned. High school was bad enough the first three times around.

Charlie cleared his throat. It was later in the evening, and they were sitting in the living room with him watching a basketball game and Bella reading.

Bella looked over at him. He seemed to be debating whether or not to say something.

He glanced at her for a moment before looking back at the television. "I have a pretty big yard out back." He said, glancing at her again. "And I fenced it up real high." He nodded out the window. "And there's a good number of trees behind it. There's another development of houses not too far back there, but there is a little patch of forest."

Bella smiled at him. "I've visited you before, Dad."

"I know, I know." He said. "I just want to make sure that if you need to…" He struggled to find the word. "… shift, then that's where you could do it safely. I made a door in the very back of the fence so you could get in and out of the trees."

"Thanks, Dad." Bella said. "I really appreciate that."

He just nodded at her and went back to watching the game, looking relieved that he had managed to say what he needed to. He had always had trouble talking about it out loud.

Bella looked out of the window and surveyed the yard. It wouldn't be too bad, she thought. That little patch of trees that he was talking about was fairly big – at least big enough to hide a giant cat walking around. Bella stretched out her neck and tried to feel out her muscles. A run would do her good.

"I think I'll go explore it now." She said, standing up and stretching.

Charlie nodded, fully engrossed in the game, and Bella shook her head at him before walking out of the back door out into the yard.

It wasn't hard to change – it felt as easy as breathing most of the time. Bella closed her eyes and let her body move the way it wanted to. She felt herself grow shorter and her muscles grow much larger. She went down on all fours and stretched out her feline body as she finished the shift. Bella started running towards the back fence and jumped over it as she came near. She landed on one of the branches of a tree and used the vantage point to look around her. There were squirrels running around, and her ears twitched at the call of birds in the trees around her.

Bella jumped down from the tree, landing gracefully on her paws, and started running.

This was her favorite part – when she got to be free, when she got to feel the air along her fur and the wind tickling her ears, when she got to really run.

Renee had quite the start when she walked into baby Bella's room and found a little husky puppy in the crib instead of her newborn. Bella hadn't been able to control it as a child and as a result Renee had to homeschool her. She shifted form at every big emotion. When she was angry, a little lion would start mewing at her parents. When she was happy, a puppy would appear, and Bella would lick their faces while she wagged her fluffy tail. It was so much easier to control now – around fifty years later – and Bella had the ability to change into whatever creature she wished.

Bella was already awake when her alarm went off. She stood up from her place on the window ledge and turned it off, stretching a little and looking around at the meager array of clothes she had to choose from in her suitcase. She hadn't gotten around to hanging anything up yet.

Bella walked downstairs to find Charlie sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and some breakfast on the table. He smiled as she walked in the room.

"You're up early."

"I like watching the sun come up." She said as she poured herself a cup of coffee and helped herself to some eggs.

"I don't have a car for you yet." Charlie said regrettably. "So it looks like I'll be driving you to school for a while."

Bella made a face. "It'll make a great first impression, I'm sure."

Charlie shrugged. "It's a small town. Everyone already knows who you are."

She nodded and they ate the rest of their breakfast in silence.

It was raining that morning, so after cleaning up and grabbing her raincoat, Bella ran out to the police car that Charlie was already waiting in. The weather made everything more beautiful, Bella thought as they started driving through town. The dark trees stood out against the cloudy sky, and the rain just made everything look more alive. Bella loved to run in the rain.

She was not impressed with the little building they pulled up to. Bella looked over at Charlie. "This is the school?"

"The pride and joy of Forks, Washington." He said ruefully.

She looked out of the window at the parking lot around them. There were a few cars spattered around the lot, but it was mostly empty. "I'm early."

"You need to go in there." Charlie pointed to the door closest to them. "And get your schedule."

"How old am I to them?" She asked.

"Seventeen." Charlie said. "Junior year."

Bella sighed. It was better than being a sophomore.

"I'll pick you up when school is out." Charlie said. "Good luck!" He called out as Bella opened the door and grabbed her bag.

Bella waved as he drove off before turning to look at the school in front of her. She ran a hand through her damp hair and walked up to the door in front of her.

Bella's eyes squinted as she got used to bright fluorescent lighting of the office.

"Hello." An older lady at the desk smiled at her. Her name plate read Mrs. Bloom. "How can I help you?"

"I'm Bella Swan." She said as she walked forward. "I need my schedule. This is my first day."

"Oh!" The woman's eyes widened and she gave Bella a once-over. She just stared at her for a few seconds before she seemed to shake herself out of it and started tapping at her computer. "I heard that you were coming in to live with your father." She glanced at her keyboard again and then looked up to stare hard at her face. "I have to say, we were all surprised to hear that your father had such a young child." She shook her head. "I mean, at his age… it doesn't happen often." She gave a little laugh.

Bella smiled tightly at her and looked back out of the window towards the parking lot. More people were starting to arrive. A flash of red caught her eyes, and Bella followed an expensive looking red car as it sped into the parking lot. She raised her eyebrows as another expensive car followed this one, going just as fast and rushing into a parking space.

A cleared throat caused Bella to turn around as the woman picked up a piece of paper from the printer. "Here you go, dear."

Bella took the schedule and looked it over. There was nothing to be excited about, but Bella hadn't expected any fun classes. High school was never fun.

"Thank you."

"I have to say, dear." The woman said as Bella was starting to turn around towards the door. Bella looked back. The woman was looking at her strangely again. "I never would have expected a daughter of Charlie Swans to be so…" She trailed off and Bella frowned slightly at her, wondering if there was something wrong. The woman blinked a few times and looked away, "… well, so beautiful." She gave a little laugh. "Your mother must be quite the catch."

Bella flinched. "Thank you." She said again before turning to the door that looked like it opened into a hallway. Humans just seemed to get stranger the longer she was around. She glanced out the window and noticed that the parking lot was full now. She looked back down at her schedule before opening the door. She had History in room 3. That wasn't the most helpful of directions, but Bella opened the door and walked down the hall.

She could feel people staring at her as she looked around at the tops of doors she passed, looking for the right number. Some looked confused, while others had apparently gotten the memo and where whispering to their friends about who she was. She sighed and tried to look busy as she looked down at her schedule.

Bella arrived at room 3 a few minutes before the bell rang and paused a moment before going in. She went straight to the teacher at the front – a middle-aged white man with a frayed suit – and introduced herself.

"Hello." She said to him. He looked up, startled. "I'm a new student here." She smiled at him. "I just wanted to introduce myself." She held out her hand. "I'm Bella Swan."

The teacher looked at her hand in confusion for a few moments before standing abruptly and shaking it. "Hello, Bella." He said. "I'm Mr. Michaels and I'll be teaching World History." He nodded to the room. "Feel free to take a seat wherever you want and we will start in a few minutes."

Bella turned around and started walking to the back. Seats had already started being filled, and she could feel their stares on her as she sat down at a desk near one of the windows. She leaned her head on her hand and watched the rain stream down it as she tried to ignore their whispers. She could hear what they were saying, of course, and it was hard to rein her acute hearing to just focus on the rain.

"Who is that?"

"Is that another Cullen?"

"I think it's Bella Swan – the police chief's daughter."

"But he's so old!"

A chair was moved quietly at the desk beside her and Bella closed her eyes. She didn't want to do this. High school kids where the worst with their staring and their probing questions. Most of them didn't understand what it meant to have a private life.

She heard the rustle of someone siting down.

Bella turned her head and opened her mouth to say a reluctant "Hello," but the words seemed to get stuck in her throat. Bella could feel her eyes widen slightly as she looked at the person sitting next to her. The blonde woman was staring towards the front of the room, evidently ignoring her, and Bella hurried to turn her head back towards the window and blink repeatedly.

She took a few seconds to rearrange her face into an expression that passed for normal before turning back around. "Hi. I'm Bella."

She barely spared Bella a side-glance and didn't speak for a few moments. "Rosalie."

"Right." Bella looked down at the desk and tapped her finger against it a few times.

"You're new?"

"I just moved in with my father yesterday."

"And you're already back to school?" She raised a perfect eyebrow and leaned back in her seat languidly. She looked decidedly disinterested in their conversation. Bella felt her insides start squirming in an uncomfortable but familiar way, the burn and need to shift spreading suddenly through her body, and she quickly looked away from Rosalie. She swallowed hard and tried to clear her mind, working to quell the rising itch that was starting to course through her.

Bella shrugged. "It was the first day." She waved her hand to indicate the room. "Besides, who wouldn't want to miss interacting with all of these lovely people?"

Rosalie didn't laugh, although her eyebrow twitched slightly.

"What brings you to Forks?" Rosalie reluctantly asked.

Bella cleared her throat. "Don't you already know?"

Rosalie hummed and looked around the room. Bella noticed that it seemed like every person in the class was staring at them. She frowned and looked over to Rosalie to ask her why, when she noticed the change in expression on her face. The faces around the room had abruptly turned back towards the front at the glare Rosalie was sending them.

Bella's eyes widened at Rosalie as she turned back towards her.

That's weird, Bella thought. Her eyes were so dark when she had turned back, but were now the same light gold that they had been before. She shook her head slightly and decided that it must have been the light from outside that had changed them.

"Yes." Rosalie answered Bella's question. "I do already know."

"But you're still asking."

Rosalie didn't respond.

"I don't really want to talk about it." Bella said. She didn't want to talk about her mother's death to anyone, much less this beautiful stranger.

Rosalie shrugged.

"What other classes do you have today?" Bella asked. "It would be nice to know at least one person."

Rosalie stared at her.

Bella clenched her jaw and refused to look away. She wasn't being unreasonable. She was trying to have a perfectly normal conversation.

Bella reached into her bag to get the schedule she had been given. She put in the desk for Rosalie to look at.

Rosalie slowly looked down at the paper. "We have Biology together." Rosalie said, "And Art." She slid it back over to Bella. "You seem to share every class with either me or one of my siblings."

"You have siblings?" Bella asked.

Rosalie nodded. "Four."

"And they all go to school here?"

"Yes." Rosalie said. "We are all adopted, and are very similar in age."

"Oh." Bella said, nodding. "How long have you lived together?"

"A long time."

"It's good that you have each other." Bella said. "Some kids in the system never find a family."

Rosalie paused as the teacher stood up and started speaking to the class. "Yes." She said very quietly. "I suppose we are very lucky." She gave Bella a peculiar look, one that Bella didn't even know how to start deciphering, before turning back to the teacher.

Bella found it extremely hard to pay attention to the class, and not just because she had heard this material countless times before. Rosalie's presence was distracting for Bella, who couldn't stop thinking about how close their arms were on the table and how much she wanted to move her leg just inches to the right so that it would touch Rosalie's. It wasn't just Rosalie's beauty that had struck Bella, as Bella had never reacted so strongly to another person before. She was usually able to hold the itch off by shifting every once and awhile, and she had just gone for a run last night. There was no reason for her body to be vibrating slightly under her skin, itching to burst out and run free. It wasn't normal. Bella was brought back to the present by Rosalie as she swept her long blonde hair to one shoulder and sighed quietly. Bella snuck a glance over and to her surprise found Rosalie staring right back at her.

Bella's breath got caught somewhere in her lungs – again – and she didn't make a move to look away. Rosalie seemed to be studying her face, as if she was trying to find something hidden there. Bella didn't know if she found it or not, but Rosalie turned away as the bell sounded. Bella sucked in a breath and started packing up her things with slightly shaking hands.

What the actual hell? Bella thought to herself as she stood up and put her bag over her shoulder. She needed to get a grip or she was just going to keep making a fool of herself or hurting someone. She didn't know which she feared more.

"Do you know how to get to your next class?" Rosalie asked. She looked like she wanted nothing more than to bolt out of the room.

"I don't." Bella said honestly, shaking her head.

"I saw you before class started." Rosalie said as she abruptly turned and started walked out of the door and into the hall. Bella hurried to follow and noticed that people around them were staring again. "And it seemed like you were having trouble navigating the four hallways in this school."

Bella rolled her eyes. "It's my first day. I'm still unfamiliar with where to go."

Rosalie didn't reply. Bella had a feeling that was a habit of hers.

"Rosalie!" A booming voice shouted as they rounded a corner. Bella looked up and saw a very large man walking towards them. His muscles seemed to be bursting out of his clothes, but the boyish grin on his face made him slightly less intimidating. Her skin started crawling even more as his large presence drew nearer and nearer to them. She tried to arrange her face into a neutral expression while her internal conflict got worse and worse.

"Emmett." Rosalie said as he stopped in front of him. "Bella, this is my brother Emmett."

Emmett lunged forward before Bella could say a word and picked her up and started twirling her around in the air. Bella just looked at him with wide eyes as he set her down on the floor. "Hi." She choked out.

Rosalie slapped him on the arm and hissed, "Emmett. Behave yourself." She shot him a glare before turning back to Bella. "Sorry about him." She rolled her eyes. "He's a child."

Bella tried to smile up at the giant and shrugged.

Emmett started walking with them and casually laid his arm on Bella's shoulders. He pouted at Rosalie. "See, Rosie? Bella Bear doesn't mind."

Bella raised her eyebrows at him. She very much minded, and the arm around her shoulders felt like a burning fire. She side-stepped out of his arm.

He shrugged, still wearing that stupid, big grin on his face.

Rosalie glared at them. Her nostrils flared but she didn't say anything, instead pulled them to a stop in front of a door. "Here's your class, Bella."

Emmett clapped his hands loudly. Bella flinched – it sounded like two rocks banging against each other. "Me too!" He steered Bella into the room and threw a grin over his shoulder. "See you at lunch, Rosie!"

Bella looked around him and waved to Rosalie, who was still glaring at them both as they walked away.

Emmett plopped down at a table near the back and pulled Bella into the seat next to him. "How do you like Forks, Bella?"

Bella tried to casually pull her chair to the end of the desk farthest from him. She rolled her eyes at the question she had already received too many times today. "It's fine." She glanced out of the window. "Dreary."

He nodded. "The sun comes out about," He looked up at the ceiling as if trying to count, "every two years."

She snorted. Emmett looked to the front as the teacher stood up and started talking, and Bella leaned down to pull the textbook out of her bag. The class was repetitive – she had heard the quadratic formula song so often throughout her life that sometimes she found herself singing it in her sleep. She found it harder and harder to concentrate on anything but the itch creeping under her skin as the class went on.

Sometimes, she could feel a pair of eyes on the side of her head, but every time she turned towards Emmett his searching gaze had moved to the paper in front of him or the teacher in front of the class.

His eyes were gold, she realized as she studied the side of his face. It looked to be chiseled by the same hand that Rosalie's was, if a bit more carelessly. He was beautiful and he had golden eyes. She frowned down at her notes.

The rest of the Cullen's proved to be just as similar. They all made her itch like mad. She met Jasper and Alice in her next class, and Alice smiled brightly at her when she walked in the door, waving her over enthusiastically to their table. She had pulled up a chair next to her and Bella found herself sitting in it before she had even gotten a chance to introduce herself. Jasper smiled at her, but he looked like he was dealing with some nasty stomach pain. They both had golden eyes too.

"Hi, Bella!" Alice said brightly. "I've heard so much about you."

"Really?" Bella asked, frowning. "How so?"

Alice bit her lip and leaned forward. "The people of Forks can't stop their gossiping, Bella. They have received a new object of obsession and they just can't help themselves."

Bella rolled her eyes – she had never noticed how often she did that – and glared around the room. Again, people seemed to have nothing better to do than stare. "I've noticed."

"Don't blame yourself." Alice said. "It's mostly us."

At Bella's confused look, Alice elaborated. "My family and I don't usually socialize outside of ourselves." She explained.

"Why?" Bella asked.

Alice shrugged, but there was a flash of something in her eyes – caution or hesitation, maybe. A bright smile from her distracted Bella. "No one usually captures our interest."

"Why are you talking to me then?" Bella asked bluntly.

Alice looked at her. Jasper seemed to clear his throat slightly and shifted in his seat.

"Well," Alice said. "It seems that you have captured our interest." She mumbled something else under her breath, and Jasper chuckled. Bella frowned slightly when she realized that she couldn't catch what Alice whispered. She definitely should have been able to hear her. She could hear the boy across the room mumbling to himself about the letter he was writing, and she could hear the girls in the back whispering about the "weird new girl." Maybe it was because she was so distracted.

"Oh." Bella said. She turned away from them and tried to pay attention to the lecture on Hamlet that was happening. She had never been great at making friends with people her own age. She probably had been fine at it at one point – she could vaguely remember a few friendly, young faces that she used to be around all the time – but as she had gotten older, the younger someone was the duller they seemed. Teenagers were immature, there was no getting around it. They grew out of it, sure, but Bella was stuck among them and she had lost hope in ever finding friends that appeared to be her age. This immediate attention she was receiving was not expected, and Bella really wasn't sure what to do with it. Especially because this family caused such a strong reaction inside of her.

"I'm sorry I have to say this." Alice began as they stood up when the bell rang for lunch. "But if you sit with us at lunch, it will crush any hope of you finding any other friends." She held onto her arm for a moment and looked at her with her big, sad eyes. "I would like nothing more than to invite you to sit with us, Bella, you have to understand, but…" She trailed off.

"Oh." Bella said. She hadn't even thought about lunch. "Okay." She cursed herself for her inability to talk in front of these beautiful people. It wasn't just Rosalie that took her breath away, although, Bella grudgingly admitted to herself, Rosalie was by far the most beautiful in the family.

They walked into the lunchroom. Alice gave Bella a little wave before pulling Jasper away, and Bella sighed as she looked around at the crowded room full of crowded tables full of loud people.

"Nope." She shook her head and spun on her heel, making her way past all of the people going into the room. She realized that this was the perfect opportunity for her to blow off some of the pressure that had been building all morning. She made her way down the quiet hallways until she found the exit, and walked outside in relief. She quickly made for the tree line not too far from the parking lot, and as soon as she got there she started running.

Rosalie found her after the lunch hour was over and she was back inside walking down the hall.

"Bella." She said sharply.

Bella jumped. "Oh, hi." She felt a blush creeping up her cheeks. "I didn't hear you come up." It was better now that she had shifted. The itch was faint and Bella tried her hardest to ignore it.

"You didn't go to lunch." Rosalie stated. She was frowning and glaring at her again.

Bella gave her a weird look. "How do you know that?"

Rosalie raised an eyebrow. "All the boys in the cafeteria were paying attention to their food and not their new toy."

Bella made a face. "Gross."

They walked in the classroom that they apparently shared. Rosalie held the door open for Bella, but she noticed that Rosalie shut it a little too hard on the boy who was rushing into the room after them.

"I wasn't hungry." Bella said

Rosalie gave her a searching look.

"Alice is in this class too." Rosalie said as she smoothly sat down in her seat, glancing meaningfully at the one next to her.

Bella sat down. "I like Alice."

Rosalie whipped her head towards her and Bella quickly added, "Jasper seems nice too."

"They're dating." Rosalie said.

"Okay." Bella said. "Good for them."

Rosalie searched the side of her face. "They're adopted."

Bella frowned. "I know? You told me."

"Most people frown on their relationship." Rosalie said. "Because we share a family."

"Well, that's stupid." Bella grumbled. She saw a flash of a something that looked like a smile from Rosalie and before she could stare at it like an idiot, her attention was literally pulled away to the little person who starting hanging off her arm.

"Hi!" Alice was smiling brightly at her, jumping up and down as she held onto Bella's arm.

"Hi, Alice." Bella said. She resigned herself to a class full of loud whispers from Alice – ones that the teacher studiously ignored – but Bella couldn't bring herself to mind that much.

She met Edward in her next class – the last of the day. She found her way to it on her own and as she ducked into the classroom, she went straight towards the table in the back where the only Cullen she hadn't met was sitting. She wasn't feeling the best – her shift during lunch helped, but she could feel the need itching under her skin.

"Hi, Edward." She said as she sat down.

"Hello." He said, shifting in his seat.

She looked over at him, but found that he was having trouble meeting her eyes.

"You okay?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh." He said. "Yes, I'm fine." He looked up at her, concerned. "Do I look like I'm not fine?" He seemed genuinely concerned.

"No, no." She reassured him. There was an awkward pause. He was looking around the room awkwardly. "I've met your family." She said, trying to talk with him before class started. "They are very nice." And they make me want to jump out of my skin, Bella added in her head.

"They are very nice to me as well." He frowned. "Well, of course they are – they're my family – but I was just agreeing with what you said about them being nice." He started tapping his fingers against his desk as if he was playing the piano. Bella wondered if it was a hobby of his.

"I've taken Biology before, so I don't think this is going to be a hard class for me." Bella tried again.

"Yes, I have taken it before as well. It has become a boring subject." He was staring down at his hands in concentration.

"Are you alright?" She asked again.

"I'm feeling wonderful." He stated with absolutely no change in his expression.

She waited. He just kept shifting his eyes to look at anything that wasn't Bella.

"You're strange." She decided.

He looked up to her with wide eyes. "What?"

"Maybe you just don't know how to talk to people." She said, smiling slightly. "And that's totally fine!" She reassured him. "I like it."

"I…" He looked at a loss. "I do talk."

She hummed. "Of course you do, Eddy."

He frowned. "I don't know if I like that."

"I do." She said, laughing. "Get used to it."

He stared at her for a second before turned back to the front.

Bella decided that she liked Edward. He was just as beautiful as the rest – and had the same damn golden eyes – but his hair was defying gravity in a truly laughable way and the way he held himself was just so awkward. Everything about him screamed 'teenage boy.' Bella stared at the side of his face as class began. He glanced towards her, but quickly away again when he noticed she was staring. He tapped his pencil on the table and it seemed like he tried to arrange his face into a smile before turning back to her, but Bella had to hold her hand tightly against her mouth to hold in the laughter that was threatening to escape. He turned away again, with that stupid, toothy smile on his face, and didn't look at her for the rest of class.

Bella was going to be friends with him, if for no other reason than it was going to make being in Biology for the fifth time that much more bearable.