Disclaimer: In no way do I own the characters of Twilight or New Moon. If I did, my name would be Stephenie Meyers and I wouldn't be writing fanfiction on my own story. Because that would be more than a little conceited.

Summary: Edward Cullen is indestructible, causing him to take the beauty of life for granted. Bella Swan, the sweet, peaceful new girl shows him just how precious life can truly be. It's AU, but that's what fanfiction's all about!

A/N - So yeah...I know the story idea is a bit overused, but this is different. I promise. I wanted to give a little bit of depth to the characters (especially Bella). And by depth I mean a little more wisdom and more complex emotions. I hope you guys enjoy it. It's my first Twilight fanfiction, so please feel free to tell me if it sucks or not.

Bella: First Day

"Mom, I'm fine," I told her exasperatedly for the millionth time.

She sighed. "I know, I know," she said as she fixed the scarf around my neck. "It's just…it's your first day of school. I'm so worried for you."

"I'm not going to collapse in the middle of class, Mom, I promise," I told her as I kissed her on the cheek. She opened her mouth, but I cut her to the chase with, "And if I feel the slightest bit woozy, I swear I will call you and then you can take me home."

She smiled tentatively as Dad walked into the kitchen. "Hey, Bells," he said in a happy voice. Bless him, I thought to myself as he kissed my mother on the cheek. He wanted to act as if this was normal for me, instead of making it into such a big deal like Mom. "Ready to go?"

I nodded, barely able to keep my excitement inside. I gave my mother one last hug and she squeezed me back. "Take care of yourself, sweetie," she whispered through the tears welling in her eyes.

I nodded and kissed her on the forehead as a reassurance. Then I grabbed my bag and followed Dad out the door and into the cruiser. Mom watched on the front step of the house and waved goodbye as he pulled out of the driveway. We both waved back and watched her furiously wipe away at the tears spilling down her cheeks.

"So," Dad began.

"So," I replied playfully. He flashed a grin my way.

"Are you excited?"

I nodded. "Yeah. And I'm a little nervous. I'm not really sure what to expect."

He nodded too. "You'll do fine," he reassured me. "You've always been a smart kid, and the other kids are nice enough."

"Thanks, Dad."

The rest of the ride, though short, was silent. It was better this way. I knew my father was just as worried about my well-being as my mother was, but he was more supportive of my decision to start going to public school. He wanted me to experience everything I could out of life before…well, before it was too late.

After ten minutes, he pulled into the parking lot of a building that was marked with a huge sign that read Forks High School. My heart started pounding excitedly when I saw the other students making their way around the buildings.

"Do you want me to go in there with you?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I'm fine, Dad. I'll be fine." I said it twice, once for him, the other for me.

"Okay then. Take care of yourself, Bells, okay?" he repeated my mother's parting words and kissed me on the forehead.

"Will do, Dad," I replied as I swung my backpack over my shoulders and hopped out of the car. With slow, but sure steps, I made my way to the main office building and pushed the door open.

The interior wasn't what I expected. Instead of phones ringing off the hook, papers stacked neatly in little trays, and people walking in and out and around with little mugs of coffee, the phones barely rang, papers covered almost every flat surface, and people were sitting down in their desks, hardly paying any notice to me.

"Um, hello?" I asked tentatively. "I'm new, I just enrolled."

A large, brunette lady with a pink t-shirt looked up from her desk. "Oh, hello sweetie," she said as she made her way to the long counter I was standing in front of. She pulled out a pad of slips and began writing on it. "What's your name?"

"Isabella Swan," I replied nervously.

She nodded and pulled several sheets of paper out of the stack of paper at the end of the counter. "We've been expecting you," she said as she handed me the papers. "That's your schedule and a map of the school. This place is pretty small and the students are helpful enough, so you probably won't need that, but just in case."

I read through my classes, feeling a piercing stab of excitement and fear. After she was finished writing on the slip, she ripped it off the pad and handed it to me. "Have your teachers fill it out and bring it back at the end of the day, okay?"

I nodded and she smiled at me. "I hope you have a good day."

The moment I stepped out of the office, the bell rang, and I felt my heart jump. I had never heard a school bell ring before, so the sudden, rapid movement startled me. Quickly glancing down at my schedule and my map, I ran off to building three for English class.

The moment I walked into the building, I felt all eyes in the room immediately flash in my direction. My too pale cheeks flushed dark scarlet as I handed my slip to the teacher for him to sign. "Hi," I murmured softly. "I'm new here."

The teacher, Mr. Mason nodded, signed my slip, and handed it back to me. "Welcome to Forks High School, Ms. Swan. Would you be willing to introduce yourself?"

I stepped in front of the room nervously and greeted my fellow students. "Um, hi. My name is Bella Swan and I'm new here. I didn't move or anything," I added, seeing the looks of curiosity. Some of the kids I had met before or seen around town whenever my mother took me grocery shopping with her. "I've just been home-schooled all my life."

"Home-schooled?" one of the girls in the front asked incredulously. "As in, you got taught at home? By your mother?"

I nodded uncomfortably. With nothing else to say, I took my seat at the back of the classroom and quietly observed.

The rest of my classes kind of went the same way. None of my teachers asked me to introduce myself again (mainly because the school was so small and pretty much every student in my grade met me during first period), but in every class, my fellow students watched me with fascinated interest.

The period before lunch, a friendly boy with pale blond hair neatly gelled into spikes approached me. "Hi, I'm Mike Newton."

I smiled at him, glad to make my first acquaintance. "I'm Bella Swan."

"I know. You're in my English class." I nodded, unsure of what to say. So he continued. "I was just wondering…since you're new and all, would you like to sit with my friends at lunch?"

I nodded, feeling extremely relieved. "Yes, that would be great, thanks." It saved me the awkwardness of trying to find a table to sit at. I had never actually experienced it or anything, but I had seen it in all the movies, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

"Great!" he exclaimed as he gestured for me to follow him to the cafeteria.

I followed Mike through the lunch line as he picked out what he wanted. I didn't buy anything because my mother said she didn't trust the school lunches and had, instead, packed my lunch. He asked me questions the entire time and I answered them happily, glad to make a new friend.

"You know, I think I've seen you around before," he said as he handed the lunch lady his money and walked off to his table with his tray. "Like at the grocery store or something."

"Yeah," I replied. "Like I said before, I've been home-schooled all my life. I wasn't a really strong child and I was always getting sick, so my mom decided to teach me at home. I never really left the house, except for when she took shopping and stuff." I took one glance at his bewildered face and laughed. "I'm really sheltered."

"Wow," he said. "Well, for a home-schooled girl, you're really pretty."

I blushed a little. The only people who had ever called me pretty were all close family relatives, and none of them were male. I didn't even know that very many boys who could call me pretty. The only boy I ever really knew was Jacob Black, the son of my dad's best friend, which made him my brother by default. "Thanks," I muttered at the unexpected compliment.

He beamed. "No problem." When we reached the table, he introduced me to everyone and I promptly forgot all their names. The only ones that really stuck with me were Jessica and Lauren (who were glaring at me for some reason) and Angela, who smiled shyly at me when we were introduced. I sat next to her, and Mike sat on my other side.

Lunch was a pleasant affair. Everyone was generally nice, (with the exception of Jessica who refused to talk to me, and Lauren who seemed to hate me on principal) as everyone who sat at the table told me what to expect from different teachers.

"And Mr. Compher has really bad breath, so try and stay away from him if you can," a boy (who's name might have been Tyler) warned me. "He teaches Geography, and he likes to get up in people's faces, so it's hard not to notice what he's had for lunch."

"Oh, and don't fall asleep in Spanish," Mike added. "Señora Rodriguez docks major points. I fell asleep one time in her class because I stayed up late the night before on my research paper and I got a seventy for participation."

Right in the middle of lunch, I looked up and spotted a table of the most beautiful people I had ever seen in my life.

"Who are they?" I asked in awe. "I've never seen them before."

Everyone glanced in the direction I was staring, and Jessica and Lauren smirked. "Those are the Cullens and Hales," Angela replied quietly. "They're new here too. Transferred here a couple of weeks ago."

"They moved from Alaska, I think," Tyler added.

"They're so beautiful…" I murmured aloud.

Suddenly, a pair of coal black eyes met mine and I couldn't look away. The eyes seemed to have me in their grip, asking me silent questions that I knew I couldn't, shouldn't answer. I finally broke our gaze by turning to Angela.

"Who's that one with the reddish hair?" I asked her.

She giggled while Jessica and Lauren rolled their eyes. "That's Edward Cullen," the three of them replied, and Jessica continued with, "Forget it, Bella. He doesn't date."

I heard her, but I didn't acknowledge her. The same coal black eyes came back to stare into mine, but this time reflecting a frustration and confusion that seemed to be plaguing him. A crease edged its way between his ginger brows, and I had some strange urge to soothe it away.

The bell rang, interrupting our silent exchange. I reluctantly tore my eyes away from his dark gaze and followed Mike to Biology.

"You'll like this class," he told me as we walked to the building. "It's a lot of fun and Mr. Banner's a really cool teacher."

I nodded, trying to pay attention to him. Edward Cullen's midnight black gaze was forever imprinted in my mind, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake it away.

When we walked into the building, I introduced myself to Mr. Banner. He nodded, signed the slip, and handed me a book. After our short, straightforward conversation, I looked around the classroom for a seat. Everyone was seated at black-topped tables meant for two students. The only available seat was the one right in middle…next to Edward Cullen.

The moment I sat down, my lab partner's posture stiffened. It made me feel a little nervous and I tentatively chanced a glance at him. What I saw in his eyes sent a shiver of fear down my spine.

He was glaring at me, the dark pits of his eyes flashing with the utmost hate, the utmost loathing. His face, paler even than mine, seemed almost translucent, allowing me to see the taut muscles straining in his jaws. His fists were closed tightly and the cords running down his wrists almost protruded from his skin with the effort it took for him to keep them clenched.

He hated me. And I had the distinct impression that he wanted to kill me.

A flush spread across my cheeks, immediately giving away my embarrassment. I watched from the corner of my eye as he scooted his chair at the farthest possible angle from me, as he continued to watch me in complete revulsion. I flipped my hair on the side of my face and made a curtain of it to separate the two of us. I didn't know why he wanted to get away from me so badly, especially since I didn't do anything to him, but I would try to make it easier for him.

The hour was a long one. After a while, I noticed that his chest stop expanding and wondered if he was even breathing. It was painful for the both of us, sitting there; he, quite obviously, didn't want to be next to me and I didn't want to cause him more pain than he was already in. I wanted nothing more than to ask him what was wrong and hope that it wasn't my fault, but it seemed impossible. Some strange, irrational part of me wanted to touch his hand and soothe away the pain and anger in his shadowed eyes, but I knew better. Edward Cullen wanted nothing to do with me.

When the bell finally rang, he quickly stood and left the room before I could blink. I was left sitting there, slightly dazed and confused with my heart pounding ridiculously fast. I knew at that point that I probably should have been concerned, especially in my condition, but I knew that my rapidly beating heart was not a symptom of that problem. It was because of Edward Cullen.

"Hey, Bella?" I looked up and found Mike Newton's concerned face hovering over mine. "Are you okay? You look a little pale."

I nodded. "I'm fine." I stood up and followed him out of the building.

"Did you stab Cullen with a pencil or something?" he asked curiously. "I've never seen him act like that.

So his behavior in class today wasn't normal. My calming heart sank. "No," I said bemusedly. "I hadn't even talked to him."

"That was weird," he shrugged, but he thankfully let the subject drop. Instead, he asked, "What's your next class?"

I looked down at my schedule and frowned. "Physical education," I replied with a sigh.

The disappointed flash in his eyes did not go unnoticed by me. "Oh. I have Trigonometry. I wish I was there with you," he said as he patted my shoulder gently. "I'll meet you outside the gym when it's over." And with that, he spun on his heel and walked off in an opposite direction.

Technically, I wasn't even supposed to be in P.E. The doctor specifically said to stay away from all strenuous, physical activity, and P.E. definitely counted as strenuous, physical activity. It was in the name.

Therefore, I felt it perfectly reasonable to skip it. I strayed from the worn path to the gym and made my way to a nearby forest, just on the edge of the school grounds. My parents would understand, even if the teachers didn't. They wouldn't get upset. They didn't get upset with me much these days.

I sighed as I thought of my helplessness. My mother had taken to watching me whenever she didn't think I noticed her, which was pretty stupid because I always noticed. My father tried not to let it affect him, which helped my mother deal with it, but I saw the sadness penetrate his eyes every now and then. It broke my heart to see the both of them so devastated, so hopeless for my sake.

Strangely enough, I had accepted my grim fate. I didn't feel cold, disappointed, upset or angry, as they all expected me to. I felt vaguely calm about the whole ordeal. Maybe with my impending death, I would finally reach the peace I had been looking for all my life. Because in the end, all I really wanted was peace.

A/N - Just to give you guys a heads up, the next chapter will be in Edward's point of view. After that, the points of view will alternate within the chapter...just because I wanted to.

Please review; if you don't, I'll only assume you guys don't like it, and if you guys don't like it, then I really see no point in continuing this crazy endeavor.