A/N: Hey everyone! In case you are wondering, my good friend/cousin gave me this story to write. Her pen name is Bloodhound Babe, and if you want to clarify that I did not in fact steal this story, send her a message to ask. So basically this story is about Alice, and she starts out as kind of an outcast... but--come on-- you know Alice. She won't stay that way for long.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Twilight. sniff sniff

Chapter One

1. The Lady in Black (a.k.a. me)

According to my mother, I'm the most popular girl at school. According to my mother, I'm the perky, petite, pretty girl that is friends with everyone. According to my mother, I'm still best friends with Tanya, Irina, and Victoria, the bitches that stabbed me in the back and made my life a living hell. And this is just the beginning of the list. I also managed to convince my mother that only the super trendy girls dressed in all black and cropped their hair short, but really, I was the only one who did that at our school.

It's a funny story though, when you're not the person who had to go through it. At the start of kindergarten, I was deemed instantly popular, and it stayed that way for seven years. I was the cute, wisecracking skinny girl that everyone just loved. Tanya was also my best friend all through elementary school. At the start of sixth grade, I was still on the top. I wore the trendy clothes—had the small, thin body with the loud, tinkling voice. And then at the start of eighth grade, everything changed. Suddenly I was the little, knobby-kneed girl that everyone picked on. While all of the girls around me got boobs, butts, and boyfriends, I was the one who remained stick thin and flat as a board, and whose hormones hadn't quite kicked in. I was left in the dust while Tanya and all her new little friends showed off their new "curves" to their boyfriends. They would pass me in the hallway and shout in a quick, singsong voice, "puberty" then cackle evilly among themselves. Ha ha, very funny. Soon I found my voice, and when they shouted their snide comments, I would shoot an "asshole" or a "fuck you" right back at them in that same stupid voice. As you could imagine, that did nothing but make them despise me more, and I became the social outcast faster than you could say "Abercrombie and Fitch".

I kept this all a secret with my mom, and in the meantime I cropped my hair, changed my wardrobe, and tucked that loud, tinkling voice in the depths of my larynx. While my mom watched me make this transition, seemingly oblivious, she wouldn't let me change the only other thing I wanted to. She wouldn't let me quit gymnastics. At the time I was so pissed with her that I wouldn't look at her for weeks, but now, I was so happy that she had convinced to me stay. I was good at gymnastics. I had started lessons when I was six, and needless to say, I was a natural. My short, small body was perfect for tumbling on the floor, navigating my way along the balance beam, and flipping through the air on the uneven bars. Gymnastics was my time to forget the bitchy girls at school, and just concentrate on landing my next move.

Of course the time came when my body filled out a little, and my hormones arrived, but by then it was too late. My social standing was so low that everyone knew my name just for the simple fact that they wanted to avoid me. "Who is that girl?" they would whisper right in front of my face. "That's Alice, Alice Cullen. She is so weird. Not like I've ever talked to her, but I've heard all the rumors from Victoria…" By then I'd have my fist cocked back and ready to punch but manage to control myself just in the nick of time.

It's been that way for three years now, and it's the start of the year again, time for football games, teachers, bitchy cliques, and fresh starts. That's all I really wanted, just a fresh start to clear my name and all the rumors surrounding it. I don't know anyone who wouldn't want that. I figured if I could get a fresh start, I would start with updating my closet, because the truth of the matter is I love fashion. Wearing black can be sexy and dangerous, but on someone who is 4'10" it just looks a little… silly. Only tall, thin girls with abnormally large chests can pull the all black look off without looking like a total misfit—like me. But I couldn't suddenly come to school in a whole new designer get-up with out more unneeded attention. I could imagine the whispers clearly. "Look at her! Omigosh, she is so trying to fit in. Poor girl. She is such a wannabe."

So I arrived for my first day of school in my usual ensemble—my short black air spiked to perfection, gray skinny jeans, an oversized black T-shirt, black Converse, and black eyeliner. My jeans were actually designer. My grandma had gotten them for me on my sixteenth birthday this summer, and they were too expensive, well fitting, and high quality to disregard completely. I secretly hoped someone would notice, but on the other hand… I didn't.

"Hey!" my best friend Kate greeted me. She too was clad in all black, except she had pin straight light blond hair that hung down to the small of her back.

"'Sup Kate?" I asked, exchanging a fist bump with her. We'd been friends since my freshman year. I always thought Kate was too pretty to be an outcast, but she had no desire to be with the "in" crowd. She describes them as, "bitchy, vain, fake, robot sluts." Well, most of them anyway.

"You excited about our first day as juniors? God, I hate that word. Juniors. That makes us sound like fucking babies."

I shrugged. Kate had pretty colorful language, but I was used to it. "I guess I'm excited, but I'm nervous mostly."

"Nervous? Hell, girl, don't be nervous. I got your back. You take a tumble in the cafeteria in front of everyone; I'll fall with you. Deal?" Katie asked, extended her hand to shake on it.

"Deal," I agreed, giving her hand a good, hard shake. We walked side by side into the threshold of the school, into the hellish world where one mistaken word could be the death of you, and where one note that got into the wrong hands could make you friendless for the rest of your school years. Yep, that's high school in a nutshell for you. And I hated every minute of it.

A/N: I hope you liked it... please review! PLEASE! Tell me what you think. More coming soon!